Category: Tools and Information

The Beginner’s Guide to the Hashtag | Mashable

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.”

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

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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.

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You’re Probably Not Rich Enough to Opt Out of the Internet | WIRED

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LAST MONTH AT the Techonomy conference in Half Moon Bay, California, a group of technologists explored the ethics of developing web services in the age of artificial intelligence. How much do people really understand about the information they’re giving up in return for a service, an audience member asked, and can they choose not to give up that data?

The question was met, at first, with a quizzical silence. Data is the fuel that makes the Internet work. Without it, online services aren’t as personal, or as useful. Then someone on the panel remarked that, of course, a user has to give up data, but it’s her choice. She could choose, instead, to opt out.

But could she? Can anyone?

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4 Reasons Your Business Has Stopped Growing | Inc.com

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Running a company that exclusively serves the small business market has provided me with countless opportunities to get inside the head of small-business owners.

Many of these small-business owners are essentially in the process of launching a startup. They’re bootstrapped, hustling for every dime of revenue and trying to unlock the secrets to consistent growth.

The harsh reality is that a lot of startups launch, have a little success early on, but then simply stop growing. I’ve come across countless business owners who seem to make the same mistakes over and over again when it comes to growth. Here are four to avoid.

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Areas of the Law that Every Start Up Should Be Aware Of | The Startup Magazine

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downloadYou have an innovative, perhaps even ground-breaking idea. Maybe you are also lucky enough to have a co-founder or have secured substantial investment and are about to go ahead with the start-up dream….but STOP. Do you know the legal implications or requirements that you should be taking heed of? Unbelievably, many young businesses move forward founding a business without consulting a solicitor. Simple mistakes that were made in the early days can become the very reason that yours business fails; Peterborough based law firm Taylor Rose offer to cast some light on the shadowy areas of the law that you should be aware of!

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The Science Of Why Scarcity Makes Us More Creative | Co.Exist 

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The rise of mass consumption has driven worldwide economic growth for decades. But does it help our creative growth?

According to a new study, the answer is no. When we stop buying new things, we look at what we already have in new ways and come up with new uses for products we own. In other words, scarcity drives creativity. When we aren’t surrounded with ready-made solutions to problems, we have no trouble coming up with our own.

This finding may surprise precisely nobody working in any artistic field. This make-do-and-mend mentality is the way our grandparents—and in some cases parents—approached the world, ranging from jam-jars used as drinking glasses to cigar-box guitars.

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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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