Author: knjohn

The divorced couple who built a global shoe company | BBC News

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Jodie Fox says that when she started a successful business with her then husband Michael, it was both “amazing and equally difficult”.

The Australian couple had set up their company, Shoes of Prey, in Sydney in 2009, three years after they had married in their early 20s.

Together with co-founder and old college friend Mike Knapp, they launched their e-commerce website that allows women to design their own shoes. The company then makes them at its factory in China, before mailing them out to anywhere in the world.

While the business is continuing to grow strongly, and so far more than six million shoes have been designed on its website, the Foxes’ marriage broke down under the strain of working together, and they divorced in 2012.

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Sears May Sell Its Best-Known Brands|Bloomberg

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Once upon a time, Sears was the Amazon.com and Walmart of U.S. merchandising. Customers could order just about anything for delivery—even a kit to build a 10-room colonial-style house—from the Sears catalog, a compendium of the American dream with a reach into the rural parts of the country that helped make Sears, Roebuck America’s largest merchant. Sears helped create the shopping mall in the 1950s, working with developers to build the retail centers that grew with the exodus to the suburbs. And when customers needed financing, it created a massive credit arm that paved the way for the MasterCards and Visas of today.

“They stood like a colossus on top of the American retail market—bigger than the next four companies combined,” says Craig Johnson, president of consultant Customer Growth Partners. That was as recently as the 1980s. “Now they’re a 98-pound weakling.”

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Foreign Qualification: What It Takes to Do Business in a Different State | All Business

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Whether you’re looking to expand your company’s physical presence or intending to secure the most favorable business tax and legal environment for your company, you may be considering doing business in a different state.

It can get a little confusing as you try to make heads or tails of what requirements apply to you. I field plenty of questions on the topic from plenty of business owners!

If you’ve been considering expanding your LLC or corporation into a state beyond the one your company is incorporated in, you may likely need to register your business in that state—a process known as “foreign qualification.”

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Are ‘Hands-Free’ Phone Calls Really Safer for Drivers? | Live Science

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Talking on your phone while driving — even if you use a hands-free connection — is still dangerous, a new study from England finds.

Conversations of any kind can be distracting if they require a driver to use mental imagery, according to the study.

“A popular misconception is that using a mobile phone while driving is safe as long as the driver uses a hands-free phone,” Graham Hole, a psychology lecturer at the University of Sussex in England and an author of the study, said in a statement. “Our research shows this is not the case.”

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Notion’s Home Sensor Could Save America $8 Billion in Insurance Claims | Inc.com

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Plenty of options exist when it comes to home security systems. But at least three things are true about most of them: They are expensive, require a contract, and are limited what they can detect via movement to trip an alarm.

That’s why Denver-based startup Notion created its home sensor: a non-intrusive, cookie-sized device that can be placed on any surface to detect changes in light, sound, and a variety of other elements. A set of the devices, when combined with a Wi-Fi-connected hub, offers traditional monitoring–movement, broken windows, opened doors–as well as the ability to notice subtler aberrations like temperature changes and water leaks. The system sends all of these alerts directly to your phone.

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14 Signs You’re Not Drinking Enough Water | Life Hack

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There’s not much in this world more refreshing than a tall, ice-cold glass of water. I don’t think there’s anyone alive that can deny that sometimes, a simple glass of water can be more satisfying than a cup of coffee or a can of soda. Despite this, too many of us don’t drink enough water on a daily basis. By depriving ourselves of the world’s most natural resource, we are continuously damaging our bodies. If you experience any of the following, you can improve your situation by starting with a glass of H2O.

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BuzzFeed Backs Out of ‘Significant’ Ad Deal With RNC Over Trump’s Rhetoric | Adweek

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What’s worse for our nation’s health? Donald Trump or cigarettes?

They’re about equal, per an email from BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti to his employees this morning. Peretti was explaining his decision to back out of advertising deal with the Republican National Committee, pointing to the GOP presumptive nominee’s hateful rhetoric about Muslims, Mexicans and others.

Politico obtained a copy of the email, where Peretti stated that earlier this spring that BuzzFeed and RNC inked a deal to “spend a significant amount on political advertisements slated to run during the fall election cycle.”

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Demystifying the Bitcoin | The Startup Magazine

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Bitcoin is one the most fascinating innovation since Internet, capturing the imagination of developers, entrepreneurs, investors, governments and consumers. It is still made up of several complex pieces.

If you would like to be an active actor in the growth of Bitcoin future, you need to understand each piece of the puzzle as possible as you can to find the role you will be playing in this progress. Demystifying bitcoin is not an easy exercise due to the complexity behind it but providing some basic understandings can be useful for potential learners.

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Budgeting: Can You Afford (Or Afford Not To) Add Staff? | Forbes

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Budgeting for new staff is the ultimate game of chicken and egg. Can you take on the right amount of business to justify staffing? Can you take on the right new team members to support new business? And in both cases, will the returns justify the investment?

When it comes to staffing, there are many risks to weigh—and many costs to consider—as the face of your business changes. The pay-off for adding an employee when there are 3 of you, and the pay-off for adding an employee when there are 50 are tremendously different. Continuing to stay deliberate and analyze your health as a business is always important.

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