The Incentives That Really Motivate Your Employees | Inc.com

April 15, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“You never say thank you,” young advertising copywriter Peggy Olson complains to her boss, Don Draper.

“That’s what the money is for!” he retorts.

This exchange from TV’s Mad Men perfectly captures one of the enduring challenges of the workplace: sometimes managers and employees have vastly different notions of which incentives really matter.

I would argue that-including in the case of Peggy and Don-there is a generational component to such differences. Don, a child of the Great Depression and a Korean War veteran, is a classic Traditionalist (the generation born in the 1920s and 1930s) for whom work is a transaction. As he says earlier in this exchange, “I give you money, you give me ideas.”

Infographic: Millennial, Gen X and Baby Boomer Device Preferences | Adweek

April 14, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Each generation uses digital differently to consume content and shop for products and services, and marketers need to understand these differences to target their desired audiences on the devices they are most likely to be using.

Millward Brown Digital surveyed more than 1,000 consumers in three generations (millennials, born after 1980; Generation X, born 1965-1980; and boomers, born from 1946-1964) to see how different age groups favored different screens for various activities.

“What the data demonstrates is that even with our advanced knowledge of digital today, advertisers and marketers can’t make assumptions about how various demographics and targets are using digital devices and mobile to access content,” said Joline McGoldrick, research director at Millward Brown Digital. “It is easy to stereotype and say the best way to reach millennials is on mobile, but that is not always true. As the analysis shows, device usage varies from generation to generation based upon what the activity is. There needs to be a more granular understanding of how activity and type of content dictates preferences for screen usage in order to make a truly effective and efficient marketing strategy.”

5 Benefits of Switching to a Paperless Office | BusinessTips.com

April 10, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you’ve been to a thrift store recently, you might have noticed a surplus of briefcases. Lots of people are getting rid of briefcases because they’re relics of a time before laptops, iPads, and smartphones ruled the workplace.

Briefcases made sense in the era when you hauled dozens of papers to work each day, but that era is over. So why hasn’t your business made the shift away from paper? There are dozens of benefits of a paperless office. Here are five of the most important:

1. You’ll diminish your environmental impact. A single sheet of paper might seem innocuous, but its production requires an incredible amount of energy. The papermaking process is resource-intensive. After trees are harvested — usually by machine — they’re taken to a factory and transformed into paper through a process involving harmful chemicals. The resulting paper is then bundled and transported to the front door of your office. Then it ends up in a recycling bin after it jams your printer.

Why the middle class is still getting snared by the ‘wealth tax’ | Money Cnn

April 9, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You may vaguely recall that in 2012 Congress “fixed” the Alternative Minimum Tax — or what the Tax Policy Center dubbed “the epitome of pointless complexity.”

But that doesn’t mean the so-called “wealth tax” was simplified or eliminated.

The AMT is still alive and complicated. What lawmakers did was permanently tie the amount of income exempted from the AMT to inflation.

Those income levels, however, are still fairly low ($52,800 for singles this year; $82,100 for married couples filing jointly).

And the set of rules that governs what can and can’t be deducted under the AMT means it’s still hitting a fair number of people for whom it was never intended — those in the middle class and upper middle class.

The Stupid Loop: Why Your Stupid Idea Could Become The Next Big Thing | Page19

April 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Next time a friend labels your idea as stupid, don’t be so quick to listen! Your “stupidest” idea might also be your most genius. If someone writes you off, remember these tips from Richie Norton’s new book.

Think back to that one time you had an amazing idea and couldn’t wait to spill the details to your friends. When you finally did it, their reactions were…not what you’d hoped for. Just as quickly as you formulated your brilliant plan, they shot it down and crushed it into a million tiny pieces.

Here’s the truth: you shouldn’t take their opinions to heart. Why? Because some of the world’s leading innovations and companies have begun from a seemingly stupid idea.

Co-Working Spaces: What Small Businesses Should Consider | Business News Daily

April 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For some startup founders, working from home or out of someone’s living room is fine when you’re first getting off the ground. Eventually, though, most companies graduate to an official headquarters where their employees can report every day.

When you’re ready to take this step, you may be intimidated by the prospect of finding and leasing office space. Good commercial real estate can be difficult to find, and it’s even harder to find something in an affordable price range if your business is strapped for cash. One alternative is a co-working space, a shared office where multiple businesses all work together under the same roof at a lower cost than that of a traditional office lease.

Co-working spaces aren’t right for everyone. If you value privacy for your business and would like the ability to design and change your own office layout at will, a traditional office-space lease might be a better choice. But if you don’t mind having neighbors and sharing resources like Wi-Fi, bathrooms and kitchens with other businesses, co-working can be a cost-effective, beneficial option for growing companies.

12 Industries to Keep An Eye On | Small Biz Trends

April 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As technology evolves and startups jump on these advancements, a few industries are fundamentally changing. And as these industries push forward, they create even greater advancements of their tech.

Curious what market sector is most likely to be disrupted in the next few years, we asked a group of startup founders the following question:

“What industry do you believe is going to have the biggest advancements in technology in the next five years, and why?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

Is Your Small Business at Risk for a Cyber Attack? | All Business

April 7, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Cybersecurity is in the news lately, with President Obama recently proposing legislation that would set federal standards for notifying consumers about data breaches. Consumers aren’t the only ones worried about a cyber attack: Small business owners, too, are concerned, says a recent report from the National Small Business Association (NSBA).

More than nine out of 10 small business owners in the study cited cybersecurity as a concern. This is not an unfounded fear: Half of them report they’ve already suffered a cyber attack, with 61 percent of those attacks taking place in the last 12 months.

What happened to these entrepreneurs as a result of the attack? A service interruption was the most common problem, followed by the business website going down. In addition, 19 percent had either their business credit cards or bank account hacked.

The cost of cyber attacks is also on the rise. In 2014 the average cyber attack cost a small business $20,752, a substantial increase from the average of $8,699 an attack cost businesses in 2013.

Why We Give Great Advice To Others But Can’t Take it Ourselves | Forbes

April 7, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We’ve all had friends in toxic relationships that came to us for advice. As a third-party observer, we generally have a decent perspective from which to give our thoughts. But many of us have also been that friend—the person in the toxic relationship. In those situations, it’s much harder to give ourselves good advice. At least, it’s much harder to do what we know we should. Why is that? Why are we capable of giving reasonable advice to others but struggle to apply good advice in our own lives?

My colleague Ethan Kross and I ran a series of studies using Qualtrics to answer that very question. Our research disproved long-standing philosophical claims that wisdom comes solely through age and experience. As it turns out, looking at our own situations from an outsider’s perspective can help us channel the wisdom we need to make good choices for ourselves.

The Rationale Behind Soaring App Development Prices | TechCrunch

April 6, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

During the last quarter of 2014, we were approached by a funded startup based in Boston to identify an app development company to build an app for their European launch. The skill sets were quite niche, and the yearly spend would cross $100K, so we had to approach platform evangelists to identify some development studios that they’d recommend based on first-hand experience.

We picked the Australia and Indonesia markets because we knew we had to provide some choice at both ends of the spectrum, and the startup had an Australian connection.

The platform company’s Australian and Singaporean offices recommended their preferred teams in the above markets, based on first-hand experience of launching some very popular apps. While we did expect price differences for comparable quality, we did not expect a 15x difference between geographically close markets with identical skills.