Follow limits on Googleplus & how to handle it like a pro

December 21, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

I remember bumping my head against the ceiling on Google+ for a month. I am a relatively new user on Google+ and certain things just bugged me. I want to create a large following as fast as possible to get the SEO benefits, but there are limitations. Google doesn’t want you following too many people too quickly, especially if you are new.

The rule of 3.5
Googleplus will not let you follow more than 3.5 times as many users as who follow you. So, if 300 people follow you, you can follow around 1050 total.

The 24 hour rule
Googleplus will set limits on how many people you can follow in a 24 hour period. If you were following at 2pm yesterday, you will have trouble following if you login at 1pm today. You will have to wait to do your following.

The interacting rule
Googleplus likes it when you interact with others, especially if they comment, or plus your comment. Sometimes Google will limit how many people you can follow in a day, but lift that limit if you make some intelligent comments to other people’s posts.

The follow-back rule
Google will let you follow more people if you follow-back people following you. If you schedule your daily 20 minutes on G+, I suggest the following itinerary: Unfollow a few dozen people from a circle that has been around for about a week. You need to mark your circles in a way so you know when you added them. Next, follow the people on your posts page in the upper right corner who are following you. Most of them will be people you are not following. Google puts them up there because Google wants you to follow them in particular. Next, do some following from a targetted source and label the circle you put them in thoughtfully. Finally, do some posting or share someone else’s post. Wait a few hours before your next post. Following back should come 2nd, in your daily G+ itinerary — and for a reason. If you follow them first when you are your limit of # of followers, you might be bumping your head on the ceiling.

Using sister accounts
Many experts like the idea of having multiple Google+ accounts that work as a team. One technique that has worked a charm is to invite people from your googleplus account #2 to join the community on googleplus account #1. If they join your community, they are likely to join your main account as well. This is a way to get more followers significantly faster for those of you who want to reach 1000 followers as fast as humanly possible.

That’s all for now. Happy following, and remember — when using Google+, you need to have a system. Keep all your circles thoughtfully labeled and time stamped (somehow) according to when they were created and when they are to be removed — if they are to be removed!

Outsourcing work for $2 per hour?

December 11, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles, Semi-Popular | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I talk to a lot of people involved in outsourcing and read about this topic regularly as well. Prices for outsourcing work can really vary. The issue with me is that I want to know what I am paying for and what I’m getting. You never really know what you are getting, especially when you outsource to India. Companies there hire a lot of beginners who haven’t a clue what they are doing. On the other hand, they also have some seasoned professionals who will work for a reasonable cost as well.

I just got an email stating that a data entry company would work for $2 per hour. I wonder what the cost would be to fix the errors that their clerk made, or how efficient their work could possibly be. When you see prices like this, you have to keep in mind that they are probably only paying their clerk about 70 cents per hour, and their offer might only be a come on, and not a long term price.

On the other hand, I talked to many providers of social media services. I heard prices like $3 per hour if you get one hour a day and you pay a fixed monthly rate of about $120. Another social media company wanted $5 per hour. A third company wanted $500 per month for one hour per day which is about $25 per hour. I wonder how much better the quality of the $25 per hour provider is. The man who answered the phone didn’t seem at all polished. $25 per hour is more than 90% of programmers in India charge — and I assure you that social media is a lot simpler to learn than PHP programming!

In America and other wealthy countries, outsourced labor can run from $30 to $100 per hour for various tasks. Call center work pricing has really gone down due to intense competition from Manila. But, social media work in the USA is no bargain. The sad part is that the providers of these expensive services in the US or India generally have very little experience, very limited knowledge, and quit their jobs on a whim. How can anyone run a business based on outsourcing I ask?

My solution is that you become an expert at whatever you are outsourcing and keep a close eye on whomever you hire to do anything. You might be able to get some good work from the $2 and hour folks, and maybe even teach them something that will benefit both of you.

Star Wars: Dearth Vader outsources an IT project to Tatooine!

December 9, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Humor, Software Development | Leave a comment

Please note that the characters and references in this article are based on American television and movies. If you are from a country that didn’t have our media presence, you might not understand who the characters are. As I was taking my afternoon walk, I fantasized about how interesting it would be if the main characters from Star Wars (1976) had dialogues resembling the ones in the American sitcom Seinfeld. As I walked, I thought that princess Leah would make a great Elaine from Seinfeld. Han Solo has the same sarcasm as Jerry. Luke unfortunately is too innocent and optimistic to be a Seinfeld character. Lando could be George. But, who would be Kramer. It could be Obi-Wan, or Darth Vader. Hmmm.

After the movie Star Wars was made. There were many changes in the galaxy, and in the Federation. Darth Vader got sick of being on the dark side of the force and just wanted a simpler life. Lando kept thinking of scams that could get him ahead at work. And Han Solo, just got more and more cynical about life.

LEAH: I can’t believe this happened. He said, it’s not you it’s me. I invented that. That’s my line. I should be the one who says it’s not you, it’s me.

HAN SOLO: Well, maybe in this case it really is him.

LANDO: I hate it when people say that. If they say it’s not you, its me — then it’s you. If they say — I think we should see other people, it means they already are.

DARTH VADER: You gotta see this. It’s a new spaceship. You gotta see the brochure. It’s only 500,000 federation dollars!

LANDO: Well, is it good on fuel efficiency?

DARTH: It doesn’t use fuel, it absorbs the energies of the universe around it.

HAN SOLO: Better steer clear of you when you wake up in the morning.

DARTH: I’m not a morning person.

HAN SOLO: I’d hate to hear how deep your voice is then.

DARTH: Hey Leah, guess what I just bought. It’s sitting on space dock #9

LEAH: That’s yours? Get OUT! (pushes Darth)

DARTH: Well, I need it. Ever since I left my military post, I’ve been running my own business doing droid programming outsourcing. Sometimes I need to go to Naboo and Tatooine to visit the programmers. In fact, I’ve got to go now before the exchange rates change.

LEAH: May the force be with you. The good side of the force, that is.

HAN SOLO: What’s the deal with this thing called the force? When you think about it, it’s a little creepy. I’m not sure I want the force being with me all the time. A little here, a little there when you need to get something done I can understand. But with you 24/7? I need my alone time. I need my space.

LEAH: This is Star Wars. We all need our space! That’s where we live.

HAN SOLO: And “force”. Right away, it conjures up doing something against my will.

LEAH: Okay, okay. May the… something short of force be with you, when you don’t need your space.

HAN SOLO: (to Darth) Speaking of needing your space, how come that face helmet you’re wearing doesn’t cramp your style?

DARTH: Don’t knock the face helmet, Han. The savings in breath mints alone makes it a worthy investment.

Darth takes off in his new space ship.

HAN SOLO: Thank God for breath mints. That’s a force I don’t need with me.

Leah nods her head in agreement. Cut to Darth and Vipool in programming.

DARTH: Hey Vipool, how’s it coming with the programming for R2D2?

VIPOOL: Oh sorry. My programmer who specialized in R2 units just got poached by Infosys. My other guys only specialize in Androids and mobile apps.

DARTH: Well, now what am I supposed to do? I could just strangle that guy while breathing heavily through my black mask!

VIPOOL: I just dig your new space ship. Does it still have that new space ship smell?

DARTH: Ooh baby. You know it. Maybe you should have some type of a contract with those programmers to make sure they don’t get poached.

VIPOOL: The only ones who would sign it are ones who I don’t want to keep anyway. It’s a bit like dating.

DARTH: Tell me about it. My love life has sucked ever since puberty kicked in and my voice changed.

VIPOOL: It’s hard to imagine you without a deep voice.

DARTH: Oh, I had a deep voice at birth. At puberty, it changed to the lilting soprano you hear now.

VIPOOL: You call that a lilting soprano?

DARTH: Compared to my voice at birth, bingo.

VIPOOL: So, how are we going to get a new programmer for R2?

DARTH: What do you mean how are WE. How are YOU? If you don’t get a replacement soon, I might be tempted to return to the dark side of the force.

VIPOOL: Chelsea Handler is better off there on her own. I can put a junior R2 programmer on the task tomorrow. Do you want one resource or two?

DARTH: If he’s a junior programmer, he’s more of a liability than a resource. Use the force, Vipool.

OBI-WAN: Darth. I know you’ve come a long way since you struck me down. I will help you. I will help you find a new R2 programmer who specializes in droid migration technologies. The force will be with you.

DARTH: I feel a presence that I haven’t felt in a very long time. Obi-Wan. My teacher. You have come to help me! Wait. The answer is coming to me. I need to outsource my project to a different star system. I am feeling it now. The moon on Yavin — yes, they will have R2 programmers there, and the exchange rate will be one Federation dollar for every 3.5 Yavinese Dinars. I will fly there immediately.

HAN SOLO: Why do people make the jump to hyper-space? Half the time, people haven’t even analyzed the coordinates to see where they’re going. It’s like telling Siri, “Take me frickin’ anywhere.”

LEAH: Siri. Didn’t you used to date her?

HAN SOLO: Yeah. She’s great at giving directions, but wasn’t great at taking them.

LEAH: I can’t believe it. The Death Star’s plumbing system is being completely overhauled. There’s never a good plumber when you need one.

HAN SOLO: Didn’t you date a plumber once?

LEAH: Like I said, there’s never a good plumber when you need one.

LANDO: I have to go down there to renew my intergallactic driver’s license. Believe it or now, I”m authorized to fly a ship up to 10,000 metric tons. I lied on the application. I told them I had five years experience flying medium sized ships.

LEAH: Why do they still call it the Death Star? Since Darth turned to the good side of the force, it’s become just like a regular place.

LANDO: Too expensive changing the name on all the Death Star tchotchkes.

This short satire ends with Darth going to a new star system and hiring new programmers. Yavin’s moon has programmers who don’t have any aspiration to get married. They aren’t attracted by the status of working for a big company. They’re just happy working for the same company year after year. And since the average inhabitant of Yavin’s moon lives to be 392.5 years old, the average worker has several human lifetimes of experience before they retire. Including being phased out by employers who fire them when they reach 265 for cheaper labor. Darth Vader had used the force to find programming staff that were the smartest in the universe. These did NOT include any TV network programmers! Thus ends this episode of Star Wars with Seinfeld type rules!

The best thing I did as a child was my small business

December 3, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

I was just talking to a childhood friend. We have known each other since age 14. He knows me better than anyone, and knows a lot about my childhood that I have simply forgotten like my coin collection for one. But, we were talking about the good old days. I told him that the best thing I did as a child was my landscaping business. It taught me business skills which I would not have survived without. I had a difficult time getting a job as an adult. But, since I had my own business since I was 14, I had the skills to drum up customers and get jobs done! My mom, dad, friends, and others tried to talk me out of doing my business and just focus on study or getting a regular dumb minimum wage job. I am so glad that I didn’t listen to these nay-sayers. I would have been ruined if I had.

I started when I was 14 with a small lawnmover. I got half of my neighbors to hire me. I didn’t charge much, but I made fast money because their lawns were small. As time went on, I purchased a huge lawnmover that could mow huge lawns in twenty minutes. I bought a small pick up truck and started doing lawns in other neighborhoods ten minutes or more away. I was not so smart how I ran my business. If I ran it with my consciousness I have today I would be rich. But, that is okay. As a child, you are expected to make tons of dumb mistakes. The point is that I learned how to get clients, run a business, hire people, buy equipment, and more at a very young age. The other kids talked about dumb things all day long, but I was up to date on lots of political issues, business, and more!

As an adult I started a tutoring business, notary business, and several online directories — one of which makes a lot of money. Without that foundation I created as a child, I never would have succeeded as an adult. I would have been a complete failure. When your kid has a crazy idea to do a business. Don’t talk him out of it. Just talk him into thinking about the business in a reasonable and cautious way. Some people want to be millionaires overnight without understanding the complexities of growing a business. Step by step is my way, and leads to really knowing what you are doing before your business gets out of hand. And that is something to learn from!

The software boss whose agent ruined his client relations

December 1, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged | Leave a comment

I was talking to a guy who had 120 employees. Obviously he was doing well, but it was not without some unpleasant knocks. He had hired an agent to get him clients. The problem was that the agent didn’t get payment to him in a timely way, and he was not able to keep the clients as a result. I told the software outsourcing boss that the problem was simple. He gave control of his income to a stranger who played games with his revenue. In business, whether you are large or small, you have to be in control at all times, otherwise you will suffer huge losses. I told him that he needs to have his own in-house marketing department. It might be hard to learn how to find the right people, but at least once you figure it out, you will be in control, and not some outside company that will ruin your client relations.

The world of outsourcing is a strange one, especially in India. So, don’t try to grow too fast, and focus on being solid in all aspects of your outsource business. Good luck!

Rising with the tide in Social Media

November 27, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Many of us are involved in social media. Some do it full time, others devote an hour or more per day, while others just do it for fun. If you use social media for your outsourcing or other type of business, there is a lot to consider.

It takes effort to grow
Social media offers the opportunity for anyone to grow their presence. A high school student could acquire a Twitter profile and accumulate a million followers in a few years with some hard work and good content. But, growth is hard. You either grow by using pay-per-click which is not always cost effective. Or you could grow by following lots of others, and unfollowing them if they don’t follow you back. The last growth method is really more for larger accounts which is growth simply by publishing really good content that people love to share! I suggest mastering all three growth methods because you never know which one will be the fastest or the most cost effective.

A fourth way to grow
One thing I noticed on social media is that even passive accounts grow. Some accounts or communities have several thousand followers. They don’t publish often, and don’t really do much of anything. The miracle is that on Google+ and Linked In, passive accounts can really grow. The key is to get your account large enough so that it will show up on search results for keywords. Then, people can join the group on their own without you doing any PPC, outreach, or even much posting. The trick is to figure out how to get big, and then ride the wave (or the tide)

Personally, I have grown my Google+ group to about 600 and my community is about 300. I think that one day my community might be 10,000 and then people will find me everywhere. By that stage the key will be doing a great job moderating the community so that we post the highest quality posts so that new people will want to follow us.

Rising with the tide is my long term social media strategy.
I want to get the majority of my followers passively just by being found. I want to get even more by posting good content which only takes minutes per day. Outreach takes more than an hour per day to do if you have multiple accounts. It is time consuming. I hope I get my accounts to the point where I get gain thousands of followers per month with almost no effort at all. Wish me luck, and consider this strategy for your own social media strategy! It could pay off if you take it seriously enough. But, in the beginning it is nothing but sweating away! So, good luck!

There are tradeshows for products; Why not have them for outsourcing?

November 13, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I remember my first job in Los Angeles. My boss hated me. I was working for a company that made fancy industrial products. I went to a trade show. I stepped out for a cigarette break. The boss was furious and said he was paying $10,000 per day to have a booth there and every minute counted. I had no idea it was so costly. Why didn’t he tell me before hand?

Trade shows are one of the most cost effective ways to get leads according to some marketing experts. Asian companies that manufacture products are all over trade shows. But, why can’t there be tradeshows for outsourcing, and what would they be like?

Can you imagine going down the aisle and seeing endless data entry companies shoving their brochure at you? You might see programming companies, call centers, content writers and more. But, what about samples of their work? What would that look like? After all, they are selling services not products here. My feeling is that the best way to promote outsourcing services might be by video. Companies could create videos showing their building, staff, training process, and actual work being done. Sales people could talk about service packages and hand out cards. For a joke, a programming company could give you a page of programming code as a free sample. Nobody would be able to read what it meant unless you too were a programmer!

I guess if companies really wanted your business, they would get your email address, phone number and give you a free mouse pad with a photo of their office and their company name on it.

The idea of trade shows is interesting. Sometimes there are trade conferences for outsourcing in the Philippines or other countries. Once in a while there will be an international conference about call center outsourcing or other outsourcing topics. Conferences are fun, but trade shows are even better. Especially if there are snacks!

A new citizenship program for the USA (proposed)

November 9, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: America | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

It is so annoying what foreigners have to go through to get their green cards and citizenship here in the USA. It is a pain in the neck, and just not fair. America needs lots of new blood, and there is no reason why the immigration process shouldn’t be a whole lot easier. On the converse side, I am upset that the USA gives citizenship to people who refuse to blend in at all. Sure, it is natural that we prefer to socialize with people from our own group. But, does that mean immigrants and their children should have a strictly enforced policy of excluding people who are not like them? America lets in many people who refuse to interact with others. Koreans are typical examples of this. Even their English speaking children often refuse to socialize with anyone who is not Korean or Korean-American. If America accepts them, why can’t they accept America and those who live here who don’t look exactly like them?

Immigration for work vs. immigration for joining our nation
Most people come to the United States as immigrants seeking a brighter future, or perhaps as refugees. Some are looking for money, some are coming to escape the social restrictions of their motherlands, while others come because they like it here and like the people. I feel that someone who comes to America, lives here for 20 years, gets their citizenship, and still calls themselves “Chinese” — not “Chinese-American,” but just “Chinese” should not be given American citizenship. American citizenship should be reserved for people who really want to be American in my opinion. Sure, it is okay if they still love the culture from their country of origin. That is not a problem. But, if they don’t identify themselves as a part of a whole, then they are more of an invader than an immigrant. Think about it!

Immigration for work — a new system
For those who don’t want to join our happy family, we still need them and they still need us. It makes sense to create special economic zones in strategically located parts of the USA. I am not smart enough to figure out where these areas should be. But, these special areas should allow anyone from anywhere in the world to come and work with no special paperwork. It would be a little like Dubai, except that people would be allowed to come for a few months to look for work. In Dubai, you often have to already have a job to be allowed in the country. There would be no minimum wage, so we could compete economically with foreign countries. There would be very low taxes to attract international businesses. These zones would be a place where it is easy to get started, and anyone can make it. There would be schools for each language group in the zone as well. Immigrants to this area would not be given citizenship no matter how long they stayed in the zone. However, as long as they were working, they could stay. Their children would be schooled in the language of the motherland because they would be expected to leave after they were done with however long they wanted to work.

America loves to let workers in our country. We love giving them citizenship after a while too. The problem is that their children are not always as good workers as their immigrant parents who risked their lives to come here. Their children and grandchildren often have significantly higher crime rates as well. The economic zone idea solves this problem. Since nobody is given citizenship there, the minute you or your children cause trouble — out you go. No paying $45,000 per year of tax payer money to keep someone locked up. Let their home country worry about that instead.

Immigration for joining our nation
When my ancestors came to the United States, they mostly already knew English and joined mainstream society right away. Immigrants coming these days are more like invaders. They come in huge groups, they continue speaking their language, and generally don’t want anything to do with anyone who is not part of their group. Not everybody is like this, but the majority are: and it is un-American! If immigrants want to come to join our wonderful nation, they should want to fit in to a particular extent. When I went to India, Taiwan, France, and other countries, I didn’t hide in a cultural bubble. I mixed with whomever I met and behaved like a member of humanity. I propose having an assimilation program

The assimilation program (proposed)
Since most immigrants are extremely opposed to having anything to do with assimilated Americans, by requiring an assimilation program, those not interested in mingling with the locals would weed themselves out and not come here. But, for those who really do want to interact with “real” Americans (whatever that means,) here is my idea. Every American is a descendant of immigrants. The oldest group of Americans are Native Americans. But, even the natives came from Siberia or perhaps on a boat from the Pacific Islands at one point in time. The next oldest group of Americans are those that came in the 16 or 1700’s such as many of the Blacks and Southern Whites. The Hispanics with ancestry in New Mexico also have a four or five hundred year lineage in the land which is currently the United States. I would define someone who is purely American as someone having all of their ancestors being here for at least seven generations, and having their cultural identification being purely associated with the United States. Even fourth generation Americans still have a moderate connection with their countries of origin.

The assimilation program would have friendship programs between immigrants and Americans with long lineages in the United States. The purpose of this would be to fully integrate people into mainstream society before they were given citizenship instead of waiting for five or six generations to have their descendants integrate. Participants might live with families, or engage in regular social activities. I’m not sure how the program would find Americans who would want to socialize with strangers without being paid. But, if people could be paired with others who they liked a lot, then the program might be very successful. The program might also involved living in communities where there was no presence of the immigrant’s national group, making it a place where they would have to assimilate fast. Language training would be another important facet of the program.

On the other hand, after several years of this program, the Americans would probably become expert at making tamales and egg chow foon. It is unclear who would be assimilating to whom, unless the people chosen for the program were Americans with absolutely no interest in foreign cultures — but, why would such people volunteer for such a program if they were so closed to foreign culture? A paradox is unveiled.

Having a Thai side of your personality helps keep calm in business

November 3, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

When I was younger, I enjoyed multicultural areas mostly because of how interesting it was, and how good the food was. It was interesting meeting people from other cultures. Now, I am older — a lot older. I no longer find it interesting to meet boring people from other cultures (unless they are interesting.) However, I find it interesting to see the cultural effects on my life and business.

Business people tend to over-do it!
Many of us who are small business owners, managers, or executives find ourselves with too many tasks to do in too little time. Stress builds up, and instead of slowing down, we try to find ways to go faster. Sometimes you need to go slower to go faster. Studies show that those who take a vacation or regular breaks live happier lives and last longer in their careers. You are no exception. So, what does this have to do with having a Thai side of your personality?

The various sides of your personality
If you have a friend who is of mixed ancestry such as half Jewish and half Puerto Rican, the jokes never end. The Jewish side of your friend likes words while the Puerto Rican side of his personality loves to party! These are stereotypes, but on the other hand, there is some truth to these preconceived notions about culture. If you do business, you have the workaholic side of your personality. This is kind of necessary if you are to get anything done. I remember when I was in my 20’s and quite a slacker. Nobody trusted me to get anything done. Now, I am a workaholic. But, my body starts slowing down and shutting down when I over-do it. That is why I like to slow down. I like to do relaxing things.

The Thai side of my personality
The business side of my personality could be said to be similar of American workaholics, Koreans, or other imbalanced people. But, I know how to slow down too. I started a habit of having Thai food near the beach in Malibu. I find it therapeutic to be around most Thai people. They have a very relaxed way of talking, and are generally nice. Their food is excellent as well, and healthy. The soothing vibes of the nearby ocean relax me as well. I sleep better after having some ocean energy infused into me. I go to Thai massage weekly to relax my tense muscles and my agitated mind. The way they do massage is very calming — unlike certain OTHER Asian nationalities who are spastic the way they do their work!

The Thai Jeremy
One night, I had a bad headache. I frantically started rubbing my head and putting ayurvedic oil in my hair. The oil does miracles by the way. Whatever part of my body I put ayurvedic oil, it feels better within half an hour, even if I have a tummy ache! But, my feverish way of massaging myself was too much. I stopped and said to myself, “Let me do the same calming movements that Thai people do when they massage people.” So, I slowed down. I entered into a Zen or Thai Buddhist state of mind. I said, “It is o-kay, just re-lax.” I said this very slowly the way Thais would. Then, I said, “I am the Thai Jeremy, I massage for you!” Wow! What a transformation. I never knew I had a Thai side of my personality. Then, I decided that I needed to change the pronunciation to Jelemy to be more authentic. The Thais confuse n’s, l’s, and r’s together. It becomes a syllabic mess if you ask me, but that is okay.

Even though my hands were moving more slowly, the soothing effect of my self-massage was faster! The way muscles react to massage is actually quite complicated to understand. The muscles feel relaxed more easily if movements are a little slower, and especially if there is a mental energy of calmness being transmitted. As a matter of fact, if you were a Shaman or Yogi, you can massage yourself without moving a muscle — just by using your mind to transmit relaxing or cleansing energies to various parts of your body.

After this unusual or perhaps bizarre experience that I created for myself, I decided that this was excellent. Why depend solely on other people’s calm energy to sooth myself when I can create this energy myself with a little oil, massage cream, and Thai Tiger Baum (use with caution.)

Periodic bouts of relaxation and vacation do the trick.
By virtue of the fact that I have learned to relax periodically during the week, I am regenerated and able to handle rigorous, and emotionally difficult tasks during the week that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to handle. Additionally, I like to go out of state once a month for a few days. Yes, it is expensive, but the desert, mountains, and beach really revives me and I don’t function the same without a break of two to eight days a month! I often bring my work with me which is not a problem. It is not about avoiding work, it is about being in an environment which stimulates my body’s energies and/or relaxes me. Although stimulation and relaxation seem opposite in nature, they are actually not. Stress and relaxation are opposites. Relaxation leads to the ability to be stimulated after the fact. But, in my case, after a trip to the desert, I am able to work eleven hours a day for several days and then gradually slow down. After a trip to the beach for a few days, I am on high energy for four days. If I don’t travel for a month, then I’m on low energy, and can only work about six hours a day. My body’s energies are fascinating, and I’m glad I know how to keep them in harmony and balance.

Warren Buffet works two hours a day; Are you a workaholic?

November 1, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Success | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

To be successful in business, do you need to be a workaholic?

Buffet works two hours a day and is more successful than any workaholic
Warren Buffet is more successful than anyone else I can think of. He works roughly two hours a day. His philosophy is that he needs to keep his schedule open just in case there is a last minute reason why he needs to be available such as an important meeting or opportunity. He is an expert at delegating work to the best people with the best terms. But, he is on a very high level, and we are not. So, perhaps we can’t apply his wisdom to our own situation.

HBR says work less!
Harvard Business Review has many blog entries that keep telling us that managers need to do less, not more. Managers tend to spend too much time at meetings and doing emails and other tasks which are less than optimal use of their time. They need to delegate more and do less.

Koreans say work all the time……
Korean culture has an interesting perspective. I live in a very Korean area and find them fascinatingly imbalanced as a culture. It is cultural to force your kids to study until 2 am for school and exams. Koreans are expected to be busy all the time and be successful. There is no room for failure, and no sympathy for losers. You fight, or you die! Very warlike just like their 5000 year history of being attacked by countries that were larger than them all the time. I believe that their history contributes to the toughness and endurance of their culture.

Korean breakdown syndrome (KBS)
In any case, something very bizarre happens to Koreans in their 30’s. Although Korean culture demands hard work all the time, they allow you to slow down a bit when you get older and still be tolerated. Maybe that is a Confucian idea since respect of the elderly is required. I have seen this happen to one girl and one guy. They started being very smart and hard working. But, something happened in their mid or late thirties. Their desire to work all the time was lost. The meaning of life and meaning of work just faded away. I personally feel that the Korean style of overdoing it to the point of insanity causes very long-term problems later in life. You lose track of the meaning of life, of relationships, family, and balance. Life becomes an insane competition to the death. It is interesting that I am sort of the opposite of Koreans. I was a slacker in my 20’s and a workaholic in my 30’s and 40’s.

To get ahead in business, it is imperative that you slow down
You can’t do everything yourself and get ahead in business. As a business person, you need to become an expert at analyzing which tasks are the most important, and why. You also need to know which tasks you can delegate and how to delegate those tasks. If you just read some blog article about how you need to delegate, and delegate critical tasks to someone who is not committed, you could lose more than you can imagine. You need to become an expert at who to trust, and how to find backups for this person just in case. The minute you slow down a bit, you will have more time in your schedule to do some real thinking, and to interview more people to delegate tasks to. It is a hard transition to go from doing everything yourself to forcing yourself to let others do much of your critical tasks for you. This transition will not happen though, unless you force yourself to let it happen, even if it is little by little.

What is a retweet worth on Twitter?

October 29, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

There are certain twitter accounts that are called, “prolific.” That word means producing offspring which doesn’t seem to capture what they do. These accounts, are either manned by humans somewhere 24 hours a day, or by computer programs, or a combination. I’m not sure what their “raison d’etre” could possibly be. They don’t make money from retweeting hundreds of people per day, and the quality of their retweets is so low, that I would not follow them. I tend to think that these prolific accounts are only followed by people who don’t read their inbox feed — ever. Because if you did read it, you would be flooded with very low quality stuff.

But, does it help if they retweet you?
First of all these prolific accounts seem to gravitate towards a particular tag. One account might retweet lots of stuff with the tag #animal for instance. If you use that particular hashtag regularly, you might get retweeted daily by these human robots or “hubots.” In any case, what I learned, is that a retweet from these guys, might get you seen by someone else who might retweet you again which might result in your tweet actually being seen by someone who will actually read it.

Selective retweeters
The benefit of being retweeted by what I call a “Selective retweeter,” who only retweets one or two things per day is much greater. Twitter created the retweet function so that top quality content could be accentuated, promoted, and shared. They didn’t do it so that every post with a particular tag would be shared. I have found that one retweet from someone selective is worth several retweets from the robots. Of course, it is hard to have hard statistics on this, since I don’t really know where my new followers are coming from. But, once I was retweeted by a selective person with 6000 followers. The following day, I had triple the new followers than I normally do. So, that particular retweet really meant something.

At the end of the day
When the day is over, and you are counting how many people retweeted you, that is not a metric. Change it to how many robot retweets did you get and how many selective retweets did you get. Then, see how many followers your selective folks had, add them up, and then you have a metric. That metric is exposure or reach for the day. How many inboxes your tweet reached. Of course at any given time on Twitter, probably only 2% of accounts are checking their inbox. But, if people like you, they will visit your account hours or days after you tweeted something, and favorite or retweet that special tweet that they liked so much!

A programming company that charges $25,000 per week?

October 20, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Popular Posts, Software Development | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

OMG! I can’t believe they charge so much. Why is this?

I interviewed a company in Florida. They seemed like the best programming company in the world. They assign you a team of four members, and they will prepare the specifications ahead of time of what they are going to do for you. Then, they will work for a week or more and get your huge project done with a bang.

My worry was that if they needed me in the middle of the project and I was not available, what would happen? At $4000 a day, if there is any small problem with the server, you are out $500 per hour while you wait for solutions. What if, what if. I think that if I were a larger company, and knew these guys better, the arrangement might make great sense. I asked if there was any other way to proceed, but they said that was their business model. It is an interesting business model, but scary for me.

When hiring programmers, be aware that there are many programmers out there with different levels of expertise, caution, care, and styles of getting work done. You need to find someone who works on your speed and who gets along well with you. Personally, I prefer to do between two and fifteen hours of programming per week. That way I can be involved in the process and make sure everything goes right. But, your style might be completely different. Good luck, and start saving up for your $25,000 week today!