The Dirty Truth About Lab-Grown Diamonds | Fast Company

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The muted sounds of hammering and sanding drift down to the first floor of Bario Neal, a jewelry store in Philadelphia, where rustic artwork that mimics nature hangs on warmly lit walls.

Waiting for one of those rings is Haley Farlow, a 28-year-old second-grade teacher who has been designing her three-stone engagement ring with her boyfriend. They care about price and also don’t want jewelry that takes a toll on the Earth, or exploits people in mining. So they’re planning on buying diamonds grown in a laboratory.

“Most of my friends all have lab-grown. And I think it just fits our lifestyle and, you know, the economy and what we’re living through,” said Farlow.

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12 Clever Ways to Maintain Brand Awareness | AllBusiness.com

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Becoming a consistent and quality resource for reporters, engaging in social causes, and creating and using a consistent hashtag are only a few of the ways these marketing leaders and business leaders keep their brands top of mind year-round. Read on for their best PR tips.

PR tips to maintain brand awareness

1. Never stop pitching

“It’s crucial to constantly pitch new content ideas to your press and media contacts. If you only submit the same ideas, they will become stale; consistent outreach to journalists and sending new data or thought leadership will improve the likelihood that your brand is represented.”

—Logan Mallory, Motivosity

2. Require marketing staff to come up with ideas for digital marketing campaigns

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What Are the Biggest 2024 Cybersecurity Threats? | AllBusiness.com

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Cybersecurity professionals and hackers have effectively been engaged in a global conflict since 1988, when the first computer virus was launched. The so-called Morris worm was unleashed from a computer at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It infected upwards of 6,000 computers within 24 hours, resulting in damage that some estimate in the millions.

Since that watershed moment, cybersecurity experts have worked tirelessly to create ways to protect the digital assets in business networks, while their criminal counterparts devised insidious schemes to profit from the creativity and honest labor of others. Cybercriminals are again sharpening their technological knives, so to speak, and businesses should remain on high alert for these threats in 2024.

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How to Say Thank You for Supporting My Small Business | Small Biz Trends

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Your small business wouldn’t be where it is today without your valued customers. The holiday season and new year can be an ideal opportunity to say thank you and show your appreciation. If you’re looking for ways to say thank you for supporting my small business, here are some ideas.

Why Is It Important to Thank Loyal Customers?

Thanking customers can be an easy way to foster business loyalty. If you show your appreciation in a tangible way, customers may be more likely to continue purchasing from your business and interacting with your content or initiatives.

Top Examples of Small Business Thank You Message to Customers

If you’re looking to build customer loyalty and show your appreciation to your customers, the following ideas may help. Some may work specifically for long-time clients, while others can appeal to both new and returning customers. Here are some ideas and templates to get you started.

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Entrepreneur Quiz to Test Personality – See if Starting a Business is Right | Small Biz Trends

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Do you have an entrepreneurial personality? Do you have the right mindset and leadership style?  This personality quiz helps you see how well you fit into entrepreneurship and whether starting a business is right for you. Scroll down to take our simple entrepreneur quiz and see!

Psychology of the Entrepreneur

People often wonder if they would be successful as an entrepreneur.  After all, startups are not for the faint of heart. It takes more than a good business idea to be successful in a startup.  You need guts. Passion. A positive can-do attitude. That’s where an entrepreneur quiz comes in.

The simple fact is, that not all of us have entrepreneurial personalities. What if it turns out you are one of those people NOT suited to start a business?  It doesn’t mean you can’t be successful in life.  It just may be better for you to take a different career path.

Many people would rather know what they are good at, upfront, before they spend a lot of time pursuing a career.  And that is the idea behind this entrepreneur quiz.  Based on two decades of experience starting and running small businesses, we wanted to illustrate how entrepreneurs think and what makes them tick.  The questions below help you walk in the shoes of a startup entrepreneur for a few short minutes. A score of 70% or more is good.

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How to Be Successful at Social Media Marketing | Business.com

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Social media has provided multiple platforms where businesses can brand, advertise, and ingratiate themselves with their audiences. A strong social media presence can strengthen your company’s reputation and visibility while offering a window into your competitors’ strategies and activities.

Today, social media marketing is a crucial element of any business’s marketing plan. We’ve created a step-by-step guide to help businesses develop an effective social media marketing strategy, including pitfalls to avoid and tips to ensure successful social media marketing campaigns.

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Try These 10 Things to Get More Business Sales Leads | Business

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Many successful companies depend on adding to their customer base to grow their business. One key way to accomplish this goal is to ensure that companies receive a regular stream of sales leads. Here’s what you can do to generate leads for your business.

What is a sales lead?

A sales lead is a person or business that could purchase your company’s goods or services. A lead becomes a prospect once you’ve identified their level of interest and fit as a customer for your business. You can use different methods to identify sales leads, including advertising and marketing, cold calling, social media, referrals, outreach and networking, consultations, and product/service trials. Inbound marketing methods can help your business create a steady stream of inbound sales leads. Use the following lead generation strategies to generate sales leads for your business.

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A new wave of cheap mini-LED gaming monitors has arrived | Digital Trends

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HDR-capable gaming monitors are all the rage these days. Whether they’re OLED or mini-LED, it’s finally possible to get a really killer HDR experience from your monitor. Until very recently, however, you’d be spending lots of money to do it.

Enter a new wave of mini-LED gaming monitors, with prices as low as $280, that call into question similar-priced monitors that are edge-lit or have no local dimming at all. You’d be right to be skeptical, and even though these new monitors can’t compare against some of the best gaming monitors, they’re a big leap forward for putting proper HDR monitors in front of a lot more gamers.

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Fortnite is getting a Disney universe made by Epic Games | Digital Trends

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Epic Games is partnering with Disney to create “an all-new games and entertainment universe” that’s compatible with Fortnite.

Announced Wednesday afternoon — at the same time as it was announced that ESPN would be available as a standalone subscription in 2025 —  this partnership follows a $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games by Disney. They companies now plan to work together over several years to create this experience connected to Fortnite, which Disney says will “offer a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and more.”

This announcement comes in the wake of Lego Fortnite’s success last year, which proved that full-on games like it, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival could exist within what was once primarily a battle royale game. From what Epic Games and Disney are saying, it looks like this Disney game will be the most expansive project in this vein yet.

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11 Tips For Increasing Customer Engagement | The Startup Magazine

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Customer engagement strategies encourage businesses to provide a positive experience that will encourage buyers to return by focusing on how you interact with your customers online and offline. Building an effective customer engagement strategy can create a substantial impact on your business. While well-built strategies can help boost retention and customer experience, negative ones can become counterproductive. Here are some proven tips to increase your business customer engagement. Create an omnichannel experience

Omnichannel experiences require offering a seamless and consistent customer experience across all your platforms. It allows a user to start one interaction and easily switch to another without disruptions. Creating an omnichannel experience is a great way to enhance the customer customer journey, as personalizing your customer service and building good relationships becomes easy. Allowing buyers to engage with your company on multiple fronts can increase repeat transactions. Studies show businesses with this strategy are able to retain 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for brands that lack proper retention strategies.

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