Found Not Lost

Freelance work is becoming quite the buzz word lately. Freelance jobs that can be done from home, are especially sought after especially with the rising cost of gas. Freelance Nation is a network of job boards that consolidates listings for freelance jobs in specific cities in one place. You don’t have to hop from one job board to another, everything is in one place.

By creating a profile on Freelance Nation, freelancers increase their exposure to a greater number of businesses looking to fill positions. The great thing about this is, you only have to complete a profile once! The profile listing at Freelance Nation is highly customizable so that you can optimize your search to target the specific job and employer you are looking for.

On the employer’s side, businesses can gain greater exposure for their projects and will have a bigger pool of talent to choose from either locally or nationwide. As for the freelancer, Freelance Nation is also optimized to satisfy the needs of businesses. They also offer small business support for the self-employed, a feature not found on any other job board.

They have Collaboration Nation which is an open forum where freelancers can network with others like them who may have complementary skills or the same professional goals. At the forum, you can get advice on self-employment issues, find partners and business opportunities.

If you are determined to work as a freelancer and succeed, then Freelance Nation was custom built for you. Whether your looking for freelance jobs or to post freelance jobs, there is no better place to start than here. The website is easy to navigate and there are long lists of available opportunities to choose from.

Smarter Solutions, Inc. specializes in coaching and consulting, introducing principles of Lean Six Sigma to companies worldwide. They offer innovative business process improvement system that goes beyond the Balanced Scorecard and integrates the best practices of Lean Six Sigma. They enhance and enable businesses to achieve optimal performance through a continuous measurement and improvement system.

Check out their website (www.smartersolutions.com) for more specific details.

When you have a small business like ours (my husband is a freelance artist), a good printer can save or break you so we are always on the lookout for companies that will produce quality prints for reasonable prices. I posted earlier about the need to print poster size prints, for instance.

But those large format printing are only on occasion. For daily business operation, we have needs for more utilitarian materials like business cards, checks, announcements, note cards, brochures, letterheads and business forms.

VistaPrint is an online printing company that is a good ‘go-to’ place for all your printing needs. You can design your own material or you can have their experts guide you from start to finish of your project. They can easily customize logos for you, for instance, to give your company a branded look and make it stand out from the pack. Let them do all the work, if this isn’t your forte’ and then just be there to approve the design and authorize them to go ahead and print your materials.

The great thing about them is, you don’t have to print huge quantities, you can print what you need and can afford without the premium price. This company is another one that is worth bookmarking for future printing needs. But if you’re needs are immediate, you’ve got to check them out before you go anywhere else.

The Six Sigma Training is a business methodology that focuses on combining speed and quality for a more efficient and productive way of conducting business. Smarter Solutions offers the Lean Six Sigma Training along with other tools in the IEE (Integrated Enterprise Excellence) system, a process which helps management create a measurements and improvement system to enable their business to do things right at the right time.

Most business  people will realize how important it is to stay on top of cutting edge training such as these. The old adage, “if it aint broke don’t fix it” no longer cuts it in the competitive market of today. The most efficient, most productive and the fittest will be the ones to survive this environment.

We live in North Carolina, the up and coming wine producing region. We have seen an increase of wineries popping up whenever we go out for a drive. Apparently, our soil is not just good for tobacco anymore, it can be great for wine too! We’ve visited a couple of home run wineries that just made us envious.

Wouldn’t it be great to have all that vineyard around us and to be able to brew and sell your own wine right from home? Well, we can always dream, can’t we?

My husband is an artist and he’s actually working with a small winery of a friend to design art for their label. There is a place that can print Wine Labels using your own artwork or you can use one from their varied collection. For the small winery where cost can be a big factor, a place where you can have a choice of pre-designed or custom designed labels can make a big difference in your overhead cost. Great for when you want to look professional like the big boys without spending the big bucks.