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Awesome Roofing Contractors

When I got out of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I knew that college wasn’t for me just yet. It wasn’t that I wasn’t smart enough, but that my parents didn’t have the money to pay my tuition, and I didn’t want to take out student loans. Plus I didn’t know what I wanted to do. It would be a waste for me to take out a loan and have no direction whatsoever. My uncle owned a Nashville roofing repair company and asked me to come work with him for the time being.

My parents and I talked about it, and we all decided that this would be a great way to gain life experience and save money for college in the future if I wanted to go in a few years. Even though I had been getting up and going to school for years, a Nashville roofing job was completely different. My uncle told me I wouldn’t be getting any special treatment. In fact, he said he was going to be even tougher on me than the rest of his roofing crew.

I thought I was in great shape to be on the roof and to use a hammer, but the days were long and hot. I soon found out just how much work these men did. I was amazed at how fast they were, and even though they were patient with me, I knew I needed to speed up my work. The roofing crew taught me a few tricks to help me get faster while still producing quality work.

I never knew how much math was involved in roofing, as well as how much a roof in Nashville costs, and even a little science. When I thought about a roof, I pretty much lumped all material in the same category. However, there are actually a lot of different options to choose from and they all perform in a different way. So many people choose the roof they want based on looks, but since I’ve had this job, I’ve learned that I want strength and quality materials over style. But everyone is different, and my uncle says the more I learn, the more I’ll change my mind.

Two years later I still work with my uncle and in two more years I’ll have enough money saved to go to school and get a degree in business. In the winter when business is slower, I’ve been able to take night classes to get a head start. When I get out of school, I hope to help expand my uncles roofing business. He said he would hire me in a second to be a supervisor because I’ve been in the trenches and done the hard labor, so he knows I would be fair.

I’m so glad I made the right decision for myself and waited to go to college until I had some real world experience. While I know my body wouldn’t be able to perform roofing duties until it was time to retire, I’ll never forget my years working on the roof.

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Field of Web Development

When I decided to go into the field of web development all of my friends thought I was a bit nerdy. Of course, this was years ago when very few people were interested in Nashville web design. The people that I did know that were going into this line of work did it for large companies. Personally, I wanted to start my own business and loved designing elements for websites and small businesses. I knew there was a good future in web design, but there was a lot for me to learn. What I really loved about web design was that I was able to enhance a company’s brand. Because I had become so skilled in HTML I was able to get more accomplished and had a better range than many other people in my industry. The difference between my competitors and me was that I knew a lot of code by heart because I spent so much time memorizing it. What took some people an hour or more to do, I could do faster, thus making my services more valuable.

Another skill that I had acquired of the years was the use of colors. I really had the edge on what colors worked and what colors didn’t for a particular company. There were so companies that would come to me and want to use bold colors that just didn’t suit the personality they were trying to get across. Others would want soft colors when they needed to make a bigger statement. I just had a knack for choosing the colors that would enhance the logo and branding that they were trying to get across. After all, if your company logo doesn’t look professional and represent your brand, then potential clients and customers may not take you as seriously.

I also have a lot of knowledge about the web, how it works, and how to correct web design problems that can occur. I understand the importance of having a design that works for every outlet whether it is a mobile device or desktop. I even make sure that the designs will look good billboards, business cards and letterheads. I try to go beyond the web and allow all applications to be able to use the design.

One of the skills I have found the most valuable though has nothing to do with web design at all. It’s my ability to listen to my clients and market myself to the appropriate people. The services I offer are not for every business and I want to make sure that I don’t just get a lot of clients, I want quality clients that I enjoy working with. That is where my marketing and listening skills have come in so handy. I usually know right away if I am a good fit for a client. And when I am writing my sales pitches, I always keep those quality clients in mind. With the web design skills listed above I have been very successful and happy in my career.

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Are you ready for CPR class?

It wasn’t until I found myself helpless in a situation at the movie theater I manage that I decided it was time to take a first response class. We were lucky that there was a doctor in the theater when the emergency happened. However, it got me thinking about all of the people out there that should get certified in CPR. I never thought in a million years that I would need a first response skill while working in a movie theater. I started talking to my staff about taking the course, we were fortunate to find CPR classes Nashville tn.

Many people thought that CPR was only a skill that doctors and nurses needed, but as I did some research I soon discovered that many more people in jobs like mine could benefit greatly to being certified in CPR. I started looking around everything that was going on in my daily job and saw birthday parties on a daily basis with kids of all ages. Daycare workers surely needed to be certified in CPR, but when they were having birthday parties and celebrations in my theater, then I am the one looking after them. Of course, I trust the parents that are supervising them are able to properly take care if a situation happened, but what if they couldn’t? They would come running to me panicked and expect me to be able to do something, just like that day when I was in the helpless situation.

It also made me think of how much the world has changed these days, and there have actually been many tragic events occur in movie theaters. The better trained to handle these emergency situations, the better off the people that work with me will be, as well as those who frequent our theater. Just because someone works in a medical field like a nurse, dentist, or deal with emergency situations often like a police officer and EMT’s does not mean that they are the only ones that should be skilled in CPR and first response techniques.

When I approached my boss about making the move to have our entire staff take a first response class, he was not thrilled with the idea. He said that the turnover in our industry would not be worth the cost of sending every new employee to the class. So, I reevaluated my plan and went back and asked if we could make sure all managers took the first response class in order to ensure that there was always someone on duty that would be able to perform CPR if a situation happened. He was much more open to this, and signed us all up for the class, including himself.

It was impressive how much we learned in the class and how to handle a first response situation. We put a plan in place in case an emergency ever occurred and made sure that all employees who were certified in CPR were listed in the employee lounge, so if anything ever happened, they would know exactly who to go to. We had always had a poster that had the proper steps to take when someone is choking, but this offers much more security.

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Buying A New Car?

I have always been passionate about cars and once I decided that I wanted to work for a car dealership, I was amazed at how much I loved it. You know I live in Cleveland, TN and cars for sale in Cleveland TN is a big business. Every day I help people find the cars of their dreams. For some they want a more practical choice and others want something that will turn heads. Here are a few ways that I’ve found to help people when they are choosing a car.

The first thing I do is I listen to all of their needs and wants. Some people want a two-door car that is fire engine red and goes from zero to sixty in seconds. Others need a van that can carry their four kids, two dogs, and an occasional family member or friend. I soak in everything they are saying. I patiently listen, but in my head I am coming up with all of the options that could easily fit their needs.

Once they have told me what they would love to have, I ask them a lot of questions. I hate when I give someone what the want, and a week later they bring it back because it is not what they need. Most people buying a car need to talk it out. Yes, a small sports car will work for some, but if they have a family of four, when they get home with impulse car they bought, their spouse is going to make them come right back to the car dealership.

I prevent this with my questions by finding out their main purposes for driving. If they say taking the kids to school and going to the mountains with their dogs, then I find something that is similar to what they want, but in a more practical way. I also ask them questions about what they would like to pay. As a car sales person, I don’t want anyone to be stuck in a poor financial situation because they shopped with their eyes only. It’s important to me that they get a quality car at a price they can afford. If the model they want isn’t in their price range, it’s okay because I always have a lot of other options for them to choose from.

After I have listened to them and I have asked them all of the right questions, we generally have it narrowed down to a few cars that they are ready to test-drive. I always guide them when showing them the features that are specific to each car and watch their reactions. Some features will impress an individual more than others. At times, they don’t even realize how helpful they’ll be until I explain the usefulness of them.

Selling cars is a passion of mine and I have had people come to me over and over again with their car buying needs. I have become a solution for them and that brings me happiness everyday at work. Co-workers have taken notice and often ask me how I do it. I never try to hide my methods because I love working on a team.

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Landscaping With Passion

When my father gave me his commercial rental property to run, I thought that it was going to be easy. Boy was I wrong! At first I tried to do everything myself from fixing toilets to collecting rent to taking care of the landscape. But then a huge storm rolled through and the slope of the property washed away so much of the landscape that I had worked so hard to make look good. It was no longer a one-man job and I knew that I had to call a local  Brentwood landscaping company.

When they came to care for the landscape of my commercial property, they had a lot of suggestions for how I could make life easier on myself. Because of the sloped property I was on, I needed to have somewhere for the water to go when it rained. I had noticed that the water was starting to build up at the far corner.

It took less than a week for them to get the landscape back in order after the storm and correct issues that I had been neglecting because I was spread so thin doing other things. Once the job was complete, I asked if I could use their services on a regular basis. I could tell I had found an incredible company that knew exactly what they where they were doing.

When my apartment tenants saw the incredible paver patio seating area that the landscapers had built, many of them personally called and thanked me for such a wonderful place that they could have gatherings at. I was even invited to a birthday party by one of my tenants.

When I was at the party, I loved that the tree rings could be used as extra seating, but I did notice one thing that was missing. I called the landscape company that was doing an incredible job for my building and asked if they could build an easy to use outdoor kitchen for my tenants. Being at the birthday party made me feel bad because the food was being prepared on the tenth floor and multiple people had to leave to carry all of the items up and down the elevators and stairs.

Once the professional landscape company built the outdoor kitchen, my tenants were thrilled! In fact, there is a waiting list now to get an apartment in the building I own. I am even able to charge new tenants more money because they inquire about my commercial property because of the quality it offers, not because of the price.

The landscapers have also created a flower garden and a seating area that people can go relax in and walk through. I love knowing that I have added to the quality of life for so many of my tenants. While I still do a lot of work around my building, I no longer focus on the landscaping part of it. I leave that to the professionals because the value they have added to my property has paid for itself many times over.

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Information Technology Firm

I used to work for an Information Technology Firm until I decided to branch out on my own. We also worked with a managed it services Nashville company. However, the company I worked for would not allow me to take any of my current work with me. They offered me a fantastic reference and testimonial for my website, but other than that it was time to start rebuilding my portfolio from scratch. I didn’t have a problem doing this since I had years of experience in many different areas of IT. There were a few crucial elements that I needed to add to my portfolio.

The first thing I decided was that I needed to showcase the amount of hardware I have worked on. Luckily, I did a lot of work at my home office and I actually had quite a bit that I could demonstrate for potential clients. I wanted to be sure that I showed that I could not only offer technical support, software development and the basic technology inner workings.

I went into great detail in my portfolio about my ability to enhance how emails in the workplace can be more effective, easier to organize, and faster. I specialized in making emails a better way to communicate through smart phones, tablets, as well as desktops and laptops. As a database specialist I was in charge of a lot of different aspects of the company that I worked for. I was very focused in making sure everyone was comfortable with the systems that were used on a daily basis. After all, the tools that people used throughout their workday were only effective if they saved people time and they understood how to use them.

Another skill that had to come through in my portfolio was my ability to communicate on an advanced level, as well as in a way that was very understandable. My job was one that could get extremely technical at times and the amount of jargon that was associated with it was a lot for people to take. I wanted to prove that I could talk to others who were in the information technology field and I could also talk to those that had no idea what IT was. I was always amazed that this was a skill very few people had, but was one of the most valuable when training people how to use specific software.

My portfolio was almost complete. I had a fantastic reference from my previous employer, a way to showcase that I was well versed in hardware and software, and that I had the communications skills to speak to people on all levels. The last skill that I wanted to showcase in my portfolio was my ability to write a pamphlet and directions. My writing needed to be information when it came to specific IT subjects, as well as engaging and understandable. I wanted everyone to be able to understand it. Once I had everything completed, I was confident to go out and market myself. And this was the most exciting part of it all!

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Services of a Bookkeeper

Did you know that you don’t have to own a business to enlist the services of a bookkeeper? When my family came into a large deal of money, we moved into a bigger home in Nashville, bought more vehicles, and started donating to charities, working in community service, and taking a few vacations here and there. Pretty soon we lost control of our finances and had no idea what was coming in and what was going out. We had four people pulling money from the same account and no one knew what the other person was doing. We found out really quickly that we needed a Nashville accountant.

I finally made the executive decision that we needed to hire a bookkeeper to help us understand how to manage our money so it would last us a long time, and we would still have some for our grandchildren in the future. Everyone resisted at first because they were so used to spending money when they wanted. However, I told them that we needed to get control and start cutting back.

Our bookkeeper was able to break down our expenses based on category. Then she took it one step further and put those in order of importance. We soon found that we were spending a lot of unnecessary money because we weren’t communicating with one another. We had two and three of items that we only needed on of.

We were all donating to different charities but no one was getting receipts for taxes. In fact, our son was donating to charities and then forgetting what they were called. The bookkeeper helped us start communicating again about what we really wanted to do with our newfound wealth. Once we developed a plan together as a family, our bookkeeper was able to provide us with a system that we could work with. We learned how to capture receipts from the different places we went, and we finally understood what helped us during tax season and what hurt us.

It was also must easier when we paid our monthly bills. It was amazing that we had the money to pay the bills, but we didn’t have a system, so some of them would get ignored for a month or two until the company called us. Our bookkeeper was able to stay on top of it, so we never missed a making a monthly payment again. We also reviewed the amount of money we paid for services around the home such as landscaping and plumbing. I had never though about it before, but just wrote a check and assumed the work was good.

Since hiring a bookkeeper to manage my family’s expenses, our quality of life and communication skills have improved. We understand the cost of our actions and pay more attention to our spending. We review our books with our bookkeeper and my son is even thinking about going into accounting when he goes to college next year. It’s been a wild year, but I feel that we are finally getting back to normal and our organized books are the main reason why.