New Beginnings

There is rarely a moment in life when things stand still. Everywhere you look things

are constantly changing: New friends are being made, new doors are being opened

and new opportunities are being forged. With the opening of our new branch in Port

Charlotte, new beginnings have been on the minds of all of the Lori Lane Personnel

Services, Inc. family’s minds. When faced with a new opportunity, a default measure

of thinking is to sometimes question the validity of a new beginning. Am I headed in

the right direction? Is it even a necessary adjustment? Will we be making a

difference? Well with these sorts of questions being posed I have been spending

many moments in thought about starting fresh. I was comforted by a quote my mom

so often says, “the first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not

going to stay where you are.”

At Lori Lane Personnel Services, Inc. we are striving to improve ourselves by not

staying where we are. We feel that we have a valuable service to provide, and that

the area of Charlotte County is the place where we can share it to the best of our

ability. We know that we are taking a step of faith, but if we continued to just stay

where we were, we would never fully grasp the magnitude of our full potential.

And this is the ideal that we wish for you as well. Follow our example and challenge

the idea that comfort is the best solution. Want to strive to comprehend that

magnitude of your potential, and take pride in the fact that you have room to grow.

Whether you do that through the services of our agency or in the tasks of you dayto‐

day life, we promise that the quality of your journey will improve significantly. To

know that you want to grow, and to act on it is the best gift that you can give

yourself. We have decided it was time to reward ourselves with that gift, and we

hope that you will do the same.

We are currently looking for top‐notch applicants in the Charlotte County area in the

divisions of Legal, Clerical, Accounting, Bookkeeping, Hospitality, Medical, and Light

Industrial work. We would love to put our years of expertise to work for you! Should

you be interested in registering with us, please call at 239‐489‐1588. All

appointments will be scheduled on Wed in the Port Charlotte office, or any day of

the week at our Fort Myers Location. Or you can visit our website at

www.lorilanepersonnel.com

Lori Lane Personnel Services, Inc

315 E Olympia Avenue Suite 252

Punta Gorda, FL 33950

We look forward to working with you!. Our new address is

Grand Opening of Port Charlotte Branch!!

Since 1995, Lori Lane Personnel Services, Inc. has striven to bring the area of Lee County the best possible services that the staffing industry can offer. In our fifteen years of commitment to this goal, we have built lasting and meaningful relationships with both our clients and our applicants. In order to uphold such a reputation, we are so very proud to announce the grand opening of our Port Charlotte branch!!

You may be asking yourself, “What makes Lori Lane Personnel Services, Inc. different?” The answer to this is simple. Not only does Lori Lane Personnel have wonderful rapport with each client we work with, but we are familiar with the workings and pattern that this area subscribes to not just on a professional level but on a personal one as well.

Lori Lane, CEO and president of Lori Lane Personnel Services has built very strong ties with the Port Charlotte community. Having the ability to couple her nearly two decades of business owning experience and her vast knowledge of the area, I can think of no better person to be able to usher the area of Port Charlotte into a fruitful economy. We will achieve this by supplying each of our clients with the top talent to fill needs within their company. When your company is full of top talent, you reap top results, and that is was Lori Lane Personnel Services is all about cultivating.

Lori Lane Personnel Services, Inc. also prides itself on the variety of positions we staff. We offer services in the areas of Legal, Clerical, Accounting, Hospitality, and Light Industrial work. Being able to service such a variety of openings, we have the ability to search for the ideal candidate in a much larger pool, therefore matching a top client with a top talent.  Lori Lane Personnel also adheres to the stringent ideal that with personality and a little flair for the extra details we can build and sustain meaningful relationships. We always go above and beyond for each individual client and applicant, and we strongly believe that this personal way of doing business is the key to our almost two decades on non-stop success.

We are thrilled to be bringing opportunities such as these to the Port Charlotte area. We feel that we are the best company in the area to meet the employment needs of the companies in town. We look forward to putting our expertise to work for you, and showing you just how profitable Lori Lane Personnel Services will be for Charlotte County. 

A Spoon Full Of Sugar

Everyone knows that it takes a wonderful recipe to make a wonderful cake. You can't have a mediocre recipe and expect a fabulous cake to come from it or vice versa for that matter. The great thing about recipes though, is that they spell it all our for you. As long as you use two cups of flour and a spoon full of sugar and a heaping gob of frosting, you will get exactly what the picture next to the recipe tells you that you will get. Sometimes I think it would be much easier if life had a recipe. As long as you follow the strict guidelines you will come out with the perfect career. Well, I may not be able to give you the exact measurements, but maybe we can work on what ingredients we have to work with.

When you are out in the business world, or in any world for that matter, there are so many determining factors that instead of trying to sort them out we just throw our hands up in frustration. Suddenly the sugar starts to look like salt and chocolate flakes like dirt, and we beginning to lose the meaning of what all these substances really are. Instead of putting out honey to attract the flies we lay out some vinegar, hoping for the same response. Is it just me or does that seem wasteful?

In order to be someone that clients want to hire, you must know what you are working with. Set aside the vinegar for a moment and display the best honey that you have. If you don't have as much sugar as you would like, down play the bitter chocolate so it looks like you have more sweetness than you actually do. And never forget that all of these things are renewable. Just because you don't feel sweet today, doesn't mean you won't want to tomorrow. What makes a great applicant, and a great person, is not just knowing what ingredients you have to work with and how much to use at certain times, but also to know what your employer is looking for and possibly needs more of. Your boss may be knocking on your door asking for a cup of milk, but you are too busy looking in your own fridge for orange juice that you might miss it.

While I am aware that you have to wait for opportunities to come to you, you also need to be prepared when they do arrive. You don't want to be caught with only one egg when the cake calls for four. Take time to work on yourself and rebuild what you have already used. The business world may seem like a big spoonful of cough medicine now, but maybe with your spoon full of sugar it will go down in the most delightful way.

The Interview Stage

On the heels of our last blog topic dealing with the importance of the resume, I feel that it is now important to address the topic of the ever present, nerve-creating interview.

The interview is the climax, the turning point, the pivotal moment of the plot line that is the quest for your perfect job. Relax in knowing that you have done all of your prep work, because if you hadn't you wouldn't have been asked to come in. With there being an influx of applicants, most employers have taken to screening resumes first, as to not waste their valuable time with mediocre potentials. Knowing this can give you peace; you can be secure in the fact that they already think you are good. 

 Even so, interviews can be nerve rattling. With our economy where it is, there is quite a lot riding on your employment status. However, letting that get to you is the first mistake. Employers are aware that you are unemployed and are in need of income, you don't need to express desperation. You also shouldn't go to the other extreme and fain indifference. Rather exude excitement for a new place, a new opportunity, and a new beginning. 

Something to focus on in the interview: the interview is really not about you. It is in fact what you can do for the company, not what they can do for you. You need to make yourself invaluable, and demonstrate in a confident and professional matter that they need you, not that you need them. The interviewer is aware that you need them, or you wouldn't have submitted your resume. The reason they want to see you is to hear if they can get their money's worth out of you: If you are the one diamond in the ruff that they cannot live without.

Here are some shocking statistics for you. 2% of Chief Financial Officers polled said that candidates are most likely to make mistakes in the interviewing process as apposed to any other facet of the application stages. To avoid these mistakes, you must remember that they want you to be what they are looking for; it will make their work load that much lighter if they can fill an open position. More work can get done, and more revenue can be brought in. It is in their best interest to like you. Do not let your biggest mistakes be in the interview room and not after you have already landed the job.

After you have left the interview, whether you think it went well or not, always follow up with a thank you card. It speaks volumes to your character if you can take the time to thank someone else for simply taking moments from their day to meet with you. Another statistic states that other job application areas in which people make mistakes include: Reference checks (10%), Interview Follow-up (9%), and Cover Letters (8%). 

Always remember, the job market needs you just as much as you need it! Lori Lane Personnel Services, Inc is always delighted to help you in any manner that we can, and we look forward to doing business with you!

The Importance of Details

We have all heard the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." but I wonder how many of us in the professional world actually see the validity of that statement. With the job market being what it is, you really have to work with what you have. What is it that you have? Why that is an excellent question. The trick to making really good lemonade is knowing how to work with you lemons so to speak. There are so many tools that each one of us has the capability to wield, and yet most of the time this details can be overlooked. One of the best tools that you can have at your fingertips is a good resume.

Resumes are wonderful things. To start, you have complete control over your resume, therefore you have the opportunity to control most first impressions. It is key to leave out all of the negative things you may have encountered at a previous job, and really highlight not only your assets and capabilities, but to demonstrate what kind of employee you are going to be. Don't be afraid to talk yourself up. If you're resume shows clear and precise objectives for instance, as opposed to generalized overused objectives, you are demonstrating that you are very driven towards a specific goal, not a general idea. If your resume is clear and concise to read and looks pleasing to the eye, you are proving that you took time to put this together, and that this is the image you want portrayed of yourself. If you're resume looks like something you put together at the last minute, it could be foreshadowing that you will wait until that last minute to throw something together at the work place, and that is not the best way to start out an interview.

You must always take into consideration that your resume often gets seen before you do. Employers judge if they even want to take the time to meet with you and interview you on the basis of whether or not they were pleased with that piece of paper. Offering references is always a way to show confidence in the work that you completed at a previous job, but you must make sure that that confidence will be confirmed if your reference is to be contacted. References aren't the tinsel on the tree; they aren't there just to give your resume that extra something. You should only include a reference if they can truly contribute to your further employment.

To be able to have a hand in controlling how a first impression goes gives you a huge advantage, but you should be very clear on how you want to market yourself. You are your best advocate. As as staffing specialist I have seen many a resume come through this office, and the ones that you know took time to put together and were worded just so, are the ones that we are eager to place. We can only work with what you give us. You may be the best server in town, but if your resume doesn't reflect that there isn't much we can do. Do yourself a service and let the details speak for you, so that when you get the chance to speak for yourself, everything matches up.

You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile

When I was a kid, my mom used to play all the old classic movie-musicals for me. My childhood memories are full of re-enacting classic scenes such as Julie Andrews twirling around on the hills of Austria, arms spread wide singing "The Hills are Alive", pretending to creep through a forest of "Lions, and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" with Judy Garland and her crew of misfits, and holding a wash bucket and rag and pretending to scrub the floors of the orphanage right along with the orphans in Annie. I find it funny that as we grow up, we think we know more than we did as children, but in truth, sometimes child-likeness and open mindedness is the key.

We are given so much knowledge at a such young age, that I think we don't know what to do with it. Ideas like those in The Sound of Music which encourage us to have confidence in sunshine or in rain, or in The Wizard of Oz when we are told "there's no place like home" or to be reminded in Annie that "you're never fully dressed without a smile" just seem like quippy and fun lyrics to songs. However, just when you think you have outgrown your childhood, that you are too good for the memories of old, you realize, maybe I should pay more attention to what I already know, instead of constantly looking to someone else to tell me who to be.

I know not everyone was blessed with a good childhood, but that doesn't exempt you from this ideal. Maybe the trials of your rough childhood have shaped out exactly what you don't want to become. Instead of running away from it, embrace it as something that has made you into who you are today, and if you don't like who you are, look to those experiences to be a guideline on how to change.

The holidays are a difficult time to take a moment for yourself. It seems that the holidays are no longer a selfless time, but instead a selfish excuse to pull on everyone from every direction. However, if you can, find a moment to reflect and see if who you are today can get you to where you are going. In your reflection, look to those moments that you maybe thought were insignificant when you were young, you may be surprised at what you find.

Season's Greetings from Lori Lane Personnel

As the holiday season approaches, it seems that a time that used to be filled with warm thoughts of the magic of Christmas have turned into the reality of what we have deemed impossible. Our minds flood with the thoughts; "It's impossible to please everyone.",  "It's impossible to live up to certain expectations." and even "It's impossible to be who I want to be." Well friends, to quote Audrey Hepburn "Nothing is impossible. The very word says I'm possible!"

It is so easy to focus on the grind, especially during the Holiday season. We go from anxiously awaiting Santa Clause to anxiously awaiting the January credit card bill. We often forget that even in the absence of material things, we still have so much to give. This economy has come down on all of us hard. Funds are low, or even non existent. So Christmas turns out to be more of a curse that a blessing, especially when we have a family relying on us to create some Christmas magic. I know it may sounds crazy and childlike, but when it all comes down to it, you have to remember that the magic is in you.

We have all been through some really trying times. Whether they are big or just big to us, the holidays sometimes just put a magnifying glass on the hurt. Something my mother says to comfort me is "everyone has something that they are going through, this just happens to be ours." The biggest gift you can give yourself this holiday season is confidence. Keep your head held high and remember, this too shall pass.

We here at Lori Lane personnel are inspired by the magic within each one of us. We encourage you this Holiday season to not focus on what you lack, but instead to give thanks for what you have. Whether that is family, time, or just a side little talent you may have, spend time developing the gifts you may not have been aware of. Who knows, the greatest gift Santa may have ever brought you may be right under your nose.

Happy Holidays, from all of us here at Lori Lane Personnel, to you. We are so looking forward to servicing you in the near future.