Beyond Meat’s burger drips canola oil not blood | Money CNN

May 23, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A new burger is about to hit the market. It looks and cooks like it’s made of beef. But there’s one key difference — it’s entirely plant based.

Beyond Meat, which makes meatless products, claims its latest burger is “the closest thing to meat” that it’s ever created.

The Beyond Burger will be available at one Whole Foods in Boulder, Colorado on Monday and at other stores on the East Coast soon.

It’s the result of over seven years of research that the company undertook to “understand meat” and then “rebuild” the burger in a plant-based form.

Deloitte report on peer-to-peer lending |Business Insider

May 23, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Deloitte just trashed the hype around the online lending industry.

The accountancy and consultancy practice has done a deep dive on the online lending industry, and its conclusions should make for devastating reading for anyone connected to the sector.

Deloitte concludes that marketplace lenders, more commonly called peer-to-peer lenders in the UK, “are unlikely to pose a threat to banks in the mass market,” according to Neil Tomlinson, Deloitte’s head of UK banking. The report concludes that the platforms “will not be significant players in terms of overall volume or share.”

Converting Leads Into Customers: Create a Sales Funnel for Your Business | Getentrepreneurial.com

May 20, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The sales process is a long road dotted with pitfalls and junctions that can lead potential customers astray. Sales representatives cannot cover every step of the way, but they can pull together a map, and put visible signs to direct people. Namely, sales funnel prevents the sale pipelines from becoming clogged, which is why many online businesses take advantage of this model. In fact, internet marketing has embraced these techniques as they show great promise in terms of establishing sale relationships with buyers in the long term.

A Sofa That Never Gets Bored | Design Milk

May 20, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The internet of things is no longer limited to well, just the internet. It now includes furniture. In fact, the Lift-Bit (not to confused with Fitbit or other bits), is the “world’s first Internet-of-Things sofa.” First unveiled at this year’s Milan Design Week, the sofa was created by international design and innovation firm Carlo Ratti Associati with help from Vitra.

The Lift-Bit is a modular furniture system that transform from sofa, to chair, to bed, to chaise lounge… to whatever else your creativity dreams up. It consists of a cluster of bright green, upholstered stools which are motorized using a linear actuator. This means that the cushions on the stool can be raised or lowered. Furthermore, it can be controlled through gestures, or of course, a mobile app.

Scotland Will Be Home To The World’s Largest Floating Wind Farm | Co.Exist

May 19, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Offshore wind farms are getting more practical, partly because of a new technology that allows them to float. Scotland, or rather the ocean off Scotland’s coast, will soon become home to the world’s largest installation of the technology.

The Hywind Park will consist of five floating six-megawatt turbines, anchored in water over 330 feet deep, and situated 15-22 miles from land. The project, conceived in 2014 and recently given the go-ahead, has previously been called the “world’s first floating wind farm,” and now is apparently the largest.

Uber teases a first look at its self-driving car | Mashable

May 19, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Get ready, Pittsburgh. Uber’s self-driving car is about to hit the road.

The ride-hailing company announced on Thursday that it will soon begin real-world testing of a car capable of driving without the aid of a human.

It also gave us our first peek at what that might look like:

7 Retail Turnoffs That Send Customers Away Screaming | Small Biz Trends

May 19, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Today’s retail environment is more competitive than ever. With big retail chains launching their own apps, installing the latest technology in their locations and offering an omnichannel shopping experience, small retailers have a lot to keep up with. Fortunately, some of the effective ways to put your retail store on a level playing field with the big boys are also the easiest, according to a new study.

Retail Turnoffs

A recent Harris Poll surveyed U.S. customers to find out what their biggest retail turnoffs are, and the results may surprise you. It seems the basics — such as a clean, well-maintained store — make a huge difference in whether customers will return to a particular store. Overall, “general bad odor” is the biggest retail turnoff, cited by 78 percent of those surveyed. Close behind on the list of retail turnoffs:

Make No Apologies for Marketing Your Business | Entrepreneur

May 18, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I had lunch at my local art museum today — their scallops and black rice are my favorite. As the waiter left our check, he invited us to look at his photography in the museum store. He half apologized, saying that the store manager told him to tell all of his customers that his work is featured in the store. He did not need to apologize. When you are an entrepreneur, you can’t afford to apologize for marketing your work.

How Reposting Old Blog Content Will Boost Your Traffic | HigherVisibility

May 18, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“Content is king” is an adage that has been adopted and practiced by every successful blogger across the web for years. So practiced, that there’s a definite surplus in content. While content continues to flood the internet at an increasing rate, users continue to only consume so much of it. This creates a problem-or opportunity, depending on how you look at it-with blogging strategy. In an attempt to stay at the surface in such a competitive landscape, bloggers are cranking out content at a rate that takes away from the quality of their posts and contributes to the excess information put out there for users.

The effort of content production can be subsidized with reposting old blog content-an effort that can drastically increase your site’s traffic, make useable content readily available for your readers, and make your writing last longer. Content takes time to produce, so you might as well squeeze as much use out of it as you can. Part of doing that means upcycling and reposting old content, specifically the content that has performed well.