IS TECHNOLOGY SLOWING US DOWN? | BusinessTips.com

April 22, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ 1 Comment

Ways That Technology Might Be Inhibiting Our Efficiency and Solutions to Maximizing its Benefits

Welcome to the Digital Age. Gone are the days of typewriters, Polaroid cameras and rotary phones. Computers, digital cameras and smart phones have not only replaced their prehistoric counterparts in our ever-advancing technological world, but they are seemingly as much a necessity to one’s survival as food and clothing. Why? Simply put, they are the normal means of communication, productivity and solutions in both the corporate world and our personal lives. As technology continues to advance, however so must our understanding of how it all works and how to use it correctly. Failure to utilise technology correctly can negatively impact communication and efficiency. Here are three signs that the technology you are using may actually be slowing you down, and solutions for improvement and maximizing its benefits.

1. Despite the use of technology, your tasks are taking you the same amount of time or sometimes longer to complete.

Keep your inbox empty with one of these four strategies | Mashable

April 21, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

No matter how much time we spend trying to optimize our inbox — from batch checking messages to adding bells and whistles — email takes over our lives. Looking at my stats from last month, I received and processed over 10,000 emails (eek!), so finding the right way to manage all this online correspondence has been critical for my day-to-day sanity.

Turns out, though, the “right way” to manage email depends a lot on your own personal style. I’ve rounded up some of the most popular and successful strategies so that you can decide which one is best for you:

1. LIFO: Last In First Out

This technique is predicated on letting the old stuff deal with itself. It’s the most common way that people deal with their inbox, reading through email top-down (a.k.a., starting with the most recent email received).

This is highly convenient and intuitive, but there are two primary risks of this strategy. The first risk is that you’ll likely end up with inconsistent responsiveness. On days that you have a lot of time to spend on email, you’ll reply to contacts lightning-fast. On days that you’re busy and in meetings, you’ll have messages pile up and get buried under newer emails.

Google shaking up search results on smartphones | LA Times

April 21, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Google is about to change the way its influential search engine recommends websites on smartphones in a shift that’s expected to sway where millions of people shop, eat and find information.

The revised formula, scheduled to be released Tuesday, will favor websites that Google defines as “mobile-friendly.” Websites that don’t fit the description will be demoted in Google’s search results on smartphones while those meeting the criteria will be more likely to appear at the top of the rankings — a prized position that can translate into more visitors and money.

Most 20-Somethings Can’t Answer These 3 Financial Questions. Can You? |Time Money

April 21, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A new study finds that young Americans could use some help when it comes to managing their money.

Just in time for financial literacy month, a new San Diego State University study of young Americans has found that they are lacking when it comes to financial knowledge and behavior.

Out of these three questions measuring basic financial knowledge, the average respondent could answer only 1.8 correctly—and only a quarter got all three right. (Answers are at the bottom of this story.)

(1) Do you think that the following statement is true or false? Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.

Until We Meet Again part 1 | Peter Mehit

April 20, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We all do meetings. We meet to status tasks. We meet to discuss strategy. We meet to make a decision. We meet to avoid making decisions. We…what? Meet to avoid making decisions? Yes, we do that, but that’s a different topic.

Meetings are part of business. They are among the most expensive activities a company can do, yet they aren’t viewed that way. Some simple math may convince you:

Weekly status meeting, 1 hour:

Position Salary with benefits

President $75/hour

V.P. of Operations $55/hour

Operations Manager $45/hour

Team Lead $28/hour

Buyer $25/hour

Cost for one hour meeting: $228/hour

Continue reading “Until We Meet Again part 1 | Peter Mehit” →

Get Better Leads: Improve the Quality of Your Sales Funnel | All Business

April 20, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Ah, leads. They’re your best friend and your worst nightmare. We’ve all wasted time chasing the wrong leads, so it’s understandable that thinking about them would cause some stress. But when they’re the right leads, life is good.

Let’s focus on a few strategies to get better leads into your sales funnel so you spend less time nurturing them to make a purchase.

1. Make Your Offers Irresistible to the Right People

Better leads starts with better targeting through your offer. Whether you’re giving away a whitepaper, a free consultation, or something else of value, make sure first that it’s a killer offer. You want people to jump on it and gladly hand their email address over.

4 Steps to Creating a Killer Marketing Plan Today | Small Biz Trends

April 20, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Marketing is one of the most critical components of your business’s success. You may have a fantastic product or service, but if customers are not aware it exists, there’s no point in continuing the line of work.

In order to make sure your product is exposed to your target customers, you need to develop a robust, killer marketing plan. Once you’ve spent time identifying the four Ps, start adding some elements and details to your strategy. Let’s look at the areas you should focus on when developing your marketing plan.

What Startups Need to Know About Regulation A+ | Business News Daily

April 20, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

After a lengthy holdup in Congress, it’s official: Nation-wide policies allowing any interested person to invest in a business through equity crowdfunding will go into effect this summer.

On March 25, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced its final set of new rules that will make it easier for smaller companies to access investor capital through crowdfunding, and provide investors with more investment choices. These rules, known as “Regulation A+,” update and expand the existing Regulation A, and are mandated by Title IV of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act passed in 2012.

How Online And Offline Communities Are Changing The Way That Businesses Succeed | Forbes

April 17, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The word “community” has grown a great deal in the last decade thanks to the advent of social media. While we’ve always had local communities where we live, we now have online communities large, like the San Francisco Giants’ 2.8 million Facebook fans) and small, like scrappy groups of gamers trying to restore an incomplete game. However, the perspective on what an online and offline community is has grown exponentially.

For example, Assembly is a former YCombinator graduate that has created an online community (even a social network) that can easily turn into a software company. Products as early as a simple idea to fully-established projects can join Assembly and members of the community can follow and even join the company, eventually become owners of the company through any skill they have, including coding, design and product strategy. While it’s become common for social networks to include pages dedicated to companies to follow their projects, Assembly takes it a step further by integrating “followers” into projects so intimately that they’re effectively co-founders. This has led to random followers (as diverse as you’d find on Twitter TWTR -1.96% or Facebook) from all over the world helping them create a diverse portfolio of software projects.

3 Smart Ways to Root Out Your Leadership Weaknesses | Page 19

April 17, 2015April 17, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ 1 Comment

A great leader is always improving and learning. Here’s some top leadership advice for discovering blindspots in your abilities and transforming them into advantages.

It’s hard to address one’s own flaws, but as any great leader knows it’s a necessary step toward improvement. Why? Because most people have developed fixed ways of thinking over the course of their lives. These repeated, flawed patterns drive them into mental ruts and stagnate their progress.

Of course, that probably sounds like the last thing you’d want as a leader. It’s important to identify the blindspots in your conscious way of life that might be holding you back, and use them to unearth deeper opportunities for growth. Here are 3 ideas from Robert Bruce Shaw’s Leadership Blindspots for how to reach your blindspots, discover your weaknesses, and turn them into triumphs.