An unpleasant online ad for a house is a surprise hit | Mashable

October 7, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When trying to sell something, you’d put your best foot forward to seal yourself a deal.

Not for home owner Kobie Hughes, who struggled to get interest for her home in the Australian city of Perth with a straight-laced ad. So she decided to do the opposite and make the place sound abhorrent.

While it might appear to be a typical suburban two bedroom home, Hughes has pitched it as a “Financial Black Hole for Rent” on classifieds website Gumtree.

Sign up and you won’t be dealing with landlords, she like prefers the term “Earth Guardians.” It’s an effort to “try and remarket Medina to hippies.”

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Movie theaters hurting the industry | Business Insider

October 7, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings thinks the state of film is a “real tragedy” and that movie theaters are “strangling the movie business,” he said at The New Yorker’s Tech Fest on Friday.

Netflix has long faced off against the giants of the movie theater business, who have largely refused to show Netflix’s original films in theaters because of Netflix’s commitment to making them available to stream on the same day they appear on the big screen.

That could be changing — but only a little bit.

Can We Design An On-Demand Economy That Will Work For Everyone? | Co.Exist

October 6, 2016October 5, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

On weekends, LaNeisha, a 33-year-old in San Francisco, borrows a friend’s car to drive for Uber. When she discovered that she could rent out her closet for $290 through a startup called Roost, she turned it into a storage unit. She finds other gigs on Craiglist. For LaNeisha, who struggled to find work otherwise, it’s a way to survive. But it’s not easy.

A new report looks at the workers of the on-demand economy—from Lyft drivers and EatWith chefs to former McKinsey consultants who now use Catalant to find clients—and argues that we need to redesign platforms and policies so all of those workers can have sustainable livelihoods.

7 Tasks You Do Every Day That Waste Time and Cost Your Business Money | Entrepreneur

October 5, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

No business is 100 percent productive all day, every day. On-site employees will stand by the coffeepot in the morning, discussing last night’s game at length. Remote workers will take a few minutes to let the dog out or have a conversation with a neighbor, who stopped by. Both types of employees will occasionally take long lunch breaks, and check their personal social media accounts throughout the day.

While these small interruptions cut into a business’ bottom line, they aren’t the only productivity thieves companies have. In fact, some of the biggest time-wasters are things leaders themselves ask employees to do. Here are seven tasks employees engage in every day that hurt a business’ bottom line.

What Is Umbrella Insurance – and Do I Need It? | The Simple Dollar

October 5, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Like an umbrella that protects you from the elements on a rainy day, an umbrella insurance policy can shield your personal assets from large liability claims.

Umbrella excess liability protection can help you avoid financial ruin if you’re found to be responsible for legal damages that exceed the limits of your homeowner or auto insurance policies.

“We live in a litigious society,” says Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association. “It’s added protection to have peace of mind, knowing that your personal assets aren’t at risk.”

How to Recover Data from A Broken iPhone or Android Phone | Life Hack

October 4, 2016October 3, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It happens to the best of us, it happens to the worst of us.

If you have a broken phone, a smashed screen or even a phone that went swimming in the toilet, do not worry, my friend, no one is exempt from smartphone damage. There are, however, some good news for you during this difficult time. There is a way for you to recover data from your broken iPhone or Android device. Read on to see how you can do this.

Types of Smartphone Damage

There are two ways in which your mobile phone can suffer damage: software damage and hardware damage. Software damage can occur if your phone is dropped into water (unless you have a water-breathing Sony Xperia), if your phone has not received an update in awhile, or if your OS has been corrupted.

8 Common Signs That Your Boss Is About to Get Fired or Demoted | Inc.com

October 4, 2016October 3, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Gallup CEO Jim Clifton once said in a profound statement,

“The single biggest decision you make in your job — bigger than all the rest — is who you name manager. When you name the wrong person manager, nothing fixes that bad decision. Not compensation, not benefits –nothing.”

In fact, a 2015 Gallup survey of 7,200 adults discovered that about half of them had left a job at some point “to get away from their manager.” Ouch.

Not every manager is cut from the same mold. And some have no business being in a leadership role. If your office is a pressure cooker, fear is palpable, and people are walking on egg shells, look no further than who’s in charge. Their days may be numbered.

New Tech Business Ideas Trends | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

October 3, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

2016 is the year of entrepreneurship, especially for smaller, work-from-home business ideas! And thanks to dozens of fantastic technological innovations in recent years, many of the best new business opportunities are all in tech-related fields. It’s a fast-paced industry that’s changing almost any other field it touches: hotels have lost substantial market share to companies like Airbnb, and Uber has transformed urban transportation.

How can you ride the tech wave to even bigger and better opportunities? We’ve got several picks for new tech business ideas trends which you can capitalize on to begin living the dream of owning your own business.

Cutest Face-Plant Ever? Baby Panda Falls Off Stage | Live Science

October 3, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Roly-poly can be a plus for a giant panda tumbling around in the wild. But on stage with 22 of your cute-and-cuddly kin, the pudge can lead to a spill. And that’s what happened during the public debut of 23 panda cubs that were born this year at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.

As soon as the little furball took a nosedive off the low platform, a staff member scooped him or her up and placed the cub back on the stage. The pile of cuteness on display Thursday (Sept. 29) ranged in age from about 4 months to just 1 month old.

Why Selling Without Sales Goals Is Bad for Sales | All Business

September 30, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The following headline read in The Dallas Morning News: “Wells Fargo says it’s dropping sales goals.” I couldn’t disagree more. Dropping sales goals is bad for sales, for management, and for customers.

You may have read about the problems the bank had in signing up new customers. Newspaper reports discussed an out of control sales culture. Management wanted sales numbers up at any cost; cross selling was the primary strategy. The Wall Street Journal reported that Wells Fargo opened as many as two million deposit and credit-card accounts without customers’ knowledge.

Too many managers set the wrong goals.

It seems that the sales culture was hijacked by a few misguided managers. Yes, the “sell at all costs strategy” is wrong; eliminating sales goals isn’t the solution. The real problem is that the goals that management set were the wrong goals.