3 Cold-Calling Secrets From Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx | Entrepreneur

January 24, 2022January 23, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There’s a reason why Spanx founder Sara Blakely can teach us so much about cold calling, and it has nothing to do with how great she is at creating inventions. Before becoming an entrepreneur herself, she sold fax machines in Florida for seven years, where her insight into this specific skill set became invaluable when starting up.

It was her knowledge of cold calling that turned out to be pivotal in landing her first sale of Spanx, as she cold-called the buyer for Neiman Marcus and landed her first large order of Spanx. She also used cold calling to find her patent lawyer and apparel manufacturer, which were both critical to her ultimate success as an entrepreneur.

Here are three specific cold-calling lessons we can glean from her experiences on her entrepreneurial journey.

No, It’s Not Too Late to Start an E-commerce Business in 2022 | Cool Business Ideas

January 21, 2022January 20, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you’ve been searching for ways to make money online, you’ve probably come across a few people telling you about starting an e-commerce business. While it’s a lucrative job that you can do from home to create an additional income stream, you may be thinking it’s a very saturated industry already. Is it too late to start an e-commerce business in 2022?

The answer is no!

As the general population becomes more comfortable with purchasing items online, especially after staying home during the pandemic, now is a great time to get into the e-commerce game. Below are four steps to take to help you get started.

Huge Tonga underwater volcano eruption captured in stunning satellite video | Live Science

January 19, 2022January 18, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A powerful underwater volcano eruption in Tonga on Saturday (Jan. 15) was captured as it happened in stunning images from an Earth-watching satellite, showing the sheer power for the explosive event in the South Pacific.

The volcano eruption on the island of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai is visible as a spectacular explosion in views from the GOES West Earth-observing satellite operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A video of the eruption shows a vast plume from the volcano rising high into the atmosphere like a giant mushroom during the eruption as a shockwave extends outward from Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, one of the 170 islands that make up the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga.

Confusing Things About Accepting Credit Cards | businessnewsdaily.com

January 19, 2022January 18, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Credit card processing rates and service contracts don’t have to leave your head spinning.

Credit card processors offer a wide range of fee structures and contract terms.
Depending on the type of business you have, some pricing structures are better than others.
You should review all the details of your payment processor’s terms and fees before you sign a contract.
This article is for small business owners who are looking for a credit card processor.

The fine print on personal credit cards can drive anyone crazy, and the terms for accepting credit cards at your business aren’t any different. You don’t need to be a contract lawyer to understand the terms and conditions from your credit card processor, but you do need to thoroughly read the contract so you understand how it will affect your business’s bottom line.

5 Ways to Manage Conflict in a Team Effectively | Lifehack

January 18, 2022January 17, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Conflicts are unavoidable when working as part of a team. We all have different points of view, opinions, and ways of doing things. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

Many times it can be beneficial and helps us broaden our points of view and ways of completing the same task or project. During the actual process of working together, though, sometimes our differences can lead to heated discussions, hurt feelings, roadblocks, and could even potentially jeopardize a project.

There’s a lot of ways you can choose to deal with conflict in a team setting. You can ignore it, be passive-aggressive about it, get angry and upset about it, etc. Maybe you like to point fingers and blame others. Perhaps you’re like me and have little patience in general and get easily frustrated at someone’s pace of work.

While there are many ways to handle conflict, some of them can help us resolve things quicker than others and lead to better outcomes. Let’s take a look at five ways to manage conflict in a team effectively.

To Sell To Customers This Year, Keep It Simple | AllBusiness.com

January 18, 2022January 17, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You are probably “Covided” out. It’s exhausting keeping up with the reports on the ever-changing restrictions and recommendations. Hopefully you, your family, and your friends haven’t gotten sick, and if you have, it was with mild symptoms. Either way, right now you might be craving some simplicity in your life. To sell to customers this year, my advice is to keep it simple.

3 simplicity tips to sell to customers this year

10 QuickBooks Alternatives | business.com

January 14, 2022January 13, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

QuickBooks is the most widely used accounting software, but there are alternatives that might be better for your business.

QuickBooks is the most widely used accounting solution available, and it’s one of the best accounting software options for small business owners. But the company does charge a relatively high monthly fee, and it doesn’t offer the best customer support.

Many small businesses outgrow the tools that QuickBooks provides. When this happens, you’ll need a QuickBooks alternative that works with your budget and accounting needs.

This article will break down 10 of the best QuickBooks alternatives to consider when you’re ready to switch software.

Scams Startups Need to be Aware Of | The Startup Magazine

January 13, 2022January 12, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Starting your own business is never easy, but it can be made even harder by scammers that are trying to trick you into parting with your money. Startups are often targeted by criminals because they’re seen as less experienced than bigger businesses, but by educating yourself about some common scams, you’ll be in a much better place to avoid startup scams and ensure the success of your venture.

One of the most common ways that criminals reach out to startups is through phone calls, which is why it’s so important to be wary of unknown numbers. Rather than answering calls from numbers you don’t recognize, use a website like unknownphone.com to try and figure out who is calling. Services like this will show you whether others have had bad experiences with the number that rang you, so you can block them before getting into trouble.

Where are memories stored in the brain? New research suggests they may be in the connections between your brain cells | Entrepreneur

January 11, 2022January 10, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

All memory storage devices, from your brain to the RAM in your computer, store information by changing their physical qualities. Over 130 years ago, pioneering neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal first suggested that the brain stores information by rearranging the connections, or synapses, between neurons.

Since then, neuroscientists have attempted to understand the physical changes associated with memory formation. But visualizing and mapping synapses is challenging to do. For one, synapses are very small and tightly packed together. They’re roughly 10 billion times smaller than the smallest object a standard clinical MRI can visualize. Furthermore, there are approximately 1 billion synapses in the mouse brains researchers often use to study brain function, and they’re all the same opaque to translucent color as the tissue surrounding them.

Amphibious Fat pickup lugs supplies through mud, blizzard, and water | New Atlas

January 10, 2022January 9, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The tire-sucking bogs and lonely, icy Arctic expanses of Russia inspired the Sherp ATV and its six-wheeled powered trailer. Canada has some of the same types of inhospitable, uncrossable northerly terrain, and it also has its own homegrown amphibious rover: the Fat Truck from Quebec’s Zeal Motor. Traditionally equipped with a combination of huge 65-inch paddle-tires and fully enclosed personnel carrier, the Fat Truck family has welcomed a versatile cargo hauler in the all-new 2.8P, a high-riding pickup truck built to carry work supplies over harsh, trackless land and water that would spell disaster for the average pickup.