Author: knjohn

The Best Way to Sort Consulting Clients into “Types” | David A. Fields

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As consultants, we are masters of a particularly human trait: simplifying. We boil down a confusingly multifarious muddle into orderly, digestible bites. We apply this ability to trends, situations, strategies, opportunities, and virtually everything else. Including people.

Yep, we will happily reduce incomprehensible complexity (which pretty much describes humanity) into a handful of characteristics (which pretty much describes tiddlywinks pieces).

This makes sense, of course. You don’t want to address your English-speaking clients in Korean, serve pastrami sandwiches to vegan prospects, or invite a supremely introverted decision-maker out to the disco.

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Is It Time to Consider a Fixed Fee for Your Consulting Services? | Liz Steblay

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Generally, the more experience you have as an independent consultant, the more likely you should move from billing by the hour to a fixed fee. At some point you’ll master your specialty and work much more efficiently than others. This means to earn what your services are truly worth, you’ll have to keep raising your hourly rates. But at some point, you’ll reach an invisible rate ceiling when clients think you’re too expensive, even if it takes you half the time to do the work.

When you reach this point, it’s time to start thinking about billing for your services by the project instead of by the hour or day. The idea is to price the project as if you’re going to do it from scratch, even though you know you’re going to adapt plans and materials from prior projects. By doing so, you’ll boost your income per hour.

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5 Ideas for Your Loyalty Program | Business

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Want to boost customer loyalty? These rewards program tactics can help you build a loyal customer base and drive more sales.

Everyone loves to save money when they shop. When customers join a loyalty program, they expect brands to give them the freedom to use their points to get better deals.

However, roughly 54 percent of memberships for loyalty programs remain inactive, indicating that many customers are not using the loyalty programs for which they signed up. This is possibly because the program isn’t relevant to them or is inconvenient for them. With this in mind, you need to find ways to improve your loyalty programs so your loyal customers can get the most out of it and become even more loyal to your brand.

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Amazon’s Slick Fire TV Recast is a Great Way to Record Broadcast TV | Digital Trends

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If you’re a dedicated cord-cutter or a rural viewer without reliable cable, on-demand access to your favorite network shows can be a pain to find. Sure, a quality HDTV antenna is a great way to get local programming for many, but who has the patience to rearrange their schedules for appointment viewing in the streaming era? Thankfully a whole new generation of over-the-air (OTA) DVRs has emerged to solve this problem, including Amazon’s own Fire TV Recast.

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Smart Fridge | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

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Samsung has been sticking touchscreens on fridges since 2016, adding a few new features every year. Right on cue, the company unveiled the latest Family Hub fridges at CES 2019, with the main new addition being a Family Board screen dedicated to posting photos and messages, and support for the latest version of the Bixby voice assistant.

The annual updates to the Family Hub are fairly incremental, but the basics of the smart fridge stay the same. There’s a 21.5-in touchscreen built into one door that lets users peer into the fridge without opening it, share photos and messages with the family, get news and weather updates, set reminders, play music and video, add items to a shopping list, find and follow recipes, and keep track of expiration dates.

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Unique Careers to Pursue | The Startup Magazine

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In choosing a career path, there are so many possibilities that you can pursue. The whole idea about enjoying your work is getting into a career path that is interesting and unique. While careers like working in a web design agency, law and healthcare can be extremely satisfying, there are more interesting career paths that you can choose that are completely out of the box.

Having a unique job can make waking up every day to go to work very satisfying. Not only will you be making money that will sustain you and your family, but you’ll also have a chance to truly enjoy what you’re doing every day. We will share some careers that some lucky individuals call jobs. It is never too late to change your career if this is something that would truly satisfy you.

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How Hamdi Ulukaya Built Chobani Into a $1.5 Billion Yogurt Empire | Inc.com

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I’m Kurdish, and I’m from Turkey. I grew up on sheep farms, and in the mountains. What got respected most was a person’s values. It wasn’t money, it wasn’t how many sheep a person had. It wasn’t how tall the person was. A person’s actions would earn them the respect they deserved. The community would grow to trust that the person would always be there. That the person would lead the way. That the person would bring solutions. I watched my father live this. I watched my mother live this in a massive way. They were clearly leaders in the community.

When I started, I had five factory workers. I couldn’t promise them big things. I couldn’t promise security, even–that would have been misleading. But I could stand up and paint the walls with them. That’s the way I know. Action was my No. 1 thing: Walk the factory floor. Shake hands. Sit down, have lunch, joke, show vulnerabilities, show strength. Recognize people. I’m always there, shoulder to shoulder, on the frontlines.

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Brexit: Delay is ‘most likely’ option, says former chancellor | BBC News

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Former Chancellor George Osborne has said delaying the UK’s exit from the EU is now the “most likely” option.

The UK has to choose between no deal – which he compared to Russian roulette – or no Brexit for now, he told the BBC.

MPs are proposing alternative plans to the PM’s deal with the EU, including seeking an extension to the UK’s exit date – it is due to leave on 29 March.

But the prime minister has said the “right way” to rule out no-deal Brexit is to approve her withdrawal agreement.

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Samsung could release three variants of the Galaxy S10 | TechCrunch

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That new leak lines up with previous leaks. As you can see on the photo, the new devices don’t have a notch. They feature a hole-punch selfie camera instead. If you’re looking for the fingerprint sensor, Samsung could choose to embed it in the screen.

Just like in previous years, in addition to the main S10, there will be a bigger version of the device — the S10+. On this photo, you can see that the bigger version has two selfie cameras instead of one.

But the S10E is a new addition to the lineup. Samsung is launching a more affordable version of the S10 at the same time as the S10. The S10E features two cameras on the back instead of three for instance. I wouldn’t be surprised if the S10E had an LCD display instead of an AMOLED display as well.

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