Instacart Survived Covid Chaos — But Can It Keep Delivering After The Pandemic?

February 11, 2021February 9, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Apoorva Mehta pauses for a moment to consider the past ten months of chaos. A year ago, he was running Instacart as a popular app that was gaining momentum. Then last spring came a massive Covid-fueled boost. Things quickly morphed into a nightmare: striking shoppers, inventory shortages and the challenge of meeting the kind of blistering demand Mehta wasn’t expecting until at least the next presidential election.

As it turns out, the tribulations of March were just the beginning. As the country’s leading grocery delivery app, Instacart is now besieged by a growing number of well-funded competitors. Mehta himself is under pressure to justify a valuation that more than doubled during those 10 months to $18 billion, a highly anticipated public offering and a strategy aimed at proving Amazon—when it comes to supermarkets, at least—has it all wrong. Understated and wonky, Mehta deftly sidesteps any hint of urgency.

The Worst Business Advice We’ve Ever Heard | AllBusiness.com

February 11, 2021February 9, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Business advice can come from anywhere, even from those who have never owned a business. But if you’re a new entrepreneur just starting out, you tend to soak up all the information that you can. The most significant problem is there’s no simple way to tell the lousy advice from the good advice. Sometimes experience is the only way to figure out the difference.

To share lessons they’ve learned in their business careers, 13 professionals from Young Entrepreneur Council reflect on the following question:

What’s the worst piece of business advice you’ve ever heard, and why was it so harmful?

Fascinating eBay Statistics and Facts for Small Business Sellers | Small Business Trends

February 10, 2021February 9, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Founded by entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar in 1995, eBay was one of the first auction sites on the web. In fact, its original name was AuctionWeb. Fast forward over 25 years later. As you can see from the eBay statistics below, the site has become a global marketplace connecting buyers and sellers online.

Perhaps you’ve bought things on eBay, but now are exploring how to start an eBay store or simply becoming an eBay seller. We show you the potential opportunity. Follow along as we explore eBay seller stats, company facts, and volume figures you need to know.

What Is Recruitment? | business.com

February 10, 2021February 9, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Learn what the recruitment process is and how to implement one for your business.

Hiring an employee may seem like a simple job that anyone can do: Post a job opening online, interview a candidate, and then hire them, right? Recruiting new employees should be treated just as any other important business function would, with experienced professionals taking the reins.

Your employees are your company’s most significant asset; a bad hire can cost your business up to 30% of their first-year earnings, so it is important to choose employees wisely.

Study Suggests Most Zoombombing is an Inside Job | Digital Trends

February 9, 2021February 7, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Last year wasn’t exactly short of threats facing humanity, but “Zoombombing” was an especially 2020 kind of disruption, one that sought to hijack one of the most prominent means of communication by which people stayed in touch with everyone from co-workers to friends and family during lockdown.

Zoombombing, for those unfamiliar with it, works like this: An unwanted participant or participants access a Zoom call without being invited, against the wishes of the participants, and cause problems. One Massachusetts-based high school’s Zoom session was hijacked by an individual who screamed profanities and then shouted the teacher’s home address. On social media, some users reported that their Zoom session had been taken over and used to show pornographic content.

Negotiating Strategies to Get a Better Deal while Selling a Property | The Startup Magazine

February 9, 2021February 7, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It is a proven fact that properties always do not sell for the beginning ask price quoted by the real estate owner. If you are about to sell a property, it should be your priority to know about the negotiation loopholes that may come in your way. Sellers need to understand that mere closing the deal is not the proper answer. They should finalize the deal by getting the maximum output for their investment. Following are some time tested suggestions from cashmyre.com, which might help you a lot while selling your valued property:

Remain Updated About Market Dynamics

No matter what comes in your way, you must focus on prevailing capital values, the latest market dynamics, and trends. It will help you a lot to control the situations. The buyer cannot dictate terms as regards the purpose of the property sale, ongoing financial problems, or any deadline for sale proceeds. If you are in full control of the situation and handle the negotiation with patience, the seller will never dominate you, and subsequently, you will get the best price.

Rolls Royce plans summer shutdown to help cut losses | BBC News

February 8, 2021February 7, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Rolls Royce is considering a plan to close its jet engine plants for civil aircraft for two weeks in a bid to stem losses. The engineering giant has suffered a drop in sales with fewer jets in the air requiring servicing. The plans are tentative as the company aims to thrash out an agreement with unions. The plan, first disclosed by the Sunday Telegraph, will not affect its defence or energy divisions. “As part of the agreement reached with the union last summer we agreed in principle to enter into negotiations about delivering a 10% productivity and efficiency improvement across our Civil Aerospace operations in the UK,” Rolls Royce said in a statement.

How Amazon’s New CEO Andy Jassy Could Impact Small Businesses | Inc.com

February 8, 2021February 7, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Andy Jassy will be leading Amazon through a pivotal period when he takes the e-commerce giant’s helm from founder and CEO Jeff Bezos this summer. On the one hand, the pandemic has further expanded Amazon’s impact on consumers, businesses, and governments. It’s little wonder that the company ended the fourth quarter of 2020 with more than $125 billion in sales, its biggest quarter ever.

At the same time, Amazon is facing unprecedented scrutiny, including in regard to how its actions affect small businesses and third-party sellers on its platform. The company is facing multiple antitrust lawsuits and may face more regulatory action this year in the U.S. and the E.U. How Jassy handles it will have important consequences for small businesses trying to compete with Amazon. And regardless of the outcome, his selection as CEO will also influence the fortunes of private companies hoping to get acquired by Amazon, as well as those that rely on it for their sales.

The iPhone’s Face ID Will Soon Work With a Mask—if You Have an Apple Watch | WIRED

February 4, 2021February 2, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

APPLE IS FACING our face-masked future. This week, the company started testing some new software for the iPhone that will let device owners unlock the handset while wearing a face covering. There’s a catch, though, one that lines up with Apple’s strategy of locking people in to different Apple products, and it highlights how challenging it can be to develop accurate facial recognition technology: The new face-unlock feature requires an Apple Watch.

The first developer beta of iOS 14.5 includes updates to app tracking controls and Siri alongside the face-mask function. App-makers typically get early access to the newest version of iOS in order to launch or retool their apps well in advance of the formal software release. (Brave souls who don’t mind the risk of potentially bricking their iPhones can also enroll in public beta releases.) The fully baked version of the software is expected to be made available to the general public this spring.

Turn Your Employees into Mad Scientist Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneur

February 4, 2021February 2, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

What are you doing to offer your employees value while they are in your flock and preparing them for their next ascension in either corporate America, philanthropy, social giving or as an entrepreneur? I hear of the horror stories of business professionals seeking to try their hand at being a business owner but fear that their current job will be in jeopardy or their role as a provider is in limbo seeking to take the step. Employers unknowingly are often hiring future entrepreneurs that will either create a service or product that will make their current company obsolete or struggle for survival. These “silent” entrepreneurs endure the pain of holding their desires to venture out and try entrepreneurship. It seems that too often, we speak about the risk entrepreneurs take in leaving their jobs or careers to try being an entrepreneur and not focus on the risk taken by firms to not embrace them by helping them grow. Companies are taking a risk by foregoing identifying and embracing the skillsets for qualified personnel on their teams that show true foundational character traits of entrepreneurs that can be leveraged to build them up and assist them in reaching their goal.