Author: knjohn

10 Tips for Taking a Break Before the New Year|allbusiness.com

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Want to take time off from your business but worried that it might be more stressful than relaxing? The truth is, the holiday season can be a great time for taking a break and sneaking in some much-needed R&R before another busy year begins.

In order to get some solid advice about how to let go, we asked a panel of 10 entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

Q. What’s one tip you’d give a fellow business owner who wants to take some real time off before the new year?

Their best answers are below
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5 Myths About the Light Bulb Ban | LiveScience

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When the Energy Independence and Security Act EISA was signed into law in 2007, among its provisions was the eventual phasing out of an icon of 20th-century life: the familiar but notoriously inefficient incandescent light bulb, which wastes 90 percent of its energy use as heat, not light.

In response, conservative pundits howled in protest, claiming the law would destroy the free market, bankrupt consumers and unravel the very fabric of American life. The destruction and mayhem hasn’t happened yet, but that hasn’t stopped the grumbling from certain hidebound commentators.

As a result, many people have heard a number of ill-founded stories about the effect of the phasing-out of incandescent bulbs, which use a heated tungsten filament to produce light, and the dangers of compact fluorescent lamps CFLs and light-emitting diode LED lights. Here are a few facts that shine a light on some of the more odious myths being circulated today. [Light Bulbs: Incandescent, Fluorescent, LED Infographic]

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10 Interview Questions Your Job Candidates Should Be Asking You|allbusiness.com

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Since most job candidates tend to say what they think you want to hear during an interview, it can be challenging to evaluate how they really think. For this reason, world-class interviewers pay just as much attention to the questions they’re asked as to the answers they’re given, because they reveal a lot about the candidate’s level of interest and ability to do the job. Here are 10 interview questions from job candidates that should be music to your ears.

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How to Prepare Your Business for 2014|businessnewsdaily.com

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4 Ways to Prepare Your Business for 2014

Key things you should do to prepare your business for the future.

With the year starting to wind down, it is important that business owners are prepared for any dangers and risks that may lie ahead.

Judy Coblentz, chief underwriting officer at small business insurance provider Travelers Small Commercial, said this is the perfect time for business owners to evaluate their business to ensure they are properly prepared for any unforeseen circumstances that could arise in 2014.

“As you cross over calendar years, whether you do it in your personal life or whether you do it in your business life, I think most people view the end of the year as time to take stock,” Coblentz told BusinessNewsDaily.

With that in mind, she says there are four things business owners should be doing to ensure they are properly protected in 2014 from any risks they may encounter in the new year, including:

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8 Steps to Having Wildly Productive Mornings | Entrepreneur.com

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You’ll wake up for about 25,000 mornings in your adult life, give or take a few.Once I realized this, I started thinking about how I could develop a better morning routine. I still have a lot to learn, but here are some strategies that you can use to get the most out of your 25,000 mornings.Here are eight strategies that I’ve found to be most effective for getting the most out of my morning:

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How to Find the Best Cloud Services Partner|businessnewsdaily.com

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While the first wave of cloud integration was driven by businesses’ needs to reduce costs and increase efficiency, the next wave will focus on leveraging cloud services to expand company offerings and improve competitive positions.

Todd Benjamin, vice president of hosted services at Hostway Corp., said this is especially true for companies that provide technical services to businesses. He said a growing number of IT firms are now looking for partners with cloud delivery expertise so that they can deliver cloud services as resellers.

“Companies that provide IT services to businesses rightly want to focus on their core competencies to succeed in a highly competitive economy,” Benjamin said. “They are looking for cloud experts as partners to round out their portfolio of offerings.”

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BoatBox Launches Car Roof Container That Doubles Up as Boat |GreenPacks.org

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Did you always want to take your boat along while you are on a camping trip near a lake, but could not do so, simply because of the hassle you have to go through in transporting it? Also, what if you also get a roof top storage along with the boat? Yes, it is true. BoatBox has launched a little boat that will also act as a storage mechanism that you can strap to the roof of your car.

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Saving Too Much For Retirement? Is It Really Possible? | Generation X Finance

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Conventional wisdom tells us it’s impossible to be saving too much for retirement, but is this really true? We’ve been hearing about the need to save more for retirement, and for good reason. Ask many of the Baby Boomers who are getting ready to retire and you’ll find that many of them have come to the realization that they don’t have as much saved up as they had hoped, or that they may need to even put off retirement for a few years.

So, is it possible to save too much for retirement? Of course it is, but it’s far from the norm. The real issue comes from the sacrifices you need to make today in order to plan and save for a retirement that may be decades away. There is a balance in life.

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