How to Choose the Right Internet Provider | Small Biz Trends

March 16, 2015March 25, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Imagine your business without an Internet connection. Customers depend on getting service from you online or via your IP phone system. Employees need to communicate and collaborate, and are often doing that online (even when they are located in the same office!) The Internet is fast becoming one of the top sales and marketing channels for small businesses.

A lot is at stake with your business, if your Internet is slow or unreliable.

Depending on where your business is located you may have many choices or few choices. Whatever your situation, here are some important considerations to take into account to choose the best Internet service provider for your business:

This Woman Wants to Take Common Folk to Space—In a Balloon | WIRED

March 13, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

JANE POYNTER HAS a mesmerizing way of describing what it will be like to be shuttled to the ends of the Earth in the souped-up space balloon being developed by her company, World View.

You’ll arrive at the launch site predawn, Poynter says, and step inside a comfortable capsule with a few other passengers. You’ll lift off the ground, and float upward for an hour and a half, gently rising at a speed of about 1,000 feet a minute. When you arrive at the top of the atmosphere, Poynter says, you’ll see “the most unbelievable panorama of stars” around you. The sun, rising up over the ground below you, will begin to creep over the horizon and light up the Earth below. You’ll hover in that place for about an hour before gliding back to the ground using a rectangular parachute called a parafoil.

Your Fitness App Is Making You Fat | TechCrunch

March 13, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Fitness apps are all the rage. A raft of new companies and products want to track your steps and count your calories with the aim of melting that excess blubber. There’s just one problem — most of these apps don’t work. In fact, there is good reason to believe they make us fatter.

One study called out “the dirty secret of wearables,” citing that “these devices fail to drive long-term sustained engagement for a majority of users.” Endeavour Partners’ research found “more than half of U.S. consumers who have owned a modern activity tracker no longer use it. A third of U.S. consumers who have owned one stopped using the device within six months of receiving it.”

While the report mentioned several reasons why people don’t stick with these tracking devices, my own theory is simple: They backfire. Here are three surprising reasons why fitness apps may be making us less happy and more flabby.

Important Conversations Managers Should Have With Employees | Business News Daily

March 13, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Do you talk to your employees regularly? Of course you do — you email and instant message them daily, hold meetings and conference calls with them, and if they’re in the office, you stop by their desks to check in. But are you having the types of conversations that really matter?

If you find that you’re only discussing day-to-day projects and job duties with your staff, there’s a good chance they’re not feeling very engaged and connected with their work. Discussions that make employees feel valued, such as their long-term goals and personal strengths, typically happen during formal performance evaluations, but in reality, these issues should be brought up much more frequently than many managers realize.

5 Tax Red Flags That Can Lead to an IRS Audit | ABC News

March 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Nobody wants to be audited by the IRS, but many taxpayers make simple mistakes that can lead to just that.

Many Americans will file their income tax return early before the April 15 deadline to receive their tax refund. Some IRS audits are randomly selected and based solely on a statistical formula, the IRS says, but other audits can happen when documents simply don’t add up.

Here are five common red flags that could lead to an audit:

Ready, Steady….NO | Getentrepreneurial.com

March 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I was coaching a group on their presentation to their Senior Leadership Team. It was the end of months of research, weeks of discussion and development, days of practice. Our session began.

The first speaker stood up. She seemed relaxed, she smiled and then began to explain the assignment, telling in great detail what they had been asked to research. Then she spoke about how her team had researched for quite some time before they could even identify their topic. She continued by saying that once they had found their topic, they started looking for new sources for research.

This is all before she had reached slide 2 of her presentation. I was completely disengaged and struggling hard to pay attention at all.

I was exhausted and she hadn’t really started yet!

Stop, stop, please, stop.

Powdered alcohol gets Washington OK | Cnn Money

March 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Soon you can get your hands on some Palcohol — or powdered alcohol, for those who don’t know.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has approved Palcohol for sale. However, spokesman Tom Hogue said despite approval at the federal level, the product is still subject to state regulations.

Lipsmark, the company which makes Palcohol said it aims to get it on the market by the summer.

But clearing state hurdles could be tough. Alaska has already prohibited it, and six other states have taken regulatory action against it, including Louisiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia.

And Senator Charles Schumer from New York on Thursday introduced a bill against powdered alcohol. “I am in total disbelief that our federal government has approved such an obviously dangerous product,” said Schumer, in a statement. “Congress must take matters into its own hands and make powered alcohol illegal.”

5 Weird Ways Cold Weather Affects Your Psyche | Live Science

March 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Freezing temperatures and snow have turned much of the United States into an icebox. But, beyond keeping people inside and prompting them to bundle up when they venture out, does the cold weather change people’s behavior?

Science says yes.

Cold temperatures can influence our thoughts and decisions without our even knowing it, experts have found. From influencing what colors women wear to how we judge criminals, from the limits of human creativity to how we treat our friends, chilly temperatures may have a great effect on the human psyche, research shows.

In Japan, It Soon May Be Illegal Not To Take Vacation | Fastco.Exist

March 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Wake up at 7:30, commute to work, spend 13 hours in the office, run for the last train home, eat, and crash into to bed. The next day, rinse and repeat. Welcome to the insane working hours of a Japanese “salaryman” during crunch times at work. It’s a schedule that sometimes leads to what the Japanese call karoshi—death by overwork. Now, in an attempt to help, the Japanese government is considering a plan to force workers to take five vacation days a year.

Here’s an expat in Japan documenting his typical work week, with 78 hours of work and only 35 hours of sleep:

Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

March 11, 2015March 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

v.19 n. 11 – Released March 10, 2015

This Week’s Headlines:

February U.S. Employment Report: Strong Hiring Continues
Consumers Back Off on Auto and Student Loans
U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Pause in February
Events of Interest
- March 11, 2015: 2014 Otis Report on the Creative Economy (Los Angeles Event)
- March 18, 2015: 2014 Otis Report on the Creative Economy (Orange County Event)
- April 21, 2015: San Gabriel Valley Economic Outlook