Is Your Small Business Truly Organized? How to Overcome Challenges | All Business

January 20, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

To effectively run a small business, there are a number of tasks you have to do that are not only necessary, but oftentimes tough to swallow.

Sometimes a small business has to let staff go in order to stay financially afloat. Other businesses cut their advertising and marketing budgets, and then take the chance of missing out on new clients. Still others close their doors altogether because they were not organized enough in the first place.

If any of this sounds scary, it should. Running a small business comes with many challenges, but they can certainly be overcome with smart leadership and a determination to learn from past mistakes.

With that in mind, ask yourself if your small business is truly organized. And if it isn’t, let’s find out how can you better organize it for this year and beyond.

5 Major Benefits of Business Video Conferencing for Your Business in 2016 | Get Entrepreneurial

January 20, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Organizations of any size and every industry are adopting to business video conferencing as a best way to stay connected, increase their productivity and the last but not the least cutting down the costs in these difficult economic times. And as the prices on all these equipment’s drop down and technology tends to become easier especially while using video conferencing, it generally turns out to be the most effective way of communicating with the employees, customers and the sales prospects. Below given are the 7 major benefits business video conferencing for your business in 2016.

Why an Ex-Google Coder Makes Twice as Much Freelancing | Bloomberg Business

January 19, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

James Knight recently made an unorthodox career move for a 27-year-old coder: quitting a well-paid gig writing software for Google to go freelance. No more catered lunches, gold-plated benefits or million-dollar views from the search giant’s Manhattan office.

Knight is willing to sacrifice those perks because as an independent he’s pulling down about twice as much as he did at Google. Plus, he has more freedom. In March, Knight and his wife plan to travel to Spain and hopscotch across Europe—all the while writing code for a dating app and a self-portrait app, among others.

“I’d rather control my own destiny and take on the risk and forgo the benefits of nap pods and food,” Knight says.

How Arby’s Turned Its Brand Around After Years With an Identity Crisis | Adweek

January 19, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Arby’s brand president and marketing boss Rob Lynch realized shortly after joining the fast-food chain famous for those stacked-to-the-ceiling roast beef sandwiches that he had his work cut out for him. Standing at the counter of one of his restaurants one afternoon, Lynch recalls, he overheard a customer remark: “Arby’s makes really big, meaty sandwiches—I wish they had a chicken sandwich.” And yet right there on the menu board were four chicken sandwiches.

Keep your stash: Paper cash is here to stay | The Orange County Register

January 18, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

While paying for that Starbucks latte on Apple Pay and using Venmo to split the restaurant bill with friends, you might be tempted to think paper money is becoming a thing of the past.

But smartphones aside, cash isn’t going away anytime soon, says currency expert Bill Maurer.

A cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on the relationship between currency and technology, Maurer was part of a small group of academics asked by the U.S. Treasury to offer input on the $10 bill redesign. Buzz has surrounded the new bill after news broke that it would feature a prominent female figure.

Maurer, UC Irvine’s dean of social sciences and director of the school’s Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion, had a lot to say on the topic when the group convened in August at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

Withings Made a $100 Thermometer, And You’ll Probably Want To Buy It | WIRED

January 15, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A THERMOMETER IS not a new proposition. Most people own one—likely of the stick-it-under-your-tongue variety—and by many measures, it’s a simple device people rarely think about until they’ve broken out in cold sweats. So it’s strange that this year at CES, amid the drones and smart gadgets of every stripe and still more drones, one of the hottest gadgets at the show was something that reads your temperature.

What Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech Teaches About Powerful Presentations | Inc.com

January 14, 2016January 14, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Say you want to make a powerful presentation to your employees, your board, or your key customers. And say your goal is to share an inspiring vision–and stimulate meaningful change. What speeches should you study to prepare?

For sheer impact, it would be hard to top the “I Have a Dream” speech by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was delivered in the summer of 1963 during the March on Washington, a rally for civil rights and against discrimination. Roughly 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall, in front of the Lincoln Memorial. More than 50 years later, the speech remains potent and moving. What’s more, the speech–along with the entire March on Washington–led to important policy changes, most notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

What Genetically Engineered Animal Will Land On Your Dinner Plate Next? | Co.Exist

January 14, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It took two decades for the first genetically engineered animal to get approved for your dinner. Now that AquAdvantage salmon—with DNA engineered from three species—is moving forward, more genetically modified meat is likely to follow. But it’s not clear how long that will take.

Outside the United States, bacon might be next. Researchers at Seoul National University tweaked a gene in pigs that makes them super-muscly, yielding more pork per giant pig butt. Now, the scientists hope to sell their modified pig sperm to farmers in China, where engineered food can sometimes move to market more quickly.

Tipping Point: Is It Time to Rethink Gratuity in Restaurants? | Entrepreneur

January 12, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

American diners really give it to their servers. In New York City and Los Angeles, tips at independent eateries average 22 percent of the check, a big jump from a generation ago, when 15 percent was the norm, according to restaurateurs. Waiters and bartenders often earn more than $50 an hour.

And that has to stop, say a growing number of restaurant owners. Bottom-line necessity and common sense are uniting small family-owned cafes with the country’s most expensive chef-owned dining rooms in a move to abolish tipping.

4 Unconventional Pieces of Startup Advice from Peter Thiel | Page19

January 11, 2016January 11, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

So: you have a great new idea and you’re on the verge of launching your own business? Off you go! Be warned, though: few startups last more than a few years. What gives? Peter Thiel gives us his take on what’s big when you’re small. This might be a brave new world of enterprise, but traditional business smarts still matter.

This is why it is worth listening to advice from successful founders and entrepreneurs. Certainly, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time is Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and now a prominent venture capitalist. He was the first outsider to invest in Facebook, and he manages Founders Fund’s $2 billion assets.

We read Peter Thiel’s bestselling book, Zero to One, and pulled out its most important tips for new startup founders.