Rock the Vote: My New Site has Been Nominated for the CSS Design Awards

I am out-of-this-world excited to announce http://www.ShawnGraham.me (my new digital home) has been nominated for the CSS Design Awards—a contest recognizing the world’s greatest websites and an inspirational showcase celebrating emerging talent.

Check out my new site and, if you like what you see, show some love by casting your vote. Just click on the thumbnail of ShawnGraham.me to cast your official nod.

And if you would, please ask friends, family, your friends’ families and your family’s friends to vote as well. Winning this award would mean the world to Moly and I—over the past few months we put our heart and soul into bringing the site to life.

I hope you enjoy my new virtual digs as much as we enjoyed creating them.

I have a brand spanking new website.

For the past few months, I’ve been conspiring with a rock star designer on a complete overhaul of my virtual digs to coincide with the launch of my freelance career consulting and marketing communications business.

For the past few months, I’ve poured my heart and soul into every word of every page. And today I’m excited to announce that my new site is officially live and in living color.

So welcome! Please let me show you around…

I wanted my bio to be a little unique — I wanted to share my story: from the apple farm on which I grew up that was purchased by my grandparents in the early 1900s, to my first entrepreneurial venture at age 10 to today. Oh, and there are even a few pictures to look at.

Since consulting is at the heart of my business, I wanted to provide a menu of services for each of my focus areas brought to you in four snazzy buckets: career, higher education, entrepreneurs, and medium to large businesses. Along those same lines, I also thought it was important explain how I work with each client starting with our first conversation.

Next, you’ll find speaking which includes a real, live glamour shot from a recent presentation to a group of eager and highly-talented MBA students at Duquesne University. There you’ll also find an overview of presentation topics, a list of the organizations at which I’ve presented, and some good old-fashioned testimonials.

My blog includes a fresh new design, tighter categories, links to sites I like, and of course no blog would be complete without Twitter and RSS feeds. I also came up with a fancy new name—Creative Combustion.

The press page includes my media mentions in a few well-known publications and is meant to establish instant credibility as well as thoroughly impress my mom (pronounced “mum”).

Finally, I’ve added a fancy new contact form to make it easier for us to connect. So what are you waiting for? Drop me a line to let me know what you think of my new digs or so we can start to explore how we might be able to work together.

StartWire: Eliminating the resume “black hole”

No matter how hard you try to avoid it, at some point during your job search you will undoubtedly fall victim to the dreaded “resume black hole”—a mysterious place at hiring companies where hundreds of thousands of job applications go never to be seen or heard from again. And that means you, along with scores of other job seekers, will be left frustrated not knowing whether you’re still under consideration or if you were rejected weeks or even months earlier.

In my 10+ years working as a career consultant, I have to say there’s no more frustrating aspect for job seekers than not hearing back from companies to which they’ve applied—something StartWire, a new company focused on radically improving the job search, hopes to change.

“If you’re able to easily track an order from Amazon.com every step of the way, why shouldn’t you be able to do the same with your job applications?” asked Chris Forman, CEO of StartWire, as he was explaining the rationale behind his new business venture. And as luck would have it, the information needed to provide status updates to candidates is already available as part of the Applicant Tracking Software packages used by most large companies.

With StartWire’s new data aggregation engine, job seekers are able to view the status of their applications online through a customizable dashboard and/or receive daily text updates from a list of 1,000+ employers (a list they hope to grow to more than 4,000 employers within the next month).

According to Forman, initial response has been remarkable. “Companies need to start treating job seekers like customers—after all, the job search can be pretty darn emotional.”

Beyond their application update engine, they also offer an expanding assortment of tools designed to help you more effectively leverage your social networks to find a job.

Have you tried StartWire? If so, post a comment and share your thoughts on whether they’ve been able to make the “resume black hole” a little less dark.

How to establish pricing for your first startup

You’ve decided to start your own business. You identify your product, create a fancy new website, and you’re chomping at the bit to reach out to potential customers or clients. But before you do, you have to decide how much you are going to charge for your services.

Pricing starts with self-confidence.

Winning new business requires being able to convince a potential customer 1) that you have the expertise or skill set to help them solve a problem or fulfill a need and 2) your price is worth what you bring to the table. Simple, right? Not if you’ve never had that discussion before. You don’t have a book of business to call on as a point of reference. You think you’ll do a great job, but you don’t know. And that’s when you can find yourself grappling with self-doubt—wondering if your rates are too high or if you even should be charging someone at all. If you have what it takes to do the job, be confident in yourself and your abilities.

Don’t forget to keep the lights on.

Once you have your self-confidence dialed in, the next factor to consider is how much you need to make to stay afloat. How much is your time really worth? And at that rate, what’s the minimum number of clients you’ll have to secure each and every day to be able to keep a roof over your head, eat, and make a living? This part of the pricing equation is critically important—if you’re running on thin margins, you’re going to need a lot of customers. If you’re running on high margins, you’re going to need a smaller group of customers who are willing to pay what you’re asking.

A little benchmarking never hurts.

When you’re starting a new business, it’s always hard to tell what the market will bear. You don’t want to overcharge for your products and services and price yourself out but you also don’t want to undercharge and leave money on the table. Big companies do this all of the time—that’s why you don’t see any national fast food chains with a $3.00 “value” menu. They all seem to hoover right around $1.00 (give or take a penny). So look around. Find a few potential competitors and try to find out what they’re charging for similar products or services.

Customers vote with their wallet (or debit card).

Every time you speaking with a potential customer about pricing, you’ll gain invaluable feedback. Listen to what they say—how they react when you mention a price. Do they wince? Does their jaw drop? Do they roll their eyes? If they do, you might be a tad high. And when that happens, you have to either decide to drop your prices, focus on a different customer segment, or do a better job of convincing them of the value of your product or service.

Calibrating pricing can take time.

Don’t expect to have everything completely hammered out from day one. If you put some thought into your pricing and benchmark against your key competitors, you should already be in the pricing ballpark. But you still might find you need to tweak the way you package and price your goods and services…and that’s okay. The more your business grows, the more data you’ll have on whether your pricing strategy is working or it isn’t.

So what do you think? Share your comments.

New FedEx Office more small business friendly

A few months ago, I ran into my local FedEx Kinko’s only to find myself in the middle of a major construction zone complete with guys on ladders, missing ceiling tile, and torn up carpet—a total mess and totally disruptive for business.

Smash cut to today. FedEx Kinko’s is now FedEx Office. Rebranding and remodeling are complete and, I have to say, I really like what they’ve done with the place and think the remodel makes the store much more small business friendly.

The first thing I noticed was new laminate flooring that helps to create a welcoming, clearly defined path straight from the front door to the service counter (think airport runway)—a great example of using flooring (and your floor plan) to influence customer flow.

Throughout the store, they also used paint schemes that not only add some punch to what had been overly drab “institutional beige” walls but also help small business customers quickly navigate the store based on their needs (shipping, signage, copying, etc.).

Along the perimeter near their large outside windows, they created individual work stations where you can either connect your laptop or rent time on one of theirs to print or scan documents—a nice touch and a useful work space for entrepreneurs on the go.

Beyond the major remodel, they’ve also added a few new features including a smartphone app that allows you to print to many FedEx Office locations—definitely something that could come in handy when you’re traveling.

If you’re a small business owner and you’re not at the point where you can justify buying a fancy “all in one” laser printer, or you’re an entrepreneur looking for a little space to set up camp in a pinch, you might want to check out your local FedEx Office.