Monthly Archives: November 2018

The Problems With Working For A Consulting Agency (Do This Instead) | Management Consulting Connection

Posted on November 30, 2018 by knjohn | Leave a comment

You might be losing a lot of money right now.

I’ve worked with hundreds of consultants in many industries all around the world and often I hear about situations where people are losing a lot of money, they’re losing a lot of opportunities. In some cases, they’re aware of it. In other cases, they’re not.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about working with other agencies. I’m talking about you working as a consultant and not a consulting business owner. There’s a very big difference. So let’s look at these. I’ll put it all into play for you.

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Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged business owner, consultant, Consulting Agency, consulting business owner, leaving money on the table, losing money

Cracking the Code on Heating and Cooling Costs for Your Business | Small Business Trends

Posted on November 30, 2018 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Small businesses across the United States spend a staggering $60 billion on energy every year, most of which is consumed in electricity. Keeping work premises warm in the winter and cool in the summer is a necessary part of running any business but is also energy intensive, equating to one of the biggest energy costs.

Heating and Cooling Costs

Taking steps to reduce heating and cooling costs will significantly help reduce your business’s electricity consumption and therefore energy bills.

If you’re determined to cut back on heating and cooling expenses, take a look at the following ways you might be able to do it.

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Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged cut back on heating and cooling expenses, electricity consumption, energy bills, Heating and Cooling Costs for Your Business, heating and cooling expenses, saving on energy bills, your business’s electricity consumption

What to Include in Your Freelance Contract | Business.com

Posted on November 29, 2018 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Considering freelancing? Here’s everything you need to know about freelance contracts, from what to include in the contract to handling breaches.

When you pursue freelancing, you are choosing an independent career path that requires you to look after yourself. In other words, you’re your own boss, and you need to secure your finances, insurance, retirement savings, etc., on your own terms.

One major responsibility freelancers must prioritize is creating a contract to establish a legal agreement between you and your clients.

“A freelancer needs a contract,” said Drew DuBoff, blogger and chief career coach. “Because they are not full-time employees, they are acting as independent contractors, so this document is an independent contractor agreement.”

If you’re considering taking the freelance route, here’s everything you need to know about freelance contracts.

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Tagged freelance contracts, Freelancer, Independent Contractor

When marketing goes wrong | The Startup Magazine

Posted on November 29, 2018 by knjohn | Leave a comment

You read a great deal of how-to guides on the best marketing techniques to promote your business – but what about examples of bad marketing?

To advise you on what not to do, button badges expert Badgemaster presents some of the mistakes to avoid in your marketing campaigns.

Not knowing your audience.

Marketing is about promoting your company to your target market. Deciding on the audience for your marketing informs all other decisions. So, this needs to be right.

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Posted in Marketing

Tagged marketing, marketing audience, marketing mistakes

Restaurant and cafe chains giving out ‘dangerous’ allergy advice | BBC News

Posted on November 28, 2018 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Leading restaurant and coffee shop chains are giving out incorrect allergy advice, BBC Watchdog Live has found.

Posing as customers with food allergies, journalists secretly filmed staff at Frankie & Benny’s, Pizza Hut, Nandos, Pizza Express, Starbucks and Costa.

The journalists asked staff whether dishes contained any of the 14 major allergens.

Five out of the 30 outlets visited gave the reporters incorrect information.

The unclear and incorrect advice could have caused anyone with a genuine allergy to have a potentially life-threatening reaction.

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Posted in News and Views

Tagged allergy advice, Nandos, Pizza Express, Pizza Hut, starbucks, wrong allergy advice

Secretive Electric Car Startup Rivian Emerges From Stealth Mode With 600 Employees and Half a Billion in Funding | Inc.com

Posted on November 28, 2018 by knjohn | Leave a comment

After nine years of secrecy, an electric car startup with a whole lot of funding is revealing its vehicles to the public.

On Monday, San Jose-based Rivian unveiled its pickup truck at an event in Los Angeles, the first of two gas-free cars the company is revealing this week. Founded by MIT grad R.J. Scaringe in 2009, the company has racked up more than $500 million in funding while keeping a tight lid on its futuristic-looking designs.

On Tuesday, the startup will pull the lid off its SUV. Rivian says neither car will be available until 2020.

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Posted in News and Views

Tagged electric car, Electric Car Startup, Rivian

Holiday Shopping? Watch Out for This Costly Credit Card Trap | The Simple Dollar

Posted on November 27, 2018 by knjohn | Leave a comment

As the holiday season gets into full swing, so too do the credit card promotions from retail stores far and wide.

This is prime season for enticing shoppers to sign onto the dotted line for cards that offer a discount on your first purchase or a special 0% introductory APR — which to many cash-strapped consumers can sound like an ideal way to finance a holiday extravaganza.

The reality of these deferred-interest retail credit cards however, is that they may not be as helpful as they sound at first blush. In fact, in many cases, signing on for one can cost far more than expected if you’re not clear on how the deferred interest proposition works.

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Tagged Credit Card Trap, credit cards, deferred-interest

Amazon opens its internal machine learning courses to all for free | TechCrunch

Posted on November 27, 2018 by knjohn | Leave a comment

It’s Cyber Monday and Amazon has one deal for its customers that’s a little unexpected. The company just announced that it has made available, for free, the same machine learning courses that it uses to train its own engineers.

It’s a lot of information to digest — from a programming standpoint. According to a newly released statement by Matt Wood, an eight-year veteran of Amazon and a general manager of deep learning and AI at the company, there are more than 45 hours across 30 different courses that developers, data scientists, data platform engineers and business professionals can take gratis.

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Posted in News and Views

Tagged Amazon, Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Lex, Amazon Polly, Amazon Rekognition, Amazon SageMaker, AWS DeepLens, Cyber Monday, free learning cources

How Teflon Went From Wartime to Dinner Time | WIRED

Posted on November 26, 2018 by knjohn | Leave a comment

POLYTETRAFLUOROETHYLENE WILL NOT dissolve in acetone or ether or concentrated sulfuric acid. When Roy Plunkett first found it coating some storage canisters in 1938, he tried to destroy the substance with just about every technique known to science. A young employee at DuPont, Plunkett had been hired to develop a new refrigerant. But when he cooled and compressed a gas he was testing, a waxy white powder unexpectedly formed—that stuff he couldn’t eradicate. The material was brought to the attention of US Army general Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project, who commissioned DuPont to design a plant that used polytetrafluoroethylene seals and gaskets.

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Tagged DuPont, polytetrafluoroethylene, Roy Plunkett, Teflon

Why Your Health Is the Key to Your Success in Business | Entrepreneur

Posted on November 23, 2018 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Be honest: Are you working at your absolute peak? Just look at The Rock. Sure he’s charismatic and a strong actor, but how does he fly across the world to record back-to-back films with barely a moment to rest? It’s because he’s in incredible shape. The Rock gets the most out of his acting chops because he obsesses over his health.

That same idea applies to you as an entrepreneur. Treat your body well — eat right, challenge your body, get proper sleep — and you’ll reward yourself with more energy, greater focus, and a heightened level of discipline. You’ll achieve new levels of productivity while your competition falls behind and watches you scale faster and faster.