Author: knjohn

Should Your Small Business Offer a 401(k) Plan? | Businessnewsdaily.com

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If your business has only a few employees, you may think you’re too small to offer a 401(k) plan. But even entrepreneurs have to retire someday, and there’s no time like the present to start planning for the future.

“Most small businesses don’t offer 401(k) plans, but it’s good for the nation as a whole to start saving for retirement,” said Paul Davidson, director of product management at payroll processing firm Paychex. “It’s not just about the [individual] benefits; there’s a social good that comes from establishing more 401(k) plans.”

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Think The Cassette Tape Is Dead? Then Why Did Sony Just Squeeze 185TB Of Data Onto One? | Forbes

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Vinyl is making a comeback, but for all intents and purposes the reign of cassette tapes is long since over, right? Perhaps not, if Sony has anything to say about it. At today’s International Magnetics Conference (Intermag) in Europe, the company is presenting a method of data storage utilizing magnetic tape which is capable of holding a whopping 148GB per inch.

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Stop Losing Employees: 4 Tricks to Beat Turnover | Allbusiness.com

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No matter what industry you’re in, turnover is a problem you can’t ignore. If you’re lucky, it’s relatively low compared to industry standards, but if it’s not, it’s time to do something. Because turnover is, in fact, something you can prevent if you’re proactive.

First, Assess the Situation

There’s a reason people are quitting your company. They might not all leave for the same reasons, but if you do some sniffing, you can probably find a few root causes. Maybe one manager is pretty harsh on his staff and they’re running for greener grass. Or maybe other companies are paying more than you are. Whatever the cause, identifying it is the place to start. There are even tools available on the web to assess staff happiness.

Now let’s look at a few tricks to reduce your turnover numbers and keep employees engaged, happy, and in place.

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Taco Bell Is Going Upscale—Really | Businessweek

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Some people would never eat at a Taco Bell. The fast-food chain’s executives know this, and they won’t bother trying to persuade them otherwise. But how about enjoying a meal at U.S. Taco? Sounds better, right? U.S. Taco is the chain’s new alter ego, an American-inspired restaurant (as opposed to Mexican-inspired, which is how company reps describe Taco Bell’s offerings.)

The first U.S. Taco opens this summer in Huntington Beach, Calif., not far from Taco Bell (YUM) headquarters. “I would love one day to see 1,000 of these,” Greg Creed, Taco Bell’s chief executive, told the Orange County Register. “But let’s not get that far ahead of ourselves. We’re opening a restaurant and seeing what happens.”

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Why the Smart Reading Device of the Future May Be … Paper | WIRED.com

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Paper books were supposed to be dead by now. For years, information theorists, marketers, and early adopters have told us their demise was imminent. Ikea even redesigned a bookshelf to hold something other than books. Yet in a world of screen ubiquity, many people still prefer to do their serious reading on paper.

Count me among them. When I need to read deeply—when I want to lose myself in a story or an intellectual journey, when focus and comprehension are paramount—I still turn to paper. Something just feels fundamentally richer about reading on it. And researchers are starting to think there’s something to this feeling.

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If You Want To Be A Leader, Start Acting Like One | Forbes.com

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Leadership isn’t about your title, nor is it about bossing others around. Being a strong leader means thinking about the teams’ needs before your own, helping other people to grow and maximize their own full potential, and sharing credit when it’s due (and shouldering blame as needed, too). Why do you need to wait to get a promotion to start doing any of this? You don’t – that’s the good news, so start today. The more qualities of a leader that you begin to exhibit, the more obvious a choice you’ll be for the actual promotion down the road. By positioning yourself as someone who’s ready to take on more (after having proven yourself over a longer period of time), you’ll be hard to ignore. Plus, over time, you’ll have benefited your overall team with your efforts – this makes it a personal and collective win.

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Postal workers protest Staples | money.cnn.com

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Hundreds of postal workers stepped off the job Thursday to protest mini post offices set up in Staples office supply stores.

The American Postal Workers Union organized protests at 50 Staples in 27 states to oppose a partnership between Staples and the U.S. Postal Service. Eighty-two branches of the office supply store have been selling postal products and services since November.

While the deal has drawn union ire before, Thursday’s was the largest protest. In Washington D.C., several dozen union workers marched in front of a downtown Staples (SPLS, Fortune 500), beating buckets and drums and chanting “U.S. mail is not for sale.”

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The 15 Best Business Apps for 2014 | Allbusiness.com

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As Michael Bay proved this week, managing a hectic work schedule isn’t easy. During an appearance as a keynote speaker for Samsung, he made a mistake, lost his nerve, and walked off. Although the Internet community wasted no time voicing its contempt, Bay made no defense of his embarrassing moment. He freely admitted a foible: “I guess live shows aren’t my thing.” In this instance, over-enthusiasm and technology let him down.

Anyone can make a mistake, but fortunately we live in an era where technology can correct many of them for us. For business professionals this digital assistance often comes in the form of an exceptional array of apps. Knowing which ones to download can be time consuming, so to help you on your way we have gathered a selection of the very best available.

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The Costs of Internet ‘Fast Lanes’ | Businessweek

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Expect to hear a lot of I-told-you-sos from those who worried about having a former cable lobbyist chair the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC is set to introduce a new set of rules governing how Internet service providers (ISPs) can treat different services in different ways, and it looks like they will hew closely to the cable industry’s line.

Late Wednesday the Wall Street Journal reported that the FCC would release new rules developed by its chairman, Tom Wheeler. This was bound to happen after a federal court struck down the FCC’s Open Internet Order in January. Wheeler’s approach to the issue of net neutrality has been the subject of much hand-wringing, with his public statements always leaving some question about his position on the issue. The new rules will likely embrace the idea that Internet service providers can create so-called fast lanes, where they charge companies to send content to customers faster. If that principle becomes law, here are a few things to expect:

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