Is a reservation about an employee a deal-breaker? | Mashable.com

May 13, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Hiring isn’t easy. An interviewer must consider a candidate’s potential in light of the future of a department and a company (sometimes with little guidance). In the absence of certainty, it’s not uncommon for a hiring manager to pick the applicant who possesses what Lily Zhang of The Muse describes as “sparkle.” It’s easier to like a top candidate who doesn’t simply excel over the course of the job search process, but who manages to outshine his competition.

But sometimes, when you’re leading a hiring process, you’ll find that an applicant who is strong on paper doesn’t “sparkle.” Instead, something feels a little off. Here’s what you should do when you’re uncertain how to proceed.

1. When it’s something the candidate could overcome

A candidate might not stand out simply because he’s not a strong applicant. Interviewing is a skill, and just like there are poor test-takers, there are people who study hard and then freeze up when the big day comes. In other words, his interview performance — while less than ideal — wouldn’t bear any correlation to his future job performance.

Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

May 12, 2015May 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

v.19 n. 20 – Released May 11, 2015

This Week’s Headlines:

U.S. Labor Market Rebounds in April
Lending Standards Little Changed Over Last Quarter
U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Disappoint in April
Consumer Credit: $20.5 Billion Gain in March
Events of Interest
- June 03, 2015: International Trade Outlook

Want Leads? Use YouTube Remarketing | Small Biz Trends

May 12, 2015May 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Remarketing on YouTube has become almost as commonplace as remarketing on the Web. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine with over 1 billion active users each month. Perfecting your marketing strategy for such a large platform can have huge benefits for companies, and what many are realizing is that the remarketing aspect of YouTube has huge potential.

It’s ultimately a great way to get a viewer — whether they clicked on your video, subscribed to your channel, unsubscribed from your channel, viewed your in-stream ads, etc. — coming back to your channel as you upload new videos. In the end, this is a great way to generate more quality leads to help you drive your business growth forward.

Seven Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Small Business | All business

May 12, 2015May 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When you’re running a small business, it can be difficult to pull yourself away the day-to-day responsibilities, take a breath, and examine what you can do to drive growth over the long term. As summer approaches, it’s likely you’ll devote some time to clearing out the clutter in your personal life, like cleaning out the messy garage, so why not do the same for your business?

Of course, you won’t be cleaning out your garage (unless that’s where you work), but scheduling some time to examine the progress you’ve made toward meeting your annual goals and identifying the actions you need to take to meet those goals can be beneficial.

Below are seven tips to guide you.

Until We Meet Again Part 4 | Peter Mehit

May 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Where does the time go? No seriously, why can’t you store it up? Why can’t you borrow it from the future? Probably because we’d all be dead, having spent our future in replays and do-overs.

But fortunately, you can’t store or borrow time. You can only spend it. Instead of launching into a piece on the nature of man and time, I’ll instead supply you with some ideas on its wise expenditure when it comes to meetings.

You’ve done your agenda and selected the right participants, sending them the agenda early so they can have time to look at it. What’s next? Actually, we’re going to look at your agenda again.

Continue reading “Until We Meet Again Part 4 | Peter Mehit” →

This Entrepreneur Thinks His Startup, Farmigo, Will Kill Off Supermarkets | Forbes

May 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In the not-too-distant future, says Benzi Ronen, founder and CEO of Farmigo, consumers will use mobile phones to order non-perishables like toothpaste and toilet paper from Amazon and then buy their fresh food–from “humanely raised” lamb chops to “locally foraged” ramps–from his six-year-old online grocer based in Brooklyn, NY. Using technology and community-organizing techniques borrowed from the Obama campaign, he is building a network of Farmigo reps who are spreading the word throughout their neighborhoods and distributing food at weekly pick-ups. Farmigo operates only in New York, New Jersey and parts of northern California, but Ronen, 44, believes he can take his model to all 50 states. This interview has been edited and condensed.

2 Unusual Secrets To Keep Your Customers Happy | Page 19

May 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Don’t be afraid to take action if a customer is holding you back. Here’s an argument for why you should cut ties with problem customers, and what you can do to keep the ones who are loyal.

As a business owner, you naturally love your customers – that is, all of them except that one bad apple who seems to be leading a grand mission to take you down. You plan and stress and lose sleep over the bad apple’s demands, and you even consider changing your policies for them. But here’s the truth: you should quit that relationship while you’re ahead.

“The customer is always right!” is a common expression you’ve heard many times over, and most often, it serves as a great mantra for conducting daily business operations. However, as Noah Fleming writes in Evergreen, all customers aren’t always right all the time. At some point, it becomes your responsibility to cut ties with the customer who is bringing you down.

Who The Smartphone Revolution Left Behind | TechCrunch

May 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

How many of us have been tempted to chuck our smartphones into the ocean while on vacation to stop the incessant buzzing of incoming emails and texts from interrupting what is supposed to be down time?

While many of us have become increasingly desperate to unplug – there’s even a growing industry of “digital detox” vacation spots – in our love-hate relationship with our smartphones, love ultimately conquers all.

We wouldn’t dream of cutting the cord for more than a day or two max. After all, mobile connectedness has become so critical to modern life that according to research by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, even people living on less than $2 a day reported owning a mobile phone – cutting back on food purchases if necessary.

The Best Cities to Work for an Entrepreneur | Inc.com

May 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We’ve seen, and run, plenty of stories about which cities are the best to start and build a business. But how about the employees? What are the best cities in which to work at a small business?

WalletHub recently crunched those numbers, using a combination of factors meant to represent the environment for small businesses as well as a region’s overall economic environment. Overall, the South and West seem to host more businesses that are hospitable to their employees, while cities in the Northeast generally don’t appear in the rankings until much further down. At number 10, Boston was the highest-ranked city in the Northeast, well below Austin, Omaha, and Raleigh. San Francisco came in 23rd; San Jose was number 34.

The metro areas that ranked the best for their small business economic environments were: