Category: Tools and Information

What to Know When Expanding to a Second Location | Business

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

After your business has seen success, a natural step is to consider expansion. When that expansion includes a possible secondary location, then there are more questions that need to be asked. What do you need to look for in a location, for instance? How much of your time will setting up a new location take? What do you need to know about communicating ideas or processes?

To help you with all of these questions, and others, we asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to share what they think you should keep in mind when considering expanding to a second location. Here is what they said:

Read More

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 Hands-on Review: ECG and LTE | Digital Trends

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Barely six months have passed since Samsung debuted the Galaxy Watch Active, its smartwatch with a more fitness-focused design over the 2018 Galaxy Watch, but there’s already a new entry: The Galaxy Watch Active 2. It’s an iterative upgrade, but there are worthwhile additions that enrich the wearable experience, like two size options for more comfort, a digital rotating bezel for easier navigation, and LTE connectivity so you can leave your phone behind.

But the biggest changes are more subtle. The Watch Active 2 has a host of more sensors for more accurate fitness-tracking data, not to mention an ECG sensor like on the Apple Watch Series 4. It’s shaping up to be a strong contender, all while maintaining a sleek aesthetic and enticing price point at $279.

Read More

Stretch Sensing Tech | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Getting real, physical movements accurately depicted in the digital world remains a challenge for programmers and engineers, but a newly developed glove promises to advance the tech significantly. It’s able to capture hand movements with much more detail and nuance than most existing solutions.

To achieve this, the researchers behind the glove created a silicone compound holding 44 embedded stretch sensors, combining it with a soft fabric layer. The input device requires very little training, and uses a special constructed set of algorithms to process the sensor data coming through from the gloved hand.

Read More

5 Common Mistakes Startups Make in Product Prototyping | The Startup Magazine

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Prototyping is that critical step between concept and mass production. Your product prototype is what will often be used to sell the product to retailers. It is also regularly used to promote your business to investors since it is easier to imagine consumer interest in the item you’re currently holding. The lessons you learn from the prototype shape the processes you use to mass produce it. This is why it is essential to create prototypes and make sure that they’re done right. Here are five common mistakes startups make in the prototyping stage.

Making It Overly Complicated

There are several reasons why an overly complicated prototype or first run product is a mistake. First, the more complex the structure, the harder it is to make. Secondly, the product prototype and your first production runs will cost more at the point when you’re likely strapped for cash. Choose a design that is as simple as possible for your prototype so that you get a working prototype faster and can get a good quality product out at a reasonable price. Once you have the cash flow, you can design a more complex structure and experiment with extra features

Read More

A Mental Toolbox for Avoiding Unnecessary Purchases | The Simple Dollar

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

First, let’s start with looking in detail at how I handle non-essential purchases (things I don’t strictly need).

If I don’t need something and I’m considering buying it, I put it on a list that I keep on my phone. I just type in what it is and add an online link if there’s one available.

Sometimes, if an item isn’t too expensive and I haven’t spent much of my incidental/hobby money for the month, I might just go ahead and buy the item spontaneously. I budget a certain amount for my hobbies and for such purchases each month and so some smaller purchases will come out of that money in a spontaneous way, but that’s the exception rather than the rule. An example of this: recently, I bought a couple bottles of seasoning at Trader Joe’s that we really didn’t need. I just wanted to try them out and they weren’t too expensive. I didn’t add them to any list – I just bought them.

Read More

Self-Parking Garages, Robovans, and More Car News This Week | WIRED

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

TAKE IT FROM us, the experts at WIRED Transportation: When you’re trying to get from A to B, navigational prowess is just as vital as power, speed, or efficiency, if not more so. And this week, we’ve got a lot of stories about folks (and machines) finding their way, whether they’re autonomous cars in parking lots, internet-slinging balloons in the stratosphere, robo-vans moving between Walmart stores, or automakers and California regulators striking a compromise on emissions and electric cars.

Speaking of electrics, we watched Ford’s prototype battery-powered Ford F-150 haul a train, saw Cruise delay its plans to launch a robo-taxi service in San Francisco, and inspected financials from Tesla showing that while deliveries are up, so are losses. It’s been a week—let’s get you caught up.

Read More

The Power of Asking Dumb Questions | Entrepreneur

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The people who work within my organization, Scribe Media, are called Tribe Members. And one day, a new Tribe Member stood in front of our co-founder and dropped two black trash bags on the ground.

Our co-founder looked at the Tribe Member, then down to the trash bags.

“What the hell is this?”

“These are the binders for the Guided Author workshop,” the Tribe Member said. “You asked me to bring them.”

“In trash bags? What are you doing to me?!” These were going to be handed out to workshop attendees. Garbage bags was not the look we were going for.

Read More

The Tale of the Vegan Plumber (and Other Successful Multi-Passionate Entrepreneurs) by Getentrepreneurial.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Got a lot of ideas? Hate the idea of being put in a box? Horrified by the idea of being stuck doing just one thing forever?

Congratulations! You’re a creative person.

And you’re not alone. I’ve spent years working with tens of thousands of creatives, helping them to embrace their unique personalities to find success.

To help you do the same, let’s take a look at the following three areas:

Read More

Bloomengine automates the growing of delicate plants | New Atlas

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It can be challenging, growing delicate plants from seeds. A group of Korean entrepreneurs is out to make the process easier – and techier – with the Wi-Fi-connected, water-pump-equipped and smartphone-controlled Bloomengine.

Users start by placing an included disc-shaped peat pellet in water, and allowing it to expand. That expanded pellet is then put in the bottom section of the Bloomengine, and a seed of the user’s choice is added to the peat. Next, water and an included liquid fertilizer are poured into the device’s built-in 40-oz (1.2-l) reservoir.

Read More

Put these keywords in your YouTube video title if you want more views | Mashable

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A recent study from the Pew Research Center takes a deep dive into some of YouTube’s most popular channels and provides some interesting findings.

According to the study, YouTube videos that mentioned keywords such as “Fortnite” or “prank” in their titles received more than five times as many median views than videos with titles that did not.

Videos that mentioned the video game “Fortnite,” in particular, were found to have the biggest increase in views when compared to others. In fact, 15 percent of all video game uploads from the popular YouTube channels in the study had the word “Fortnite” in its title.

Read More