Last Updated: 12/20/2021 Hi Ladies and Gents,
Today is Monday, December 20. Before we know it, Christmas will be here! That gets me thinking about turkey, goose, brandy-doused-fruit-cake, and seasonal sales again, but I digress somewhat. Of course, Christmas is not the only holiday celebrated in December. You can check out this article right here (external site) that talks about six of the more major internationally-recognized holidays celebrated in December....and of course there are more than these six, too! I should mention, though, that I celebrate Christmas and also the Gregorian solar New Year, so I will be taking the week of Christmas-New Year off from this website. That means that we won't have our regular two posts next week - please be aware of that! Today we are talking about another one of my all-time favorite topics: how to make money on the Internet. Without any further ado, let’s jump right in here to the meat and potatoes of today’s blog post: 3 Real Ways to Make Money Online. You’ve heard all the sales pitches for various books, websites, apps, courses, and probably 101 other avenues and mediums that will supposedly turn you into a genius when it comes to making money online. Perhaps you’ve even invested in some of these items to find that they are full of useless information or only teach basic techniques that you already know. What you’d like to know is how you can really make money online, without a huge investment or getting caught up in some kind of Ponzi or pyramid scam. Before we go any further, let’s get two things straight: 1) there are dozens upon dozens, if not hundreds – probably even thousands – of ways to make money online. Reading this blog and the articles on this website is not going to teach you all the ins and outs of every single way to make a buck through the Internet, nor is reading this blog going to “magically” make you rich. What I do hope is that you find some good information, tips, and inspiration – that’s probably the most important part, the inspiration – through this blog and other articles and features on this website and that you are able to find that inner confidence to forge your own way and move forward boldly with your plans to make money online as the result of having been here! 2) The other thing we need to get straight is the bottom line, which is that making money online isn’t the gravy train it was back in the 1990s and early 2000s when anyone could just throw a mom-and-pop type website up on the Internet that sold literally anything and make their millions overnight. The Internet of the 21st Century, like your toothbrush, clothes, and cellphone, is part of daily life now. It’s not the “new, cool, mysterious thing” it used to be back in 1995. And remember, the Internet is a medium, an avenue through which you can make money, just like opening up a brick-and-mortar store front in the physical world is an avenue through which you can (still!) make money – yes, even now in the 21st century. I akin making money using the Internet to making money using the railroad back in the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s. Back in the United States of the 1800s, the railroad was the “new, cool, mysterious thing” that was very literally taking the country by storm. The advent of the railroad in the US ushered in a whole new era of mass, rapid (very rapid for its time!) movement of people, physical goods, services, and of course, communication. Suddenly, everyone who was anyone wanted to “make money off the railroad” – and many people were able to do just that! Of course, over time things consolidated and eventually there came a point when just a few supergiant companies owned the lion’s share of the entire railroad network stretched across North America (hmmm....sounds like Internet cables stretched across the world’s oceans today!). The railroad had its day, and I’m not here to go into the history of the rise and fall of the American railroad system in this blog post...but in the 1990s the “new, cool, mysterious thing” called the Internet took the US, and quickly the world, by storm....and…..is this narrative starting to sound familiar? It’s no longer your Uncle John’s “Wild West” Internet of the 1990s out there anymore; it’s the rapidly consolidating Internet of the 21st Century we have to work with these days, but there is still PLENTY of life and growth left in the medium known as “the Internet!” So, with that said, let’s take a look at these three ideas for making money online as promised: 1. Advertisement Programs Advertisement programs are available all over the internet; you see them every day – think Google AdSense back 20 years ago, but now there are so many more! How can these programs help you make money? Using this method, your mission is to build a website based on a particular topic, product, or service. Once you’ve published the website, you can sign up with any number of pay-per-click advertising services that will then populate your web page with advertisements. The people behind those ads – i.e. the people paying for the ads that show on your site and get clicked on – are literally funding your paycheck on a pay-per-click basis. Every time they pay their invoice to the pay-per-click ad company for clicks on their ads, a percentage will come to you (depending on the agreement you are operating under, and assuming people are clicking on the ads on your website). Imagine building a few small, basic websites with keyword density that will attract lots of traffic and then sitting back to wait for the money to start coming in. This was the exact scenario that use to be the classic “quick and dirty” way to make money through a website back in the days of yesteryear. It really isn’t as easy as this anymore, to be honest, like it was back in 1999, but it is still possible. People still make money running pay-per-click ads on their websites now in the 21st Century. The trick often lays in having BOTH relevant ads that complement your website content, and getting A LOT of traffic to your site – useful, “converting traffic,” as they call it in the lingo, that will actually be interested in, and, thus, click on the ads in question that are displayed on your website. Again, to be honest, with so many websites on the Internet today, and more being added every day, THAT is the tricky part! Getting people to your website; getting them to stick around on your website; getting them to TRUST your website; and THEN maybe getting them to click on an ad on your website! Of course, pay-per-click is just one way of making money through advertising on the Internet and the only one we are discussing here today. There are numerous methods of making money through advertising on the Internet – think creatively on this one! Just remember to stay within honest and ethical boundaries! In many jurisdictions, intentional false advertising is a legally punishable crime; and, if you ask me, it’s just plain wrong to do it anywhere, whether it is legal to do so or not! 2. Direct Internet Sales Like Internet advertising, while there are several avenues down which you can pursue Internet sales, there are some ways that are smarter and easier to get your foot in the door with than others. When first beginning your pursuit of Internet sales, you will need either a product or service that does not draw too much from your bank account. Buying a bulk product for discounted rates and reselling those items individually could be a way to break into the market. This, of course, requires you keeping inventory and dealing with shipping the items yourself – something to keep in mind. You can either set up a website from which to sell your product(s) or service(s), or you can sell from one of the plethora of Internet marketplaces and/or auction sites out there these days – i.e. think “eBay,” “Amazon,” just to name the two big “supergiant” names of what I am referring that have been around since the dawn of the Internet, there are numerous sites out there like those these days. Many people have made quite a large sum of money selling products on auction sites and online marketplaces in the past, and this is something that is still a viable and growing market today, although, true, more competitive than it was 20 or even 10 years ago. If you take into account the fees you will have to pay, the shipping costs, and the materials cost, setting your price at a level to return a reasonable profit, you can have an Internet auction or marketplace sales business that is highly successful. A good way to attract business is to have a unique offering, whether it is a service or product, that few or no other sellers are offering – “niche yourself” into something unique! Again, as with pay-per-click advertising discussed above, direct sales on the Internet – and particularly direct sales through auction and/or marketplace sites – is just one of a myriad of different ways you can make money selling things online. Other big avenues you can go down with the Internet sales idea are affiliate marketing and/or selling digital products and/or digitally-based services. 3. Selling Custom Kits (a unique twist to the “Direct Internet Sales” idea) Perhaps you’ve been frustrated in the past by having to go to several different places to collect parts and pieces for a project. You want to customize your car, for example, but you have to go to one dealer for wheels, another for body parts, and someone else for paint or decals. What if you could buy a whole “custom overhaul kit” in one place? This third point is really an extension and unique rendition of Number 2 (above). If you leverage your skills and abilities from Number 2 (buying in bulk) and create custom kits with various complementary items and then resell those kits as their own individual sales units, this can be a lucrative business venture because you sell everything as a package, giving you the ability to mark up the price for the “value added” aspect of the kit and earn quite a handsome profit in some cases. By utilizing this method, you are also offering the customer the chance to purchase everything he or she needs in one easy place through one easy purchase – assuming you are easy to do business with (ok, that’s a joke!). The example given in the paragraph above was customizing your car, but the idea of creating and selling custom kits can reach far beyond the automotive industry. Some other big ideas that immediately come to mind for me along the lines of custom kits are custom cleaning kits (for a variety of industries), custom finishing kits (for a variety of industries), and, of course, the famed and acclaimed “Starter Kits” which have become so popular over the last few decades. You know what I mean – things like “The Photography Starter Kit,” as one random example, which may offer a bunch of photography accessories, such as a carry-bag, lens cleaning paraphernalia, wallets/holders for memory cards, etc...many of these items are all things which are relatively easy to purchase cheaply and in bulk, and then when you combine all of them into your “Custom Photography Starter Kit,” you can mark up the price as you are selling a value-added unique stand-alone product now. There you go, some potential money-making ideas to chew on until Thursday. Better life, better business, better you! Ideas, inspiration, opportunity, -Andreas Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises Washington State Certified K-8 Educator, K-12 International Education Consultant, Professional Coach, Proofreader/Editor, Affiliate Marketer, Popsicle Stick Crafter, Print-on-Demand Products Designer, and Webmaster Other websites by Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises: www.cityofpullmanportal.com www.949crafts.com Looking for a professional coach? I’m your man! Let’s chat.
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Richard Old: Owner of Estate Services www.webuyandsellstuff.com Meet Dr. Richard Old: 5th Generation Whitman County Resident, Farm Owner, Estate Liquidation Expert, Weed Identification Specialist, Forensic Scientist, Teacher, Author, Entrepreneur, Jack-Of-All-Trades A business interview by Andreas Gross Pictures and photographs provided for use in this article by Richard Old Date of Interview: July 25, 2021 This interview first appeared in the the Fall/Winter 2021 4th Edition of The Pullmanic, published on September 18, 2021, a newsletter about Pullman, Washington, also produced and published by Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises. This is the newsletter being referred to in the opening paragraph of the interview. You can access that newsletter here. You can access previous editions of the newsletter on The City of Pullman Portal website, The Pullmanic page, a website by Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises. For this edition of The Pullmanic, I was able to catch up with Pullman’s famed and acclaimed Dr. Richard Old and get him to share his story with us. Being an entrepreneurial small business owner and running Estate Services is just one venture this multi-talented 5th generation Whitman County resident is engaged in, but let’s hear about it from him, in his own words! Richard, let’s start from the beginning here, shall we? Tell us your story please… Certainly, Andreas. And thank you for reaching out to me. I’m happy to share my story here in the Fall/Winter 2021 Edition of The Pullmanic. I was born in Colfax (due to the fact there was no maternity ward in Pullman) and raised on a farm near Albion. My Dad, Pat Old, knew everyone and everyone seemed to know him. He was well known for reciting poetry to anyone who would listen :). My mother, Dr. Leila Old, taught clothing and textiles at both Washington State University and the University of Idaho. She taught televised courses long before distance education became popular. I attended grades K-12 in Pullman (celebrated my 50th class reunion just this past summer!) and received both my baccalaureate and master’s degrees from WSU; my doctorate in plant science is from the University of Idaho. I have been doing plant identifications for WSU since 1976 and for the University of Idaho since 1984. For my doctorate, I created a computerized expert system to identify plants which became my company XID Services. My expert system and databases have been used worldwide and have led me to lecture internationally, including chairing a session at the International Botanical Conference and speaking at The Smithsonian. I have taken over 22,000 pictures of invasive plants which are used to illustrate my interactive computer databases. I started Estate Services in 1985 when I was still working at the University of Idaho; guess I just didn’t have enough to do :). My wife Tena and I have two children. They both attended Pullman schools. My son Patrick works as a software engineer at Nike in Oregon. My daughter Hannah recently returned to the area, and is living in Moscow. She is following in my entrepreneurial footsteps, having started her own business, Clarity Pilates (https://www.clarityclassicalpilates.com), after teaching at a widely renowned Pilates studio in Seattle for five years. Wonderful, Richard. What a life! A regular Renaissance Man, if I may say so. And you’ve got a next generation entrepreneur in your family as well – your daughter. Good on her for getting her own Pilates outfit up and running. Speaking of entrepreneurs, what else can you tell us about Estate Services? What is the focus of the company? The focus of my business is helping people who are faced with trying to figure out what to do with large amounts of personal property, either from an estate or due to moving into smaller quarters. If contacted early enough in the process, I can relieve them of a tremendous amount of work, expense and stress, allowing them to focus their efforts strictly on the items they wish to retain. And where exactly did the inspiration to start an estate liquidation business as such come from? When my father moved to the farm I grew up on in 1935, he had gone through the Depression, was 23 years old, and that farm was the 23rd place he had lived. As a result, he had never had the chance to have many possessions. So after moving there, he never threw anything away (and he lived there until he was over 100)! When I was a kid, our Sunday recreation consisted of going to the dump, not to throw things away, but to see what we could find to bring home. It was, and is, deeply ingrained in me that, “To waste is a sin.” One of the tenants of Estate Services is my commitment to recycling and donating as a way of keeping things out of the landfill. My mother specialized in the history of costume (in this context, “costume” is the clothing of an era, not what is worn on stage.). The Leila Old Historic Costume Collection at the University of Idaho is named after her (https://www.uidaho.edu/cals/family-and-consumer-sciences/teaching-labs/leila-old-historic-costume-collection). These two influences, one of accumulation and the other of preservation, are what led me to establish Estate Services. Very sound reasoning indeed, Richard. Now you’ve got me thinking about my grandparents, rest in peace, who lived through the Great Depression and kept every tin can, bent nail, and chipped coffee mug that ever came their way – even though they had plenty of those things already and everything else under the sun! Tell us, Richard, what makes Estate Services stand out? Why should someone use Estate Services as opposed to just dealing with their stuff themselves? The tagline for my business is “Keep EVERYTHING you want. We deal with EVERYTHING else.” Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases people do not contact me until they have exhausted themselves dealing with the stuff they don’t want. In many instances the first thing people do while handling an estate or moving is order a dumpster and proceed to throw out anything/everything they do not want or recognize to have value. See some of the stories of what I have encountered at https://webuyandsellstuff.com/pages/updates.html. I have seen many houses that have sat vacant for months and even years while people dealt with the contents. Since they are paying taxes, insurance, and utilities, this is costing them hundreds of dollars each month. By leaving a place vacant the only thing they can gain, in addition to their monthly bills, is thieves, rodents, and broken pipes. If they would focus on just keeping the things they want and call Estate Services at the beginning of the process, they would save time, money, energy, and greatly reduce their stress. This would also allow the house to be sold much more quickly, alleviating many potential problems and expenses. You hear that, Pullman?! If you’re looking to liquidate large amounts of personal property, don’t haul, call! Call Richard at Estate Services, that is! And on that note, as a small business owner in Pullman, Washington, and as an individual, what kinds of people are you looking to network with, Richard? Estate attorneys, realtors, retirement homes – really anyone or any business that has interactions with people who could benefit from my services. What aspect of running Estate Services presents the greatest challenge to you? Ninety percent of the time when people call me they have already spent a vast amount of time and resources disposing of things that Estate Services would have taken care of for them. Frequently they are far past the point that my services are of any value. Several times a month I hear people say, “Gee, I wish I would have known about you when . . . “. I belong to a Facebook group for Professional Estate Liquidators, and I see that everyone in my business faces this same problem. An auctioneer put it very well when they said, “Most of the time I would like to trade them straight across, what we got in the sale for what they threw in the dump.” That has to be maddening when a situation like that unfolds and both you and your client come to realize just what has been laid to waste in the local dump – and not to mention the energy wasted by the clients themselves before calling you! On the flip side, there have to be positives to running the business as well. What aspect of running Estate Services gives you the greatest joy or would be the aspect that you consider to be the most rewarding? Being able to actually help people that are in a difficult and stressful situation. You can see some letters from my former clients here: https://webuyandsellstuff.com/pages/references.html. Wonderful, Richard! Yes, that feeling of knowing you were actually able to help someone out is priceless. It’s one of the primary reasons I’m in the service industry myself. And right along the same line of helping others, what would you say to someone who wanted to go down a track like yours or a similar one? You know, someone who wanted to get into running an estate liquidation business, or a similar kind of business in Pullman or small-town U.S.A. in general – any advice or words of wisdom that you would care to share? People often comment to me about how “fun” or “glamorous” my business is. They only see the sales after the vast majority of the work has been done and have no idea as to the reality of the situation. There is a lot of work to be done in any residence. But in addition to the nice clean places I encounter, I also work in some places where I deal with lots of dust, mold, mouse poop, hazardous chemicals, garbage, pet residue, etc. I still suffer some health effects from the first estate I worked on 36 years ago. Wow! Lingering health effects from the very first estate you worked on 36 years ago – and you stayed in business! You are performing a true service to humanity, Richard! It just shows that you can’t keep a person from doing what he or she truly loves and feels destined to do. Now let’s talk a little bit about life in Pullman in general and how you fit into the community here beyond your Estate Services business. Let’s be honest here: you are somewhat of a living legend in Pullman. A master of weed identification – even using your plant identification expertise to deliver speeches for the Smithsonian and to fight crime with the Spokane P.D. – you’ve also written books, taught classes, developed invasive weed identification software, you own a farm here in the area…..and the list of amazing things seems to never end! I feel like there is a treasure trove of stories inside your head. Despite the fact that I teach classes on ethnobotany (edible and useful plants) and the poisonous plants field trips for the Veterinary School at WSU, my particular field of interest and expertise is newly invasive weed species. We are operating in an informational vacuum when it comes to knowing what goes on around us as far as changes occurring in the local biota. While working at the University of Idaho, I averaged reporting nine new species of weeds per year in the states of Idaho and Washington. On average when a “new” weed species is reported and we do as much research as possible on its occurrence, we find that in reality the species has been here 30 years and occupies ten thousand acres. By this time complete eradication is impossible leading to ever increasing detrimental effects on agriculture and the environment. I love to teach and have given hundreds of lectures on plant identification hoping to expand the pool of people that can see what is going on around them. If newly invasive species were detected earlier, we would have a much better chance of alleviating their harmful effects. The experience I gained identifying poor (sometimes fragmentary) specimens while doing plant identifications for the two universities resulted in my cooperating with law enforcement on numerous forensics cases, the most famous being the Spokane serial killer case which lead to me being included in a Discovery Channel F2: Forensic Factor episode (Season 5, Episode 5) as well as the following article in The Spokesman Review: Fighting homicide through botany! However you can fight it best, right, Andreas?! Right, Richard! And how about any special Pullman stories you may have? The funny thing about living in Pullman is all the people who knew my parents and my children. I named my son after my father. As a result, I spent the first portion of my life being known as “Pat Old’s kid” and the second portion as “Pat Old’s Dad.” J Furthermore, when it comes down to running a business in Pullman, there is still a small town component to living here. A large portion of my business is a result of word-of-mouth from people I have known and worked with over the years. This kind of support is more valuable than any advertising I could do. Great stuff, Richard. Thank you very much for opening up to us today. It’s been a pleasure hearing about your Estate Services business along with other aspects of your multi-faceted life. Before we wrap things up here completely, how can people contact you who may be interested in learning more about Estate Services? Certainly, Andreas; and thanks again for reaching out and allowing me to tell my story here in the The Pullmanic. My contact information is: Richard Old 509-332-2989 [email protected] www.webuyandsellstuff.com And, as I’ve stressed over and over again – and will stress one more time here – I encourage people to contact me as early in their process as possible, for more information or if they have any questions! Thanks again, Richard, for your time today. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Richard Old: 5th Generation Whitman County Resident, Farm Owner, Estate Liquidation Expert, Weed Identification Specialist, Forensic Scientist, Teacher, Author, Entrepreneur, Jack-Of-All-Trades. Richard, the Pullman Community is truly blessed to have you as one of its cornerstone members. And remember, you read about it all at Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises!
Better life, better business, better you! Ideas, inspiration, opportunity, -Andreas Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises Washington State Certified K-8 Educator, K-12 International Education Consultant, Professional Coach, Proofreader/Editor, Affiliate Marketer, Popsicle Stick Crafter, Print-on-Demand Products Designer, and Webmaster www.cityofpullmanportal.com www.949crafts.com) Looking for a professional coach? I’m your man! Let’s chat. Last Updated: December 13, 2021 -Further Along The Journey- A personal post about where I currently find myself in the coaching world.... It’s Monday here again and it’s time for the Monday post here on the Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises blog! We are due for another Coaching is… post today, and this post is going to be a little review – a little update – on my own journey; my journey through running my own business, my journey through coaching, my journey through life!
Where to start? If you want some backstory as to who I am and how I got to the point I am at right now in life and with this current website you are now reading, these blog posts: Post 1 and Post 2, should be good places to start. Andreas – a would-be small business owner and private practitioner continually in the making, you could say. That’s more or less my life story in a nutshell. For our purposes today, let’s jump forward to October 18, 2021, to when I relaunched Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises. You see, during the Spring of 2021 I buckled down and got an ICF-approved coaching certificate. Taking the 8 months to go through the International Coaching Federation Approved Coach Specific Training Hours course – all 161 hours – was just what I needed at that point in my life. You see, with all the “wheel turning” I had been doing for years before that, I had finally slowly started to actually “up my game” just a few years prior, and the coaching course brought things to the whole next level still. After taking the coaching course, I see things clearer. It is easier for me to see what I am doing wrong. No, that doesn’t mean that I instantly became a perfect human being overnight! Nowhere close! However, my eyes were opened in ways that I didn’t necessarily think they would be. Essentially, half a year after graduating from the coaching course, these are the two major take-aways of mine as I continue on my own coaching journey. 1. Barking up the wrong tree: First up, I should mention that I graduated with my ACSTH Coaching Certificate right in the same month (June 2021) that my wife gave birth to our youngest son. The graduation milestone also occurred right before starting a new position at my current school, having been promoted from Deputy Curriculum Coordinator of our small international section, a job I had really enjoyed for the past three years, to full-on Academic Coordinator of our much larger English language teaching and learning department (both part of the same school, though). This new department, while it was still within the same school, was largely unknown to me in terms of scope, dynamic, and navigability. I had chosen to get my coaching certificate when I did, because I knew these changes were coming, and I knew there wouldn’t be much time – if any – for “extraneous” new learning type experiences outside of the new job and away from the baby for next year or so. Well, the new job, while GREAT in terms of being promoted and “climbing the ranks” and all that stuff, has definitely been eating me alive. My health has been suffering. Last year I was FINALLY in the process of getting super fit, had lost close to 50 pounds and was almost down to under 300 pounds for the first time in many years in my adult post-turning-30 life……well, the weight all came back, and I work almost constantly at the new position, largely, what feels like, turning my wheels. I am not complaining, as I knew this new job would be busy and come with its own challenges, but suffice it to say for now that there was a lot I didn’t bargain for that also came with it - a lot of last minute changes within the department, to be clear, that indirectly affected my position as Academic Coordinator GREATLY, like cheap shots thrown below the belt at the 11th hour right as I was stepping in to the position. Again, no complaints. I have given it an honest shot, and now I know that this particular job isn’t for me. Does that mean I am “giving up?” Hell no! It just means that this particular job at this particular school isn’t the right fit for me in particular at this very specific point in my life. With that, I will be leaving my current employer in less than 6 weeks and going back to becoming a regular Elementary teacher. I can’t believe it! And it was a tough decision to make! I thought of it as giving up at first and wouldn’t consider it; but now I see it as freeing my time up for other things – for health, for family, for personal pursuits. Something I cannot do at my current job. And, the new position, even with giving up all the administrative responsibilities, pays more! So, when I say “barking up the wrong tree,” I mean that I need to focus on what I really want both right now and in the long run. I have been pursuing school leadership for years now, but I also keep telling myself I want to run my own show and be my own boss…..to a certain degree, I can see clearly now that these can be (depending on the job), conflicting messages in some cases. If pursuing the school leadership is taking all your time away from your other business pursuits; well, then, you can’t create more time in the day, but you can reorganize it! 2. Taking the ICF Coaching Course has made me a better problem solver, administrator, and leader: You thought I was going to say “a better coach,” right? Ha, ha! So did I! The funny thing is, over these past 6 months since graduating from the course, I have become a much better leader and administrator, and I’m talking about the skills that have to do with the EXACT OPPOSITE of coaching! I mean a better administrator in the sense of when I have to tell people what to do. This is something I have been weak at for much of my life. Coaching is not about telling others what to do – actually coaching isn’t even about politely advising others what they should do! I have also gotten better at saying “No” at the right times (instead of the wrong times, like I use to), which has also greatly enhanced my leadership abilities. So how have I gotten better at these skills because of the coaching course, you ask? Bottom line: my confidence, decision-making skills, and communication skills have become honed and sharper. The coaching course has made me better at filtering “useful” and “extraneous” information. During a coaching session, coaches filter information like this all the time, but then use their findings in non-directive ways (i.e. to keep the coaching session on track, but not to advise or be directive towards the client). Getting better at this skills as the result of the coaching course has allowed me to use this skill outside of coaching, where I can use it in a very directive way as a school coordinator. The coaching course has also showed me what I want, what I think I want, and what I don’t want in life (or a least ways of thinking about these things), and how to help other people think about these things as well. Again, in a coaching context, the coach helps the coachee become of aware of these things all through a very non-directive manner. As an administrator with this skill, though, I have found that this can and DOES help GREATLY in making directive, decisive decisions. Even down to intentionality of asking coaching questions in a coaching sessions has made me a more intentional question asker in my role as coordinator. I feel that I can add to this list, but suffice to say that is this enough for now. In His grip, Better life, better business, better you! Ideas, inspiration, opportunity, -Andreas Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises Washington State Certified K-8 Educator, K-12 International Education Consultant, Professional Coach, Proofreader/Editor, Affiliate Marketer, Popsicle Stick Crafter, Print-on-Demand Products Designer, and Webmaster www.cityofpullmanportal.com www.949crafts.com) Looking for a professional coach? I’m your man! Let’s chat. Last Updated: 12/9/2021 Greetings and good day, Ladies and Gentlemen, Today it’s time for another Coordinate THAT! post. Today’s post is a guest post brought to us by Kimberly Herm, a civil engineer corps officer with the US Navy. She is also my sister. True to the recurring theme of an Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises “Coordinate THAT!” post, where I discuss team leadership and management through my eyes as a busy coordinator at a large private bilingual elementary school in East China, today Ms. Herm will be sharing some of her knowledge and insights on the topic of Leading Teams. But before we jump into today’s “main course,” speaking of the military, we just observed a very important military remembrance day in the US. The day actually wound up being an important day for all Allied Forces in World War II, in the end, changing the entire course of the war. The day I am talking about was, of course, the day the Japanese Imperial Navy Air Service attacked Pearl Harbor – December 7, 1941. This past December 7th, 2021, just a few days ago, marked the 80th anniversary of the attack. Speaking for my sister, too, both our grandfathers on both sides served in World War II. Though neither one was at Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack (nor ever even station out of Hawaii, for that matter), our maternal grandfather did serve in the Pacific. An electrician by training, his hope and dream during the war was to fly fighter jets; but, as the family stories go, he never even made it through flight training – though he tried – as he suffered from severe motion sickness. With his love of planes and flight, he wound up being assigned as an airplane mechanic stationed on the island of Biak, Indonesia, during the war. Immediately after the war, he was reassigned to Tokyo as a member of the First Wave of Allied Occupation of Japan. Time hurries on, and life goes on. Of course, I hold no animosity over the events of the past which have now been laid to rest, but the recent observance of the 80th Pearl Harbor Day made me think of Grandpa Staich, R.I.P. With that said – without any further adieu, I present you with Leading Team, by Kimberly Herm: ______________________ Leading Teams By: Kimberly Herm Teams are the back bone of all organizations. Teamwork enables innovation, builds morale, and produces results. But teamwork doesn’t just happen. Teams need a leader to provide guidance, instruction, and direction. Someone who establishes goals, develops milestones, and drives success. So, what is a team, and what makes a team leader? A team can be anything from an entire company lead by the CEO, to a small group of individuals assigned a specific task. Most people lead many different types of teams throughout their lifetime, and while they might look different, the steps for success remain the same: Have a plan. Know what goals you are trying to accomplish, how these goals fit into your organization’s mission, and your timeline for accomplishing these goals. Assemble your team. Select the right people to contribute at the right time. Ensure your team members understand the team’s goals and their individual roles in accomplishing them. Set expectations. While goals are what your team is trying to accomplish, expectations are behaviors you hold your team accountable to in order to enable meeting those goals. Clearly articulate these expectations to your team members. And, while you’re doing so, also clearly articulate what your team members can expect from you as their leader. Provide space. Within the established goals and expectations, provide your team members space to come up with ideas, to share their thoughts, to develop products, to discuss, to disagree, and to debate. Empower everyone to feel like they are heard and are valuable contributors to the team. Evaluate. Taking into account the expertise, ideas, and discussion generated by your team, evaluate the way ahead, develop a course of action to accomplish your team’s goals, establish milestones, and assign tasks. Follow-up. Check-in with your team together and individually to make sure they are on track to meet their milestones. Identify and remove obstacles that thwart progress. Re-evaluate to make sure your team’s efforts are in fact leading towards the desired outcome, and adjust as needed. Adjustments might occur at any of the steps above, as this is an iterative process. As adjustments are made, go back through all the steps to ensure alignment and transparency, keeping everyone on the same page, engaged and focused on successfully meeting the established goals. From a very young age, the importance of teamwork is instilled in us when as school-aged children we are assigned group projects and graded on our ability to work together to produce a cohesive product. Unfortunately, however, rarely are we taught how to actually lead teams and foster teamwork. Instead this is something we end up learning through trial and error that starts in childhood and develops throughout one’s lifetime. So whether it’s your first time leading a team, or your 100th, do not be afraid if you feel like you don’t have it all figured out – new projects and new teams will present new challenges, continuously facilitating your growth as a leader. If you follow the steps, solicit feedback, and seek out trusted mentors, you will learn as you go, developing and fine tuning your leadership style, cultivating effective followers eager to be a part of your high performing team!
______________________ Thanks, Kim!
Better life, better business, better you! Ideas, inspiration, opportunity, -Andreas Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises Washington State Certified K-8 Educator, K-12 International Education Consultant, Professional Coach, Proofreader/Editor, Affiliate Marketer, Popsicle Stick Crafter, Print-on-Demand Products Designer, and Webmaster www.cityofpullmanportal.com www.949crafts.com) Looking for a professional coach? I’m your man! Let’s chat. Last Updated: 12/6/2021 Greetings and good day, Ladies and Gents,
Andreas Gross here on the Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises blog. As someone who is both a professional coach and international educator who enjoys exploring all sorts of different avenues for making money, in today’s post we will explore six ways teachers can make money during school vacations. It is December already, and Christmas-New Year Break will be coming up sooner than we all think! Of course, like I mentioned last week, there are more holidays this time of year than just Christmas and New Year, and there are also way more than just six ways a teacher can make money during a school vacation – today’s selection is just the tip of the iceberg, really. May you be inspired... For teachers, the school vacations, although a great for some much-needed R&R (which definitely shouldn't be underrated!), can also be the perfect time to make some extra money to reduce debt and/or pad the bank account a little bit. Apart from the "mother lode" of Summer Break, we also have Fall Break (Thanksgiving Holiday), Winter Break (Christmas-New Year Holiday), and Spring Break. These are the big school breaks most in the U.S. are familiar with, at least. Schools in China get two to three weeks of for Chinese New Year break in January-February. Many schools in Latin America get one to two weeks off for Easter (Semana Santa – which means “Holy Week” in reference to the Palm Sunday-Easter Sunday Holy Week). Granted, all of these mentioned vacations are only a week or two (apart from Summer Break), but are still very nice breaks wherein a teacher can make some cash if he or she puts his/her mind to it and plans things out in advance! It’s December 6th right now...time to start getting those flyers and advertising blog posts ready, teachers, for your Winter Break Camp! Let’s examine what some of the options are for a teacher to make some money during vacations following a short-term seasonal business plan that can easily wrap up and end when the vacation does... 1. Tutoring Of course, this is the obvious one. Tutoring can bring in decent cash. You already have the connections through school, so marketing your tutoring business (and building a customer base) can be fairly easy – especially if you let parents know you offer tutoring a few weeks before vacations start. Of course, this is also something that can be carried on throughout the school year as well. With tutoring, just be careful with local laws and policies. For example, within the past 12 months of the time of this writing, in China a very stringent law was passed prohibiting tutoring from taking place during designated school holidays. This is a law at the national level. In other countries, such as the U.S., national laws are freer with regards to tutoring school children; however, some places – particularly local counties, towns, cities, and individual school districts or individual schools themselves – can have some very, very strict policies against tutoring any students! As an international educator, I have worked in places and schools in different parts of the globe under all sorts of different tutoring policies – from very strict Absolutely no tutoring of any kind allowed! policies, to the complete opposite end of the spectrum of We [the school] encourage tutoring and even open our own on-campus school library up to our own employees (teachers) so they can privately tutor on campus for-pay after school hours, as long as they are not tutoring their own students in their own subject matter! and everything in between. My only point here is: be dead-ass certain of the tutoring laws and policies in the jurisdiction you are operating in before you start advertising your services as a tutor! There may be no or relatively few limitations in place – there may be a ship load's worth and a tutoring side biz may not be viable or worth it at all! Know before you get started! On a final note regarding tutoring: be ethical. Whether or not the laws are free and open or tight and restrictive, I feel that as an educator myself I have to put this plug in here: never tutor your own students for pay in your own subject matter no matter if the law says it is ok or not. Even if laws and policies (or lack thereof) do allow for it, it is wrong! And I can almost guarantee you that you will never find a place in the world where this is actually legal or within school policy to do. Even in the freest, most liberal jurisdictions I have taught in with regards to tutoring laws and policies, a teacher tutoring his or her own students for pay in the subject matter he or she teaches is always something that I have found to be forbidden. 2. Babysitting If you enjoy working with young children, you can work a few hours each week babysitting. Your hourly pay will be less than if you opt for tutoring, but you can still make some respectable money babysitting. As a parent myself, I know how hard it can be to find reliable, trustworthy babysitters. A (good) parent isn’t going to leave his/her kid(s) with just anyone!!! Being a licensed teacher – especially if your license is in Early Childhood or Elementary – does a lot to automatically bump up your reputation in the world of babysitting and give you an advantage of being able to get regular sitting jobs more easily. 3. Camp Hold a vacation camp at a local park or even at your own home. Host a week-long camp – or even a 2, 3, or 4-dayer – and plan well-structured educational (and, of course, fun!) activities. Parents will love the break from their kids, especially knowing the kids will be well taken care of and they’ll be having a great time – and learning something, too! It’s probably a good idea to give your camp some kind of theme – Art in the Park Summer Camp, Learn English with Teacher Dan Summer Camp, Science and Tech Dog Dayz with Ms. Lesmana, etc...you get the idea. It’s an easier sell that just Summer Camp or Winter Camp...what’s that? What kind of “Winter Camp?” Speaking of “selling it,” this is also where legitimately having that “Certified Teacher” line item on your camp brochure will go a long way in boosting your public image and making the whole operation appear much more professional and worthy of paying for. After all, that’s what you want! Again, this is one where you will want to look into local laws and ordinances before proceeding with it full speed ahead! The last thing you want to have happen is to have seven or eight (or more) parents all dropping their kids off and picking them up at your house everyday around the same time and getting a call placed to the code enforcer’s office on the second or third day of a week-long camp you have planned by a grumpy neighbor because you are breaking some kind of ordinance regarding traffic flow and off-street parking in your “quiet residential neighborhood” which is understood to be “for quiet enjoyment within reason, but generally reserved for non-commercial use unless a specific variance is applied for and approved.” I put those items in quotes because I have looked into this in my hometown and I know how the city zoning code reads! Neighbors can be great – the grumpy ones can also be your worst nightmare! If you live out in the country on a farm or some kind of acreage, this is an easy one – you have plenty of off-street parking on private land already, plenty of space to plan activities and for kids to scream and run around in, and probably not any neighbors (or not any neighbors close enough who will be bothered by a group of kids running around on your farm, at least), but you might have other laws and policies to be aware in such a case. Or maybe not. The point is: be sure to check the laws and ordinances of the jurisdiction you are operating in well in advance so you know exactly what you’ll be up against in this realm! 4. Online Auctions and Marketplaces Take the opportunity with some time off from your “day job” at school to list all your extra treasures on eBay or Amazon, to name the two “big box” players (there are numerous online auction and marketplace sites these days), or even Craigslist or other local "Garage Sale/Flea Market" type groups in your area (if you’re ok with local-only sales). You’ll clean out your home of junk as well as bring in some well-deserved money. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can even list other people’s items and take a percentage for the effort. 5. Garage Sales Pretty much the same as the example of selling on Craigslist in #4 above, but you don’t list anything online...or maybe you do list one thing one online: you can post on Craigslist that you are having a Garage Sale and when it is. Be careful if you do such a thing, though, as this will mean listing your address (or at least some kind of detailed instructions for how to find your place) online. The morning of your garage sale you can also put local signs up around your neighborhood on street corners saying you are having a Garage Sale, the date and times your sale will be operating, and how to get to the sale. Make sure you don’t cover up any local signs that are already there or place your sign anywhere that says “Stick No Bill” or “No Advertising.” Remember, you are trying to make an extra buck; the last thing you want is to get slapped with hefty fines for obstructing a city road sign, for example. In this same spirit, please also be sure to go back and COLLECT YOUR SIGNS once the Garage Sale is over! Though it’s been several years since I’ve done one, I’ve run a number of Garage Sales...put the signs out in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon! It’s a must! Yes, the city notices and cares, and is probably A.O.K. with you having a one or two-off Garage Sale (a "one-off Garage Sale" type of thing is generally fully legal in most jurisdictions), but they are most certainly not ok with you leaving your signs strew around the neighborhood for days or weeks after your sale is over! A polite gesture that could help to get you in the good graces of the city would even be to specifically spell out somewhere on the bottom (or somewhere else clearly) of your signs This sign will be removed by: Time: _____________ Date: ________________ The time should be sometime on the same day that the sale finishes. Then, of course, stick to what you have spelled out and remove the signs by or before this time! Garage Sales can be great fun and they can bring in some decent side cash for what they are worth if you price your items to move and arrange things nicely (no “piles of junk” – not a good idea if you are actually trying to make some money!), but also don’t get carried away with Garage Saling. Many towns and cities have restrictions on how many times a year you may carry out a standard Garage Sale before you need to apply for a business license (and, more than likely, some kind of city variance if you plan to set up shop right in your home – which may or may not be approved – for such a permanent type of home sales operation). Good ol’ traditional Garage Saling is a classic American activity, and municipalities recognize that! In my hometown, for example, the city code states that you can legally hold six (6) Garage Sales on your residential property in one (1) calendar year. 6. Vacation Helper/Grounds Sitter Yes, this is the traditional “House Sitter” job you always hear your mother-in-law talking about on the phone to Aunt Thelma, but as we all know this can – and very often does – extend beyond just “house” sitting. Hence, the broader term I have given it here. Many families go on vacation during the summer, winter and other school holiday times. They need reliable people to house sit, water plants, get the mail, turn lights on and off to make the place look ‘well watched over,’ fire the car(s) up once or twice a week the keep the batteries alive and fluids cycling, and sometimes pet-sit as well. You’d be providing a very valuable service with minimal to medium effort on your part, and the job can actually be kind of fun and relaxing, if you’re into this kind of thing (which I am!). You could put some extra effort into this one and take care of all the grounds as well, such as mowing the grass in the summer time and running walk and driveway snow removal in the winter (if you live in such a climate). Grass mowing and snow removal are frequently jobs people/teams do in and of themselves! Of course, if you did these extra services you would charge more. And speaking of charging, let’s be honest here, house sitting is not going to get you rich! I’ve done a number of House Sitting gigs, particularly back in my college days (and loved it!), but we are talking a US$ 100-200 week job IF you are lucky – maybe US$ 200-250 a week on the very high end if it is a large property and you are doing routine grounds maintenance type jobs (i.e. mowing the grass/snow removal) as well. Like a kitchen garden micro farmer who sells at the local farmer’s market, house sitting is either 1) an extremely professional job carried out at the corporate level by trained and vetted professionals with tons of insurance to their name, etc. (and still low paid). Or it’s done by you – the friendly neighborhood teacher who is in good with and trusted by the community already. I mean, they trust their kids with you! These are just a few of the many ways you as an educator can make some extra money during your school breaks. In fact, as I sit here typing this sentence, three more ideas already come to mind, but we’ll save those (and more) for another day! These ideas here are just the tip of the iceberg, as previously stated; just some ideas to get you started. The two important take aways here are 1) that it does not necessarily have to take a large amount of cash to start your own sideline business and 2) you as an educator can run a part-time seasonal business while working a full-time job. In terms of capital investment, all of the business ideas discussed here today can be started with very minimal initial capital investment and, with the exception of selling online and garage sales, very minimal materials (selling on online auctions and garage saleing are done with stuff you already have that you are trying to get rid of, at least that’s how I presented them here...you can do them other ways, but again, we’ll save that for another time). In terms of advertising, you can start with word of mouth (free) and free community bulletin boards (both online and offline) and take it from there. You can get a 100 pack of business cards printed for 10 or 15 bucks or less (a minimal investment in the long run) a pass them out to interested people. In terms of the seasonality of these businesses, all the businesses discussed here today either fill a very specific need for a specific time of year (i.e. “Summer Camp” or “Spring Break Camp”) or can be both scaled and scheduled properly to run for a week or two or a month or two and then easily stop (or be scaled way back) when school comes back in session after vacation. For example, selling on online auctions is something you can do year-round, but as an educator you are most likely going to have more quality time to devote to this during school breaks. Hence, your school breaks can be when you really push high inventory through your account, and then during the school year you may just sell items online sporadically, if at all. Your eBay account will still be there next Christmas or Spring Break or Summer when you want to figuratively “dust it off” and start selling again. Stay curious! Better life, better business, better you! Ideas, inspiration, opportunity, -Andreas Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises Andreas Philip Gross: Washington State Certified K-8 Educator, K-12 International Education Consultant, Professional Coach, Proofreader/Editor, Affiliate Marketer, Popsicle Stick Crafter, Print-on-Demand Products Designer, and Webmaster Check out: www.cityofpullmanportal.com www.949crafts.com Looking for a professional coach? I’m your man! Let’s chat. What's been going on with the site lately? A recap of what ANDREAS PHILIP GROSS ENTERPRISES does, what Andreas has been up to, and a showcase of products and services offered through the site. (Yes, Andreas DOES get paid if you purchase something through this website! How's that for full disclosure exactly where it counts?) Last Updated: 12/2/2021 Hi Ladies and Gents, Andreas here again on the Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises blog. A very happy Thursday to you all. Wow! December is already here! As today is the first post in a new month, that means it’s time for the Monthly Round Up and Peek at the Month Ahead. Let’s take a quick look back at November and see what happened here at Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises. November was the new and improved Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises’ first full-month back online! Because of this, we got to go through our first full monthly cycle of blog posts. Although I missed having a November interview. There was a Coordinate THAT! post, two Coaching Is... posts, and several inspirational business posts. As laid out back in October when I came back on line, that is the general monthly collection of posts you can expect every month (and an interview, which will be coming in December). The Coordinate THAT! post for the month of November looked at What Makes a Team. The first Coaching Is... post started off with an introduction to and remembrance of Veterans Day (Armistice Day) and then jumped into what coaching is and what you can expect to happen when you hire me as your professional coach. The second Coaching Is... post of the month examined the GROW Model and how we can use it in our daily lives both personally and professional to help us set SMART, achievable, relevant goals. In terms of business inspiration, with the idea of The Feast of Plenty (Thanksgiving), I focused on shooting out some inspirational articles related to micro farming, and we also heard from guest posters Megan Cooper of Real Life Home and Julia Mitchell of Outspiration.net. With November behind us now, the harsh bite of Winter is here in the air. Christmas is coming! And not just Christmas, several holidays fall in the month of December – Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve...maybe there are even some I don't know about! With holidays come school vacation again and long weekends for many other companies and organizations. With that in mind, we’ll see some business idea posts about how teachers can make money over the holidays and why it’s so important for your leads to be hot! I’ll bust out my two Coaching Is... posts this month, we'll have an interview to look forward too, and, our Coordinate THAT! post this month will be a guest post from Lte. Kim Herm with the U.S. Navy talking about “Leading Teams.” And that is that! December will be a short month because of the Christmas-New Year week holiday, which I will spend away from this website. Expect no posts or other updates at that time. The final post this month will happen on Thursday, December 23rd, and then I’ll come back online after Winter Break on Monday, January 3rd. With all that said, let’s take a look at a few products you can find here on the Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises website! You can go directly to the webstore HERE! Looking for a name plate for your desk? Click here! How about a cool Entrepreneur t-shirt? Click here! Or a nice business card design for your new business venture! Click here! As a proud Zazzle Affiliate Program Member, I offer you all these things AND MORE through the Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises website. Go ahead and check out the Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises store HERE!
Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises also offers professional services. Are you looking for a professional coach? I coach educators and entrepreneurs – particularly educators who are interested in starting their own business and businesspeople who are interested in getting into education. Shoot me an email at [email protected] and let's discuss where you're coming from! Discovery Calls are free and always will be! Better life, better business, better you! Ideas, inspiration, opportunity, -Andreas Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises Andreas Philip Gross: Washington State Certified K-8 Educator, K-12 International Education Consultant, Professional Coach, Proofreader/Editor, Affiliate Marketer, Popsicle Stick Crafter, Print-on-Demand Products Designer, and Webmaster Other websites by Andreas Philip Gross Enterprises: www.cityofpullmanportal.com www.949crafts.com Looking for a professional coach? I’m your man! Let’s chat. |
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