Google employee lives in a truck in the parking lot | Business Insider

October 20, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When 23-year-old Brandon S. headed from Massachusetts to the Bay Area in mid-May to start work as a software engineer at Google, he opted out of settling into an overpriced San Francisco apartment. Instead, he moved into a 128-square-foot truck.

The idea started to formulate while Brandon — who asked to withhold his last name and photo to maintain his privacy on campus — was interning at Google last summer and living in the cheapest corporate housing offered: two bedrooms and four people for about $65 a night (roughly $2,000 a month), he told Business Insider.

“I realized I was paying an exorbitant amount of money for the apartment I was staying in — and I was almost never home,” he says. “It’s really hard to justify throwing that kind of money away. You’re essentially burning it — you’re not putting equity in anything and you’re not building it up for a future — and that was really hard for me to reconcile.”

2 of the Biggest Myths Surrounding Crowdfunding (Video) | Entrepreneur

October 19, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If the thought of crowdfunding conjures notions of converting untold masses, it might be helpful to envision the process as slightly more personalized.

“The number one myth [about crowdfunding] is the word ‘crowd’ itself,” says Sally Outlaw, CEO of Peerbackers, a consulting firm. “You have to go out there really one-to-one. It comes back down to personal relationships — the success of a campaign.”

For more from Outlaw, including the second-biggest myth surrounding crowdfunding, check out this short video.

See Video

Starting a Business Later in Life? Tips for Older Entrepreneurs | Business News Daily

October 19, 2015October 19, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When is the best time in life to start a business? There’s no “right” answer to this question, of course — every entrepreneur’s experience is different. But based on the seeming abundance of 20-something Silicon Valley startup founders, it’s easy to think that the younger you are, the better off your business will be.

By that same logic, it’s also easy to assume that entrepreneurs who are approaching retirement age may be too out-of-touch with current technology and culture to succeed in the business world. On the other hand, many founders who started their business after age 50 say their decades of experience have been their greatest advantage.

If you’re an older aspiring business owner, don’t assume you missed your chance at entrepreneurial success. Here’s why it pays to jump into the startup game later, and what you can do to make your business flourish.

7 Ways to Deal with Negative Online Customer Reviews | Getentrepreneurial

October 16, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Word of mouth has always been one of the strongest forms of advertising for any business. With the proliferation of online review sites, it is easier than ever for people to go online and rate their experience with your business… good or bad.

Most people admit they’ve been influenced by reviews at one time or another when making a purchase. This underscores the need for every business to take their negative online reviews seriously.

Positive reviews are more common than negative ones but the negative ones can have a disproportionate impact on your business. Here are a few ways that you can handle those occasional bad reviews and possibly even turn them around to your advantage.

Here’s What Living on Half Your Income Really Looks Like | The Simple Dollar

October 13, 2015October 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you ask anyone who plans to retire early what their secret is, they’ll all say the same thing — it’s a high savings rate. To grow their nest eggs quickly enough — and big enough — to say goodbye to the working years ahead of schedule, they have to save as much as they can while they can.

For many would-be early retirees, the plan to get there involves saving 30%, 40%, or even 50% of their pretax income and living on the rest. While that sounds daunting, many individuals and couples are successfully pulling it off while living fairly normal or even luxurious lives. But how?

The first key to a high savings rate is an obvious one: To save a lot, you have to keep your spending levels in check. For most with a high savings rate, that means cooking most meals at home, steering clear of new and expensive housewares and gadgets, and driving old cars until they die — or even biking to work.

Should Your Company Require College Degrees When Hiring? | All Business

October 13, 2015October 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There has been talk about how the global economy has become too obsessed with college for years now. Students enter college, spend four years learning about something with little workplace value, and graduate with mountains of debt and a degree not worth the paper it is printed on.

And now one major British company has decided to really make that degree even less valuable. As the Huffington Post has reported, British accounting firm Ernst & Young has announced it will be removing the degree classification from its entry criteria. The company declared that there is “no evidence” success at university correlates with achievement in later life.

Should other companies follow the example of Ernst & Young, and has the college degree truly become something useless? The answer, like so many things, is “it depends.”

12 Sure Signs You Shouldn’t Trust a Business Partner, Vendor | Small Biz Trends

October 9, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When working with an outside company, there are only so many factors you can control. But based on their behavior, you should know when it’s time to back out.

That’s why we asked 12 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

“What is one warning sign that a deal with a partner or vendor is not going to pan out?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

1. There Are Long Wait Times Between Communications

“I find that when a partner or vendor takes a long time to respond to our calls or emails, it’s not going to work out.

What’s Your Most Productive Work Time? | Business News Daily

October 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you’re like many of today’s office workers, you begin your day between 8 and 9 a.m., end between 5 and 6 p.m., and spend the eight or nine hours in between juggling meetings, conference calls, emails and project deadlines — along with a few trips to the coffee maker to keep you alert and productive.

Sound familiar? If it does, then you probably also know that, despite your best efforts (and caffeine intake), you’re not always at your peak when you’re trudging through the daily stream of work. All 9-to-5ers go through productivity slumps during the workday, and yet they still try to power through and keep working, even if it means substandard output. But why do they do it?

What Your Flaky Behavior Is Really Telling People | Entrepreneur

October 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There are certainly no shortage of reasons — or excuses — as to why you needed to cancel a meeting 30 minutes before it was scheduled, or why you were 20 minutes late for a call or appointment. I know what you’re thinking: “but I was super busy” or “my previous investor meeting went long.”

The reality is you’re going to be judged by your actions, and your actions are saying the wrong things.

Look, I’ve lived in the trenches of startup warfare — actually I’m in them right now while building two companies simultaneously — so I can both honestly and accurately say that I understand that things get crazy. But I must also say that it’s incredibly important to effectively manage your time and schedule, at least if you don’t want to burn dozens of bridges through your journey, which will only make things more difficult in both the short and long runs.