6 Tips in Taking Charge of Your Professional Future

How many individuals lose sight of their career goals because they became “stuck” in a position they don’t enjoy, working for an employer they don’t like. Many take jobs they view as a transitional position, a placeholder that will pay the bills while they get their real career on track. Some anticipate working up the ladder to greater success, responsibility, and fulfillment. Others expect to gain education or skills that will help them find a better job elsewhere. While others still aren’t exactly sure where they’d like to end up ultimately and take positions that will buy them some time while they sort things out.

Unfortunately, too many individuals find that these transitional positions become their permanent positions, and the thought of finding something new becomes overwhelming and tiresome. Don’t let that happen to you. As stuck as you may feel, you can always devise a strategy that will enable you to get where you would really like to be. Here are 6 tips that may help:

1. Fulfill your position

Regardless of how much you may dislike your current job, the truth is it may determine whether or not you get a better one. Nothing looks worse than getting fired, but the runner up gets a poor review from a former employer. If you apply for other jobs you want your current supervisor to have nothing but good things to say about you. With this said, it might be a good idea to approach your employer and ask if you’re fulfilling the position as intended. Once you discover what your employer expects, you can prepare to receive glowing reviews by meeting those expectations.

2. Learn as much as possible

You may not realize it, but your current position is a training ground for the next one. Learning as much as possible from this job will only help you become a better applicant. So look at your current challenges and determine how you can grow from them. If you’re experiencing problems with your coworkers, how might you approach that challenge so that you grow and become a better employee for your next job? If you’re struggling with the workload, what can you do in order to better manage that workload so you can proudly share what you’ve learned from the experience in a future job interview?

3. Identify your “dream job”

In Lewis Carroll’s classic tale Through the Looking Glass, the Cheshire Cat informs Alice, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” The same applies to your career. If you’re uncertain where you want to go, you can pick any path. There’s just no guarantee that you’ll like the final destination. That’s why it’s important that you decide exactly what it is you would like to do. That will enable you to take the path that get you there.

4. Advance your skills and knowledge

Just because you want to do something, doesn’t mean you’re qualified to do it. Once you have identified your “dream job,” take action to become the most qualified person available. If that means furthering your education, attending conferences and workshops, or earning certification, the best time to do those things is now.

5. Build your network

The best opportunities will most likely present themselves through your professional network. The larger your network, the greater the possibilities. And building a network will take time and attention; join professional organizations, attend community events, and frequent other businesses.

6. Research the possibilities

As you work to advance your career you must always research your options in order to discover new and exciting opportunities. When you become too absorbed in your “transitional” job, your career will quickly stall.

It’s important for every career-minded professional to know what their options are and how they might achieve true success. If you’ve been wondering what steps you might take to reach your goals, visit Universal Accounting Center and take our tour to see how we can help. From gaining professional certification to providing valuable training, Universal Accounting Center is interested in helping you succeed. Visit UAC today!

It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3. Or should we say A.P.E.. Entrepreneurial wannabes often imagine a potential startup as a difficult venture, one requiring more know-how, gumption, and drive than they may have.

Does that sound like you? Are you worried that your dream of becoming self-employed and enjoying an improved lifestyle with increased earnings is too good to be true, or maybe not a good fit for you?

If so, it’s time you realized that starting your own bookkeeping practice is achievable, profitable, and easy. Don’t believe us? Read on to find out just how true it is.

Achievable

You don’t need a four-year degree to do someone’s accounting. In fact, many individuals who train at a university don’t learn the practical, day-to-day accounting functions needed by many businesses. That’s why the Professional Bookkeeper (PB) course is such a popular program changing countless lives every year.

In just 60 hours, and with less money than you’ll probably spend on your summer vacation, you can learn all you need to know to launch your own bookkeeping practice: from starting a business’s books from scratch, to helping owners increase their profitability, to marketing your valuable services. YOU can do this!

Testimonial: “This course is definitely NOT just an introductory course, although it is wonderful even for beginners. It is a comprehensive accounting and bookkeeping course that truly taught me everything I would need to know to start my own accounting business, and gain clients with confidence.” -J. Young

Profitable

We have a simple equation that will help you calculate how many clients you need to quit your day job and enjoy an improved lifestyle. Most clients bring in an average of $300 per month. With 20 clients you’ll be earning $6000 per month, and with 25 clients you’ll be earning $7500. Respectively, that’s $72,000 and $90,000 per year.

How much are you earning right now? How many clients would it take to replace that full-time income with contract accounting? Once you start your own bookkeeping service you determine your income by deciding how many clients you wish to serve.

Testimonial: “As an average for each client I am making about $30 - $50 an hour, I’ve been able to quit my full-time job. Thanks again to everyone at Universal Accounting Center! It has created for me a brighter outlook financially, as well as more free time in my personal life. And, I didn’t have to go to college for years and pay thousands of dollars for an education.”-S. Thomas

Easy

Whether you’re new to accounting or a seasoned accountant, the Professional Bookkeeper course is designed to easily lead you through all the concepts necessary to run your own practice. Now only that, but the hands-on approach taken in this program will enable you to become confident in your ability to perform all necessary accounting functions.

Testimonial: This course has literally changed my life. When I started I hardly knew the difference between a debit and a credit. Now I have the confidence to tackle almost any type of business and do their books.-A. Moody

Testimonial: Even with15 years of accounting background, I found myself learning something new nearly every day. -B. Varechok

The Professional Bookkeeper (PB) Program

The PB Program is jam-packed with valuable features, including, but not limited to, the following:

• 16 quality DVDs and 4 manuals enable you to learn on your own time and at your own pace
• Specialized training in small business accounting
• Practical, hands-on experience in all the necessary accounting functions
• Access to a proven system of getting and retaining clients
• The opportunity to earn a professional designation
• A customized website for your business
• 6 months of free follow-up support
• An iron-clad guarantee

For more than 25 years Universal Accounting Center has been demonstrating just how easy this can be as long as you have the knowledge and skills necessary. Let us share them with you. They can make a difference in your life and the life of your family.

There’s no time like the present to change your future. Enjoy the freedom of self-employment including the ability to achieve an increased salary, an improved lifestyle and the chance to do what you’ve always dreamed. Enroll today and see just how achievable, profitable, and easy it is to start your own bookkeeping service.

The real go-getters are able to promote themselves and their abilities with ease. In order to advance your career you must be willing to go out on a limb and talk about your value as an employee with both current and potential employers. And just about everyone you meet is a prospective member of your professional network with the ability to connect you with just the right individual or opportunity. Because of this it’s important that you always be ready to discuss your expertise and skills. Last week we shared 5 of 10 tips in marketing yourself to potential employers. This week we’ll discuss the final five:

6. Have a Unique Selling Proposition

A Unique Selling Proposition, or USP, is what sets you apart from other professionals in your field. You must have some skills, experience, certification, or specialty that will set you apart from other accountants. This is what you must focus on when promoting yourself to others.

7. Network, network, network

You know what they say: “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” While that’s not always true, building your professional connections will someday come in handy. When networking effectively you must interact with a lot of people, frequently hand out your business card, join accounting and bookkeeping associations, frequent conferences and workshops, develop mutually-beneficial professional relationships, and stay in touch with strong contacts.

8. Build a support group

Networking will help you build this support group. It’s always good to interact with peers with whom you can advice, commiserate, and share experiences. Whether they be accountants, bankers, or small business owners, it’s nice to have a variety of professionals to whom you can turn for help or a listening ear. It’s also within this small community you might hear of career opportunities and perhaps gain the advantage by having one of them refer you for a position.

9. Develop a mentor relationship with an industry veteran

It’s always nice when an industry veteran has your back. When you develop a mentoring relationship with an experienced accountant, you can access valuable advice and informed wisdom. You could learn from their mistakes as well as their achievements. Not to mention your mentor may be able to tell you which employers to avoid and which to gravitate towards.

10. Develop new skills

As you develop your skills you not only build on your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) but you also expose yourself to a new set of individuals with whom you can network: instructors, classmates, special quests-all will afford you the opportunity to build relationships and promote yourself as a professional.

UAC Can Help You Gain New Skills and Learn Valuable Marketing Strategies

While it’s important to work on advancing your career, it may be time to consider promoting yourself with an improved lifestyle, greater flexibility, and an increased salary. Becoming a contract accountant will enable you to enjoy all three.

The Professional Bookkeeper (PB) Program
Regardless of your expertise, whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or expert accountant, the Professional Bookkeeper (PB) Program will teach you small business accounting, enabling you to promote your service to a large niche market. You’ll learn everything you need to know to help your clients’ businesses become more profitable. Imagine gaining the reputation as a Profit Expert, granting the Midas touch to every business with which you work. The PB Program will give you the skills to analyze a company’s finances and determine how they can best increase their revenue and become more profitable. Whether you become a contract accountant or not, these skills will enable you to advance your career and build on your Unique Selling Proposition.

The Universal Practice Builder (UPB) Program
Accountants are generally uncomfortable promoting themselves and their services. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn a proven system for marketing your newfound small business accounting skills? This could be used to market your own accounting practice, or the same concepts could be applied to self-promotion in advancing your accounting career. With over 25 years experience, Universal knows how to do that, and we want to teach you! For years we’ve been offering the Universal Practice Builder Workshop, designed to train you how to market your practice in order to experience significant growth and profitability. You had to attend a two-day workshop in order to glean all the amazing information offered. Now, to accommodate students and make this information more convenient we have turned this workshop into a DVD program. Imagine all that you could learn from our experience training thousands of individuals like you!

If you could benefit from increased skills and marketing abilities, order this Power Package and change the course of your career today. Enroll now by either paying in full or financing the package.

If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade. - Tom Peters

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. - Demosthenes

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. - Winston Churchill

Imagine owning and operating your own accounting practice. Doing so would enable you to be your own boss, enjoy a flexible work schedule, determine how much you will work, determine how much you will make, and enjoy a fulfilling career helping small businesses succeed. Do any of these things appeal to you? If so, it’s time you take advantage of an amazing opportunity to get started-today!

The three main business functions are accounting, marketing and production. In order for a business to operate successfully these three functions must coordinate their efforts. An accounting practice produces accounting services, so production and accounting are closely intertwined. You use accounting information to diagnose a business’s vitality and inform business decisions while you “produce” accounting services for your clients. And unless you market these services effectively the business will fail. The best business opportunity will provide you with the chance to hone these key business functions: accounting and marketing. Once you these two areas are covered you practically have a ready-made business.

Accounting

If you’re reading this article you probably already have some experience with accounting. Perhaps you work in the accounting industry full or part-time. Or perhaps you’ve always wanted to work in the accounting industry. Regardless of what you currently do, you can start your own accounting practice. The key is in finding a niche market in need of your valuable services.

Small businesses are in great need of accountants who understand their specific needs and know how to help them make their businesses more profitable. Traditional accounting training doesn’t prepare graduates to work with this niche market and their unique needs. That’s what makes the Professional Bookkeeper Program matchless.

UAC’s Professional Bookkeeper Program

At Universal Accounting, we understand the needs of the small business like nobody else. We’ve helped people like you advance their careers in small business accounting for over 25 years. The Professional Bookkeeper Program is designed specifically to address the needs of small businesses, and Universal Accounting Center’s small business accounting course is the most complete of anything else offered today. And depending on your schedule and situation, it will only take you 60 hours to complete. Imagine earning a professional designation in less than one month!

Marketing

Unless your target market knows about your unique skills, they will not retain your services. Part of your job as a contract accountant is to promote these unique skills effectively. The Universal Practice Builder Program is designed to help you master your business’s marketing function.

UAC’s Universal Practice Builder Program

This program is a turn-key marketing solution which will enable you to grow your business with our proven system. You could work for years on a marketing plan, hitting and missing, only to find your business growing at a snail’s pace. Imagine learning 12 plus marketing strategies proven to reach your niche market. That includes helping you secure 15-25 qualified leads per month and earn $30,000 more in annualized billings in just one year! The Universal Practice Builder Program is designed to teach you the art and science of getting clients. Top your Professional Bookkeeper designation off with this guaranteed program that will help you coordinate those two key functions: accounting and marketing. With these two programs under your belt, business success is much closer than you can imagine.

Life is too short to wait for success to fall into your lap. You must chase it! This package deal is an opportunity in work clothes. You’ll have to dedicate your time and energy to mastering the concepts contained in these two priceless programs, but we can promise you that it will pay off. Order today and turn this grand opportunity into an even grander enterprise.

Have you ever considered starting your own accounting practice? What’s keeping you from taking the plunge? There are countless things motivating entrepreneurs to start their own businesses; and not all motivators are created equal. What would motivate you to take your mark, and startup?

Purdue University conducted a survey between 2004 and 2006 in which they questioned 101 Indiana entrepreneurs to see what motivated them to start their own businesses. They found that those making more than $100,000 a year were less likely to start their own businesses than those in the $50,000 to 75,000 range. They also discovered that those who had developed a business plan were more likely to move forward than those who had not. Included in these business plans were industry analysis, marketing goals and pricing structure. Maria Marshall, a Purdue agricultural economist and the study’s lead researcher, said, “Learning more about the industry you’re going into goes hand-in-hand with writing a business plan. People sometimes tend to overlook business plans, but I think they are very important.”

Aside from creating a business plan, there are other things inspiring entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. Here are just a few:

Make more money.

In Entrepreneur.com, Tamara Monosoff interviewed renowned entrepreneurs and asked what motivated them to start their own businesses. Rachel Ashwell, founder of Shabby Chic, explained that she was driven to it out of necessity. Separated with young children, Ashwell decided to start her own business selling refinished furniture pieces. It wasn’t long before her unique style became popular. Shabby Chic has grown to include a line of slipcovers, bedding, home accessories, and even books.

Be your own boss.

An informal survey run by Yahoo questioned small business owners and found that 24.3% started their own businesses in order to answer to themselves rather than someone else. These individuals are tired of watching others make all the important decisions and desire the opportunity to take a business by the horns.

Test a brilliant idea.

Some entrepreneurs have what they consider to be a brilliant idea that just needs development, financial backing and exposure. They believe that once this idea gets off the ground it will attract countless buyers. Monosoff found that Tomima Edmark was just one of those entrepreneurs. She had hit the glass ceiling in the corporate world and felt her idea for a hair accessory was brilliant and worth pursuing. After earning the funds to launch her new business, TopsyTail, she went on to make $100 million in sales.

Make a difference.

Some entrepreneurs aren’t so much interested in their potential earnings as they are making a difference. Julie Clark, founder of Baby Einstein, wasn’t interested in making a load of cash or even starting her own business. She was most interested in creating educational videos for her babies because she felt there was nothing else available on the market. Years later she sold Baby Einstein to Disney for $50 million dollars and used her earnings to launch yet another business. Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop felt the same way. Successful in the corporate world and living comfortably, Clark didn’t start her company to make millions; she did it because she wanted to have a positive impact on the lives of countless children. Fortunately for her she accomplished both.

Enjoy greater flexibility.

In the Yahoo survey mentioned earlier, 21.4% of small business owners said they were interested in enjoying a more flexible work schedule and quality time with their family. When you start your own business not only do you become your own boss but you’re able to enjoy a more flexible work schedule designed by you!

So what motivates you? Could more information help? If you believed that starting your own business was achievable, profitable, and easy, would you do it? UAC’s video, Start Today and Have Your Own Bookkeeping Service, will show you that growing your own accounting practice is all three of those things: achievable, profitable, and easy. For less than $10 you can discover that, regardless of what’s motivating you, starting your own bookkeeping service is definitely within your reach. Order now!

Resources

Monosoff, Tamara. “What Inspires People to Startup?” 22 August 2007. Entrepreneur.com 9 June 2008. http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/inventing/inventionscolumnisttamaramonosoff/article183286.html

“Small Business Owners Reveal What Motivates Them.” Yahoo! Small Business 9 June 2008 http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-article-a-80400-m-1-sc-12-small_business_owners_reveal_what_motivates_them-i

“Survey Looks at What Motivates Entrepreneurs.” 28 March 2007. Inside Indiana Business 9 June 2008. http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=22501#middle

Baby boomers still struggle to balance work and family

By Eileen Alt Powell — AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Some baby boomers, who have struggled for years to try to balance work loads and family responsibilities, are advocating a new solution: working less.

Americans traditionally have sought to get better organized by buying day planners and personal digital assistants, or by hiring time management consultants. But there’s a boomer-led movement now toward cutting work hours — even if it means collecting a reduced salary — to free more time for family, friends and volunteer activities.

John de Graaf, 57, a Seattle freelance television producer and writer, is among the organizers of Take Back Your Time day on Friday. He calls it “a national conscious-raising event” that will include teach-ins and other events around the country to discuss ways to balance work and life. (Events are posted at www.timeday.org.)

“The date comes nine weeks before the end of the year, and that symbolizes the fact that we Americans now work an average of nine full weeks more each year than do our peers in Western Europe.”

Americans may be richer, de Graaf acknowledges, “but they’re overworked, overscheduled and overwhelmed — in short, just stressed out.”

There are some baby boomers who have made big changes in their lives to try to create more balance.

Don Silver, 54, gave up his law practice in Los Angeles four years ago to become an author and freelance financial writer.

He and his wife, Susan, a 52-year-old management consultant, now work from home so they can concentrate on projects they enjoy, set their own hours and home-school their son Charlie.

“I thought we would take a big hit in income, but I was willing to take that chance,” Silver said. “It may have been that I lucked out, getting dot-com work in 1999 and 2000 when I was starting out. Now I’m able to work in many venues — online, hard copy, creating computer manuals, ‘evergreen’ content for financial sites.”

After writing seven personal finance books, he recent wrote his first fiction book, “Cookin’ the Book$.”

Silver says that even people who work at home can get overwhelmed by it “unless you put up barriers.”

He encourages others to try to understand that life is about choices. In “The Generation Y Money Book,” for example, “I tried to make it clear that you’re trading your life energy for money. … So it’s important, regardless of your age, to ask basic questions: ‘Are you killing yourself doing this?’ “Are you enjoying this?’ ‘What’s the trade-off?”‘

For Diane Wood, 52, getting more time to spend with her teenage daughters meant cutting her work hours and earning less.

She moved earlier this year from a management position at a national environmental group that required long hours and a lot of travel to her current job as executive director of the Center for a New American Dream in Takoma Park, Md.

The center operates Monday through Thursday and pays its employees for a 32-hour work week. They may earn less, but they have Fridays off for walks in the woods or baking cookies with their children, Wood said.

“I made a conscious decision for a balanced life,” Wood said.

Others apparently are interested in the same thing. Traffic doubled this summer at the center’s Web site at www.newdream.org, which offers tips on lowering consumption and finding nonmaterial joys in life, Wood said.

“I think more and more people are stressed, especially boomers,” she said. “I worry that they’re so stressed they’re not pausing at all — and you have to pause if you want to redefine who you want to be.”

Elizabeth Rhodes, 55, stopped practicing law in 1995 and became a librarian at the University of Baltimore law library. The move has reduced stress in her life and given her more time to read and write poetry, she said.

“I’m convinced that what I’ve done is to arrange my life to be as pleasant as I can make it,” she said. “I have a congenial work environment, I’m working more things into my job that I like and I’m working at a place where, if I want to take a class, say in writing poetry, I just have to walk across the street.”

She also takes advantage of the library’s generous vacation policy, she said, “compared to practicing law, where there was hardly ever a down day, it’s incredible.”

Still, she said, the effort to get more balance in her life was an ongoing process.

“It’s always a conscious decision,” she said. “It’s about focusing.”

Benjamin Hunnicutt, a professor of leisure studies at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, agrees that many Americans are “time hungry.” But he’s not convinced most people will change their habits anytime soon.

“Work is the central value of our culture, and that’s especially true for boomers,” Hunnicutt said. “Work has become something like a modern religion, a way we establish our identity and find meaning and purpose.”

And while some countries, including France and Germany, have chosen to work less and play more, “Americans have chosen luxuries rather than leisure.”

Still Hunnicutt supports Take Back Your Time day activities “if only to raise the notion that there are trade-offs.”

Get A Marketing Plan For Yourself

We’ve All Heard of Marketing Goals and Objectives For Business… But One For Me?
Just about everyone who has had any experience in business has been a part of a meeting or meetings that discuss and detail the marketing efforts of a company and how they are going to go about gaining business - feet in the door, accounts in the bank, or whatever colliquialism you want to use for it. As an accounting professional you have an important role in the analytics and the gauging of the efforts effectiveness verses the expense of implementing the marketing plan.

So why not apply this to your own career? Do you have a professional marketing plan? Having a marketing plan for your career can do two main things for you; 1) When you are writing down your Career Marketing Plan you will be able to set your milestones for accomplishments as well as promotions, pay increases, and training. 2) Clarity of your wants and desires for your career will bec a boost in what you do daily and will allow you to better identify once you do or do not attain that goal.

The following is what you could use to develop your own professional marketing plan:

- First you need to determine what you hope to accomplish through your career marketing efforts. It’s important to be as specific as possible because once you state your goals you can use them later as a measure of your success. The focus of your career actions will become more clear, and your everyday activities that you undertake will then have a purpose.

- Once you have created the road map you wish to follow with your career marketing plan, you need to create your “game plan” on how you are going to get from milestone to milestone. When you do this you will often find that there are things that you may have not considered before but are essential to achieving your ultimate goal.

- Clarify each career marketing objective, that’s a key concern in writing your goals and objectives: are they measurable, meaning, can you determine later whether or not you’ve achieved them? For example, saying you want to be more successful is not necessarily something you can measure later on. But saying you want to be managing 5 employees by a certain time is. And be realistic. Setting unrealistic goals will only discourage you as you move forward. This may require you to do more research; what are some realistic expectations for growth in a career such as yours?

Measuring the Competition
This will also require a little research on your competitors. No we aren’t suggesting that you should treat everyone else as “enemy combatants” ready to push the nuke button at any time. Rather when you see the qualifications that it takes to be in the positions you imagine for yourself and what others may have, it will give you a better understanding the education and training you would need to gather for yourself to be able to attain similar feats. This is also a good exercise to see what others in your industry with your same skill sets are receiving as a wage, and how you could be above the curve or under it when it comes to your pay. Additionally, this can help determine how you can set yourself apart from the others that are in your profession. With unique training, or experience, or know-how you will be able to find your career niche that could make all the difference. All this will give you the competitive advantage in your career marketing efforts.

Reverse Engineer Your Career Goals
Again, be specific. Your marketing plan and your game plan to achieve what you develop for your career path are essential to that person you see yourself being, the responsibilities you see yourself having, and the life you see yourself living in the future. All be accomplished with a well-developed career marketing plan. A strategy that has been used quite often is reverse engineering. When you apply it to your career, you can look at the answer you would like to get, the destination you would like to find yourself in and reverse engineer on how to get to that place from where you are now standing. By doing so you can better plan how you can accomplish what you hope to. With this in place you can better project your future actions and career moves and possibly better estimate the road your career needs to travel to attain what you have imagined for yourself.

UAC Can Help You Develop a Career Marketing Plan
Universal Accounting Center understands that the best of careers start with the right type of training. The Start Today DVD is designed to help those of us who are career marketing-challenged. For just $9.95 you can learn how you can take the proverbial bull by the horns and get your career into high gear. You’re less than $10.00 away from learning which strategies are best for those pursuing a career and business in Accounting and Bookkeeping. Order today!

There are various reasons why employers hire new employees. Regardless of the reason, many new employees are charged with the responsibility of making the changes necessary to increase the company’s profitability and success. If you’ve recently been hired as a bookkeeper or accountant, you may find yourself in that tricky predicament, one that can make it difficult to accomplish your objectives without first winning colleague support. So how do you move forward and fulfill your job description without stepping on too many toes? Here are six simple steps.

1. Research your new employer
First it’s important to know more about the company and the position you’re walking into. Often you can ask your new employer a few key questions before you start. Is the company currently experiencing success? Are they unsuccessful and looking for ways to change that? What was your predecessor’s temperament and approach? Was it appreciated? How much change is your supervisor expecting you to initiate? How does the staff respond to change? Are your colleagues sophomore or senior employees? The more you know before entering the situation, the better prepared you’ll be to succeed.

2. Determine which colleagues are resistors
Perhaps your supervisor will let you know which coworkers will demonstrate resistance at your proposed changes. If not, you should take some time to determine which, if any, colleagues may prove problematic. Study their demeanor and determine how you might win their support (see below) or at least deter them from causing too many waves.

3. Consider your delivery
The last thing your new colleagues want is a long diatribe on how bad the company was before you arrived and how your arrival marks glorious changes. In her article “How to Earn Support from New Colleagues,” Joan Lublin discusses the importance of dealing with colleagues diplomatically. She quotes Ben Dattner, a New York psychologist, who cautions new employees against being the cocky and bossy newbie. He says, “They push too hard, too fast and do it in a non-diplomatic way.” You need to sit back and get a feel for office dynamics and politics.

4. Find an influential mentor
You can gain support and receive helpful advice from an influential mentor. Find someone within the company who can help you acclimate to your new work environment. This individual should be a knowledgeable employee who is respected by coworkers.

5. Win over coworkers
Once you’ve determined who the resistors are you can start winning them over. Some just need to be involved in order to feel invested in your planned changes and provide their support. You may need to communicate regularly with others while others still may need evidence that the boss has requested you make these changes.

6. Renew your boss’s support
Depending on how things progress, you may request that your boss publicly renew his support of your plans. This may calm the naysayers and remind your colleagues of the company’s intentions to support you in your endeavors.

It is possible to win colleague support in a new work environment. Avoid being pushy or arrogant about your new position; take the time to study your colleagues and your responsibilities before proposing any changes. And as you involve your coworkers you may be surprised at just how quickly you become one of the gang.

References
Lublin, Joann. “How to Earn Support from New Colleagues.” CareerJournal.com.

Given Job Flexibility, Working Moms Deliver

By Carol Kleiman — Chicago Tribune

Donald Murray states firmly that “working mothers are among the most effective workers.”

And when Murray talks, people listen. He’s the highly successful chairman and chief executive officer of Resources Global Professionals Inc., a professional services firm based in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Murray founded the firm in 1996 and took it public in 2000. Annual revenues are approaching $500 million and today the company has 65 offices worldwide and some 3,000 employees. Fifty percent of its associates who work with clients are women.

What’s more, four out of five of the company’s regional directors are women with children.

“Working mothers are our competitive edge,” said Murray, who has a bachelor’s of science degree in business administration and accounting and a master’s degree in business taxation.

“Working mothers, in my opinion, provide much higher results with flexible hours than average guys do who could be there 60 hours a week.”

The CEO says he has observed “that no one can juggle things or multitask like a professional woman with children. But many employers don’t acknowledge that.”

It was in 1976, when Murray was hired by a large accounting firm, that he saw the potential - and problems - faced by working mothers.

“Half of the people hired at the same time as I was were women,” he said. “But by the time I became partner, none of the women were still there. You know when that happens that something needs to be fixed.”

In the early 1990s, when he became manager of 200 people at the firm, Murray observed that there were real barriers erected to the success and advancement of employed mothers.

“I saw that the company focus was on how many hours the women worked, on their input — and not on what they actually accomplished,” he said. And that is why, in his company, Murray added, “we don’t monitor hours, we monitor results.”

The CEO further shows his support for women in his role as a volunteer for Human Options, an organization that assists women who are victims of domestic violence. Since 1997, Murray has offered an internship program to provide training to women recommended by the agency.

It’s Murray’s belief that working mothers need flexibility to realize their potential: With it, nothing can stop them.

“Our company speaks for itself,” said Murray, who says he looks for quality when hiring — and often finds it among working mothers. “Our biggest region, the Northeast, is run by a woman with three children; the Midwest, by a woman with two children, and the West Coast, a woman with three children.”

Murray says he tries to attract outstanding people, regardless of gender. “And a lot of outstanding people with children happen to be professional women with children who have felt that they were not given an equal opportunity to be successful because of their family responsibilities.

“And they run the place,” he said.

Moe Grzelakowski is a successful businesswoman, mother of two and author of “Mother Leads Best: 50 Women Who Are Changing the Way Organizations Define Leadership” (Dearborn Trade, $22). In her book, Grzelakowski asserts that “motherhood has a positive impact on women’s ability to lead.”

And here’s why; “Motherhood has helped women executives change from good leaders into great ones,” the author says.

“Children transform ultrahigh-achieving women, leavening their highly focused, intensely driven, tough-minded traits with character and compassion. . . . (They) become softer, yet stronger; more confident, yet more humble; more directed, yet more tolerant. All in all, children not only give them a greater capacity to lead, but they stimulate a greater capacity to love.

“Leadership, coupled with love, is very powerful.”

Is Your Career In a Rut? How to Get Moving Again

Without constant forward motion, careers stagnate. We find it easy to do what we have always done, and get what we have always gotten. So how does one break out of the rut that they have found their career in?

When your employer sees you, is their vision limited by what they have seen you do in the past? You need something to get noticed. It is an established fact that if an employer cannot picture you in a role, they will not put you there either. If you work in Accounting, Bookkeeping, or a related field, the best way to get noticed is with additional training. And the best way to get accelerated training is with the Professional Bookkeeper program. In just 60 hours of video-based teaching that you learn at your pace, you will learn the full Accounting process that will make your boss notice you and picture yourself in internal promotional opportunities as they arise.

Maybe even more important is that upon successfully completing the Professional Bookkeeper course, you will be able to add the PB designation to the end of your name. Bearing the PB designation states boldly to potential employers that you have what it takes to do the entire Accounting process from clerk to Full Charge Accountant with emphasis on small to mid-sized business accounting. The PB designation proves that you have the hands-on skills to work in a variety of Accounting tasks and can be called upon to perform a broad range of Accounting and Bookkeeping responsibilities. With the PB designation, you show that you know!

Learn How to Accelerate Your Career With the Professional Bookkeeper Program

By Michael Crom

Question: I graduated from college last year and recently gained a job at a well-respected accounting company. I am a diligent worker and have never had a bad reference from any of my past employers. I do and always have done everything I am assigned to the best of my ability. My problem is, I don’t often take initiative to go beyond my job requirements. It’s not that I don’t want to or can’t, but simply that I don’t think about things until someone else has already done them. I am really happy with the company I work for and would like to have the opportunity to move up in the future. Do you have any suggestions for ways I could ensure a promotion?

Answer: Congratulations on realizing that you have some areas that you need help with. It’s great that your previous companies recognized you as a hard-working employee, however if you never push yourself, you’ll never exceed your own potential. Here are some things to look at in order to start climbing your way up the corporate ladder:

• See the bigger picture. Sometimes we get so caught up with the day-to-day tasks that we miss what the larger goal is. It is very easy for e-mail, memos and daily agendas to grow on your desk until you can no longer see what the company’s mission is, much less your own. Evaluate your company’s mission statement every month — even tape it in front of you. This way, you will be reminded every day that these short-term tasks are part of a long-term objective.
• See yourself in that picture. You said you like working for your company, and much of that reason probably has to do with the fact you respect what it does and why and how it does it. Now look at your own strengths and figure out what areas both you and the company could benefit from. Try to stop looking at the company and yourself as separate entities and see what you can contribute to the whole.
• Make others see you. While you said that you rarely see new opportunities before others do, it’s more likely that you just don’t voice your ideas when they appear. Start being more aware of yourself. Jot down that little thought that doesn’t seem like a big deal now. Noting key ideas, observations, or problems often amass to a revolutionary improvement later. Mention these ideas and solutions you came up with to your boss at a meeting, and he’ll definitely jot down good thoughts of you.

The major thing to remember is to just seize the moment. Every moment is a chance to succeed and move forward. Add this to your great work ethic and you’ll be climbing in no time.

Michael Crom is executive vice president of Dale Carnegie Training.

Are You Getting the Promotions You Deserve?

If you don’t feel like you get the recognition and promotions you should, ask yourself why others around you get the promotions while you get left behind. When you are just as competent, or more so, than those that rise above you, often the answer is simple. You just don’t get noticed. To get the best promotions where you work, you need to stand out from the crowd. If you work in accounting or bookkeeping, one of the quickest ways to get noticed is by getting additional training. Because the Professional Bookkeeper course is distance learning, you can fit in career accellerating training with the most hectic schedule. You owe it to yourself to learn how to get noticed and get promoted.

Learn How the Professional Bookkeeper Program Can Get Your Career In the Fast Lane