CheckMate

This is one of those “Gee, everybody knows that, so I don’t have to write about it.” things, but based on the amount of it I’ve seen lately, I guess everybody doesn’t know, and so I will write about it.

Specifically, the stock “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” connect request.

Never, EVER send out that canned invitation. At least not to me if you really would like to connect, anyway.

Here’s why…

Forget for the moment the larger and more complex discussion about open networking, meaningfulness of connections, and so on - let’s just stick to the simple and narrow: you want to connect with someone on LinkedIn that you don’t know.

The way I see it - and so do a lot of others - is if you can’t take the time to send some kind of even remotely personalized invitation, then why should I take the time to accept it?

It doesn’t have to be anything extensive, or super special, or time-consuming to create - even something like a simple “I read your blog entry the other day about not using the canned LinkedIn invitation, and thought it was very good. I’d appreciate a connection.” would be good.

Now I’m not gonna say I’ve never overlooked my feelings about this and accepted a canned invitation from someone. But I won’t guarantee that I will from now on.

Try it - it won’t take you that long to do, your acceptance rate may just go up, and, if nothing else, you at least know you did things the right way.

Sorry, it’s not a financial services company, but a great story, nonetheless.

Zappos is a company you likely have heard of or maybe even have bought something from. They are probably the largest Internet retailer of shoes, having sold over $1 billion worth last year. There’s a great article this week on the Harvard Business Publishing site that describes many of the innovations at Zappos, but one in particular got the author’s attention - and mine.

Zappos starts off its new call center employees with four weeks of initial training at full salary, which is great, although certainly not unique. But here’s the big deal:

“After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.”

Why does Zappos do this?

“Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for.”

Now, I don’t know of any financial services companies that do that, but I can tell you that’s the level of commitment they all expect, so if you want to be a financial advisor, you need to come with that kind of attitude.

Lots of other great information about how the company is able to do so well in the article - here’s the link:

“Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit—And You Should Too”

My guess is that farmers are not the first thing you associate with being a financial advisor…which is why I’m writing about them.

As this recent article on the Cattle Network points out,

“Financial advisors say farmers are business owners who face many of the same concerns as other professional proprietors. Concerns include cash management, product sales, succession planning, and retirement savings.”

Plus,

“Prices for crops, such as corn, soybeans, and wheat, have surged amid domestic demand for biofuels and international demand for agricultural exports.”

Put those two things together, and it means you have a group of possibly overlooked and underserved people with a definite need for sound financial advice - the very kind of target market you look for as a financial advisor.

Keep that in mind if you’re thinking about becoming an advisor - not just farmers, but people in any number of not-so-obvious careers, professions, or groups need strong financial advice and guidance.

Another huge factor is that this kind of thing allows you to live places where you might not have thought you could have a successful financial advisor career. In the case of farmers, if you’re someone in a rural area, really want a financial advisor career, but thought you couldn’t have one unless you moved to the big city, think again.

Much more detail in “Advisors Help Farmers Reap Financial Gains”, and, as always, I’d suggest you read the whole thing.

Texas Tech University is a place I think was largely unknown nationally until Bobby Knight was hired as their basketball coach a few years ago. Well, now there’s another reason to pay attention…

Investment News has just done a two-part series on the unique Division of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech - a very interesting series on many levels.

Some facts about TT’s program:

• Includes the only doctoral program in financial planning in the country




• Concentrates on the “holistic” side of financial planning, which melds together psychology and finance




• 80% to 90% of undergraduate and graduate students who complete the program move on to jobs in financial planning




• 300 students are enrolled in the program - 200 undergraduates, 100 master’s degree students, and 28 doctoral candidates




• Graduate students have the option of combining a financial planning degree with a law degree, or a master’s degree in finance or business administration

If you’re interested in attending an outstanding unique program full-time at the undergrad or graduate level, definitely someplace to consider. And even If you’re not, this gives you an idea of the very talented up-and-coming young competition that’s out there, in a place most wouldn’t expect to find it, too.

Check out both articles in the series here:

“Next generation of advisers: Taking the ‘holistic’ approach”
“Texas Tech degree opens doors”

Here’s the school website:

Texas Tech University Division of Personal Financial Planning

The whole discussion about Web 2.0, social networking, and where that plays for job seekers is something I’ve alluded to before, and can be very complex. There’s a nice brief overview article at CFO.com from a few days ago titled “Companies Give “Web Search” a New Meaning” that provides some pretty simple examples of what’s going on out there right now, specifically with companies’ use of social networking sites.

Here’s some key numbers from the article. According to ExecuNet, the percentage of hires by the way they are found stacks up like this:

• old-fashioned networking - 39%
• online search engines - 14%
• online job postings - 13%
• resume databases - 8%
• social networking websites - 3%

As you can see, while in this survey online social networking per se hasn’t really taken off, online sources together already account for as many hires as traditional face-to-face networking.

More key numbers from ExecuNet:

• 77% of executive recruiters use search engines to learn more about candidates.




• 35% of the same recruiters eliminated a candidate based on negative information (”digital dirt”) that they uncovered online.

That’s a subject we talked about a long time ago (“Take control of your online reputation”) - this is just one more confirmation of what we said back then.

There are lots of social networking sites to choose from, and also lots of arguments about which ones are the best to be on. That discussion is way too long for here, but I’ll just say that my favorite is still LinkedIn, and if you’re only going to be in one social networking place online, that’s the place to be.

But, as we’ve said before (“If you want to be found, you’ve got to be findable”) , you need to be on at least one of the top sites, and you need to make sure that the information you post online reflects positively on you.