2 food cost myths hamstringing food truck recovery | Food Truck Operator

May 7, 2021May 4, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Food costs have been rising on a weekly basis for darn near two decades now. Most food truck operators are quick to attribute their high food cost to these price changes.

On top of that, the echo chamber of the Internet keeps compounding the problem, feeding you bad information like the average food cost should be 34% or TV shows touting a three times markup for food sales.

But these two ideas are myths, especially important for the food truck environment. If you want to lower your food cost, let’s review why moving past these two food cost myths will help you focus on food cost saving ideas for independent owners.

Networking Your Way into Consulting, Even in a Pandemic| Richard Hollenbach III | Management Consulting Connection

May 6, 2021May 4, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You might have a picture-perfect resume. You might satisfy all the basic qualifications. Your credentials might even get past the robotic sorters looking through thousands of resumes for specific “buzz words”. But at the end of the day, if you are just a name on a job application, you might not get invited to that first round interview. So how do you combat this nightmare? Well, a good first step is to improve and expand your network.

Networking involves establishing new connections with others in your field of interest as well as strengthening existing relationships with colleagues, bosses, pupils, and people you briefly met at a conference or meeting. You do not even need to know the person you are trying to connect with, as a mutual contact might be willing to make an introduction. As a result, networking is a varied process occurring in many different forms.

NASA Offers Tips on What to Look Out for in May’s Night Sky | Digital Trends

May 6, 2021May 4, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

NASA has returned with its monthly update on the viewable treats in the night sky during May 2021.

Moon, Saturn, Jupiter triangle

First up, early on Tuesday, May 4, you’ll be able to spot a large triangle formation comprising the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter. With clear skies and a body clock that keeps you awake in the small hours, you’ll be able to spot the formation in the east-southeast, with Saturn rising first at 2:17 a.m. ET. The moon and Jupiter will appear to the lower left of Saturn at around the same time, at 3:01 and 3:02 a.m., respectively, with Jupiter about 10 degrees further to the left of the moon.

Should You Buy or Lease an Office Copier? | business.com

May 5, 2021May 4, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you need a copy machine, you have two options for getting one: You can buy it outright or lease one. Before making a decision, understand the pros and cons of buying versus leasing.

Regardless of the industry your business operates in or its size, there is likely a good chance that paper documents have some sort of role in your business. And while many organizations are making an effort to reduce their paper use to become more eco-friendly, printing a contract, presentation or a simple spreadsheet is something many still need to do. When it’s time to invest in an office copier, which for many these days doubles as an office printer, for your business, a good place to start is assessing the needs of your organization.

Would you prefer to own and maintain your equipment for the long haul, or does it make more sense to pay a steady monthly bill to lease the latest tech with regular updates and scheduled maintenance? There are benefits and drawbacks to either route, and understanding the differences could be critical to how your business operates in the future.

Tips to Understanding the Terms of Online Payday Loans | The Startup Magazine

May 5, 2021May 4, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ 1 Comment

Emergency financial expenses can be a serious drawback to most individuals and families. Very few people can manage to pay such expenses from their pockets without feeling the heat. The reason behind this is because not so many people have a saving culture, and even the few who do not earn enough to cater for their daily expenses and have enough to save. About 61% of families in the United States (US) are not able to pay an unexpected $400 without struggling. It is this lack of insufficient cash flow that pushes people to take an emergency or payday loan to cater for such expenses.

Much as they can assist you to cover those unexpected expenses and give you a short term relief, they can later affect your financial well being and your credit report if you do not understand their terms and conditions. Here are some things you should know about online payday loans to ensure that you choose the right one, and one that you will manage without a lot of pressure.

Why can’t Google get a grip on rip-off ads? | BBC News

May 4, 2021May 3, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Google has failed to stop “shyster” websites advertising on its search engine, despite promising to fix the problem, the BBC has found.

Adverts for unofficial services selling government documents such as travel permits and driving licences are against Google’s own rules.

But the BBC found adverts for expensive third-party sellers every time it searched during a 12-month period.

In a statement Google said it had taken down billions of rule-breaking adverts.

How to Manage the First Day Back in the Office (Hint: No Parties, but Lots of Flexibility) | Inc.com

May 4, 2021May 3, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Many businesses plan to officially reopen their workplaces by the summer. And with so many colleagues meeting in person for the first time in over a year, things are bound to be a little awkward.

“Initially, it was kind of eerie; it was kind of weird,” says Wilbur You, founder and CEO of marketing agency Youtech, a four-time Inc. 5000 honoree that reopened its Scottsdale, Arizona, office last summer and its Naperville, Illinois, headquarters this January. “We’ve never been in a situation like this before.”

Inc. asked CEOs of fast-growing businesses and workplace experts for their thoughts on the best way to execute a safe and equitable return to the office. While each company’s strategy looks different, business owners tend to agree that for now, leaders should listen to employees and stay flexible. Here’s their advice.

Data was the new oil, until the oil caught fire | TechCrunch

May 3, 2021May 2, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We’ve been hearing how “data is the new oil” for more than a decade now, and in certain sectors, it’s a maxim that has more than panned out. From marketing and logistics to finance and product, decision-making is now dominated by data at all levels of most big private orgs (and if it isn’t, I’d be getting a résumé put together, stat).

So it might be a something of a surprise to learn that data, which could transform how we respond to the increasingly deadly disasters that regularly plague us, has been all but absent from much of emergency response this past decade. Far from being a geyser of digital oil, disaster response agencies and private organizations alike have for years tried to swell the scope and scale of the data being inputted into disaster response, with relatively meager results.

35 Years Later, Studies Show a Silver Lining From Chernobyl | WIRED

May 3, 2021May 2, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

ON THIS DAY in 1986, workers ran a safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine. But the test went awry, starting a fire in a reactor and leading to one of the largest nuclear disasters in history. Smoke from the fire and a second explosion launched radioactive elements into the atmosphere, scattering them over the surrounding fields and towns. Now, 35 years later, scientists are still uncovering the extent of the damage and starting to answer questions about the long-term legacy of radiation exposure on power plant workers, the people in the nearby community, and even their family members born years later.

In two papers published Thursday in Science, an international team of researchers took on two very different but important questions. The first paper tracked the effects of radiation on the children of people who were exposed and found that there were no transgenerational mutations that were passed down from those parents. The second focused on thyroid cancer caused by radiation exposure and examined how radiation acts on DNA to cause the growth of cancerous tumors.

President Joe Biden Gave His First Address to Congress. Here Are the Four Takeaways You Need to Know. | Entrepreneur

April 30, 2021April 29, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

President Joe Biden announced a $1.8 trillion plan on Wednesday to help low- and middle-income families. In his first address to Congress, Biden spoke about his American Families Plan that will be funded by taxing America’s richest.

Biden believes that his plan is needed to make a “once in a generation investment in our families and children.” Here are the four takeaways from his speech to a joint session of Congress, according to the Wall Street Journal’s executive Washington editor Gerald Seib.