Author: knjohn

The Alps are growing taller | Live Science

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Swiss Alps are going through a growth spurt, according to a new study suggesting that part of the mountain range is lifting upward faster than it is eroding.

The finding goes against the conclusions of two previous studies, which suggested that the Alps were neither growing nor shrinking.

However, an international team of researchers has now found that isn’t the case, after analyzing different isotopes, or versions of an element, in the sand from hundreds of rivers in the European Alps. One particular isotope — beryllium-10 (10Be) — revealed information about erosion rates in different parts of the Alps, the team said.

Read More

How to Develop a Marketing Budget | businessnewsdaily.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

What is enough to get your brand noticed and drive conversions? How much is too much to generate a meaningful return on investment? Here’s what you should know about developing a marketing budget.

  • A key element of a marketing plan is budgeting, which determines how much you have to spend on which marketing strategies.
  • To develop a marketing budget, identify your goals and the optimal channels for reaching your audience.
  • Marketing spend for small businesses varies wildly, from a few thousand dollars per year to thousands per month.
  • This article is for entrepreneurs preparing to develop a marketing budget that will deliver results without negatively impacting the bottom line.

Read More

What To Eat Before Morning Workout (10 Simple Breakfast Ideas) | Life Hack

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Early morning workouts are the norm for many. For some, it’s the only time they have; others may feel better working out first thing in the morning.

The morning can be a crazy rush. Figuring out what to eat before morning workout when you’re in a pinch may be difficult. Maybe you don’t get hungry in the mornings or feel you have the time to eat. However, there’s a good reason why you should care about what to eat before a morning workout.

Read More

Walmart beat Amazon on Black Friday by one important metric | Fast Company

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Volumes of future marketing analysis will surely be written about this year’s unprecedented holiday shopping season, but for now we’ll have to make do with industry reports that reveal people’s pandemic-era spending habits in dribs and drabs.

The latest drib (or drab?) comes from analytics firm Sensor Tower, whose new dispatch shows a record surge in new downloads of shopping-related mobile apps. Black Friday alone saw more than 2.8 million first-time installs of shopping apps, the largest ever in a single day, according to Sensor Tower’s preliminary estimates. Year-over-year growth, the report says, was about the same as last year at 8%, but it was more substantial when you look at the entire month of November—with 59.2 million shopping app installs compared to 51.7 million for the same period last year.

Read More

It’s Official: Salesforce Buying Slack For $28 Billion, Taking On Microsoft With Benioff’s Biggest Deal Yet | Forbes

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

After nearly a week of speculation, Salesforce confirmed its intent to acquire popular workforce chat platform Slack in a deal valued at $27.7 billion on Tuesday, marking the enterprise cloud giant’s largest-ever acquisition and positioning it to compete more forcefully with the nation’s second-largest tech firm by market capitalization, Microsoft.

Read More

6 Things Startups Need to Know About Cybersecurity | AllBusiness.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Companies will lose $400 billion to hackers this year.

On top of the financial costs, companies can lose intellectual property, personal data, hours of productivity, and consumer trust. What’s worse, companies often don’t even think about cybersecurity until it’s too late.

Not taking a proactive and thorough approach to securing your data and systems early in your startup journey could cause you to lose contracts and stall your growth. If you want to scale a B2B SaaS company quickly, you can’t afford to trip over data security issues. Otherwise, you’re preventing growth and leaving money on the table when big prospects dismiss you as “too risky.”

Read More

Data Surveillance During Remote Work Leaves Businesses Vulnerable | Small Business Trends

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Remote work has enabled businesses to weather the storm of the pandemic and adapt to new work environments while keeping business going. Yet, with employees now working remotely, the line between personal and professional data has been blurred and that comes with significant risk.

While companies focus on matching productivity and collaboration to that of office times, they can lose focus on the growing concern of data surveillance and misuse. Thanks to GDPR and CCPA regulations, businesses are now held to more stringent standards when it comes to collecting and handling data. However with the pandemic to distract focus, the number of data breaches continues to grow and businesses continue to ignore potential vulnerabilities.

Read More

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Campaign | business.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Social media marketing is key to a modern business’s success. This guide explains how to create a successful social media marketing campaign.

Everyone is on social media, including your competitors, your customers and your target audience. Many large companies have invested significant sums of money to create social media departments and establish their presence across multiple platforms. Fortunately, unlike other forms of advertising, you don’t need a large budget to create a successful social media campaign.

Read More

Brain-reading Headset Galea May Make Keyboards Obsolete | Digital Trends

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Conor Russomanno is working on some pretty lofty stuff: He’s building a headset that will be able to noninvasively read people’s thoughts and use them to control the computer interfaces of tomorrow. But right now, his big worry is whether or not he chose the right name for his startup.

“You know,” said Russomanno, the co-founder and CEO of a brain-computer interface startup called OpenBCI, “sometimes I wish that we had named our company OpenMCI — like, mind computer interface or something like that.”

Read More

5 Franchise Problems To Avoid | The Startup Magazine

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The US Small Business Administration notes that fast-food franchises make up the most popular business type for new entrepreneurs. Franchises are an easy way to trade on the popularity of an established name. From medspa franchise opportunities to retail businesses, there’s no shortage of supply. However, getting into a franchise relies on understanding what the company expects back from you. There are significant hurdles for new entrepreneurs when negotiating contracts and establishing rules between them and the franchisor. Here, we examine a handful of franchise problems that entrepreneurs should try their best to avoid.

A Terrible Sales Process

Many new franchisees are eager to get people in the door, regardless of how successful those people are likely to be. When you’re selling a franchise, whether it’s fast food or retail, the operator needs to understand how to make it work. While established franchises have massive training programs, these smaller, newer franchises don’t. They’re a lot cheaper to buy into as a result, and the low cost attracts a short of new entrepreneurs. The downside is that these new business owners end up biting off more than they can chew. Restaurant Business Online underlines this problem in their case study of Quiznos’ collapse.

Read More