OrangeSlyce

So now that you have gotten this far I am assuming you know what OrangeSlyce is… but just in case let me make it simple. OrangeSlyce is your new meal ticket (seriously)! We are an online service that matches talented college students with small businesses that have projects and work they need done. After posting a project, small businesses are immediately matched with the ideal student worker meeting their needs. Students have the opportunity to gain experience and earn money on the side.

Below is a simple step by step guide for a student on how to use OrangeSlyce to its fullest potential:

Step 1:  enter www.orangeslyce.com into your web browser; continue to click “Students Click Here” and the link conveniently takes you the student registration page.  Quickly fill in the prompted information (I say quickly because the sooner you are done the sooner you can find a project!)

Step 2: Go to your email, and open the email from OrangeSlyce.com. Then  follow the directions by clicking on the link.

Step 3:  Congratulate yourself… you are one step closer to being employed!

Now that you are a registered user of OrangeSlyce lets start job hunting!

I would first start by updating your profile. You can do this by clicking on “profile” and then “edit profile”.  It is very important to list your year in college, major, and any skills you may have.

The next step would be to click on “projects” and start looking through the listed projects. When you have found a project that looks like a good fit click on the blue title to read more about the project (including how much it pays!). If the project looks appetizing click “apply”.  You can then type in a small cover letter letting your potential employer know why you will kick butt at this position, and then click “send away”! From this point you will have to wait and see if the employer is interested in calling you for an interview.

Feel free to apply for all the projects that seem like a good fit, and tell your friends! Also if you know any small business owners who you think could benefit from OrangeSlyce tell them to look at next week’s blog “How to use OrangeSlyce to Benefit your Small Business. “

When am I ever going to need to know ____ when I get into the real world?”  We don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that virtually every student asks this question–at least silently–at some point during their studies.  The funny thing is that the question does not exactly lose its relevance in college.  With the exception of trade schools, very few college degree programs prepare a student directly for the job which that  student will eventually take after graduation.  In spite of this,  countlessentry-level jobs–many of which lack a single function that isn’t covered in the on-the-job training–require a college degree.

Why do employers make such a big deal out of college degrees?  The answer, to be brief, is information.  A person making a hiring decision faces the task of taking dozens (or, in the current economy, sometimes thousands) of applications and determining a best fit.  This job is made especially difficult when you consider that every single applicant has the ability to filter the  information that the employer gets (and the incentive to ensure that the employer gets a “positive” spin rather than an objective assesment of the applicant’s abilities).  Facing this insurmountable task, hiring managers do the most sensible thing possible: they play the averages.  Your college degree might not be in making widgets, but a person reveiewing your application knows that–holding everything else equal–a person with a college degree is more likely to be trainable, hard-working, and capable of working within the system than a person without a degree.  Given this, a hiring manager has an incentive to ALWAYS prefer a person with a college degree over a non-degree holder (provided their qualifications are otherwise similar).  Thus, your degree is valuable not merely because of what it taught you but because of the “signal” that it sends to employers

The problem is that this incentive structure has spiraled out of control faster than a political debate between Megatron and Optimus Prime In response to this action by employers, job-seekers are given an increasingly large incentive to attend (and graduate college) until, eventually, the value of a diploma’s “signal” is minimal.  When hiring managers are faced with a large pool of applicants who ALL have college degrees, they must look elsewhere for information.

The easiest source of distinguishing information for employers to use is employment history.  Even for an entry-level job–and even with work having nothing to do with the job or even the industry–work experience tells an employer that an applicant is capable of completing tasks and (at minimum) of not doing something stupid enough to warrant termination.

The problem for college students, of course, is that it’s hard to juggle work and school.  In the current economy, it’s difficult to find any job, much less a job that can be balanced with a demanding schedule of classes and homework.  The most obvious solution, if we may be so bold, is freelance work.  Freelance work allows a student to accrue work experience (and a good number of references)  without committing to a work “schedule” that may conflict with classes (or studying for exams).  It’s important to remember that freelancing isn’t just for coders, either. Our believe in the product we market goes hand-in-hand with our belief that college students have a wide variety of skills to share with the market.  Students working on Liberal Arts degrees have finely tuned writing skills that are perfect for a small business looking for somebody to maintain a blog marketing the company.  Business students may not have completed their degrees, but by their junior year many of them have the rudimentary comfort level with accounting or finance principles necessary to provide meaningful help to a small business owner who needs basic help.  Social science students are trained to understand how to avoid biasing survey results; a skill that’s more than a little valuable for a small business looking to gather information about their consumers’ needs.  Even the computer skills that some college students may consider “basic” (proficiency in Excel and Word, for example) can be extremely valuable to a small business owner who has a great product but limited tech savvy.  By putting those skills to use, students can give themselves a meaningful edge when they enter the full-time job market.

We generally try to keep the blatant self-promotion on this blog to a minimum. This is largely because we’re confident that our product will speak for itself (a quick reminder: it will say it’s first words on November 9th when our beta launches). It’s also at least partly because our product is designed to help facilitate the accomplishments of other small businesses.

On the other hand, when a major newspaper deems something we do newsworthy, we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least make a note of it.  That’s why we’re letting you know that Sean Coleman—CEO and founder of OrangeSlyce—was recently profiled by the Arizona Republic as one of its notable 35 male entrepreneurs under 35 years old.  This recognition should come as no suprise to those who know and have worked with Sean—the guy is almost always working in some capacity.  Nonetheless, we’re all proud of Sean.

If there is one thing that small businesses and college students have in common, it’s an undying love and need of coffee. Coffee is the crowbar that keeps eyes pried open through long nights of work, and the warm morning welcome to begin the day on an energetic note. Everyone complains about how coffee is too overpriced, but the work gained from coffee leads to an unquantifiable amount of productivity. One could argue that without Starbucks, society as a whole would come to a standstill.

All right, I may have been somewhat facetious with my previous statement, but the bottom line is that Starbucks sells over 4 million coffee drinks daily. However, Starbucks has developed a new product that will make coffee a more convenient product that can be drank anytime, anywhere. The name of this revolutionary product is Starbucks Via, and Starbucks is touting it as a more convenient way for customers to get their coffee fix. Starbucks Via is basically finely ground, instant coffee that can be mixed directly into milk or water without brewing. It’s an interesting idea, but is it a gimmick or does the product actually stand well against an old fashioned brewed cup of coffee?

If you’ve been to the ASU bookstore in the last week or so, you will have likely noticed a Starbucks table outside serving samples of coffee. Students are asked to sample two separate cups of coffee, one being regular brewed coffee, and one being Starbucks Via. I decided to test my own taste buds and see if I could distinguish between the two. Of a total of 4 participants (myself being one of them) I was the only one match the sample to the correct product. The only difference was a slight graininess in the Via sample.

I thought I’d put Via to the test as an alternative to a regular coffee and bought myself a box. I figured I could mix it with some milk to make myself a quick coffee drink in the mornings. Unfortunately, I’ve found that mixing Via with cold liquid makes the powder clumpy. The taste is well done, but I’ve never been interested in drinking a chunky cup of coffee. Also, Via has been marketed as an on-the-go product. However, the vast majority of Starbucks customers are not interested in having a cup of black coffee. The reason Starbucks is so popular is because you can order a Venti Non-Fat Mocha Latte Frappa-whatever. Besides, what’s the point of having Starbucks on-the-go when there are literally 5 Starbucks in every square mile. It would probably take less effort to go to a Starbucks and get a cup of coffee rather than mixing it on your own.

I appreciate Starbucks’ effort to make a more convenient product, but I just don’t see the point in a product like this. With the amount of coffee that students and members of the work force drink, carrying around 10 bottles of water to mix your Via simply isn’t plausible.  I’ll give it a few months before Starbucks Via becomes a distant memory.

Maybe we’re just unlucky, but blind dates are—at least in our experience—a rather awkward experience.  Both parties show up having no idea what to expect and knowing nothing about the other person, and one tends to spend most of the date alternating between trying to find flaws in the other person and desperately trying to avoid exposing one’s own shortcomings.  If you’ve ever been on a bad blind date—or ever watched that cheesy show that used to be on UPN back in the day or landed the “dud” in Mystery Date—then you actually know more about being a small business owner than you realize.  That same discomfort that you feel when you try to start a relationship on a blind date is a discomfort thousands of small business owners have to experience every time they look for certain types of workers.  We can tell you’re skeptical, so let’s just go ahead and break down both—the parallel will be glaringly obvious.

How Did You End Up in This Situation?

Person on a Blind Date: In many (if not most) cases, a person gets set up on a blind date because he/she was having trouble finding a date on his/her own.  If you’re set up on a blind date, chances are you’re either too busy to go out and get a date on your own, and/or you don’t even know where to go to get a date in the first place.  Alternatively, you have a meddling friend who “totally know[s] someone perfect for you” and isn’t content to have you make your own choices.  This, of course, all assumes that you know somebody who know’s someone who might be a good match for you in the first place.  So not only are blind dates often awkward and unsuccessful; they’re also too scarce!

Small Business Owner looking for an employee: Between trying to get your business off the ground, trying to get money to fund your business, trying to figure out how to market your business, trying to figure out how to grow your business if you succeed, etc. it’s a big chore to try to find a qualified employee to hire.  What’s worse—in a lot of cases—is that you don’t necessarily know where to look or what to look for.  If you’re expertise is in, for example, architecture, how can you tell the difference between a qualified web designer and an unqualified one?  In essence, you’re the guy/girl who doesn’t have time to find a date, and doesn’t really know where to look for one.  So, in all likelihood, you turn to your friends—you ask around and see if anyone can refer you to a good web designer, and you hope it works out well.  At the end of the day, you have to more or less put your faith—and, to an extent, the success of your business—in the judgement of somebody else.  Also, like a person who tries to get set up on a blind date, you’d better hope that someone you know know’s somebody who’s a match for you; this is hardly a guarantee.

Where Did it Go Wrong?

Person on a Blind Date: No matter how bad a match the two of you are you are, you’re stuck with this person for the evening. If you don’t stick it out, the person who set you up might be offended that you didn’t even “give [him/her] a chance.” That’s a friday night (and possibly a decent chunk of change) flushed down the drain in the most awkward way possible (okay, maybe not the most awkward way possible)

Small Business Owner Looking for an Employee: You’d better hope your reference set you up with somebody good. If not, you end up spending money on subpar (or possibly even unusable) work that essentially leaves you exactly where you started before you hired the guy in the first place.  Like a guy waking up after a bad blind date, you’ll find yourself older, poorer, and still facing the exact same problem you faced before this whole mess started in the first place.

How Can the Internet Help You

Person on a Blind Date: Okay, in a perfect world, you’d go out and find a date on your own.  In a perfect world, you’d also have the time to spare to do this.  In a perfect world, you’d also know where to go about finding a date.  In reality, if you have a lot of blind dates, chances are there’s a legitimate obstacle keeping you from finding dates on your own (if there isn’t, you must just be lazy).  Fortunately, the internet age has provided hope for people in this situation.  Dating websites like eHarmony are essentially a larger, more scientific means of setting up blind dates.  By gathering a large pool of date-seekers, these sites create a larger network of potential matches than your personal network could hope to achieve. Moreover, by establishing objective criteria by which matches can be made (as opposed to “This guy will be perfect for you because you both like the Sun Devils!!1!”) these sites improve on the “blind date” process significantly.

Small Business Owner Looking for an Employee: Okay, in a perfect world, you’d go out and hire the right employee on your own. In a perfect world, you’d also have the time and expertise to do this. In a perfect world, you’d also know how to go about finding an employee who can work within your price range.  For most small business owners, this perfect world does not exist, because there are very significant obstacles—the lack of a dedicated HR Department, the need to hire workers on an “on-demand” basis, the lack of time (and expertise) to go through a thorough hiring process—that keep them from finding an employee on their own. If only there were some website that did for small businesses what eHarmony does for desperate daters.  The ability to gather a large pool of low-cost (yet still qualified) workers into one place would spare small business owners the time and effort of trying to go through their whole personal/professional network looking for a referral (and would give them a much larger pool to choose from).  And, the matching of the business’ needs with the skills of potential freelance employees based on objective criteria would give the business a better chance at a good match. [/shameless self-promotion]

So, as you can see, small business owners are not unliked people looking for blind dates.  As frustrating as that can be if you’re a small business owner, it also provides room to hope.  If you ask us, it also provides a good reason to sign up for our beta too (we launch November 9th).  That’s just us though, what about your thoughts?  Leave them in the comments if you’re so inclined.

Spend enough time in college, and you’ll notice that there are certain staples that you can find in virtually  every dorm.  Most of these staples—like beer-can pyramids, Gilmore Girls watch parties, and that one guy who plays terrible techno music at an offensively high volume—are not terribly surprising to see.  There is one staple, however, whose presence may come as something of a surprise.  Since we assume that you already read the title, we imagine that you’ve already guessed that we’re talking about the NES classic Tecmo Super Bowl—in our experience, it seems like virtually every college dorm in America (or at least virtually every college dorm with a healthy population of male students) has at least one guy with an NES and the game.  Inevitably, that one guy introduces the game to 10 other guys in the dorm, and they all start playing the game religiously (and trying to recreate classic moments in Tecmo Super Bowl history).  In an age where new technology becomes obsolete in a couple of years, it’s more than a little impressive that a video game that was made almost 20 years (and 4 generations of consoles and probably over a hundred football video games) ago still has the power to draw people in.  The question that arises—at least for us—is what gave Tecmo Super Bowl that staying power?  What about TSB gives it the ability to stay relevant in spite of its apparently severe shortcomings, and how can you apply that same formula? As we see it, there is one critical element to Tecmo’s success that can help you draw up your own blueprint for success.

To put it succinctly Tecmo was willing to be ambitious, but also able to avoid over-reaching.  For a game made in the early 90’s, Tecmo Super Bowl is incredibly rich in features.  The game features adjustable play-books, complete rosters, a full season mode, special cut-scenes, and even a bizarre special halftime show for players good enough to make it to the “Big Game.”  It would not be a stretch to say that TSB was the most realistic game football game ever made, and it held that title until the next generation of consoles made their debut.  And yet, in spite of this wealth of features (and the extreme limitations of the available technology) the game play remained seamless and (virtually) glitch-free.  Tecmo pulled this off by picking their battles.  A good number of features (such as the ability to block punts and the inclusion of penalties) were scrapped during development so that the developers could focus on refining the features that weren’t cut.  This is (or should be) standard operating procedure for any project; what made Tecmo remarkable was their apparently perfect vision for what should be cut—they recognized what would not improve the game (if you play any Madden Football games, do you ever get excited at the chance to unsuccessfully try to block a punt for the 500th time?).

It’s often difficult to see the forest for the trees when you’re elbow-deep in a big project.  You get an idea in your head for what your ideal “finished project” should look like, and it’s easy to conflate what the project “should” look like with what it has to look like.  It’s a good strategy to work on one detail at a time, but it backfires if you start getting attached to every detail of the project.  Cutting anything out can feel like killing your own child, and so the temptation is often to just try to do everything.  The result of this is, almost inevitably, a watered down final product.  When you’re working on anything—whether it’s a project for a class, a small business, or even a personal project—be mindful of what the ultimate goal of that project is.  Don’t be afraid of hard work, but if any one detail undermines that ultimate goal, don’t be afraid to cut that detail.

I’m going to give you the “holy grail” elevator pitch; a format that has worked so well, but is amazingly simple. Now for those who are unfamiliar with an elevator pitch, here’s a quick summary: While visiting New York, you step into an elevator, adrenaline flowing as usual about your new business idea. To your amazement, Donald Trump steps in after you, the elevator door closes, and he pushes the 30th floor button. At this point you’re sweating bullets. He turns to you and says “So tell me, what do you do?”

You probably see where I’m going with this. An elevator pitch gives you less than a minute to convince(fill in the blank) that your business idea is bigger than Google, and he should be interested. Notice I said interested and not invest. The goal of an elevator pitch is NOT to get the individual to invest—no one does that. The primary objective is to get the investor excited so he hands you his card and says “I want to know more.”

As an entrepreneur, I’ve heard dozens upon dozens of formats, suggested lengths, what to say, whatnot to say, etc. Still, time after time, I get pitched with an idea and have to ask, “So exactly what does your business do?” The absolute #1 rule for an elevator pitch is make it clear what you do! I really don’t want to hear that you found some secret untapped $3 trillion dollar market, or you have exclusive partnerships with Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook. I know it’s all bs anyways.

So you have your elevator pitch polished, and you think your words will flow right to the investor’s checkbook. You step into that elevator and start talking. You are halfway through describing the market need and realize that instead of words flowing, it’s more like elevator pitch diarrhea. Your potential investor interrupts you and asks a question…

“Woah, hold on Mr. Investor, Q&A doesn’t come until later. I have the perfect pitch here, and you must listen to all 45 seconds of it!”

I know that’s what you’re thinking because I’ve been there. Investors don’t always give you time for your “perfect” pitch. A few months ago I attended an angel investing workshop and one of the presenters fromBeanstalk CFO Group explained what I would consider the perfect elevator pitch. It’s so simple with 3 lines, yet so elegant and what we personally use for OrangeSlyce. You fill in the blanks:

My name is (your name) and I’m starting a business that does (product or service) .

If the person is still listening, continue to the second sentence. If not, well, they already know what you do.

Unlike (competitor) we do (competitive advantage) .

Now if the investor still hasn’t asked a question, you go for the kill. Lean in slightly, and start in a serious tone…

Now, this is big because (the most attractive aspect of your business) .

That’s it. The perfect elevator pitch. To borrow from The Girl Next Door, “always leave ‘em wanting more.”

— Sean

Our parents once cautioned us that life is full of disappointments and this generally seems to hold true (even though we suspect they might have just been referring to us when they said it).  For example, we suffered a fair amount of disappointment after checking out a book called Ultimate Things from the library: we knew it wasn’t likely, but we were really hoping the book was just a listing of things that weretotally awesome.

One thing we’ve noticed about most disappointments though, is that they can be overcome. You’ve heard plenty of examples of this before (Michael Jordan being cut from his high school basketball team, Thomas Edison’s 1000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light-bulb, etc) and the common denominator to these stories seems to be a will to succeed in spite of setbacks.  Of course, this is a story that you’ve probably heard 100 times before, and we are not in the business of rehashing old ideas.  Instead, we thought we’d take a look at a few major disappointments, and see what lessons we can glean from them.

1) The Segway

The Expectation: No less an authority than Steve Jobs suggested that this thing had the potential to be as important an invention as the personal computer.  This, combined with rising gas prices had people pretty excited about the Segway, especially since no one had any idea what this magical new traveling contraption would look like.  The world waited with baited breath for something that, based on the hype, had to be at least as cool as a jet-pack.

Also, the top speed is a blistering 12.5 miles per hour.

The Lesson: Take a sober look at your strengths and weaknesses, and set realistic goals accordingly.  The Segway, at least by appearances, has carved out a nice little niche serving Security officers and people who are physically incapable (or unwilling) to walk or ride a bike.  This makes sense to us.  One would think that anybody who set out to build a machine that seats as many people as a bicycle, goes slightly slower than a bicycle, costs more than a bicycle, and neither requires (nor allows) the physical exertion of a bicycle would conclude that their product is going to be targeting a pretty specific subset of people: people who would use a bicycle except for the fact that they are unable (or unwilling) to ride bicycles.

Instead, however, the inventor of the Segway got it into his head that the Segway’s competition was the automobile.  We don’t know how much money got wasted trying to turn the Segway into something other than a niche product—perhaps it was a relatively small amount—but we do know that the Segway would be considered a wild success if its goal had been to capture the niche it so obviously is designed for.

2) The Russian Revolution

The Expectation: To say that life was bad for the average Russian under Czarist rule would be an understatement.  Imagine, then, the excitement the average Russian must have felt when that regime was toppled in favor of a system designed explicitly to redistribute wealth to the poor.

The Disappointment: Dissertations could be (and have been) written on the hardship faced by people in the Soviet Union, but, to keep it short: millions of citizens were slaughtered by the government, and the average Russian remained poor.

The Lesson: We could introduce the mildly-controversial argument that communism as a system is doomed to fail by nature, but that argument hardly helps you avoid your own setbacks (unless you’re planning a revolution).  Besides, why even bother with that debate when there’s an even easier scapegoat:

Whatever hopes the Russian people may have had for a Communist utopia went out the window when Stalin came to power.  Stalin’s vision for the Soviet Union (specifically the part about concentrating power centrally and alienating most Russians from political power) differed greatly from the ideals that spurred the revolution in the first place.  The lesson to be learned is that leadership and communication matter.  Any plan you hope to execute doesn’t just need a leader who can rally people around that plan—it needs a leader who understands the plan in the first place.

It also helps if the leader doesn’t plan to “purge” millions of his own people.

3) Ryan Leaf

The Expectation: A star quarterback at WSU, Ryan Leaf was considered by many experts to be a better prospect than draft-classmate Peyton Manning.  Drafted with the 2nd overall pick by the San Diego Chargers, Leaf was expected to be one of the premiere quarterbacks in the National Football League.

The Disappointment: A bit of a loose-cannon—Leaf famously snapped at hecklers, reporters, his own coach, and the teams general manager on seperate occasions—Leaf’s off the field troubles were worsened by a complete inability to be even serviceable as an NFL quarterback.  In his three seasons, Leaf completed less than half of his passes and threw just 14 touchdown passes against a whopping 36 interceptions.

The Lesson: Never rest on your laurels.  By all accounts, Ryan Leaf had more than enough talent to be a star in the NFL.  What Leaf lacked was a drive to succeed—even after his first disappointing season, Leaf famously skipped practices to play golf and pickup football games.  Competing in a league where everyplayer has an extremely high level of talent, Ryan Leaf was doomed to fail because he was not determined to succeed.

A secondary lesson to be gleaned from Ryan Leaf’s failure—if you’re in the position of hiring—is to look for hungry talent.  Leaf was given more than $11 million of his $31 million contract by the Chargers before he took his first snap, and he was already well-regarded as a great player.  In a lot of ways, Ryan Leaf had nothing to prove and no incentive to prove it: if he managed his money well, he could live comfortably for the rest of his life regardless of how well he played.  A key to avoiding disappointment is to target talent that still has something to prove.

Having suffered through both, we can say with confidence that struggling to find the right person to date is a lot like struggling to find the right job: a setback in both arenas is often emotionally taxing and can, if you’re not careful, leave you spending all day on the couch watching reruns of “Family Matters” and wallowing in a combination of self-pity and your own stink.  For that matter,  trying to find the right person to date is also a lot like trying to find the right person to hire: in both cases, a long dry-spell often causes desperation to sink in and leaves you settling for someone well below your standards (like the smelly kid in your sociology class who probably never showers, or that applicant whose references never seem to answer their phone).

There’s also one element that all three share in common: they’re all theoretically easy tasks made overly frustrating by a lack of information.  If you knew who was a good match for you before having to impress them, it would make starting a relationship a lot easier; if you knew what jobs were good fits for you from the start, it would make finding work a lot easier; and if you knew what applicants were good fits for your needs, it would make finding the right employee a whole heck of a lot easier.  That’s where we come in.  If you’re a college student, think of us as your wingman—we’re making it our business to know your best qualities, and when there’s a job that  you’d be good for, we’re there setting you up.  If you’re a small business owner, we’re like your friend who knows a couple of people who would be just perfect for you (well, maybe less annoying, but you get the idea) and we save you the hassle of having to pick those people out of a crowd.

We still have a little ways to go before we’re off and running, but it won’t be all that long now before we start playing matchmaker for students and small businesses.  In the meantime, please feel free to sign up for our beta version (look about 5-10” to the right, depending on the size of your monitor).

As far as dating goes, all we can offer is a shoulder to cry on.  Feel free to share your horror stories in the comments section.