The Street | How to Make Your Own Part-Time Job
Struggling to pay your monthly bills or perhaps looking to earn some extra spending cash? Certified Financial Planner Sophia Bera recommends you look at the myriad of creative, fun and interesting part-time work opportunities that can help you earn anywhere from a hundred to a thousand extra dollars each month.
Before you dive into a side-project, ask yourself: what am I good at?
Once you’ve identified what skills to sell, Bera suggests turning to online workplaces likeElance.com or oDesk.com for online freelance job opportunities or post your availability on Craigslist for local, in-person tasks. Before you know it, your moonlighting gig very well may become a small business.
HBR Blog | Everything You Need to Know About Giving Negative Feedback
One of the most difficult parts about being a manager is delivering negative feedback to your team and to date, there have been a number of conflicting approaches recommended from “have the conversation away from the office, over lunch” to “schedule a meeting during office hours and do not hint that bad news is coming.”
Thankfully, HBR Senior Editor Sarah Green did the legwork for us and compiled the best, research- and experience-based advice.
She suggests scheduling regular check-ins with your team to maintain an open feedback loop, presenting actionable next steps to correct the issue at hand, and delivering the bad news on its own; there’s nothing worse (or confusing) than hearing good news, followed by bad news, with more good news to wrap things up.
Fast Company | Working from Home is Awesome—if you do it Right
The results are in: people want to work from home and Fast Company editor Samantha Coleshares a pro-con list for the growing number of professionals considering taking their work home. Because working from home is typically fraught with distractions and temptations, it’s important to set boundaries and force a daily routine.
Knowing that casual conversations at the water cooler will stop, as will office banter with colleagues, professionals working from home can choose an environment that is very quiet (home) or perhaps a bit more lively (a coffee shop); the advantage is in charge. And speaking of being in control, professionals who work from home on average gain an hour back every day because of skipping the commute.
Tech Cocktail | How to Help Remote Freelancers Make a Living With Your Product
The number of professionals electing to freelance is growing thanks to 365/24/7 connectivity. Businesses all over the world are working with freelancers from the U.S., Europe, Central and Eastern Asia, Latin and South America, and the Middle East to handle a number of projects—from building websites and updating code bases, to designing logos and writing blog content.
To continue this movement, says Eran Karoly, COO of Tipalti, there are two important factors: “providing [freelancers] the ability to complete the work they are assigned to do and paying them on time.”
The oDeskers 