I run a small business from home, making herbal medicine which I sell on my website.www.eshdet.com

I was an installer of residential HVAC with Byrum HVAC. We did mostly change-outs, but there were a couple of new construction installations and room additions thrown in there and one commercial job at a school. I also helped the service techs in the field on occasion, and this allowed me to see the business from another perspective.

I started with HMS having no prior experience in the HVAC field. In less than a year, I had learned enough to earn two raises and a promotion to the position of Lead Mechanic. My duties entailed managing every aspect of my jobs from start to finish, training new employees, and acting as liaison for the Superintendents and Project Managers of all the jobs I was involved in, sometimes running two and three jobs and two 2-man crews simultaneously. We dealt strictly with installation of mid to large size (10-35 ton) HVAC units in the commercial construction field, mostly York brand rooftop package units. I excelled at this work and ran circles around 15 year veterans despite my lack of previous experience.

Working for my father's company, I installed prefabricated cabinets in the high-end market ($800K+ homes) in Wilmington, NC, and surrounding communities. Attention to detail is a requisite for cabinet installation, and the high-end market was especially demanding in that regard. I was very good at it, but eventually the work dried up, so I had to seek work elsewhere.

I was involved in every aspect of Land Clearing and Grading, from tree removal/deforesting to driveway grading. This was fill-in work which I enjoyed quite a bit and from which I learned a good deal.

My daily tasks as a Payroll Technician at SOI included processing an average of 30 payrolls a day for clients all over the country, printing out reports, contacting the clients, making adjustments and deductions, and finalizing the reports to be printed to checks. I managed the accounts from all aspects, delegating the varied issues which crop up to the proper departments in SOI to be handled by specialists in tax, worker's comp., etc., whenever necessary. I was the primary contact for all of my 100 +/- weekly clients, so I was on the phone with them a great deal and honed my customer service skills as a result. From time to time I was also made part of special projects, which varied my duties greatly. After working as a Payroll Technician for one year and four months I moved to the Production Department and took on a whole new set of responsibilities. In the Production Department I printed the final payroll reports as well as the paychecks themselves, verified check dates and check counts, and shipped the payrolls to our clients all across the U.S. I also ran reports and kept up with spreadsheets to be used for cost analysis and cost control purposes, and I delivered faxes.