Monthly Archives: January 2016

How a chef shortage could change your dining experience | CNN Money

Posted on January 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Everyone knows too many cooks in the kitchen is a recipe for disaster. But what if there aren’t enough?

Restaurants across the country are having a hard time filling kitchen worker positions, and with no relief in sight, the shortage is likely to change the dining out experience.

“Everyone is opening a restaurant, yet the painful reality is there isn’t enough talent to go around,” said Andrew Freeman, president of restaurant consulting firm AF&Co.

At Dirt Candy, a well-known vegetarian restaurant in New York City, owner Amanda Cohen remembers when she would receive 30-40 resumes for a kitchen job. Sometimes, cooks submitted résumés when there wasn’t an opening.

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Powerhive Is Bringing Clean Energy To The Developing World–With Prepaid Solar | Co.Exist 

Posted on January 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

The remote village of Monomoni, Kenya, is too far from cities and too sparsely populated to be part of the national grid. Now, however, it’s possible to for a family of cow herders or a small business to buy prepaid solar power through a mobile phone.

Powerhive, a startup that builds solar, mobile-connected microgrids—small utilities that are usually built to power around 200 homes—started testing their system in Monomoni in 2012, and began expanding to 100 more rural villages around the country last year, along with others in the rest of the underpowered world. The company raised $11 million in December, and just raised another $20 million to expand even more.

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9 Smart Reasons You Need to Be Using Facebook Ads Now | Inc.com

Posted on January 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Social media is a tremendous way to increase exposure and traffic for your business, create loyal customers, and generate leads and sales.

Spoiler alert: Facebook remains King Social Network. It is the social media platform of choice for the majority of marketers–and for good reason.

It’s never been cheaper to build your brand and create new demand for your products and services.

If you aren’t already advertising on Facebook, you’d be crazy not to. Especially if you want to grow like crazy in 2016.

Here are nine reasons Facebook ads will help make your business super successful in 2016, starting right now.

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First Data Introduces Clover Go Card Reader to Compete with Square | Small Biz Trends

Posted on January 22, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Do you happen to be in the market for a mobile card reader? There is a new player hitting the scene that’s been recently announced by First Data. Called Clover Go, this EMV-enabled card reader is being touted as an affordable option.

Clover Go appears to be a card reader similar to those offered by Square and PayPal. It works with the Clover Go app for iOS and Android, which a user will first have to download on either their smartphone or tablet.

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Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

Posted on January 22, 2016 by | Leave a comment

v.20 n. 3 – Released January 20, 2016

This Week’s Headlines:

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‘Planet Nine’ May Exist: New Evidence for Another World in Our Solar System | Live Science

Posted on January 21, 2016 by | Leave a comment

The mythical “Planet X” may actually be real, and scientists are calling it “Planet Nine.”

Astronomers have found evidence for a planet 10 times more massive than Earth in the far outer solar system, orbiting about 20 times farther from the sun than distant Neptune does.

“This would be a real ninth planet,” one of the researchers, Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, said in a statement. “There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It’s a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that’s still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting.”

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4 Productivity Tips That Changed My Life This Year | Entrepreneur

Posted on January 21, 2016 by | Leave a comment

This year was a big one for me. My income quadrupled, my workload decreased and business expanded faster than I could have imagined. How? Simple: Intentional productivity.

I want to share here four of the biggest productivity tips I utilized this year that helped me make the past 12 months the most amazing year of my life. I’ll also share how you can apply these to your life to make 2016 your best year yet!

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What’s for Dinner? 3 One-Minute Tips to Eat More Mindfully | Page19

Posted on January 21, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Eating is one of our basic human needs, but it’s more than a mere utilitarian must-do. Eating can be a great pleasure, a social occasion, or a route to greater physical and mental health. But what does that really mean?

While awareness about the benefits of a healthy diet is on the rise, so are confusion and misinformation. What does it actually mean to be a mindful eater? From that question springs a cornucopia of others, like what should the bulk of my grocery haul be? Should I eat meat or not? Are there techniques to better enjoy a meal?

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3 Key Things to Learn About Your Target Customer | Business News Daily

Posted on January 20, 2016 by | Leave a comment

If you’re starting a business, you’ve probably defined your “target customer.” You know their age, gender, location and perhaps even their income and education levels. But demographics alone won’t give you a complete picture of who’s buying your products.

“Understand intimately who your customer is,” said TJ Parker, CEO and founder of PillPack, an online pharmacy and medication management service. “If you don’t know your customers, it’s hard to … communicate [your product’s] benefits so they react positively.”

So what else should you be learning about your customers, aside from basic demographics? Here are the top three things you should find out, and how to incorporate that information into your strategy.

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Is Your Small Business Truly Organized? How to Overcome Challenges | All Business

Posted on January 20, 2016 by | Leave a comment

To effectively run a small business, there are a number of tasks you have to do that are not only necessary, but oftentimes tough to swallow.

Sometimes a small business has to let staff go in order to stay financially afloat. Other businesses cut their advertising and marketing budgets, and then take the chance of missing out on new clients. Still others close their doors altogether because they were not organized enough in the first place.

If any of this sounds scary, it should. Running a small business comes with many challenges, but they can certainly be overcome with smart leadership and a determination to learn from past mistakes.

With that in mind, ask yourself if your small business is truly organized. And if it isn’t, let’s find out how can you better organize it for this year and beyond.

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