Automatic Time Tracking with Chrometa

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• Automatic Time Tracking with Chrometa
• Unique, Useful Interview Questions To Prepare For
• Entrepreneurs’ Job Creation: Expectations Versus Reality

Automatic Time Tracking with Chrometa Posted: 12 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PDT Automatic time tracking sounds like a beautiful thing for a time-based business owner. It isn’t easy to separate out how you spend your time on projects and client work. This is going to sound odd coming from a long time product reviewer, but I was afraid to install Chrometa and learn that I was under-billing on my projects. It would be embarrassing. This review of Chrometa is for the smart (and more courageous) business owner who sells their service in units of time. The professionals out there who need a simple and effect time tracking solution. Chrometa captures your time as you work on your computer – so that you don’t have to. It acts as your personal timekeeper by noting how long you are working in an application, what you are working on, and for how long.  If you are composing an email or working in five different applications (meaning they are open at one time on your system) at the same time, Chrometa knows which one you are actively working in and records the time spent in that program. You don’t have to tell it anything. As an example, it can and does go deeper, too, and shows you how long you spent composing a subject line in Google’s Gmail app. Here is a sample summary screen to show you how time was recorded. I’m pretty bullish on this application now that I’ve seen it working. It will allow me to pull all these snippets of time recorded, by category into an invoice. Talk about time savings. In the settings, I can tell it how to round my time, in minute increments. I can import all this data into QuickBooks, too. Or FreshBooks. Or Basecamp. If you have a lot of clients and projects and don’t want to manually enter all that data (again) from another application, Chrometa offers a clean import tool, a bulk upload tool, via a CSV-formatted spreadsheet. What I Like Well, what’s not to like. This simple app is a time-saver for anyone who struggles with keeping track of time spent on a client project. There’s a Windows, Mac, and Google Chrome plugin for Gmail. That covers 90% of the business user market. Sorry Ubuntu users, but I guess you can make it work via Chrome. Time management without a timer. I know; I’m repeating myself. What I’d Lke to See Okay, these are nitpicky items: Since legal types, attorneys, para-legals are heavy time trackers, they have export options to Clio and PCLaw. I’d like to see other industries get some love. I’d like to see a more in-focus image on the home page instead of a fuzzy screenshot (although I think that’s intentional so you focus on the company name and tagline message). And information right there on the home page that says that it includes a 15-day free trial when you click download. Nitpicky, I know. Chrometa is a sweet application. I highly recommend you take it for a spin and see how much time you’re spending on unbillable tasks or how you’ve been under-billing on client work. This simple, but elegant, tool is a dream for anyone who sells their time and wants to get paid for it, all of it. The basic plan starts at $19/month. Learn more about Chrometa. From Small Business Trends Automatic Time Tracking with Chrometa

Unique, Useful Interview Questions To Prepare For Posted: 12 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PDT Whether you’re an upcoming graduate who is beginning to fill out endless job applications or an experienced employee looking to make a professional change, you’ll soon discover that the interview stage of the hiring process is no longer what it used to be. Employers aren’t inviting you into their offices to simply sit down and assess your technical skills, but also your personality and the degree of your passion for the job position, company and industry you’re interviewing for. There is more to discover in these interviews and candidates are finding themselves subject to new, unique questions that often make or break their candidacy. We asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invitation-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country's most promising young entrepreneurs, the following question to find out what they’re looking for when they put applicants to the test, and how even the safest and most confident answers are sometimes the worst things to say: “What is one unique interview question that you ask every potential new employee?” Here’s what the YEC community had to say: 1. TV Queens and Bookworms? “When you ask, “Tell me about your favorite show/book,” see if they are passionate about what they are talking about. When I hire people onto my Sweet T Team, I am looking for high energy and passionate teammates. If they can’t express how much they love they favorite show/book, they’ll never be passionate about our brand.” ~ Nancy T. Nguyen, Sweet T 2. Verify Your Value System “If you want to be sure you’re hiring someone who will be a good fit for a specific position, it’s wise to ask about the candidate’s top three values. Answers like “perseverance” and “ambition” likely mean he or she is a good fit for a sales oriented role, while answers like “peacefulness” and “creativity” may indicate well suitedness to an entirely different area.” ~ Amanda Aitken, The Girl’s Guide to Web Design 3. How Shall I Praise Thee? “I ask, “How would you like me to tell you you’re doing a great job?” Knowing what motivates people – cash, awards, recognition – helps me keep them happy when they’re performing well.” ~ Sam Davidson, Cool People Care, Inc. 4. Dream Occupations “If you could be doing anything, what would it be?” As a startup, we want to make sure we’re bringing people on board who are passionate and excited about their work. Knowing what a potential employee loves to do, above all else, is critically important in aligning their passions and skills with the core needs of the business, to create a harmonious and prosperous relationship.” ~ Matt Cheuvront, Proof Branding 5. As If You Were Already Hired “What is a “blind spot” in our business and how would you implement improvement?” This one question will give you everything you need to know. Have they done their homework about your business or are you just another interview to them? Are they results oriented and do they understand how to comprehensively improve a product or service? What value will they bring in exchange for their pay?” ~ Josh Shipp, JSP, Inc. 6. Count Parking Lots, Please “Never had the chance to ask it, but I’ve heard this is a great question, ”How many cars are in the United States?” Do they blurt out a random number with no thought? Do they mumble and stumble and say nothing? Do they use some logic and try to figure it out? It’s not about knowing the number, it’s about their process for finding an answer.” ~ Therese Kuster, TargetClick Marketing Solutions 7. Are You Looking Up? “I ask candidates interviewing for positions with Thinking Caps to tell me about a role model and why they look up to that person. Not only does the question require the candidate to respond with a thoughtful answer, but it also gives me an opportunity to hear about the candidate’s values and goals.” ~ Alexandra Mayzler, Thinking Caps Tutoring 8. Turn the Tables “I start every interview with the same question, ”What would you like to ask me?” I learn more about the person from their first question then I do from the rest of the interview. If they ask about pay or vacation time, I already know what they are looking for. If they start to ask about things they saw on one of my Websites, then I know I have someone who is serious about the job.” ~ Roger Bryan, RCBryan & Associates 9. Superman? Batman? “What Superhero would you be?” Sounds cheesy but it’s amazing to see the answers people come up with and then to see those that literally freeze. It’s a simple question and it’s mostly about how creative they can be and how quick they can be answer. In business, you can’t teach personality and this question gives you a quick glimpse into theirs.” ~ Ashley Bodi, Business Beware 10. Who Do You Really Want to Work With? “Every time we bring a potential new employee through the door we ask them a series of questions pertinent to the position. The one question we always end with is, “If you could work on a project for any company in the world, who would it be and why?” This shows us where their interests really are and it’s really all about identifying people’s passions.” ~ Bobby Emamian, Prolific Interactive 11. Which Drink Would You Be? “We use this question to see how quickly someone can think on their feet and how creative they are. We’ve had answers that run the gamut from ice water to Jack Daniels, to Guiness to orange juice. Each answer reveals something about the person who is answering and because we like to have a great time in the office, seeing how someone reacts to this question shows how well they will fit in.” ~ Nathan Lustig, Entrustet 12. Let’s Go to the Theater! “What was the last movie you saw?” It’s crucial to make sure all employees have a life outside of the office and are capable of talking about things other than business.” ~ Josh Weiss, Bluegala 13. Literary Tightrope “This is our make or break question, “What do you read on a weekly basis?” If a potential employee can’t list at least one resource that he or she reads to keep up on what’s happening in the world, how can we expect them to keep up with changes in our industry?” ~ Allie Siarto, Loudpixel 14. Why Are Manhole Covers Round? “Most people will not know the answer, but I am just curious to see if they are going to tell me the truth or make something up. If they don’t know, they can always tell me they can get me the answer; if they make something up, they’re out. How could I trust them with me or my customers?” ~ Justin Nowak, Mobile Business Advisors 15. Show Me the Money! “Justify to me why paying the salary that you’re requesting is a good investment for me.” ~ John Hall, Digital Talent Agents 16. What Do You Think You Are Best in the World At? “When building a team, you have to learn what is most important to your potential employees and if they are a fit within your company. At our company, we want to be the best in the world at certain things and leave a legacy through the work that we do. This question sets the standards for employees upfront and, as an employer, you begin to understand what your candidates values, strengths and aspirations are.” ~ Matt Wilson, Under30CEO.com 17. The Stickiest Question “Here’s a roll of duct tape. What are ten things you can do with it?” It doesn’t have to be duct tape; it can be any item sitting anywhere in the room. The reason we ask this question is to measure an interviewee’s creativity (and limitations). If they can come up with ten things to do with an item, we know they’re a good fit. Why? Because creativity is seeing what others don’t.” ~ Brett Farmiloe, Blind Society 18. Time to Prioritize “If I ask you to put together a list of clients from our database and you see the database is corrupted with incomplete and duplicate entries, what would you do?  Put together the list I asked for first or fix the database first?” Their answer tells me many things about their personality – shortsightedness, attitude towards work, detail orientation, and time management.” ~ Devesh Dwivedi, Breaking The 9 To 5 Jail Interview Concept Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends Unique, Useful Interview Questions To Prepare For

Entrepreneurs’ Job Creation: Expectations Versus Reality Posted: 12 Mar 2012 05:30 AM PDT A much larger fraction of entrepreneurs expects to create jobs than actually do. This difference means that policy makers need to take entrepreneurs' job creation plans with a grain of salt. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a consortium of university researchers around the globe who track entrepreneurial activity, "defines high-growth entrepreneurs as those who expect to have 20 or more employees (other than the owners) within the next five years." By that definition, 17 percent of Americans founding a company expect to have a "high growth company," as the figure below shows: Expected and Actual Job Creation Source: Created from data from the U.S. Census and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor This percentage is much higher than the share of entrepreneurs that actually has a high growth company. According to Census's Business Dynamics database, only 2 percent of five-year-old companies have 20 or more employees. Moreover, this number overstates the share of new businesses that are "high growth." Census data show that slightly less than half of new businesses survive to age five. Adjusting the share of surviving five-year-old businesses with 20 or more employees by the failure rate of new companies reveals that less than 1 percent of businesses started in a given year have 20 or more employees at the time of their fifth birthday. If only about 1 out of every 20 entrepreneurs who expect to employ 20 or more people when their businesses are five years old actually does so, then entrepreneurs are overoptimistic about their job creation capabilities, just as they are about the survival, sales and profits of their businesses. Policy makers should respond to this over-optimism the way investors do – by discounting entrepreneurs' projections. While investors might focus their discounting on entrepreneurs' estimates of sales and profits, the principle is the same for policy makers and estimates of job creation. From Small Business Trends Entrepreneurs' Job Creation: Expectations Versus Reality

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