Why You Should Stop Taking Credit for All of Your Ideas | Business News Daily

April 13, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Have you had a great idea at work? Your company might be better off if you didn’t take credit for it, new research shows.

Employees who are quick to claim an idea as their own when presenting it to co-workers for feedback aren’t giving their concept the best chance to reach its full potential, according to a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

The study’s authors found that when workers take credit for coming up with an idea, their colleagues aren’t as willing to provide creative and constructive feedback. This type of “territorial marking” makes others feel like they don’t have much of a stake in the concept’s outcome, so they lose motivation to provide input, the research found.

Better Sales With the Use of Smart Leads | Getentrepreneurial.com

April 13, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Increasing sales can tedious work as your business will have to look into various things which will enable better influx of customers. On the other hand, promotion and marketing might be in a need for improvement, which could cost you a pretty penny. Finding new leads for your business might be easier than it looks, but, only if you manage to find a balance between engaging with customers and making sure they find what they need. Your online presence and brand should be interesting and creative as it will be one of the first things everyone will look at, and it will be the key point in securing sales.

Learn to Use SEO and the Secret of Words

Not only is it important to have a running a website with blogs and useful content, but, you should also have posters who know how to use SEO. Without SEO integration, you cannot hope to grab the attention of many users, as they will simply skim the content and move on. Then again, with the right keywords and attention to how links are placed, it will be possible to post content that is engaging and fun. Though, be sure to find out what is currently trendy, to ensure customers are not bored and will not click away quickly. Though, do not go overboard with keywords used.

15 Successful African American Entrepreneurs on Etsy | Small Biz Trends

April 13, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Since its launch back in 2005, Etsy has grown into a huge ecommerce market for handmade and vintage goods. Browsing through Etsy, you can see products from a huge variety of sellers.

If you’re just getting started or thinking about joining Etsy, it can be inspiring to look through the shops of those who are finding success on the platform. Below are many successful African American entrepreneurs who are finding success selling their handmade products on Etsy.

How States Are Working to Prevent a Zika Outbreak | ABC News

April 12, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

State health officials across the southern U.S. are working to prevent a widespread outbreak of the disease, after health officials have raised concern about higher risk in warming weather.

Currently there are 367 confirmed cases of the Zika virus in the U.S. The vast majority were contracted through travel to areas where the virus is actively spreading, outside the U.S. A small number of the cases were spread through sexual transmission.

The effects of the Zika virus are worse than health officials previously thought, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Intitutes of Health (NIH) said in a joint announcement at the White House yesterday.

“We continue to be learning pretty much every day and most of what we’re learning is not reassuring,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director of the CDC, said. The virus is, “linked to a broader set of complications in pregnancy.”

In Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the CDC confirms the virus is spreading directly from infected mosquitoes to people. Schuchat said they estimate hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico could become infected with the Zika virus. In turn, that could mean hundreds of babies may be born with birth defects.

How This Startup Raised a $1.7 Million Seed Round on Chicken-Less Eggs | Entrepreneur

April 12, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Eggless egg whites sound like another vegan treat, but San Francisco-based startup Clara Foods is shooting for omnivores. It inserts genes for egg whites into yeast, which then ferments in tanks, like beer, and creates a product that is genetically egg but never involved a chicken. Clara cofounder and CEO Arturo Elizondo thinks that will appeal particularly to those who want to eat eggs but avoid the messy egg industry: Last year’s avian flu outbreak, for example, cost the economy $3.3 billion and resulted in the disposal of more than 45 million U.S. hens. Yeast, meanwhile, is drama-free.

Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers may go on strike this week |Mashable

April 12, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Can you hear them now?

Unions representing more than 36,000 Verizon landline phone and cable workers are threatening a strike starting Wednesday morning if the company doesn’t agree to a new contract.

The unions, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, say Verizon wants to freeze pensions, make layoffs easier and rely more on contract workers. Verizon says there are health care issues that need to be addressed for both retirees and workers as medical costs have grown.

The Evolution of ‘Table Tech’–Changing the Way Restaurants Do Business | AllBusiness.com

April 11, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

FinTech, Health Tech, and AgTech. Seems like there is a name given for every niche and the technology associated with it. Yes, technology is continuing to shape our world, but enough with the names already.

Every time an industry comes up with disruptive technology, there is a special name associated with it. One industry that doesn’t seem to have yet adopted its name is hospitality management, specifically restaurants. So what do we call it?

GreasyTech? TableTech? Who knows–maybe I’ll get credit for coining the phrase.

Regardless of the name you want to choose, I have seen quite a bit of change in the restaurant industry to warrant laying it out in this article. Several brands have been making changes in the way we will eat out in the future (as evidenced by the changes that are being made in the present).

That change? Kiosks and tablets being used to process financial transactions and track everyday business operations.

EU to make big firms come clean on tax | BBC News

April 11, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Plans to force the largest companies to disclose more about their tax affairs will be unveiled by the European Union on Tuesday.

Britain’s EU Commissioner, Lord Hill, is set to present the rules, which will affect multinational firms with more than €750m (£600m) in sales.

They will have to detail how much tax they pay and in which EU countries.

The plans come amid heightened scrutiny of the use of tax havens following the Panama Papers revelations.

Pay Taxes, Buy a Slurpee: IRS Now Accepts Taxes at 7-Eleven | NBC News

April 8, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Internal Revenue Service announced this week that taxpayers who need to make a payment in cash can now do so at 7-Eleven convenience stores.

While it may seem unusual to pay your taxes where you might otherwise pick up a Slurpee, it caters to a large number of Americans who do not have a bank account or credit card. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation estimates one in 13 households in the U.S. do not have a bank account.

“We continue to look for new ways to provide services for our taxpayers … this provides a new way for people who can only pay their taxes in cash without having to travel to an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

How to Pay School Loans and Save for Retirement at the Same Time | Bloomberg

April 8, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The best time to start saving for retirement is as soon as possible. By saving in your early 20s, you give your nest egg extra time to grow, potentially shaving years off how long you need to work.

But before setting aside money for retirement, most feel the need to retire student loan debt. That’s easy to say but harder to do for millennials exiting college these days. Many are in the same boat as Nolan Grace, a 24-year-old who graduated from Purdue University with “very significant” loans. “It’s the biggest weight on my life right now,” he says.

Luckily, Grace works for an employer—Austin-based software-services company BP3 Global Inc.—that helps him with loan payments in an increasingly popular way. BP3 uses a platform called Student Loan Genius to let it match as much as $100 per month in Grace’s debt payments, one of several companies offering similar benefits. Employees who work for Student Loan Genius customers have more than $61,000 in student loan debt on average, and their monthly payments are usually more than $500 a month.