Category: Tools and Information

New To Instagram Live? Here’s How To Show Up Like A Pro | Entrepreneur

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From the entertainment sector to the health and fitness industry, stay-at-home orders have forced many entrepreneurs to improvise and share their skills virtually. Instagram Live has emerged as an outlet of choice for enterprising business owners. Hop on Instagram right now, and you’ll likely see dozens of users and brands either going live or advertising an upcoming live stream.

Though it’s becoming more popular in recent months, live-streaming has largely been underestimated. But it won’t stay that way for long: Instagram’s algorithm rewards live-streaming with additional push notifications and a position at the front of the line in users’ Stories feed, so it’s only a matter of time before brands and businesses catch on. Streamers can also see and respond to comments in real time, which opens up the potential to directly communicate with and engage your audience.

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Basics of Franchising | Getentrepreneurial.com

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When entrepreneurs dream about their future, franchising is rarely the starting place for their fantasy. While it’s not always choice No. 1, the benefits of franchising make it an enticing career opportunity for entrepreneurs. With an established brand and support system, franchises offer franchisees a chance to taste running a business while also giving them significant help.

“A franchise is a business with training wheels,” said Tom Scarda, founder of The Franchise Academy, a podcast dedicated to franchising. “For a majority of franchisees, franchising has proven to be a viable way to become a business owner. For the most part, it offers the lowest risks and the highest level of support. Because a franchiser doesn’t succeed until the franchisees do, you’ll find a team of dedicated professionals willing and able to help you every step of the way, from site selection to employee hiring to grand opening.”

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Boost your productivity with a second screen that attaches to your laptop | New Atlas

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Working with two screens can save you precious resources, like time and money. If you have two monitors at your place of work, but can’t access them for the time being, then your productivity may be stunted. Rather than pick up a desktop monitor that takes up a lot of space, it’s better to get a more versatile tech solution that lets you work productively anywhere. The Mobile Pixels DUEX Pro Portable Dual Monitor gives your laptop a second screen.

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Google Assistant can now use your voice to verify purchases | Mashable

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Making purchases with your voice is convenient, but it’s far from secure. Google is attempting to change that when using Assistant by introducing an optional voice verification test.

As The Verge reports, the new security feature relies on Google Assistant’s Voice Match and it’s being rolled out slowly as part of a limited pilot program to test how well it works with smart speakers and smart displays. The Voice Match training feature was updated recently to include phrases so that Assistant could more accurately determine who is issuing commands.

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Popular Alternatives to Direct Deposit | Business News Daily

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For many years, the only people who needed an alternative to direct deposit were those who had limited access to traditional banking services. This is no longer the case. The demand for alternatives to direct deposit is on the rise across all sectors of the economy. Many businesses are now expected to offer various methods of payment to their workers.

If you’re a business owner searching for checking account alternatives for your employees, you’re not alone. Here are a few solutions we’ve seen gain the most traction recently.

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10 Ways to Find Your Focus When You’re Stressed Out | Life Hack

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How do you focus when you’re stressed? The truth is, you don’t.

You know what anxiety is like: Your mind can’t stick to any one topic for more than a few seconds. You shift restlessly, as if settling your body might also settle your thoughts.

Stress short-circuits the mind in all sorts of ways. Before you can learn how to focus when stressed, you need to understand what’s going on in your brain.

Why We Lose Focus When Stressed

When you experience stress — whether the cause is a tiger chasing you or a snarky comment by a co-worker — a chain reaction happens in your brain. Harvard Medical School lays this out in detail, but what’s important is understanding how an emotion can trigger a fight-or-flight response[1].

Changes begin in the amygdala, a brain area that is responsible for processing emotions. The amygdala then contacts the hypothalamus, which acts as the brain’s command center. From there, the hypothalamus spreads stress signals throughout the nervous system.

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Did Your Business Receive a PPP Loan from the SBA? Here’s How to Handle Potential Press Inquiries | AllBusiness.com

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The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has provided billions of dollars in loans to millions of small businesses. Most of the recipients received relatively small loans (average size of $80,000 for the second tranche of loans), but there are a significant number of recipients who received $1 million or more, and 40,000 businesses received $2 million or more.

However, while the program clearly allows businesses with up to 500 employees to take out loans of up to $10 million, Congress and the Administration are rethinking that, and are promising to examine and audit those companies that have received more than $2 million in PPP loans. In addition to that scrutiny, however, the press is actively pursuing companies that have received loans of $1 million or more, often “naming and shaming” them and pressuring them to return their PPP funds.

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Communication Overload Impacts Employee Performance | Small Business Trends

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How Communication Overload Affects Employee Performance

GuideSpark CEO Keith Kitani said in an email to Small Business Trends, “Competition for employee attention is intense, especially when you consider the sheer volume of communications that employees receive every day, so it’s easy for a company’s important communications to get lost in the noise.”

GuideSpark’s survey also found that employees receive about nine emails per day that fall into the category of strategic corporate communications. In most cases, these are the messages you really need to get through and make an impact on your team. But they’re usually mixed in with all the other, less important messages. And even if they do get through, employees end up wasting tons of time sifting through their inbox daily to make sure those important communications get addressed.

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What Is a Public Cloud? | Business News Daily

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The most recognizable form of cloud technology are public clouds, which allow consumers to remotely access a large virtual environment of stored and sharable files. The data stored in a public cloud can be accessed by people around the world.

If you have ever watched a movie on Netflix or participated in a conference on Zoom, you have utilized the availability of a public cloud.

Although the concept of public clouds and private clouds are similar, there are several differences between the two, but the primary difference is that a public cloud is available over the internet, while a private cloud is deployed through a firewall.

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