Monday, February 24, 2020

5 First Aid Tips for Care Givers or Nannies


If you work as a nanny or a caregiver, remember you are responsible for the safety of the person you are taking care of.  There are times you should call 911 for help, of course.  But the following tips will help you in circumstances you can control.


          Bloody Nose  


If the person in your care is a nose-picker, a bloody nose may be the result.  Since the care of this person is your responsibility, you should try the following at first.


·      Stop the Bleeding by:

1.    Instructing the person to sit up straight.  He or she should lean a little forward.  You should never have the person lie down.  Avoid having the person lean his or her head back.

2.    Using your thumb and index finger, pinch the person’s nose.  You should pinch the face below the nose and also apply pressure for five minutes.

3.    Repeat this action until the bleeding stops.  If the bleeding doesn’t stop in ten minutes, call for medical help.


Call for medical help:

1.    If the person is elderly and taking a blood thinner or aspirin

2.    If the person is having difficulty breathing due to the amount of bleeding

3.    If the nosebleed occurred right after he or she hit their head



   
    All Care Givers Should Know CPR


This is true especially if you’re taking care of a baby.  You should know how to either apply CPR or have a reference for how.  Of course, any time a child stops breathing, you should call 911.  For a good reference for how to apply CPR to a child, click here.  Print the reference and have it available at all times.



Know What to do If an Infant or Small Child is Choking  


When babysitting, you should know what to do when an infant or baby is choking.  For information, click here.  Print the reference and always have it available.


   
Always Have Medical Information of the Person 


When there is an emergency, the response personnel will expect you to have the medical information of the person you’re taking care of.  Don’t wait for an emergency.  Always have the medical information of the person you’re taking care of available.


Medical jewelry listing acute conditions may be a good idea for some persons you are caring for.  




      Keep Communication Open with Family Members  


Whether you’re babysitting or taking care of an adult, it’s always a good idea to communicate with family members.  If you can’t find something or the person you are taking care of is upset, family members can help.  If you are concerned about a possible problem, communicate your concerns with family members.  By communicating concerns, the family members will know you care.

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Profit First by Mike Michalowicz




Are you a member of the construction industry?  If so, this is a book you must read.  Actually, if you're an owner of any kind of small business, this book has many tips that will help you to make a profit.  The tips will help you make your business a money-making monster. 
Most people today believe if you deduct your expenses from your sales, you have a profit.  However, Mike Michalowicz points out in his book that thinking that will only lead to a smaller profit.  If you want a large profit, you must use the profit first method.     

Reduce Your Operating Costs

All too often, we think our expenses such as salaries, materials, and utilities are unavoidable.  However, that kind of thinking will only lead to a smaller profit.  If we set aside a percentage of our profit first and limit our expenses, our profit will automatically be larger. 
If you reduce your operating costs, your goal of a bigger profit will become possible.  By reducing your operating costs, you will accumulate more money.  The idea is to earn more money every year than you spend.  



How to Reduce Your Operating Costs


·       Shop for the best price for materials.
·       If you can buy something cheaper by buying used, buy used.
·       Negotiate prices whenever possible.
·       Avoid major purchases whenever possible.
·       Seek free options when possible.
·       Market on the internet.
·       Limit landline phone use.
·       Take advantage of tax write-offs.
·       Save electricity when possible.
·       Go paperless.
·       Outsource some business necessities.
·       Use technology to be more efficient.




Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Earn Six-Figures with These Three Side Hustles

So many of us need a side-hustle.  Why?
Sure, our full-time job allows us to feed our family, buy those every-day necessities, and pay the rent.  However, there are long-term objectives we must fund such as having children, college tuition for our children, buying a house, and yearly vacations.

Where do we get the money for those? It would be nice to get a promotion or increase our yearly income with a new higher-paying job.

These opportunities for raising our incomes aren’t easy to find.  Perhaps, a side-hustle is what you need.  What is a side-hustle?  Simply put, a side-hustle is a second job.  They will give you a second income, but they need to be more than a second job.  Let’s look at three side-hustles that will give you the extra cash to get rid of some of your debt or save more for your future.

Online Side-Hustles 

Do you have a computer?  If so, going online is the place to go.  Here are several suggestions for online side-hustles.

#1: Crafts
I, for one, love to crochet.   In the past, I’ve crocheted ponchos, hats, scarves, and toilet paper covers.  You may prefer knitting, sewing, or making jewelry.  Whatever is your fancy, you can sell it online.
One way to get started is to look online for free or low-cost patterns.  For example, I’ve crocheted ponchos and other items that I’ve gotten instructions for online for free.

According to Entrepreneur, you can sell your product on Etsy.  For a cost of only 20 cents, you can list your product on this site with five photos for as long as four months.  However, Etsy does require a 2.5 percent commission when you sell your product.  Therefore, you should work that into your price for the item.

#2: Be an Online Tutor
To be qualified for this opportunity, you should have a college degree. The subjects you can teach maybe English, social studies, science, or math. 
· A site you might try is Tutor.com.  At Tutor.com, you will earn approximately $10 to $14 per hour. The amount you earn will depend upon the subject you tutor and the number of hours.
· Another online site to look into is Smart Thinking At the Smart Thinking site, you simply click on “See job opportunities” and you will see a list of jobs you can apply to.
· At VIPKid, you can earn $22 an hour teaching English online.
· If you would like to earn money tutoring math students for subjects such as Calculus, Algebra, Trigonometry, or Geometry, you should try the Skooli site. When you get to the Skooli site, go down to the end of the page and click on “For tutors” under “ONLINE TUTORING”. You will find all the information needed to apply for tutoring at that site.

#3: Write Online
Many sites hire people to write online. 
Sometimes, you write articles as a ghostwriter such as the Textbroker site. When you write as a ghostwriter, the person buying your article usually publishes it and your name is not used as a byline for the article.
A site you might write for is Demand Media Studios . The assignment rate of pay at this site ranges from $15 to $100. After going to the Demand site, you will see a list of topics to choose under “Freelance Writing Section”. You can choose a topic to write about. However, you must first be approved by the Demand Studios site. 

Conclusion
Since a side-hustle is usually done by someone who has a full-time job besides the hustle, online job types are perfect. That is because you can make your hours based on your availability.

Understanding Next Generation RPO


Whether you’re looking to staff your own small business or a human resource worker at a major corporation, should you try RPO, recruitment process outsourcing?  What is RPO?  To understand this hiring process, consider the meaning of the word “outsourcing”.  With RPO, you would use outside experts to do your hiring.  Acting as a service provider, they would assume the plan, management, and responsibility of your recruitment. 
If you want to recruit the right people for the right position at the right time, you should consider using an RPO.
A company may outsource the job of filling one or more positions.  Recruiting to fill a position requires the company providing the service to thoroughly investigate the turnover rate of the position and the amount of time it has taken to fill the position in the past.

Usually, once an RPO company has filled a position, the company requiring help in filling the position will continue to be a client for years.  They will need continued assistance to both fill positions and evaluate the performance of employees.  Recruitment for one position is rarely done with just the one position.  Improving recruiting processes may be needed by a company.  

  • Cost reduced. – RPO can decrease the cost of each hire by over 50 percent.  This is the result of an outside agency using its resources.  They will also streamline the methods and share the risk.   
  • Time to hire reduced. – Open vacancies can be filled in about 40 percent less time limiting your organization’s productivity less.  According to Outsourcing Insights, delays will be eliminated and there will be no duplication of tasks.   
  • Fewer suppliers need to be managed. – By supplementing hiring, you can reduce costs and raise both efficiency and quality.
  • The quality of hires improved. – Higher quality of hires will improve your organization’s productivity. 
  • Improve your organization’s ability to meet its changing needs.  A company’s hiring can go up or down to meet its changing needs. 
  • Make more informed hiring decisions and forecast future hiring needs better.
  • Outsourcing recruitment allows a company to access to additional candidates.
  • You can extend your team with RPO’s experienced recruiters.

  • End-to-end solution – This type of RPO solution’s focus may be on one specific business division, a family role such as sales, or it may cover all an enterprise’s hiring.  It may be used across the globe, in a region, country, or single market.
  • Project RPO solution – With this type of RPO, a company may fill a certain position within a specific time frame.  The company would hire a team of professionals with expert talent.  Examples might include a new sales team, a recruitment to fill back-logs, an unexpected demand for hiring, sourcing, or pooling of talent.
  • On-demand Recruiter solution – This type is a lot like the Project RPO because it fills a need for a special project or a specific time.  Instead, a small number of outsourced recruiters will join your team based on their talent.
  • Outsourced provider – In order to build a high-quality talent pool when needed, you can use an outsourced provider.

With BPO, a third-party expert is used to save in cost, raise products’ quality, make a company more efficient, and improve the services of a company and its scalability as well.  This is done by outsourcing the management of the business functions to the third party.  The third party is also responsible for the performance, output, and hiring of the company.
Outsourcing examples include:
  • Accounts Receivable and Payable
  • Support of a Help Desk
  • Information Technology’s Development of Applications
  • Information Technology’s Support of Infrastructure
The RPO’s third party places people into a company’s organization, but the performance of the people is not managed by them.

Similar to Business Process Outsources, the cost is less, and the quality, efficiency, and scalability are better with HRO.
HRO Examples:
  • Payroll is Outsourced
  • Training
  • There is an Employee Assistance Program
  • Recruitment Process is Outsourced (RPO)
As you can see above, RPO is within HRO, and it is responsible for a specific service category, unlike BPO.

Conclusion
You may now be thinking, “Why spend additional money to hire workers?  Yes, hiring an RPO company may seem like an unnecessary expense.  However, if you look at the advantages of using an RPO company, you will realize that a one time expense will be worth the savings you will realize.  In the long run, you will both save money and the people you hire will be better qualified to perform.

SEO Content Writing Service



Don’t you want lots of people to visit your website on the internet?  Sure, you do.  This is important if your website’s purpose is to sell or get leads to sell.  So how can you accomplish this?  By writing with SEO, known as Search Engine Optimization content, is the way to go.  If the content of your website is optimized properly, your website will rank high on search engines such as Google and, as a result, attract lots of search engine traffic.

Approaches to Apply SEO Content to Your Website

  • Keywords: If you’re marketing items, you certainly want one of the search engines such as Google to lead prospective customers to your website.  Therefore, it’s a good idea for you to use a keyword in your writing.  However, you should research possible keywords before you write.
You may want to find additional keywords.  One reason to find additional keywords is it may help you to rank better in search engines.  First, through research, you may find a niche keyword.  After finding a niche keyword, you may be able to find similar keywords to your niche keyword.  You should use keyword suggestion tools such as Google Ads Keyword Planner to find keyword suggestions of words that are similar.  Another approach you can try is to use Google Autocomplete.  The Google Autocomplete website uses an algorithm to predict search queries related to your keyword.  The site offers words and phrases related to your keyword in a drop-down list.
  • Optimize Keywords for SEO: Many people still believe their keyword should be placed in certain locations on their marketing website.  They’re not aware of it, but they’re behind the times.  They think that every blog or article they write should have their keyword in the title or the first subhead.  However, where they put their keywords is still important to their page’s SEO.  When writing your website’s content, you should consider following these guidelines:
    • Your Title Tag: Your title tag should include a keyword because search engines use the title tags to evaluate your website.  If your title tag is both captivating and effective, it will send traffic to your website.  Your title tag also acts as a link to your website.
    • Subheads Create SEO Value: Readers of your website are scanners for the most part.  Your website’s title will get your traffic, but how long will they stay?  According to the Nielson Norman Group, they will only stay for about 10 to 20 seconds.  That’s not very long.  Include a keyword that fits and you may get them to stay longer.
    • Your Opening Paragraph: Your primary keyword should be included early.  It doesn’t have to be in the opening paragraph, but you can put it there if you wish.

When visitors arrive at your website, they expect to quickly find what they’re looking for by reading your site.  Your navigation being clear will certainly make it easy for them to do this.   Besides that, they will be thrilled if your theme matches up with their search phrase.  Visitors will spend lots of time on your website if you logically group your information.  
Another way to organize your content to rank high on search engines such as Google is to use the silo method.  The silo method is a method that you use to group related content according to the keyword-based topics or your website’s themes.  
  • Your URL: Your address on the internet is the URL of your website.   To get started, you must write your URL.  The standard structure of a URL for your website is as follows: https://www.yourwebsitename.com.
    • If your website is made up of several pages, each page must have its individual URL.  However, each page’s URL should indicate what’s the topic of that page.  For instance, the URL for an individual page should indicate what the website's page is about.  
  • Images Can Boost Your SEO:  Besides adding to the overall experience of users, you can boost your SEO with images by including keywords in the image file name.  Also, the alternate text of the image should also include keywords.  



Tuesday, February 4, 2020

HTTP Status Codes

 

Are you confused and frustrated?  Is your answer, "Yes".  I suspect you were using the web, and you thought you used the correct name of the site you were seeking.  However, instead of the site you were seeking a box popped up and told you, "404 Page not found." 

Let me explain the problem.  What you received was an explanation of what happened.  The "404" was an HTTP code.  When you enter an incorrect site name, you automatically receive a status code from the server.  A code number informs you every time you make a request of the server.  If there wasn't a problem, you would receive the number "HTTP 200," which means everything is O.K. 

  1. The 1xx Requests: Informational
  2. The 2xx Requests: Successful
  3. The 3xx Group: Redirects
  4. The 4xx Group: Client or Your Errors
  5. The 5xx Group: Server Errors

When the server sends you an informational response, it is telling you your request is not only received but also understood.  Because the processing of your request still must continue, this response to your request is considered provisional.  You are being notified that you must wait for a final response to your request. 
  • 100 Status Code – Continue: A 100-status code tells you a part of your request was received.  Since there were no problems, you should now send the rest of your request.
  • 101 Status Code – Protocols Switching: Written as HTTP 1.1, this status code is a type of protocol used to transfer data on the web.  A 101-status code tells you the server is changing the protocol that is in the “Upgrade” header.  After the protocol is changed, the server will return it to you, the client.


  • 200 Status Code – Everything is OK: This status code is the most common status code you will get from the server.  The message sent to you from the server is that the server has received and understood your request and it is being processed.
  • 201 Status Code – Created Resource: This status code tells you that your request was successful.  Therefore, the server is creating a resource or new page.
  • 202 Status Code – Accepted and Processing: This status code tells you the not only has the server received and understood your request, but it will also process it.  However, the server may not immediately process it.
  • 203 Status Code – Information from Third Party: The server is telling you that your request was received and understood, but the information sent to you wasn’t from the original server.  Instead, it is from a third party.
  • 204 Status Code – No Content Needed: This status code is telling you that your request was both received and understood.  However, to send you any data is not necessary since there isn’t any need.

  • 300 to 303 Status Codes Resource Moved: These status codes tell you that the resource you requested has been moved to a new location either temporarily or permanently.  If you received a 300-status code, you will receive a list of possible locations. The server tells you the new URL that you should use when seeking this resource again.

  • 400 Status Code – Bad Syntax: This status code tells you the server couldn’t understand your request.
  • 401 Status Code – Lack of Authorization: This status quote informs you that before you can access this resource, the server must authorize you.
  • 404 Status Code – Not Found: This status code tells you the server didn’t find your resource at the URL you requested.  This status code is well known by most people who use the web.


  • 500 to 505 Status Codes – Server Error: This status code tells you it couldn’t complete your request because it stumbled upon something it didn’t expect.

Conclusion:  You may not agree with me at this point, but I do believe the HTTP status codes do make your use of the web easier. 
If your request is granted by the server, you were correct in your actions.  The status codes in the 200s automatically inform you that what you did was “successful”.

However, there are times the server receives your request and understands it but isn’t able to grant your request due to the resource moving.  A status code in the 300s tells you this is the case.

If you’re the problem because you made an error with your request, you’ll receive a status code in the 400s.  You may not believe it, but there are times the server blunders, and you would receive a status code in the 500s.
You now know the "why" of almost every HTTP status code.  Don't you feel like a genius?!