We are almost there.... inching our way to 2009. With the new year, usually comes new ideas and a fresh start. For me, it's improving my marketing skills. I've always been a service oriented person, but when owning a business, it's all about marketing -- similiar to lots of networking! Business owners must do the same thing we Career Managers tell our clients to do. It's so much easier to send out a few blogs, or an emailed newsletter and hope someone says, hey, this guy is good, I can't live without him. The truth of the matter, I spent most of 2008 doing that, and well, it was slow....



The question I keep asking myself is, how will I step up my marketing? I've read about it, sat through classes on it, spoke to others about it, there is nothing left to do, except do it! Nike keeps running through my head... just do it!



Hey, maybe that's the secret, Nike keeps running through my head. Branding is part of the magic of marketing! When someone thinks of their job really sucking, or they need a job...I want them to think of The Career Academy. So, the secret is "Branding".



That's what we need to work on, branding ourselves. How will you be remembered and what will you be remembered for?

Best Wishes for a great 2009!

The American Job Market

What the heck happened? We were going along so well for what, about 100 or so years, building, developing, designing, women joining the workforce, (there was enough for everyone), various cultures joining us from abroad -- then wammo! We started handing everything over to other countries to build for us, to create for us and to run for us. Why did we allow this to happen? Schools started to become too lenient, we decided that "Made in Japan" was good purchases, we had to go outside our borders and triple Visas to bring in "intellectual property". So here we are, now trying to figure out how we can fix what we allowed to happen. This is not to criticize in any way, shape, or form cultures or what we have received from our friends abroad. Their goods and services have certainly enhanced our lives in many ways, however, we've gotten away from good old American ingenuity.

We are scared, worried and once again allowing someone else to take control of our destiny -- do we really think the government has all the answers? I'm not talking about mutiny here, but I'm talking about taking a stand to better our schools, regain our growth and utilize our ingenuity. Let's move America forward with the same industrialization that grew this country and provided jobs.

What are some of your thoughts?