Say What?! Free Stuff

Staying with the theme from my previous blog entry ‘goals for the year’ – saving money is another New Year's resolution list toper. I am launching “Say What?! Free Stuff” a website of free and useful stuff. The website is for entrepreneurs, small business owners and anyone looking for resources that will make reaching your life, career, and business goals easier to attain for the low cost of FREE. Visit the Say What?! Free Stuff website, tell us what you think and inform us of free stuff you find or comment on the free stuff we mention.

As an avid reader I am currently absorbing books about life, money, living my passion and living on next to nothing. I am still learning but in the process I found a new passion…free stuff. Free stuff must be useful and worth our valuable time. I do believe time is money. Free Stuff must allow us to create, save, do, learn or change for the better. I am on an insatiable hunt for free stuff. Here is some free stuff I found that will help you save money, start and run your business better this year. An online spending tracking application, open source word processing software, and fun things to do all for FREE.

You can follow my journey to launch Say What?! Free Stuff using free resources, in the monthly column in Small Bytes magazine, the journal section of the Say What?! Free Stuff website or by subscribing to the Say What?! Free Stuff newsletter.

Your Money

Mint.com makes keeping your money in your pocket fun and interesting. They provide colorful charts to tell you exactly where you are spending and automatically create a budget, which you can customize, based on your spending habits. The upside is you can get a better handle on your money. The downside is you can’t hide from spending too much on designer shoes and technology gadgets. Because it is web based you can view your spending on your Smartphone or computer with Internet access. All for the low cost of free.

Free Software

Open source software is software by a community of technology specialists who volunteer their talent and time to create free high quality software. Writer is the free word processing software from OpenOffice.org. Writer allows you to create documents with many of the features and formatting Microsoft Word including templates for business plans. There are additional steps required to ensure Microsoft Word users can open a document created in Writer. Click here for our video and printable instructions by Hurston + Hughes. You can download Writer and the Open Office software suite free at http://why.openoffice.org/.

Fun & Free

Free movie rental from Redbox when you register at http://www.redbox.com/

Play games and keep in touch with friends far away games.yahoo.com

Forgot to send a birthday, thank you, or I love you card send a free e-card http://www.hallmark.com/

Communication is free. Send me an email at sheri@hurstonhughes.com

Disclosure: I am a Microsoft Certified Trainer and a volunteer with OpenOffice.org.

New Year - New Job - New You

It is a new year and you resolve to get a better job, new job or a different job. Job change is New Year’s resolution list toper. Here are some tips and templates that will guide you to successfully keep your resolution.

Prepare Resume
You will need to create several types of resumes for your job search in today’s market. One resume for print and text-based email in addition to an online ready resume. Your “online” ready resume should easily transfer into the text fields on job application sites or a HTML format for the tech savvy job seeker. Be sure to focus on content first. Be sure to check spelling, grammar, and information accuracy. Monster.com has sample resumes.
Microsoft Word contains some easy to use resume templates.

Get Organized
Use software like the calendar feature in Microsoft Outlook and Apple’s Entourage or web based Google Calendar to organize your appointments, follow-up correspondence, and skills training. Microsoft Outlook is popular in large organizations however Google Calendar is free and allows you to gain important scheduling and planning skills essential to almost all jobs and knowledge that is transferable to Outlook.

Build Network
Get the message out that you are looking for a new career opportunity. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are excellent ways to market your skills and get the word out that you are in the market for a new job. Remember to keep your information on these sites current and professional. Some employer’s check out a potential employee’s background and image on these social media sites.

Research
Just as potential employer’s look at you, you should spend time on the potential employer’s official company website. Look at the letter from the CEO inside the current annual report. Also checkout the company and employee profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and the Wall Street Journal or other trade specific publications. This research will give you a “feel” for the company culture, leadership and place in the market.

Learn Something
Take a class online or in a classroom. Many local non-profit organizations offer courses in a wide range of subjects. Apple's iTunes U offers an array of courses online for learning on the go.

Subscribe to a blog like this one, read it and provide your feedback. If you have questions or opinions, it's likely someone has the same questions and perspective. We want to hear from you.

Try our online tutorials and projects. Mentally stimulating activity keeps the mind in shape and staves off depression.

Quote to Note
“Life is like a bicycle, to keep your balance you must keep on moving” – Albert Einstein