What’s the worst thing an entrepreneur can do? Not listen, according to Chicago entrepreneur Adam Fridman.“We -- I am including myself on purpose -- get excited about an idea and we fire. Pausing to listen to advice seems a waste of time,” he said.Fridman would know. He founded three Chicago companies, making him a prominent entrepreneur in the Windy City startup community. While earning his Master's degree in finance from Depaul University in 2003, Adam founded Idea2Result, a Chicago based B2B appointment setting staffing company.  Following the success of Idea2Result, Adam co-founded GoBumpe... view article details

Q: I am an accountant for a franchise owner and I am salaried. I understand that this means being exempt from the time clock, overtime, etc. There are times when I might work over the weekend or past the normal business day. My manager tells me there is no such thing as comp time and even that it is against the law to allow time off for extra time worked. This is the first I've heard of such nonsense.Are there laws on this subject for salaried employees? I've missed one day in the last six months, and I was docked a day's pay. How do you take away a day of earnings from someone who is salaried... view article details

When Early Isn't an Option How does a night owl who arrives at work after noon each day succeed in his career?The first story in this series covers the basics about a type of circadian rhythm disorder called delayed sleep phase syndrome (also DSPS, or delayed sleep), which half a million Americans suffer. In the second story, a writer with delayed sleep says she felt like death holding down a 9-to-5 job, and ultimately felt better when she began freelancing. In this third story, you’ll meet Tom Lemmon, a software engineer at a top Internet company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lemmon, ... view article details

Q: My question is about 'ethnic' hairstyles in the workplace. Would a person interviewing be scrutinized because they were wearing a hairstyle that was different from the norm? For instance, as an African-American female interviewing for an executive assistant position in corporate America, could I wear dreadlocks or braids? Or, how would corporate America feel about me if I came to an interview with my head covered because of religious practices?A: Wherever I go in today's workplace, I go in style, and you can too. Never forget that putting on clothes and dealing with your hair is an opportun... view article details

Many employers will be conducting their annual “focal” reviews over the next few months, which in layman’s terms means the time in which you sit down with your boss and go over your achievements against goals. For most people, it is an uncomfortable conversation that produces as much anxiety as going to the dentist or asking for a raise.For the majority of companies, the annual review is the only formal conversation employees have with their boss about their performance and usually ends with an overview of an employee's new compensation package such as merit increase, bonus payout and stock gr... view article details

You have a proposal due at 2 p.m., a meeting at 3 p.m., and a conference call at 4 p.m. Then, after work, there are kids to be shuttled to dance lessons, groceries to be shopped for and laundry that just isn't going to wash itself. And weren't you thinking about going to the gym sometime today?Just about everyone with a job knows the feeling of trying to squeeze work, family and personal activities into a very finite amount of time. And the busier we get, the more the pressure builds. How can you focus on your monthly sales report when you are also mentally calibrating a car pool schedule?But ... view article details

Dear Annette, One of my colleagues stutters. How should I handle this with him in the office? What if we are making a presentation together or doing an important conference call? Hesitant Dear Hesitant, For all you know, your coworker may be staying late at the office, composing his own letter to Me, far more worried about your discomfort than about his level of fluency. If my People were that ... view article details

Dear Annette, I've been working on my income taxes, and my files are getting pretty big. How much of this stuff do I have to keep? Form 1-too-many Dear Form, When I found out a few years ago that Dickie and I were going to prison for failing to pay taxes on three years' worth of his a income from selling cosmetics door-to-door, my first thoughts were, What should I pack? Will there be mints under my pillow? Will there be someone to do the floors and bath? And why does an undocumented Maltese owe taxes in the first place? (After all, he does have his shots.) But I quickly realized incarceration... view article details

Have you ever felt ambushed during a business meeting? Or have you either clammed up or lashed out at a boss when unexpected criticisms come your way during a performance review? If so, chances are you were in a 'Crucial Conversation.' And you blew it.Kerry Patterson, a New York Times bestselling writer and co-author of 'Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High,' says crucial conversations happen on a near daily basis both at work and at home. The trick, as Patterson tells Aaron and Wendy on this week's episode of Salary Talk, is to recognize them when they happen and act ... view article details

Like it or not, money is power. And if you want to be included in powerful circles, you need to look and act the part. But how can you look and act like a millionaire without the millions?Enter Vicky Oliver, whose brand new book 'The Millionaire's Handbook: How to Look and Act Like a Millionaire Even If You're Not,' serves as a guide for faking it 'til you make it into the inner sanctum of the rich and influential. And since social standing is often determined by perception, Oliver's book is a treasure trove of helpful tips to help get you rubbing elbows with the bigwigs in a hurry.The one big... view article details