If you are an artist and want your art to get more recognition or want your artwork exposed in the marketplace then you should probably consider an art consultant who works alongside an artist to stimulate their creativity, advise, and eventually help them become a success both artistically and financially. They will advise and have experience to get their clients artwork/ collection pieces into galleries. They know the latest trends and seek to create collections that are both creatively relevant and a good investment. Some online art galleries such as Artling, hohmann, and lewis art consulting, just to name a few are open to artist submission and helping artists get their art exposed, and drive online sales. There are many websites to showcase your art and network online such as Coroflot. Their mission is to connect designers with career opportunities and to expose innovative clients to top-notch design work, which it does through hosting portfolios/designer profiles, posting job listings, and providing sample design salaries. Another one is Doodle Addicts, which include access to the marketplace where artists can list their items featuring their artwork for sale. The site includes tutorials and competitions opportunities. I also explored different kinds of websites you can use for your advantage in selling art online such as Esty, Fine Art America, Storenvy, Redbubble, and Society 6. These online market stores are great to launch your products/ upload them to get it in front of millions of shoppers. The best part is that these websites are free to use and sign up.
~Long tail profit model is a business model that expects profit to only come later or indirectly, as result of multiple prior steps being achieved
~The term break-even point is where your business earns more money than it spends, and begins to become profitable.
~The term defensibility is the degree of difficulty for a competitor to replicate your business
~In editing B-rolls can be acceptable to break as an ‘editing rule’ because it interchanges between A- roll and B-roll, and it can be seen as jumpy.
~The 180 degree rule in editing means that in a scene there's a ‘line’ in which two people can form dialogue between each other but the camera cant exceed 180 degrees from the previous camera’s shot.
~Conflict avoidance at work should be addressed to your colleague, but also expressed in a creative way too such as youtube
~There is never an instance where a newly formed company has no competitors, even if it's tesla (electric cars) future customers were driving similar-priced sedans with combustion engines, so the makers of those vehicles were there competition.
~Showing something on every interview will get you the job at a greater chance than not showing up with anything, and also asking for the job too, because people are afraid of rejection and asking.
~Precall every job interview. It takes about 5-15 hours to sit, research and hand write.
Today at techie youth I learned the many ways to become efficient at making a career as an artist. When it comes to growing a following on Instagram, headline optimization instead of putting your name adds relevance when someone were to search for your profile. Adding keywords to attract followers on autopilot is one way of growing a business. Another tip would be to engage with others, go onto tags, on Instagram and engage with highly specific content and people. Like some of their posts and comments. Also, be transparent with your audiences as well as be relatable. Tips I learned with Pinterest is to go onto group boards, read their description and request to join, that way you can post your pins as well as engage with other similar posts and repost onto your page, it's called the 70/30 rule, where 70% is your content, and the 30% is other people's content. That way people are interested to follow you, because of the engagement, and not because of selfish reasons of self-growth on Pinterest. Selling art on Facebook tips would be to post constantly too, such as sketches of your painting, and don't saturate your page with more than 3 posts a week or so that way your followers have something forward to look into. Posting progress photos allows people to be interested in the painting and want to have them looking forward to the finishing piece. Then you want to take a good photo with good lighting and you can sell prints or post it on your socials, telling others your print/painting is available to them, and in the description put a meaningful story description or a quote that adds emotion to your painting. Then set the price of it and shipping and how you would like to be paid. Or if you don't feel comfortable adding that in the description you can say something along the lines of the painting is available, comment ‘want’ below; that way the seller is contacting you. Another tip I learned is that if someone is requesting a detailed photograph, never send them the high-quality print, because some people would just save it onto their computers so instead, send them a zoomed-in or portion of the painting and have your name on it.
Today at techie youth I learned all about how to start selling art online. The key thing I picked up on was to just start, even if you have zero to no money because you’re not going to be making money right away so as you create your art whether is drawing, painting, or sculpting, starting with what you have and promoting yourself on social media to find your target audience is important. Promote yourself and your art in a way that is fun and not spamming people to buy your product. Advertise yourself by choosing a niche in how you want to express your art form for example you may be interested in creating pop-up portraits based on black culture and post about the story behind your painting etc. Art always has a message or emotion behind it, a story to tell so tell it from the creator (your) pov. Then once you’re going to want to put your artwork on a website such as Etsy or Shopify. And when you're first starting off, pricing can be tricky so normally what most people do is start with a simple formula to price your original art: your time and labor costs + material costs and other expenses + your markup (profit). For this method, you will need to assign yourself an hourly wage. It is typical for artists to undervalue their time and work, especially at the beginning. To drive customers to your website you can run paid ads campaigns such as Google or Facebook, and invest in organic social by producing consistent content and engaging with fans and art communities frequently or try the more natural organic way which is to drive exposure with offline marketing. Participate in art shows and markets or work with a gallery to expand your reach to new, larger audiences, talk with other people about their work, and engage and follow them socially. You can also work with galleries to sell your art. Such as contacting art galleries that are in line and represent your art style. Do your research, type out an email, follow them on their socials, and don't be afraid to make a proposal to have your art showcased. Or you can hire an art consultant, they help with connecting collectors, corporations, and artists to find the right piece for a space. They will help when it comes to the details of the legal stuff such as contract, such as payment, transportation, insurance, etc. However, you can also hit up corporations yourself and do research on the type of artwork they like to showcase and make connections by email, an interview, or a call to ask for the art director. Contact architects and interior designers, and art publications to name a few. Next, when shipping your product or services, you need to weigh them and package them with bubble wrap so your product doesn't get damaged, and also calculate the shipping cost. When you have a product of much higher demand, you want to research a printing company that will do it for you. In the meantime create and connect with your fanbase.
Why Every Adolescent Should Be Involved In ‘Techie Youth Learn to E-Earn’ (A Nonprofit)
From ‘Challenging Life Situations’ To ‘Self-Sufficient’
Are you a youth approaching adulthood facing challenges in your day-to-day life, whether it's at home, or school? Are you facing difficult choices about academics, friendship, sexuality, gender identity, drugs, and alcohol?
If this sounds like you, it's completely normal to be transitioning from childhood to adulthood, you’re more likely approaching a path of individuality and becoming more independent. Being unsure of your place in this world can be overwhelming.
That's why with Techie Youth, a nonprofit organization, youths are able to become independent. They provide technology driven career training, education with resources to help youth like you grow into financially self-sufficient professionals. Eric Benari the Founder and Executive Director of Techie Youth has helped over 4,000 youth.
What are nonprofits?
Nonprofits are charitable and provide a way for people to work together for the common good.
Taking a leadership role to feed, heal, shelter, educate, inspire, enlighten, and nurture people of every age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status, from all parts of the world everyday.
churches, public schools, public charities, public clinics and hospitals, political organizations, volunteer services research institutes, museums, and some governmental agencies ect.
Who Does Techie Youth serve?
Foster kids (current, formal, or emancipated) who are old enough to be legally- employed
Homeless youth
Justice- involved teens and formerly- incarcerated minors & youth
Pregnant and/or parenting teenagers
Transgenendered and LGBTQ + youth
Youth with criminal convictions participating in 2nd- chance programs
Teens with substantial learning challenges, including high-functioning autism, severe-ADHD. Ect.
Kids who were victims of extreme abuse/ neglect
Statistically young-adults are more likely to become homeless or incarcerated in the near-future and their goal is to prevent that by geering their students towards an independence and giving them a positive outlook to become a leader.
Why does Techie Youth focus on foster-kids and at risk-youth?
Kids were born into these life-situations, to no fault of their own. When parents are deemed to be unfit to care for their kids, and no family member agrees to take the kids, then they are placed in foster care, with a foster family but older teens are placed into group homes and institutional settings.
Techie Youth’s mission is to help foster kids prepare for independent living. Also, New York City asked if they would permit homeless teens to join their program and they couldn't say no, and were willing to help those who needed them.
What if I’m a youth but NOT in the foster system or in any of the situations listed above, can I still enroll?
Yes, however you would need to be participating first through a different program called SYEP or WLG which is a program provider that will allow you to register with Techie Youth Learn to E-Earn. The Summer Youth Program (SYEP) is through the NYC Department Of Youth And Community Development, also a nonprofit government agency, that provides opportunities to ages 14-24, paid employment and educational opportunities in the public, private and non-profit sector. SYEP also provides career exploration, post-secondary education information and life skills training, including health education and financial literacy. Work, Learn and Grow (WLG) is a similar program offered to youth who specifically attend N.Y.C. Department of Education and seeking employment while also attending classes.
What is one cause that Techie Youth aims to help?
Provide leadership skills
Become financially self-sufficient and self-empowered
Teach foster kids and at-risk youth a profession that will save and ensure their future
Reduce the homelessness at its source, before youth-at-risk become homeless
Provide free technology-career training to young adults in which they have lucrative career opportunities that do not require a degree to hire but instead gain experience on technology roles that have among the highest average earnings of any professional-field.
How can Techie Youth help students become self-sufficient?
This is an online program with 245,615 hours of resources, from articles, videos, quizzes and assignments to ensure their students understand the material. Techie youth is focused on teaching students how to earn income online from wherever they are, with tools and knowledge to empower themselves to become career professionals earning substantial income.
Career path include:
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Video editing
Selling digital good
Trading stocks and crypto
Earning income from a social network following
Creating and selling computer-designed object
Music production
Creating mobile apps
….. And much more!
To conclude, every adolescent should be involved in Techie Youth because it provides free educational resources to help youth facing challenging life situations and help them become self-empowered and self-sufficient by making an income online, by gaining a lot of knowledge and experience that will be forever life changing.
For more info visit www.techieyouth.org
Today I learned about how press releases work. Press release is a compelling news story written by a public relations professional and sent to targeted members of the media. The press release should contain all the essential information who? what? where? when? how? and most importantly why? for the journalist to easily produce his own story. The way you get the media interested in your nonprofit story is by meeting with news reporters and reading up on articles they post or keeping up with the news published. Follow up with them via email, or send them some of your work, and always leave your ‘abouts’ in your email. Follow them on social media, and have lots of online resources for them, Includes the history of your nonprofit, its mission and goals, and brief profiles and photos of key staff. Post your recent news releases and annual reports plus always make yourself available to them or you can find ways to take advantage of breaking news stories by promoting your nonprofit. Moreover, then you want to grow your nonprofit on social media by choosing the most reliable social media app to promote your nonprofit to your target audience and these are the people who are going to help with your cause.Key progress indicators, (KPIs) are measurable values that demonstrate how effective your social channels are performing. Also knowing when your audience is online is a good way to monitor your post and having that reach be at their exposal for engagement. Keeping a posting schedule regularly allows for growth and newcomers and it's always good to integrate all your platforms and information everywhere from blogs, to emails, and websites to be used for cross promotion for people to be in the know. When it comes to social media platforms, keeping your post short is recommended due to more engagement, as well as using tags ‘@’ symbol and using hashtags to join new conversations. And always knowing the latest trend, and putting your mix into it, is refreshing too.
Today at techie youth I learned about tips and tricks to better compose an email for a customer service job. The first tip I learned was to write in complete sentences, using your name and keeping it short within 15-20 words. Then you want to address one issue per exchange such as either one thing to do at a time or one point and one question at a time. And always address the customer's name that way, they feel like they are talking with an actual person and not a robot, automated system. Sometimes however, customers will ask common questions in which there are already automated responses and this is to save time within the company and increase team collaborations. Always answer your customers' questions and always say thank you, even when it may be a complaint. Because there are always ways for improvement whether it's on the software, or on a product. Always show you care for the customers needs and pay attention to the underlying emotion of the email. Moreover, in a technical job, you don't need to add emotions. A technical writing job is not just about understanding technical information and recording it in a document. Technical writing takes high-level information and processes it into digestible content for a specific audience, such as computer applications, medical procedures, or environmental regulations. Technical writing is used anytime a technical subject must be conveyed by text. The technical content will explain the scientific or specialized details and guide the reader in how to use that information. You want to use an active voice which makes it easier to read and understand than a passive voice. Furthermore, learning about transcription jobs requires a minimum typing speed, and typing accuracy, measured in words per minute. You just need to have strong listening skills, you must be able to distinguish speech from background noise and comprehend different accents and idioms; complete work in a timely manner which many of these roles expect next-day and same-day delivery; language and grammar skills and listening skill to listening to an audio file and transforming it into a text via word document. Some of the transcriptionist roles are general transcriptions which have no specific knowledge. Legal transcription, transcribing things like court testimonies and this requires experience, medical transcriptionist requires training. And the pay is usually like $20 per audio not by hour so 1 audio hour is equal to 3-6 hours of typing. So typing quickly and at an accurate typing speed is important. Some tips for this role when listening in is determining ‘new speaker, new line such
and his name is Carl
how do you know
Start with a lowercase letter unless the word is a proper noun such as Laura, London, Wednesday
And don't end the file with punctuation even if you’re sure, because you don't know if that's the end of the audio. Another tip is to not use ‘crutch words’ such as like, you know, so it can be readable. Next, data entry jobs involve encoding data from a scanned (PDF) document. So copy-pasting data from one form into another usually involves data research skills. Skills such as typing fast into microsoft word or excel and having a 60 WPM is needed for an average typer. And there are websites to help perfect and practice typing skills. Also having basic literacy and numeracy skills as well as good communication skills, both written and verbal. The good thing is that this job doesn't require a lot of skills or education, and you can start immediately. On the other hand this job doesn't allow room for growth and the pay is low.
Guest blogging which is a way to expose you to writing content. It allows new audiences to subscribe and read more. The benefits you obtain is the ability to reach out and connect with organizations and if you engage with readers well they will want to follow the link to be able to know or learn more about you, also since writers want audiences, blogging for these bigger corporations will allow your audiences to grow and share you on their socials. Some strategies would be to find your audience or go to google.com/reader to find blogs that show you how popular they are, so that way you can write one more in depth or create a series about it because you would have knowledge on it. Furthermore, Search engine optimization (SEO) is backlinks that are created when one website links to another due to popularity. Websites use specific keywords that are linked with the article and this is beneficial because it exposes your content to more people. Therefore, keywords are a substantial factor for creating successful backlinks, so that it will appear higher in the search engine results. Moreover, In order for a link to really matter for SEO purposes, the link must be relevant to the website’s content. Asking yourself are people going to like the linked content? Is it what they are looking for? If yes, then you’ve got yourself a valuable link with lots of traffic. Be educational about the subject, and provide people with value. Also when linking several references, have useful information, original data or compelling arguments to strengthen a blog post; this will generate links to your content easily.
And called “reference content” - content that’s designed specifically to act as an authoritative fact or statement on a particular topic.
Today at techie youth I learned about what it's like to be a writer, and the different forms of writing experience, from traditional/indie authors to bloggers, to copywriters. Yesterday we looked at the difference between traditional author vs indie and today we will look at how they get paid. So many writers have agreed when it comes to creating a story, always keep a notebook beside you to jot down ideas and most times those ideas don't get used but sometimes, they work well. Also when writing, write at least 1,000 words a week, and keep writing, and don't get too fixated on the small details in the beginning because it’ll need revision later or the story might change. And if you’re excited about writing a scene, write it even if you’re not even a quarter into the plot, just write. Also I learned that most people think or assume, you have to be a great known author to publish a book but that's not true at all. All you need is the right process to increase visibility for your book on amazon. Sell more books and the number will go up to make money as a new author. Then I saw a chart of a comparison in pay for traditional publishing and indie publishing, and to sum up the chart comparison, traditional earrings earn less than self published, by $24,000 difference; due to the initial royalty rate, traditional earrings being 10% compared to an indie 60%. Also, a first timer traditional publisher usually starts with $10,000 but they dont start to earn royalties until they have sold $10,000 worth of books. So basically you earn back $10,000 before you actually start to earn a check from the publisher. Next, I learned about copywriting which is the process of writing persuasive marketing materials that motivate people to take some form of action through their writing, such as to make people buy, sign up, make a purchase, click on a link, donate to a cause, or schedule a consultation. They are different from content writers who write blogs, posts, articles, and make content for ebooks. Copy writers are hired by publishing companies for an advertisement, or could work for a team amongst others, or they can be freelancers and write advertisements to later pitch. A day in the life of a copywriter looks like them fixing their website, writing cold emails, fixing testimonials, creating content on social media, following up with prospective clients, and writing pitches for publications. Copywriters salary is around $67,000 for 1-3 years and starting salaries with 0-1 years of experience is about $46,000, with $28,000 on the low end. Furthermore, a call to action pitch would have two components, a feature and benefit. A feature describes what something is or does, like for example an iphone product has 64 GB and the benefits describe the emotions or experience a product will give the consumer, such as more storage space on the phone for photos, messages, apps ect. People are always looking for features and what they can gain from the experience of the product. Next, looking into blogging as a career, blogging is a website in which you write just about anything from personal journaling, Creative expression, Teaching and coaching others, Selling products and Promoting brands. Bloggers can make from anything from $1,000 a year and up. They get paid through affiliate links that help monetize per click, so the more traffic you receive the more the pay is. First start off with a niche and be consistent with the writing, and posting. Also make sure you build up your email list because they are the ones who will be interested in your blogs and come back for more content. They will also click on the affiliate links for the products you recommend. Bloggers are able to make between $0.5 – $2 per subscriber a month. For example, if you have 1,000 e-mail subscribers, you could generate $500 to $2,000 a month! Of Course there's many other ways to monetize your blog especially if you want this to be a full time job, with facebook ads or by being a social media influencer.
Pros and cons from publishing traditionally vs as an indie. Based on a video the pros to traditional publishing is that you don't need to have the money upfront. You can also be in New York best sellers, so prizes, and you get the validation, as well as distribution of books in bookstores or anywhere you go. The cons to publishing with a company is the lack of creative control, because its a contract and the way you wish the cover looked, or the writing style, the company has full control. Another con would be the royalties, and 15-20%, and the speed in which you want your book to take off, usually takes time only because agents need to find publishers that want to work with you, and even finding an agent that will work with you can be clever sometimes too. You need to find an agent to walk you through the process from creating a proposal called a query letter to push it out to publishers, because they know the market. The pros to self publishing, is you get to have a lot of creative control and can write whatever you want. Another plus, is 70% of royalties, which just means how much you'll be getting paid, goes all to the indie even with just few books published. Another pro with being an indie (self publisher) is that publishing companies will reach out to you, based on how popular your book is, based on reviews, an example of this is Fifth Shades of Gray. The cons of being an indie publisher is that you need to wear different hats, and get really motivated on doing all the research and work on your own, from finding an editor, and paying them, if you want; it's an investment.
Today at techie youth I learned about grant writing proposals asking foundations, corporations and grant-making organizations for granted-money to be used to fund charities and non-profit organizations. The first step of successful grant writing is to plan the project, but the second step is following the directions of the granting organization (called, the grantmaker). In most cases, grantmakers should include the demographic or population that is being affected, the issues that the grant would address, the activities that will be funded if the grant is approved, how the project will be managed and carried out, and the proposed budget and how the funds will be used. A grantmaker is looking for these requirements and at least 2-3pages. It's important to keep in mind that following these guidelines or requirements can boost your chance of getting approved. A Grant writer's income is around $70,000. Grant writers are being used on a regular basis to help industries achieve their mission. Others are national grants that go to government bodies like the U.S. Department of Education. And others go to non-profit; an example would be homelessness grant, that goes to the basic needs of the homeless in the world. This can include things like food, shelter, and personal hygiene items. Furthermore, I learned about magazines and journals and their differences when it comes to format. For magazines it's more broad and can be journalism and commentary. Magazine writers develop sources, which means create a compelling story, pitch stories to editors, which will have you contacting various magazine companies, then you would interview subjects, follow up with scource, research, write and submit the first draft, and revise, and finally work with copy editors/fact-checkers. On the other hand, journals are based on academic and scientific research articles. Publishing your research based on your profession and writing essays, beginning with an introduction that states the purpose of what the problem is and the three reasons to back it up to find a solution or to understand your argument. Then you need data and methods to break down “how do you know what you know” with statistics or documents, and lastly it should conclude with a reflection on the broader themes and the results of how it ties all together. The conclusion should address, summarizing what you did in the paper, including its main findings. Next acknowledging the limitations of the work and lastly proposing steps for future research that builds on what you’ve done in the paper.
Today at techie youth I learned about methods of online raising. What crowdfunding is, and it's like an investor, or like angel investors or a bank which raises small amounts of money from a large number of people. Some online platforms like Kickstarter, GoFundMe, have made the process of raising money online for a business, product, or charitable cause. It's people who support your cause and donate. Then what you want to do is create a social media presence to draw people to you to remain relevant and promote their content effectively and efficiently. Having to engage and share content is how people will get motivated to be a part of your brand. Know your targeted audience and be informative. If you don’t have information worth their time, or something tendy, this will Capture your audience to read your description from start to finish to bring business and brand awareness for your company. Furthermore, other charitable programs such as corporate giving programs allow companies of all sizes to make investments in social good. These programs are a form of ‘philanthropy’ that facilitates charitable giving to nonprofit causes. In other words, the more employees contribute to philanthropic organizations, the more their company will donate. ‘Fundraising matches’ provide nonprofits with donations after an employee has donated time or effort to the nonprofit, but these are in the form of fundraising events. Examples include walkathons, runs, or bicycle events. Furthermore I learned about how email listings are created with companies that buy them, and before it involved either sign up sheets or hosting events, now many manufacturing marketing professionals are considering purchasing a list of email accounts. The good news is, it increases business profit. Valid email addresses raise brand popularity while giving you an increase in sales, however the down side is complaints. People will be labeled as spam and who will not be happy. This can cause people to unsubscribe and opt-outs which your email service provider could punish you for.
Today at techie youth I learned what fundraising appeal is, which is a request for action on obtaining money from supporters. And it’s the heart of your cause and it’s the crucial part when you not only explain what your goal is, but why your supporters should feel invested in it. It's also important to keep in mind that many people may not know what the campaign is about, but you should be able to craft and convey your message in a clear confident manner that lets your audience know about the campaign, although you want them to donate and not sound like your selling a product, you are trying to sell your supporter on the purpose of your mission so it's important to have background information of the who, what, where,when, and how of the campaigns, then you want to rail them in by inspiring them to feel motivated to donate and by adding descriptive text and emotion, then it will drive your supporter in and feel connected to your cause. It gives them a reason to feel moved. Convey the message in second person and emphasize how much you need them and how much their support and efforts direct for a solution to the problem. Then lastly call to action which should focus on one specific goal that should use powerful actionable language to encourage immediate action. This technique applies for elevator pitch too except its cuts straight to the point, meaning no small talk, and in less than a 60 seconds or so you deliver. Furthermore, always stay in connection with your supporters whether that is through email, social media or in person. Genuine connections are important and maintain a warm lead; cold leads is when for example, a company calls you out of the blue and tries to get you to hear about their promotion deal. You never contacted them, or showed interest in their products or services and probably felt annoyed after. It's non engaging however, a warm lead is someone who has shown interest in a product or service, and has signed up for your email list, or referred a friend. Moreover, staying in contact with your supporters is key, such as face-to-face interaction because investing time and energy into that small group of people. Purposeful relationships reach people in ways that social media never will. Ask good questions, and listen to the responses by showing genuine interest in the other party if you want them to care at all about what you have to say. You could also have them take surveys, and provide feedback at events. Find out what makes your donors likes and dislikes; what do they care about? Once you understand your donors, you can express genuine interest in helping them engage with your mission in ways that are meaningful to them. And lastly, taking time to say thank you, and sharing real stories of how their generosity and investment have changed or impacts the campaign. Letting them know that they matter, and not just their wallets is purposeful for engagement.
Today I learned about fundraising and what they actually do. Fundraising is the process of building relationships with people, companies, and other organizations who might want to support by donating money to your non-profit. Focusing most of your efforts onto people who will be willing to reach out to your organization and staff that already have a relationship with your current donors, volunteers and friends is a great way to build genuine bonds so they can support. People who get easily offended by rude people, or offended by a harsh no, then that's something to look out for if that's a good fit for you. Having strong communication skills is needed in this field since communicating with people on a regular basis will allow you to build a strong relationship with them. But that's not the only skill to have, you also need to be detail oriented and manage large campaign events. Furthermore, the cool thing about fundraising is the experience and impact, so the first reason you may want to work at a non- profit is because you will be surrounded by top research institutions, who are influential, or well known. Second reason is you will feel like you left a mark on the world, well an organization that felt good; because you perhaps fed them the hungry or raised a lot of money, and developed skills that left you an impact, and gained a lot of experiences you could find yourself creating content for a website or newsletter. You can be a leader amongst others. You can have the opportunities to work with great organizations making a difference in their communities whether that's housing and shelter, employment services,family and children’s services, youth services, emergency assistance, public safety. The only down side with fundraising is they often expect too much from their fundraisers. Also, fundraisers may be overworked, underpaid, and lack the resources to do a good job.
Today I learned about video editing. From sounds and why it's important especially for cinematic from the art process of how to edit. To be in a freelancing job like this, you would need to get the right equipment and some are free and some you have to pay for. But the common equipment is a laptop/ computer, editing software, headphones, and external drive. The pros about having a video editing freelancer job is that you get to work on your own hours and make your own schedule, and learn the material. The cons of having a job like this is you don't get insurance or benefits, and you have to build a portfolio, which can be difficult if you're just starting out, but you have to be motivated to make something into nothing. Freelancing is a creative field which allows you to develop your talents through video editing. These people work in animation, film, commercials, and youtube projects. The pay is pretty good starting from an average of $40 an hour to $14-80 hr and yearly income of 35k-80k. Some editing software are, shortcut, final cut pro x, and adobe premiere pro, to name some. I also learned how to know when exactly to cut a film and usually there's no right way but whoever is cutting the edit/film usually gets an instinctual feel of when to show the next clip. But a trick I learned was when looking into the actors eye, editors cut to direct focus to where they’re looking. Rhythm with how you can tell when cutting is to sometimes have a feel for the characters emotions, and the one editing has to ask themselves what reaction do you want to convey to the people with a cut. Video editing is about having a clear idea about what is the message you want to relay to your viewers and focusing on the simple things first, then choosing the right color scheme and making sure it is high quality. For example color grading is important because it enhances the color of a video or film like if you were to take a video outside at night it would look grainy and crispy but with the right editing tools or color grading it, then you can make the scene look like it was filmed at night.
As I was doing research on nail polish companies I learned that the market size of it is expected to rise due to the rise in millennials' interest in nail art, especially during Covid-19. Not only is the value of nail polish market a 14.3 billion company but it is growing at an annual rate of 6.8 from 2022 to 2030. Also, companies are switching from harsh chemicals to non-toxic and having less chemicals is in demand in the future for nail polish. Furthermore I was doing research on who my competitors are such as Essie, Revlon, Sally Hansen and they are all switching to eco- friendly nail polish. I was trying to understand what made these companies successful. Furthermore, I was researching crystal suppliers to purchase from and came across Crystalrivergem, and how they have affordable bundles of crystals.
Draft
Our mission: Our mission at SKYRA is to create a spiritual branded, cruelty free, long lasting, nail polish company. Each crystal is handpicked and paired with its nail polish color. Our purpose is to ensure that our customers don't experience hash chemicals while enjoying the pigments and keeping their vibrations sky high with its pairing gemstone.
SKYRA is a nail polish company in New York City. The company is owned by partners Emmy Garcia and Lisa Suriel. Emmy is knowledgeable in crystals while Lisa has worked in sales and marketing for six years.
The management of SKYRA is also partnering with “Diamond Cosmetics”, a manufacturer, that consists of building their own nail polish line. And Crystal River Gem, an online gem supplier.
Our service:
Our clients who love all things spiritual are into crystals, astrology, cruelty free products and will love our service. Our nail polish gives a fashion feel to owning your confidence while also enjoying the art of cruelty free, long lasting polish that supplies a variety of nail-colors to choose from alongside crystal to match. All of our products are on our Etsy shop website.
You get to choose our 28 colors alongside crystals that match that color examples of options are:
Amethyst- Purple nail polish
Rose quartz- Light Pink shade
Clear quartz- Base
Carnelian- Orange shade
Bullet points on what I learned today
+Winning people over: everyone matters down to the chef, down to the janitor, mention how their day was, and be interested in who they are as a person. Greet them, you never know who's friends with the CEO of a company
+Be prudent with what you say, don't be the jokester when negotiating
+Don't interrupt let them do the talking when negotiating
+Sell the benefits not the features as long as it's bringing the customers happiness or solving their problem. Sharpen the tool, and stop, don't continue if the tool is worn out
+MVP- the goal is to minimize your cost until achieving profit and begin earning with the least possible financial risk. Ask yourself 1. Does it have enough value that customers want to start using it 2. It should hint at what we’ll produce in the future to keep customers interested. 3. It gives us feedback to learn from, as we refine our products and services. Are you paying attention to the customers' likes, and dislikes with what they are saying, and are you open to making those changes?
Are the products viable meaning allowing your customers to complete an entire task or project and provide a high-quality user experience. Working product that your company should be able to sell.
Today at techie youth I learned about branding and how there are websites to double check a branding name to stay out of trouble when it comes to trademarking. When choosing a brand name as someone else's, you might find yourself accused of violating the competitors legal rights and it could lead to being forced to change your business name and possibly pay money. When starting a business you should search the federal trade mark database to be on the safe side. If you use a trademark that's on the federal register and the trademarker owner sues you, you can be liable for what's called willful infringement which carries more costly penalties than other types of trademark violations. Next I learned about mission statements which is to let people know what the company stands for essentially, what purpose it has for existing. It should accomplish why they exist and what makes them different. An example overall, it should be a short statement. An example of this would be with the brand ‘Honest Tea’ their mission statement is,
“Honest Tea seeks to create and promote great-tasting, healthier, organic beverages. We strive to grow our business with the same honesty and integrity we use to craft our products, with sustainability, and great taste for all.”
Next, I learned how to get money for a startup. And the first thing you shouldn't do is pay out of pocket unless you have the money and the second one is that you should put it in your credit card. But instead find what's called an angel investor and they usually tend to support individuals in their new companies using their own money. Usually you can find these people on google, and they host events to make personal connections with because they would be uninterested in you if you just pitched to them about your idea. Some investors reject a pitch too, because personality doesn't mix, or if you don't have a team or an unbalanced team where everyone knows about the same things such as tech for example but not business. Another way of getting declined is if your team doesn't make a good impression on the investor. And if you ask for too much or too little funding. Or if the market is saturated with your business idea, then investors don't invest.
Components to a executive summary are
I learned what a sole proprietor is, and it's a business entity type that provides significant tax relief. With an S Corporation, you'll have taxation benefits of a sole proprietorship and the personal protections of an LLC. With an LLC, you will have strong personal liability protections such as corporations and beneficial taxes like a partnership. C-corporations are entities that are legally distinct from their shareholders, which protects the personal assets of these shareholders from liability. When choosing a C Corp, be aware that your company will be subject to double taxation. If someone files a lawsuit against a company and wins, if it is a corporation then the lawsuit ruling would normally be limited to taking the company assets which are anything bought using company funds along with income earned by the company that has not yet been dispersed to pay employees/vendors/bills or purchase assets. As an employee or owner of the corporation, the lawsuit normally cannot not harm your personal assets such as your home, vehicle or money in your personal bank accounts, whereas with an sole proprietorship, your personal assets can be targeted. An EIN number is for your business and essential. It's like the SSN to your business/ company. Filing for an EIN is a requirement for corporations to be able to have income. Applying is free, so there is no fee.
Today at techie youth I learned about profit models and revenue streams. Revenue models include things such as market, competitors, value proposition,product proposition, and cost structures. There are many revenue models such as production models which manufacture a product and sell it for a price. Rental models are when you have a property or software or a hardware and you lease out to people for a price. Things to note is that you must have a monetization and revenue model. You can have multiple revenue streams and models. Customers and consumers might be different and revenue impacts all business. Revenue is the amount of money a customer hands to us when they buy a product or service and revenue is the product sold times the price of each item. Profit is the money we make if our revenue is greater than our expenses. To calculate it, profit is just revenue minus expenses. Next, I learned about targeting your market which means how we are getting people to be interested in our product or service. First we need to know what fires us up and pick an audience and run with it. What do people love, what do people want? What are common jobs or problems? And how can your product or service add value or is a solution to the buyer. Understanding your worth/ value and who those customers are is essential for a successful business. Value proposition is a sentence or paragraph that clearly articulates what your service or business or organization does, who it brings value to and why it's valuable to the people. Knowing the who, what, where, why, and how of your target audience. Then the jobs (by figuring out what people do everyday) are functional jobs, social, and emotional jobs. Most people only focus on functional jobs which is work that pays the bills but often customers feel obligated to look good or support other communities and emotional jobs are the work we put in to grow as humans. Also knowing who our competition is in any startup it's important to know who we are up against. While competition is good, it's best to learn from them and observe them so we can be the most profitable too. Taking note of their potential customers and , or is there products in high demand, and taking note of the pricing. Customers will leave reviews and tell you about the gains and pains and essentially how your company can differentiate your product/services. Every startup business should have a co-founder and each person should have a role that plays a part in what they do, and what value they bring to that company. We choose partners when we want knowledge. What key activities are they good at, is the partnership sustainable and helpful to both parties ect. Next, knowing how to plan for an exit strategy is smart to plan out with your partners in a business. An exit strategy is typically the ending of a sort of business. It's when a larger company acquires a smaller competitor. The motivation behind the acquisition was purely to gain customers and reduce competition. the acquirer may replace you and your team with its own people. A strategic acquisition can be an excellent solution for companies that are struggling with succession-planning issues, while a management buyout will work more effectively for teams that want to stay in charge.
Today at techie youth I learned all about all the fundamentals of entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is all about having passion for what you love doing, and making a business out of it; while also having the skills to execute it proficiently. Having an idea on how the market works for the product you put out there and the solutions it can provide for the buyer, is key for what makes a good business. Paying customers are needed. Innovation equals invention times commercialization. Meaning something that generates value to the world equals the idea or tech (invention) times commercialization; how it’s getting attention to the audience or masses. Priceless advice from successful entrepreneurship, that stood out to me are, to come up with ideas daily; don't let others tell you it can't be done; when you try something different, if you’re not having doubts, then you're not pushing the boundaries far enough; you want an idea where you can say, if it sounds like a bad idea but here are specifics as to why it's great; seek criticism, be open to learning from mistakes and push forward. Starting up a business starts with figuring who you are doing it with. You must have partners. Then create a business plan. What does it do, where is it coming from, who are you and who are your customers ect. One needs to understand the market to have a marketing approach. How are you getting the customers to buy your product through distribution channels like amazon? There are many myths out there that can make one feel paralyzed on starting a business but in all truth, it just starts with beginning, beginning the research, the plan, the ideas, and the drive to make it happen.
There are two kinds of skills to have, one is the skill of your job, which you went to school, training, or volunteered at, and the second form of skill you can have is communication, skills, teamwork and adaptability. The second skill is a bit harder to do, because it takes time and experience to be an effective communicator or leader. The five keys/importance of being an entrepreneur is communication, sales, focus, and ability to learn. Communication is important, especially public speaking because people need to be interested in what you have to say. You want to be able to project your voice so people know what you're saying, you can't be timid or afraid of public speaking. When giving a presentation if you pause or forget what you’re saying or have technical issues, just keep going or ask the audience questions. Be engaging with your body language and with the audience. Your ability to speak well and write well in groups, or with peers is essential for having a successful business. The next one is sales, meaning the ability to sell anything and everything. Entrepreneurs need to sell ideas to potential investors, the product or service to customers and themselves to employees. Next is focus, entrepreneurs will face ups and downs in their careers, and they need to be aware by remaining focused on the task. When things get tough it is important to push themselves to achieve it. That ties to having the ability to learn, is required for success because failure is just a learning process and helps one's knowledge and understanding of what it means to run a business. To conclude, entrepreneurs achieve success through their strengthening of being an effective communicator, sales skills, having a deep focus, and ability to learn.
Today at techie youth I learned about networking, and tips to help with making connections. The first way to go about it is joining an event where you can meet people and socialize with. At a conference or event for example always look at their name tags and google who they are before talking to them or making contact. Once you start talking and they can't help you, the way you exit the convo is by being straight forward; say I would like to talk to this other person or say I have somewhere to get to. When you do make meaningful connections, ask for their business card. When you collect business cards, you might forget who they are. Always have enough business cards and put notes on the card or pick a pocket of cards that matter, and another one for those who can't help you or you have little interest in. And if these people are speakers or the head person, never approach them before they are preparing for a presentation, but do be the first person to talk with them after. Make or try to leave a strong impression. Take the business card and reach out within 24 hrs and email them with what was spoken about or ask a question. Don't pitch right away, make small conversations first then move on to business. With networking, always provide something you can offer them and do it for free. Connect with someone who's doing something similar to you. Mistakes people often make are not following up, not offering help and asking for a favor based on getting something you want. Moreover, I learned about scams and how people are targeted for remote jobs, and ways to avoid it. Always do a quick google search on the company with ‘scam, complaint, or review’ attached to it. Always read the fine print on every opportunity before you sign up or provide personal information. If a job/ career role sounds unrealistic, then it's most likely a scam, for example if they are giving you a greater salary, then it may sound too good to be true because an employer has to pay more than necessary to employ someone who can otherwise accept the same job for less money. So always be on the lookout for offers that “sound too good, to be true” but also those that logically don't make sense. If they require money upfront or don't need a resume or any qualifications then it's most likely a scam.
Today at techie youth I learned how to Master a job interview by researching about the company and understanding the company goals, and how your background would make you the perfect fit. Next, always be prepared to practice common interview questions the day before the interview. The day of the interview, show up at least fifteen minutes early and have a paper and pen with you and an additional resume with you. Be prepared to answer questions about your past and what situations you were put in and how you solved them. Then initially tie it to how you are a good candidate for the company you’re applying for and how your skills can help the company. I also learned what not to say at interviews such as not to ask about salary right up at front, instead hold off on. Another one, is to focus on accomplishments that would be within the recent few years and not something that happened 10 years ago. Next, always have questions after the interview to ask such as what to expect, the role, and dynamic on the team ect. I also learned about leadership. Like working smarter not harder by thinking through what you're doing, to accomplish the goal. When you want something ask for it, don't be timid, because leaders have strength to be clear and direct. And when you negotiate a deal, ask for the sale. Because people want to give it to you, they don't want to turn you down. That goes hand in hand with never being afraid to ask for the job after the interview. Most people are afraid of rejection or don't know how to ask, and others don't think they have to ask. But at the end of the day, it sets you apart and leaves an impression on the person hiring you.
Today at techie youth I learned how to properly write out a check and to always record for every check you write in a check register. That way you know where your money goes, and detect fraud and identity theft. I learned what it means to endorse a check, which is a check sent to you and you hand it over to your bank so they can authorize it to collect a payment. I also learned about checking accounts and saving accounts along with different types of bankings. Charles Schwab which is an option for a checking account both locally and globally has no ATM fees. And that's really nice especially when traveling or just for everyday use. This stood out to me because ATM’s are almost everywhere and anywhere, more than some banks where we need to commute to. And fees can be really annoying. Moreover, I learned how to make a cover letter and the main points that stood out to me were to basically tell them why you’re interested in the company. And tell them why you are a good candidate for the position in their company. You want to make it clear what you want them to do and what you’re going to do, and tell them about how you're a strong candidate, by giving a list of accomplishments from your experience. Also in the cover letter the word use “i” should be avoided and instead replaced with the word “you” because the company cares about their issue and challenges they have, and wants to hear what you can do for them, by being bold and stating your opinion. Not by using “I think” but by addressing what you will do, and can do, in a self confident way. And lastly, based on an article I read, 79% of people have been rejected from potentially getting hired based on their social media due to what they have found. And in my opinion, that percentage was shocking. It really does matter what you share online.
Today at techie youth I learned how to manage my money and time management. I can track my expenses by keeping track of what I buy and earn. I can cut back on things I don't need such as cable/tv or any distractions and instead find ways to make more money to then invest that money. Along side that I learned about time management, such as how to gain control of your free time and use it to benefit you in the long run, by being hypo productive; doing something productive everyday, learning a new skill, that you can obtain for fun, or to make a profit, or both. when we use our time wisely we make space for what we want instead of being distracted on things that won't make us money. Also, schedules are a great way for time management. Like making a schedule everyday or having the week scheduled out, turning off notifications, prioritizing on the things you want to procrastinate on because usually if we tackle smaller things first we run out fuel to tackle the main important stuff. Also scheduling a 15 minute break is important after every hour to refreshen. And last rewarding ourselves. Moreover not only are these things helpful, but they are good for our mental health which I also learned today. Eating right, exercising, breath work, and the right amount of sleep is essential for our overall health.