Launch Pad Job Club

TaskRabbit recently opened up shop in Austin. It might be a good way to pick up some extra cash.

This article by @ChrisCuomo at ABC News describes the service:

TaskRabbit, based in San Francisco, is a sort of a eBay for odd jobs. Here’s how it works: You have an errand you need to run but you don’t have time to do it, so you go on TaskRabbit.com, post the task and post the amount you’d be willing to pay for it. Once it’s up there, a band of carefully vetted TaskRabbits bid on the task.

TaskRabbit lists tasks in various categories such as Delivery, House Chores, Office Help, etc. as you can see in the image here.

The company does background checks on all their so-called “runners”. Other than that, there appears to be no “hiring process”. This article has more information:

Though dedicated rabbits can make substantial earnings, the company is careful to designate runners as independent laborers, rather than employees or contractors. Runners sign no contracts, and TaskRabbit only has to report their income if it exceeds $600 per year.

This map shows recent tasks here in Austin.

If you would like to make some extra cash by running errands — or if you have a task you’d like to hand off — visit http://www.taskrabbit.com/ for more information.

Note: I stole the title of this LPJC blog post from the article by Chris Cuomo.

LinkedIn has become the de facto professional networking site. I just read a piece that offers some perspective on that.

For one thing, I did not know that “LinkedIn is a site that has an Alexa ranking of 13 globally, and 11^th in the USA alone.” Alexa is a ranking of internet traffic.

The advice from this piece:

If you would seriously like to take your business or individual expertise to the next level, it will be important to create a LinkedIn profile, fill it out 100%, get connected, get recommendations, and watch your popularity explode. It’s important to note that this platform requires action on your part, but once you have taken the appropriate steps, your online visibility will increase by 10 fold.

Read more: http://www.virtualsocialmedia.com/why-is-linkedin-so-popular/

The way we do business is changing fast and in order to keep up, your entire mentality about work has to change just as quickly.

Unfortunately, most people aren’t adapting fast enough to this change in the workplace, says marketing guru Seth Godin in an interview with the Canadian talk show “George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight” (via Pragmatic Capitalism).

According to the founder of Squidoo.com and author or 13 books, the current “recession is a forever recession” because it’s the end of the industrial age, which also means the end of the average worker.