Today (May 7), marks the 150th anniversary of one of Alfred Nobel’s patents for dynamite, which was first patented in 1867.
The explosive forever reshaped the world, revolutionizing warfare and construction, to the lifelong chagrin of its inventor Nobel. From its origins to its use in modern warfare to its eventual fate, here are some facts about the explosive.
Customers love Trader Joe’s because of its relatively low prices.
During a recent trip to a Trader Joe’s location in New York City, the cheapest available ground beef cost $4.99 a pound, compared with $9.99 at a New York Whole Foods location, which was selling only organic. The lowest price for a liter of extra-virgin olive oil was $6.99 at Trader Joe’s, compared with $9.99 for the same size at Whole Foods.
Consumers view Trader Joe’s as high quality but inexpensive. How can Trader Joe’s afford to keep its prices so low?
Think back to the best shopping experience you ever had. Chances are it involved a well-informed and upbeat salesperson who engaged with you, asked about your needs and guided you through the purchase. You left knowing you made the right decision.
This kind of conversation-driven sale—high on empathy and knowledge, low on price and haggling—has long been a staple of successful retail loyalty. It focuses on understanding the needs of consumers and delivering an exceptional experience. But in today’s continually upended shopping environment, that conversation between seller and buyer is as likely to take place with an AI-driven bot as it is with a friendly associate.
Welcome to the age of conversational commerce.
In today’s über-connected world, people are increasingly incentivized to take accountability for their health. With wearable devices tracking everything from sleep cycles to heart rates to steps taken, friends and family members hold each other accountable to healthy goals. For example, “My Fitness Pal” notifies me each time my friend walks her dog, and the app prompts me to congratulate her. And my sister can view the number of steps her husband takes each day via their connected Fitbit apps. She can intervene when he isn’t being as active as he should.
It is critical to keep your company’s 401(k) plan in compliance with numerous federal laws and regulations. Plans that are found to be in violation risk expensive penalties and disqualification.
The IRS recently issued this list of 11 potential errors:
1. Has your 401(k) plan document been updated within the past few years to reflect recent law changes?
2. Are the plan’s operations based on the terms of the plan document?
3. Is the plan’s definition of compensation for all deferrals and allocations used correctly?
There can be a lot of great benefits from having a notebook, especially if you are a journaling fanatic. When you are able to write down all of your observations and creative inspirations, it is a truly wonderful thing. But, what is it that makes a pocket notebook so great? What you will find may actually be surprising.
Rich History
A pocket notebook has an incredible history when it comes to list-making. This is a lineage that might not appear to be all that grand but this is a method used by some of human society’s brightest minds. From a camper to an inventor, a police officer to a doctor, or even a graphic designer to the President, a pocket notebook is a way to capture important revelations and deep thoughts. While the use of a pocket notebook may not be as popular as it once was, they are starting to make a comeback in both fashionable and trendy circles. The notebook is there to help you organize, but is also good for an everyday accessory to help reflect upon your personality.
Launching a business in a saturated market can be an overwhelming experience. Depending on the industry you are in, you may have competitors that have high brand equity and those who have existed in the business for several decades. Establishing credibility and trustworthiness in a market overrun by such competitors is no easy task. But it can be done. Here are a few ways a startup entrepreneur can take on competitors with high reputation in a saturated market.
I’ve written about marketing for small business for years and spend enough time with business owners that some might consider me an expert on the topic. In order to ensure I stay on top of trends and provide you with the most current information and tips, I continue to conduct my own research and get as much current data as possible to provide for you. I recently reached out to my friends at Alignable to get a pulse on what the biggest marketing challenges for small businesses are today and today I’d like to share a few of these insights.
More than 75% of the respondents of this survey had 1-5 employees and serve a mix of local, regional, and national customers. 22% of those polled focused solely on B2B, 19% on B2C, and 53% targeting both.
A battered news industry can find some flickers of hope in a survey that gauges public willingness to pay for journalism, as long as its leaders plan judiciously.
A little more than half of American adults regularly pay for news, through newspaper and magazine subscriptions, apps on electronic devices or contributions to public media, according to the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
It’s hard to say an industry is failing when it’s growing seven percent annually, and its ranks have swollen to nearly five professionals to every single journalist, a ratio that’s more than doubled over the past decade.
But when it comes to the current state of the public relations industry, it is.
If you have any doubt, just ask a journalist. Or just follow a few on Twitter and Facebook. You won’t have to wait long to hear them complain about bad practices in the PR industry.
Does that mean PR people are the problem? No. These same reporters will quickly point out specific publicists upon whom they rely and respect.
So what’s the problem?
Dispatches From The Front 