morrisgelblum - Tumblr blog

[morrisgelblum]

Sweeps Updates, July 18th 2013

Sweeps Updates,

Thank you to all the Sweepers who have helped us in our busiest few months ever.  Some news:

We need more Sweepers!

We have too many open jobs!  Please tell your friends and anyone else that needs work.

Some of our open jobs:

Rent, or help us rent this 4br CH home for August and get rewarded: 

Cook gluten, dairy, sugar free meals in Chapel Hill

Moves on July 20th, 23rd, 26th, 27th, 29th, 31st, August 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 18th!!

We're Hiring

Full-time Operations Position

Interns

Recruiting Intern

Social Media & PR Intern

Sweeps Foundation Intern

Ruby on Rails Developer

Strikes Policy

Effective today, we are implementing a strikes system for negative reviews or breaking Sweeps policies.  We will be following a 2 strikes you're out policy.  Read more here

Sweeps Gear

We have Sweeps Tees and Hats!  Message us to come pick up or we will mail them to you for free

That's all for this week, please get in touch with info@sweeps.jobs or otherwise contact us with questions or to pursue any of these opportunities.

  Thanks!

  Morris 

[morrisgelblum]

Sweeps Updates, July 1st 2013

Sweepers,

Thank you for a very busy June, and happy 4th of July this week!

Rain

Chapel Hill just had the rainiest day ever.  This will create opportunities for work, but also make them more hazardous.  

A few simple tips:

Wear (or go get new) shoes with good rubber grips.  Moving truck ramps can be particularly dangerous.

Wear gloves

Communicate well and often with your partners

Recruiting

We need more Sweepers!  Please tell your friends to join, email your listserv, or post on Facebook and Twitter to get folks to join!

We are also hiring interns:

Social Media and PR: share the Sweeps story with the world.

Sweeps Campus Intern: help us get classes, events, tech repair, and more started at the Sweeps Campus!

Open Jobs

We need to recruit because we are having trouble filling some jobs like:

Need sales reps for around 10 hours per week and maybe more to make cold calls for an event software startup in Chapel Hill.

Need a piano tutor in Hillsborough or on UNC's campus.

Need someone for data entry with Quicken in Raleigh.

We need 4 tenants in this house, help us and get $200!

Sweeps Campus

We need Sweepers to help lead our initiatives for:

Classes

Tech Repair

Woodshop

Events and SweepsFest

If you are interested in any of the above, please email in...@sweeps.jobs or call us.

Thanks all!

Morris 

[morrisgelblum]

Sweeps Updates, June 18th 2013

Sweepers:

Get a sneak peek of our Sweeps Works video, starring Quentin, Katie, Jim, and Zoya -- four of our fantastic Sweepers. Another Sweeper, McCauley Peeler, directed, filmed, and edited this exceptional video.Thanks to all for making this happen, and be one of the first to watch the video here.

We are planning a fundraiser dinner for the Ronald McDonald house on June 29th.  More details to come, but if you would like to be a part of this event, please get in touch with us and be on the lookout for a formal invitation.  

If you know of people, families, or organizations that are in need of or deserve help, please let us know. Sweepers may volunteer their time, receive a gift certificate, or get paid to work these service jobs. Effective immediately, we will donate four Sweeper hours per week. To determine how and where we can do the most good, we request your nominations. Fill out a nomination form to suggest a person or organization in need, and let us know if you want to be a part of this mission.

We are seeking a PR and Social Media intern now for the remainder of the summer.  Please apply at joinsweeps.com or email ap...@sweeps.jobs

Outdoor Nation (www.outdoornation.org), in partnership with the Department of Parks and Recreation, will host a summit  June 29-30 on UNC-Chapel Hill's campus as well as at Jordan Lake.  Email in...@sweeps.jobs to learn more or attend.

Open Jobs:

Need folks to help with a move this Saturday at 7:30am.  If anyone on this thread is in DC, or has friends that may be interested up there let us know!

Make sales calls for an event biz.  Start this Thursday at 10am, could become a part, even full-time job.

Keep up the good work, and thank you all!

Morris 

[morrisgelblum]

Sweeps Updates, June 11th 2013

June 11th Sweeps Updates

Have a father's day present yet?  It's this Sunday.  If not, check out our Father's Day SWEEPstakes at our facebook page, and just like and share the image to have a chance to win 4 hours to Sweeps, $50 to Top of the Hill, and a High Cotton Bowtie!

We need teachers for Sweeps Classses.  Just fill out our teacher signup form to teach and endorse yourself for anything from photography to lacrosse to yoga to web design.  You will get paid $10 per student that signs up for just 1 hour of your time teaching.  

Help us rent this 4 br house in Chapel Hill and get $200!

Open Jobs

Move in Creedmoor soon

Drive your truck or another to Seattle!

June 20th CH move

5 moves on June 22nd all over Triangle

Event help at awesome party on June 22nd pm

Sweeps Videos coming

Love to throw parties and events?  Help us with the SweepsFest scheduled for later this summer!

Sweeps tee shirts and hats ordered!

Thanks for all the work, please email mor...@sweeps.jobs if you are interested in helping us get any of this done.

  Morris 

[morrisgelblum]

Sweeps Updates 6.5.2013

Sweepers, 

Great news, May 2013 was our busiest month ever, thank you for all the hard work!

We are also about to finish some initiatives, and get started on others:

Classes are live!  Join as a teacher and get paid $10 per student that signs up teaching what you love, or sign up for classes and learn from the beset.  Anything from photography to web design to wrestling, sign up to teach and we will spread the word to get students signed up.

Sign up to teach here

See our available classes here (will be filled out based on YOUR submissions).

SweepsFest is going to happen!  In a band?  Like to party?  Love to throw events?  Help us get the SweepsFest rolling, a music and fun festival we are just starting to work on scheduled for the end of the semester

Father's Day Sweepstakes going live tomorrow, look out for it and enter to win some badass prizes.

Sweeps 2.0 coming, starting with a new way to post a job, and the next phase a new way to join and show your skills.  Will link to them soon, or get in touch with us to help/get involved.

Open Jobs:

Wash/wax Chapel Hill Motorhome on June 7th am

Load Uhaul in Winston-Salem on Friday, June 7th afternoon

Get paid $200 if you refer the person that rents this house

Sweeps Meetup TODAY at 6pm, join us 

[morrisgelblum]

Sweeps Updates May 28th: Classes, Sweeps 2.0, Surveying, Sweeps Gear, and more

Thanks all for the great work, 15 Sweepers are working tomorrow, and many more the rest of the week.  Special thank you to all those who have or currently serve in the armed force for all that you do.  

If you are interested in anything in the following email, please reply to morris@sweeps.jobs.

Here are some highlights recently: 

Sweeps 2.0 Development Begins: we are in the planning phase of Sweeps 2.0, a totally redone system of posting jobs, joining, being awarded jobs, messaging, payments...essentially the whole system.  To learn more or help, email morris@sweeps.jobs

Classes: Our current plan is to allow Sweepers and others to teach classes nearly everyday at the Sweeps Campus on the topics they are great at.  Anything from photography to Wordpress to lacrosse to entrepreneurship to yoga to...Email morris@sweeps.jobs if you are interested in being a teacher or have other feedback.

Surveying: Anyone interested in surveying or market research?  We are working on a branch of Sweeps that partners with companies and potentially professors seeking to do research on milennials through surveys and interviews of Sweepers.

Sweeper Stories Alex L: Alex is riding across the country this summer on his bike and raising money for David Shannon.  Learn more about his journey here. 

 Job Postings: see financial job opening profile below, get a job if this describes you, get a finder's fee if this describes a friend.

Help us rent this awesome house and get $200.  4 br for $3000 in Chapel Hill right off  Mccauley

First job in NYC!  It was my cousin's wedding, but it still counts, thanks to Brendan H. for connecting us with Marissa who worked the job.  We actually have another open NYC job to install shelves in a kitchen if anyone is, or knows folks that may be interested.

Sweeps Campus Open to work from.  We have too much space here.  Let us know if you want to work on your projects here, or if you are part of startups that might.  

Congratulations to the UNC Women's Lacrosse team upon winning the national championship, and the UNC Baseball team earning a  #1 seed.  

Sweeps Gear: ordering shirts and hats tomorrow!  

This and previous posts are posted weekly at my blog.http://bit.ly/11wCDB3

Thanks again to all!

  Morris

Job Description 1: Finance

Young, assertive person who is interested in business, specifically real estate.  Preferably a business school or economics major especially if they are coming out of the MAC program or an equivalent.  This person would be learning from our current CFO how to manage & account for the finances of our various companies, since we own a few and each property is managed as individual business.  Since our current CFO will continue to work with us for a few years, this position would not represent a full time job.  Thus, to fill the extra capacity, we would be looking for this person to also be the Regional / Asset Manager for our portfolio of properties (currently 4 assets).  

This will require someone who is assertive, willing to give direction, etc...  This asset management portion of the job might sound somewhat intimidating to someone who has never been in the business, yet property / asset management is mostly common sense along with some guidance from myself, Brad & our CFO.  For our business, a CFO works closely with property / asset management as the financials of the properties tie closely in with the overall operations.  Thus, it is important to have someone that is strong in both the accounting arena in addition to management.

Our goal would be to phase our current CFO out as he approaches retirement with this new person or in other terms, this new young buck would be groomed for our CFO position.  Thus, it will have to a good match.

Job Description 2: Computer Science

Thanks! I was a Teach For America corps member and taught at Northampton County HS in the NE part of the state for 2 years. I taught HS biology and chemistry before coming to Carolina to pursue my MPH degree. 

Now, two of my fellow TFA corps members who are both UNC alumni have received state funding to run a 4-week summer STEM program this summer. Students will attend 1 period of math, 1 period of science, and 2 periods of computer programming/website design each day for the 4 weeks. We hope that students will learn to code and design basic websites for small businesses in the area.

Therefore, we are looking for undergraduates with computer programming/website design skills who are willing to commit to working 6 weeks this summer to teach 60 HS kids the basics of computer coding/Drupal (June 24th through August 2nd). The position would pay $2500-$3500 given the individual's level of experience. Housing is provided in Roanoke Rapids, NC. Transportation can be arranged from the housing site to Northampton County HS each day if needed.

This position is ideal for anyone who is qualified and interested in applying to Teach For America in future years.

[morrisgelblum]

Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It’s inevitable if you’re honourable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: You’ll avoid the tough decisions, you’ll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you’ll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset. Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad, and by treating everyone equally “nicely” regardless of their contributions, you’ll simply ensure that the only people you’ll wind up angering are the most creative and productive people in the organization.

Colin Powell

[morrisgelblum]

Digital Marketing

Not mine, but I certainly find this infographic useful.

[morrisgelblum]

Triangle Design and Development Shops

Web and Mobile design and development is hard, and expensive.  It is probably even harder to hire top notch talent, so here are some local firms to help.  

Design

Knurture

Sprocket House

Kompleks Creativ,e

Neuconcets

Clean Design

Viget

Mobile

Two Toasters

Bull City Mobile

Software

Relevance

Smashing Boxes

My company Sweeps, is actually adept at making, improving, and editing websites as well.  See our Sweeps Campus Site and front page for examples.  

Or, learn yourself using TreeHouse, CodeCademy, Twitter Bootstrap, Adobe Cloud, and other tools.

What have I missed?

[morrisgelblum]

Lists!

I am a compulsive list-maker, and I don't think I'm the only one of us.  I recently watched this Jack Dorsey interview, in which he explains how we have gotten good at the mass production of inputs and content, but not as good at filtering and curating this content.  

In this spirit, I will be publishing a bunch more content, from lists and spreadsheets we already use at Sweeps,  in the hopes that this curation can help fellow readers, and that the wisdom of the crowds will help me improve them.  Help me by adding suggestions in the comments.  

[morrisgelblum]

I think one of the strongest things you can cultivate as an entrepreneur is to not rely on luck, but, on cultivating an ability to recognize fortunate situations when they are occurring.

Jack Dorsey on Foundation

[morrisgelblum]

Focus on work-life integration, not work-life separation

[morrisgelblum]

How to Live, Why we Live, What to do with your days

We have the freedom and the opportunity to do just about anything we want, anywhere we want.  

We aim for more and more, whether it is money, power, property, friends...without much thinking about why we want in the first place.  I often think about this why, and find motivation from a few places.

On how to live, 

The Serenity Prayer: Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Martin Luther King in one of his last speeches, remarks on how he wants to be remembered, not for his awards, but as someone who wanted to help somebody.

Steve Jobs, in his 2005 Stanford Commencement beckons us to wake up every morning and do what you love.

Happiness is wanting what you have.  Stress is wanting something to be different. -Mike Karnjanaprakorn

On Perspective

The miracle is not that may walk on water, the miracle is that we walk on earth. 

Stay grateful for the miraculous coincidence between the needs of living beings and the facilities provided for them by nature. 

Everything we experience is a matter of judgment.  The judgments and decisions we make and the opinions we hold about the world are totally dependent on our state of mind.

On Money

The purpose of money is to purchase the freedom to pursue that which was useful and interesting. - Benjaming Franklin

About what you need, learn from Andrew Hyde, who pared down to 15 items to travel the world. 

The purpose of going into business is to get free of a job so you can create jobs for other people. -Michael Gerber, E-Myth Author

On productivity,

Remember the Pareto principle, or the 80-20 rule, and do what you are best at.

On Work, Leah Busque of TaskRabbit says, "I wake up every morning and think to myself, 'how far can I push the company forward in the next 24 hours, It's an ongoing mantra."

Regarding his world changing innovations, Elon Musk of SpaxeX, Tesla, PayPal, and SolarCity, keeps it simple, he works a lot. 

"I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious", Einsten

On Death

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. - Buddha

The fear of death follows from the fear of life.  A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. - Mark Twain

[morrisgelblum]

Minimalism

Blogs

Zenhabits

Becoming Minimalist

Lessons

Write Daily

Care about what you have, and remove what you don't need

Do less, and do it well

Do nothing at all for a spell

Quotes

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.  -Thoureau

The careful selection of everyday objects can greatly enhance the quality of our lives. - Willat

Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler. - Einstein

The purpose of money is to purchase the freedom to pursue that which was useful and intereting. - Benjaming Franklin

Art is the elimination of the unnecessary. -Picasso

The reason I don't have a plan is because if I have a plan I'm limited to today's options. - Sheryl Sandberg

Happiness is wanting what you have.  Stress is wanting something to be different. - Mike Karnjanaprakorn

Benefits

Focus

Travel: take off quickly and be nimble

Save Money

Organization: find your stuff

Time: things take a surprising amount of time, shopping, organizing, cleaning

[morrisgelblum]

Traveling Tips (flights, where to stay..)

Flights

Start search on Kayak (they have a great app, and forwarding all emails to trips@kayak.com makes traveling easy)

Use Priceline if nothing is affordable, or just to keep open if there is somewhere you would go for the right price

Read, Subscribe to www.airfarewatchdog.com

Read Andrew Hyde's blog, especially this one about how to get the cheapest airfare

Stay

Check AirBnB.com

Join the CouchSurfing community

Check local craigslist

[morrisgelblum]

Free (or cheap) Phone and Text (SMS) Options for Startups and Small Businesses

We have tried several phone systems at Sweeps, and have settled on a nearly free option for our local and toll-free numbers (919-628-0828) and 1=855-SWEEPS7.

Our Current System:

Everyone Picks up the Phone

Just about everyone at Sweeps ends up answering the phone at some point, on purpose. We get a lot of jobs through the phone, and end up learning what is confusing and can improve about our users' experiences.  Everyone in our organization needs to remember our users are the first priority, and hearing them happy or complain on the phone helps.

Phone Scripts and Shared Calendar

To do this, we have phone scripts for typical calls and call routing, and a shared calendar to delegate who is responsible for calls at all times.

Tools We use:

Google Voice (919-628-0828)

How we use: 

We use a shared calendar to assign who is responsible for picking up the phone.  

That person adds their cell phone number in Google Voice settings, and once they are assigned any phone calls come in that start with "click 1 to answer" is a Sweeps call.  Other than that, they can be anywhere as long as their cell phone is on.

Setup: add Google Voice to any gmail account for free, add your numbers, go through easy setup.  

Pros: FREE, unlimited texts (up to 5 at a time), turn multiple numbers on and off easily, conference calling, syncs with Gmail and Google contacts, apps for iPhone and Android, easy to use, text, call and talk from your computer, record calls

Cons: no support, no mass texting, if someone has a Voice account you cannot add them to yours, often takes several rings on caller side for our phones to ring, and sometimes calls drop.  Not the right system if each call is worth a lot of money.

Twilio (1-855-SWEEPS7)

We purchased a toll-free number a while back after purchasing a few months subscription to Grasshopper (via AppSumo).  After that trial, we decided Google Voice was preferable (mass text/cost), but we wanted to keep the toll-free number.  First we ended up porting to Phonebooth, and then again to Twilio because of cost and ease of use.

All we have setup in Twilio at this point is to forward to our Google Voice number, and it costs a few cents per incoming call, so we just add balance to Twilio every now and then (<$10 a month for us).  We know it is a Twilio call (though it does not matter), because when we pickup, we have to press one twice.

Twilio is very scalable, has attractive per-unit pricing, and flexible with the use of Twimlets, which are snippets of code that allow you to run a lot of logic on what to do with incoming and outgoing texts and calls.  We plan to eventually use Twilio more in our phone and apps, and it may eventually replace Google Voice and Call-Em-All altogether.

Call-Em-All

We use Callemall for mass texting.  Callemall won our business by being easy to join for our end-users, pricing based on # of texts or contacts (we use based on # of contacts), great support, and their api.

Other Options

Phonebooth

We actually won a Phonebooth SMB Award in December 2012, which included a free year to Phonebooth, so we will likely use this for our office for at least a year soon.  Raleigh company.

Grasshopper

Grasshopper has a great presence online, and many happy customers, and great support, but it did not well for us considering our need for texting.

SendHub

Mass Texting software I have heard good things about but not used.

We have a list of other mass texting software, contact us if you are interested in talking about them.

[morrisgelblum]

Entrepreneurship Content: Blogs, Magazines, Newsletters, Videos, Deals..

Lots of great reading materials for entrepreneurs out there.  

Here are some blogs I often check:

Smart People

Ryan Carson

A Smart Bear

Rand Fishkin

Tim Ferriss

Noah Kagan

Ryan Allis

Tech and Entrepreneurship Blogs/Magazines

TechCrunch

Inc

Techmeme

Hacker News

Raleigh-Durham

ExitEvent

UNC Innovation Site

NCSU Garage

Blackstone Entrepreneurship Network

Hub Raleigh

Made in The Triangle (MINTT)

Durham's American Underground

Triangle Business Journal

TechJournal South

Wral Techwire

Events and Meetups

F6S Newsletters (Accelerators, etc.)

Startup Digest Events

Eventbrite and Meetup.com 

Startup Weekend

Newsletters & Company Blogs

Startup Digest Emails

Freshbooks

Quora Newsletters

SEOMoz Content

HubSpot Content

VC

Both Sides of the Table

Fred Wilson

Brad Feld

Video and Audio

Mixergy

Foundation Interviews by Kevin Rose

From Scratch (NPR)

Deals and Free Stuff

AppSumo

Microsoft BizSpark

Google for Entrepreneurs

Twitter Bootstrap