Men Weren’t Doing Pilates. So This Company Changed Its Color Scheme (and Made $27 Million) | Inc.com

August 23, 2017August 23, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You could call Anthony Geisler a fitness maven, but turnaround expert would be even more appropriate.

When Geisler acquired the Club Pilates Franchise in March 2015 (the terms of the deal were not disclosed), it was doing $2.9 million in sales and maintained 30 locations. According to its founder, Allison Beardsley, once the business grew to that level, she recognized that managing it was not her skill set. “I’m totally a visionary birther of new ideas. I’m not a manager of growth,” said Beardsley, who owns three studios in Nevada and is not involved in the business aspects of Club Pilates. “It was no longer lifting up my spirits as a business owner.”

Finding a Factory to Manufacture Your Product | Business News Daily

August 23, 2017August 23, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Getting a product from an idea to production is a complex process. It involves significant research, time, planning and patience. But with the right information, the right resources and the right product, it’s possible.

One of the biggest challenges of product manufacturing is finding a factory to create it. You’ll need to find one that fits your needs and budgets, and still turns out a quality product. This article will guide you through the process of finding and working with a factory as a small business.

Dutch students ‘grow’ a biodegradable car made of beet sugar and flax | Inhabitat

August 21, 2017August 21, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Are biodegradable cars the next step in environmentally-friendly motoring? A team of students at the Eindhoven University of Technology just unveiled a biodegradable car made out of beet sugar and flax. Weighing just 684 pounds, the lightweight, eco-friendly vehicle can travel up to 50 miles per hour.

Love to Text and Walk Cluelessly? Prepare to Pay a Fine for That | Bloomberg

August 21, 2017August 21, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s done it: You are just no good at texting and walking.

While you might do OK at the reading and typing part, your preoccupied brain isn’t paying enough attention to what’s going on with your feet. It’s such a hazard that Honolulu last month adopted an ordinance to outlaw smartphone use by pedestrians crossing streets. Now Stamford, Connecticut, may become the second U.S. city this year to combat the problem with fines.

These platforms want to help you discover (and afford) craft wine | CNN Money

August 21, 2017August 21, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s hard to imagine a world before craft beer. Could we one day feel the same about craft wine?

Boutique wineries across the country are producing small batches of everything from pinot noir to chardonnay, but it can be difficult for us twenty-somethings to find — let alone afford — those wines.

Your go-to vino is likely made by one of three major producers that account for over half of the U.S. wine market, according to a 2016 Michigan State University study. Plus, many boutique wineries make less than 1,000 cases per year and sell mainly through pricey wine clubs, making them hard to access.

Online platforms like Winestyr and Glassful are trying to change that.

Goldman Sachs may have lost $100 million on bad natural gas bet | Business Insider

August 18, 2017August 18, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ 2 Comments

A sour bet on the direction of natural gas prices contributed to Goldman Sachs’ weak performance in commodities trading during the second quarter.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the bank had wrongly bet on an increase in gas prices in the Marcellus shale in Ohio and Pennsylvania, as a major pipeline was being constructed to export from the region.

Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners is spearheading the $4.2 billion Rover natural-gas line in question, which would move gas from the Marcellus shale to the Midwest.

Why Automation Matters to Entrepreneurs and Small Business | Getentrepreneurial.com

August 18, 2017August 18, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You may think that a small business is fundamentally different than a large one, but this isn’t entirely true. Small businesses have to do many of the same things that larger businesses do, only with fewer employees. Obviously, this means an entrepreneur has a number of problems to overcome that a larger business might handle with ease because of its much bigger staff. This is particularly the case when it comes to scheduling, achieving scalability and having the necessary skill sets to do all of similar processes. One solution many businesses turn to is automation.

Can Ice Cream Vans Stage a Comeback? | BBC News

August 17, 2017August 17, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For many of us, the distinctive chimes of an ice cream van conjure up happy childhood memories of British summers and dripping ice lollies.

But the number of ice cream vans has been falling for years, leading some to believe that those bells may mean nothing to future generations of children.

A crop of small, family-run businesses is determined to keep the industry alive however.

Amazon opens up access to developer tools for adding Alexa to commercial products | TechCrunch

August 17, 2017August 17, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Amazon wants to make its virtual assistant Alexa available on more devices, instead of just its own hardware. To that end, the company today is broadly opening up access to developer tools that will allow commercial device makers to build products powered by Alexa. With the launch of the Alexa Voice Service Device SDK toolset, companies can add a fully functional version of Alexa to their devices that’s able to handle speech recognition, as well as other Alexa functionality, like streaming media, using timers and alarms, notifications, weather reports, and accessing the thousands of voice apps, known as Alexa skills.

Go ahead and include smiley emoji in your work emails if you want to look incompetent | Mashable

August 17, 2017August 17, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Emoji have invaded our texts, Slacks, and even our business emails. But, a new study suggests that including emoji in your work emails may be making you look incompetent. Not ideal, TBH.

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel found that professional emails which feature “smiley” emoji actually “decrease perceptions of competence” and don’t convey genuine “warmth.”