The Renewed Allure of Telecommuting

A friend forwarded this outstanding article from InformationWeek.com. It is very telling of our times - in an environment where it makes sense to be doing work from home! While this article focuses on the IT industry, we are seeing a similar shift in the Ag Industry. Write us a comment if your company is shifting its policies to allow employees to work from home!

"The Renewed Allure Of Telecommuting"

Posted by Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, Jun 18, 2008 03:44 PM


"With gasoline prices rising above $4 a gallon, a recent survey found that 40% of tech workers would willingly take a pay cut to telecommute. Meanwhile, more employers are apparently offering IT pros the choice to work remotely as a perk to attract hard-to-find skills. Is telecommuting an option you offer your staff?


IT staffing firm Sapphire Technologies has found that clients these days are more frequently allowing tech consultants to forgo long commutes in their cars and expensive air travel to client locations and instead work from home or from Sapphire offices closer to home."


Click here for the whole article!

Do you buy your own technology for work?

Interesting article on the business section of USA Today for 6/16/2008:

Question to Aggie-Lance blog readers: Do you purchase your own technology that gets used for personal and business use? As a result, do you feel more inclined (perhaps justified) to do both freelance and full time work at overlapping times?

By Michelle Kessler, USA TODAY
"Many employees — frustrated that their companies are unwilling to pay for the laptops, cellphones and other electronic devices that they want on the road — are spending their own money to get them.

Nearly 40% of professionals recently surveyed by researcher In-Stat paid for a laptop that they regularly carried. Cellphone users often picked up their bill. And company-provided personal digital assistants (PDAs), cameras and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are relatively rare, says the survey, released Monday."

Businesses say they must carefully choose which electronics to provide for employees because they're expensive. A BlackBerry e-mail device with one year of service costs around $1,400. "

Full article: http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2008-06-15-electronic-devices-workplace_N.htm

Wisconsin FFA State Officer Training

This week I am pleased to have the opportunity to be working with the newly elected State FFA Officer team of the Wisconsin FFA Association! In addition to running Aggie-Lance, I get the opportunity to work with FFA students across the country as a leadership facilitator. Primarily, I work as a freelance leadership trainer, and seasonal employee of the National FFA Organization.

After just one day with the new Wisconsin officer team, I can tell they are a bright bunch, just chomping at the bit to make a positive difference in the lives of nearly 18,000 members in the Wisconsin FFA Association. This conference will challenge me as a trainer to make sure the content and delivery is at a high enough level, enabling them to gain all they can from our time together.

The conference we are currently in is called BLAST Off, or Building Leaders and Strong Teams of Officers. It is typically three and a half days long, and includes items such as building a personal mission statement, developing and delivering speeches, team building, conversation skills, communicating the FFA brand, and more! With the quality of leaders this association has elected, it is certain to be a great conference...and a great year for Wisconsin FFA!

Aggie-Lance eNews

In this issue…
What the heck is Aggie-Lance?
You Can Outsource That?
Great Resources!
Aggie-Lance Evolution – Aggie-Lance Affiliate Program
New Projects on Aggie-Lance

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What the heck is Aggie-Lance?
Aggie-Lance is a web based service designed for agribusinesses around the world. The purpose is to provide a connecting place for those that have project needs, and those who provide them. The mission of Aggie-Lance LLC is to be the central hub for agribusinesses, freelance professionals, and small businesses. By utilizing the horsepower of the internet and social media, Aggie-Lance has the ability to communicate job and project needs to thousands of people in a very short period of time.
What does it do?
Aggie-Lance creates space on the internet that allows you to post projects you need to be done. Additionally, you can post the short term positions where an independent contractor or short term employee might come in handy (call 1-800-906-6924 for more info on posting short term employment positions). When jobs or projects are posted on the Aggie-Lance website, they are communicated to entire communities of freelance professionals and small businesses. As interested parties learn of your project or contracted work need, the will visit the website and place bids on the work.

You Can Outsource That...?
People are often very surprised by the unique types of things that can be outsourced. Week to week, we’ll provide a list of new ideas that people and businesses are choosing to outsource. In a world where more and more people are working from home, the talent pool is deepening. It is time for more companies to take advantage of the freelance talent that exists! Visit www.aggielance.com to post your project need!

New Ideas this week:
Ghost Writing, Copywriting, Web Design, Graphic Art, Podcasting, Ag Journalism, Photography, Personal Assistants, Market Research, Risk Management, Lead Generation, Blog Writing…more to come next week!


Great Resources: Duct Tape Marketing…
Each week we’ll choose a great internet resource that might be of interest. This week we’ve chosen the Duct Tape Marketing website. As the utilization of new media becomes more of a necessity, learning how to use it is ever more important! The Duct Tape Marketing site, and especially the blog are great resources to learn how to improve your internet based marketing! Feel free to visit their website at:
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/
Want to be featured as a stellar resource for agribusinesses? Write: feedback@aggielance.com

Aggie-Lance Evolution…
As industry evolves, so must the companies that serve it. In order to better serve the agriculture industry, Aggie-Lance is developing an Affiliate Marketing program in order to reach a deeper sector of the market place.
Aggie-Lance Affiliates will be known as “Aggie-Lance Agents.” These Agents will receive a top secret code significant only to them. As they inform friends and colleagues of Aggie-Lance services, they are invited to share their secret code with them. When someone they know posts a project, that person will enter the secret code – and Aggie-Lance will track the project. Once a match is made for that project with an Aggie-Lance freelancer, the Agent will receive compensation! To learn more about becoming an “Aggie-Lance Agent” call 1-800-906-6924, or email: mark@aggielance.com.

New Projects this Week…
Week to week, we’ll advertise high profile projects that have been posted on Aggie-Lance. If you know someone interested in working on these, forward this message on to them!

3-D Animation – Best Management Practices: http://www.aggielance.com/projectView.aspx?id=14
Program Outcomes Evaluation: http://www.aggielance.com/projectView.aspx?id=12

Facebook Application: http://www.aggielance.com/projectView.aspx?id=13

Replies to our last post on AgWeb have inspired us to talk more about the use of social networking in the agriculture world. We're interested in finding out how your company utilizes social media in order to stay connected with clients!

Last month's issue of Fast Company Magazine listed this astounding factoid about Facebook, one of the most popular social networking sites out there. At the time the issue was run, facebook had 67 million users, "And at its current 3% weekly expansion rate, it will have 200 million users by the end of the year, equal to the population of the fifth largest nation on earth." Anyone else have a company that is growing at 3% per week?

At Aggie-Lance, we've found that facebook has at least one utility that is proving very helpful. You can now create a facebook page to promote you group or business. Click here to see ours. Basically, you create a page containing any information you want people to know about your company or group. Then, you invite your facebook friends to check it out, and hopefully become fans. If they like it, they can in turn invite their friends to become fans, and so on.

So we pose the question, what are you doing to take advantage of social media in your ag business? The possibilities are endless. Feel free to shoot back some replies and let us know what you're doing. Have you found other sites that are proving useful?

John Blue from Truffle Media mentioned they are using Twitter to promote their pod casts such as SwineCast (www.swinecast.com). Aggie-Lance has also been using Twitter to promote new projects that get listed, and it is #2 on our list of referring sites (sites that direct traffic to your website).

We look forward to hearing from you!

Interested in blogging for Aggie-Lance or for our Ag Freelance blog on www.agweb.com? email: mark@aggielance.com