Coming Next Fall: More Chip and PIN Cards in the U.S. | US News

February 5, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Americans traveling in other parts of the world are sometimes bewildered to discover that their debit or credit cards don’t work at automated kiosks that use new chip and PIN technology rather than magnetic stripes. (The technology is also referred to as EMV, which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, the three card brands that created the chip in Europe and Canada.)

EMV cards have been the standard in Canada, Europe and other parts of the world for several years now, but they’re not as widely used in the U.S. That’s likely to change next October, when liability for fraud shifts from U.S. card issuers to merchants if merchants don’t upgrade their payment terminals to properly accept chip-based cards. (Some smaller merchants may be slow to adopt the new technology if they feel it’s less expensive to assume the fraud risk than update their payment terminals.) President Barack Obama also recently signed an executive order to embed this technology in all government-issued credit and debit cards.

10 People Who Will Destroy Your Business | Entrepreneur

February 5, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you want to build a great business, you have to be very deliberate about whom you let into it.

Emotions and behaviors may circulate through social networks in patterns similar to what’s seen in epidemiological models of the flu virus. Every positive person you let into your life increases your chances of being positive 11 percent, estimated a study published in 2010 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

“Just one sad friend was needed to double an individual’s chance of becoming unhappy,” Wired summarized about the report.

Figuring out whom to avoid and whom to let in won’t always be easy. But with a little practice, you can get really good at staying far away from people who might bring your business down. Here are 10 people (whether employees or clients) you should avoid if you’re starting a business:

5 Simple Steps to Improve Your Business Blog’s Traffic | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

February 4, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Read Other Blogs

The world of blogging involves much more than writing your thoughts down from time to time. The reality is that if you’re not doing some kind of marketing, your blog isn’t going to be that successful. However, marketing can be as simple as reading other blogs and letting the bloggers know that you’ve become part of their community. To do so, read a hand full of blogs every day, making sure to look for the newest post. When you’re done reading the post, make sure to leave a comment. Usually, there will be an option to link back to your website; take advantage of this option!

How This Helps Build Traffic

While the link in your comment will do very little for you by way of click through traffic, the main point of this is to let the other blogger know that you’re following them. After seeing you from here to there, that blogger will recognize you and want to check out your blog. From there, the blogger may love your content enough to link to it occasionally in their posts. These contextual links will lead to high click through rates and better keyword positions in search engines.

Don’t Ask the Experts: The Two Types of Hires You Need More than the “Pros” | Page19

February 4, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Even if you’ve got a team of experts on board, your business is still vulnerable to project plateaus. Hiring the right balance of initiators and sceptics will help keep innovation moving.

When it comes to recruitment, hiring for experience seems like the safest best. But in his book Making Ideas Happen, Behance founder Scott Belsky explains that pros are only a part of a professional dream team. Even if you’ve got experts on board, your business is still vulnerable to project plateau – that dread halfway point at which initial drive has dwindled, the good ideas have been spent, and your league of experts is turning the key in the ignition without moving the project forward.

5 Questions to NEVER Ask in an Employee Feedback Survey | Small Biz Trends

February 3, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Gathering employee feedback is an important part of keeping your team happy. And while there are certain questions or topics you should be sure to cover in each of your employee feedback surveys, others aren’t as helpful. Below is a list of five questions that might present problems during the process of collecting employee feedback.

Are you making enough money?

While it might be helpful to learn how satisfied your employees are with their compensation and benefits, this exact question can present problems. How many people do you know who don’t wish they were making more money? The wording of this question almost ensures that most people will present a negative response. It also could present the idea that your company can afford to give raises to everyone who wishes they could make more money. If that isn’t the case, your employees might feel that you aren’t concerned with their responses or opinions.

Finding the Perfect Location Part 1 | Lydia Mehit

February 2, 2015February 2, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You’re opening a retail business, selling direct to the consumer, and you are looking for a physical location. What are some of the things you need to consider? How do you choose one location over another? Which criteria should weigh heavier? You’ve heard the old saying of: “Location, Location, Location”, but what does that mean, exactly? One of the biggest decisions you make, after the decision to start a business, is where to locate your business.

There are many possible locations for a retail business. You could locate it in a shopping mall, a strip mall, a free standing building, or in a business district. You can lease the space, purchase or sublet it. What you choose can be based on several different factors, so let’s talk about some of those factors.

Continue reading “Finding the Perfect Location Part 1 | Lydia Mehit” →

The BMW i8 Is Over-hyped, but That Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Great: Review | Bloomberg Business

January 30, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“Excuse me, Miss. Excuse me!”

The New York City police officer down on Ludlow Street was tapping my window with the insistence of the law.

“Oh boy,” I thought. “Here we go again.” I had been idling for way too long, talking on the phone in what definitely could not be considered a parking spot—could not even really be considered a loading spot, if I were honest.

I reluctantly rolled down the window.

“Yes, officer?” I asked.

“This is THE BEST looking car I have EVER seen,” he told me, smiling. “The best. Wow.”

I should have known. There had been the couple in a Tesla who smugly pointed out to me that their car is “completely electric” but mine “looked better.” There was the thirtysomething who stared at it longingly as he took 15 minutes to load his wife and toddler into an Audi station wagon at a nearby parking garage. And the dozen or so gawkers who hung their heads like dogs out the windows of taxis and trucks and town cars as they snapped cellphone photos.

This is how it feels to drive a BMW i8.

9 Reasons You Should Never, Ever Start a Business | Allbusiness

January 29, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There’s a lot of content out there telling you to go forth! Start a business! but the truth is, not everyone should start a business. If more of the 80 percent of small businesses that fail had but hesitated and considered why they were getting into business, we’d probably have fewer businesses and more successes in those that did exist. If any of these reasons ring true, you do not need to become an entrepreneur:

Sun Protection App Works, If People Use It | Live Science

January 28, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Want to keep your skin wrinkle free and reduce your risk of skin cancer? A smartphone app can help, according to a pair of new studies. The trick is getting people to actually use the tool.

In two new clinical trials, researchers found that the app, called Solar Cell, encourages people to spend more time in the shade and less time in the midday sun, while also nudging them toward wearing protective, wide-brim hats. But getting people to download and use the app was tough, as it is with many health-related apps, said study leader David Buller, a research director at Klein Buendel, a health communication research organization based in Golden, Colorado.

3 Strategies to Deal Positively with Interruption | Getentrepreneurial

January 28, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Interruptions intrude everywhere into your daily flow: marriage conversations (and other intimate activities if you have children at home), phone conversations, and your work flow.

Research indicates that it takes you anywhere from 10-20 minutes to re-engage fully with the task you abandoned when interrupted. So if you encounter 3 interruptions daily at work, that’s about one hour lost.

So when was the last time you had just 3 interruptions?

More like 33, right?

How well do you deal with these interruptions?

Implement into your work flow these three strategies for positively dealing with interruptions and watch as your sales increase with greater productivity and you get out of the office earlier to do what you love with those you love: