Biz Talk - Business Blog Roanoke and Beyond

Will work for food, gas, rent… I am a young college graduate from southwest Virginia looking for employment in Roanoke.  I am looking for a professional job to pay for food, gas and rent.  If you are hiring please call me for an interview.

Sound familiar?  This is a scenario familiar to our young professionals living and wanting to stay in Roanoke.  But, without years of experience how many Roanoke businesses will give them a chance?  This is a sad situation in our current local job market.  We are losing talented young adults to areas within a 3 hour drive of Roanoke.  They are relocating to NC and Northern Virginia.

Brandon Turner touched on the situation in his article in the Roanoke Times.  Turner wrote "Here is a question for businesses: How do you realistically expect my generation to gain experience if nobody will hire us?"  So what can we do to retain these young professionals in the Roanoke area?  Stuart Mease offered a perspective of the job seeker on his blog, Connecting People. 

Roanoke businesses need to rethink their employment strategy. Hiring and training college graduates allow the region and the workforce to grow and build a sustainable workforce. The solution is in your hands!!

Last week I was asked to provide a letter of recommendation for a service I had received.  I immediately responded that I would be happy to write a testimonial because I was very pleased with the service.  A week has now passed and I still have not written the testimonial I promised. Why am I procrastinating?  …because it takes my valuable time and that is unfair to the this service provider. 

Many businesses use testimonials as part of their marketing strategy.  But that being said, getting a written testimonial can be a tedious and exhausting task.  Is there an easier way to get a recommendation? 

LinkedIn is a fast growing social networking platform that provides online networking for business professionals.  If you are not already a part of LinkedIn, you have probably been exposed or received invitations to join a colleagues LinkedIn network.  Success Magazine says if you're not already linkedin "Chances are your competition is".

LinkedIn members have an opportunity to recommend service providers, colleagues, and business partners.  You can make a personal recommendation for a contact that can be viewed in their profile.  You can actually request a recommendation from your network of connections.  The more recommendations you have the higher placement your profile will have in the search results. In other words, in my earlier post about your online identity, when you are googled you will be a stud not a dud.

Here are some other ways to use LinkedIn.

ADOPT THE WORK ETHIC YOUR GRANDPARENTS HAD…

A price to be paid for success.  Almost invariably those who have reached the summits worked harder and longer, studied and planned more assiduously, practiced more self-denial, overcame more difficulties than those of us who have not risen so far. — Barry C Forbes

You must adopt a strong employment work ethic if you are to become a highly valued employee.  Most employees and young professionals say they have a strong work ethic.  Most managers disagree.  As Dr. Phil would say, you have to "get real" about your work ethic if you want to become a highly valued employee.

You don't need to work yourself to death to become a highly valued employee.  You also don't need to become a workaholic.  You do need to create a strong work ethic.  Instead of wasting time looking for shortcuts to success that don't exist, take the path less taken.  That path is good old-fashioned hard work.  Attitudes toward work have changed as different generations have come and gone and hard work got a bad reputation along the way.  Regardless of your generation, hard work is a necessity if you're to become a highly valued employee.  Push your limits and you'll be amazed at how much you can grow and thereby increase your value in the employment and job market.

White collar or blue, hard-working people and young professionals bring pride, honor and dignity to a job well done.

Contributing Author - Donna Tatum

Have a Free Lunch with Professional Network Services & learn how your business can understand and leverage the powerful VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) applications in the Avaya IP Office Telephone Platform. Work From Anywhere (Out of office access eliminated)

• One Number access (publish one number for internal & external callers)
• Desktop Communication applications (eliminate expensive telephones)
• SoftConsole (GUI for Call Handling, visibility of users status from PC)
• Station to Station calling between locations (eliminate long distance $)
• Advanced Call Distribution (ACD) (Powerful ACD features & reporting)

When:  Tuesday, July 24th
Time: 11:30 – 1:30
Location: Professional Network Services
6711 Peters Creek Road
Suite 204
Roanoke, VA 24019 

Register and attend the “LUNCH & LEARN” session hosted by Professional Network Services to see the benefits and cost effectiveness of Avaya’s IP Office Telephone platform.   

To Register: Please contact Gary Klik @ 540-265-1200 ext. 211 or e-mail info@pnsinc.net  or FAX 540-265-1204.  Call today, Seating is limited to the first 10 recipients

A successful business owner is always looking for ways to improve marketing strategies and business development.  The Virginia Economic Bridge is a great resource for Virginia businesses.  It is a non-profit organization focused on creating an environment for economic growth in today's technologically advanced society.  The VEB promotes economic vitality and external competitiveness of the Commonwealth by fostering business, industry and educational relationships between Southwest Virginia, Northern Virginia, as well as other areas of the Commonwealth.

Carl Mitchell, President of Virginia Economic Bridge, shared many tools his organization has made available to the southwest Virginia business community at the Roanoke Biz2Biz Leaders Forum "Creating a Regional Presence". 

The VEB has recently partnered with Center/Council for Rural Virginia and the Virginia Association of Counties in organizing meetings in all southwest Virginia planning districts.  Accessing New Markets and Enabling Rural Business Growth, the meeting for Roanoke-Alleghany district is scheduled for July 26 at Virginia Western Community College.  To learn more about these meetings and to see a complete schedule with locations, check out OurValley.org. 

More on Creating a Regional Presence and Strategic Marketing Opportunties