The Homeless Man Who Learned to Code - Business Insider

Homeless Coder - Business Insider

The Great Marijuana Crash Of 2011 - Business Insider

The Great Marijuana Crash Of 2011 - Business Insider

How Detroit went broke: The answers may surprise you

How Detroit went broke: The answers may surprise you | Detroit Free Press

Careers: All LinkedIn with Nowhere to Go | Ann Friedman

All LinkedIn with Nowhere to Go | Ann Friedman

Small Business: The Strange Story of Skype | Ars Technica

“How can they be so good?”: The strange story of Skype | Ars Technica

Inside Google’s Driverless Car : The New Yorker

Inside Google’s Driverless Car : The New Yorker

Google driverless car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brian Daniel Young

Audio Books: A Personal Journey via Amazon & ACX

This is more of a personal tale than anything.  You see, what started as a neat idea to fill some time turned into a pretty cool passion of mine.  That's right, I am an audiobook producer and voice over actor.  At least, this is what nice people tell me.

 

My name, as some of you know, is Brian Daniel Young.  A few years ago I grew tired of people telling me I had a great voice, or I sounded like so and so.  It got me to thinking - I might be able to make a viable side business in this whole voice over actor thing.  So, I did.

Careers: Top 7 Reasons To Get an MBA Degree

You have heard it time and again - getting an MBA is a valuable career step to increase your visibility and income within your chosen profession.

An MBA (Master of Business Administration) is a type of business degree offered via business schools and various other graduate-level programs. Not only can it better equip you to raise your income in your current position, MBA level courses could make you considerably more valuable to future potential employers. There are many reasons to think about obtaining an MBA. Below are several of the most typical:

7 Key Lessons from The $100 Startup

7 Key Lessons from The $100 Startup | The New OPEN Forum

About Brian Daniel Young

Audiobooks: Top 7 Reasons to Create an Audiobook Today

The audiobook market is booming over the last few years.  Companies like ACX and Amazon are making it easier for any author to have their books produced into audio format for little to no up-front financial investment.

Audiobooks are growing in demand over the last decade as the internet and smart phones make it much more advantageous for people to have an audio version of their favorite books.  They are quickly replacing radio as the thing to do during your daily commute. 

I've made one. You can too.

Will self-publishing make traditional publishing dead?

As the internet continues to grow at a pace no one really could have imagined, there is growing skepticism that it will be able to maintain it's phenomenal pace.  

 

One debate gaining particular traction is that of whether or not self-publishing will make the traditional news media obsolete.  While many are of the opinion that, in the not so distant future, a model of free author generated content will make standard news gathering organizations irrelevant - we believe that this will not be the case for three particular reasons.  Financing, journalistic expertise, and an aging population will have a tremendous effect on the emergence of self-published literature.

Careers: How Taking Risks Offers Huge Business Benefits

The biggest aversion people typically have towards taking risks is their fear of the unknown! 

This is especially true when you're a marketer online trying to grow your business since any mistakes could cost you dearly from a financial point of view! On the other hand if you're reluctant to step outside your comfort zone it's unlikely you'll experience any type of growth be it professional or personal in nature!

Let's examine 5 ways in which you or your business benefits by your willingness to leave your comfort zone and try new things!

Why Six Sigma is Important in Business

These days employers seek professionals having six sigma certification as they are expected to be proficient of using the techniques appropriately. There are many six sigma certification courses available online as well. You can also order one such program from a reputed provider and get the certification.

 

Six sigma certification are strategies and tools aimed at process improvement. It was a brain child of Motorola corporation and it was conceived in 1985 but its popularity surged when Jack Welch made it pivotal as his business strategy in the General Electric in the year 1995. It is today used by various sectors of the economy since it seeks to enhance out put process and quality through the identification and the removal of the causes of errors and the minimization of variability in the business and manufacturing processes. 

Dunkin' Donuts is in a Big Vat of Oil

What happened to the world’s one-time largest seller of coffee and donuts? Dunkin Donuts is trying to knock the sugar off the brand. The question is – Why would they even bother?

Full Disclosure: I like donuts, a lot. I don’t like coffee, much. With this in mind, for the life of me I can’t figure out what Dunkin' Donuts is doing with their brand? They have dreamed up so many new concepts over the “Starbucks Years” that it is sometimes difficult to determine what they actually sell, and where. 

  

A Donut Breakfast Sandwich?

This week’s Dunkin' news brings us the introduction of a breakfast sandwich between two halves of a donut.  Okay, call us suckers - but do they really think this is going to work?  I mean, how exactly do they intend to pull this combo off?  Are they going to deep fry my sausage patty before it drops in the fryer? All kidding aside, Dunkin' Donuts is trying hard by all estimations. They were once the premier brand for that early morning caffeine and sugar rush.  Now they are more like an outdated brand with an outdated logo and an outdated clientele.

Small Business: How to Promote Personal Responsibility When the Boss Is Away

In my world of customer service and project management at a very large, very successful company -

I have thought long and hard numerous times about how my employees are "producing" while management is away.  

Whether it's a daily meeting or vacation, we all have times where employees are on their own.  So how do we go about motivating them to be productive, work independently, and seek assistance from others without necessarily going to the top?  Here are some suggestions:  

Delegation for future success:

It is important to let your employees know you trust them to make the right decisions.  Let's face it, some great future leaders are out there in your workforce.  I've found that instilling a great team concept with a goal (be it financial or otherwise) is paramount to employee productivity with little or no supervision.  One of the biggest mistakes newer managers make is not allowing their hires to make their own mistakes.  Giving away that power is tough when it's ultimately your butt on the line at the end of the day.  We will go into this in greater detail in future writings.

Small Business: Top 5 Steps to Increase Your Productivity

How many hours are you spending a day to build your business?  If you are like me you probably spend a lot of time counting them.  So, what's the result?  Whatever the result is, sure there is a way to get a better one.  Well the answer is pretty easy: Because there is always a way to do things better.

The fact is that you are an entrepreneur and not an employee, so instead of being paid for the time you work as an employee, you will be paid for the results.  Your goal is not to make things as long as you can, but the better you can.  And if we act as smart entrepreneurs we may probably understand that if you invest time properly you will not only save time, but we can also spend that time to do more and more to increase your productivity.

Careers: Staying Positive After Being Laid Off

B

ecoming laid off is one of the most difficult things any worker will face in their career lifetimes. While this can be a very devastating experience for a number of reasons, it is important to take positive steps in your approach to this situation. From taking a little much deserved time to yourself to reaching out to friends and family you haven't spoken with in a while, there are many ways to make a layoff into a more positive and rewarding experience.

Get out!

What we mean by this is for you to get out there and have a good time. Remember, you won't always have the free time that comes with losing your employment. Go do the things you have been putting off, just make sure you don't blow the bank on them! Life after a layoff should be filled with reflection and enjoyment before you dive back in to a full-fledged career search.

Small Business: How to Gain Insight Into Your Market When Starting a Business

Gaining insight into a business market is a very important process to undertake with any new or existing company. Below we explore the Internet, Social marketing, Customer interaction and other key opportunities for any size business.

Internet:
With the advent of the internet in recent decades, the ability to gather competitive, marketing and management advantages into your business has exploded. There are literally thousands of resources for gaining insight into your particular market without ever spending a dime. A simple web search is all that is needed to yield all sorts of data on your competitors in terms of their pricing, products, customers and target markets. By knowing what your competition is up to you, can then tailor your marketing, pricing and other business decisions with a simple click of the mouse. The internet is certainly a valuable research tool in gaining traction into your new businesses market.
Social marketing:
Twitter, Facebook and email are all key tools to use to determine your potential customers' needs and wants, as well as providing some exciting entertainment when launching into your new business venture. While social marketing is a valuable commodity, you need to be careful as we have all seen horror stories about how one bad Tweet or Facebook post can ruin your hard earned reputation. So it is important to realize both the exciting opportunities and numerous pitfalls when implementing your social marketing strategy.

Small Business: Creating a Brand From the Ground Up

So, you are thinking of a new way to brand your product, service or website? The following is the first in an installment of many articles dedicated to how to brand your company or product and what it means to do so.

First, we have to know a few things:

What does "Branding" mean?

Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from the competition.

In short the definition from any dictionary is:

1. kind, grade, or make, as indicated by a stamp, trademark, or the like: the best brand of coffee.
2. a mark made by burning or otherwise, to indicate kind, grade, make, ownership, etc.
3. a mark formerly put upon criminals with a hot iron.
4. any mark of disgrace; stigma.

Now we can disregard the third definition and the others fit what we are talking about. I like to think of a brand in the business world as a mark, both figuratively and literally. It's who you are so you better not mess it up!

Sports Business: The Challenges in Financing Sports

In earlier times the marketing manager of an athletic team would project sales, the engineering and production staffs would determine the assets necessary to meet those demands, and the financial manager's job was simply to raise the money needed to purchase the required plant, equipment and inventories. 

 

That situation no longer exists. Decisions are now made in a much more coordinated manner, and the financial manager generally has direct responsibility for the overall financial status of any business.

According to theory, a healthy economy depends on efficient transfers of funds from people who are net savers to firms and individuals who need funds. Without efficient transfers, the economy simply can not function. Thus, sport businesses, as individuals and government units, often need to raise funds. Stock exchange markets, merges, acquisitions, promotional techniques, athletes' transfers, diversification, product or market development and syndicated loans, constitute methods for increasing cash flow levels.