unemployment?

im hurting also..i got cut down to 3 days a week from a 40 hr week. sucks

 

I finally got a job in a cash office after being out of work for 3 months.

You have any idea how hard it is to handle over 100 Grand worth of cash while owing a 10th of that?

'It's just paper, it's just paper, it's just paper...'

 

How long has she been there? Seems like in NY if you've been with a company long enough (1 yr maybe?) they HAVE to grant you maternity leave AND hold a job for you. I think it has something to do with ADA.

I like the idea someone else posted about the radio station. Maybe get a magnetic sign or something for the truck. If you live on a busy road, maybe a sign in front of the house too. We have a "Pennysaver" paper that gets delivered a couple times a week with classifieds, local news, local sales/coupons, job postings and a few more things. My wife advertised babysitting in there for $25 for a week. Look into something like that too.

What is it you do again? You could be a real bastard and make up signs/business cards to put ON you're old bosses equipement and hand to the people using them. Hit him where it hurts.

 

It is real easy to type up a 2-3 paragraph press release (there are free templates online) & email or snail mail it to all media resources in your servicing area. Smaller local community papers are the best & are always looking for low word count copy about local folks in the communities. It goes something like this:

Press Release 001
January 6, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Yourtown, Fl- MynameisLucy Computer Company announces its grand opening today providing Florida County Computer Owners alternatives for home networking, internet security, web services and computer repair solutions.

With over 20 years in the industry, Mr. Lucy, owner and operator of MCC specializes in solutions for small business, non-profit organizations, and individuals.

"MCC focus is on quality and caring computer services that's affordable to the community," said Mr. Lucy.

MynameisLucy Computer Services is located in Tampa on blah blah blah. A comprehensive list of home and business networking solutions is at www.mynameislucycomputerservices.com.

***
If you can get a client to give you a quote too that would be great for weaving a reference into your copy!

Your local Small Business Administration also has marketing resources for targeting your advertising. I remember you said where you live has a lot of older folks so there must be a slew of Dr. offices right? Well all those traditional and alternative (i.e. chiropractic) practictioners are converting manual record systems into server based solutions especially due to HIPPA. Well, most Dr. & medical office personnel are not electronically savvy. I would send a press release to them directly. You can find addresses online now or stand by yellow pages.

Good luck Lucy, your old boss seems like a real piece of work. go git em!

 

I can agree with this! Last couple jobs I've had did work for Dr's offices, dentists, CPA's, lawyers, etc. Anyone not big enough to warrant a full time IT staff would call the company I worked for 2 years ago whenever they needed help. It wasn't steady, but if you can get a few there's usually something wrong with 1 of them! Or if you can do maintenance (ie, nightly remote status checks on backups, updates, defrags, internet connection status) you could bill a flat monthly/yearly fee, plus actual time for calls/onsite/after-hours support. Even if they don't have a server for remote desktop www.logmein.com is free, and you can access any computer you want once you install the agent (need physical access to PC/server for that). I have 9 PCs on my account now between family and my own. It has 128bit encryption so it should be good enough for everyone.

Where I'm working now all the clinics and offices are tied to the hospital so they get my support, BUT there are still independant drs and others that rent office space at the hospital. Those people get my "best effort" support meaning if I can fix it in 5 minutes I will. If not, they need to call their people (which could be you). I cannot legally give them free support due to the laws about hospitals giving gifts to keep drs onboard. So if they don't want to pay my company's support contract fees they are on their own. And probably more willing to pay lower fees to a local guy once or twice a month as needed.

 

All excellent ideas and much appreciated. Today was a running around day, and being still a little sick (see the useless posts thread for my rocket scientist ideas on cleaning bathtubs) I'm gonna lay on the couch for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I start with the advertising!

I did a guy's home / business systems a couple weeks ago, he was super impressed. This guy is probably mid-thirties and a self-made millionaire. He does everything from ebay powerseller to taking graduation pics in his home studio. Also gets into marketing, I mentioned to him I was thinking of striking out on my own and would call him if I needed advertising help. He said no problem, anytime. So that's another route I can persue.

Far as this turdcutter ex boss letting the pregnant woman go, he has too few employees to be under the FMLA act. That's the only thing in Florida that says you have to consider pregnancy as a disability, so he has no worries there. But I'm going to find her after she recovers and see if she wants to go in on a little word-of-mouth campaign to let this city know how he treats his employees.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28523127/

Servers to turn in on-line apps are down until 3PM EST 1/6/09, they're at fbi.gov, bottom left of the page is the employment link.

 

Maybe we can all work for the govenment! And then they could tax themselves and we would have the perpetual motion machine!!!