Nokia Android phones are coming early next year | Mashable

December 1, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Fallen mobile phone giant Nokia is about to (attempt to) rise again next year with new phones — this time based on Android.

The plan has been known for a while, but it’s now official, as the company itself confirmed it in a press release Thursday.

The new Nokias will be manufactured by Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile and sold by a Finnish company called HMD Global, which will have an exclusive global license for the Nokia brand for the next ten years. This means another Android player has emerged in the overcrowded market, albeit one with a familiar brand name.

The story of the new, new Nokia is somewhat complex, so here’s a little background: Microsoft bought Nokia’s struggling mobile phone division in 2013 for $7.2 billion but it ditched the Nokia brand the following year, instead calling its mobile phones Microsoft Lumia.

New Overtime Rules Suspended for Now | Payroll link

December 1, 2016December 1, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Many employers have been wrestling with plans to comply with new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) overtime rules since last May. That’s when the rules were finalized, with a December 1 compliance deadline. Those new rules included raising the minimum salary overtime exemption to $913 per week from $455. A little more than a week before the deadline for the rules was to take effect, a federal court has issued an injunction, at least temporarily blocking implementation of the changes.

In its decision, the court stated it believes the DOL exceeded its authority in promulgating the rule. In addition, the court said the DOL failed to follow Congress’s intent, which was to reexamine the duties test of the overtime rules, and not to focus solely on the salary level, as the final rules do.

The DOL’s initial response was to state that it “strongly disagrees” with the ruling, and is “currently considering all of our legal options.” A couple of short-term legal scenarios remain possible: The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which issued the ruling, could drop its temporary injunction.

Creating More Profits: 3 Essential Areas to Focus On | Getentrepreneurial.com

November 30, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Making more profit is NOT the same as generating more revenue.

They are two completely different areas, and something that I see very little discussion on.

Sure, I see LOTS of talk about revenues, i.e. six-figure businesses, multi-six-figure businesses, seven-figure businesses, but you never seem to get to the real story behind these headlines – how much profits are they really making? How much of the $100k does the business owner actually get to keep once expenses are paid — that’s the profit!

A six- or even seven-figure business sounds great, but it’s not so great if the profits aren’t there, i.e. you’re only making a $10k profit from a $100k business.

Profits are basically what’s left over (pre-tax or gross) after a business’ expenses have been deducted from its revenues – and this is one area of business that you need to keep a close eye on. So, taking two different scenarios, let’s look at some simple math in determining the profits of a six-figure business and a smaller five-figure business:

How to Calm an Angry Customer In Your Store | Small Biz Trends

November 30, 2016December 1, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You’ve got an angry—no, downright irate—customer in your store. They’re causing a ruckus and clearly making your other customers uncomfortable. What can you do to keep things from spiraling out of control?

How to Deal With an Angry Customer

Plan Ahead

Before this situation ever happens, plan ahead for how to handle it. If your retail store is in an area with a security presence, such as a shopping center, have the phone number for security at the checkout counter or on speed dial, along with the phone number for local police or sheriff.

Train your salespeople to be observant. By greeting customers as they come into the store and keeping an eye on the entire store, they can often spot someone who’s becoming upset. For example, if a long line is forming at the checkout counter, an angry customer might start off by looking angrily at his watch, then start sighing loudly, then pacing and muttering to himself. Reaching out to him with a proactive, “Thank you for your patience today; I’ll be with you as soon as I can,” can help.

Amazon Gets Real About Fakes | Bloomberg

November 28, 2016November 28, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Randy Hetrick first noticed counterfeits on Amazon.com Inc. in 2013. He had been selling his TRX Training System– an exercise kit of suspension straps– on the site since 2008. When he began noticing cheap imitations, he had his employees scour Amazon for more, then go through the tedious process of reporting them for removal. But new imposters would pop up right away, and by 2014, “We realized this was an epidemic,” said Hetrick, who estimates phonies cost him $100 million a year, twice his annual sales.

Amazon’s Marketplace gives inventors like Hetrick exposure to hundreds of millions of shoppers without the big expense of building and promoting a website from scratch. Merchants give Amazon a commission on each sale. But a hot-selling product on Amazon encourages counterfeiters to make flimsy knockoffs with cheap materials, steal sales and damage a brand with few consequences.

24% Of Americans Have Now Worked In The Platform Economy | Co.Exist

November 28, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Fully 24% of Americans have participated in the peer-to-peer or “sharing economy,” according to a new Pew Research report. Which is perhaps bigger than we thought.

Pew counts everyone who’s taken a task on a digital platform (like TaskRabbit), sold something to another community member (eBay), made something and sold it online (Etsy), driven their own cab (Uber), or rented a house (e.g. Airbnb). “These platforms also allow users to earn money in a range of other ways, such as sharing their possessions with others or selling their used goods or personal creations,” it says.

Final nail in coffin for Federal Reserve, central bank independence | Business Insider

November 28, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

One of the central tenets of the Federal Reserve and most central banks throughout the developed world in the modern era has been their ability to stay above the political fray.

With a few notable — and fairly disastrous — exceptions, the Fed has acted without fear of political retribution from the executive branch, although the chair still has to testify to Congress and the president periodically.

The assumption of independence, however, has come under fire in recent months. After President-elect Donald Trump floated the conspiracy theory that the Fed was intentionally manipulating interest rates to help President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a hostile congressional questioning of Board Chair Janet Yellen in September, and the possibility of Trump packing the Board of Governors with sympathetic members, it no longer is a given that the Fed will be able to maintain its freedom going forward.

The Key to Ranking Your Local Business in Google | Duct Tape Marketing

November 23, 2016November 23, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For local businesses, showing up on page one is a must – showing up in the Google 3-pack (or whatever it is called this week.) can be the difference between thriving and merely surviving.

All Google products evolve as they find ways to make search better and, let’s face it, make more money from that fact.

There are a handful of factors that Google uses to decide what sites to show when a person searches for a local business.

While we have previously shared our thoughts on reviews, schema markup, and citations, today I want to talk about the linchpin of the local listing game – your Google My Business Page.

10 Misused Words That Make Smart People Look Stupid | Entrepreneur

November 23, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We’re all tempted to use words that we’re not too familiar with. We throw them around in meetings, e-mails and important documents (such as resumes and client proposals), and they land, like fingernails across a chalkboard, on everyone who has to hear or read them.

No matter how talented you are or what you’ve accomplished, using words incorrectly can change the way people see you and forever cast you in a negative light. You may not think it’s a big deal, but if your language is driving people up the wall you need to do something about it.

Frequent Flier Miles Don’t Matter Anymore—Get Some New Credit Cards | WIRED

November 23, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

OH, THANKSGIVING: A time for turkey, a time for uncomfortable political discussions, a time for the most nightmarish airplane trips imaginable. Nearly 30 million Americans will fly with US airlines this week, and a lot of them will be thinking: Hey, at least I’ll come out of this misery with some frequent flier miles for that solo kayaking trip to New Zealand.

Except, not so much. For the first time since frequent flier programs got their start in the 1980s, most American airline passengers are earning rewards in a new way. To put it bluntly, the frequent flier mile is dead.