30+ Ways for You To Use YouTube Effectively | Small Biz Trends

February 26, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

YouTube is one of the hidden gems in online marketing. It is a terrific way for small business owners to compete with the big brands. But creating effective (as in watchable) content and then promoting it can be intimidating.

Of particular interest to business owners who are wondering if the time creating and marketing with video is worth it is the YouTube Partner Program, created in 2007. It now has more than a million creators earning money from their videos. Thousands of channels are making six figures a year.

8 Low Cost and Creative Employee Loyalty Programs | BusinessTips.com

February 25, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you are reading this article then you are probably leading a team or running a business and are curious what I mean by this title. If you haven’t had to do any hiring lately – CONGRATULATIONS! If you have, then you know how very difficult it is to find great talent. This may be the wildest market I’ve seen – in some ways more active than the late 90s. This is due to the fact that, in order to beat the competition, businesses are utilizing all sorts of new tactics to attract talented individuals to their ranks. I actually saw a help wanted LED sign on the Boulder Valley YMCA – and they need a bunch of folks. When was the last time you saw help wanted at the YMCA?

FAA Working on Rules That Will Allow Drones to Fly Over People | Entrepreneur

February 25, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday said it would develop drone regulations allowing some unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to fly over people, an authorization eagerly sought by a range of industries including real estate and agriculture.

The U.S. aviation regulatory agency, under pressure from Congress and industry to accommodate commercial drones, said it established a rule-making committee that would recommend a new regulatory framework by April 1.

5 Secret Questions Successful People Ask Daily| Getentrepreneurial.com

February 25, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

While studying Great Depression businesses created by successful entrepreneurs, I discovered five core practices that were daily habits for them. They asked themselves five questions daily that charted their course to success.

You become a successful business person, also, by asking yourself these same five questions daily. The five questions to ask so you become positively successful are:

Another Oil Crash Is Coming, and There May Be No Recovery | Bloomberg Business

February 24, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s time for oil investors to start taking electric cars seriously.

In the next two years, Tesla and Chevy plan to start selling electric cars with a range of more than 200 miles priced in the $30,000 range. Ford is investing billions, Volkswagen is investing billions, and Nissan and BMW are investing billions. Nearly every major carmaker—as well as Apple and Google—is working on the next generation of plug-in cars.

This is a problem for oil markets. OPEC still contends that electric vehicles will make up just 1 percent of global car sales in 2040. Exxon’s forecast is similarly dismissive.

Johnson and Johnson hit with $72m damages in talc cancer case | BBC News

February 24, 2016February 24, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A jury in the US state of Missouri has ordered Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to pay $72m (£51m) to the family of a woman who claimed her death was linked to use of the company’s Baby Powder talc.

Jackie Fox from Birmingham, Alabama died of ovarian cancer last year, aged 62, having used the talc for decades.

Her family argued that the firm knew of talc risks and failed to warn users.

Can a Vision Board Help Your Business? |All Business

February 24, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever heard of (or used) a vision board? A bulletin board or poster board with photos, magazine images and other visuals pasted on it, vision boards are used to help people focus on achieving their goals. While the idea might sound pretty “out there,” visualization techniques have helped many athletes improve performance, and lots of legendary salespeople swear by them.

Visualization and vision boards can work for you, too, according to a survey by TD Bank that polled over 500 small business owners. Nearly half (46 percent) of those surveyed say they started their own businesses in order to follow their vision—but they didn’t stop there.

To Keep Children Engaged During Prime Time, PBS Will Launch a 24/7 Kids Network | Adweek

February 23, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Viewers might have wondered if PBS was rethinking its commitment to children’s programming after it allowed HBO to snap up Sesame Street last summer. But today the network announced a big play to keep kids watching its shows around the clock.

Later this year, the network will launch a free, 24-hour network for children’s programming called PBS Kids. This will let children watch during prime time and other hours when PBS doesn’t air kid-centric content.

The channel will be available as a digital subchannel on PBS stations nationwide (joining other PBS digital subchannels like Create and World). The network will also stream it online at pbskids.org and via the PBS Kids Video app, which is available on iOS and Android devices, as well as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Android TV and Xbox One. The livestream will join the on-demand full episodes and clips that are currently available on the app and online.

Nokia: We’re In No Rush To Get Our Brand Back On Phones | TechCrunch

February 23, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

After exiting the smartphone market dramatically by selling its mobile making division to Microsoft for $7.2 billion back in 2013, Nokia has hinted it is looking to return to the phone business by a different route — taking advantage of a clause in its sale agreement that allows it to use the Nokia brand on handsets again starting from this year.

The company has a history of radical reinventions. But returning to a market where it excelled for so long is something it views as an “opportunity” given the residual brand recognition of Nokia and handsets, CEO Rajeev Suri said today. He was speaking at a Nokia press and analyst briefing in Barcelona this evening, ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show which kicks off tomorrow.

Millennials: 10 Things Old Farts Won’t Tell You About Entrepreneurship ( Fourth in the Series) | Peter Mehit

February 22, 2016March 7, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

4. Minimum Viable Products Can Be Missing Valuable Pieces

Fail fast. Fail forward. Nice, glib encouragements that old farts will give you from the security of their wealth and comfort. Use lean start up techniques to consolidate your ideas into a minimum viable product (MVP) that you can get in front of the market to see if there’s interest. Use the least amount of effort and treasure to see if there are buyers. Once you get a spark, pivot toward a business model that you can monetize by adding costly but more unique aspects to your product or app.

It makes sense. Think of your start-up effort as more of a lab than a business. You’re experimenting more than launching and using the results to fine tune the next moves toward the market. If you’ve done everything properly, even your failures will teach you something as you assemble the information you need to identify your ideal customers and build the product they want to buy.

Continue reading “Millennials: 10 Things Old Farts Won’t Tell You About Entrepreneurship ( Fourth in the Series) | Peter Mehit” →