Author: knjohn

15 Strategies for Saving Money at a Restaurant | The Simple Dollar

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I am a huge advocate for preparing and eating meals at home. It’s almost always drastically cheaper than eating out. You have fine control over the quality and quantity of the ingredients. You can make whatever you want and you’re not restricted by a menu. You don’t have to wait to get seated. Eating at home just has a ton of benefits.

Still, there are times when eating out at a restaurant just makes more sense. For example, if we choose to spend a day in the Des Moines area, we often wind up more than an hour from home in the evening and, with hungry children, it just makes more sense to eat out. We also usually plan a meal at a restaurant roughly once a month in addition to those relatively unexpected events.

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9 Reasons You Should Never, Ever Start a Business | Allbusiness

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There’s a lot of content out there telling you to go forth! Start a business! but the truth is, not everyone should start a business. If more of the 80 percent of small businesses that fail had but hesitated and considered why they were getting into business, we’d probably have fewer businesses and more successes in those that did exist. If any of these reasons ring true, you do not need to become an entrepreneur:

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Sun Protection App Works, If People Use It | Live Science

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Want to keep your skin wrinkle free and reduce your risk of skin cancer? A smartphone app can help, according to a pair of new studies. The trick is getting people to actually use the tool.

In two new clinical trials, researchers found that the app, called Solar Cell, encourages people to spend more time in the shade and less time in the midday sun, while also nudging them toward wearing protective, wide-brim hats. But getting people to download and use the app was tough, as it is with many health-related apps, said study leader David Buller, a research director at Klein Buendel, a health communication research organization based in Golden, Colorado.

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  3 Strategies to Deal Positively with Interruption | Getentrepreneurial

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Interruptions intrude everywhere into your daily flow: marriage conversations (and other intimate activities if you have children at home), phone conversations, and your work flow.

Research indicates that it takes you anywhere from 10-20 minutes to re-engage fully with the task you abandoned when interrupted. So if you encounter 3 interruptions daily at work, that’s about one hour lost.

So when was the last time you had just 3 interruptions?

More like 33, right?

How well do you deal with these interruptions?

Implement into your work flow these three strategies for positively dealing with interruptions and watch as your sales increase with greater productivity and you get out of the office earlier to do what you love with those you love:

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Self-service beer taps coming your way | Money Cnn

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How much do you hate waiting for another beer in a crowded bar?

It irked Josh Goodman enough to invent a pretty obvious solution — self-service beer taps.

Goodman, 36, recalled the exact moment in late 2008 when his frustration boiled over.

“I was hanging out with my friends at a Baltimore sports bar before an Orioles game,” he said. “We just couldn’t get another beer served to us quickly.”

Even more than being annoyed, Goodman was struck by how much money the bar must be losing. Almost immediately, he got to work on a self-service beer concept.

Within a few months, Goodman had launched PourMyBeer in Chicago (where he’d relocated to be with his wife).

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Can Employers Mandate Vaccinations for Employees? | Businessweek

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Five workers at Disneyland have been diagnosed with measles in an outbreak that California officials trace to visitors at the Anaheim (Calif.) theme park in mid-December. Disney is urging its 27,000 workers at the park to verify that they’re inoculated against the virus, and the company is offering tests and shots on site for workers who are unvaccinated. “We’re doing everything that we possibly can to proactively communicate to our cast members,” said Disney spokesperson Lisa Haines.

Disney won’t, however, require workers to get routine vaccinations as a condition of employment. Almost no companies outside the health-care industry do. “Our policies are consistent with other employers’ policies on this issue,” said Haines, noting that airports, hotels, and other businesses whose staffs encounter lots of potentially contagious travelers don’t mandate immunization. She declined to say how many Disney workers have been inoculated since the outbreak. Three of the workers who caught measles have recovered and returned to work.

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5 Steps to Maintaining a Successful Company Blog | BusinessTips.com

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downloadToday, when you start a business, you are also starting an online presence for your business. With that presence usually comes Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and often, a company blog. Though a blog arguably requires the most work out of the social networks your business partakes in, it also can reap the most rewards.

A blog truly is the voice of your business; it gives your otherwise faceless business a tone and personality unique only to itself. A blog is great for showcasing products, answering customer questions, and informing the masses on matters close to your particular industry, thereby labeling your CEO as an industry expert.

So how do you get started on the right foot and maintain a level of consistent success?

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7 Unexpected Signs You Might Be an Entrepreneur | Entrepreneur

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imagesRemember Jeff Foxworthy? The comedian made a splash back in the ‘90s with his (slightly un-PC) “You might be a redneck” routine. Among his classic one-liners: “If you own a home that’s mobile and five cars that aren’t … you might be a redneck.”

Well, inspired by Jeff, I’ve been thinking about a “You might be an entrepreneur” routine—in other words, slightly unexpected signs you’ve got what it takes to go through the thrilling, punishing, life-changing experience of starting your own company.

Yes, you’ve got to be passionate, resilient and all that other good stuff. But there are more subtle qualities needed, as well. Networking with other entrepreneurs over the years through Hootsuite and working closely with young up-and-comers through my foundation The Next Big Thing, I’ve noticed that a lot of us share some common personality traits. So, without further ado, you might be an entrepreneur if…

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