How to Prevent a Cash Flow Crisis in Your Business | AllBusiness.com

June 11, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Cash flow from operations is still the number-one way that U.S. small and midsize businesses finance growth. But just about every small business runs into situations where the cash just isn’t flowing. When that happens, where do you turn?

Some 37% of U.S. small and midsize businesses in the C2FO Working Capital Outlook Survey 2017 say their need for liquidity increased significantly last year compared to the previous year, while 34% say it increased slightly. All told, nearly three-fourths of small and midsize businesses in the survey have greater need of liquidity than they did in 2016.

What Everyone Ought to Know About Followup with Clients | Small Business Trends

June 11, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Knowing how to follow up with prospects correctly and avoid annoying them at the same time is key. You don’t want your follow-ups to run people away and lead to a missed opportunity so keep these tips in mind.

Include a Time-Sensitive Offer in Your Initial Pitch

I don’t know a single person who loves sending follow-ups. Thus, it’s safe to assume that everyone’s initial intention is to get an answer on the first try and avoid the whole follow up process altogether.

This should always be your goal – to send a thorough, specific, and valuable pitch that prompts the recipient to respond as soon as humanly possible.

To achieve this, consider including a deadline in your initial pitch to create a sense of urgency. If you’re freelance hoping to land a new client, mention that your calendar is filling up quickly and you’re offering a limited time trial discount.

High-Paying Trade Jobs Sit Empty, While High School Grads Line Up For University | NPR

May 11, 2018June 13, 2018 ~ jessicahwang1 ~ Leave a comment

Like most other American high school students, Garret Morgan had it drummed into him constantly: Go to college. Get a bachelor’s degree.

“All through my life it was, ‘if you don’t go to college you’re going to end up on the streets,’ ” Morgan said. “Everybody’s so gung-ho about going to college.”

So he tried it for a while. Then he quit and started training as an ironworker, which is what he is doing on a weekday morning in a nondescript high-ceilinged building with a concrete floor in an industrial park near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

10 Amazing Facts About Animal Sentience | Care2 Causes

February 7, 2018June 13, 2018 ~ jvelezcustombpscom ~ Leave a comment

10 Amazing Facts About Animal Sentience

Evidence of animal sentience is everywhere. Did you know that turkeys like to sing along to their favorite tunes? Or that hens talk to their babies before they are even born? Or that fish feel pain akin to that of mammals? These top ten amazing facts about animal sentience are sure to make you love and respect animals for how incredible they truly are — even more than you already do!

37% of Japanese millennials expect to work till they die | CNN Money

January 5, 2018June 13, 2018 ~ jvelezcustombpscom ~ 2 Comments

37% of Japanese millennials expect to work till they die

Millennials now the largest living generation. If you type “millennials are” into Google, the search engine will suggest you complete the thought with “lazy,” “stupid” or “entitled.”

How to Teach Kids About Money | Gen X Finance

January 2, 2018June 13, 2018 ~ jvelezcustombpscom ~ Leave a comment

Teaching Kids About Money: How to Go About It the Right Way

There are so many things we have to teach our children but one that is often overlooked in today’s world is teaching kids about money. Unless your child has a large trust fund in their name or some other financial windfall heading there way they will need to learn about personal finance. The earlier you start teaching children about financial matters the better. During the most impressionable years of their lives, young people will formulate an opinion about money that will likely stick with them throughout adulthood. With that being said, it’s important to be straightforward with kids. They need to know the value of a dollar and you’re their best teacher.

Filled With Blood And Drugs, These Delivery Drones Are Saving Lives In Africa | Fast Company

August 24, 2017August 24, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Inside a drone delivery center in Rwanda–the first in the world to make medical deliveries at a national scale–staff answered an emergency call in July. A hospital needed blood for a 24-year-old woman who had just given birth by caesarian section. The hospital had transfused her with two units of blood. But she bled out of those units in 10 minutes.

“In that case, that mom is likely to lose her life–not just in the developing world, but even in the U.S. that mom is in a really difficult, dangerous position,” says Keller Rinaudo, CEO of Zipline, the startup that developed and runs the drone network for the Rwandan government, which supplies it with blood and other medical necessities to deliver to its far-flung clinics. “But in this case, the doctors called Zipline, started placing emergency orders, and Zipline basically instantly did delivery after delivery.”

Tax the Rich and the Robots? California’s Thinking About It | WIRED

August 24, 2017August 24, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

DEPENDING ON WHOM you ask, robots and artificial intelligence are either coming to take your job, or you’re perfectly safe, at least for the near future. Truth is, automation always has and always will put people out of work. It’s just that this time around, even highly skilled jobs may be imperiled. And that has some folks dreading a time in which robots and AI upend the human workforce.

Included among those folks is San Francisco supervisor Jane Kim, who Wednesday launched a campaign called the Jobs of the Future Fund to study a statewide “payroll” tax on job-stealing machines. Proceeds from the tax would bankroll things like job retraining, free community college, or perhaps a universal basic income―countermeasures Kim thinks might make a robotic future more bearable for humans.

Outdated Tech Is Costing You More Than You Think | Forbes

August 23, 2017August 23, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been on a tear of work travel for the last month and I really enjoy the opportunity to break up long stretches of flying with a movie to help pass the time. Trouble is, I’m terrible about finding the time to download said movie prior to my trip.

Thankfully, technology has advanced significantly in recent years, making it far easier (and faster) for me to download my movie prior to boarding. Yet, I still seem to find myself in an entertainment pinch because I have become accustomed to technology on-demand and access to high-speed internet wherever I happen to be. I inevitably end up scrambling to find an internet connection at the gate and hoping it’s fast enough for my movie to download before I have to board the plane.

Men Weren’t Doing Pilates. So This Company Changed Its Color Scheme (and Made $27 Million) | Inc.com

August 23, 2017August 23, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You could call Anthony Geisler a fitness maven, but turnaround expert would be even more appropriate.

When Geisler acquired the Club Pilates Franchise in March 2015 (the terms of the deal were not disclosed), it was doing $2.9 million in sales and maintained 30 locations. According to its founder, Allison Beardsley, once the business grew to that level, she recognized that managing it was not her skill set. “I’m totally a visionary birther of new ideas. I’m not a manager of growth,” said Beardsley, who owns three studios in Nevada and is not involved in the business aspects of Club Pilates. “It was no longer lifting up my spirits as a business owner.”