Author: knjohn

5 Ways to Instantly Connect With Anyone You Meet | Entrepreneur

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How we communicate largely determines what we experience in life. It influences how much money we make, every relationship we have and where we go in our career.

Our income can be limited if we are unable to pitch our product to a client, ask for a desired salary in an interview or request a raise from management. On the other hand, the depth of our relationships will be constrained if we don’t have the confidence to approach new people or have the ability to resolve conflict and express ourselves.

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No One Works When It’s Hot, So Climate Change Is Going To Ruin The Economy | Fast Company

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3052676-slide-s-3b-rich-countries-wont-escape-the-terrifyingThe slowing down of life on a hot summer day isn’t your imagination. Economic literature is full with examples of how productivity comes to a crawl—even in America’s over-air conditioned society—when the temperatures climb above a given tipping point.

Consider that the number of cars rolling off U.S. auto assembly lines decreases during heat waves. Or that American children have scored lower on math tests that are given when the thermometer rises above 79 degrees. One study found that weekdays above 86 degrees have cost an average of $20 a person in lost economic performance in the U.S. And if temperatures above 85 degrees are sustained over a growing season, yields for crucial crops like corn and soybean in the U.S. drop substantially—a worrisome economic and global food security outcome in a predicted future of hotter summers.

The many trillion dollar question is what happens when all of these individual effects become more frequent as the world’s thermostat rises. How much will climate change cost? And how will it change the economic landscape of the places that aren’t affected by heat-related productivity losses now, but will be soon.

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The Difference Between Being a Franchise Owner and an Entrepreneur | Getentrepreneurial

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franchseeeThere is a big difference between being an entrepreneur and owning a franchise. When considering purchasing or starting a small business it is wise to understand the differences so that you can make good choices for your situation. A franchise has much less control over product, strategy and marketing, but has less risk. An entrepreneur controls their fate but does not have the advantage of brand recognition and a ready-made market.

Leadership

An entrepreneur dreams and dream and creates a business from it. This includes feasibility studies, market studies, start-up strategy, funding, strategic planning and business planning. The entrepreneur has tremendous latitude to develop the business according to their own vision and subsequently to respond to the market for the product. The owner develops the leadership for the business and in the end controls the critical decisions.

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10 Twitter Marketing Mistakes You Need to Stop Making | Business News Daily

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Social media is a great free tool that businesses can — and should — take advantage of. Twitter, especially, is one of the best platforms for actively engaging with your brand’s audience, but if you make the wrong moves, you could find yourself tweeting into the void, or worse, offending potential customers.

Business News Daily asked social media experts about the 10 worst things brands and businesses can do on Twitter. Tweet your way to the top by avoiding these major mistakes.

1. Don’t oversell your brand.

“One of the biggest mistakes that brands can make on Twitter is being too brand-centric in their messaging, and forgetting what social media is about — community! Though it may seem counterintuitive to increasing brand awareness, the most successful social media marketing programs focus more on sharing third-party articles and building relationships within communities, rather than only sharing your brand’s messaging and driving [traffic] to your website. A good rule of thumb is to stick to 80 percent third-party content/community engagement, and 20 percent brand-related posts.” – Ginny Torok, social media consultant and digital marketing director, IDMD

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How Can Marketers Be Certain Their Mobile Ads Are Actually Getting Seen? | Adweek

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Having addressed marketers’ concerns about desktop viewability (ads that are actually seen by consumers) in 2014, the Media Rating Council is now in the hot seat to provide guidance on mobile advertising.

In May, the MRC made its first statement on mobile viewability, saying that smartphone-size ads need to be measured differently than desktop ads. Five months later, however, marketers are still waiting for an industry standard for chargeable impressions to buy ads against, even with the MRC’s promise to address the issue by the end of the year.

“Mobile viewability is huge—people want it done already, so there is a lot of pressure on all sides to move this forward,” said George Ivie, CEO and executive director of the MRC. “There’s also pressure to do it right. We don’t want to set parameters that aren’t properly informed by the data and how people use mobile.”

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Protect Your Small Business Against Credit Card Fraud | BusinessTips.com

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downloadYou’ve probably heard of people stealing, buying and selling credit card information.  You don’t want your business to be the victim of such a transaction. But on any given day, your small business is now vulnerable.

The cardholder’s issuing bank previously took care of these situations.  Previously.

That’s the way it used to be.  Now your small business could be the one that is liable–not the issuer.  Starting October 1, the rules changed for Europa, MasterCard and VISA (EMV) cards.  Now, there are “chip cards”, and U.S. credit card companies set October as the deadline for the national adoption of their new chip cards.  So, if you have not integrated EMV technology that processes chip cards, your business will now become financially responsible for fraudulent transactions previously covered by the cardholder’s issuing bank.

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Tesla gets approval for global Autopilot rollout | Mashable

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Tesla’s Autopilot set of features — the one that basically let your Tesla drive itself (though you should still keep your hands on the steering wheel) — was initially only approved in the U.S., but now it’s ready to roll out globally.

Company CEO Elon Musk said as much in a tweet Saturday, claiming Tesla has received regulatory approvals to launch Autopilot in “all countries” except Japan, which is “under review.”

A $2,500 upgrade for owners whose Tesla was built after September 2014, Autopilot has several features that improve the car’s autonomy on the road. These include letting the car steer itself on the freeway, automatic lane changing and overtaking slower vehicles and automatic parking.

The features received a warm welcome from the media (read our review here), but Tesla hasn’t been resting on its laurels. In another tweet Saturday, Musk promised several new features in an upcoming version of Autopilot: “curve speed adapftion, controller smoothness, better lane holding on poor roads, improved fleet learning”.

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The Popular Over-The-Counter Cold Medicine That Science Says Doesn’t Work | Forbes

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The market for over-the-counter cold medicines is worth $8 billion annually, with a hefty portion of that amount spent on drugs marketed as decongestants. But according to new research, the cash many of us will spend on non-prescription decongestants this cold and flu season won’t help us breathe any easier.

According to University of Florida researchers, the oral decongestant phenylephrine simply doesn’t work at the FDA-approved amount found in popular non-prescription brands, and it may not even work at much higher doses. Their conclusions were presented in an editorial in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, referencing a study in the same edition of the journal conducted by researchers from the Allergy & Asthma Medical Group & Research Center in San Diego.

The study of 539 adults lasted one week and failed to find a dose of phenylephrine within the 10 mg to 40 mg range that was more effective than a placebo in relieving nasal congestion. The approved Food and Drug Administration (FDA) dose is 10 mg every four hours for “temporary relief of nasal congestion.”

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