Put Some Clothes On and Get To Work: Tips For Working at Home
Put Some Clothes On and Get To Work: Tips For Working at Home.
I remember once when I was working from home, resplendent in my suit and tie when I got a call from my boss with his boss on the speaker phone, “how soon can you be in Toronto?” they asked.
Have a distinct work area.
Both are good company, stare at me while I eat my lunch, and lay around doing nothing most of the day, which is to say, they are like most of the coworkers I’ve had throughout my career.
When you aren’t working stay out of your work area.
Keep regular hours.
Since you have no commute it’s easy to be on the job before your boss, which always looks good.
If it’s 6:30 a.m. it’s time to be at work.
Take regular breaks.
I don’t have any data to substantiate that, but I suspect it’s hog wash. It’s not like people are standing on an elliptical machine while eating cheese burgers, it’s far more likely that people are seated whilst eating cheese burgers and therefore how could sitting for long periods of time be worse for you than sitting eating cheese burgers?
You will be surprised by the strategic plans behind this flying car
Above: Uber made that big announcement back in October, when it unveiled Uber Elevate, an ambitious program to get cars—or at least Ubers—off the road and into the sky.
Few things have come to symbolize our collective hopes for the future quite like the somewhat outlandish concept of flying cars.
Following the publication of a whitepaper on the subject of virtual takeoff and landing (VOTL) aircraft, Uber has hit the ground – er, sky?
The two are a natural fit, both having been interested in the possibility of this type of vehicle for several years.
The idea is a simple one: When ride sharing finally comes of age, far fewer people throughout the country will need to own cars.
The ones who do will be able to monetize them, either by driving themselves or by taking advantage of self-driving technology, which will be here on a large scale much sooner than you might think.
Self-piloting aircraft, like the ones described by Uber in its whitepaper, would certainly seem to be the most likely marriage of these two concepts – as well as the most likely endgame for the future of vehicle ownership.
Resource consumption, safety and convenience While it’s clearly far too early to start taking pre-orders for our own VTOL aircraft, it’s not too early to start thinking about the implications of such a breakthrough.
As far as performance goes, these things shouldn’t be thought of like planes.
They’re not alone Naturally, we live in a competition-driven society, and that means Uber is far from alone when it comes to pursuing the dream of flying taxis.
We’re not in a bubble — we’re in a revolution
We’re not in a bubble — we’re in a revolution.
Steam was a GPT in the first industrial revolution and electricity was one in the second.
But the end result is clear: After taking more than 20 years to reach full penetration, electrification suddenly set off an enormous acceleration of productivity growth for the next 15.
After 2004, productivity growth slowed again.
Will smartphones drive the fourth industrial revolution?
Companies that embrace today’s tech fully are already seeing an unimaginable acceleration of productivity growth that has not reached the rest of the economy yet.
Whether companies IPO or stay private, GPTs drive an influx of capital There weren’t any unicorns when the second industrial revolution was just getting underway, but there was a stock market.
Jovanovic and Rousseau note that the number of IPOs spiked in 1895, just five years after the introduction of electricity, and that IPOs continued to take up larger-than-usual market share for the duration of the GPT adoption period.
Though Jovanovic and Rousseau don’t point this out specifically, their numbers show that IPOs spiked again in 1920, a few years after productivity growth began accelerating again.
Either way, there are strong reasons to believe tech companies’ high valuations are here to stay.
Mobile games lose their luster faster than ever
Mobile games lose their luster faster than ever.
A few factors are responsible for this.
Second, memory and data costs are less of a concern in developed countries today, enabling people to download games without a second thought.
A recent state of the industry report from Adobe found that mobile games have the highest abandonment rate among all the app categories.
The social phenomenon of virality plays its own part in this equation.
Instead of looking at long-term retention, they could measure the number of engagements within a short period of time.
What does it mean for the industry and game studios From a macro perspective, we have seen the impact of this transition throughout 2016, with extensive M&A deals in the mobile gaming landscape that hit a record and represented the vast majority of the $28.4 billion in 2016 games deals according to tech adviser Digi-Capital.
At the same time, investments in mobile gaming companies are lower versus previous years, which together could indicate a new stage of maturity as the market starts to consolidate.
On a micro-level, this transition will require a shift of attitude by small-medium game studios.
These game studios will need to cut their investment in standalone games and instead run with short, agile development processes which will enable them to launch more games in a shorter period of time.
Google’s sale of Terra Bella signals cool-down in satellite market
Google’s sale of Terra Bella signals cool-down in satellite market.
A few days ago we heard that Google is selling — the satellite startup it bought for $500 million in 2014 to Planet, Terra Bella’s key competitor.
Under the terms of the deal, Planet will acquire the Terra Bella business, including its SkySat constellation of satellites, and Google will enter into a multi-year contract to purchase Earth-imaging data from Planet.
Investor enthusiasm for EO will significantly decline.
The EO market will probably face further consolidation.
Assuming the valuation of these startups will now significantly decline (as Terra Bella is likely selling at a 50 percent discount from its acquisition price), I expect market leaders Digital Globe and Planet will continue to increase their in-orbit capacity, acquiring microsatellite startups.
EO startups will pivot to a more “full-stack” approach.
The Terra Bella deal is a remarkable win for Planet, which will significantly strengthen its position and make the San Francisco-based startup one of the key forces in the market, especially taking into account its deal with the National Geospatial Agency, the largest buyer of satellite imagery out there.
Valery Komissarov is a VC at Skolkovo Foundation, a government-backed firm based in Moscow, where he covers spacetech and drone companies.
He previously worked at space startup Sputnix and was pursuing a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering.
How To Delegate Like A Millionaire Entrepreneur
How To Delegate Like A Millionaire Entrepreneur.
Even if they’re right, it’s impossible to scale and build a very big business without help .
and lots of it.
If you want to become a millionaire, you have to be smart about the way you spend your time and not get constantly caught in the weeds.
In this video, Entrepreneur partner Patrick Bet-David explains the 11 laws of delegation.
To learn more, click play.
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Rise of the Content Machines: How Blogs Became a Secret Weapon
In the Internet age, the entry barriers fell away but the quality and reputation of content marketing dropped dramatically.
Instead of offering real value to the reader, we’ve seen the rise of clickbait and self-promotional articles.
The biggest names in these markets are creating content machines that provide real value to the reader, without focusing on direct ROI for their brands.
I spoke to some industry leaders about why blogs are becoming the new secret weapons for SAAS companies.
In lieu of leading publications providing this content, they created it themselves.
They will need to learn about sales, marketing, customer service and company culture to run their business more effectively.
While the blogs are branded, and generally use the brand colors in their design, the sites use a lot of white space to direct users to the content itself.
Hodges says that in his experience, prospective customers who visit both the website and the blog are much more likely to buy product or to upgrade in the future.
David Mendlen, General Manager at Microsoft , says “Blogs are this incredible way to engage across startups and larger, more established companies.
Building relationships, and expanding networks is extremely important for startups of all shapes and sizes, if they want to maximize coverage.” Developing an effective content creation machine requires a team effort, from getting team members involved in research and creation, to reaching out to guest contributors and getting community feedback on themes they want to learn more about.
The 8 Things You Need to Know If You Think You’re Ready to Turn Your Business Into a Franchise
Franchising your business can also be very lucrative as you take your already successful business model and duplicate it to build a thriving enterprise that can be worth big money in the future.
Impounds and deferred fee-collection stipulations If you’re in a registration state and the attorney for the state examining your application for franchising determines you don’t have sufficient capitalization to open the franchises you plan to open, the applicable state agency may still grant you a permit to sell franchises.
To do this, however, you must open an impound account in a bank chartered in that particular state for the direct deposit of all franchise fees.
In essence, an impound is a trust account: The franchisor is required to have the franchisee write a check to the designated depository bank, to be held in trust until the franchisee provides a written declaration to the registration state that his or her franchise is open and that the franchisor has performed all of their opening obligations under the franchise agreement.
The franchisor then submits this order to the bank, and the bank pays that particular franchise fee to the franchisor.
Multistate franchise taxes and accounting You’ll want to interview accounting firms that have an active franchise practice just like the attorneys and franchise-development consultants mentioned earlier.
You’ll also want to talk to them about taxes in your home state as well as other states that you’ll be doing business in as a national franchisor.
Franchise brochure Following a prospective franchisee’s initial inquiry, you should send them an informational brochure.
It’s good practice to provide the potential franchisee with the required disclosure document before any discussion about it.
If the franchisee is out of state and the franchise is to be operated in your registration state, the disclosure document to be sent to the prospective franchisee would be your in-state disclosure document.
The surprising momentum behind games like Agar.io
The casual game came to Miniclip’s attention, and within a week, everybody in the company was playing it, said Jamie Cason, executive producer at Miniclip, in a talk at Casual Connect Europe in Berlin.
Miniclip, founded in 2001, has about 200 million monthly active users.
It was fun to play, as there was a kind of improvisational theater.
It gets on a roll and becomes unstoppable.” If there had only been one hit, then it would hardly have become a real genre.
But a whole wave of titles followed, including the hit Slither.io.
It had mechanics where tiny objects could kill very large objects.
The developers had to work to keep the file sizes low and work on making each game unique.
Part of the appeal is that the games are competitive multiplayer titles that can be turned into esports.
They’re arena-based multiplayer games that represent a real opportunity for developers, Cason said.
feels real and authentic.” Disclosure: Casual Connect paid my way to Berlin.
Could Entrepreneurial Enterprises Help Revitalize News?
Could Entrepreneurial Enterprises Help Revitalize News?.
But, let’s face it: The advertising-driven digital media business model is broken.
And even as digital is killing newspapers and publishers are doing a Facebook dance with the devil, could entrepreneurial enterprises also help revitalize news?
However, media disruption goes to the heart of an informed society.
If experts in everything from politics, business and markets were to provide to news platforms full-throated opinion and sharp analysis, with transparency and without spin or self-reference, you can imagine where this can both elevate the discussion as well as provide a hit of oxygen to publications who can sell ads (or subscriptions might even be better) around that content that would flow freely to them from those who come from places of deep knowledge and insight.
Technology has been able to do this across multiple industries.
News should be next.
Some can say insightful things on video.
And really say what we see happening and what we think is important for the world to know.
Can business leaders talk about the world in plain language, and say what they really think?
5 Valentine’s Day Gifts for the Wi-Fi Connected Love of Your Life
Chocolates and flowers symbolize Valentine’s Day.
Where’s the originality?
Especially with the abundance of innovative, Wi-Fi connected devices coming out of CES, Valentine’s Day presents an opportunity to give our loved ones gifts they can use beyond the holiday itself.
With the proliferation of IoT, and stronger more reliable Wi-Fi connections — both in home and in public — Wi-Fi-enabled gadgets make for great Valentine’s Day presents.
Your significant other doesn’t have to daydream about a connected home anymore — the devices are flooding stores and homes now.
BI Intelligence reports the number of internet-connected devices will top 24 billion globally by 2020.
The holiday season’s over and your significant other has accumulated an abundance of connected devices that are now scattered across his or her (or your) home.
The Sevenhugs smart IoT remote recognizes the need for a consolidated approach to controlling and managing connected devices.
So, this time around, pass on the chocolates and flowers.
You can be sure connected devices will find a place right next to you in your significant other’s heart.
5 Generations in the Workplace (and Why We Need Them All)
But, when I enter my office each morning, I walk past five generations of colleagues — all working together with remarkable levels of collaboration and focus, each bringing the insights and expertise unique to their individual experiences while also representative of their generation.
As a trendspotter, I see this as a new reality, empowering brands and businesses smart enough to recognize and leverage it.
With a wider breadth of talent in the workforce than ever, companies have access to an incredible array of skills and knowledge, which is great news.
Suffice to say: This is no time for a set-it-and-forget-it management style.
Understanding the attributes of each generation will help organizations harness their different styles and insights to engage brands’ ever-widening audiences.
They are level-headed managers and bridge-builders among all generations.
They have an intuitive facility for connection; a second-nature command of digital, mobile and social; and a healthy aversion to cumbersome structures.
Employees born in the 1990s — Generation Z — are now starting their careers.
Just thinking about the strengths of each makes me excited for the possibilities of multigenerational mentorship and collaboration.
If I could build a five-member dream team for communications today that could quickly implement and adapt to all the facets of agile PR, I couldn’t do better than one member from each generation.
‘Dumb money’ and other myths about corporate venture capital
‘Dumb money’ and other myths about corporate venture capital.
“Working with the VC arm of a corporation is a necessary evil to get a strategic partnership,” one told me.
While it used to be true for most CVCs, and is still true for some, at my firm we lead a majority of the investments we make, are an active board participant, and take a hands-on role advising CEOs how to build great companies.
To actually “walk the talk,” we spend a tremendous amount of energy thinking through how we can use Intel’s depth and breadth to benefit our portfolio companies.
How can we leverage our global sales organization of 4,000 field professionals — a scale and reach few VCs can claim — to help our portfolio firms acquire customers?
For example, every few days, somewhere in the world our portfolio companies are talking to executives at Global 2000 companies in meetings set up by our business-development and sales teams.
Myth #3: CVCs limit a startup’s strategic options Many entrepreneurs fear that if they take capital from a corporate venture fund, it will limit their potential partnerships, customers, and exit options.
At Intel Capital, for instance, we invest $400 to $500 million annually, and for us to achieve our financial objectives, we need to help our portfolio companies generate the best financial and strategic outcomes.
Of the nearly 1,500 startups Intel Capital has invested in since 1991, Intel has acquired only a handful.
Intel Capital, like other large corporate venture firms, is made up of a global team of investors with extensive experience and track records of working with entrepreneurs to build great companies.
Looking for a New Payment Company? You’re ‘Due’ for Some Good News.
As a result, we pull in employees and contractors from across the globe to provide the highest quality services for our customers.
“The increased opportunity to work with companies and talent in different countries, as well as tap into a world of products and brands that are gaining global appeal through social media connections, has been a great motivator to the financial community as a whole.” Whether you’re looking to accept payments in different currencies, or you have plans to expand your business internationally, Rampton says to make sure you have a solid understanding of the international payment capabilities of your prospective platform.
“You want to secure a platform that provides a global payment system.” An added benefit would be to find an online payments platform that provides companies a way to send quotes, estimates, and invoices in multiple languages and currencies while also incorporating the tax systems of those countries.
Nobody wants to pay fees.
While it’s a necessary cost of doing business, some are better than others.
Custom rates for high-volume customers.
Due.com, for example, has a cost of 2.7 percent for all card types with no monthly fees or per transaction costs.
The 11th annual Cost of Data Breach Study, sponsored by IBM, found “the average consolidated total cost of a data breach grew from $3.8 million to $4 million dollars.” The average cost incurred for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information increased from $154 to $158.
But many online payment platforms are furthering security technology to protect sensitive financial and personal data to help consumers and businesses remain confident about using online global payment systems.
The key to getting more of it is to integrate a payment platform that serves a global customer and talent base, is a price leader, and places security above all else.
How to Make the Right Sales Pitch
How to Make the Right Sales Pitch.
This video is part of a series brought to you by Entrepreneur’s book division, Entrepreneur Press, the publisher of Jill Schiefelbein’s book Dynamic Communication: 27 Strategies to Grow, Lead, and Manage Your Business.
In this Dynamic Communication interview, author Jill Schiefelbein chats with Grant Cardone, entrepreneur extraordinaire and New York Times bestselling author, who gives a tip that can help you grow your business.
What is the biggest mistake you can make with your initial sales pitch?
How do you make the perfect pitch?
Learn the answer to these questions and more in this video with the author of The 10X Rule and Be Obsessed or Be Average, and super-entrepreneur Grant Cardone.
In this 27-video series, the author of Dynamic Communication: Strategies to Grow, Lead, & Manage Your Business, Jill Schiefelbein, interviews stand-out companies and entrepreneurs to bring you great bites of information to help improve your communication and drive results.
You can access 12-plus hours of content — the full interviews for each of these 27 brilliant minds — by purchasing Dynamic Communication: Strategies to Grow, Lead, & Manage Your Business and accessing the book’s bonus site.
Watch more videos from Jill on her YouTube channel and buy the book at Amazon.
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The Hidden Costs of Undervaluing Human Resources
The Hidden Costs of Undervaluing Human Resources.
While talent-management programs may meet the varied expectations of a multigenerational business environment, HR operations must not be ignored.
Your HR system also performs critical employee monitoring, support and development functions. “These multifaceted processes,” Corcorn continued, “include individualized benefit options and career-development opportunities, to encourage employee satisfaction and retention.
Employee turnover Entrepreneurs have a reputation for being micromanagers, especially when they’re running startups; and without an effective HR/talent management system, they risk losing more than just employees.
After all, the cost of hiring a new employee includes advertising the position, staff time for interviews and the hiring process overall.
Strategic planning, in fact, requires an unflinching evaluation of your business using data on your current resources and liabilities, as well as analyses of your market and competitors.
Such talent management/strategic planning integration can save a business money through scheduled hires and employee adjustments that support corporate goals.
That’s unwise, because HR supports company growth, talent development and investor satisfaction.
Ineffectual or missing HR systems also carry high costs and potentially significant legal penalties.
Dotun Olowoporoku: 7 Reliable Steps to Get Funding For Your Start-up
To get funds for a startup, there are series of questions that need to be answered.
Why will your products or services appeal to potential customers?
Your unique selling proposition is your big gun, it’s what you should pull out to wow anyone who shows interest in your product or service.
These are some of the questions you need to answer to ensure you have a business idea that truly has the potential for growth.
Validate your idea by building an MVP The next thing you should do is to validate that idea by building an MVP (minimum viable product).
Based on what you learn, you can then make a fast adjustment and create a product that is desired, valuable and useful to your target audience—-or you can scrap the idea with minimal investment.
Prepare a pitch deck that shows your story A pitch deck should ultimately not mean long boring documents full of numbers and indecipherable words.
Keep in mind, the purpose of your pitch deck is to get you meetings with investors.
Your pitch deck should supply valid information like: Vision, Validation, Market Opportunity, The Problem, Product/Service, Revenue Model, Marketing/Growth Strategy, Management Team, Financials, and Competition.
If you have more questions about how you can get more funds among other things, our Side Hustle Bootcamp for startup founders might just be for you.
5 Investment Firms Reveal What They Look for in Startups
5 Investment Firms Reveal What They Look for in Startups. “Make sure that your solution is developed for a specific problem that you have the expertise to address.
After all, a good solution, no matter how elegant, is only good insofar as someone else cannot come along and develop something similar.
“Most founders I meet are in love with their product,” Yeung writes in a recent blog.
“Unfortunately, as an investor, I don’t just want a person who is in love with himself or herself or their product.
I want a founder who truly understands how to create a business.
White Star Capital, a Canadian firm that purposefully scouts in locations that are commonly ignored by other venture capitalists, has a thing for making sure that its companies are future facing.
Reach out to VCs physically near you.
If you’re in or near a major city — or even a smaller city — there’s likely a venture capital firm that focuses on your location.
It’s not the type of achievement that matters so much as the magnitude.