7 Retail Turnoffs That Send Customers Away Screaming | Small Biz Trends

May 19, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Today’s retail environment is more competitive than ever. With big retail chains launching their own apps, installing the latest technology in their locations and offering an omnichannel shopping experience, small retailers have a lot to keep up with. Fortunately, some of the effective ways to put your retail store on a level playing field with the big boys are also the easiest, according to a new study.

Retail Turnoffs

A recent Harris Poll surveyed U.S. customers to find out what their biggest retail turnoffs are, and the results may surprise you. It seems the basics — such as a clean, well-maintained store — make a huge difference in whether customers will return to a particular store. Overall, “general bad odor” is the biggest retail turnoff, cited by 78 percent of those surveyed. Close behind on the list of retail turnoffs:

How Reposting Old Blog Content Will Boost Your Traffic | HigherVisibility

May 18, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“Content is king” is an adage that has been adopted and practiced by every successful blogger across the web for years. So practiced, that there’s a definite surplus in content. While content continues to flood the internet at an increasing rate, users continue to only consume so much of it. This creates a problem-or opportunity, depending on how you look at it-with blogging strategy. In an attempt to stay at the surface in such a competitive landscape, bloggers are cranking out content at a rate that takes away from the quality of their posts and contributes to the excess information put out there for users.

The effort of content production can be subsidized with reposting old blog content-an effort that can drastically increase your site’s traffic, make useable content readily available for your readers, and make your writing last longer. Content takes time to produce, so you might as well squeeze as much use out of it as you can. Part of doing that means upcycling and reposting old content, specifically the content that has performed well.

Amazon Doesn’t Consider the Race of Its Customers. Should It? | Bloomberg

May 17, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For residents of minority urban neighborhoods, access to Amazon.com’s vast array of products—from Dawn dish soap and Huggies diapers to Samsung flatscreen TVs—can be a godsend. Unlike whiter ZIP codes, these parts of town often lack well-stocked stores and quality supermarkets. White areas get organic grocers and designer boutiques. Black ones get minimarts and dollar stores. People in neighborhoods that retailers avoid must travel farther and sometimes pay more to obtain household necessities. “I don’t have a car, so I love to have stuff delivered,” says Tamara Rasberry, a human resources professional in Washington, D.C., who spends about $2,000 a year on Amazon Prime, the online retailer’s premium service that guarantees two-day delivery of tens of millions of items (along with digital music, e-books, streaming movies, and TV shows) for a yearly $99 membership fee. Rasberry, whose neighborhood of Congress Heights is more than 90 percent black, says shopping on Amazon lets her bypass the poor selection and high prices of nearby shops.

Nobody Saw This Volcano Erupt … Except NASA’s Satellites | Live Science

May 16, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For the first time in 60 years, Mount Sourabaya erupted with a spectacular show of fiery lava — in fact, it erupted twice. But there wasn’t a single human soul who saw the eruptions live; nobody lives on the volcano’s remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean, according to NASA Earth Observatory.

Instead, satellites captured images of the eruptions, which happened on April 24 and May 1, 2016, NASA reported.

Volcanic eruptions in far-flung places, such as the South Atlantic, used to go unnoticed. But the advent of satellites and seismic monitoring has given scientists new insight into volcanic events worldwide, NASA officials said.

Helping Your Best Employees Leave You | Inc.com

May 16, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

One of the things I am most proud of as the 20 year owner of my executive sales firm Corporate Rain International is how many employees and associates have left me to take a leadership role at other companies or to start their own ventures. While I see a multitude of articles written about holding on to great employees, I never see an article about celebrating an employee assuming greater leadership and greater personal growth by leaving.

There should be more discussion of this, particularly in the small business universe. I believe in supporting employee growth and fulfillment even to the point of their leaving your company. I see this as a fundamental step in creating good through-branded culture.

8 Reasons Great Employees Quit (Even Though They Like The Job) | Life Hack

May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There are many reasons why people change jobs. These days, it is uncommon for someone to get a job and stick with it for the rest of their life. There are many opportunities and our lives are filled with diversity and flexibility. However, there are often patterns to why people decide to move on from what seemingly is ideal employment — and it isn’t just about the money or the location.

Here are eight common reasons why someone might quit their job.

How Women Are Leading The Charge In Changing Healthcare | Forbes

May 13, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Just one in seven mental health patients are getting effective care, according to Lyra Health’s Dena Bravata. Could a Match.com-style doctor matching service change that statistic?

“You might prefer someone who’s near your office or speaks Swahili or whatever your preferences are,” Bravata said at the Forbes Women’s Summit, speaking on the New Frontiers in Healthcare panel. You should be able to find that, and her company will help you do it.

Lyra was just one of several healthcare companies touted during the panel as a new look at personalized medicine–one of several helmed by women.

“We’re transforming from a passive patient to an empowered patient,” MedImmune head Bahija Jallal said by way of introduction. And in the new world of patient empowerment, that could mean anything from finding your own doctor to taking on decades of standard healthcare practice.

The You You Never Knew: 7 Surprising Things You Didn’t Know About Yourself | Page19

May 12, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In just three lines of verse, Walt Whitman touches on a critical aspect of what it is to be human: knowing that not only is each one of us a world to ourselves, but that within those worlds lies a bevy of opportunities for surprise.

But when was the last time you actually surprised yourself? After all, it’s easy to get caught up in comforting confirmation biases and pleasant patterns that support what you already know. For this reason, reading self-help books that interest you might not help you learn anything new at all. Alternatively, you could go around and quiz the people in your life about what they’ve observed about you. Unfortunately, this might be less enjoyable for them than it is for you.

The State of Small Business: Michigan | Business News Daily

May 11, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As part of our yearlong project “The State of Small Business,” Business News Daily plans to report on the small business environment in every state in America. In this installment, we asked a few of Michigan’s nearly one million small business owners about the challenges and opportunities of operating in their state. Here’s what they had to say.

It’s no secret that Michigan’s economy took a big hit after the 2008 financial crisis, with the damage centering on the automotive industry in Detroit. But entrepreneurs now report the state is coming back strong. Where prospects once seemed dismal, small businesses are now optimistic for the future.