This Grandfather Bet His House That Burgers and Beer Will Never Go Out of Style | Inc.com

March 13, 2017March 13, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Hop Jack’s is locally famous for its brews, burgers, and neighborhood feel. The company has 12 restaurants, with three more under construction, mostly around Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. It employs 800 people and does more than $30 million in annual sales. The casual-dining juggernaut is the creation of a first-time entrepreneur who found himself unemployed in his 50s.

Mark Eggen, 62, spent most of his life working for the Red Robin chain, where he learned two things: how to run restaurants and how to scale restaurants. Eggen would likely have been a Red Robin lifer had the company’s IPO not required he relocate from Seattle to Denver. Unwilling to move while his kids were in high school, Eggen joined another company, from which he got fired.

How To Promote Innovative Thinking | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

March 10, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes, it can seem like your brain is teeming with thousands of ‘useless’ ideas that you do not actually need at the time. But, when you are asked to come up with an innovative business idea – whether as part of a marketing campaign for your current business or because you want to create a new, niche business from scratch – it can feel like the fount of your creativity has run dry. No need to panic, however: just use one of these five easy techniques for stimulating those creative juices.

Are traditional or digital marketing methods best for your business? | The Startup Magazine

March 10, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

With so many marketing methods available, business owners can find it tough to decide what will benefit their company the most. Whilst there are numerous successful strategies, the real question is: is there a marketing method that best suits your industry?

Leaflet distribution specialist Direct Letterbox Marketing has compiled some data on the best marketing methods for different industries. Where does your business sit? Find out below…

Direct marketing

Target Marketing Magazine analysed some of the most successful companies’ direct mail campaigns of that year. In the top 10 results – the following industries appeared:

Why airplanes still have ashtrays. No, you can’t smoke | Money CNN

March 10, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I get asked a lot of questions about airplanes. The one I get asked more than practically any other is: If airlines banned smoking, why do new airplanes still have ashtrays?

You may not have noticed it, but on the wall right next to the lavatory door is a tiny ashtray that pulls out from the wall. Each lav has two, on or next to the inside and outside of the door, despite smoking’s full prohibition on flights in and out of the U.S. since 2000, it is an essential safety feature of every flight.

Because there still needs to be a safe place to put out a lit cigarette.

Time Management Tips to Avoid Entrepreneurial Burnout | Business News Daily

March 9, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s no secret that running a business takes a lot time and dedication. You’re in charge of executing the day-to-day tasks, the long-term strategic planning and everything in between — and if you don’t have the budget for help, you may feel like you’re running a one-person circus.

Succumbing to stress and burning out might seem inevitable when you’re responsible for so many business and personal obligations. But allowing yourself to get caught up in the stress can take its toll on your physical, mental and emotional health.

Why Do People Fail at Marketing Their Business? | Getentrepreneurial.com

March 9, 2017March 9, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself. Peter Drucker

People fail at marketing for a variety of reasons. This list is not meant to be all-inclusive but here are the most common reasons I encounter:

Never been trained in marketing

Don’t understand the psychology of marketing

Are not consistent in their marketing message

Don’t ask for help because they don’t know who to trust

Don’t want to do it for themselves

Don’t know what works and do not want to spend the money

RealConnex, a platform connecting real estate pros with projects and each other, raises $3.5 million | TechCrunch

March 9, 2017March 9, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

RealConnex, a four-year-old, Miami and New York-based platform connecting real estate professionals to capital, investments, and services, has raised $3.5 million in strategic funding led by Silver Portal Capital, a San Diego-based real estate investment and merchant banking firm.

The round is part of a much bigger trend of startups working to change how properties are built, bought, and sold — and investors are funding their vision. In fact, according to the research firm CB Insights, real estate tech companies have raised almost $6.4 billion in funding across 817 deals since 2012.

The sorry state of America’s working women | CBS News

March 8, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

On International Women’s Day, it’s worth asking how American working women are doing compared with their counterparts in other developed countries.

The answer: not great.

On a number of fronts, American women who work outside the home are lagging their counterparts in countries such as Sweden, Mexico, Italy and Greece. U.S. women suffer from a gender wage gap that’s wider than in those and 17 other countries, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Every developed country offers paid parental leave — except for the U.S. And a smaller share of American women are even in the workforce than their peers in developed countries such as Canada and Germany, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Could This Be the Battery That Revolutionizes Our Cars and Phones? | NBC News

March 8, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery, which powers almost every modern mobile device and many newer electric cars, says he’s developed a safer battery that lasts three times longer.

In a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in research published in the March edition of the journal Energy & Environmental Science, John Goodenough and colleagues at the University of Texas report that their new battery technology could produce a safe, non-explosive cell able to power an electric car much longer than current batteries do — with charging times measured in minutes, not hours.

WakeMode App Launches to Let You Know if Your Internal “Battery” Needs Charging | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

March 8, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

WakeMode is launching a new sleep and fatigue management app that predicts fatigue levels during the day using advanced data analysis technology. Similar to the way cell phones display a bar indicating battery life, WakeMode shows you YOUR battery levels, based predominantly on how much rest you got during the night. WakeMode pairs with almost any bluetooth enabled wearable or contactless device, with or without a heart rate sensor, to monitor sleep patterns using motion and heart rate to first analyze the user’s sleep patterns and then create a personalized actionable sleep improvement program