How to Take Back Control of Your PR From Journalists | All Business

September 9, 2016September 8, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I was thinking about this recently: When did we hand the keys over to journalists when it comes to shining the spotlight on our businesses? We now have to jump through hoops, write the perfect pitch letter, and stroke their egos to even be considered worth writing about. And even then, there are no guarantees that we’ll get in print (or digital print, as it were).

So why do we give journalists all our power?

I think we’ve become accustomed to this system where journalists are the despots in charge of granting attention to the companies they deem worthy, and so we write press releases and pitches desperate to fall in their good graces. But the world of marketing and PR has changed drastically, and we no longer need that archaic system. As entrepreneurs, we’re perfectly capable of generating a buzz about our brands without their help.

4 Employee Training Tactics That Actually Work | Business News Daily

September 8, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

One of the most important ways to set a new employee up for success is to train that person well. Every job has a learning curve, and proper training is key to helping employees assimilate their new roles and your company’s culture.

Handing a new employee a pamphlet or a pile of notes may be easy, but it’s not going to help your team members learn how to do their jobs well. Business News Daily asked business leaders to outline a few training methods that help employees stay engaged and motivated throughout the process.

How to Manage Employee Expenses | The Startup Magazine

September 8, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Over the last few years, we have all been shocked and disturbed at the extent of the politician expense scandals. However, it’s not just these high power, high profile individual’s that have been known to abuse the system; it’s reported that 14.5% of business expense reimbursement schemes are abused. In fact, over 4 years The Royal Academy of Music was defrauded of £200,000 by a director.

Employee expenses are often politely described as a ‘headache’ – headache? Let’s try migraine inducing. In all seriousness, they can present themselves as one of the biggest challenges that owners will face.

It’s a fine line, in this era of trust and transparency, where the business hierarchy is removed and employees are all treated with equal respect and responsibility – you may feel pressured to supply your team with company credit cards with revolving credit limits. The bottom line is, don’t succumb to this if you are cautious, especially if you are still in the early days; but with this in mind the process needs to be addressed and formulated into one that is clear and fair; employees are within their rights to claim for genuine business expenses.

Can Tom Selleck Convince Seniors Reverse Mortgages Aren’t Too Good to Be True? | Adweek

September 7, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ 1 Comment

If you were around in 1987, you might remember People magazine naming Tom Selleck the “sexiest man in the world.” You might recall how that famous, mustached face graced the covers of the glossies and tabloids, or how Magnum, P.I.—the CBS series that pulled in up to 18.7 million weekly viewers during its eight-year run—made Selleck among the most recognizable faces in America. Playing an ex-special ops Vietnam vet in the show, Selleck skillfully blended his devilish playboy charm with a smart, hardened, patriotic side. It was an unbeatable combo—and it’s one a company called American Advisors Group is hoping can still work its old magic nearly three decades after Magnum ended.

Selleck, still swarthy and handsome at 71, has continued to play tough, no-nonsense TV characters, most recently Commissioner Frank Reagan on the CBS series Blue Bloods. But Selleck’s latest screen appearance is unlike anything he’s done before. Selleck recently began pitching AAG’s reverse mortgages. (A new spot is scheduled to debut today; watch the first one below.)

Introvert Or Extrovert? Here’s How Losing The Labels Leads To Greater Success | Forbes

September 7, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I’m going to make a bold statement: The majority of articles on how to identify introverts and extroverts are wrong. In my own company (like many others), the greatest members embody the characteristics of both. The classic advice has us mislabeled. So here’s my proposal: Why use these labels at all?

If you were to watch the majority of my leadership team in a meeting, for example, you’d say they’re introverts. They’re neither loud nor gregarious. “Your top sales guy isn’t animated? What’s wrong with him?” people might say. Or, “He’s not extroverted enough to lead.”

Smartphone apps now account for half the time Americans spend online | TechCrunch

September 2, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Here’s a stat that’s sure to worry Google: smartphone applications now account for half the time that U.S. users spend online, up from 41 percent back in July 2014, according to a new report from comScore. And when you add tablet applications into the mix, that figure rises to nearly 60 percent.

The new milestone was achieved this July, the report says, and is a testament to our increasing reliance on native mobile applications to deliver us the information we need, as well as the entertainment and distractions we crave – things we used to turn to the web for, in previous years.

This shift towards apps is exactly why Google has been working to integrate the “web of apps” into its search engine, and to make surfacing the information hidden in apps something its Google Search app is capable of handling.

Current And Up-To-Date Investment Advice | Getentrepreneurial.com

September 1, 2016August 31, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Help with investing is often sought when people wish to dabble in the world of investment for themselves. Firstly, they want to know how the world of investment functions, after which they want advice on what they should invest their time and money into. Here are a few tips to help you out of both points.

Look towards books for solid advice and help

The information you can find in books may help you advance your knowledge a little. The information you read in published books is more likely to be correct, as publishers are often unwilling to invest their money in dubious books of this nature. The information you find in books (especially accredited textbooks) is more likely to be correct than the information you find online or via e-books/Kindle books.

3 Things To Tell Every Customer |Small Biz Trends

September 1, 2016August 31, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Your customer’s or prospect’s attention is extremely important to your business. Let’s look at three statements you should be making and backing up to your customers.

Must Have Customer Communication

1. We Want Your Feedback

At the end of any purchase, project or service with your customer, let them know you want to understand how the customer experience was for them. While it’s great to use many different methods to get your customer’s thoughts post-sale, you will get more feedback by personally letting them know you care about it and want it.

Biofuels Aren’t Nearly As Green As You Thought | Co.Exist

August 31, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Biofuels might not be as clean as you thought, and they certainly aren’t carbon-neutral. The common thinking goes that crops used to make ethanol and biodiesel suck CO2 out of the air and turn it into a gas substitute. Then, when you fill up your car and take it for a spin, all you’re doing is releasing that carbon back into the atmosphere, not generating new emissions.

But for many years, environmentalists and academics have said that biofuels, depending on how they are cultivated and processed, could still lead to plenty of emissions and other environmental impacts. Now new research out of the University of Michigan shows how bad it is: In fact, biofuels might actually be worse, carbon-wise, than fossil fuels, it says.

Amazon Tests Out 30-Hour Work Week | TIME

August 29, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Washington Post reports that Amazon is launching technical teams whose workers will only clock in for 30 hours a week. While plenty of employees at Amazon are part-time, the novelty here is that the teams are entirely made up of workers on a reduced schedule, including managers. The teams’ members will receive the same benefits as full-time employees, and 75% of a 40-hour workers’ pay.

The stated goal of the program is “to create a work environment that is tailored to a reduced schedule and still fosters success and career growth.” The initiative was accompanied by an event last week titled Reinventing the Work-Life Ratio for Tech Talent.

That reference to work-life balance highlights the possibility that that the testing of a lower-intensity schedule comes partly in answer to a damaging 2015 New York Times investigation into Amazon’s work culture. That report depicted the company as a challenging, even merciless place to work.