6 Effective Strategies for Businesses Dealing With a Crisis | Business

May 14, 2026May 13, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

At some point, most businesses will face a crisis in today’s fast-paced, constantly changing, and social-media-driven world. When an organization is in the midst of one, it’s essential to provide stakeholders, employees, and customers with a clear, heartfelt message. How quickly — and how sincerely — you respond can make the difference between rebuilding trust and spending months trying to repair your reputation.

Planning your crisis communications in advance can help any organization navigate a PR nightmare. Like preparing for a storm, equipping leadership teams and employees for a downturn can reduce anxiety and build confidence. We’ll highlight six crisis communication strategies and share mistakes to avoid.

Effective strategies for crisis communication

Whether your crisis stems from natural disasters, financial setbacks, personnel issues, organizational failures, or technology breakdowns, the following crisis communication strategies can help lessen the blow, steady the ship, and set you on a path toward recovery.

How to Keep Your Emails Out of Gmail’s Promotions Tab | Business

May 14, 2026May 13, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Gmail organizes incoming messages into multiple inbox tabs, including Primary, Social, and Promotions, to help users manage their inboxes and reduce clutter. Google uses a mix of signals to decide which emails land in which tab. While some Gmail users appreciate having marketing and social messages sorted automatically, others deactivate the tabs entirely and stick with a more traditional inbox view.

Email marketers can improve their chances of landing in the Primary tab by following a few proven best practices and sending the kind of messages people actually want to open, read, and engage with, instead of ending up in the Promotions tab, where they’re easier to overlook.

How to prevent emails from going to the Promotions tab

There’s no foolproof way to keep every email out of the Promotions tab, and Gmail’s filtering signals don’t exactly stand still. Still, there are a handful of practical steps you can take to give your messages a better shot at landing in the Primary tab.

Samsung phones will block those nasty push notifications brimming with adware | Digital Trends

May 13, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Push notifications are useful until apps start treating them like free ad space. On Android, this gets especially annoying because promotional alerts are not always clearly separated from important notifications. Users often have to guess which setting controls ads, and many end up turning off notifications entirely just to stop the spam.

Samsung now appears to be addressing this issue with a new Device Care update that can detect and block apps that send too many promotional notifications.

The Practical Side of Planning a Great Event | The Startup Magazine

May 12, 2026May 11, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

What do you think about first when you’re planning an event? Is it the exciting stuff like the music, food, and decorations? Probably. But although those things are very important, there are some other things, perhaps not so obvious ones, that you also need to think about if you want your event to go well. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the practical side of planning a great event.

Get The Space Right

It’s easy to underestimate how quickly people can fill a space once everyone actually arrives, but you might find that the areas that looked huge beforehand are suddenly pretty cramped, and you might have queues forming in awkward places. In other words, people are too close together, and they feel uncomfortable rather than being able to enjoy the event.

In event planning, a good layout can make a massive difference, and we’re not just talking about the places where people sit and gather – you’ve also got to think about where they walk, queue, eat, dance, and basically spend any time at all.

How Smart Surveillance Solutions Support Business Growth | The Startup Magazine

May 12, 2026May 11, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Businesses nowadays need to be more aware of their security practices, both online and offline. For in-person premises, surveillance solutions have become smarter in their efficiency and effectiveness to protect the property and its occupants.

Smart surveillance solutions help support business growth by transforming it into something more proactive, data-driven for operational efficiency, and enhancing customer and staff experiences.

Operational Efficiency and Business Intelligence

Smart cameras are now going beyond just monitoring to provide actionable insights. In fact, there’s a lot that this type of technology is doing in order to protect businesses across the world.

Not so dusty: How tech is changing woodworking | BBC News

May 11, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“I’ve seen workshops that are nigh on dust-free,” marvels furniture maker and woodwork instructor Ryan Saunders.

It’s one of the big changes that technology has brought to the woodworking business in recent decades.

“We’ve understood so much more about the safety of our lungs,” Saunders says.

From high-pressure extractors to high-quality filters, there are more tools than ever before to protect the lungs of people working with wood.

Does Your Mind Go Blank at the Worst Times? Here’s the Fix. | Entrepreneur

May 7, 2026May 6, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Here’s what’s actually happening when you can’t pull the trigger — and why logic alone will never fix it.

Key Takeaways

Freezing under pressure is not a personal weakness; it’s a biological hijack. But you can’t simply think your way out of it.
In high-stakes moments, the amygdala perceives a threat and cuts off access to the prefrontal cortex — the part responsible for logic, analysis, strategy, precision, language, and executive function.
To override it, you must feel the freeze, label it, identify the one action required to move forward, lean into the discomfort, and commit to tolerating it for just 20 seconds.

How to Build Loyalty in a Job-Hopping Economy | Entrepreneur

May 7, 2026May 6, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For a long time, the fastest way to get a raise was to quit. Companies built that system. Now they’re surprised by the behavior it created. The truth is that when strong employees quit, they usually cite the same reason. It’s not because of the pay, but because they couldn’t see a path forward.

When I was building Prepory, I couldn’t afford to be one of those companies. Running a non-venture-backed startup, I couldn’t offer luxurious office perks, signing bonuses, or stock options. What I had was a clear answer to one question every good hire eventually asks: Where does this go for me?

Today, Prepory has a team of nearly 100 people and an all-time high employee retention. This isn’t an accident. It’s what happens when you stop trying to make people comfortable and start giving them something worth staying for.

iOS 26.5 arrives soon. Here are the new features to know. | Mashable

May 6, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 26.5 has just been released for developers. Typically, this means the latest public version of iOS is just around the corner.

So, what new features should iPhone users expect in iOS 26.5? Let’s take a look at what’s new.

Apple Maps: Ads and Suggested Places

Two new features are coming to Apple Maps with the release of iOS 26.5 — that is, if you consider the introduction of ads on the platform as a new feature, as Apple does.

Apple is bringing ads into its proprietary Apple Maps app with the latest iOS. We first reported on this in March, and Apple is now actively seeking advertisers.

2026 Summer TV preview: Every TV show you need to know about now | Mashable

May 6, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

What will your summer TV obsession be this year?

Will it be a returning old favorite like House of the Dragon, The Bear, or Ted Lasso? Or will it be a new show, like Netflix’s sci-fi series The Boroughs or Apple TV’s thriller remake of Cape Fear?

Whatever your preference, 2026’s summer TV offerings are here to satisfy any genre craving you may have. Hang out with rock star vampires in The Vampire Lestat, or zip along with superheroes in offerings like Spider-Noir and Lanterns. Get some animated action in with a new season of The Legend of Vox Machina or the upcoming raunchy comedy Mating Season. Looking for romance? Check out the hockey-focused Off Campus or summery drama Every Year After.