Not only are you selling your product or service, you’re marketing it, doing the accounting, paying the bills, answering the phones, designing and updating your website and preparing and sending out mail. And, certainly for your own business, you can easily think of ten or fifteen additional tasks to be done in addition to these. In the early days of your start-up, many if not most of these tasks seem doable. But, once you’ve started making sales or the public interest in your business begins to grow, wearing all the hats becomes impossible, frustrating, and highly stressful.

One quick and easy solution is to hire an intern – a college intern. During my corporate career in finance, I made use of many college interns over the years. Not only were they diligent, responsible, and some of the best employees, they were eager to learn and to contribute ideas. My interns were reliable and many of them hired on as regular employees after graduating from college.

With more and more college students choosing to start their own businesses rather than working for others, having a first-hand opportunity to work in a business start-up, like yours, might be just what they’re looking for. So how can you find an intern that will be just right for you and your business?

Simples Steps to Hiring an Intern

1. What do I need to do? What can the intern do? One of the first things to do is to take a clean sheet of paper and begin writing down all the tasks that you perform in your business – and I mean everything. Next, decide what tasks you absolutely need to do yourself and which ones might be assigned to an intern. Typical tasks that you do might include:

• inputting business card data into your database

• contacting local chambers of commerce and ordering mailing lists

• marketing mailings – printing letters, stuffing envelopes, putting
  Unique Selling Proposition - Know Yourself and Stand Out
  As a business coach I work with a wide variety of people. My clients come from diverse backgrounds, have a multitude of talents, operate in a broad range of business models, and talk about their successes very differently. It is from these distinctions that powerful strategies are born.The reasons that professionals choose to work with a business coach stem from an assorted array of issues that include: a lack of happiness at work, a frustration in trying to motivate others, and a struggle to attract new business. While individual and organizational challenges come in many shapes and sizes, the key to solving them often lies in the ability to identify and address uniqueness.THE BEAUTY OF UNIQUENESSWhen you understand yourself, it becomes much easier to find or create the circumstances to make yourself happy. When a leader in an organization has an in-depth understanding about the people on their team, it becomes easier to build on strengths. Armed with the knowledge of what makes you or your organization unique, you can develop a plan that leverages, and then communicates, how you are different. In business, a differentiated
  g the bills, answering the phones, designing and updating your website and preparing and sending out mail. And, certainly for your own business, you can easily think of ten or fifteen additional tasks to be done in addition to these. In the early days of your start-up, many if not most of these tasks seem doable. But, once you’ve started making sales or the public interest in your business begins to grow, wearing all the hats becomes impossible, frustrating, and highly stressful.

  One quick and easy solution is to hire an intern – a college intern. During my corporate career in finance, I made use of many college interns over the years. Not only were they diligent, responsible, and some of the best employees, they were eager to learn and to contribute ideas. My interns were reliable and many of them hired on as regular employees after graduating from college.

  With more and more college students choosing to start their own businesses rather than working for others, having a first-hand opportunity to work in a business start-up, like yours, might be just what they’re looking for. So how can you find an intern that will be just right for you and your business?

  Simples Steps to Hiring an Intern

  1. What do I need to do? What can the intern do? One of the first things to do is to take a clean sheet of paper and begin writing down all the tasks that you perform in your business – and I mean everything. Next, decide what tasks you absolutely need to do yourself and which ones might be assigned to an intern. Typical tasks that you do might include:

  • inputting business card data into your database

  • contacting local chambers of commerce and ordering mailing lists

  • marketing mailings – printing letters, stuffing envelopes, puttin
    Career Advice: You're Fired - Get Over It
    Anyone can get the axe at any time. It happens to good people and bad ones...hard workers as well as slackers."We feel you would be happier working for another company.""Sorry, business is falling off. We no longer need your services.""Operations are being consolidated in Mexico. The Bedrock Plant will be closed Feb. 1."Sugar-coated or not, the message is the same: You're fired! You've been sacked. You are out of a job!13 Steps To Survive and ProsperTherefore, it makes common sense to know what to do to survive and prosper should you ever get the dreaded "pink slip".1. Keep in mind that in the current environment the idea of womb to tomb job security is as dead as a hammer. Be loyal to your present employer, but never develop a romance with the organization. Know that the relationship can end at any time. There is enough suffering in store for anyone over the loss of a job without adding the pains of an unrequited love. Look out for yourself first.2. Be alert and well informed at all times about the outlook for your employer and your job. If you know things are going down the drain, begin a
    ustrating, and highly stressful.

    One quick and easy solution is to hire an intern – a college intern. During my corporate career in finance, I made use of many college interns over the years. Not only were they diligent, responsible, and some of the best employees, they were eager to learn and to contribute ideas. My interns were reliable and many of them hired on as regular employees after graduating from college.

    With more and more college students choosing to start their own businesses rather than working for others, having a first-hand opportunity to work in a business start-up, like yours, might be just what they’re looking for. So how can you find an intern that will be just right for you and your business?

    Simples Steps to Hiring an Intern

    1. What do I need to do? What can the intern do? One of the first things to do is to take a clean sheet of paper and begin writing down all the tasks that you perform in your business – and I mean everything. Next, decide what tasks you absolutely need to do yourself and which ones might be assigned to an intern. Typical tasks that you do might include:

    • inputting business card data into your database

    • contacting local chambers of commerce and ordering mailing lists

    • marketing mailings – printing letters, stuffing envelopes, puttin
      You Can't Buy Dreams: Dreams are Not for Sale
      The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle. Anais Nin.We cannot think first and act afterward. From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought. Alfred North WhiteheadWe all want to become rich. Well, at least most of us who get into some kind of business do. So, what do we do? Do we just open up a shop or internet business and the money flows in like water. Only for the extremely lucky few who just happen upon a niche which no-one has ever thought of. Does that happen nowadays? You tell me.No. What we tend to do now is to get as much information as possible in order to learn whatever business it is we want to get into. Unfortunately for a lot us, we get the information and start to study..and study and study. With all the studying going on we forget that we actually need to DO as well. We forget that we need to put into action what we are learning.Please, don't get me wrong. Learning the business is important. In fact, to start a busines
      llege students choosing to start their own businesses rather than working for others, having a first-hand opportunity to work in a business start-up, like yours, might be just what they’re looking for. So how can you find an intern that will be just right for you and your business?

      Simples Steps to Hiring an Intern

      1. What do I need to do? What can the intern do? One of the first things to do is to take a clean sheet of paper and begin writing down all the tasks that you perform in your business – and I mean everything. Next, decide what tasks you absolutely need to do yourself and which ones might be assigned to an intern. Typical tasks that you do might include:

      • inputting business card data into your database

      • contacting local chambers of commerce and ordering mailing lists

      • marketing mailings – printing letters, stuffing envelopes, puttin
        Payroll Missouri, Unique Aspects of Missouri Payroll Law and Practice
        The Missouri State Agency that oversees the collection and reporting of State income taxes deducted from payroll checks is:Department of Revenue Division of Taxation and Collection Withholding Tax Section P.O. Box 3375 Jefferson City, MO 65105-3375 (573) 751-5752 http://www.dor.mo.gov/Missouri requires that you use Missouri form "MO-W4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate" instead of a Federal W-4 Form for Missouri State Income Tax Withholding.Not all states allow salary reductions made under Section 125 cafeteria plans or 401(k) to be treated in the same manner as the IRS code allows. In Missouri cafeteria plans are not taxable for income tax calculation; not taxable for unemployment insurance purposes. 401(k) plan deferrals are not taxable for income taxes; taxable for unemployment purposes.In Missouri supplemental wages are taxed at a 6% flat rate.You must file your Missouri state W-2s by magnetic media if you are have at least 250 employees and are required to file your federal W-2s by magnetic media.The Missouri State Unemployment Insurance Agenc
        writing down all the tasks that you perform in your business – and I mean everything. Next, decide what tasks you absolutely need to do yourself and which ones might be assigned to an intern. Typical tasks that you do might include:

        • inputting business card data into your database

        • contacting local chambers of commerce and ordering mailing lists

        • marketing mailings – printing letters, stuffing envelopes, putting stamps on letters

        • writing and updating your marketing plan

        • keeping your marketing calendar current

        • calling on prospects – phone and in person

        • writing marketing collateral

        • updating website information

        • confirming appointments with clients

        • writing and updating your business plan

        • appearing at tradeshows (perfect for an intern to work as your assistant)

        • buying office supplies

        • going to the post office to mail packages, letters, etc.

        • miscellaneous errands

        • meetings with clients

        • reviewing local newspapers, business periodicals and trade journals for possible business prospects or other opportunities

        • article clipping

        • attending chamber functions and other networking events

        • filing

        • answering phones

        • bookkeeping

        Certainly there are a lot of things to do in your business! And, obviously, not all of these can be done by anyone other than you. Once you’ve drafted a comprehensive list of tasks, using different colored high-lighters, or something as simple as a check-mark, determine which of these tasks can be assigned to someone else. This will become the basis for writing up a job description for your intern.

        2. Drafting a job description. Write up a simple job description that includes a list of tasks you need completed on a weekly basis. Also, estimate how much time these tasks will take and, if possible, what days of the week might be best for someone to work for you.

        3. What type of intern? My suggestion is to hire a college intern who has background in the areas that you most need help with. For example, if your start-up is heavily focused on using computer technology to either produce