One of the great things about being in business these days – whether it is having a side hustle or a retail store or an online business – is that there is just so much free help available.

To wit: Last week, I held my most popular webinar ever (almost 4,000 people registered!) for SCORE, called 7 Steps to Starting on a Shoestring. SCORE is an amazing organization; more than 10,000 business volunteers who can help and mentor you (physically or virtually) on almost any aspect of your business – marketing, sales, taxes, whatever. And, like my webinar, many of SCOREs offerings are free.

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As you take the helm and begin guiding your business into the future, you would be well-advised to listen to suggestions from people who have already made the mistakes they can help you avoid. By the way, you are going to make mistakes. If you can accept that and learn from your mistakes, it will all amount to nothing more than an on-the-job education.

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In our hyperconnected digital world, trade shows can be seen as a bit of a relic, an outmoded business building tool that entrepreneurs shouldn’t waste their time on. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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Small businesses could soon see a rollback of several universally loathed measures attached to the original Paycheck Protection Program, the $669 billion loan and grant initiative aimed at helping small businesses keep employees on the payroll.

When the House convenes next Wednesday, it is expected to vote on the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act, a standalone bill that would, among other things, lengthen the time businesses may spend the funds from their PPP loans. The bill would also eliminate the requirement that 75 percent of a loan's proceeds must be spent on employee pay and benefits. The measure was originally proposed on May 15 in the House by representatives Dean Phillips (D., Minn.) and Chip Roy (R., Texas).  

Kudos matter now more than ever. On average, social media endorsements of small businesses generate 23% of revenues, according to data from Amex.

Few things put more smiles on the faces of small-business owners than social media recommendations about their products or services, but now, new research proves that those online shoutouts also put cash in their bank accounts.

On average, social media endorsements of small businesses generate 23% of revenues—or approximately $197 billion—new data from American Express finds.

1. Have an adaptable business model
2. Diversify supply chain operations
3. Create an omnichannel customer experience

For small businesses,traditional marketing can be expensive and difficult to maintain. Inbound marketing can level the playing field and give even the smallest business a chance to stand out and grow.

Why use inbound marketing?

1. It is cost effective
2. It helps build customers trust.
3. It increases brand awareness and boosts your online presence.
4. It can improve your marketing decision making
5. You can craft customer-focused content.
6. Inbound marketing provides two-way communication.
7. It helps bring in organic traffic to your website

The United States has seen an increase in new businesses formed this year. According to the United State Census Bureau, in week 50, there were over 86,000 new business applications nationwide — representing a 38% increase over filings during the same week in 2019. The challenges small businesses have experienced in 2020 have led to some core lessons that those in the business community need to apply — whether they own an established small business or a newly formed one.

After the pandemic knocked the wind out of our economy, recovery plans focused mainly on saving existing small businesses rather than breathing life into new ones. Yet entrepreneurship is critical to emerging from the Covid-induced recession. Startups drive almost all net new-job creation. They contribute disproportionately to innovation, breaking new ground while also spurring midsize and large companies to follow suit. And perhaps most important in the current climate, startups are well-positioned to respond to drastic changes in consumer and business behavior, recognizing and acting on opportunities born of adversity.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, student debt reduces the amount of cash avail­able for startups and affects their credit score, making business loans tough to secure. It also renders more daunting the prospect of failure, which increases risk aversion.

In a world in which e-commerce has become a necessity for nearly every retailer, it can seem they have only two options: list their goods on marketplaces run by giant companies, or sell to consumers directly, hoping they will make more on each transaction despite fewer sales. In other words, either join a dominant marketplace like eBay , Walmart or Amazon —which by itself represents 38% of U.S. online sales, according to Digital Commerce 360—or hope they can find customers through advertising and word of mouth.

For many small- and medium-size sellers, a third option has emerged, embodied by the rising star of e-commerce, Shopify . This approach gives merchants access to cloud-based third-party services such as payments and fulfillment, but lets them maintain more control of their branding and customer relationships than the biggest marketplaces offer. Shoppers might not even know they’re buying something from a Shopify-powered retailer, and that’s the point.

In addition to making goods available on sellers’ own sites, these software companies—which also include BigCommerce and Magento—can perform the laborious task of listing merchandise on the giants marketplaces. By becoming hubs for managing sales through multiple channels, including social-media platforms, they represent real competition for Amazon and its ilk, potentially giving merchants more leverage when dealing with those entrenched giants.

Staying tuned in to the pulse of your industry is key to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Public groups, online forums and the like are among the most valuable resources for gathering and contributing industry information. But if someone is looking for in-depth insight into their business niche, locating the right groups where this discussion occurs is the first step. T

Title: Flu Shots Lag in States With Low COVID Vaccine Uptake
Category: Health News
Created: 6/16/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 6/16/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: Could the Flu Shot Help Prevent Alzheimer's?
Category: Health News
Created: 6/29/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 6/29/2022 12:00:00 AM

In diesem interaktivem Movie kann man einem "Evil Sheep" dabei zusehen, wie es ein unschuldiges Lamm tötet.

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 26, 2024 ) There is anticipation for a steady growth in the Shea Butter Market because of its rising popularity in both food and cosmetics industries. Consumers who prefer natural products often choose Raw & Unrefined Shea Butter. The Personal Care & Cosmetics sector consumes...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 29, 2024 ) Shower Gel Market was valued at US$ 16.52 Bn. in 2023. Global Shower Gel Market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.8% during the forecast period. Shower Gel Market overview Shower gel, also known as body wash, is a liquid product created specifically...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 30, 2024 ) The global ammunition market size is projected to grow from USD 28.0 billion in 2023 to USD 33.1 billion in 2028, at a CAGR of 3.4% from 2023 to 2028. The factors such as the increase in the geopolitical tensions, Growth in military expenditure and arms transfer,...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 05, 2024 ) The Global AI in Fashion Market is expanding rapidly, with brands leveraging AI to enhance design, personalization, and inventory management. From predictive analytics to virtual try-ons, AI is revolutionizing consumer engagement and operational efficiency. Fashion...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 08, 2024 ) The Military Platforms Market will grow tremendously from 2020 through 2030, based on the increase in defense spending, escalations in geopolitical tensions, and needs for advanced border security and early warning systems The military platforms market is projected...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 08, 2024 ) The global aerospace testing market was valued at USD 5.29 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 6.68 billion by 2029; it is expected to register a CAGR of 4.8% during the forecast period. Increasing air travel across the globe has increased the demand...

Prime Aviation Ltd, Ashdown House in Gatwick London Gatwick Airport, Phone 01293 567667 with Driving directions

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged farmers to significantly cut their use of urea to boost income and soil health, and said his government was constantly striving to prop up rural India with steps such as the ₹1 lakh crore agriculture infrastructure fund, for which he launched the financing facility on Sunday. Modi also released ₹17,000 crore to the bank accounts of 85 ...

Goshawk Aviation Limited is a top ten global aircraft lessor with an owned, managed and committed fleet of 216 aircraft. Formed in 2013, the business has quickly grown to become one of the premier global aircraft leasing companies building a high-quality portfolio of young new technology aircraft placed on long leases to airlines globally.

From the Tennessean: Jimmy Buffett, Fairfield Four among quartet inducted at Music City Walk of Fame ceremony Nashville’s 2024 Music City Walk of Fame ceremony highlighted all corners and eras of the city’s multitude of …

from Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DB48I-gSloZ/ via IFTTT

from Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DCBL0bsxxBm/ via IFTTT

What do Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Harry Styles, Alicia Keys, Sting, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Ice-T, Queen Latifah, and Taylor Swift all have in common?

(C’mon, actually think about the question for a bit, don’t immediately jump to the answer. While there is a tendency for people to want immediate gratification, in fact, that whole quick shot of info, be it trivial, made-up, useful, or even critical, is predicated on things like websites, there is something to be said for the satisfaction that can be derived from figuring things out, whether this is solving Wordle or answering the question above.)

(At this point I figure that there may have been a sufficient amount of physical distance on this page between the question and the answer, and certainly if you’ve read through this parenthetical material you’ve had a time gap which, as we are at words right now, that’s about 30 seconds of silent reading time or just under a minute if you’re annunciating it, so. . . .)

They are all members of SAG-AFTRA, the trade union for actors.

As such, they are all potentially affected by a recent agreement between SAG-AFTRA and Narrativ, which describes itself as “A Marketplace for Advertisers to Buy Talent Likeness.”

Note, not “Talent.” But a similitude of talent.

Read more at Glorious Noise...

Video: Lizzy McAlpine – “Pushing It Down and Praying”

From the deluxe Older (and Wiser), out October 4 on RCA/Sony.

I got into Lizzy McAlpine this summer after reading Amanda Petrusich’s New Yorker profile. Her album Older is great and now she’s releasing an expanded version with five new songs. The “deluxe reissue six months after the original release” game is a racket, of course, but that’s the music business and you can’t really complain about getting new music, especially in these days of streaming when it’s not like anybody’s actually going out and spending $15 on a CD and then feeling like you have to go back out spend another $18 just to hear five outtakes that didn’t make the initial cut.

This new song is sonically similar to the stuff on Older and its lyrics expand upon the themes of sex and guilt and longing raised in “You Forced Me To” specifically. I wonder if it was left off the original release because it was too similar?

Lizzy McAlpine: web, bandcamp, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Read more at Glorious Noise...

Note to Curt:

Just because the state claims the authority to apprehend and punish rapists doesn’t mean that apprehending and punishing rapists is a form of state coercion. Nor is the notion that rape is bad an example of state coercion. Depending on your perspective, this is either a moral truth derived from God/reason/whatever or a widely-accepted social convention. Similarly, the notion that one can own property is (again, depending on your perspective) either morally necessary or a widely-accepted social convention that seems to work pretty well (here I’m dispensing with Communists and other fools who have nothing intelligent to say on the matter). Either way, the fact that the state claims ultimate authority to adjudicate property disputes does not make private property a form of state coercion. (Further reading)

It’s almost comforting that such invidious fluffy-minded sludge as this is floating around, as it seems, like religion, to keep the middle-brows hypnotized by “beautiful sentiments” which are so vague as to keep them from actually getting together and doing anything. It’s sort of weird to hear this weakly Marxist social-democratic pap which used to be shouted from the rooftops now being whispered in a low monotonous whine. The author avows his fealty to Jeremy Bentham, not Marx, and calls it utilitarianism not Marxism, but there are many illegitimate fathers along this line of thought.

The root of the idea is that, now that neuroscience has supposedly made it possible to actually identify what makes us happy, the idea of happiness has become quantifiable, and hence a program of providing the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people has become objectively possible. However, the author does not make the slightest effort to apply these wonders of modern science to actually determining what the alleged sources of human happiness are. The neuroscience tack is really just a defensive ploy to ward off the eternal charges that utilitarinism is simply a euphemism for an authoritarian imposition of values. As for espousing his positive program for what constitutes human happiness, it is simply the usual liberal middle-class canards, with not surprisingly a socialist edge: more time to spend with family, a decent wage for everyone, blah blah blah. But he seems to make two pretty criminally unsubstantiated assumptions: one is these sources are essentially the same for everyone, or at least could be under certain conditions, and the other is that they do not inherently conflict with anyone else’s.

I say under certain conditions could be, because in evaluating our current society he seems to privilege envy of other’s material well-being as the principal determinant of happiness. His theory is that above a certain level of material subsistence people are motivated primarily by status-seeking and the desire for a high rank within their social group. Therefore, the increasing wealth of the society will not increase happiness because people measure their well-being relative to the group, not by their absolute prosperity. This is always been a flaw in the concept of the “war against poverty”; I’m not sure it’s much of an argument for socialist economic redistribution. But actually if you read his section on the value of income taxes carefully, he doesn’t even seem to be arguing that they are useful insofar as they can be redirected to the less prosperous, although he does evidently believe that a certain amount of money contributes more to the happiness of a poor person than to a rich one’s. Rather, he seems to think that taking money away from the properous is valuable in and of itself, because it will supposedly make them less focused on the “rat race,” more family-oriented, etc., etc. In short he seems to be advocating a net impoverishment of society.

All of which may be consistent with the program of a good little socialist, but does not necessarily accord marvelously with his own evidence about the supposedly quantified happiness of humanity. The research that he cites non-specifically supposedly indicates that people’s feeling of happiness has not risen in the last half-century, but he does not cite anything which indicates that it has necessarily declined. He cites rising rates of depression and crime as presumably implicit indicators of greater unhappiness, but he does not seem to acknowledge the possibility that in our hyper-medicated and surveillance-based society perhaps people simply report depression and crime more. In any event, if roughly similar numbers of people today as in the ‘50’s report themselves happy (and we believe them), despite the increase in prosperity, that might perhaps indicate that happiness is not fixed to material well-being. Which may be consistent with his general point, but not with his idea of increasing happiness by manipulating income levels.

And even if it did, it seems rather difficult to countenance any social program predicated upon appealing to one of humanity’s most depraved instincts, namely envy. The author acknowledges that his ideal of taxation is mainly motivated by the desire to pander to people’s envy, but he seems to think that their envy will be sated by the loss of prosperity of those around them and that after that point there will be no more. So the envy of the less prosperous will be satisfied by the losses accrued by the more prosperous, which will somehow not be counter-balanced by the chagrin of the more prosperous at the prospect of seeing their status diminished. Very logical.

One of the more egregious presumptions of utilitarians is that non-utilitarian social systems somehow aren’t concerned with seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of people. On the contrary, that’s the defining problem of practically every social and political theory I can think of, and they all either seek or claim to have found the answer—whether such a solution exists, I have my doubts, but that’s why I’m a skeptic about politics. This is a handy trick by utilitarians: they say “I believe in the greatest good for the greatest number of people.” Which is practically begging the question: “As opposed to whom?” It’s useful because it tends to conceal the fact that their real agenda is generally somewhat more specific, and tends to consist in the autocratic notion that one or two measures of social living can be authoritatively determined to be the sources of happiness, and then divided up in a centralized fashion. Those that are the most insistent on the idea of liberty are generally those that are the most skeptical about the possibility of the notion of happiness being either quantitatively defined or generalizable. In other words, only indviduals can determine their own sources of happiness.

For the author, on the other hand, the fact that certain stimuli trigger certain areas of the brain at the times when test subjects profess pleasure has solved the problem of determining happiness. Of course, as mentioned, he never really bothers with the results that those studies have yielded. Somehow the fact that he considers envy to be a principal element of human happiness does not place very severe limits on the harmoniousness of individual happiness. Nor does it constitute a tyranny of the majority, because he claims that in an ideal utilitarian society the happiness of the most unhappy would be considered of pre-eminent importance. Of course, at the beginning of the article he cited the equal importance of each individual’s happiness as the fouding tenet of his theory, but I’m sure it all sorts out in the end.

Among social factors responsible for unhappiness, he cites divorce and unemployment as of pre-eminent importance. Of course, rates of both divorce and unemployment in the crassly materialistic and religious United States are much lower than in the much more overtly utilitarian-embracing Europe, but it would be a bit embarassing for him to admit this after avowing that all traditional value-systems outside of utilitarianism and “individualism” are dead.

Personally the question of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people doesn’t exactly compel me constantly, although the issue of personal happiness tends to impose itself intransigently. I would have thought that evolutionary biology would have provided an adequate explanation of this, as well as the recurrence of what we call altruism. But such an idea of course suggests that happiness, whatever that is, is not really the point of our little existences, and that the more imperious competitiveness of life will ultimately subvert all of these little trifles of pleasure and pain. But in the meantime, we have these debased statistical notions of happiness to amuse us in an idle hour.

It seems to me that if one’s “objective” measure of happiness is electrical stimulation in the cerebral cortex, the most efficient utilitarian solution to the problem of human happiness would be strap everyone onto hospital gurneys and stimulate the “happiness” part of their brain all day long. If one does not wish to be this deterministic about it, perhaps one should allow more latitute to individuals to discover their own conception of happiness. Personally, I have found happiness generally to be an idea for the unhappy and something rarely spoken of by the happiness; mention of practically guarantees that it is not present in the environment where it is uttered. I don’t deny that what you might call love is the real bridge between personal happiness and moral obligations, and the only true means by which the desires of oneself and of others are united, but such a sentiment can never be mandated; it is entirely resistant to intellectual compulsion. Utilitarianism, which sometimes does a decent job of faking morality, is nevertheless ultimately predicated on the pleasure principle, and hence is wholly inadequate to uniting the moral and the pleasurable except when love truly pertains. In that case, of course, political theory is entirely superfluous, which is why this is all a waste of time.

p.s. I don’t claim that people’s behavior necessarily reflects what really would make them happy, but presumably it does at least reflect what they consciously value. Hence, if I were the author I would have been a bit skeptical of using the results of “surveys” of what people claim to value when the results don’t correlate with their behavior, i.e. they claim that spending time with family is most important, but they spend a disproportiante amount of time working (at least according to him). So either people are not really being forthright (consciously or unconsciously) in responding to surveys, or there is not actually a problem of priorities. In either case, he’s way over-valuing surveys as a guide to what will make people happy.

JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler enables you to decompile and edit the content of SWF Flash files, including .swf, .gfx and .swc. You can view and extract resources (shapes, sprites, fonts, buttons...), c....

Posted without comment for your consternation:

On Labor Day, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) issued a press release whose title summarizes its contents all too neatly: Bush Declares Eco-Whistleblower Law Void for EPA Employees. Here's some of it:

Washington, DC - The Bush administration has declared itself immune from whistleblower protections for federal workers under the Clean Water Act, according to legal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result of an opinion issued by a unit within the Office of the Attorney General, federal workers will have little protection from official retaliation for reporting water pollution enforcement breakdowns, manipulations of science or cleanup failures.

We spent the second quarter of 2006 testing the original "beta" concept site for the Personal Bee. We spent the summer implementing everything we had learned. Now we are ready and have released the Bee to the world.

http://www.personalbee.com

You Can Be A Media Mogul

The idea is simple. Anyone one the world can create their own news site. You choose the topic. You choose the content sources. You brand your site. You decide which stories are important and which to remove... You are the master of your topic domain and can build a base of subscribers into a media empire.

Enjoy the Bee. Send your comments and suggestions!

Ted Shelton, CEO
The Personal Bee, Inc.
tshelton @ personalbee.com

The list of short english words written in Devanagari.

egrep -x '.{1,2}' eng_words.txt

ऑनऑफऑलटीटूडेडॉदफीलॉसन

A bit of an oddity for their label, Mo Wax, Parsley Sound was, at their most effective, a bit of dreamy indie-pop coming from a downtempo production approach. Sweet and gentle, a little twee, heavily filtered and electrified, despite pursuing a color palette that's au naturel, creaky, sun-bleached.

Perhaps this is what would've happened if Lemon Jelly had gotten Elliott Smith in the studio.

Recommended

Highly Recommended

The Movie:

Written and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and based on a novel by Josepeh Kessel, 1969's Army Of Shadows begins when a French man named Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura) is hauled into an internment camp in the Nazi occupied France of 1942. Here he meets a few of his bunkmates and befriends a young communist who helps him plan an escape. Before that happens, however, he's released. He winds up back in Marseille where he reconnects with members of The French Resistance whose first order of the day is to execute a member of their own group who, under pressure from German forces, essentially squealed on them. As the walls in the building as paper thin' and there's no good knife around, the young man is strangled, his body left covered on a mattress in the corner of the room.

From here we get to know some of Gerbier's collaborators such as Le Masque (Claude Mann),...Read the entire review

In this topical message for our current cataclysmic times, David brings light from a passage of scripture he considers as the most relevant for this moment - Hebrews 12:25-29. How do we survive, or even better, thrive and overcome in this time of great shaking? This message, entitled 'The Great Shaking', helps us to know how to receive the kingdom that cannot be shaken, whilst the things that can be shaken all around us are being removed. This timely sermon is available now from https://www.preachtheword.com in MP3 audio format...

In this topical message on revival, David relays some visions and dreams from God, indicating the shaking in the heavenly realm at this time in history and the need for us to be 'ready' in the day of God's power (Psalm 110:3). This message is available now from https://www.preachtheword.com in MP3 audio format...

*Click on comic to see larger image. :)

I just returned home from seeing the doctor and sweet baby girl has flipped again. I guess she just likes being breech. So, we have decided it's best to have a csection. There were many factors I discussed with my doctor before making this decision. He delivered every single one of our kids and I'm so glad it appears that he will also be taking care of Miss Charlotte. We have our date and, Lord willing, she will be here end of next week. Hopefully, the next post will have a picture of our new little one!

Autor: Redakcija 031 Naslov: Centar za kulturu Čepin: Stand-up comedy show "Ja sam ti takav"
Postano: 13.11.2024. 8:14 (GMT 1) Tomislav Primorac, poznati stand-up komičar i predstavnik SplickeScene, sa showom „Ja sam ti takav“ stiže u Centar za kulturu Čepin. Nastupit će u petak, 15. studenog 2024. u 20 sati.

O komičaru Tomislavu Primorcu
Ovaj stand-up komičar prepoznatljiv je po svom britkom humoru i specifičnom stilu. Opisuje se kao „poludalmatinac“ i „poluhercegovac“ te kao mitološko biće kojeg se boje svi Purgeri. Iako je diplomirani fizičar, odlučio je krenuti putem komedije, što je izazvalo razočaranje njegovih roditelja. Njegov je životni san da bude zapamćen poput Nikole Tesle – ali ne iz altruističnih razloga, već da bi se Dalmatinci i Hercegovci svađali na temu čiji je.

Njegov humor balansira između svakodnevnih situacija i dubljih promišljanja o životu. Cilj mu je pronaći ga u onome što svi proživljavaju. Publiku svih uzrasta - od studenata do sredovječnih muškaraca i baka - uspijeva nasmijati svojom domišljatošću i logikom.

O showu „Ja sam ti takav“
Show „Ja sam ti takav“ dinamičan je i emotivno duboko uronjen u svakodnevni život. Primorac koristi humor kako bi razotkrio obiteljske odnose, kulturne razlike i jezične analize, pri čemu se obraća svima - bez obzira na dob ili društveni status. Ovaj show pruža priliku za smijeh i razmišljanje o životu kroz komične, ali istinite situacije.

„Ne propustite priliku za uživanje u ovom jedinstvenom stand-up iskustvu u Čepinu. Garantiramo večer prepunu smijeha i dobre energije“, poručili su Arlekin Comedyja, organizatora ovog događanja.

Kako do ulaznica?
Ulaznice se prodaju po cijeni od 10 eura. Mogu se kupiti online u sustavima Core event i Adriaticket. Fizička prodaja vrši se na lokacijama: caffe bar Onyx, TISAK+ (Gacka ulica 10), TISAK Media Portanova (uz dodatni trošak od 1 eura). Rezervacije su moguće pozivom na broj 098 977 25 41 (Arlekin Comedy), na kojem je moguće dobiti i dodatne informacije.

Sometimes Excel spreadsheets contain locked sheets that cannot be updated without entering a password. This free online utility removes the password protection from any Excel spreadsheet.

With a little bit of programming expertise and the help of a Java library called JExcelApi, we can fairly easily unlock an Excel spreadsheet. This article explains how.

GlassFish provides features to make it easy to develop stand alone, Java Swing based EJB clients. In this article we explain how to take advantage of these features.