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.

What Advertisers Are Getting Wrong About Programmatic | Adweek

October 7, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Specs

Current gig Vp of strategy at TubeMogul

Previous gig Head of technology at Ikon Communications

Age 35

Adweek: Describe your role as vp of strategy

Phil Cowlishaw: It’s a little bit like Navy SEALs. I take a high view of our most important strategic accounts and then deep dive into them to get a deep understanding of exactly what business drivers will make a difference for them and then how TubeMogul, the platform, can deliver this. My job is to lead a team that helps these accounts, to truly align their business models with our software features. At the end of the day, it’s ultimately helping them get the most value out of our platform. It’s really about how they can pull the triggers inside of our platform to shift more product or brand awareness.

What clients have you been working with?

L’Oréal USA, Jose Cuervo, Mondelez, Allstate, Heineken, Quiznos, Hotels.com and Lenovo.

What trends do you see emerging in digital advertising?

There’s an increased interest in this space on the brand side. We’re seeing brands trying to understand exactly what programmatic is and how it could potentially help their business. We’re seeing a significant shift into the programmatic space and a drive and adoption by big brand advertisers and their agencies to try and understand the power of programmatic, especially in online video, and how it can drive business results.

Community Features Local Resources | Peter Mehit

October 6, 2015October 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Community Page

Does Everyone Have a Look-Alike? | Live Science

October 2, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We’ve all done a double take when mistaking a random person on the street for someone we know or know of, like the celebrity look-alikes Will Ferrell and Chad Smith — the actor and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer, respectively.

But does everyone have a doppelganger? There’s a fairly decent chance of it, actually, thanks to the limited number of genes that influence facial features.