Category: Tools and Information

E-tailers: Minimize the Impact of DIM Charges over the Holidays | Get Entrepreneurial

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By now, you are probably aware of the dimensional weight charges implemented by big shipping carriers UPS and FedEx back in January. Under these changes, packages less than 3 cubic feet are subjected to dimensional weight pricing, also referred to as DIM pricing and DIM charges. DIM pricing calculates shipping costs based on a package’s volume— or how much space it occupies— in relation to its weight.

DIM charges, which have been applied to air shipments and larger ground parcels for a while, are now being applied to smaller ground parcels due to the increase in e-commerce sales. The continued popularity of online shopping has led to a steady increase in the volume of packages handled by carriers like UPS and FedEx, resulting in higher operating costs for these carriers. According to Alan Gershenhorn, UPS executive vice president and chief commercial officer, dimensional weight pricing “enables us [UPS] to more appropriately align rates with costs which are influenced by both the size and weight of packages.”

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The 10 Commandments of Marketing from Seth Godin | Page19

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Seth Godin is a household name around the world. His books—on everything from how ideas spread to the post-industrial revolution—have been translated into 35 languages. But you might first have heard of him on his blog, which you can find by simply typing “seth” into Google.

Let’s run that back: you can find Seth Godin’s blog just by typing “seth” into Google, meaning his, of the millions of pages out there, is the first thing to come up in one of the world’s most powerful search engines. Logical conclusion: this guy obviously knows a thing or two about marketing.

But why go with two when you can have 10?

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Tax Scams are Once Again on the Rise | Small Biz Trends

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Tax scammers are again at work and your small businesses could be vulnerable just like other consumers. Authorities insist calls from scammers claiming to be with the Internal Revenue Service are on the rise around the country.

Just in case you are not aware of this tax scam, it works on fear and intimidation by the criminals. They call their victims and leave a menacing message on voice mail stating you have a warrant for your arrest because of a tax violation. When you call the number to find out what it is all about, the ruse continues to play out until they talk you into sending them money.

Here’s what you need to protect your business and yourself.

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25 Inexpensive Secret Santa Gift Ideas for Co-Workers | Business News Daily

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The holiday season is upon us, and that means it’s time to start preparing for the office holiday party. Maybe you’re just looking to spread a little holiday cheer, or maybe your office throws a big Secret Santa gift exchange every year — either way, shopping for your co-workers is not always easy.

If you’re not sure what to get your co-workers this year, don’t worry. Here are 25 fun, unique and totally work-appropriate gifts that your co-workers will love. And the best part? Every item on this list is $20 or less.

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Stop Kidding Yourself About Your Selling | All Business

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All salespeople know how to sell. Sometimes, though, they sell themselves on ideas that just aren’t sound. It’s time to stop kidding yourself about your selling.

Sales Truth #1: Know who is and who is not a true prospect.

Start by being honest with yourself about who is and who is not a true prospect for you. Unless you are going to change something about your product, your process, your delivery, or you, you can expect the same results you’ve gotten in the past.

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Encryption Is Being Scapegoated To Mask The Failures Of Mass Surveillance | TechCrunch

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Well that took no time at all. Intelligence agencies rolled right into the horror and fury in the immediate wake of the latest co-ordinated terror attacks in the French capital on Friday, to launch their latest co-ordinated assault on strong encryption — and on the tech companies creating secure comms services — seeking to scapegoat end-to-end encryption as the enabling layer for extremists to perpetrate mass murder.

There’s no doubt they were waiting for just such an ‘opportune moment’ to redouble their attacks on encryption after recent attempts to lobby for encryption-perforating legislation foundered. (A strategy confirmed by a leaked email sent by the intelligence community’s top lawyer, Robert S. Litt, this August — and subsequently obtained by the Washington Post — in which he anticipated that a “very hostile legislative environment… could turn in the event of a terrorist attack or criminal event where strong encryption can be shown to have hindered law enforcement”. Et voila Paris… )

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Crashes since 11/11/15 Updates in both Outlook 2010 and 2013 when viewing HTML e-mails.

~ CBPS ~ Leave a comment

After dealing with non-stop crashes of my Outlook account, I found this posting.  Disable Update patch KB3097877 and your Outlook will work just fine again.

  • Per subject, was finding that specific e-mail were consistently causing Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 to crash. They were always HTML messages, typically the sort of “on sale” e-mail you get from distributors etc that include a lot of tables, images etc.

    I started by removing the IE11 cumulative update but that didn’t resolve the crashes. I then removed KB3097877 & KB3101746 and I’ve not been able to reproduce the crashes on 2 PC’s since.

    “This security update resolves vulnerabilities in Windows. The most severe of the vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker convinces a user to open a specially crafted document or to go to an untrusted webpage that contains embedded fonts.”

    The patches were only release 10~ hours ago

     

Why You Should Be Fearlessly Authentic | Entrepreneur

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Typically, entertainers travel by limo to the red carpet at awards shows. Granger Smith is not normal. He insisted on traveling to the recent Country Music Awards red carpet in a Chevy Silverado. It’s authentically who he is: Smith has always owned a Silverado and it’s what his “customers” expect from him.

It reminded me of a similar incident 20 years earlier at the ACM awards. Alan Jackson walked the red carpet in jeans and a T-shirt. The show producers told Jackson to “play along” with a pre-recorded track. Jackson disagreed, so he had his drummer play along without drumsticks as a weird way of clueing in his audience. He walked away with the male vocalist of the year award and I would argue his authenticity is precisely why fans love him.

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  3 Positive Strategies to Transform Business Fear | Getentrepreneurial 

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When my younger brother and I went trick-or-treating as kids at Halloween, he was scared of kids dressed as ghosts. When he was very young, he had eye surgery a couple of times.  All of the OR people wore white.  He associated their white dress and the white sheets of “the ghosts” with pain.

Like him, we can associate the ghosts of business pain past with present opportunities.  We often fear stepping up into them because of our past failures.

Here are 3 Positive Strategies to Transform Business Fear so you Work Positive this week:

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