Author: knjohn

Americans ditching big restaurant chains and eating local | Business Insider

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Americans are downsizing their meal (location) choices.

Lagging sales at major restaurant chains have recently set off worries for the industry and the economy at large. According to Michelle Meyer, a US economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, it may be less about personal economic situations or the election, and more about consumers’ taste preferences.

Using data from millions of Bank of America debit and credit cards, Meyer noted that the weakness in restaurant spending isn’t as alarming as other people make it seem.

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Refugees Wanted: Meet The Companies Creating Jobs For The Displaced | Co.Exist 

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When Charly Ngoma arrived in Arizona as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, he’d never eaten a burrito before. Three months later, he had a job at Chipotle. Now—after a year and a half, and two promotions—he’s general manager at one of the restaurant’s locations in Phoenix.

“Everything I saw my first day was new,” he says. “I didn’t know even the name of the ingredients they use in English. I was just writing down everything.”

One reason for his success was his own motivation and hard work. But Chipotle also partners with the International Rescue Committee, or IRC, to recruit refugees. Without the partnership, it’s unlikely he would have even heard of the job.

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How Chromebooks Are About to Totally Transform Laptop Design | WIRED

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GOOGLE’S FIRST CHROMEBOOK was the kind of laptop you’d design if you didn’t give a damn about laptop design. It was thick, heavy, rubbery, boring, and black. Black keys, black body, black trackpad, black everything. Everything about the Cr-48 was designed to communicate that this device was still an experiment. Even the name, a reference to an unstable isotope of the element Chromium, was a hint at the chaos raging inside this black box. “The hardware exists,” Sundar Pichai told a crowd of reporters at the Cr-48’s launch event in December of 2010, “only to test the software.”

Moments later, Eric Schmidt took the stage and preached about how the “network computer” tech-heads had been predicting for decades was finally ready to change the world. “We finally have a product,” Schmidt said, “which is strong enough, technical enough, scalable enough, and fast enough that you can build actually powerful products on it.” Apparently already sensing the skeptical feedback Chrome OS would get, he gestured toward the audience and told them “it does, in fact, work.”

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Private Prisons Have a Problem: Not Enough Inmates | Bloomberg

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With overall violent crime rates falling nationally and fewer people getting sentenced to long stretches behind bars, private prison companies see a potentially catastrophic decline in demand for their services. Their response: diversify into everything from halfway houses to neighborhood check-in centers for drug offenders.

Over the past three decades, entrepreneurs and investors piled into the private prison industry, convinced that the thorny job of incarcerating criminals could be a lucrative growth business. No longer. Curtailment of harsh mandatory-minimum sentences and other changes in criminal justice policies have combined to reduce federal and state prison head counts to 1.56 million as of year end 2014, a 3 percent falloff.

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HP buys Samsung’s $1bn printer business | BBC News

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US computer giant HP has struck a deal to take over Samsung’s $1bn (£750m) printer business.

HP said the acquisition would help it to “disrupt and reinvent” the $55bn copier industry, a segment that “hasn’t innovated in decades”.

It is buying a big printing presence in Asia, as well as Samsung’s laser printing technology and patents.

The deal comes days after HP’s sister company sold its software business to rising UK tech champion Micro Focus.

Hewlett-Packard split into two businesses last year: HP Inc, which focuses on printers and computers; and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which sold its software business to focus on data storage.

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6 Features of Entrepreneurship We Tend to Over-Exaggerate | Entrepreneur

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Entrepreneurial preparation and education is interesting. For obvious reasons, preparation matters; the more informed you are about the logistics of business ownership and the interdisciplinary knowledge you need to keep things running smoothly, the better you’ll be able to manage an enterprise.

But at the same time, there are some things about entrepreneurship you can’t learn in business school.

To resolve this gap, many new entrepreneurs seek the mentorship and guidance of more experienced business owners. However, there’s a small problem there, one we’ve all faced at one point or another: Entrepreneurs tend to over-exaggerate some truths about entrepreneurship, which can lead to false expectations, unnecessary preparations and, in some cases, the prospect of scaring people away from business ownership altogether:

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7 Hacks for Getting Your Website Indexed by Google | Life Hack

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Whether you want to connect with others online to sell a product or to raise awareness of a specific cause, it is imperative to get your site indexed by Google. This typically takes a while, and there is also a long process to get your search engine ranking raised. However, there are a few specific hacks you can employ to cut your wait time and improve your ability to quickly be found by qualified leads. Utilizing these hacks is a fantastic way for entrepreneurs to have a more solid launch for each new business venture.

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The Top 8 Reasons I Said Goodbye to a Toxic Career In the Corporate World | Inc.com

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Please allow me to start this piece with a bit of real talk.

I started my business while getting an MBA and raising two kids. It wasn’t easy.

I went through a hard time financially and almost put my family in the poor house. It almost ended my marriage.

I developed a few health problems that my doctors attribute to this time in my life. I lost more that just sleep; I lost some good friends because I no longer had time for them.

Amazingly, two-and-a-half years later, I can say it was the best decision I’ve ever made.

Here’s why it was totally worth it:

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The List Tour

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c59907_38a1af82f3234a82b36cc2c9068c22ad-mv2This is a One-Day intimate and interactive EXPERIENCE that brings the instructors who give you the tools to propel SELF + Business success. It is for the entrepreneur who is ready to use what’s in their Hand and Master IT – Creating an environment of continuous Profit!

The LIST Tour will focus in on content marketing, influence, capital and ways to use social media to your advantage. 

You will:   

  • Obtain information on how to become effective in your approach

  • Connect with entrepreneurs in your community

  • Leave with a plan on how to not only build your business but to keep it afloat

  • Be made accountable for your success

  • Included is continental breakfast and a fabulous LUNCH!

Click for more information

What Causes Motion Sickness? | Live Science

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The rocking momentum of a train, car or boat is soothing to some people, but for others, it generates feelings of extreme discomfort — dizziness, nausea and even vomiting.

This condition, known as motion sickness, can strike travelers of all ages, though it appears most frequently in children. The motion that is unique to travel is the most common culprit, but speedy loops and lurches in amusement park rides and the disorienting perspective of moving cameras in 3D movies or virtual-reality environments can also trigger queasiness.

While motion sickness isn’t life-threatening, its symptoms can be extremely unpleasant, transforming an otherwise pleasant journey into a stomach-turning nightmare. Why does this particular type of movement make some people feel ill?

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