Excellent Work-From-Home Job Opportunities

"Make Thousands of Dollars Working from Home!" sounds like a scam and most of the time, it is. But, the great news is, remote work options are available and they are on the rise.

Whether you want to work at your house in your pajamas, from your local coffee shop, or while traveling the world, the following companies can help you achieve your Work-From-Home desires.

• Apple – Tech giant Apple has At Home Advisor position that allows employees to work remotely as customer support agents. The role is to translate technology into a language customers can understand. The position offers benefits such as employee discounts, the opportunity to grow with Apple, and a free iMac to use while working from home. The job is also a great gig for college students, who can schedule their work around classes.
• Xerox - Xerox has an extensive WFH program of over 8,000 home-based employees, which is known as the Virtual Workforce Program. Home-based employees are involved in a variety of functions, including customer care, tech support, quality control, software development, and much more. 
• Dell - Although Dell is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, the company offers employee work options that include flextime, remote work, job sharing, part-time work, and compressed workweeks. Current openings for flexible jobs at Dell include senior-adviser, engineer, and executive positions.
• Toptal - Toptal is a talent network that connects the top 3 percent of software developers with remote work. But the coolest part is that Toptal's internal team of engineers is completely distributed as well. Toptal has no offices whatsoever. Everyone at the company -- from the CEO down to new hires - works remotely. 
• Loot – Loot offers a WFH position where you complete different actions for your favorite brands, such as taking pictures or sharing content on Facebook and Twitter. The more you work, the more you’ll get paid. This is more of a gig type of job. You have to download the company app to apply.
• Freelancer.com – It is a website where you can sign up and get paid for your skills. It has thousands of open jobs where you as a freelancer can work from home in your pajamas. Although most positions are not salaried, there are many jobs that offer near full-time work with flexible hours. This is more of a freelancer type of job where many projects are done on spec.
• Humana - Humana has received numerous workplace awards including the Computerworld 100 Best Places to Work in IT, the Best Employer for Healthy Lifestyles award from the National Business Group, and a ranking of 58 on the Fortune 500 list.
• ADP – It is one of the world's largest providers of business-outsourcing and human-capital management solutions. The company offers a number of full-time, flex, or at-home positions, as well as onsite part-time work.
• Amazon – Amazon offers many virtual positions for potential employees living in certain areas, which allows employees to work from home with just a high-speed internet connection, a working landline, and a PC. Unfortunately, for now, VCC positions are available only in Arizona, Kentucky, Texas, West Virginia, Delaware, Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Virginia.
• TeleTech - TeleTech offers many career paths for telecommuters with a flexible work environment. The program, called TeleTech@Home, has positions for employees who support and assist customers with a variety of service and technical needs, as well as those who carry out back-office functions including chat and social media.

How to Succeed in Male-Dominated Industries

Gone are the days when women were concentrated in lower paying service jobs like retail workers and administrative assistants. Now more and more women are holding high level and high paying jobs in previously male dominated industries. To be successful in these industries, women require a lot of joggling especially if they are married and have children to look after.

Here are a few suggestions for women to get ahead in an industry that is known to be male-dominated.

• Make sure your value is known - One of the main challenges faced by women in the ‘male-dominated’ industries is making their value known.  It can be intimidating for some women to play by men’s rules. Women need to play on their strengths and characteristic qualities that are sometime lacking in men. Many women think they need to change when working in a male-dominated environment. But, your unique qualities or working styles can be the catalyst that helps you to be noticed as a person of value.
• Don’t be the ‘Yes’ woman - In many industries, there is tremendous pressure to work hard and go the extra mile.  Women must not feel obligated to say ‘yes’ to anything that doesn’t remotely list under their responsibilities. Agreeing to taking on every project in striving to be a ‘good employee’ will not do any justice to you in the long run. If you don’t learn to say no, you will ultimately hurt both yourself and the company you represent. It is important, however, to stand up for the projects you really want to work on.
• Be Confident - Having confidence in yourself goes a long way and can get you where you want to be in your career. Being confident, you won’t feel the need to get the ‘approval’ from anyone as women are just as capable of holding certain positions that appear to be reserved for men only. Being a woman, you may be playing more than one role. It is advisable not to allow domestic worries impact upon your confidence and focus at work.
• Be strong and structure oriented - As a woman, you need to not only prove yourself, but be relatively outspoken about it too - something many women are not comfortable doing. Being structured in your work, organized, technically strong, and ensuring you’re assertive goes a long way to earning the respect and recognition for a job well done.
• Have patience, perseverance and positivity - Maintaining a positive attitude and focus, together with equal doses of perseverance and patience, will stand you in good stead. One step forward is one step closer to getting ahead.
• Build contacts – Networking after work is a big part of building contacts in any industry. This is often done in environments that aren’t particularly female-friendly, but breaking into this is a must.
• Motivation and mentorship - Going it alone up the career ladder is hard. One of the most valuable things is to have a mentor - someone who has succeeded in the system, understands the challenges, and can guide you through some of the peculiarities of the industry, as a result of his/her own experience and lessons learned. A mentor can also push you a little harder than you might push yourself.

Remember, the amazing thing about women is that we’re stubborn individuals who will build strong, supportive networks to help each other grow. Keep a positive attitude and always challenge yourself to learn more. With knowledge and confidence, you can enter any office and show that you’re a valuable addition to the team.

Hiring Trends for 2017

Hiring is going to be a challenge for tech positions, particularly for security and networking roles. 

Here is a glimpse of what is expected on the hiring front in 2017. The following forecast is based on the research conducted by Robert Half Technology and TEKsystems.

• Marginal salary gains – Majority of IT leaders expect IT salaries to stay the same compared to 2016 rates. Many organizations are relying on rate cards from several years ago, and the IT segment is suffering a degree of wage stagnation.
• Some skills are more likely to get raises – There won’t be department-wise salary hikes, but in-demand roles will get raises. These roles will be – programmers & developers, software engineers, security and cloud based computing.
• IT headcount expanding for some – Some companies will add new positions in the year 2017. Most of them will put IT hiring on hold.
• Contingent IT staff increasing - IT leaders report that in 2016, 80% of their IT team members are full-time staffers and 20% are contingent workers. Looking ahead to 2017, CIOs are predicting a slight shift in the ratio of full-time staff (76%) to contingent workers (24%).
• Skills in greatest demand – Database management, desktop support, network administration and cybersecurity are the most in-demand skills.
• Explosion of tech roles - Our technology-driven lifestyles mean that more employers in finance, retail, healthcare, etc., need employees who can derive insights from data, create a mobile app, or code a website. A tight overall hiring market and increased demand for tech talent makes recruiting those coding and analytics stars even more difficult.
• Pay transparency - Transparency in the workplace isn’t new, but in 2016 we saw a big push from policymakers for employers to be more transparent about pay. New rules from the federal government will require some employers to disclose workers’ pay by gender, race/ethnicity.  In 2017, employers should prepare for increased salary negotiations.

Why Banks Deny Loans to Small Businesses

Starting a business is one of the most rewarding, yet difficult endeavours to undertake. The road to profit is very challenging. Business owners need a great deal of money to launch their venture. They depend upon commercial lending for financing. However, many times loan applications are rejected by banks.

Here’s a list of reasons a business loan can be rejected.

• Bad credit - Even though not everyone has the best credit, as far as lenders are concerned, this just isn’t an excuse. Poor credit is simply a sign that a borrower, or their business, does not prioritize repaying their debts. Credit score of the borrower is very important criterion for money lenders to decide whether to accept or reject a loan offer. Most banks typically won’t loan to a business owner whose personal credit score isn’t above a certain threshold (typically about 680).
• Not enough collateral - All business loans require collateral. Unfortunately not all businesses have sufficient collateral to support the size of the business loan they wish to borrow. Another obstacle is the price depreciation of certain collateral. Know the value of your collateral before you ask the bank for the loan.
• Under-capitalization - Borrowers often make the mistake of under-capitalizing their business loan application. Your personal and professional resources including fixed assets, retained earnings, and the even an owner’s equity, can be attached if required to secure repayment of the debt. Do your homework; know what capital you have on hand. Know what you can pledge and use to grow your business and repay the bank’s loan.
• Cash flow problems - Lenders see no reason to offer money to a business that has serious cash flow problems. Banks want to see that businesses have enough money to make monthly loan payments in addition to covering rent, payroll, inventory and other costs.  After all, if a business isn’t even making money to begin with, then there is no need to hand it a business loan in the hope that is generates growth. There has to be adequate cash flow available to repay a loan. Most bank term loans are not ideal for start-ups or very young businesses. They typically look for a few years of revenue generation. Start-ups can apply for SBA loans (which are loans made by a bank with a portion guaranteed by the US government). Most large banks have SBA loan departments, so be sure to check with your local branch.
• Lack of preparation - Many businesses simply aren’t savvy about the application process and believe they can walk into a bank, fill out an application and get approved for a loan. Before applying for a bank loan, businesses should have a written business plan, financial statements or projections, personal and business credit reports, tax returns and bank statements. They should also have copies of relevant legal documents including articles of incorporation, contracts, leases, and any licenses and permits needed to operate.
• Difficult conditions - Even if a business has excellent collateral, credit, and is well run, there is still the possibility that it will soon face industry-specific difficulties. For example, a lender may be hesitant to lend a business loan to a transportation company in the wake of rising fuel costs. The lender may expect that the soaring costs of fuel are just going to overtax the transportation company and make it difficult to grow or generate a profit. Outside influences are always considered prior to a loan approval or decline. They can include industry experience of a borrower, a business’s location, local or regional economic trends, competitors etc. In addition to these, seemingly unrelated factors, such as local climate conditions, may also influence an applicant’s approval or denial.

These reasons are warning signs to look out for on the road to getting a business loan. Even if borrowers achieve success and borrow business loans, they still have to successfully run their business and payback their lender. While not all ideas need financing to get started, getting a business loan is a great aid to launching a new company.

Legal Requirements to Start a Business

Many different elements go into starting a new business. One of the primary requirements for setting up a business is to abide by the legal requirements set by federal, state and county rules and regulations. Abiding by these rules allows you to start your business off on the right path to help you avoid legal issues regarding the business structure in the future.

Here is the list of legal aspects you need to consider for start-up. Depending on your situation and type of business, hiring a tax accountant and/or good attorney with specific experience in your industry can help you.

• Business name - Before you start printing out business cards, make sure the great new name you thought of isn’t infringing on the rights of an already existing business. You can perform a free search online that looks at business names registered with the Secretary of State — that will tell you if the name is available in your state. Then, take your search to the next level and conduct a no-conflict, free trademark search to see if your name is available for use in all 50 states.
• Register a fictitious business name/DBA - A DBA (Doing Business As) must be filed whenever your company does business under a different name. If you’ve got a sole proprietorship or general partnership, a DBA is needed if your company name is different from your own name. For an LLC or corporation, a DBA must be filed to conduct business using a name that’s different from the official Corporation or LLC name you filed.
• Incorporate Your Business or Form an LLC - Forming an LLC or corporation is an essential step to protect your personal assets (such as your personal property or your child’s college fund) from any liabilities of the company. Each business structure has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on your specific circumstances. Three popular options are: the LLC (great for small businesses that want legal protection, but minimal formality), S Corporation (great for small businesses that can qualify), or C Corporation (for companies who plan to seek funding from a VC or go public).
• Get Federal Tax ID Number - To distinguish your business as a separate legal entity, you'll need to obtain a Federal Tax Identification Number, also referred to as an Employer Identification Number (EIN). Issued by the IRS, the tax ID number is similar to your personal social security number and allows the IRS to track your company's transactions. If you’re a sole proprietor, you’re not obligated to get a Tax ID number, but it’s still good practice as you won’t have to provide your personal social security number for business matters.
• Learn about employee laws - Your legal obligations as an employer begin as soon as you hire your first employee. You should spend time with an employment law professional to fully understand your obligations for these (and other) procedures: federal and state payroll and withholding taxes, self-employment taxes, anti-discrimination laws, OSHA regulations, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation rules, and wage and hour requirements.
• Obtain business permits and licenses - Depending on your business type and physical location, you may be required to have one or more business licenses or permits from the state, local or even federal level. Such licenses include: a general business operation license, zoning and land use permits, sales tax license, health department permits, and occupational or professional licenses.
• File for trademark protection - You're not actually required by law to register a trademark. Using a name instantly gives you common law rights as an owner, even without formal registration. Since you’ve spent untold hours brainstorming the ideal name, and you’ll be putting even more effort into cultivating name recognition, you should consider registering your trademark for proper legal protection.
• Open a bank account to build business credit - When you rely on your personal credit to fund your business, your personal mortgage, auto loan and personal credit cards all affect your ability to qualify for a business loan. Using business credit separates your personal activities from that of the business. To begin building your business credit, you should open a bank account in the name of your company, and the account should show a cash flow capable of taking on a business loan.

If you are a start-up owner or have plans of becoming one, we at TheGongzuo.com are eager to assist you. Our experts will provide you guidance regarding your financial or legal matters. Do contact us today! 

Interesting Tech Facts

                           

• The first computer mouse was invented by Doug Engelbart in around 1964 and was made of wood.
• Alaska is the only state that can be typed on one row of keys on a “QUERTY” keyboard.
• HP, Google, Microsoft and Apple have one thing in common apart from the obvious that they are IT companies. They were all started in garages.
• Hewlett Packard was started in a garage in Palo Alto in 1939.
• Facebook pays at least $500 if you can find a way to hack the site.
• The Google driverless car has encountered only two accidents. The first it was rear ended at a stop sign, and the second was when a human was behind the wheel.
• The first online advertisement banner was created and used in the year of 1994.
• CD’s, or Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, which is the reverse of how records work.
• The word robot comes from the Czech “robota“. This translates into forced labour, or work.
• Skype is banned from the public in China.
• 86% of people try to plug their USB devices upside down.
• 160 billion emails are sent daily, 97% of which are spam.
• 9 out of every 1,000 computers are infected with spam.
• U.S. President Bill Clinton's inauguration in January 1997 was the first to be webcast.
• There are 6.8 billion people on the planet and 4 billion of them use a mobile phone. Only 3.5 billion of them use a toothbrush.
• Two hundred and twenty million tons of old computers and other technology devices are trashed in the United States each year.
• Ninety percent of text messages are read within three minutes of being delivred.
• The average 21 year old has spent 5,000 hours playing video games, sent 250,000 emails, instant messages, and text messages, and has spent 10,000 hours on a mobile phone alone.

It’s Time to Make a Career Change

People change careers several times during their lifetime. The main reason is that they don’t make informed decisions about the careers they choose. They do not take into account their own interests, values, personality types while selecting career path. Because of these reasons, you may find yourself wondering whether you should be doing something different. Here are some valid reasons to leave your current career for a new one:

• Loss of purpose and passion – If your career has no meaning, you are no longer excited about it or you have grown tired of getting up in the morning to compete for something you don’t believe in anymore – it’s time to move on. The financial incentives are not enough, when the chance to find real personal significance and happiness is missing. 
• Talent potential is not valued - When your talent is not valued, it’s difficult to stay motivated. When your boss doesn’t trust your potential and will not sponsor your career advancement, it’s extremely hard to remain loyal. You must value your talent potential more than anyone else.   Never allow your talent to be taken for granted.  If it is, it may be time to move on.
• Professional growth is stunted - If you are unable to challenge yourself to grow and mature, then how can your employer help you? If you think your employer is not investing in your professional development, you must move on. If you don’t stretch yourself to do more or remain in your comfort zone for too long, you will have to pay the price later. Your resume should reflect enough success stories to merit advancement in your career.
• Workplace culture is not trustworthy - A hostile work environment that operates in silos - where the executives are not transparent - is difficult to trust.  This type of workplace culture becomes corrupted and begins to impact your performance and ability to advance. When you are part of an organization that is full of leadership and workplace problems, it’s time to consider a career change.
• Not sufficiently awarded - It’s easy to become contented in your career, but in today’s fiercely competitive and dynamic marketplace, you must be your own manager and continually be accountable to keep a “reward scorecard.”   Rewards are qualitative and quantitative measurements.  If you are not being rewarded for your work - based on industry standards (or better), it’s time to consider a career change.
• You make excuse for a day off - Do you make excuses to call in sick or let go opportunities to take lead? It may be time to assess your current career. If your sense of satisfaction fades away, you aren’t worried your performance review didn’t go well, or you spend more time on surfing internet than concentrating on business, it might be time to move on.
• Your life has changed - When you chose your career your life may have been different than it is today. For example you may have been single then and now you have a family. The crazy schedule or the frequent travel that is typical of your career may not suit your new lifestyle. You should look for an occupation that is more "family friendly."
• Your job is too stressful - Some occupations are inherently stressful. You knew that from the beginning about yours. You've come to a point, though, when it's become too much to handle. To preserve your mental and physical health, you will have to find a career that is less stressful.

If you want to make a career change, talk to the career counsellor for guidance and making a right move. Think about roles or jobs where you can use the knowledge and skills you already possess. If you are convinced that you want to make a career change, then take a dive! There is never a perfect time, so don’t wait. Try to prepare plan B, and then do it!