AboutSteve Valiquette Expertise Service providers and customers alike can benefit from my experience in establishing Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Call Center Support Procedures, Issues Management, Special Event Procedures, Disaster/Recovery Planning, Catastrophic Event Management, and day-to-day Server Farm issues. I also have significant experience in project management, project lifecycle planning and product development. I can contribute to many "how-tos" like: how to build a website, how to develop project management procedures, How to get the most from your hosting provider and much more.
Experience
Past/Present clients Transitions Optical, IBM, Intel, Computer Sciences Corp, Imperial Chemical Industries, Victoria Secrets, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bank of America, SEARS, State Street Bank, Peterson's CollegeQuest, Mobil Oil Corporation, Sprint PCS, MCI/Worldcom, UPS.
Question I need help/advice/information.
I am seeking some help. I have started my own business.
I call it living life. I am a freelancer, currently I go to www.craigslist.com and post ads, about what I do, sample ad at the very very bottom of this email. Now I am getting some jobs, but some aren't paying me properly, that's not really an issue as long as jobs come in. I have so much to do where do I start, I want this to make me be able to support me my wife and daughter. I want to move into our own place, I type 120 words per minute, and I can do anything online. I get jobs, do them get paid. I need to get a business liscence(if I need one here in georgia), I need to get my name(living life) copywrighted, I need to get my georgia id, so I can open a bank account and wire it into paypal.
I need to get a 1-800 number online that accepts paypal, so I can recieve calls and get a voicemail for them, and be able to call long distance to enhance my business reach. I need to be able to find something online to allow me to do background checks on a VERY high level, I need all this with a way to be able to pay for it using paypal, but nothing accepts paypal, where do I go from here, how do I increase my current job influx, to be able to put more money back into my business to get all these basic things in place to move foward.
Any advice would help, review my ad, any advice on that or anything would help as well let meknow, thanks. Oh I was also wondering what I could do to bring in better, and more jobs, I am getting jobs here and there, some are for low pay, some are good some are bad, I need more jobs coming in, in general, what should I do, I know I am going to write down my goals and accomplish a few of them this week, no matter what, like getting that bank account, I will try to do all of this tomorrow, any other advice will help tremendously.
My name is West.
I am a freelancer/contractor/businessman and I own my own business called Living life.
With this business I hunt down Private individuals or companies that need things done and I do them for them or find someone else who can. I can either do or find someone else to do virtually anything you can imagine.
My primary 2 skills are typing 80-120 words per minute with perfect accuracy and the uncanny ability to write.
With these skills and more I can do anything listed below, and if there is something not listed let me know and I will tell you whether I can or not. I can do anything you can name, or I can find someone else to do it, jobs below, some notes at the bottom for people who are seeking my various services. I consider my business living life the end all of good business, meaning if there's anything you need done, chances are I can do it, if not then it's very easy for me to find someone for you who can, or enlist one of my contacts to do it even cheaper, I am currently building a contact list that will have various types of contacts in various types of field in every single state in America, then around the world in all countries, but building that takes time, until then I do the following, and anything else not listed, this is just to give you some rough ideas about different things I do.
1.Writing(novels, newspaper or magazine articles or reviews, any type of college papers, any type of high school papers, business papers, formal papers, personal papers, reviews, biographies, any type of work with any of the various genre's, poetry, songwriting, ecetera.
2. Proofreading
3. Editing
4. Internet research
5. General research
(I can find ANYTHING online.)
6. Compiling data
7. Specific research
8. Gathering info.
9. Getting your business more clientele.
10. Advertising for you
11. Marketing
12. Posting ads
13. Help you sale your car, house, other for a cut of the profits
14. Help you find a car, house, other for a certain price after you make the purchase.
15. Troubleshooting with you on anything computer, internet, and ecetera related.
16. Working with hardware
17. Working with software
18.working with computers, laptops, hardware, installing software ecetera, you can either ship it to me and pay for shipping back, or I can trouble shoot you through it, or find someone in your area who can, ecetera.
19.anything in word, excel(databases ecetera), PowerPoint(presentations, flyers, brochures, biz cards, ecetera) virtually any other type of program, if I don't know it I can learn it or find someone else who can do it instead. That also means I can do research and put the results down in a database or on word.
20. Creating you a resume following your guidelines or adding something new and updating your current resume.
21.help you find work if you need it matching your requirement, for a fee, ESPECIALLY if you are freelancing, I can help bring you in loads of jobs in your area for a percentage on each job you get that I bring in.
22.If you need something done in your area, manual labor, specialty jobs like street salesman, scientist, retired policemen, carpenters, painters, construction workers, ecetera then I can find someone in your area to do it, and receive a certain amount after you have hired them, they have finished the job, you have paid them and you are satisfied.
23. Transcribing
24. Dictating
25. ANY TYPE OF TYPING
Notes-I am VERY NEGOTIABLE with prices, it varies drastically from situation to situation, if you are afraid of my prices, negotiate with me and try me some and test my limits a little to see what kind of prices I offer before you don't respond out of fear that my prices might be too high. Also if there is something not listed let me know so we can see if something I can do or something I can get done. Contact me and let's talk and work something out and go through all the details.
Be VERY specific when telling me jobs, because the sooner I get ALL the information, the better I can prepare in advance to complete the job effectively and efficiently.
Answer West,
Your enquiry, like your ad, is too much! Let's try to focus on a couple of things. Once you've gotten those right, it's a foundation for future improvements.
There are two things that are critical at this point...
Getting a business bank account and focusing your solicitations. Having a bank account is perhaps one of the most basic components of running a business and the fact that you don't have one leads me to believe that you have had financial problems in the past. If you have to, setup a personal account that is tied to a secure savings account. For most banks, this is the only door open to high risk customers. It's not imparative that you have a business account. It IS important though, that you keep your business banking activities separate enough to track for tax purposes. Go ahead and register your "Living Life" as a fictional company name with the Secretary of State or dept of corporations in Georgia. This is usually a $50 fee.
Then with this in place, redo your ads. Focus -- and drop the desperation! Create multiple ads with each ad focusing on a specific decipline. Use language like: "High-quality work at reasonable prices". Don't mention that if you can do it, you'll find someone who can. If you can't do the work yourself, DO find someone who can -- but don't mention it to the customer. They just want to deal with someone who can get the job done. They really don't care if you get help to finish the job.
State that you're willing to provide estimates and your terms are a deposit of 25% at the start of the job and if its a short-term job, you'll invoice the rest upon completion.
These few steps will get you in a better position. The more structured you are in your practices, like deposits, information upfront, etc, the better your customers will appreciate you. If someone balks at giving you a deposit, then chances are they won't pay you in the end, either.
Good luck and please give me a good rating if you found this helpful!
