Ready, Steady….NO | Getentrepreneurial.com

March 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I was coaching a group on their presentation to their Senior Leadership Team. It was the end of months of research, weeks of discussion and development, days of practice. Our session began.

The first speaker stood up. She seemed relaxed, she smiled and then began to explain the assignment, telling in great detail what they had been asked to research. Then she spoke about how her team had researched for quite some time before they could even identify their topic. She continued by saying that once they had found their topic, they started looking for new sources for research.

This is all before she had reached slide 2 of her presentation. I was completely disengaged and struggling hard to pay attention at all.

I was exhausted and she hadn’t really started yet!

Stop, stop, please, stop.

Powdered alcohol gets Washington OK | Cnn Money

March 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Soon you can get your hands on some Palcohol — or powdered alcohol, for those who don’t know.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has approved Palcohol for sale. However, spokesman Tom Hogue said despite approval at the federal level, the product is still subject to state regulations.

Lipsmark, the company which makes Palcohol said it aims to get it on the market by the summer.

But clearing state hurdles could be tough. Alaska has already prohibited it, and six other states have taken regulatory action against it, including Louisiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia.

And Senator Charles Schumer from New York on Thursday introduced a bill against powdered alcohol. “I am in total disbelief that our federal government has approved such an obviously dangerous product,” said Schumer, in a statement. “Congress must take matters into its own hands and make powered alcohol illegal.”

5 Weird Ways Cold Weather Affects Your Psyche | Live Science

March 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Freezing temperatures and snow have turned much of the United States into an icebox. But, beyond keeping people inside and prompting them to bundle up when they venture out, does the cold weather change people’s behavior?

Science says yes.

Cold temperatures can influence our thoughts and decisions without our even knowing it, experts have found. From influencing what colors women wear to how we judge criminals, from the limits of human creativity to how we treat our friends, chilly temperatures may have a great effect on the human psyche, research shows.

In Japan, It Soon May Be Illegal Not To Take Vacation | Fastco.Exist

March 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Wake up at 7:30, commute to work, spend 13 hours in the office, run for the last train home, eat, and crash into to bed. The next day, rinse and repeat. Welcome to the insane working hours of a Japanese “salaryman” during crunch times at work. It’s a schedule that sometimes leads to what the Japanese call karoshi—death by overwork. Now, in an attempt to help, the Japanese government is considering a plan to force workers to take five vacation days a year.

Here’s an expat in Japan documenting his typical work week, with 78 hours of work and only 35 hours of sleep:

Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

March 11, 2015March 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

v.19 n. 11 – Released March 10, 2015

This Week’s Headlines:

February U.S. Employment Report: Strong Hiring Continues
Consumers Back Off on Auto and Student Loans
U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Pause in February
Events of Interest
- March 11, 2015: 2014 Otis Report on the Creative Economy (Los Angeles Event)
- March 18, 2015: 2014 Otis Report on the Creative Economy (Orange County Event)
- April 21, 2015: San Gabriel Valley Economic Outlook

Banking on it: Taking your money off the high street | BBC

March 10, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Decided that retail banking is the devil? You could opt for a piggybank. Or you could try the new online only services claiming to have changed the humble bank account forever.

In Durham, Atom Bank is poised to launch shortly as a bank with no branches, living solely on the internet.

The US has Ally Bank, an internet-only bank focused on its smartphone interface.

China recently has launched an internet-only bank of its own, WeBank, led by gaming and social network group Tencent Holdings.

With British and US retail banks in low repute since the credit crunch, the field is ripe for nimble new entrants, unencumbered by physical branches, bad loans, and ageing infrastructure.

Meanwhile, many British banks continue to operate back-end systems in pounds, shillings, and pence.

And a botched 2012 attempt at an IT upgrade by the RBS group left 6.5 million people unable to make payments for up to three weeks.

Nudging open the teller’s window for new competition: banking scandals, rate-fixing and payment protection insurance, and bankers’ bonuses have played their role, too.

The bank of the internet is increasingly open.

Small Businesses Are Going on a Hiring Binge | Bloomberg Business

March 10, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

(Bloomberg) — Sterling Risk Advisors, an Atlanta-based property and casualty insurance broker with 86 employees, has added 13 workers since June and will probably hire 10 to 15 more this year.

“We are committed to growing,” said Doug Rieder, 50, president and co-founder. “We feel a lot better about business. We are pretty bullish right now.”

Small business, responsible for most American job creation, is finally gaining momentum, giving an expansion approaching its sixth anniversary some legs and leading an acceleration in job creation. Confidence is near a post-2007 peak for small companies, construction is recovering and credit conditions are easing.

Top 9 Misconceptions of Independent Contractor Engagement | Business Tips

March 10, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Independent contractors can be a viable resource for growing your business, fitting seasonal demands and often adding in-demand or specialized skills. However, it is vital to have a compliant process for engaging independent workers or risk wage and hour violations or tax reclassification. Typical approaches often make faulty assumptions, doing nothing to reduce your risk profile. Below are the top 9 misconceptions about independent contractor engagement.

I Am Truly The Worst | Peter Mehit

March 9, 2015March 17, 2015 ~ CBPS ~ Leave a comment

My daughter is a trainer and wholesale relationship manager for Four Barrel coffee, an independent coffee roaster in San Francisco. Through my daughter’s work, I’ve learned that there is an extremely passionate world around the constellation of similar roasters such as Blue Bottle, Sight Glass and Intelligencia. It is a world of cuppings, flavor notes and events that rival the wine world. This universe has its hipster Robert Parkers, high price tag offerings and barista competitions where winners walk off with $50,000 prizes.

But we’re not going to talk about that world. Last Saturday night, Dinosaur Coffee, a shop that features Four Barrel’s coffees, had a parody event called the “First Annual World’s Worst Coffee Competition”. Michelle, the owner, has built a wonderful space that has already become a hit in the neighborhood. It was the perfect stage for the event.

The official judges rubric evaluated the coffee based on quality (one measure, pleasant to disgusting), the performance of the competitor and originality. There were seven competitors and the point was to produce the worst possible coffee imaginable. The audience and judges were not disappointed.

Continue reading “I Am Truly The Worst | Peter Mehit” →

What You Can Learn From 8 Kids Already Making a Million Dollars | Entrepreneur

March 9, 2015March 10, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There’s no age limit when it comes to being a millionaire these days, and a handful of kids have struck it rich well before they can legally vote. They’re small business owners, inventors and entrepreneurs. I started as an entrepreneur when I was around 11 years old with my first candy stand, which grew to four candy stands, but that was nothing compared to some of these kids!

There’s is no age limit, either, when it comes to learning from others. These impressive kids learned from their own failures early in life but determined to keep going and to do it better the next time around. If you haven’t made your first million yet, the teen next door might actually be able to teach you something.

Check out these eight kids who made a million, or more, and what you can learn from their success: