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Business Travel: 4 Products That Can Change Your Life

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If you want to travel happy you have to know how to travel light. These 4 products That Can Change Your Life. I began my career working for the International Finance Corporation. In hindsight, I realize it was a pretty cool job. One of the most challenging and exciting parts of the job was the travel. I'd have to hop on planes with short notice and head to places like Nicaragua, Bolivia, Uganda and Slovenia. After my time at IFC, I continued to travel for business and for adventure. I met other … [Read more...]

4 Businesses That Are So Weird, They’re Successful

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Be bold, be daring, be weird. That's what these companies did and have yet to look back. Sometimes there are Businesses That Are So Weird. The product they sell is so different that the common sense point of view is that they’ll fail. This year, however, an unusually large number of companies that fall into the “weirdo” category are succeeding. J&D’s Foods, Kings Of Bacon Americans love bacon. Last year we bought more than 550 million pounds of it. Some people, however, love bacon more … [Read more...]

From Billions To Bust: Top Entrepreneurs Who Lost It All

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Can you be too rich to go broke? Sadly, no. The past year saw more than a few billionaires wind up with nothing. Find out what did them in so you don't suffer the same fate. What’s the fastest way to end up with a million dollars? Starting with two million dollars. It can take a lifetime to build a fortune but only a few bad decisions to lose it all. No matter how much money you have, it is possible to wind up with nothing; and recently a number of famous billionaires have done just that. … [Read more...]

What Would Judge Judy Do?

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She has been ranked more trustworthy than the Supreme Court, beat Oprah Winfrey in ratings and makes $47 million per season. Here are 5 things Judge Judy Sheindlin can teach you about success. December 06, 2013Judy Sheindlin, the New York family court judge turned TV star, is by all measures a great success. She is happily married. Her program, Judge Judy, is the number-one syndicated show on daytime TV with more than 9 million daily viewers. She even beat The Oprah Winfrey Show in ratings … [Read more...]

9 Buzzwords That Can Make You Sound Dumb

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Are you guilty of using buzzwords like "pivot" or "bandwidth"? When used incorrectly or excessively, buzzwords can do some serious damage. Language reveals a great deal about a person. The words you choose, how you choose to say them and to whom you say them gives clues about your level of education, your comfort level, even your outlook on life. One of the worst language mistakes you can make in a business setting is using buzzwords the wrong way or after they've already “jumped the shark.” … [Read more...]

Be Like Bezos: 5 Lessons From A Business Icon

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Jeff Bezos took Amazon from sales of $7,000 to $1 billion a week. A new biography, The Everything Store, shines a spotlight on his incredible accomplishments. Who is the most admired tech entrepreneur in the world today? Most people will reply Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs or perhaps Elon Musk. Fewer people would reply Jeff Bezos. After reading The Everything Store, a recently published biography of Jeff Bezos written by Brad Stone, however, my answer is Bezos. Bezos … [Read more...]

Dark Search: How Google Is Quietly Killing SEO

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By encrypting users' search queries, Google is cutting off its search data supply. Without it, SEO could become obsolete. What's a business to do? Google recently celebrated its 15th birthday. Without question, it’s the most successful teenager in history. In just a decade and a half, the company has gone from an obscure startup founded by students in a garage to one of the most important companies in operation today. Google’s current stock price is above $1,000, and with a total market … [Read more...]

How To Protect Your Cash Against Rising Inflation

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Inflation rates have been low, but that's about to change in 2014, because of rising inflation. Protect your cash now before rising inflation takes it away from you. The greatest risks to your business are those that go largely ignored by owners. Inflation is one of those forgotten risks. It hasn’t been on most businesses’ radars because inflation has been kept under control for the past five years, averaging only 1.6 percent annually across key consumer goods. However, history and economics … [Read more...]

Anatomy Of A Business Pivot

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Is your business stuck in a rut or, even worse, failing? If so, it might be time to consider a business pivot. The "business pivot" is all the rage in technology startup circles. The phrase coined by The Lean Startup author Eric Ries refers to the process a company goes through when it fails to achieve its vision and, in order to redeem itself, tries an often radically different approach.There are many famous examples of pivots in the technology world: Twitter began as Odeo, a podcast … [Read more...]

9 Key Business Lessons From TV’s Top Entrepreneurs

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Who says you can't learn anything on TV? From Walter White to Duck Dynasty, here are lessons we can all use to grow our businesses. Hollywood often gets a bad rap for making TV programs and movies that are devoid of reality. Whether it’s CSI using technology that hasn’t been invented yet or Law & Order solving crimes in 60 minutes that in reality would take months or years to solve, writers don’t always get it right. It’s a different story when it comes to entrepreneurship, however. In … [Read more...]