The 4 Things Employees Want Most From a Job Cost Nothing | Entrepreneur

December 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Attaining, training and retaining top talent isn’t easy, especially in today’s information age when immediate feedback and an over-stimulation (in the electronic sense) lead the way. Convincing a new prospect requires not only charm, charisma, and influence but also tangible and intangible rewards that people can expect to receive upon joining the workforce.

The 2015 list of best companies to work for is out, and it includes behemoths such as Google and The Boston Consulting Group ( consulting firm? Seriously?). What is the secret sauce that make people love their place of work? After all, the life of a consultant isn’t exactly awesome (I was one).

These New Google Shopping Updates May Affect You | Small Biz Trends

December 10, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If your small business regularly sells products via Google Shopping, a new reorganization of the company’s policies is on he way.

Though the company insists the new policies are mostly a simplification of the way merchants currently do business.

However, Google also insists those using the service do review the changes to make sure noting is missed when the new policy takes over.

Google’s Shopping Policy Center will be updated come February 2016.

7 Networking Hacks to Connect Better at Your Next Conference | Page19

December 10, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Whether you have a job that entails regular conferences or you’re a freelancer who gets to work like a hermit, you’ll probably need to network at some point in your life. Here’s how to do it so everyone you touch gains from the experience.

It’s an indisputable fact that personal contacts open doors. One classic study, outlined in the book Getting a Job, showed that among the 282 men surveyed, 56 percent had found their jobs through personal contacts, whereas only 19 percent had found theirs through job advertisements and 10 percent through applications of their own initiative.

Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy | The Simple Dollar

December 9, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The core principles of personal finance success are really, really simple. Spend less than you earn. Find smart ways to cut spending, especially on big stuff. Invest the extra money, first in an emergency fund, then into paying off debt, then into diversified investments. That’s really it – everything else is just nuance.

The thing is, you can say something very similar about other life changes. For example, the core principles of physical health success are really, really simple. If you’re wanting to lose weight, eat fewer calories than you burn. Exercise allows you to burn more calories and makes day-to-day physical activity easier. That’s pretty much it – everything else is just nuance.

But here’s the thing. 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. More than two thirds of Americans are overweight.

The truth is that just because things are simple doesn’t mean that they are easy to achieve. If simple meant easy, then we’d all be millionaires and at a perfect healthy weight.

Simple just doesn’t mean easy.

74 Years Later, Sunken Pearl Harbor Plane Still Filled with Mystery | Live Science

December 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A ghostly, sea-life-encrusted airplane that has been resting at the bottom of Oahu’s Kāne‛ohe Bay for three-quarters of a century was recently photographed underwater by archaeologists in Hawaii.

The U.S. Navy plane, a Catalina PBY-5 “flying boat,” went down during the first few minutes of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Just before bombing the Pearl Harbor naval base, Japanese planes dropped bombs on the nearby Naval Air Station on the east coast of Oahu. The recently photographed plane was one of 27 Catalina PBY planes to be destroyed in that preliminary attack.

The Beginner’s Guide to the Hashtag | Mashable

December 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you’re a social media novice, hashtags — those short links preceded by the pound sign (#) — may seem confusing and unnecessary. But they are integral to the way we communicate online, and it’s important to know how to use them (even though some people, like Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake, are not the biggest fans). Plus, they can be a lot of fun.

On Twitter, the pound sign (or hash) turns any word or group of words that directly follow it into a searchable link. This allows you to organize content and track discussion topics based on those keywords. So, if you wanted to post about the Breaking Bad finale, you would include #BreakingBad in your tweet to join the conversation. Click on a hashtag to see all the posts that mention the subject in real time.

Preferential Treatment? Bosses Must Find Middle Ground | Business News Daily

December 7, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Although business leaders shouldn’t treat all their employees the same, they shouldn’t show too much favoritism to their best workers either, new research finds.

Treating some team members much better, or worse, than others can adversely affect a team’s performance. However, treating everyone the same can also harm performance, found a study recently published online in the journal Personnel Psychology. Researchers said the key is finding a middle ground.

The Real Obstacle To Becoming A VC Is Financial, Not Gender, Inequality | TechCrunch

December 4, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Start your own venture firm. That’s the advice that one of the industry’s first female VCs, Kathryn Gould, gave to other women, and it came to mind yesterday as I watched an interview given to journalist Emily Chang this week by longtime Sequoia Capital investor Michael Moritz.

Chang asked Moritz about Sequoia’s responsibility to hire women, as Sequoia has no female investment partners on its U.S. investment team.

Adjusting his collar uncomfortably, Moritz said he’d like to think that the firm is “blind to somebody’s sex, to their religion, to their background.” He added that there is, in his view, a pipeline problem to explain the dearth of women at Sequoia. “I think the issue begins in our high schools, and where women particularly in America and also in Europe, tend to elect not to study the sciences when they’re 11 or 12. So suddenly the hiring pool is much smaller.”

Until Death Do Us Part: Will Your Business Die With You? | All Business

December 4, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

What is the value of your company without you? If you are a sole proprietor or partner in a fairly small or family-owned business, you can be sure that a great part of your enterprise’s value is what you bring with you to work every day.

Your company’s worth hinges on your knowledge, connections, experience, and reputation. This means that many people, including your employees, customers, and family members, depend upon you.

Since most companies are not completely liquid investments, it is likely that without you, these dependents would need some cash to fill the void.