Category: Tools and Information

How Smart People Deal With People They Don’t Like | Life Hack

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In a perfect world, each person we interact with would be nice, kind, considerate, mindful, generous, and more. They would get our jokes and we would get theirs. We would all thrive in a convivial atmosphere where no one was ever cross, upset, or maligned.

However, we don’t live in a perfect world. Some people drive us crazy, and we (admittedly) drive a few mad as well. Those we dislike are inconsiderate, rushed, malign our character, question our motives, or just don’t get our jokes at all — but expect us to laugh at all theirs.

You might wonder whether it is possible to be fair to someone who ruffles you all the time, or someone you’d rather avoid eating lunch with. You might wonder if you should learn to like every person you meet.

Source: How Smart People Deal With People They Don’t Like

5 Ways Museums Are Using Technology for New Experiences | ABC News

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Museums are always looking for ways to make their exhibitions more exciting. Now, new technologies are making that easier.

From 3-D scanning and 3-D printing, to virtual reality and special apps, these technologies are being applied in a multitude of ways. Still other technologies are being tested and developed as museums seek to ever broaden public access.

“Where we used to have one way of visiting and experiencing a museum, people now expect a variety of ways,” said Catherine Devine, chief digital officer at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. “It’s about exploring technologies.”

A look at some of the ways museums are integrating and developing technologies to engage their audiences:

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4 Surprising Words That Should Define Your Digital Strategy in 2017 | Adweek

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The tree-decorating selfies have inundated Instagram, you’re receiving multiple festive discount emails each day, and you’re already having flashbacks to office holiday parties from years past.

That’s right, it’s the end of the year for marketers, and that means it’s time to look ahead to what trends, obstacles and issues we can expect in the coming year.

Instead of pointing you to some of the more popular acronyms of late—IOT, OTT, VR, AR, AI, etc.—I’ve instead boiled it down to four deceptively simple words that should help you focus your digital strategy in 2017.

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Facing the Inevitable: When Business Bankruptcy May Be Your Only Option | AllBusiness.com

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Bankruptcy was a big topic in this year’s presidential campaign. With President-elect Trump previously filing for bankruptcy protection, the topic has probably never before received so much attention.

As much as I don’t want to admit it, I have personal experience with bankruptcy. A failed business, regardless of the reasons, can often leave you in a position where you have no other choice. While most of the advice I write about is on starting a business, I thought it would be a great time to talk about what to do when your business is failing. Keep in mind that being broke is not always a reason to close your business. In fact, that is why there are numerous options afforded to you as a debtor.

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What to Consider Before Buying a Company Car for Your Startup | The Startup Magazine

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Maybe you need a transportation van to make home deliveries. Maybe you want a souped-up truck to carry all your tools and equipment from home to work. Whatever your reason for considering buying a company car, you should take a breath and consider whether you’ve thought the decision through.

A company car ― just like a personal car ― is a significant expense, and if it doesn’t provide any additional value to the business, it might be the cause of your business’s downfall. Especially in new and relatively unproven businesses like startups, such an expense could bleed your business checking account dry before you know it.

Here are a few considerations you should make before you make any trips to the auto dealership for your startup’s first car.

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Choosing a Digital Copier for Your Business | Business News Daily

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If you’re looking for a new copier for your business, you’ll want to make sure you consider whether a digital copier is right for you.

Though analog copiers are still available on the used market, the bulk of copier sales now belong to digital models. Often multifunctional in scope, digital copiers are all-in-one office suites, capable of scanning, copying, printing (via network connectivity), faxing, downloading and emailing.

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19 Wellness Program Ideas for Your Company | Getentrepreneurial.com

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As an employer, you need your company and its workers to be productive. Keeping staff motivated, engaged, and happy on the job is hard enough—but when you factor in the many health conditions affecting the United States, balancing the challenge of keeping everyone healthy and happy so they can work (and you can save money) can feel overwhelming. Obesity and related chronic diseases are very costly to employers averaging $93 billion per year in health insurance claims. Many of these conditions are strongly linked to factors that include smoking, inadequate exercise and poor dietary choices—all of which can be modified with the help of company wellness programs.

Tips for successful wellness programs

Workplace wellness programs can help offset some of these challenges. After all, what’s more fun than competing against your friends and co-workers for bragging rights and fitting in to a smaller pair of jeans? For the best possible buy-in, allow your employees to have a say or suggest programs they would like to participate in. Send around a survey or list of some ideas and ask them for their own. Regular and short term programs. Activities that have a quick duration (usually no longer than a month) will help employees stay motivated and focused on the goal ahead. At the end of the challenge period, offer a prize for their efforts. Just make sure it’s something healthy and beneficial, not something that would set them back.

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84 Percent of Online Customers Trust Online Reviews, New Survey Says | Small Biz Trends

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Here’s a good reason to pay extra attention to your online reputation.

According to a new survey, 84 percent of customers trust online reviews as a personal recommendation.

Customers Trust Online Reviews

Online Reviews Matter

What’s more, 74 percent of online customers say positive reviews make them trust a local business more.

These astonishing insights have come from the Annual BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2016. For the survey, BrightLocal interviewed 1,062 people.

Among other things, the survey has revealed 54 percent of people visit a website after reading positive reviews about it. In other words, a positive word of mouth can help you draw potential customers to your site.

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Four Reasons You Hate Networking And What To Do Instead | Fast Company

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If you’re a normal professional, you may just feel at least a smidge of apprehension or resentment when it comes time to drag yourself to (or get dragged to) a professional networking event. Sure, sure, the crab puffs might be killer, but there are so many things to not love about these shindigs that I’d be here for hours if I tried to highlight each one.

Because that doesn’t sound fun for either of us, let’s start with four common reasons why you don’t enjoy them—even when you know (or suspect) they’re important to attend. And then let’s find a better option for every stinking one of them.

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Disrupt or be Disrupted | Duct Tape Marketing

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In a few short years much of what you do, make, fix, sell, and ship, won’t mean much to anyone. In fact, there’s a pretty good chance that if you stay put doing whatever it is your business does right now – you’ll be out of business.

If you want to survive, let alone thrive, you must tap new trends and produce new ideas at an accelerating rate.

Robots, artificial intelligence, and technology built on top of the internet will continue to threaten the very fabric of what most business (and jobs) are set up to do today. If I’m to be totally honest, it will wipe most business and jobs as we know them today completely away.

No one was a social media manager, app developer, or drone operator (there are 70,000 of these now) ten years ago.

And in ten years there will be very few cashiers, travel agents, and social media managers (coming full circle on this one pretty quickly).

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