For the same reasons a resume is never enough to get you the job you really want, no one hires a new employee based on their resume alone. Qualifications, education, experience, it all matters, but most hiring managers quickly scan and sort resumes before moving on to the next step in the hiring process.

So how can you get better at reviewing resumes to identify the candidates you want to interview? The following is from Simon Wistow, the co-founder and VP of Product Strategy at Fastly, who looks for three key things on every resume.

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There are sources for women or minority entrepreneurs and virtually anyone else.

The money may not be enough to keep you afloat for several years, but it can make a big difference. Here are 13 places to find small-business grants. And although there is no way to know if LendingTree will repeat its $50,000 small-business grant competition, it still has information on applying for grants and what grant issuers are looking for.

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Every successful leader or entrepreneur has used creativity to help them get to where they are today. In fact, creativity is a core component to anyones success. Take a look at J.K. Rowling -- using creativity and imagination, she created a successful franchise full of witches and wizards. Or how about Steve Jobs? Without creatively thinking about the simplest, sleekest way to create products for consumers, Apple would have never been born.

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So much of success is knowing when to stay the course, even when you’re met with rejection after rejection.

30-year-old Melanie Perkins has been launching creative businesses since she was a teenager. Her first venture, designing and selling handmade scarves to sell in her hometown of Perth, Australia, was launched when she was just 14.  

At the age of 22, Perkins founded her next company, an online system for schools to design their yearbooks called Fusion Books. Today, Fusion Books is the largest yearbook publisher in Australia and has a presence in France and New Zealand.

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Below I have outlined three circumstances that should give you pause about the timing of asking for a raise:

1.You have been out of school for less than a year.
2.Your job has not changed at all.
3.You have not made your company any more money.

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There are a lot of reasons to hate a job: annoying co-workers; bad working conditions; long hours for too little pay; the stress level; and more.

But one of the worst things -- arguably the worst -- is having a bad boss.

When you don't feel seen, appreciated, or listened to by your direct manager, it can have a dramatic impact on not only your work performance, but also your sense of self-esteem. Over time, you can begin to feel anxious, worthless, and demoralized.

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U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry today announced that the Department of Energy will award 219 grants totaling $34 million to 183 small businesses in 41 states.  Funded through DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, todays selections are for Phase I research and development.  

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Growing your business is an exciting task. It means customers are receiving your business well and you are bringing in a profit.

But, growing your business can be intimidating. Many things have the potential to go wrong. That’s why you need a plan. When you know what to do and what to avoid, you can avoid stumbling.

Use the following seven dos and do nots to successfully grow your business.


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Technology has started to feel like a four-letter word these days—especially in the business world. Stand by the water cooler and you might hear chatter among employees about what programs, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, will mean for the future of jobs.

As this technology comes to life, many people fear for their professional future. They worry that robots will soon sit at their desks while they’re out on the street struggling to find work.

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If you do not have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Remember this one, from, like, kindergarten? Apologies are one thing, but better to just avoid the whole thing altogether. Note: this is not the same thing as ignoring criticism. There are constructive ways of responding, though, that will not send your companys stocks plummeting.

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Have you ever shared bad news with coworkers, employees or partners? As much as we don't want to shoot the messenger, sometimes we associate negative feelings with the person who tells us bad news.

Work is hard enough as is. You do not need a negative halo effect associated with you, especially if a situation was out of your control. For example, maybe you and a partner organization submitted a proposal and were waiting to hear back from a Fortune 1000 client. The client tells you that another company out-bid you with a lower quote.

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Entrepreneurs start their own businesses or side hustles--which you can do in just a few hours--for a variety of reasons. Some want to be their own boss. Others want to make their living by doing something they love. Others seek the opportunity to make a bigger difference in the lives of others.

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Running a business often means you have your hands in every aspect of the company. You are managing day-to-day tasks and making crucial business decisions all at the same time. It's no wonder small-business owners can often lose sight of the forest for the trees and get mired in the task of simply getting through each day.

Taking a step back gives you a tremendous amount of insight that not only reenergizes you to keep going, but can lead to crucial business decisions that transform and grow your business. Finding a way to build that inspiration into your life is not just a luxury—it is a necessity if you want to maintain a thriving business.

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There's a lot of advice out there for the lazy and unmotivated: Take baby steps! Set a timer! Enlist an accountability partner! But what if the best way to tackle lack of motivation is not to give any sort of advice at all, but to ask for it instead?

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The end of the calendar year is a natural time to reassess how your business did in the previous 12 months and then devise a plan for improving. By almost every measure, 2018 was a good year for the economy. Small business optimism is high, holiday sales were the strongest in years, unemployment is low, and consumer confidence hit an 18-year high in September before tempering a bit in November.

It would be hard to duplicate the atmosphere that prevailed in 2018. The impact of President Trump’s tax cuts will lessen, interest rates have risen again, and the Dow Jones dropped from 25,862.43 on December 3 to 21,792.20 on Christmas Eve, a sign that the economy may be slowing.

Small business owners need to take all of these factors into account.

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As a Texas real estate broker, one of the things I do at my company, Goodwin Commercial, is educate our clients on the commercial investment process. We offer a step-by-step process evaluation to protect our clients when making the decision to go from leasing to purchasing a property for their business. That process often includes making recommendations about how they might leverage a good situation or opportunity into a great one, often via strategic financing and purchasing decisions. In this case, the couple initially tried to go the SBA (U.S. Small Business Administration) route but were turned down by the first national bank they approached. They were definitely discouraged!

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Here are the statistics and headlines that you should be aware of.

Facebook Popularity
Facebook has more than 2.2 billion active members around the world.
More than 1.6 billion people around the world have used Facebook to connect with a small business.
More than 80 million businesses use Facebook to connect with customers.
But it’s not all about growth. 42 percent of U.S. adults have taken a break from Facebook for a few weeks or more.
44 percent of younger users have deleted the Facebook app from their phones in the past year.
But only 12 percent of older users have done so.

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Owning or running a small business comes with a special set of challenges that larger companies do not face. Major national brands have a lot of advantages, with the biggest one being that a single misstep probably won't derail a business.

That is not always true for owners of small businesses, where the distance between success and failure can be precarious. Sometimes seemingly small decisions can send a smaller company on a course that can't be corrected.

In some cases, however, it is possible to plan ahead to avoid certain pitfalls.

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The latest report from Clutch says 39% of small businesses will add sales and marketing employees.

This data point underscores the importance of sales and marketing in today’s digital commerce. You must optimize websites, social media channels and eCommerce sites to make it happen. And you need sales and marketing employees to do  the heavy lifting.

Some small businesses have already created a digital presence. And the job of sales and marketing generally goes to in-house staff. This job often goes to employees with the necessary skill sets or to someone learning on the job. But remember how important these positions figure in the company’s growth.

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Cybersecurity remains one of the most challenging issues for small business owners. And the problem leads small business owners to seek out managed service providers to present them with solutions.

But a new report from Continuum says the state of cybersecurity among small businesses in 2019 still needs to improve. The data suggests great opportunities for service providers who offer cyber security as part of their package.

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There can come days, however, when it all feels the same and very old.

That is when we steel ourselves and insist on being creative.

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Grow or die.

It sounds like the title of a rap song, but its actually the business idea that if your company does not grow, it is probably not going to make it. The reality is that you don't need to get bigger. What you need is a stream of customers to replace the ones that move, buy from you a little less, or have other life circumstances that change the level of business they do with you.

Yes, it is nice to add business and grow.

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Surprising new research from NYU and the Wharton School shows that entrepreneurs who start a business on their own are likelier to succeed than those who do so with one or more partners.

That's pretty much the opposite of what most aspiring founders would guess. After all, you can't be good at everything. You might be a marketing expert but not know how to manage cash flow. Or you might good at building great products but bad at setting prices for them. So you team up with someone who's strong in the areas where you're weak, and you start the business together.

This reasoning seems logical, and it is how most people--even experts--see entrepreneurship. In fact, it is such an ingrained belief that VCs and other investors routinely choose to fund companies founded by teams rather than those with a solo founder.

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Diction or word choice is important when it comes to drafting your resume, not just to ensure that your resume is reviewed positively by software, but also because you want to wow recruiters with your skills, competencies and relevant credentials.

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To say the United States has many small businesses would be an understatement — according to JP Morgan Chase & Co., more than 99% of Americas businesses are included in this category. Collectively, they contribute $5.9 trillion dollars to the economy every year.

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Adaptability, hustle and momentum are everything, especially in todays competitive, ever-changing technological environment. If only your employees would spend fewer hours on social media and more time perfecting their individual crafts, your business would easily outpace less efficient competitors, allowing you to live the entrepreneurial dream you’ve always wanted.

But how can you instill a greater sense of urgency without making everyone miserable at work?

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A lack of available workers will make the holiday season a challenge for companies of all sizes. Some of the bigger retailers have already begun ramping up their seasonal hiring efforts. That puts more pressure on small business owners to figure out how to meet their holiday season employee needs sooner rather than later.

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Eleni Gianopulos spent more than 15 years selling her handmade sugar cookies to a famous gourmet grocery chain. Then Dean & DeLuca stopped paying its bills. By January 2018, Gianopulos, founder and owner of New York City-based bakery Elenis Cookies, realized that she might never be paid for $86,000 worth of 2017 custom holiday orders.

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Entrepreneurs have seized the opportunity to start new companies in a wide variety of industries during the Covid-19 pandemic. While not all of these ventures will be successful, businesses that help alleviate some of the new challenges created by the pandemic are poised for long-term growth. Here are three industries that hold promising opportunities for entrepreneurs looking to start new businesses.

1. Contactless Tech
2. Telehealth
3. Education Tech

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

Title: What Are the 3 Stages of Psychosis?
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 1/4/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 1/4/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: Psychosis Risk Rises When People Abuse 'Speed'
Category: Health News
Created: 2/15/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 2/15/2022 12:00:00 AM

Except for McGehee, you all come here for American Idol updates, don't you? Or, perhaps, to mock me for my...

Since Playgirl editor-in-chief, Michele Zipp, has outed herself as a Republican, can a Conservative Men of the Blogosphere special...

"I am not a good manager."

I say this to people often, and most of them think I am joking because... well, because people don't say things like that about themselves if they're true and also, I have cultivated some skill in building strong teams that accomplish what they are asked to do. [1].

But I am serious when I say that. for three reasons:

1. I really have to work hard to do the organizational parts of a manager's job (the reports, the budgeting, the note taking, the meetings, the scheduling, the selling of initiatives, etc)... and I don't enjoy any of it.
2. I don't do well at optimizing for efficiency.
3. I don't have much use for roles, particularly ones that tend to specialize activities and artificially segment the work needed to solve the problem (and the skill set of those seeking to do so).

Like most programmers, I suck at estimates, I am motivated first by a need to solve interesting problems, and only secondarily at reaping the benefits of doing so, and I have zero desire to "be in charge of others." I also hate process for process sake and generally piss off any project managers foolish enough to work with me (though I am good friends with several).

So, how do I build teams and software? By treating efficiency - and even the primary goal of the team - as a secondary effect, and optimizing instead for... for what?

Well, until recently I had been (in my head, because I didn't feel too comfortable saying this out loud) using the word: "happiness." Of the members of the team, of my boss, my employer, our customers and (importantly, but until recently neglectedly) me. Make all of these folks happy, and everything just works.

Uncomfortable because this is a tough sell to accounting-type folks - and anyone who prepares budgets. "Naive", "Crazy" and "Ridiculous" are what I expect to hear. And the reason I expect to hear it is because it seems really risky - even terrifying - to them when I say anything that implies I'm not thinking about cost and value and ROI, and all those other business terms.

But I am. I'm thinking about them all the time. I just don't agree with them on how to optimize them.

Also, "happiness" is not quite right: some people are quite happy to do nothing, others are only happy when they are padding their egos at the expense of others, and a whole lot of other types of "happiness" that I don't optimize for. No, it's a specific kind of happiness - especially inside the team - that I am trying to maximize. Joy of doing one's best, professionalism, craftsmanship, cultivating flow, the need for slack. All dancing around it. All not quite it...

I recently mentioned here (and on twitter and facebook) that I'm re-reading Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. And it's blowing me away. Again. I read it a really long time ago - so long ago, that I had forgotten all of the details and only remembered: "That book really moved me and shaped my thinking."

What's been blowing me away is realizing how much it has done that. And so, I've been expecting for days now to find in it somewhere something that supported my view since Pirsig's focus on Quality and Care (not to mention technology) are very similar to my feelings of "optimize for happiness." But it still hadn't felt quite right yet...

...until, today. And I found it: The Greek word: Aretê (translated as "virtue" or "excellence") is a central part of any course on Greek philosophy and I had several classes in college where it was discussed. I was waiting for it to come up in the book (it doesn't until chapter 29) and when it did, I realized I was getting closer. Then, this quote:

"Aretê implies a respect for the wholeness or oneness of life, and a consequent dislike of specialization. It implies a contempt for efficiency - or rather a much higher idea of efficiency, an efficiency which exists not in one department of life but in life itself." ~ Pirsig, Robert M. (2009-04-10). Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (p. 360). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

And like a key fitting a lock, there it was: I believe that teams (organizations!) should be optimized for Aretê; that teams should be staffed with those who - like Hector the tragic hero of ancient Troy - seek excellence (in their work and in achieving the team's goals) for it's own sake and are not happy unless they are free to pursue it; and finally that the team's success (which will still be a function of external perception of value) will be a natural outgrowth of this process and any attempts to shortcut it (e.g. in the name of efficiency) will actually serve to reduce the team's effectiveness.

With this compass in hand, I can see now that what at times appeared to be random objections to process changes and my novel (some would say crazy) alternatives and experiments over the years have really been about trying to keep everyone focused on maximizing the ability to pursue excellence.

So, now I'm saying it: If you want to build great teams who reliably ship results: Don't optimize for efficiency, optimize for the pursuit of Aretê.

[1] Those who've worked with me on those teams can attest, I've done so by getting the team building part - and my role in it - wrong a lot, but learning from it.

Played an interesting practice game last Friday (1/12) evening with one of my fellow DRW chess teammates, Oliver Gugenheim. After my stupendous blunder last week, I'm interested in playing some practice games - both to drill my pre-move thinking process, and because there's nothing like a bad loss to motivate one to start playing again...

Oliver and I wound up exploring a sharp line of the French defense - an opening I have historically not enjoyed playing as white, and so had started learning more about the past week. Oliver (without us discussing it) obliged me by playing a line I had looked at that day so we went a good way into the "book" before (very quickly thereafter) reaching crazy territory.

The most interesting bit tho, is actually black's move: 9. ... f6. The conclusion I got from this analysis, is that 9. ... f5 is better (see below for more) and so this was a useful game for this analysis alone...

All in all, it was interesting to play, and gave me the opportunity to practice the things above... and it gave Oliver a chance to fend off a ridiculous attack (which is always satisfying if a bit scary at times). Here's the game and my notes (Time Control is G30 with 5 second increment):

And so, QED on this idea. My conclusion: better off building an attack here as White's got the ball. Also, for a bishop sac to have any chance, white really needs another piece. Perhaps once the f-pawn were advanced and White has castled, the possibilty of lifting a rook with tempo might be enough to give the sac some teeth. It'd be interesting to see if I can find any Winawer games with a bishop sac on h7 (if I do, perhaps I'll write a follow-up; regardless, looking at how White attacks here should be fun.)

It's 2021 in some places already, creeping around the planet. Pretty soon it will have reached Hawaii, and it'll be 2021 everywhere, and 2020 will be done.

Well, that was a year. Kind of a year, anyway.

When my Cousin Helen and her two sisters reached a displaced persons camp at the end of WW2, having survived the Holocaust by luck and bravery and the skin of their teeth, they had no documents, and the people who gave them their papers suggested to them that they put down their ages as five years younger than they were, because the Nazis had stolen five years from them, and this was their only chance to take it back. They didn't count the war years as part of their life.

I could almost do that with 2020. Just not count it as one of the years of my life. But I'd hate to throw the magic out with the bathwater: there were good things, some of them amazing, in with the awful.

The hardest moments, in retrospect, were the deaths, of friends or of family, because they simply happened. I'd hear about them, by text or by phone, and then they'd be in the past. Funerals I would have flown a long way to be at didn't happen and nobody went anywhere: the goodbyes and the mutual support,  the hugs and the tears and the trading stories about the deceased, none of that occurred.

The hardest moments personally were walking further into the darkness than I'd ever walked before, and knowing that I was alone, and that I had no option but to get through it all, a day at a time, or an hour at a time, or a minute at a time.

The best moments were moments of friendship, most of them from very far away, and a slow appreciation of land and sky and space and time. In February 2020 I'd been regretting that I knew where I would be and what I would be doing every day for the next three years. Now I'd been forced to embrace chaos and unpredictability, while at the same time, learning to appreciate the slow day to day transition that happens when you stay in the same place as the seasons change. I was seeing a different sunset every night.  I hadn't managed to be in the same place, or even the same country, for nine months since... well, probably when I was writing American Gods in 2000. And now I was, most definitely, in one place.

I had conversations with people I treasure. Some of them were over Zoom and were recorded. Here are the two conversations that I felt I learned the most from, and I put them up here because they may also teach you something or give you comfort. The first is a conversation with Nuclear Physicist and author Carlo Rovelli, moderated by Erica Wagner, about art and science, literature and life and death:

The rumours are true. Well, the good ones are, anyway. Netflix is delighted and thrilled that so many of you, all over the world, have been watching and loving Sandman, which means that the thing we were all hoping would happen...?

It's happened.

And that's not all! You dared to Dream (and, y'know, kept asking me when and whether they were ever going to show up). And it's happening! The Sandman profile icons are coming to Netflix! Let joy be unconfined!

(I'm going to be Goldie. No, Matthew. No, Goldie.)

Title: Sjogren's Syndrome
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 12/31/1997 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/1/2022 12:00:00 AM

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 25, 2024 ) The global polysilicon market is projected to expand significantly, fueled by the rising demand for solar panels and electronic devices. With the photovoltaic segment dominating the market, polysilicon plays a vital role in solar energy production. Asia-Pacific...

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(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 25, 2024 ) The report "Plastic Compounds Market by Product (PVC, PP, PE, PS, PA, PC, PET, PU, ABS), Source, End-use Industry (Automotive, Packaging, Electrical & Electronics, Building & Construction, Consumer Goods, Medical), and Region - Global Forecast to 2029 " The global...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 26, 2024 ) The industrial cybersecurity market was USD 84.54 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach up to USD 135.11 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 9.8 %. Rising government and private investments to create safe and secure industrial environment, deployment of AI/Gen...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 27, 2024 ) PET Bottle Market overview PET bottles are plastic containers crafted from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is a form of polyester resin. PET plastic is clear, durable, lightweight, and can be recycled. It is resistant to shattering, stable in extreme...

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(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 28, 2024 ) The neuromorphic computing market size is expected to reach USD 1,325.2 million by 2030 growing at a compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 89.7%, from USD 28.5 million in 2024. The globalization of neuromorphic computing would further gain its momentum based on...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 29, 2024 ) Vanilla Market size was valued at US$ 27.66 Bn in 2023 and the total revenue is expected to grow at 5.6% through 27.66 to 2030, reaching nearly US$ 40.51 Bn. What is Vanilla Market Vanilla is the taste found in dishes like ice cream, derived from the vanilla...