Unstealable Bike | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

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Developed by three Chilean engineering students; Juan José Monsalve, Andrés Roi and Cristóbal Cabello, the ‘Yerka’ project maintains the design of an urban bike yet incorporates a closing frame device to improve security. To thieves, every lock can be broken whilst leaving the bicycle intact, the creators have a strong clamp out of the velocipede’s  frame. This means that the only way to steal it is to break the lock and thus the two-wheeler completely. No more will you have to carry around a padlock as the Yerka tech uses the bike’s body as the securing measure, taking less than 20 seconds to set-up.

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Two Little Words That Will Help You Sell More | Inc.com

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tweet-cash-1940x900_29197“Yes, and … “That two-word phrase can deepen your relationships and make you better at sales. That’s the word from Isaac Rodriguez, CEO of Provident Loan, and an amateur improv performer. He learned “yes, and … ” as an improv technique for continuing or escalating a scene, but then discovered it was very effective in the business world as well. I’d never really thought about “yes, and … ” before he recommended it but now that I have, I see how it’s a surprisingly powerful tool. Here’s why:

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Do You Really Invest in Yourself as an Entrepreneur? | Allbusiness.com

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I’m writing this post from my new, shiny HP desktop. It wasn’t cheap, and I dragged my feet on the purchase for years, but I’m glad I bought it. I’m now more productive, and stressing less over slow load times. Are you like me? Do you find your business or your professional development to be the last thing you invest in? I think it’s a symptom of being a micropreneur. If we had staff complaining about their computers, we’d have to do something about it. But when it’s just us, we put up with faulty equipment and subpar technology just because we think we’re not worth it. Let’s change that.

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How to Improve Your Business Credit Score | Businessnewsdaily.com

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If you’re good about keeping your personal and business finances separate, you may think that the only credit score you have to worry about is your own. While maintaining good personal credit is certainly important if you’re applying for business loans, you may not realize that your company has its own credit score — and it’s just as essential to monitor.

“Businesses in the eyes of the law are treated like people,” said Jeff Stibel, CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corporation, which provides credit-building and credibility solutions for businesses. “The smallest businesses tend not to incorporate or get a credit file, so they [think they don’t] have a credit score. Whether you’re proactively trying to get your score or not, it’s very likely that you still have one.”

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4 Neuroscience Secrets to Remain Calm Under Pressure | Inc.com

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Great leaders always seem to remain calm during situations that make mere mortals fall to pieces. Conventional wisdom says that the ability to remain calm is a character trait that most of us lack.

Neuroscience, however, has recently revealed that remaining calm under pressure is not an inborn trait, but a skill that anybody can learn.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Understand the biochemistry.The opposite of remaining calm is the state of “fight or flight,” a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.

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Social Security: 5 Facts You Must Know | Fool.com

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sunset_1Social security is a complicated program, yet you cannot afford to NOT know everything you should about your benefits. Even knowing this, it can be hard to find the information you need in order to make the most informed decisions for you and your family.

In the following TOP 5 list below, The Motley Fool’s Financial Planning Team reveals five essential, but little known facts, about the Social Security Program and how it will affect millions of Americans. Although most people expect Social Security to be there for them when they retire, they could be wrong – and by then it might be too late.

Number 5: Social Security is Massive

In 2014, over 59 million Americans will receive Social Security. Among them are:38 million retired workers9 million survivors and dependents11 million disabled workers and dependents

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Nordstrom’s Journey To Connect Instagram Images To Sales ROI|adexchanger.com

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Despite having close to a half million Instagram followers, upscale retailer Nordstrom knows that “likes” and “follows” are great for growing community and measuring engagement or affinity, but these actions don’t necessarily translate into hard business metrics. Retailers want to know if that showroom-grade snapshot on social actually sold a tube of lipstick.

“What we’ve primarily done on Instagram is respond to customer questions,” said Bryan Galipeau, director of social media and display at Nordstrom. “Every photo we would post, we would get a number of questions back like, ‘Is that item still available?’ and ‘What does it cost?’”

Because Instagram content essentially lives in its own native environment, “it’s pretty difficult for our customers to make the jump from seeing a picture in the feed and learning more about the item on our site or in our stores,” he added. “The way the platform is set up, there are no links on Instagram and no easy way out to our website.”

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A “Yelp For Cops” To Rate The Police–And It Was Made By High School Students | Fast Company

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Police YelpNine days after unarmed Michael Brown was shot by a police officer, and after days of police aiming tear gas, rubber-coated bullets, pepper balls, and beanbag rounds at protesters, a group of young students from Georgia released one response to the problem of police abuse: A new app that that lets citizens rate any interaction with a cop.

“We’ve been hearing a lot about the scary, negative issues occurring in the media, for example, most recently, the Michael Brown case,” says 16-year-old Ima Christian, who built the app along with siblings Caleb, 14, and Asha, 15, with help from Joshua, age 10.

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Predictive Analytics: Potential Cure | WIRED

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The way we hire and manage employees in America is fundamentally broken. Not only are unemployment rates still high in most cities, but approximately 32 percent of the current unemployed population has been unemployed for seven months or longer. Many people believe these long term unemployed workers no longer fit in today’s workplace, but they are wrong.

To combat this issue the White House just unveiled new legislation for getting America back to work with the recent signing of the Workforce Innovation and Employment Act. Key to this initiative is taking action against the human biases and “skills gap” separating many unemployed workers from the companies that could hire them. As part of the President’s initiative, 300 corporations have pledged to change hiring practices that discriminate against the long term unemployed, enabling qualified individuals to get back to work.

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Time is of the Essence in Funding Deals | Peter Mehit

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‘timeTime is of the essence’ is a contract clause used when an action must occur by a certain time or the deal is in jeopardy, such as the buying and selling real estate. The reality is, when dealing with funding sources, that time is of the essence for the entire transaction.

I have seen deals that seemed rock solid, collapse. The reasons for their demise didn’t come from any unsolvable disagreement or lack of information. Looking back, I see that many of them just simply took too much time.

When an applicant applies to a bank, there is a flurry of activity. Applications are completed, appraisals ordered, interviews conducted. There is a lot of information gathering as the bank prepares the loan package for underwriting. Once the package goes behind the curtain, the wait begins. Occasionally, requests for information will come from underwriting. If underwriting likes the deal, they’ll defend it to a loan committee and the deal is, or is not, approved.

Continue reading “Time is of the Essence in Funding Deals | Peter Mehit” →