Moving On

Three years, seven months, and nineteen days ago, my husband and I left our long-time corporate jobs for a well-planned early retirement.  I wanted to share my experience, keep my mind engaged, and my fingers in the business world (part-time), so we founded Haropulos Bailey Consulting.  Along with several interesting consulting assignments, we have been honored to provide some free advice and coaching for friends whose careers are still in full swing. 

Each Monday morning for the past few years I have been blogging; commenting on current events, ruminating on lessons learned from past experience, and suggesting ideas for overcoming challenges faced in a corporate environment.  There is now a library of 140 original blog postings online, which I have been pleased to discover have attracted thousands of readers worldwide.

The time has come to leave our business-focused alter egos by the wayside and transition fully and gleefully into retired life.  This will be my final posting on the Haropulos Bailey Consulting blog.  (Existing postings will remain online.)  Thank you for your interest and frequent inspiration.  We would be grateful to hear from you if we have helped or inspired you in return.

I invite you to follow my other blog, chronicling retired life:  Runaway Boomer.

Time to move on.  I have an 11:30 tee time.  Happy New Year and New Plans!

Still Exploring

Today marks two years of weekly blog posts by Haropulos Bailey Consulting. We began this journey as a means to introduce business people to who we are and how we think. It’s also our mission to share some of the professional experience we have gained over almost 30 years in a corporate environment.

Our sincere thanks are offered to the readers we have attracted over the last two years, from all around the world. I should also thank Google and other search engine companies that send people our way. The feedback and statistics we collect help us hone our subject matter, based on your interest. We can only hope we have helped you or touched you in some way.

Future blog posts will continue along the same vein, until someday we run out of ideas (my recurring nightmare on Sunday nights). We are inspired by conversations with friends and former colleagues, current events, activity in social media, and memories of good and bad corporate experiences of days gone by. Suggestions for subjects are always gratefully welcomed, and we are still exploring hot topics that may be of interest to you.

Think of our Haropulos Bailey Consulting Blog as a little bit of free mentoring and consulting, offered in the spirit of “Creative Practical Collaboration”. You are invited to contact us by posting comments to the blog or by emailing us at habaconsulting@comcast.net.

Onward into Year 3!

52 Weeks of Blogging

It has been one year since I started this Haropulos Bailey Consulting blog. Every Monday I have had the self-generated pleasure and pressure of posting original material as a means to share snippets of my business experience, give unsolicited advice, rant, and reflect. This is proving to be an interesting journey for me, which I hope others are enjoying and appreciating as well.

Some fun and interesting tidbits:

• TOTAL PAGE HITS: 1,875
• MOST VISITORS ON A SINGLE DAY: 53
• MOST PAGE LOADS ON A SINGLE DAY: 69
• GLOBAL REACH: 76% of my visitors are from all over the U.S. The other 24% have been from at least 26 other countries, plus Puerto Rico and Guam.
• MOST READ: Highest readership on a single blog entry has been for 10 Ways to Screw-Up Your LinkedIn Presence.
• MY FAVORITE: Shifting Tides of Communication, because I learned some thought-provoking things from interviews of several 16-20 year olds.
• OBSERVATION: Humor, sarcasm and a catchy title draw readers. (I’m not always that clever.)
• MOST EFFECTIVE PROMOTION: Googling related subjects on high profile web sites and adding my blog link as a comment, offering more information. 
• BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Motivating readers to share their comments and ideas.

Thank you for visiting. Come back soon and often.

Pausing to Recap

From the day I posted a placeholder for this blog on April 30th to this posting, I have posted 29 weekly blog entries on behalf of Haropulos Bailey Consulting. So I thought I would take a deep breath, recap what has been posted so far, and provide easy shortcuts to subjects you may have missed or would like to revisit. Thank you for your continued interest. About Us: Who is Haropulos Bailey Consulting and why are we blogging? Our Guiding Principles: How Haropulos Bailey Consulting does business and interacts with clients. Why Consulting?: Why we ventured into the world of consulting. Help From A Pro: Everyone needs expert assistance every once in a while. Reinventing Your Career: Ideas for how to examine a change in direction. LinkedIn - A Networking Must: Why you really shouldn’t ignore being active on LinkedIn. 10 Ways to Screw-Up Your LinkedIn Presence: How you can do more harm than good with LinkedIn. Customer Service at Retail Stores-Dying or Already Dead?: A rant about the state of customer service. Employees Want "More Communication": How do you know what employees want and need? Prove It or Lose It: Don’t rest on your laurels, or you will find yourself becoming irrelevant. When It's Time To Go: Sometimes, you just have to move on. What are the signs? Weak Ties - Strong Benefits: Your closest acquaintances often aren’t the ones who can help you most. Email Etiquette Revisited: We have all sinned. Repent and be reminded. Regroup, Refuel, Recharge: Be good to yourself if you want to perform at your full potential. Managing Up, Long Distance: You are here, your boss is there. How do you make it work? Advice for Newly Hired Graduates: What I wish someone had told me 30 years ago. Leaders Need Trusted Advisors Too: Believe it or not, even good leaders don’t have all the answers. Creative Juices: Ideas on how to summon innovative thoughts. Relationships Make the Difference: No man is an island. You need to build strong ties to others. Bridges: Essential to getting around, and to get back to places you may want to revisit. An Old Fashioned "Thank You": How to express appreciation effectively in writing. When Presenting, Know Your Audience: Don’t you dare touch PowerPoint until you start here. An Acquisition Fable: Just a little harmless, made-up story. Uncommon Courtesy: A little courtesy goes a long way. Why is it so often absent? Expectations Upfront: New hires and transfers need clarity to get them started on the right foot. Leadership is a Balancing Act: Bad times will change back to good times. Leaders should smooth out the highs and lows. Know Your Stuff: Customer service starts with competence. As always, I welcome your suggestions for future topics. I live in fear of running out of ideas.