An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Buying Health Insurance | All business

December 8, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Most entrepreneurs are solopreneurs or have less than five employees. This means that you’re not required to buy insurance for employees (obligation begins at 5o full-time employees) and it probably doesn’t make sense for you to have a company plan. In other words, you will be buying your insurance from the individual plan market. Here is a guide to buying health insurance in the age of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Decide Where to Buy

The ACA (often referred to as “Obamacare”) has made it much easier to buy individual health insurance plans by setting up a federal webstore: healthcare.gov. You can browse for plans available in your zip code, compare what they offer, and enroll in a policy of your choosing — all without leaving leaving the website.

Is Your Idea Actually Terrible? What to Know. | Entrepreneur

December 5, 2014January 22, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes, bad ideas happen to good people. We talked to a panel of experts in innovation about what bad ideas have in common to help you recognize them when they happen and figure out your plan of action.

The problem only you have. Just because a solution works for you, it might not work for anyone else or make good business sense, says Jonathan Axelrod, managing director at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator. Don’t assume that your needs are the market’s needs.

The idea you’ll monetize later. Finding a path to profitability is essential in testing the viability of an idea and whether it can find success. Crunch some hard numbers, suggests Greg Grove, an attorney at Chicago’s Much Shelist, and know what the cost to acquire customers will be, when you might break-even, and if it’s not too late to really reap the profits you think are available. After looking at the data, says Grove, “an idea that might initially look good, might be less good than you think.”

5 Tips For Making Time For Yourself Despite Competing Priorities | Forbes

December 5, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

One woman recently asked me, “How do you go to work all day, attend several meetings, then come home and make dinner and tomorrow’s lunch and go to bed early enough to get enough sleep so that you can do it all over again tomorrow? Is there a way to get all of this done – oh, and find time for exercise and meditation as well?” Here are five tips I use to create more time in my day while being bombarded with demands.

1) Just say No

The key to creating more time is to start saying “no” to requests and obligations that you don’t want to fulfill. It’s kind of like cleaning out your closet. At first, you think everything is necessary. But once you begin getting rid of hangers from the dry cleaners and creating more space, you gain momentum. By the time you’re done, it feels great!

3 Ways to Fix Unproductive Meetings That are Costing You Money | Inc.com

December 4, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.” observed American economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

If Galbraith’s quote makes you smile and nod in agreement, you’re not alone.

Meetings are a necessary part of every organization. They are where plans are made, goals are set, and reports are given. They offer the opportunity for dialogue and problem solving, as well as the chance to get to know colleagues better. They can even make people laugh. When conducted well, meetings can help everyone be more productive. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Seven Strategies I Use on Black Friday and Cyber Monday | The Simple Dollar

November 26, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I’ll be honest: since about 2009, I haven’t left the house on Black Friday. Instead, I usually sleep in after a long evening spent eating a big meal and having a few glasses of wine with family members. I do get up and check a few online sales, but I haven’t found anything in a brick-and-mortar store that makes it worthwhile to actually go out there and battle the crowds.

That doesn’t mean I don’t utilize the bargains on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I usually do end up buying an item or two each year based on those sales though they have usually been online buys, but I have a very specific strategy that I use to make this work.

Google’s New Dashboard Shows You All the Devices Accessing Your Account | WIRED

November 25, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Email hacking is a problem that won’t be going away any time soon. But if you’re diligent and take the proper precautions, you can significantly minimize the chances someone bad will be able to get into your account. Google wants to help too. The company has a new tool that lets you easily check when and where your account has been accessed over the last month to make sure nothing unusual is happening.

The Devices and Activity Dashboard lists what devices are connected to your Google Account, along with when and where they’ve been accessed. The list stays up to date for the past 28 days. If a new device recently began accessing your account, “New” is stationed in all caps next to the product listing. The device you’re currently using with your Google account is listed at the top

Moving, Expanding for Love | Getentrepreneurial.com

November 24, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You know how important it is to do what you love. So what do you do when what you love makes you really successful? Do you stay a one-person or one location operation? Of course not. You expand!

Well, it isn’t exactly that easy. Deciding that expanding is a good idea and actually making it happen for your sweet little enterprise is something else entirely. Still, if it’s what you think is best, here are some tips to help you do it.

Look at the Numbers

There’s a difference between doing well and doing well enough to expand. A lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners move too quickly with this. They think that a few months of ending in “the black” means that they are ready to take on the huge expense that is opening another business. Don’t make this mistake! Instead, wait until your business has built up enough of a reserve to keep your current operation afloat for at least a couple of years as well as fund the building, staffing and marketing and running of a new location for the same amount of time–yes, even before you try to talk to a bank about loans.

It’s a good idea to talk to your accountant as soon as you make the decision that you want to grow and expand your location. You can start setting aside funds for expansion. This way you won’t be tempted to spend them building your current location.

iPad Air 2 Full Review: Is It Good for Business? | Business News Daily

November 21, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Thinner, lighter and more powerful than last year’s model, the iPad Air 2 is a tablet that’s hard to beat. It’s the sleekest tablet on the market, and its 9.7-inch display is beautiful to behold. Plus, the addition of Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner gives it a big security boost. But as a work device, Apple’s flagship iPad still has some noteworthy shortcomings — especially with so many great Windows-powered slates to choose from. That bottom line is that the iPad Air 2 is a very good productivity device, but it’s far from perfect.

9 Apps Entrepreneurs Love That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of | All Business

November 21, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Certain apps — from Mailbox to LinkedIn — are a given for entrepreneurs on the go. But with thousands of apps out there, it’s easy to overlook something that could make your life easier or, in some cases, just brighten your day.

With that in mind, we asked nine founders from YEC the following:

Q: What relatively unknown app do you open first thing in the morning to help you start your workday?

1. Slacker Radio

Slacker streams ABC News and is updated every 30 minutes to an hour. I love it; I’ve been using it to listen to news in the morning while getting ready and while walking or taking the bus to the office. NPR One is a new contender, but I still feel Slacker’s stream is more news than audio documentary or interview. – Chuck Reynolds, Levers

10 Steps to Learning Your Customers’ Behaviors | Inc.com

November 19, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In many endeavors, let alone product development, there’s a gap between knowing what’s best and actually doing it.

Gaining behavioral insights about your potential customers usually falls into one of these gaps. The reason? It can be awkward and exceedingly time-consuming observing and recording the behavior of people you’ve never met as they use or struggle to use your product.

“A conversation with a stranger can be a little, well, strange,” writes Jon Kolko, Vice President of Consumer Design at Blackboard and the Founder and Director of Austin Center for Design, in his new book.

But founders, even shy ones, should take heart. For one thing, there are ways to overcome the social challenge of ethnographic research. For another, the insights you’ll gain about your customers’ behaviors will drastically supercede anything you’d learn from focus groups or online surveys.