Alrighty guys, there’s a new year ahead of us, so let’s start it the right way. Marketing trends are changing way too often, so here’s a list of tools that you may want to use this year to stay ahead of the competition. 1. Ahrefs The rules for an efficient SEO have shifted drastically over the past few years. It’s tough for the modern-day marketer to keep abreast with the latest changes, the new rules, and the growing trends related to SEO. From a historical point of view, the best thing you can do is focus on keywords. Of course, there are lots of different aspects and elements that we should consider. Things like the number of backlinks, the URL rating, and of course, the content you have on your website; these are just a few aspects that you should take into account. Here’s where Ahrefs plays a role. This site will enable you to analyze websites, track social media, build backlinks, and (probably the best thing) analyze your competition. There are lots of neat things you can do with this tool, but, of course, it comes with a price. The cheapest premium plan goes for 99$/month, and the advanced plan will make a 399$ hole in your pocket. However, if you are a marketer, and you want to optimize your site’s performance, you should give it a try. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to start analyzing your website using this tool. 1. Sign up. ( Enjoy the free trial, it gets expensive after 14 days.) 2. Add your site to the dashboard. 3. Add some keywords you want to follow and your location. 4. Start analyzing your website ranking, keywords and backlinks. 2. HARO For a copywriter, every email you receive from HARO is a lottery ticket. HARO is an acronym for “Help A Reporter Out”. This tool (which for some reason is not very popular among advertisers) gives you amazing media opportunities. This is how it works. HARO connects journalists with relevant expert sources, to meet journalists’ demanding deadlines, and enable brands to tell their stories. There are huge media outlets out there using this platform. Mashable, The New York Times, and Fox News are some of the places you could land an article for your brand. 3. Markerly Power influencers are something that you shouldn’t ignore. Contacting at least one influencer should be in your marketing campaign this year. It’s statistically proven that people will more likely buy something if it’s coming from someone they trust. This is the reason that there is so much sponsored content lately, and so many content creators are partnering with brands. Markerly is here to make that influence-advertiser connection better. This tool enables the marketer to get their product in front of the demographic that matters most to their brand. If you want to read more about sponsored content, you can read this article Chad Pollitt wrote for Moz. 4. SlideShare Studies have shown that visual learning improves learning by up to 400%. Photos, or images for that matter, get placed in your long-term memory and transmit messages faster. This is why presentation tools like Slideshare, are so useful when you want to learn about something new. From case studies, to step-by-step guides, Slideshare has everything you could want.  For example, if you want to learn how to install a tracking code in WordPress, you can check out our SlideShare profile where you can read about tracking codes and a lot of other cool stuff. You can get even more creative and create a SlideShare that will attract clients, and embed it in a banner. Here’s a guide on how to do that. 5. Pocket We all love a good blog, article, or a cool video, but sometimes you just don’t have time to read or watch it. I mean, let’s take this article that you’re reading for example. You’ve already read like 500 words, which took you approximately 3 minutes. That’s a lot of time for a busy marketer like you and you probably don’t have the time to read the rest of this article.(although there are some cool stuff coming) This is the moment when Pocket plays a part. After you’ve added an article to Pocket, you could now read it, even if you are offline.  So, if you don’t have the time to read the rest of this article, just Pocket it. 6. Evernote Evernote is like a Pocket for your ideas. We all have that moment when you suddenly get an awesome idea, and you feel like if you don’t write it down in the next minute, you will forget about it. Evernote is here to save that idea from dying. That’s a tad bit dramatic, but the point is that this tool can be very helpful for any creative marketers out there. You can do more than just write ideas, though. You can create to create lists, clip web articles, record audio notes, and more. Give it a try. 7. Google Apps Alright, we all use at least one tool from the Google Apps suite. I use almost everything Google has to offer, and I’m sure that other marketers do the same.I am certain that you, just like myself, use Google Docs to write articles or to share it with your coworkers. One particular tool that I’ve used recently, and it works better than other similar (expensive) tools, is Google Forms. I managed to create an awesome survey for Bannersnack users in less than 5 minutes. You can check it out here if you want to (feel free to take the survey). One thing that you have to keep in mind when you create a survey, using the new Google Forms, is that the new app is still in beta. So, there are a few things that won’t work as well as they should. However, I think that this tool is better than survey monkey or other similar products. 8. Hootsuite Managing social media can be a burden. You either don’t have the time to do it, or you just want to save some time. If you are new to this social media game, or you want to automatize the curating content process and the posting process, Hootsuite is a must have. Their for proprietary software will publish content to your social networks automatically. Hootsuite lets you manage up to 100 social networks and you can share it with up to 10 team members. This tool is trusted and used by huge companies like Ebay, Orange, Levi’s and many others. “We designed HootSuite to be a comprehensive dashboard for agencies, enterprises and consultants using social media to monitor brands, manage campaigns and analyze results. We’ve integrated with the leading social networks — including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn — and now look forward to adding mash-ups through our API as well as adding more reports which business users seek.” Ryan Holmes, CEO @HootSuite 9. Schedugram With over 400+ million users worldwide, Instagram is in the top 5 social media platforms. There are a bunch of reasons why people love Instagram so much. The clutter free experience is something that people appreciate. Going on Instagram feels like going out of the city for a few hours and enjoying the fresh air. “However, sometimes there is just too much noise for me, too. And I just want to relax. I feel like I need a simple platform where I can find the necessary information that I need. Sometimes I use Flipboard just to look around, and sometimes I’m on Medium just to stay away from the noise that Facebook or Twitter is making. But most of the time, I’m on Instagram. Instagram, for me, is the place where I can find inspiration and peacefulness. Or other times, nothing.” Robert Katai, Brand Evangelist Bannersnack. As a brand, you have an enormous responsibility when you post on Instagram; or any other social media platform, for that matter. You should focus more on the content that you post, instead of the posting itself. This is why you should optimise your posting using Schedugram. Schedugram is similar to Hootsuite, but it’s designed specifically for Instagram. You can pre-upload images or videos, schedule content for later and have multiple accounts or multiple users. This third party app will save you some time and money so you should check it out. 10. Iconosquare Ok, so you’ve posted your content on Instagram, but now you have to see how your content is behaving; therefore, you need stats. Posting content without being data-driven can be treacherous. Quoting Lemony Snicket “Those unable to catalog the past are doomed to repeat it.” However, we know that Instagram is not large-handed when it comes to metrics, but don’t worry. There’s a tool for that, too. Iconosquare makes Instagram more comfortable, giving you precious statistical insights for a better understanding of your community and your content. That’s all for today, guys. I’m sure you found at least one of these tools useful. And if you did, I would very much appreciate your feedback in the comments below. If there’s a tool worthy to be added to this list, let me know. Keep being awesome.

Yo Yo Ma concert Rockstar tips for creating a show stopping event Are you ready to rock? You want to host an event because you have something to promote or say or an activity you want to do with a group of people. Awesome, you are well on your way to an epic event! Now let’s take you through a crash course of the 5 keys to put on a spectacle. “Just because you have planned something doesn’t mean it is going to happen.” — Jung Lee Make Your Idea, Gold! How to enhance your event. (travelandleisure.com)You have a great idea but let’s make it gold! Value = Impact Have the Value to your event that can make an impact to your audience. Give it some flair, excitement and even that twist that makes it unique. You have a vision of what you want but what can you add that would exceed your audience’s expectations. Have a theme for your event — Costumed, Movie, or the popular Hawaiian themed. Keep Sakes — items they can take home; aka swag, shirts, trophies. Contest for a big Prize — raffles, drawings, give aways. Have a person of status and high praise in the field at your event — celebrity, spokesperson, guru. I was holding a paintball event and thought, “What would make this memorable? Anyone can go play paintball. What makes my event different?” I decided to add value by making everyone wear business suits. It was a simple twist to paintball and the participants got really excited for it. They were sending me photos of the business suits they were going to wear. Paintball Like A Boss posterHave that ‘MOMENT’ to remember. Its something strong and powerful that impacts your audience. If you are still looking for an idea to hold an event, then look at your skills, interests and find your niche. Once you have an idea then put it into one of these categories. Types of Events Seminars Workshops Tournaments Networking Ceremonies Dinner Launch Activity Party Show There are many others but this is something to work with. Now let’s start rocking! Play Your Hits Give your audience what they want! (stylusedit.wordpress.com)Your audience could be your friends, family, followers, subscribers, colleagues, associations, or a general group of people with similar interests. It’s the good old saying, “KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.” If you are cello rockstar Yo Yo Ma and you want to hold a wood carving workshop making spoons, is that what your fans want? No, they want to see you rock out with your cello out. You have an audience that loves Drake and loves felting. You create a Mythical creature felting class but you want to add value by having Drake sing a 3 song set to end the class. Hiring Drake for a private concert cost $500,000, so you charge $100,000 for your 5 person felting class. No one is going to come. Think smart. So instead, you play Drake music and make it a Create Drake felting class. Win Win. Keep in mind, everyone is putting on events everyday, you have to set yourself apart from the rest while also catering to your audience. “Win the crowd. You will win your freedom.” — Proximo from Gladiator Doors Open and Venue You want me to drive where? At what time? “Sorry, I got lost and couldn’t find it”If Jesus or the Beatles are making their grand return in the valley at 6pm on a Tuesday in traffic, everyone is going to put ‘maybe’ on your Facebook event and not attend. Time and location, like everything else is important. Make sure you set the details so that everyone is able to go your event. I was working with a boutique fashion company that wanted to have a big promotion at 2pm on a Tuesday in Long Beach in a mall. It was a major fail. Their audience was in Venice and at work. No matter who your dj is or how many photo booths, dancers and free giveaways you have; if your audience doesn’t show up, it didn’t happen. The prime times for events is usually weekends and weeknights. Your location is near where your audience is at or where they can get to it. Shout It Out Loud! Marketing, Promotion, Marketing, Promotion. (Universal Pictures)Get your megaphone and drive around neighborhoods yelling about your concert. Make a cool flier, go to your work’s xerox and print out 2,000 copies then hit the streets flyering your town on every street corner, light post, and wall. All of this is a must… if you live in the 1980’s. Welcome to the Land of Millennials and the endless amount of do-it-yourself marketing tools to promote your event. Guns N Roses posted 1 tweet for their reunion concert at the Troubadour on April 1st and mad hysteria occurred to a sold out crowd. You’re not Axel Rose but you have the ability to create some crazy Mad Hysteria of your own through the world wide web! twitter @gunsnrosesImage is Key. Your poster is the ‘face’ of your event. We live in the 2 second attention span era. Create a poster image that will get people’s attention while also having copy that conveys what your event is and why they should go. Put the ‘face’ on your event page. The event page, shows who is coming and it gives you a link to share when you put it through the social sharing gauntlet. Social Sharing Gauntlet — Opening Line Up Create a social sharing strategy that hits each one of these in an ongoing timeline. Social Media — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Linkedin Emails — Friends, family, co-workers, your contact list, business contacts Websites — Blogs, Newszines, Forums Influencers — People who have a large following in your area. Reach out! Compound Content Marketing — Headliners Creating content that you continually build upon is one of the best ways to reach the masses. Videos — Creating videos promoting your event. Make it fun and informative. Blogs — Write your own blogs, do interviews, submit your posts and share. Pictures — Take pictures that you can use for promoting through social media leading up to your event. Network — Networking is marketing. Go to social gathering to promote. This poster was for a Disco Ice Skating Event in January. We went weeks prior to the event to take this picture inside the kiddie rink. Our audience was Chinese International Students. We made it for Friday at 8pm in Santa Monica. Close enough for UCLA students and late enough so they would be able join the event. We pushed it through our social media and email marketing campaigns. The event was a success! Are You With The Band? Team Work Makes the Dream Work Success = Surrounding yourself with strong team members. Whether your event is big or small you need a team. A team allows you to delegate and have them take over some of the work load, so you can focus on the big picture instead of working on the small tasks and details. You don’t see Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones putting the stage together, making food, getting the tickets ready and everything because he has a team. Keith Richards builds the stage, Ronnie Wood makes the food, and Charlie Watts handles the tickets. All of that teamwork allows them to have an amazing concert. I’ve been grateful to have a strong and passionate team for all of my events. What is also important about having a team is that they are there when something goes wrong and it’s going to happen. With a great support team you’ll be able to handle problems of a no show guest speaker, printer breaks down, last minute change of venue, or the food goes bad. You’re team is also there when everything clicks and you have an Epic Event! The most successful event is one that achieves your goals and exceeds your expectations. Now you have the power to create your own show stopping event! You are ready to Rock! Join my EVENTS or Create your own event at HOMMILY.COM

For more than 15 years, Delta Air Lines has been my second home, and its people have been my extended family. So when I was named incoming CEO in February, I knew how I wanted to spend the first few months on the job: Connecting with my Delta family across the globe and hearing firsthand their advice, their questions, their worries and their hopes for the future.  Now that I’ve been officially in the role for about a month, here's what I'd tell anyone starting a new job or getting promoted. The experience will be both exhilarating and humbling. I've gotten great advice from experienced Delta veterans on how to maintain our profitability as we continue to grow as a global company. Younger employees have shown me their infectious enthusiasm and they have taught me a lot about how to reach out to the next generation of travelers and earn their loyalty. And the countless suggestions and examples I have heard on how we can do things better have shown me firsthand that the spirit of innovation is alive and well at Delta. Get out of the office. Visiting old friends and making new ones among our flight attendants, pilots, engineers, maintenance technicians, customer service agents and others reminded me of why I’ve always been enthralled by Delta. It’s because the deep culture here that puts employees at the center of the enterprise. Our culture is what makes us unique, and it’s the most powerful advantage we have over our competitors. Respect the culture. CEOs always talk about their company's culture. But it is especially critical at a global airline like Delta, where the performance of our people is the chief factor ensuring a smooth operation and making sure our customers receive the experience they deserve. Just consider that on every flight, a small team of Delta pilots and flight attendants operates a $100 million asset. They ensure the safety and comfort of more than 100 people. And at 35,000 feet, they do it with virtually no oversight from management. The performance of that flight crew and those on the ground supporting them can impact multiple other flights, because every delay slows other flights later in the day in a "ripple effect" than can snarl operations nationwide, leaving customers frustrated and unhappy. The level of trust that we must have with our people to make everything work on nearly 5,000 flights every day is unprecedented. Recognize — and reward — your team. When I'm asked how Delta achieved the status of the most reliable of the major airlines, and one routinely recognized for great customer service, I always point to the performance of our people and the culture that underlies it. During the difficult years after 9-11, it was the employee-focused culture that kept Delta alive, even after many had written us off. Our employees literally saved the airline, and they are similarly responsible for Delta's success today. But keeping a values-based culture vibrant and alive isn't easy. It takes a relentless focus and commitment, and it has to be more than just lip service. That's why we have invested heavily in our people, and they know they will share in the company's success. One of the first things I did after being named incoming CEO was celebrate Profit Sharing Day, when we paid out $1.5 billion to our employees — the equivalent to 21 percent of their annual pay. It was the largest single profit-sharing payout in the history of U.S. business. Just a few months before we had given 14.5 percent raises across the board. Even more importantly, our people are empowered to take ownership of what they do, to innovate and find solutions to the problems that confront them on a daily basis. They know that if they are trying to take care of our customers, Delta will back them up. That is a powerful tool to get people engaged in what they do and can turn them into passionate ambassadors for the company. All the time I have spent with Delta people has both energized and humbled me as I step into this leadership role. It makes me confident that we have only begun in our quest to become the No. 1 airline for our customers, employees and investors. I plan to continue keeping the pulse of Delta people in the months and years to come. Because with all the responsibilities that come with being CEO, acting as the steward of our shared culture is by far the most important.

Written By Alving Garcia (Owner & Blogger @ The Legit $ociety (http://www.thelegitblog.com) For this post I wanted to provide other readers with a list post of 25 top extensions for Chrome that I use and that have helped me in both my professional life and my personal life. Some are for getting more work done while others keep my on track. Others take entire photos of my entire screen while others save things for me so that I can read them later. There are a large variety of extensions on this post and I want to share with you my top 25 list. It may not be your top 25 and you may not like the majority of this list. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about me expressing my opinion because I can, and you reading it because you want to. If you like my advice go home or over to the extension store and download them. If you do not like it and things it’s shit than fuck off and go read something else. It’ the same to me. Alright, so lets get on with the main attraction shall we? Lets get to the list of 25 extensions and go explain each one, one by one. I ma sure you already know the majority of these anyways but for those that may live under rocks and not know I’ll provide a description of each one and links to both their site (link over their name) and the a link to the extension install link in parenthesis beside it, if it isn’t obvious enough by now. 1. Sidekick by Hubspot (Extension Link)– Sidekick is free for up to 200 notifications. Basically, it alerts you to as to who opens your emails after they are sent out and then who they get sent to from there, giving you the freedom to track your emails along. It shows you who opens them and when they are opened. The application is free for up to a certain limit which is basically free for up to email 200 notifications which seems pretty reasonable until you start sending out a bunch of emails and each one is tracked (I go over how it works in my own blog, www.thelegitblog.com). Those notifications start adding up quick and eventually your free trial has run out giving you the option of waiting until the following month to restart your quota or paying up to use the paid version. Personally, I would buy it for the ability and information it provides. Think about its uses and importance. One scenario I link to bring up is one where you are a sales consultant for a software company and have been reaching out to this client for weeks. You see that he opens your emails at the same time every day but never hear back or get a final yes from him. You see that he forwards its over to the decision maker, his boss, and they both open it together. At this time, knowing that I am on both their minds I would pick up the phone an call the decision maker directly an make him and offer right then and then, maybe save him some money and offer him a better price for choosing sooner rather than later. This would most likely work and they would think it coincidence or a sign from god that you called as they were looking at your email and make a decision in your favor. That is just one example of how useful Sidekick can be. 2. Streak For Gmail (Extension Link) — Basically it’s a Client Relationship Manager for your email inbox. An amazing CRM for your inbox at that. Obviously, Streak For Gmail was made for Gmail and has a lot of features that are Gmail friendly. They offer a free plan with some limits and as well as offering a few other plans and levels of usage depending on the company you have, the size of your company and what you plan to use it for. Their software uses a sophisticated pipeline template, which can be customized for use as sales pipeline or maybe even a product development pipeline. The uses are endless. I think this is one of the most robust extensions I have seen personally on Chrome myself and would use it as my framework if I had the opportunity and need for my company. 3. Rapportive (Extension Link) — Rapportive puts Gmail and LinkedIn into one. It provides information about certain users and places that information for you on your Gmail account on the right side beside the email of the person so that you now more about whom you are dealing with. The information it gets, it gets from LinkedIn so its unites the two and uses the email to try and connect the two so there maybe some mess-ups a few times but for the majority of the time it works perfectly. I love it because it allows me to see into people’s background and learn things about them that otherwise I may not have found out. Let’s say I am about to do a large deal with someone for auto parts and realize that he has a history of stealing automobiles or has a crime past, this software would have saved me the trouble of getting in trouble with the law and purchasing possibly stolen goods or goods that are of no value so the value of the software is there. I personally see this extension having HUGE advantage in the sales department of companies 4. Hangouts (Extension Link) — This is an extension of Google Hangouts, the video conferencing software, which allows you to chat by video and sound online. Google Hangouts is definitely the best free online video conferencing software and the plugin makes its even easier to use. 5. Awesome Screenshot (Extension Link) –This amazing plugin is great because it takes a photo of the ENTIRE webpage including the parts that may be above or below the viewable areas so that if you are a graphic or web design and want to show off a site you made you don’t have to splice together a bunch of different photos. I used to take pictures of my sample portfolio sites I built and it would take forever to take 4 photos of the site and then go into Photoshop and put them together to make a full composite but this plugin saved my life so many times. This saved my life so many times and makes my life SOO much easier. 6. Momentum (Extension Link) — Momentum replaces your home page when you log into your browser (Chrome, Internet Explorer, FireFox, Opera, anything browser your use) and replaces it with a continued random group of photos that changes every day that are all very beautiful and stunning. For example, today’s image is about Palestine and the amazing buildings there. It also allows you to customize it just so that it has the photo to calm you down or has customizations to include many other areas such as a To-do list. A reminder of what your day’s task is. A weather app to the top right. A location of the photo on the bottom left and the time in the middle. There are other customizable options for the free version and is definitely recommended. 7. Adblock (Extension Link) — One of the most popular and widely known Chrome extensions. I know they also sell an Adblock Plus or Premium now so glad they are making money off of it finally. Obviously, AdBlock blocks advertisements on Google Ads. Anything from photos, banners, and even video advertisements on Youtube and other videos when possible. To me it’s amazing, though, I do turn it off on sites that I try to support financially since I know ads at the way most sites make money so please do the same if you use Ad block on your own computer. I recommend you do the same on sites you want to support financially because Adblock does block the income of many sites since many sites make money from advertisements. 8. LastPass (Extension Link) — Lastpass is a program that saves ALL your passwords into one program. Yes, I know what you are thinking, if someone were to hack into this program than you would be fucked and all your things would be compromised and yes that is a possibility but Last Pass has multiple level encryption plus extreme security and rated as one of the most saucer sites by many important websites so I am not worried about it. This is more of a website than an extension since you have to go to lastpass.com and create an account to save passwords. After you log in to ANY site it will ask if you wish to save the password and username under the certain section you create and such. Last pass has enough security and protection that I trust it with all my accounts 9. SellHack (Extension Link) — I found SellHack on my own after doing some research on how to find emails for certain people by having just their company or name and came to find SellHack. It turned out to be a pretty accurate program and you can find the email not ONLY of LinkedIn profiles but of ANYONE with required information which is: Their Name and Their Company. I won’t get into how it works on here but if you want to learn more go to www.thelegitblog.com to learn more but it works about 75% of the time so don’t expect it to hit the target EVERYTIME. I definitely recommend it. 10. HoneyBadger (Extension Link) –HoneyBadger does research on the site that you are currently on. It digs up company stattistics/inforomation such as the rank of the site Alexa and other global rank sites, visits, engagements (such as time on site, etc.) and from where visitors are coming from such as countries. HoneyBadger also provides referral traffic, social media information and similar sites, organic search volume and information and ads being run by the company, if any. 11. Alexa Extension (Extension Link)– This extension comes from Alexa and provides a rank on the global scale as well as a scale on specific countries that you are interested in being ranked in. It shows how many sites are linking to the site, even though this number may be completely inaccurate with actually incoming sites but it’s a start. 12. BuiltWith (Extension Link) — BuiltWith basically shows you a list of what software ANY website you are currently on is running on or was built with. We are talking SSL Certificate ownership, site ownership (through WHOIS) if not private or protected, hosting, domain provider, Content Management System, Analytics, Frameworks, advertising, CSS & Javascript frameworks that the site is using which can be damaging to some companies. I am sure there is a way to protect against this sort of attack 13. Grammarly (Extension Link) –Grammarly is a plugin that is used to check grammar, spelling and other such things when writing. Whenever it finds something wrong it makes it with a red underscore which you scan scroll over and it explains the error and shows you how to fix it. If you click accept or on the green text provided it will make the change automatically for you. For long form writing there is a way where Grammarly takes covers the screen and just goes over the errors with you so you fix ever grammar/spelling mistake in the entire article before uploading or submitting it. I love it because I blog and write a lot both for blogs and on my marketing job so it helps keep everything written in perfect form. It is my FAVORITYE Chrome Extension by far and the one I recommend the most! 14. Toky (Extension Link)– Toky provides a link that you give out to people so that they can call you directly from their laptop to your phone. Not sure if I would use it but I registered anyway and will put the link on my email signature in case anyone wants to use it. It seems weird at first but I guess with the way the Internet is going there are weirder things out there. 15. Fontface Ninja (Extension Link) — This extension is pretty straightforward. You are browsing the Internet and you see a font that you like. This extension allows you to automatically take that font and find the name of the font. If it’s free you can download it then. Pretty simple and straight forward. 16. Klout (Extension Link) — Klout is like the popularity contest o the Internet. It gives you a number based on what IT thinks your popularity, is based on how many friends you have on certain social networks, and other algorithm secret things. I installed Klout to see if it would work but I do keep track of my Klout score, which I won’t even lie, I try to increase. It’s actually starting to matter to me know my Klout score. I guess it’s the ego and pride in all of us that makes Klout work. Eventually, everyone wants to be popular online or offline. You get used to giving a damn about your klout score or others klout score and then we all end up having to do things to try to increase our score which is the point of their business so I congratulate them, they succeeded at that. 17. Postman (Extension Link) — I heard of Postman before as a program that allowed me to make API calls to endpoints in various different languages so I figured this had something to do with that. I was right it’s a HTTP client that allows you to make API calls or any calls to certain endpoints and I guess to test the response/result to make sure it works. After doing some research I found out that the same people who made the Postman Application for my Mac make it and it is one of the MOST AMAZING applications for making API calls using many different languages and types of languages. Without it I wouldn’t of been able to solve some serious software issues that we were having at the time so I HIGHLY RECOMMEND POSTMANY NO MATTER WHAT JUST BECAUSE OF THAT! Plus it’s free! 18. aHrefs Search Volume (Extension Install Link) — AHREFS is already a pretty awesome site for marketing geeks like me but an extension for chrome. Definitely had to get it. I haven’t tried it yet but I am sure it provides such information on sites you are visiting such as backlink count, keyword ranking ability or traffic levels. 19. SEOQuake (Extension Link) — This is a plugin that I use regularly. While you search Google it provides a bar underneath every search result with stats such as backlink count, domain age, Trust rank, citation flow, etc. and other marketing interesting stats that may interest some. It also provides other useful tools that many SEO and marketing experts find necessary and I agree. I wouldn’t go a day without SEOQuake. 20. Instapaper (Extension Link) — Instapaper helps you read more. Most pocket users end up going back to Instapaper for some reason, it must be better or something I guess, but I am not here to decide that. Here is a quote from a user: “Instapaper is built with the experience of reading in mind rather than the mere technological feat of being able to save articles on any platform. Some articles don’t even look that good in Instapaper. But the environment that the app creates and the sense of reading that it transmits are, for me, far superior to any fancy interface, third-party integration, or iCloud-only perk that I may get with other services. There are many great read-later apps, but Instapaper is what feels best for me.” — Unknown User from https://www.macstories.net 21. Pocket (Extension Link) — A plugin that lets you mark certain pages or articles as read for later. It’s great if you find an article or blog post or even page that you like but just don’t have the time to go through it at that moment so it put it’s in the “pocket” for you so that when you do have time you just go back to your pocket and pick one out to ready. 22. Readability (Extension Link) — According to MacWorld “Readability provides convenience for mobile reading.” Is this true or not? Let’s find out. Its workflow is beyond minimalistic and actually pretty simple. Their website is in the same design flow. Their free iOS application is both eye pleasing and easy to use, something rarely found working together. It not only saves the saved content but it turns it into a minimalistic format for you while you wait to read it. The eye-pleasantness and minimalist deign of the application/extension itself make it a must have for me in my opinion. If you want to learn more about it go to www.thelegitblog.com to learn more! 23. Feedly (Extension Link) — Feedly is a news aggregator application for various web browsers as well as mobile devices on both Android and iOS. It is even available on a cloud-based service, Feedly is in the future already, seeing the writing on the wall and moving into a cloud-based infrastructure. Feedly provides me with the new stories that I are about when I want to read them and it provides them at the right time and that is why I stand behind that extension. 24. Any.Do (Extension Link) — Called the “Most Popular To-Do List Manager” By LifeHacker. Considered the best to-do list app for you is a personal choice at the end of the day depending on which features you think are most important but at first glance some stand out immediately and Any.Do was one of them. It provides the basics of to-do applications, and is available on the IPhone, Android, Chrome, the Web and any Desktop. It syncs between any of thosd devices so you are always focused on the task at hand. It sends reminders on what matters to you so you never forget to that task that needs to get done. It includes a Daily Planner, Share and Delegate tasks with your team, Upload files, Sync Files as discussed, includes notes along the way and even accomplish sub-tasks within tasks themselves. 25. StayFocused (Extension Link) — Stay focused an extension for blocking certain sites so that the user can focus on getting work done. Let’s go through some of the pros of such software. Number 1, its highly customizable with the settings for blocking time-wasting sites. It can create time specific limits, color-coded icons can show blocked or allowed and neutral sites. Countdown clocks pause when you the leave the active tab. Best of all, it is a free extension/app. Of course, there are some cons, as with any app, although not many whatsoever, firstly, currently its only or Chrome and you can’t customize different time limits for different blocked sites which should be a big feature in the future if StayFocused is looking to expand. Written By: Alving J Garcia Marcano (Owner& Blogger @ The Legit $ociety) http//www.thelegitblog.com

So this new co-working spot opened in town and it has been over two months that RentHunt has been stationed WeWork. Co-working spaces might be a mystery for some, for the simple reason that they don’t really know what goes on there. Which is why I want to tell you all about it. Let me go back in time to my first day here. If you’ve ever been to WeWork before, you know that once those elevator doors open, you will think that you are at the wrong place. Here’s why: groovy furniture, an exotic colour palette, bagel graffiti on the wall, coffee tables designed to make you think for a second where to put your coffee mug, among other things. Not your typical work space. I got my cue that I am indeed at the right place from the neon red WEWORK sign that shines bright right when you step out of the elevators. Within the first ten minutes of me being there, I had a fresh brewed coffee in my left and a perfectly crisp croissant in my right. Strange right? True story! The day goes by with all sorts of activities happening around. Yoga and boxing classes, company and networking events, meetings and conferences etc… You cross a multitude of different people working on different projects and companies. For me, this was a mystery. I wanted to know more about what’s brewing here in the heart of Montreal. So that’s what I did. I went around and asked companies two questions. What they do and what’s cool about it. Here’s what we found: The Food RoomThe Food Room: Culinary working space helping small food businesses develop and grow. What’s cool: 100+ members in their kitchen. Ask PamAsk Pam: A new generation of CRM for concierges. What’s cool: We are in charge of providing the system that concierges use at C2 (A 3 day conference in Montreal promoting entrepreneurs) with 5000+ attendees! UnitoUnito: Helps to sync project management tools together. “Simplified teamwork and collaboration”. What’s cool: The whole team is practicing for a marathon in September. NukernNukern: Billing software for web hosting companies. What’s cool: The team. We come from different backgrounds, we love technology and we are all young. WealthtabWealthtab: An integrated white labelled platform for advisors and their clients. What’s cool: “We help investors have a better understanding of their long term investments in terms of performance, risk and fees. We help them build better relationships with their clients”. AirbizAirbiz: An international aviation consultancy firm, servicing owners, operators, airlines, government agencies and other aviation stakeholders. What’s cool: They have an annual team bonding workshop. This year, they caught up in Fiji for 2 weeks. Fed FinanceFed Finance: A French recruitment agency founded in 2001 in Paris. Specializing in accounting and finance. What’s cool: The Montreal team all went to Paris for Christmas and joined +300 employees! Procell Communication G.HProcell Communication G.H: “We are technology”. We create websites and apps. What’s cool: They are opening their first retail store in Montreal June 2016. DecodeMTLDecodeMTL: Decode MTL is an intensive web development school located at WeWork. What’s cool: Demo Day on July 2nd 2016. Students will get to showcase apps that they built at WeWork. AvisolveAvisolve: A value added reseller. Sourcing IT hardware and software from different resources and reselling them to corporate customers in the US. What’s cool: They made 10M last year and this year’s forecasts predict they are going to make 35M! Wojtek JakubiecWojtek Jakubiec: Lifestyle and fashion photography commercials. Revamping catalogs, campaigns and documentaries. What’s cool: Shot photo essays in Cuba about Havana lifestyle, the boxing scene in Mexico and Afghani workers in Montréal kitchens. JentsJents: A shoe brand that has a big brother role. At Jents, they honour all big brothers out there by designing and producing footwear. They represent a big brother role by taking care of you, making your life as easy as possible, by “sliding it with no sweat”. What’s cool: They are a team of 9 and no one works from the same country. Purple Empower Inc.Purple Empower Inc: A company to empower women in the workplace, business and fitness. What’s cool: We have an amazing group of successful women that have joined the team for a bigger cause. Rosanna TomiukRosanna Tomiuk: A personal and professional coach and motivational speaker. What’s cool: “I help people leverage what makes them one of a kind”. DiceDice: Mobile platform designed to connect budding cooks with consumers. By curating the best talents in Canada and unifying them into a one collaborative kitchen, we’re building the perfect springboard for a new generation of chefs craving for exposure and inspiration. What’s cool: We have little cookouts at the office and invent recipes while working at the office. The Hockey FoundationThe Hockey Foundation: We use hockey to change lives around the world. What’s cool: Donated 6000 pieces of equipment, coached 2000+ players around India and coached women in India and formed an all women’s international hockey team. RoyaltriRoyaltri: A creative agency that specializes in branding and websites. What’s cool: Putting stories behind brands. Spotev: Curator of “cultural events” bringing them all on one platform so people find what they want to do straight away. Spotev suggests events on user preferences and behaviours. Lazy people will still know what’s going on in the cities! What’s cool: “We enjoy what we do, while people have fun using our services”. Osmos Academy: Project based learning with social impact. What’s cool: VR Campaign, bringing virtual reality to children in hospitals. Wearhacks: Make hardware education more accessible, approachable and affordable. What’s cool: At a hackathon they had a Tesla car to hack on. ​ MEO Electric: MEO Electric provides all inclusive personalized electric vehicle charging solutions for businesses and commercials. What’s cool: First turnkey reseller and seller of electric vehicle hardware. Making it easier for business to go electric! Rhodium: Product development and innovation consultancy. They “Imagineer cyber-physical experiences of the future”. What’s cool: 50 years from now they want to be known as the DisneyWorld of technology. “We are going to do that by focusing on being the first people to build products for the 4th industrial revolution”. Pitonneux: A Skills incubator in Montreal where people learn how to code. Online courses are available for people who want to learn web, iOS and android development. “ We give students real work experience and let them work on real projects”. What’s cool: A non profit organization that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. AmpMe: A social app that syncs you and your friend’s phones together to create a portable sound system. What’s cool: It’s the only apps that is completely useless by itself and forces you to engage with your friends. “We bring people together”. Guiker: “Home, wherever you go”. What’s cool: They have special company culture: “We all have a Chinese cultural background which helps us mix this culture into our company resulting in a unique one”. Michelle Belveau Conseil: A Recruitment firm,“ the art of human capital”. What’s cool: “They are on the edge ‘A la fin point’.” Abordage: A growth hacking agency, which is a form of web marketing. What’s cool: “Growth hacking is a new industry. Abordage are travelling on an unexplored territory.” Shark Media & Sport: They offer a cloud based software to help manage sport organizations. What’s cool: “Two of the investors are well known in Quebec. Serge Beauchemin, a dragon in the French version of Dragon’s Den and Jocelyn Thibault, former goalkeeper in the Montreal Canadians.” DirectPayNet: High risk e-commerce payments. What’s cool: “I would say I’m the cool thing about DirectPayNet, Go on my website and see what is cool about me!” Brian Li : A Multidisciplinary designer and art director focusing on Web and UI/UX design. What’s cool: “I can’t pick one, everything is cool!” These were only a few of the companies working here. And this is only one co-working space. All the people I spoke to have inspiring stories behind what they do. And they’re telling their stories with love and passion. It is something that many people outside the Montreal ‘startup scene’ are unaware of. This was the goal of this post. Excuse my language but it’s to tell you that shit is happening here, big or small! Montreal is already making noise with companies such as Lightspeed, Frank & Oak, Luxury Retreats, Crew, Busbud and many more. In addition to those companies with “big dreams”, there are small local companies/entrepreneurs/freelancers who have dreams and are also making a change. With programs such as The Founder Institute (big shout-out to the #FIMafia), whose director is Sergio Escobar with tons of knowledge to give, it has never been easier to #dowhatyoulove. So I’ll close by saying that if you have a dream, now is the time to go after it. If you are curious there is no excuse but to drop by WeWork Montreal and talk to us or one of the inhabitants of this amazing place. BEER IS ON US! Oh yeah I forgot to mention, beer is free here! Sincerely, The RentHunt team.

Founders and startup teams will ask how to grow their business through smart partnerships. After working with everyone from small startups to large corporations, and as we just announced our integration with Google Drive, I thought this is a good time to share lessons learned on what makes a successful partnership. There are different kinds of partnerships companies can engage in: Distribution, Marketing or Product. We’re going to focus here on product partnerships because they are generally the most complex to navigate and impact many teams in a company such as product/engineering, marketing and legal. Some examples of these partnerships we did at Evernote include Salesforce, the New York Times, Zendesk and hundreds of our platform partners listed in the Evernote App Center. Get creative: the sky’s the limit Building a bridge between key products first requires creative thought. One of the interesting things about the tech industry is that everything is changing and evolving all the time making it an incredible playground for developers and designers. That makes it very challenging to apply a standard partnership strategy and you will probably have to pioneer a way to do it. Take chat bots for example: what is the right user experience to leverage new platforms? How will you effectively cross promote products in that environment? How should two independent chat bots interact in the future? Nobody has answers to these questions but all of this is going to be defined and tested by partnerships and product folks in the coming years and I’m sure tons of very creative solutions will be put to trial. Order your approach: user experience then business goals Product focused partnerships require your company to be fully committed to the integration — it’s impossible to have success without the buy in from product, design, engineering, legal and marketing teams. Before pitching the idea internally, ask yourself this simple question: “if we were the ones doing all the work without support from the partner, would we still build it?” If the answer is no, you’re not doing it for the right reasons. If the answer is yes, you’ll have a better chance at having support because it should be built with a great partnership opportunity. Asking that question helps mitigate risks if the partnership doesn’t work out since you still are building something your users love. The key is to unlock the core partnership benefits: Building something your users need, Build momentum with your partner to then Get users to engage and love the integration drive effective results to your business goals Opportunities: create a story that excites your team Partnership teams are defined by soft power: no direct management yet can influence the company strategy in many directions. The challenge is confirming commitments from product, engineering, and marketing and making sure they follow through. The key is to get them excited and that generally starts with a good story. A story centered on great UX, new functionality, and user acquisition can amplify your internal stakeholders to support the partnership goals. To do this right, support your story with data to appeal to both analytical and opportunistic minds, in addition to hitting on the key company goals. Keep these factors readily available and up to date (if relevant): user base overlap analysis number of new / new active users the partnership can generate Improved conversion rates Projected new revenue Impact on the brand Impact on the sales funnel Plan and phases of approach It’s also vital to have a strong understanding of your partner’s intentions and goals to keep them engaged throughout the process. Don’t let up — keep the momentum going The common challenge is keeping the excitement during the partnership integration process and coordinating project status with very different groups internally and with the partner. Every team has different priorities and especially personalities — you must be resilient to keep deliverables moving forward. In addition, keep the drumbeat going and manage periods of time where there’s be no movement. Steady emotions: it’s a rollercoaster Relationships are emotional, need reassurances, and often have unexpected pitfalls. Like all relationships, partnerships are a main example of this: launching something that’s affected by hundreds of variables out of your control. Some days are going to be great: the product is underway and everything seems to be on track. Other days your project may hit an unexpected hurdle with the common challenges with any partnership.It’s important to not get too affected by good and bad news so your sanity level stays stable. You wouldn’t have gotten this far without interest and a willingness to see this through. Cooks in the kitchen — Timing is everything Remember the larger the partnership the more excited people are and bad news can have negative impact on the team and responsibilities. It’s important to involve teams progressively and figure out the right time when people need to be added to the conversation to avoid unnecessary pressure as well as delays in decision making. Your legal team is your BFF Many partnership colleagues from other companies complain about their legal counsel and how they slow down their deals. Some even discuss how to avoid involving a legal team or find lawyers that are more likely to approve an agreement. There are also misconceptions that lawyers work against your interests and will slow down deals when the time comes for a stamp and signature. Keep this key in mind: Your legal team’s goals are to be supportive while preventing stupid or last minute changes that put the company at risk. Play to their strengths: They are great at dissecting and understanding all deal details and offer smart negotiation advice to protect your shared interests. Overall, I’m grateful to work with very talented lawyers to create fair and well rounded agreements for all parties. Wrapping up Other factors to manage during a partnership lifecycle include full buy in from both sets of executives, coordinating discussions between teams, and keeping a strong relationship with the partner. Hopefully you find these keys helpful and please feel free to reach out to me by email or by Twitter!

Is social media a Clark Kent or a Lex Luthor? ‘Facebook’ Source: Google ImagesIt is the year 2016. Technology — and more importantly, social media — is prevalent in our everyday lives. The number of smartphone users worldwide will soon surpass 2 billion people (according to new figures from eMarketer), and it will only increase from here. Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide, with 1.65 billion monthly active users. Now, before I bombard you with even more figures, I’d like you to stop and have a think about those numbers. They’re huge and they’re only going to keep growing. Because of this, it is important to understand how social media works, its effects and the impact it can have on the world and how it can change the planet — in both negative and positive ways. Ten years ago, not many of us had a clue that technology and social media would be influential and imperative in our lives today. There are so many different angles I could take on the topic of social media as it is so broad — I often find my brain on the verge of explosion when trying to narrow it down into something coherent. Put simply, social media is made up of websites and applications that allow users to create and share content and to participate in social networking. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest…the list really is endless. It has created a new and vast world of communication that can bring people from all corners of the world together. Social media is transforming traditional media — such as print — and influencing how we share our news and information. We now have all the tools at our fingertips to access the news, make a Tweet about the news or start conversations about global topics with not only our friends, but strangers around the world through our own devices, in the comfort of our own homes. Recent data shows that 300 million people spend more than 5 hours each day on social networks. Wow. That’s a lot of people and a lot of hours. Moreover, about 200,000 videos are uploaded to YouTube every day! Here’s a crazy fact, did you know that it is actually physically impossible to watch ALL videos on YouTube, because people are uploading an insane amount of video footage every minute? Which means that by the time you’ve finished watching one video, there’ll be 1000 more added to the website. Wow. So if you think about it, if you assume the same growth rate for the past 10 years, and assume that no more videos will be uploaded until you stopped watching them all, it would take you — wait for it — SIXTY THOUSAND YEARS of NON-STOP WATCHING to view each and every video on YouTube. Now, as you all lift your jaws up from the ground, I’m sure all of these facts and ideas are currently swimming around in your head. So let’s ask ourselves, how can social media change the planet? While there is no doubt that social media is great and has many benefits including connecting people, this piece will focus on the negatives of social media and how it is changing the planet for the worse. Source: Google ImagesWe’re all on this planet together, going about our every day lives. We interact with each other all the time — at work, school, university, out in the street, in shopping centers… people are everywhere and we are in a constant mode of communication. With technology and the influx of social media, however, the way we all interact is changing. No one switches off anymore, our mobile phones are always nearby. Depression and anxiety is on the rise as we are always on, on, on. As I said earlier, in many ways social media has led to positive changes in the way people communicate and share information — think of keeping in touch with overseas relatives , etc— yet, social media has a dark side we should be aware of. Social networking can sometimes result in negative outcomes, some with even long-term consequences. One particular negative aspect that immediately springs to my mind is cyber bullying. Bullying in the school yard has always occurred — social media didn’t just invent this — yet the fact that now when children go home they are still being targeted and not offered respite is a serious concern. Bullying is evident in all stages of our lives — and social media has merely created another forum for these people to target and ostracize others. Young children and teenagers are particularly vulnerable to the practice of cyber bullying in which the perpetrators — whether anonymous or even, scarily, posing as people their victims trust — terrorize individuals in front of others on social media or in private messages. Teenagers are hiding behind their keyboards writing out nasty messages to peers and even strangers, and as a result deep mental scars are left on their victims. Self-harm numbers are rising. Australian Catholic University (ACU) researchers looked at the long-term impacts cyber bullying had for both its victims and perpetrators. With more than 900 Victorians involved in the study, they found associations between early experiences of cyber victimisation and depressive symptoms, according to lead researcher Professor Sheryl Hemphill from ACU’s Learning Sciences Institute. Her research team found cyber bullying could be associated with self-harm, however the link between the two did weaken once other influences in the teenagers’ lives — such as family conflict — were taken into account. Young people who were victimised were also found to be three times more likely to be suspended from school and four times more likely to engage in binge drinking. Neither of these behaviours promote healthy, well-balanced and positive lifestyles or well beings. In several well-publicised cases, victims have even been driven to suicide. The anonymity afforded online can bring out dark impulses that might otherwise be suppressed. Cyber bullying has spread widely among youth, and according to key findings in the UK Annual Bullying Survey 2016, 1.5 million young people (that’s 50%) have been bullied within the past year, and 33% of those being bullied have had suicidal thoughts. Comparing that to 2015’s report, which stated 43% of young people have been bullied, it’s easy to see how social media can be detrimental to a growing and influential mind. The increasing number of cyber bullying is a major worry. Unfortunately, these bad practices will be with us for a long time because technology is constantly progressing. The fact that there is little awareness about the existence of any cyber laws or the crimes relating to cyber space is another key issue which must be addressed. Altogether, these issues are why we must all focus on promoting a more positive social media outlook and using it for its good purposes rather than the horrible ones. You’re probably all wondering how social media changing the planet can ever be a good thing. Obviously cyber bullying is a serious negative and in that sense social media is changing the planet but for the WORSE. Yet, there is potential to improve humanity through social media, thus allowing it to change the planet in a beneficial way. Wael Ghonim, an internet activist and computer engineer, believes the internet can be the most powerful platform for connecting humanity — so long as civility and thoughtful conversations are brought into it and promoted. As he explained in his 2015 Ted Global talk, it is our natural impulses to say things that are not always based on fact or to ignore someone you do not like (this ties in with cyber bullying). Yet because of the technology all around us, these human impulses become easier to carry out. Wael Ghonim sharing his thoughts and experiences with an audience at Ted Global in Geneva, 2015.He suggests that there are 5 critical challenges facing social media in today’s society. They are as follows: 1: Rumours are not dealt with properly. 2: We create our own echo chambers — regarding who we do and do not interact with over the internet. 3: That online discussions quickly turn into angry mobs. 4: That it is extremely difficult to change people’s opinions. 5: That social media favours broadcasting over actual engagement, posts over discussions and that people are mostly talking at each other, rather than with each other. He proclaims that we must work harder to figure out a way to make technology and social media a SOLUTION, rather than a part of the problem. He proposes that we should all put more focus on quality and giving people incentives to engage in conversations rather than just broadcasting opinions. He suggests making the idea of changing minds socially acceptable. These are all good things. Ghonim believes that with effective crowd sourcing mechanisms — amongst other things — we can rethink today’s social media ecosystem and create a better one. It is important to discuss serious matters and issues such as race, gun control, how to reduce cyber bullying — as these are the conversations that will enable humanity to grow and connect on a larger scale than before. So social media CAN be positive. Yet in order to promote and celebrate the benefits, we must first understand the negatives and what we can all do as members on this planet Earth to help it and change it for the better. It is quite clear to see social media changing the planet every day. In order to use it to its potential, we must stay away from negative influences, such as cyber bullying and instead aim to promote a healthy, constructive and optimistic environment online. If you take at least one thing away from this post (aside from the mind blowing facts), it is to always aim to be kind, genuine and nice when using social media and refrain from sharing and posting mean and hurtful statements etc. As the old saying goes, if you haven’t got something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. And we would all do well to listen.

We’ve all benefited from the advent of ride-sharing services and the shift towards affordable transport. Whether it’s a cheaper ride to the airport or cleaner technology from renewable energy sources, what we’re seeing now is the dawn of huge changes in the way humans will transit in the coming decades. Driverless electric vehicle technology and ride-sharing has opened the door for more possibilities than ever imagined, and quite frankly, a brighter commuting future. Currently, highway congestion in the U.S. costs an estimated $160 Billion per year. This is from wear & tear, lost productivity, and gas-burn during inefficient idling time (not to mention inefficient driving styles). The average urban commuter will waste approximately 42 hours per year in traffic — that’s a full weeks’ worth of vacation. Thankfully, new innovations in self-driving sensor technology will save us a week of road-rage and unhappiness. Market entrants like Tesla, Google, and Apple will help change the consumer choice landscape towards full electric and autonomous travel. Existing car makers are also quickly transforming their future-fleets to avoid displacement. It’s easy to imagine a scenario where consumers will no longer purchase their vehicle, rather ‘rent’ the time; combining aspects of driverless motoring and ride-share innovations. This will also change the utility of cars from centering on driver controllability and more towards design, where the cabin is an entertainment pod, making connectivity & luxury the focus. A fascinating element of the passenger revolution will be the ancillary effects it has not just on auto manufacturers or consumers, but also on insurance, transit modes, and the future vision of transportation structures: Insurance: New insurance pay-per-mile platforms already exist, though a curious dynamic will be the disruption in the insurance industry when cars are fully autonomous and risk is transferred to the manufacturer Innovations in Transport: Creativity and future looking processes may make LA to San Francisco in 35 minutes more reality than science-fiction Artificial Intelligence & Self-Owning Cars: One of the more interesting thought-pieces on the subject might be a future where self-driving cars earn money by transporting passengers, using the proceeds for maintenance and code upgrades, all while being self-sustaining Highways that Create Energy (Piezoelectric Effect): The move towards energy creation with intelligent city design and micro impacts are an interesting way to utilize human movement to positively impact the environment and how we pay for utilities There are countless possibilities in the way we’ll transport ourselves in the future. A unique aspect of these changes is that they touch upon multiple transformation categories that will take place across industry spectrums: When asked “To Drive or Not to Drive,” it’s easy to see why one might wonder who will answer — you, or your car? Sarang (@sruprai) | TwitterThe latest Tweets from Sarang (@sruprai). World Traveller and Consultant. Love cool inventions, art, innovations, and…twitter.com Sarang Ruprai | LinkedInHyperMaster of Research, Strategy, BD, and Growth Team. Work directly with the CEO & COO to develop relevant reports…www.linkedin.com

A few years ago, my friend Kevin told me that in life you are either running towards a positive goal or away from pain or negative thoughts and emotions. At that time, I was getting colds all the time, had a wrist tendinitis that didn’t allow me to type for more than 20 minutes, and had a constant back pain. I was surely experiencing The Struggle with running my startup 7Geese. After sharing my frustrating with Kevin, he asked me a simple question: Instead of running away from pain, why don’t I run towards what gets me excited? That suggestion got me thinking and I realized that my time had been fully consumed running away from pain. I was spending lots of time at the doctors office getting my symptoms checked, going to a physiotherapist to treat my wrist, and going to chiropractor for my back. Apart from my time, my mind was cluttered with negative thoughts. I couldn’t think straight, make good decisions, and get in a good flow at work. I wasn’t able to fully focus on building 7Geese which is my passion. I also didn’t workout as much as I thought that it would make my symptoms worse. After thinking about Kevin’s suggestion for a few days and reading this amazing book on how our mind creates physical pain, I decided to stop running away from suffering and focus on my goals with 7Geese and my overall health. I stopped going to physiotherapists, doctors, and chiropractors all-together. I started typing for more than 20 minutes without taking breaks and focused on my goals rather than the pain. Something magical happened that I personally find it hard to believe. With my focus on my goals, all my physical symptoms disappeared. My back took longer to heal but my wrist which was bothering me for over six months was healed immediately when I stopped worrying about it. I was able to focus on building 7Geese, solve the issues that we were facing, and find amazing people to join the team. Within a few months, 7Geese was growing and I was energetic again. I now think that the way the human brain works, is that you either have to have exciting goals that you are running towards or you will be stuck running away from pain and suffering. There is no middle ground and you can’t coast in life. I’m not a psychologist but this is the pattern I’ve noticed for myself and people around me. I also think this is true for teams and organizations. You need to have a purpose that gets people excited. Otherwise your company will be just running away from failure and you will eventually fail. Something that we have been running away from at 7Geese is customer churn as we recently had a few of our customers leave our platform (I’m sure they will be back soon tho :P). Last week, I was having a chat with our Customer Success leader about fighting customer churn. I told her that although having a low churn is probably the most important indicator of success for a SaaS company, our focus should be on making customers successful (positive goal) and not purely fighting churn (running away from pain). It’s like being in a relationship. The focus should be on making the relationship thrive and enjoying the time together, rather than trying to avoid a breakup or a heart-break. Focusing on a positive goal that gets you excited sounds easy in theory but it is hard to maintain. Lately, I’ve been suffering from anxiety and obsessive thoughts, finding myself in the medical clinic frequently for minor issues that my mind interprets as a big threat to my life. I’ve also stopped my workout routines and have a very sporadic work schedule. This morning, I realized that I’m once again in a pattern of running away from pain and negative emotions rather than focusing on my purpose and exciting goals. That was my motivation to write this blog and maybe help some people trapped in the loop of running way from pain. I’m now excited to accept my emotions but chose to run towards my goals, push 7Geese forward (we are moving to a new bigger office which is very exciting), and set some workout goals (any suggestions?). I already feel a change in my mood and courage to more forward to pursue my goals. Have you caught yourself in the loop of running away from pain and suffering rather that running towards exciting goals (feel free to share your story below)? The first step is to accept your pain and suffering, and chose to run towards exciting goals. What if you don’t have any goals or things that get you excited? Don’t worry! In my future posts, I’ll share some best practices for discovering what your purpose and passion is and how to set exciting goals to run towards them.

Apply now to be an Enterpreneur360™  company and let us tell the world your success story. Get Started » For those of us who are a bit farther along in our careers, business travel is anything but glamorous. For less experienced individuals, however, business travel represents a rare opportunity to get out of the office, network and shake up the status quo. Unfortunately for the inexperienced, business travel also represents a great opportunity to make a fool of yourself. I know, because I’ve done it myself more than once. If I could go back in time and give the young Chris Myers a few business travel tips, I would. Since I can't go back and save myself from embarrassment, I’ll instead share my tips here in the hopes that I can influence a young professional or two. 1. Make sure you have a refined message. First and foremost, whether you’re managing a relationship or presenting a new product or service, you’re most likely on the road to sell something. The people you’re engaging with are probably inundated with pitches of one kind or another, so it’s vitally important to make sure the message you’re delivering is short, sweet and impactful. Be exceptionally clear in articulating the story of what your product does and the value it brings. When you’re just starting out in your career, remember that road trips aren’t the right time to explore new messages or sales pitches. You want to keep things pithy and impactful, and that means sticking with a refined and tested pitch. Remember that you only have a 30 second window to catch someone’s attention, so make it count. Related: 5 Business Travel Tips That Will Improve Your Life 2. Be memorable. Here’s the thing about business meetings -- they tend to be sort of boring, especially if you have back-to-back meetings. People and pitches blend together, and it’s easy to become just another face in the crowd. That’s a huge problem for anyone trying to build relationships or sell a product. Plus, business travel can be expensive, and young employees are pressured to justify the cost of their trips. How do you get around this? It’s simple -- be memorable. Anyone who has met me on the road or seen me on TV knows that I’m a bit of a bow tie aficionado. My bow ties and penchant for colorful pants have become a trademark of sorts. My style helps me stand out in a crowd that otherwise looks entirely homogenous. In addition, my team and I always try to make sure that we stand out in how we engage with customers as well. For example, we hand out unique video books that automatically play when opened. I’ve yet to encounter another team that has these, and they definitely help people remember us. Related: 4 Essentials for Being the Person People Remember 3. Behave yourself. Business travel tends to bring out interesting behavior in people, especially after hours. After all, things like conferences and trade shows are generally held in exciting locations like Vegas and New Orleans, where drinks flow freely. This preponderance of free alcohol -- and the fact that people are outside of their office -- tends to form a perfect storm of debauchery. My advice to people presenting at conferences? Steer clear. This is one situation where I can speak from personal experience. I wish I could say that this lesson came from my youth, but I cannot. Last year, my executive team and I attended a conference in Austin where I presented to a sizable group. My presentation was on the first day. After the presentation, there was a large reception for all of the attendees. Since my part of the conference was over, I spent the evening with my team, networking and enjoying the open bar. While the evening’s details may be amusing, the next day’s lesson was crystal clear -- don’t overdo it, or you’ll regret it. Related: 7 Tricks for Never Forgetting Your Manners Anywhere in the World The moral of the story is that business travel is what you make of it. Travel can be a fantastic opportunity to grow your sales pipeline, make powerful connections and share the story of your brand. If you remember to keep your sales pitch pithy, be memorable and to behave yourself, you’ll be happy with the outcome. If you don’t, you might end up with a less-than-stellar experience with a hefty price tag.

Inbound marketing has become increasingly popular in the marketing and advertising world for the last several years, and it's no surprise why. While traditional outbound ad campaigns attempt to persuade unfamiliar audiences with sales-y messages, "inbound" campaigns focus on the value they can provide users. And that prompts those users to naturally gravitate to those business when the need arises. Related: 5 Marketing Strategies That Don't Involve Social Media Generally, inbound marketing strategies are less expensive, hold a wider range of benefits and, over the long term, will generate a higher rate of return. So, if these benefits resonate with you, consider the following inbound marketing strategies, which are among the most popular. At this point, they're essential for all new startups: 1. On-site content narketing On-site content marketing is useful in a number of ways. Not only does new content drive new readers to your site, it keeps your existing readers and customers engaged with your brand, allowing you to maximize client retention. You'll have to provide highly detailed, original and valuable content, which isn't always easy or straightforward; but, with a steady stream of high-quality content, you'll find that the advantages can be enormous. Content marketing also provides syndication fuel to your social media and email campaigns and boosts your search rankings (more on this momentarily). In a recent survey I conducted, of 357 marketers, 93 percent of respondents said they planned to increase or keep their on-site content marketing budgets the same. That's pretty high praise for the power of on-site content! 2. Off-site content marketing Your off-site content marketing campaign will function in a similar manner, prompting you to provide well-written, targeted, valuable content, but instead of publishing it on your own site, you'll be publishing it on another site (hopefully, a major media publication!). The advantage here is the opportunity to gain visibility with new audiences, who may not have heard of you otherwise. You'll get referral traffic, and your brand reputation will steadily grow as you work your way up to bigger and better publishers. Here's an article I recently wrote to help entrepreneurs get started with off-site content marketing: "5 Ways to Get Media Coverage as a Startup." 3. Search engine optimization (SEO) On-site and off-site content marketing will provide you substantial fuel for increasing your search visibility. On-site content attracts inbound links, while off-site content directly builds links to your site. The more high-quality, valuable inbound links your website has, the higher it will rank in search engines. In fact, a recent report from Google noted that two of the top three ranking factors in the algorithm were content and inbound links. But there are other, more technical components to SEO you'll need to implement to boost your inbound traffic from search engines. These include optimizing for mobile devices, improving site speed and targeting strategic niche keyword phrases. It's a time-intensive strategy, but it pays off in spades. Related: 6 Tools to Develop an Outstanding Social Media Marketing Strategy 4. Social media marketing Organic social media marketing has taken its fair share of hits, but it remains one of the most effective strategies for generating new visibility. You have the power to engage with almost anyone in the world through social media, gradually building up a loyal audience (as long as you're consistently providing valuable insights and material). Throw your on-site and off-site content into syndication here, and your followers will have even more reason to stick around. Alone, social media can generate a steady stream of traffic to your site, and build your brand, but its real power is amplifying the effects of your other inbound marketing strategies. According to the same survey referenced earlier, 65 percent of respondents -- the highest percentage across 10 marketing strategies included in the survey -- said they believed that social media marketing was poised to become even more effective in the next five years. 5. Influencer marketing Influencer marketing is relatively simple in concept, but it's a little more difficult to carry out practically. The idea is to target "influencers" in your industry --these are thought leaders, movers, and shakers who hold the best reputations and the biggest portions of audiences in your niche. By working with these influencers on joint content projects or even just innocuous exchanges on social media, you'll cross-pollinate your audiences (oftentimes for mutual benefit), and earn a better reputation by proxy. The hardest part is identifying the influencers most likely to benefit your brand and persuading them to engage with your campaign. Influencer marketing seems to be the most cutting-edge strategy on this list, evidenced by the highest percentage of marketers (38 percent) agreeing to a statement on the survey -- in this case saying they were "not currently using this strategy, but plan[ned] to in the future." 6. Email newsletters I hesitated to include email newsletters on this list, since email marketing in general might be considered an outbound strategy. However, email newsletters usually revolve around the provision of content to subscribers, increasing their loyalty and retention while simultaneously setting up a recurring traffic stream back to your site. Because your content is providing value to your readers and subscribers, and you're not just using it as a way to advertise your products and services, it can be considered a form of inbound marketing. Additionally, email marketing may be a relatively low-hanging fruit: In the survey, email marketing was reported as the second-easiest tactic to perform, but one that provided the fifth-highest ROI of the ten strategies included. 7. Personal branding Finally, personal branding may be used in conjunction with almost any of the strategies above. For example, you might have some of your upper-level team members post more on-site content and reach out to major publications for guest-posting opportunities, or even to become contributors in order to fuel an off-site content strategy. Of course, you'll want to syndicate that content on social media. You can make a more personal appeal in your influencer marketing campaigns as well. By tying your corporate brand to a number of personal brands, you'll make your company more accessible, human and trustworthy -- three qualities that are hard to come by for consumers these days. Related: 4 Low-Cost Marketing Strategies Every Business Should Know There's an almost magical quality about these strategies, not because of how they work on an individual level, but how they work together. All of these strategies have the power to enhance and complement each other, increasing your total return by multiples if you end up using them together. Pool your resources to conquer these tactics, adjusting and refining your approach along the way, and nothing will be able to stop your startup's marketing momentum.

We're now accepting submissions for our 2016 Top Company Cultures list. Think your company should be on it? Apply Now » People who are looking for romance have relied on matchmakers to set them up with someone special since the dawn of civilization. Matchmakers could be friends or relatives or, in some cases, a professional who specializes in putting together the perfect pair. Times have changed, but the need for a cupid remains and today digital matchmaking sites serve a similar purpose. The idea behind matchmaking -- pairing people according to their values, goals and outlook on life -- remains sound, and it doesn’t just apply to romantic relationships. Finding the right match when looking for new employees is also critical, and it involves much more than checking off hard skills requirements like education, training and experience. For one thing, hiring an employee who ultimately doesn’t work out can be very costly when you add up all of the associated expenses. But money is only part of the equation. An unsuccessful hire can take a hefty toll in lost productivity, lower morale and reduced customer satisfaction. To avoid making a bad hire, employers can borrow a page from the matchmaker’s playbook and use workplace matchmaking tools to hire the right person for their company the first time. The good news is that such tools are widely available and affordable. Here are three ways in which hiring managers can best utilize these tools. 1. Cultural assessment. Hiring managers use this matchmaking tool to determine if a candidate will be a good fit within the company culture. Cultural assessment takes a look at potential hires’ beliefs, values, outlook and behavior in the context of the workplace. For instance, a company that values teamwork might explore a candidate’s capacity for collaboration. But for a role that primarily involves solitary work, the company would assess whether the potential hire enjoys independent pursuits. Related: Matchmaking Isn't Just for Dating. It's a Model for Many New Businesses. 2. Values testing. Just as matchmaking sites return matches based on shared values, workplace matchmaking tools explore candidate interests and aptitudes with the goal of producing a harmonious on-the-job relationship. By assessing what employees value the most and taking a look at their interests, a values assessment tool can provide insights that help managers predict how well the potential hire will fit in at the company and get along with coworkers. Related: The 5 Must-Ask Interview Questions to Determine if Someone's a Fit 3. Personality testing. Personality tests like the popular DISC model can be a great matchmaking tool for hiring managers. The DISC model identifies four personality traits (dominance, influence, steadiness and compliance) and provides insights on how different personality types overcome obstacles, persuade colleagues, cooperate with others and operate within organizational structures. Armed with this knowledge, managers can hire the right employees and put together effective teams. Related: 4 Ways to Manage Employees Who Like to Figure It Out Themselves By using these three workplace matchmaking tools, hiring managers can get a better idea of who the job candidate is as a person. Insights on beliefs, interests, preferences and problem-solving approaches can be incredibly valuable in helping hiring managers assess how well candidates will fit in at the company and get along with the existing team. Skills, experience and education are vital factors, of course, and there are also tools employers can use to evaluate those aspects of a candidate’s suitability for an open position. But creating a team that is capable of working together harmoniously is just as critical to business success as assembling the right balance of skillsets. By using these three matchmaking tips, hiring managers can make sure they have the “soft” skills covered as well, and that’s good for business. 

ACC 492 OUTLET Pride In Excellence/acc492outletdotcom ACC 492 Entire Course FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com ACC 492 Week 1 Individual Assignment Payroll Flowchart ACC 492 Week 1 Individual Multiple Choice ACC 492 Week 1 Quiz ACC 492 Week 1 Individual Assignment Assignments From the Text ACC 492 Week 2 Individual Multiple Choice ACC 492 Week 2 Quiz ACC 492 Week 2 Individual Assignment from the Text ACC 492 Week 2 Team Assignment Internal Control Questionnaire ACC 492 Week 3 Individual Multiple Choice Quiz ACC 492 Week 3 Quiz ACC 492 Week 3 Team Assignment Audit Program Development ACC 492 Week 4 Individual Multiple Choice Quiz ACC 492 Week 4 Quiz ACC 492 Week 4 Team Assignment Audit Program Presentation ACC 492 Week 5 Individual Assignment Issuing Audit Program Simulation ACC 492 Week 5 Team Assignment Case study assignment — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 1 DQ 1 (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com What account balances are included in a revenue and collection cycle? What specific control procedures should be in place and operating in internal control governing revenue recognition and cash accounting? What assertions are made about classes of transactions and events in the revenue and collection cycle? — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 1 DQ 2 (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Why is it important to place emphasis on the existence and rights (ownership) assertions when auditing accounts receivable? Which audit procedures are usually the most useful for auditing the existence and rights assertions? What analytical procedures might be informative regarding the existence assertion? — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 1 Individual Assignment Assignments From the Text (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Resource: Ch. 14 of Modern Auditing Dowload the Adobe® Reader® version of Ch. 14 to complete this assignment. · Click on the link for Ch. 14 of Modern Auditing on the course website. · Click Download eBook on the left-hand side of the page. · Download Ch. 14 of Modern Auditing Prepare written answers for the following assignments: · Comprehensive Question: 14–28 Controls over Cash Receipts Processing at a Church Comprehensive Question: 14–30 Substantive Tests of Accounts Receivable — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 1 Individual Assignment Assignments From the Text FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Click on the link for Ch. 14 of Modern Auditing on the course website. Click Download eBook on the left-hand side of the page. Download Ch. 14 of Modern Auditing Prepare written answers for the following assignments: Learning Check 14–4 Comprehensive Question: 14–28 Controls over Cash Receipts Processing at a Church Comprehensive Question: 14–30 Substantive Tests of Accounts Receivable — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 1 Individual Assignment Payroll Flowchart FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Post your flowchart in the Assignments folder. Prepare flowcharts of the revenue and payroll cycle in your organization. Then, prepare a 300–500-word examination of the cycles. Be sure to examine the internal controls within each cycle and any internal controls limitations that may exist. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 1 Individual Multiple Choice FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Post your answers to the Multiple Choice Questions in the Assignments folder. Be prepared to take a quiz on topics covered in the assigned readings for Week one. 1. Which of the following accounts in a merchandising company is affected by both the revenue cycle and another cycle? a. sales b. sales returns and allowances c. inventory d. accounts receivable e. accounts payable 2. The audit objective, “The accounts receivable balance represents gross claims on customers and agrees with the sum of the accounts receivable subsidiary ledger” is derived from the assertion of: a. existence or occurrence b. completeness c. rights and obligations d. valuation or allocation e. presentation or disclosure 3. All sales, cash receipts, and sales adjustments are accurately valued using GAAP and correctly journalized, summarized and posted are transaction objectives for: a. occurrence b. completeness c. accuracy d. cutoff e. classification 4. Disclosure objectives includes all of the following except: a. occurrence and rights and obligations b. cutoff c. completeness d. classification and understandability e. accuracy and valuation 5. The bonding of employees will normally be expected to: a. “weed out” dishonest employees already hired b. eliminate the need for separation of duties in the cash receipts area c. guarantee that all employee fraud will be prevented d. provide reasonable assurance that all employees will perform their jobs with the utmost integrity e. serve as a deterrent to dishonesty 6. A company policy states that annual vacations are mandatory for all employees. This policy is most important for employees who: a. are not bonded b. handle cash receipts c. maintain the detailed accounting records d. have access to the general ledger e. serve as inventory clerks 7. A company has a policy of rotating employees’ assigned duties. This policy is most important for employees who: a. are not bonded b. maintain the detailed accounting records c. handle cash receipts d. have access to the general ledger e. serve as inventory clerks 8. Auditors should evaluate new controls associated with all of the following except: a. new product lines b. new sources of revenues c. management’s response to new accounting standards for revenue transactions d. related changes in personnel e. all of the above 9. An understanding of the revenue accounting system requires knowledge of all of the following except: a. how sales are initiated b. how goods and services are delivered c. how payables are recorded d. how cash is received e. how sales adjustments are made 10. In a credit-merchandising environment, which of the following documents usually initiates the activity in the sales cycle? a. shipping document b. customer order c. material requisition d. sales invoice e. sales order — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 1 Quiz FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com 1. In an accrual accounting system, revenues are recognized as goods are delivered or as services are rendered. (True/False) 2. Give a brief definition of revenue. (30%) 3. How are revenues measured? [Not asking for currency here](30%) 4. List any three types of transactions normally processed by the revenue process. (30%) — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 2 DQ 1 (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com How might a purchasing manager use his or her position to defraud the company? What can be done to prevent it? Where could an auditor look to find evidence of losses on purchase commitments and unrecorded liabilities to vendors? — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 2 DQ 2 (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Why does the auditor examine travel and entertainment expenses? What would poor controls regarding executive reimbursements say about the tone at the top for purposes of evaluating and reporting on internal control? How might the auditor effectively use analytical procedures in the audit of various expense accounts, such as miscellaneous expenses? Provide an example of how analytical procedures might be used in the audit of such accounts — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 2 Individual Assignment Assignments From the Text (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Resource: Modern Auditing Prepare written answers to the following assignments: · Ch. 16–33: Comprehensive Question Control Activities in Payroll Processing Ch. 16–35: Comprehensive Question Potential Misstatements/Tests of Controls — Payroll — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 2 Individual Assignment from the Text FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Post your answers to the following assignments from the text in your Assignments folder. Prepare responses to the questions posed by the following: Learning Check 15:5 from the text, Modern Auditing: Assurance Services and the Integrity of Financial Reporting (8th ed.) by Boynton and Johnson. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 2 Individual Multiple Choice FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Post your answers to the Multiple Choice Questions in the Assignments folder. Please post your answers to the Multiple Choice questions to the Assignments section. 1. Which of the following accounts does not appear in the acquisition and expenditure cycle? a. Cash. b. Purchases Returns. c. Sales Returns. d. Prepaid Insurance. 2. For which of the following accounts would the matching concept be the most appropriate? a. Cost of Goods Sold. b. Research and Development. c. Depreciation Expense. d. Sales. 3. Which of the following would not overstate current period net income? a. Capitalizing an expenditure that should be expensed. b. Failing to record a liability for an expenditure. c. Failing to record a check paying an item in Vouchers Payable. d. All of the above would overstate net income. 4. A client’s purchasing system ends with the recording of a liability and its eventual payment. Which of the following best describes the auditor’s primary concern with respect to liabilities resulting from the purchasing system? a. Accounts payable are not materially understated. b. Authority to incur liabilities is restricted to one designated person. c. Acquisition of materials is not made from one vendor or one group of vendors. d. Commitments for all purchases are made only after established competitive bidding procedures are followed. 5. Which of the following is an internal control activity that could prevent a paid disbursement voucher from being presented for payment a second time? a. Vouchers should be prepared by individuals who are responsible for signing disbursement checks. b. Disbursement vouchers should be approved by at least two responsible management officials. c. The date on a disbursement voucher should be within a few days of the date the voucher is presented for payment. d. The official who signs the check should compare the check with the voucher and should stamp “PAID” on the voucher documents. 6. Budd, the purchasing agent of Lake Hardware Wholesalers, has a relative who owns a retail hardware store. Budd arranged for hardware to be delivered by manufacturers to the retail store on a COD basis, thereby enabling his relative to buy at Lake’s wholesale prices. Budd was probably able to accomplish this because of Lake’s poor internal control over: a. Purchase requisitions. b. Cash receipts. c. Perpetual inventory records. d. Purchase orders. 7. Which of the following is the best audit procedure for determining the existence of unrecorded liabilities? a. Examine confirmation requests returned by creditors whose accounts appear on a subsidiary trial balance of accounts payable. b. Examine a sample of cash disbursements in the period subsequent to year-end. c. Examine a sample of invoices a few days prior to and subsequent to the year-end to ascertain whether they have been properly recorded. d. Examine unusual relationships between monthly accounts payable and recorded purchases. 8. Which of the following procedures is least likely to be performed before the balance sheet date? a. Observation of inventory. b. Review of internal control over cash disbursements. c. Search for unrecorded liabilities. d. Confirmation of receivables. 9. To determine whether accounts payable are complete, an auditor performs a test to verify that all merchandise received has been recorded. The population for this test consists of all a. Vendors’ invoices. b. Purchase orders. c. Receiving reports. d. Canceled checks. (AICPA adapted) 10. When verifying debits to the perpetual inventory records of a nonmanufacturing company, an auditor would be most interested in examining a sample of purchase a. Approvals. b. Requisitions. c. Invoices. d. Orders. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 2 Learning Team Assignment Apollo Shoe Case Assignment (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Resource: Apollo Shoe Case link in Week Two on the Materials page Complete the following audit sections: See the Course Materials folder for Clarification · Revenue and Expenses o Before completing this section, review the material in the Planning section with emphasis on the Trial balances and Apollo Shoes Minutes; and the Accounts Receivable section with emphasis on the Audit of Accounts Receivable — confirmations. · Payroll Before completing this section, review the material in the Planning section. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 2 Quiz FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Be prepared to take a quiz on topics covered in the assigned readings for Week two. 1. Expenses are normally accrued at the end of the accounting period by a small business that follows the cash method of accounting. (True/False). 2. List two expense accounts that are usually accrued at the end of an accounting period. (30%) 3. Name the document that is usually completed before a purchase order is executed. (30%) 4. Which assertion is of primary importance to the auditor in auditing accounts payable? Why — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 2 Team Assignment Internal Control Questionnaire FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Internal Controls Questionnaire. Select a Learning Team member’s organization as the basis for this and subsequent Learning Team meeting assignments. Develop and complete an internal controls questionnaire for either an asset- or liability-related business cycle within the selected organization. Include questions regarding important characteristics of the following process components: a. Control environment b. Risk assessment c. Control activities d. Information systems and communications e. Monitoring — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 3 DQ 1 (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com What internal control components are common among long-term assets, liabilities, and equity accounts? What components are unique to each? How can an auditor assess these controls — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 3 DQ 2 (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com What are the key management assertions related to equity? What are the most important assertions related equity? How will auditors test these assertions? — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 3 Individual Assignment Assignments From the Text (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Resource: Modern Auditing Prepare written answers to the following assignments · Ch. 16–26: Comprehensive Question Evaluation of Internal Controls — Raw Materials and Supplies Inventory Ch. 16–29: Comprehensive Question Computer-Assisted Substantive Tests for Inventory — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 3 Individual Multiple Choice Quiz FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Post your answers to the Multiple Choice Questions in your Assignments folder. 1. Which of the following approaches is most suitable for auditing the finance and investment cycle? a. Perform extensive tests of controls and limit substantive procedures to analytical procedures. b. Ignore internal controls and perform extensive substantive procedures. c. Review internal controls, and perform extensive substantive procedures. d. Ignore internal controls and limit substantive procedures to analytical procedures. 2. Loan covenants are used for which of the following reasons? a. To protect the lender from the borrower substantially weakening the borrower’s financial position. b. To protect the borrower from the lender calling the loan early. c. To protect the auditor from false information by the borrower. d. To protect shareholders from management taking on too much debt. 3. A related-party is a person or entity that a. Has a family tie to a management member. b. Does business with the company. c. Can exert significant influence over or be influenced by the company. d. Is a member of the company’s management. 4. Jones was engaged to examine the financial statements of Gamma Corporation for the year ended June 30. Having completed an examination of the investment securities, which of the following is the best method of verifying the accuracy of recorded dividend income? a. Tracing recorded dividend income to cash receipts records and validated deposit slips. b. Utilizing analytical procedures and statistical sampling. c. Comparing recorded dividends with amounts appearing on federal information Form 1099. d. Comparing recorded dividends with a standard financial reporting service’s record of dividends. 5. When the client holds a large amount of negotiable securities, auditors need to plan to guard against a. Unauthorized negotiation of the securities before they are counted. b. Unrecorded sales of securities after they are counted. c. Substitution of securities already counted for other securities that should be on hand but are not. d. Substitution of authentic securities with counterfeit securities. 6. In connection with the audit of an issue of long-term bonds payable, the auditor should a. Determine whether bondholders are persons other than owners, directors, or officers of the company issuing the bond. b. Calculate the effective interest rate to see if it is substantially the same as the rates for similar issues. c. Decide whether the bond issue was made without violating state or local law. d. Ascertain that the client has obtained the opinion of counsel on the legality of the issue. 7. Which of the following is the most important audit consideration when examining the stockholders’ equity section of a client’s balance sheet? a. Changes in the capital stock account are verified by an independent stock transfer agent. b. Stock dividends and stock splits during the year under audit were approved by the stockholders. c. Stock dividends are capitalized at par or stated value on the dividend declaration date. d. Entries in the capital stock account can be traced to resolutions in the minutes of meetings of the board of directors. 8. If the auditor discovers that the carrying amount of a client’s investments is overstated because of a loss in value that is other than a temporary decline in market value, the auditor should insist that a. The approximate market value of the investments be shown in parentheses on the face of the balance sheet. b. The investments be classified as long term for balance sheet purposes with full disclosure in the footnotes. c. The loss in value is recognized in the financial statements. d. The equity section of the balance sheet separately shows a charge equal to the amount of the loss. 9. The primary reason for preparing a reconciliation between interest-bearing obligations outstanding during the year and interest expense in the financial statements is to a. Evaluate internal control over securities. b. Determine the validity of prepaid interest expense. c. Ascertain the reasonableness of imputed interest. d. Detect unrecorded liabilities. 10. The auditor should insist that a representative of the client be present during the inspection and count of securities to a. Lend authority to the auditor’s directives. b. Detect forged securities. c. Coordinate the return of all securities to proper locations. d. Acknowledge the receipt of securities returned. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 3 Learning Team Assignment Apollo Shoe Case Assignment (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Learning Check 18–2 Learning Check 18–15 Comprehensive Question 18–25 (controls and substantive tests for investment transactions) — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 3 Quiz FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com 1. Internal control is a process effected by an entity’s board of directors, management, and other personnel that is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives. (True/False) (10%) 2. What are the two main objectives for conducting preliminary analytical procedures? (30%) 3. List the two types of audit tests. (30%) 4. List three factors that affect an organization’s control environment. (30%) — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 3 Team Assignment Audit Program Development FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Audit Program Development. Based on the findings of the Internal Controls Questionnaire your team developed in Learning Team Meeting One, prepare a list of audit objectives for your selected business cycle. Then, develop an audit program to meet your stated audit objectives. Include substantive tests of transactions, analytical procedures, and tests of account balances in your audit program. Be sure to identify the procedures necessary to analyze the income statement accounts related to your selected business cycle. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 4 DQ 1 (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com What are the steps that are required for an auditor to finalize the audit? Which steps are the most crucial to the outcome of the audit? How will these steps affect the final audit decision? — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 4 DQ 2 (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com What types of opinions does an auditor issue other than unqualified? How does an opinion other than unqualified affect the client? In your opinion, which is the worst? What are the circumstances that warrant each type of opinion? — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 4 Individual Assignment Assignments From the Text (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Resource: Modern Auditing Prepare answers to the following assignments: · Ch. 17–22: Comprehensive Question Internal Controls for Plant Assets Ch. 17–26: Comprehensive Question Substantive Tests and Disclosures for Long-Term Debt — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 4 Individual Assignment Case Study (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Case 8.1: Laramie Wire Manufacturing: Using Analytical Procedures in Audit Planning — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 4 Individual Multiple Choice Quiz FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Post your answers to the Multiple Choice Questions in your Assignments folder 1. A CPA found that the company has not capitalized a material amount of leases in the financial statements. When considering the materiality of this departure from GAAP, the CPA would choose between which reporting options? a. Unqualified opinion or disclaimer of opinion. b. Unqualified opinion or qualified opinion. c. Emphasis paragraph with unqualified opinion or an adverse opinion. d. Qualified opinion or adverse opinion. 2. An auditor determined that the company is suffering financial difficulty and the going concern status is seriously in doubt. Even though the company has placed adequate disclosures in the financial statements, the auditor must choose between which of the following audit report alternatives? a. Unqualified report with a going-concern explanatory paragraph or disclaimer of opinion. b. Standard unqualified report or a disclaimer of opinion. c. Qualified opinion or adverse opinion. d. Standard unqualified report or adverse opinion. 3. A company accomplished an early extinguishment of debt, and the auditors believe that literal application of SFAS No. 98 would cause recognition of a loss that would materially distort the financial statements and cause them to be misleading. Given these facts, the auditor would probably choose which reporting option? a. Explain the situation and give an adverse opinion. b. Explain the situation and give a disclaimer of opinion. c. Explain the situation and give an unqualified opinion, relying on Rule 203 of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. d. Give the standard unqualified audit report. 4. Which of these situations would require an auditor to append an explanatory paragraph about consistency to an otherwise unqualified audit report? a. Company changed its estimated allowance for uncollectible accounts receivable. b. Company corrected a prior mistake in accounting for interest capitalization. c. Company sold one of its subsidiaries and consolidated six subsidiaries this year compared to seven last year. d. Company changed its inventory costing method from FIFO to LIFO. 5. Wolfe became the new auditor for Royal Corporation, succeeding Mason, who audited the financial statements last year. Wolfe needs to report on Royal’s comparative financial statements and should write in his report an explanation about another auditor having audited the prior year a. Only if Mason’s opinion last year was qualified. b. Describing the prior audit and the opinion but not naming Mason as the predecessor auditor. c. Describing the audit but not revealing the type of opinion Mason gave. d. Describing the audit and the opinion and naming Mason as the predecessor auditor. 6. When other independent auditors are involved in the current audit of parts of the company’s business, the principal auditor can write an audit report that (two answers) a. Mentions the other auditor, describes the extent of the other auditor’s work, and gives an unqualified opinion. b. Does not mention the other auditor and gives an unqualified opinion in a standard unqualified report. c. Places primary responsibility for the audit report on the other auditors. d. Names the other auditors, describes their work, and presents only the principal auditor’s report. 7. An “emphasis-of-a-matter” paragraph inserted in a standard audit report causes the report to be characterized as a(n) a. Unqualified opinion report. b. Divided responsibility report. c. Adverse opinion report. d. Disclaimer of opinion. 8. Under which of the following conditions can a disclaimer of opinion never be given? a. Going-concern problems are highly material and significant. b. The company does not let the auditor have access to evidence about important accounts. c. The auditor owns stock in the company. d. The auditor has found that the company has used the NIFO (next-in, first-out) inventory costing method. 9. Where will you find an auditor’s own responsibility for expressing the opinion on financial statements? a. Stated explicitly in the introductory paragraph of the standard unqualified report. b. Unstated but understood in the introductory paragraph of the standard unqualified report. c. Stated explicitly in the opinion paragraph of the standard unqualified report. d. Stated explicitly in the scope paragraph of the standard unqualified report. 10. Company A hired Sampson &Delila, CPAs, to audit the financial statements of Company B and deliver the audit report to Megabank. Which is the client? a. Megabank. b. Sampson &Delila. c. Company A. d. Company B. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 4 Learning Team Assignment Apollo Shoe Case Assignment (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Resource: Apollo Shoes Case Materials located on the Week Four student website Complete the following audit sections: See the Course Materials folder for Clarification · Prepaids and Other Assets o Before completing this section, review the Planning section and the Cash section with emphasis on the Apollo Shoes Bank Rec. · Fixed Assets Before completing this section, review the Planning section with emphasis on the Apollo Shoes Minutes. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 4 Learning Team Assignment Assignments From the Text (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Resource: Modern Auditing Prepare written answers to the following assignments: · Ch. 17–27: Comprehensive Question Substantive Tests for Stockholders’ Equity Balances Ch. 18–31: Comprehensive Question Substantive Tests for Cash Balances — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 4 Quiz FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com 1. The auditor’s responsibilities with regard to audit works is usually up to the last date of field works. (True/False) 2. Name the various types of opinions expressed by an independent auditor. 3. List the three types of going concern issues. 4. Describe very briefly three conditions under which an auditor issues a qualified report. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 4 Team Assignment Audit Program Presentation FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Audit Program Presentation.聽 Prepare 8–10 Microsoft庐 PowerPoint庐 slides illustrating your Learning Team鈥檚 Audit Questionnaire and the results of your completed Audit Program.聽 Post your answers to the聽Assignments聽folder of the responsible individual. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 5 Individual Assignment Assignments From the Text (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Prepare written answers to the following assignments: Ch. 19–23: Comprehensive Question Subsequent Events — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 5 Individual Assignment Case Study (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Resources: Case 12.4: Surfer Dude Duds, Inc.: Considering the Going-Concern Assumption Prepare written answers that follow the case — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 5 Individual Assignment Issuing Audit Program Simulation FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Issuing Audit Reports Simulation. Complete the simulation “Issuing Audit Reports” located on the Materials page. After completing the simulation, prepare a 350-word response to following questions: a) What are the different types of audit reports and when should each be used? b) In what types of situations would an auditor be allowed to issue an unqualified audit report? c) To what extent is the auditor liable for misstatements in the financial statements of the audited company? Note:Issuing Audit Reports simulation located on the Week Five Materials page Submit your Course Summary the Main Classroom forum. Submit a brief Course summary indicating what you have learned from this course over the past 5 weeks. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 5 Individual Assignment Issuing Audit Reports Simulation (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Resources: Issuing Audit Reports simulation located on the Week Five Materials page Complete the simulation. Prepare a 500-word response to the following questions: · What are the different types of audit reports and when should each be used? · In what types of situations would an auditor be allowed to issue an unqualified audit report? To what extent is the auditor liable for misstatements in the financial statements of the audited company? — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ACC 492 Week 5 Learning Team Assignment Case Study Assignment and Presentation (New) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www.acc492outlet.com Resource: Case 4.1: Enron Corporation and Andersen, LLP: Analyzing the Fall of Two Giants in Auditing Cases Complete the questions at the end of the case. Prepare a 500–650 word response to the following questions: · What are the principles of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct? · What part(s) of the AICPA Code of Conduct was violated by Andersen? By any Enron employee who was a CPA? Prepare 12–15 Microsoft® PowerPoint® slides, with speaker’s notes, illustrating your answers to the Case Study Assignment on Case 4.1. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

There are many nuggets of wisdom that we use as guiding principles when building our team. Here are five that have proven to be especially valuable and lasting. The rule of 3 and 10 Coined by Hiroshi Mikitani, founder and CEO of Rakuten, the rule implies that every time your team triples in size, rounding up t0 nearest multiples of 10, everything changes, things break. When you go from one person to three people it’s different. When it’s just you, you know what you are doing and then you have three people and you have to rethink how you are doing everything. But when there are 10 people it’s all going to change again. And when there are 30 people it will change again. Same when you reach 100 people. — https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/the-rule-of-3-and-10/ Everything from team dynamics, communication tools and meetings to payroll and the intentional or natural formation of hierarchy is affected. At Buttercloud, a team floating around the 6–10 person size, a change of plus or minus one can often have a palpable impact and require rethinking everything we are doing. A simple example would be how to maintain the practicality of our morning standup call as the number of attendees increases, that 20-30 minute call is suddenly approaching the hour mark. Edit your team As CEO of Square, Jack Dorsey sees himself as “Chief Editor”, where his #1 priority is editing the team dynamics. In his words: “I’ve often spoken to the editorial nature of what I think my job is, I think I’m just an editor, and I think every CEO is an editor. I think every leader in any company is an editor. Taking all of these ideas and editing them down to one cohesive story, and in my case my job is to edit the team, so we have a great team that can produce the great work and that means bringing people on and in some cases having to let people go.” When speaking on the matter, Kevin Rose also used the term “pruning” which by definition is the act of trimming down in order to encourage growth. Editing your team is just as much about nurturing the company culture as it is about building a skilled and experienced team. As with rowing, all team members need to paddle in the same direction at the same speed in order to reach the finish line. Brooks’ Law Although Fred Brooks, in his book The Mythical Man-Month, coined this oversimplified rule in reference to software projects, I believe it can be applied to projects of any nature. “adding manpower to a late software project makes it later” Factors such as “ramp up” time, communication overhead and lack of concurrent tasks can attribute to negatively impacting a project in progress by adding to the team. This is something often overlooked by clients and project managers but also by startups that want to accelerate growth. As a small startup, the act of hiring in and of itself can be extremely time and energy consuming, which can be crippling at a critical time. If you can afford it, hire proactively rather than reactively. Broken window theory How many times have you said “I’ll come back to it” or “I’ll clean it up later”? Be it a piece of code or a post implementation review, if it doesn’t come back to bite you in the ass it’s sure to instigate decay by those inheriting your work. One broken window, left unrepaired for any substantial length of time, instils in the inhabitants of the building a sense of abandonment — a sense that the powers that be don’t care about the building. So another window gets broken. People start littering. Graffiti appears. Serious structural damage begins. In a relatively short space of time, the building becomes damaged beyond the owner’s desire to fix it, and the sense of abandonment becomes reality. — The Pragmatic Programmer Broken window theory will have a negative impact, even if implicit, on company culture. Lead by example, don’t leave broken windows. What gets measured gets managed In order to practice Kaizen, you need to track and continuously monitor that which you wish to improve. If you were to think of this in terms of losing weight, its obvious that in order to realise the loss of weight you need to constantly step on a scale, but that alone does not guide the process, it merely informs you whether or not you have lost weight. Ask anyone who has lost significant weight and they will tell you that it’s extremely difficult to succeed without tracking calories in and calories out. This principle can and should be applied to all aspects of your product or business such as platform performance, A/B testing pricing, productivity with strict in-office hours vs flexible work from home, the list goes on. Improvement can sometimes be pinpointed to a source but more of often than not, we don’t know why something worked, for example a successful marketing campaign; we can shrug our shoulders and celebrate but unless we can explain it, we won’t be able to guarantee repeated success. Try to get to the source, keep asking why until you find the reason. “Ask ‘why’ five times about every matter.” — Taiichi Ohno, Former Executive Vice President of Toyota What principles or advice have you found to be invaluable in your company? We would love for you to share your stories and experiences growing your team and culture.

Illustrations by Jonathan MuellerI love to run on the weekends. I get out of my house early and go for a few miles. One of the joys of urban running is all the different neighborhoods I pass through at a very human speed. I start by running past my neighbors: The house on the corner with the Bolivian math teacher and his wife who works for the FDA and then the park, filled with kids playing soccer and shooting hoop. I run past the skate park, where teens show off while their parents watch nervously, and on my final stretch, I notice the small homeless encampment set up at the highway underpass before I head back home. As a designer, it’s my job to design for all sorts of people, some like me, and more importantly, many who are not. It’s my responsibility to remember that even though we might share a geographic proximity, our interpretations of space, objects, brands, and symbols are as varied as the individuals who use and interact with these things. Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about empathy. A quick search in the New York Times alone comes up with stories on the relationship between empathy and politics, neuroscience, technology, and lo and behold, design thinking. But when it comes to using empathy as designers, we have to do more than what is colloquially thought of as a “feeling.” Walking in another person’s shoes sounds easy enough, but moving past a cursory understanding takes time, effort, and an openness that is difficult to achieve. We need to inhabit the lives of the people we are designing for, understand their interpretations, and develop a deep respect for their experiences, perspectives, and culture, in order to bring something meaningful and useful to market. Empathy as more than compassion I once had a client who wanted to create a better way of infusing medicine for people with hemophilia (a genetic disorder that prohibits blood from clotting). The client wanted us to help them understand and improve the lives of these patients. Starting at a very early age, people with hemophilia have to insert a small needle under their skin several times a week to prophylactically infuse medicine. When my team met with the client after fieldwork to discuss our findings, the client questioned why, after spending so much time observing their days and infusion habits, we didn’t spend more time solving for the emotional and physical trauma of daily needle infusions. They were clearly compassionate. We asked how many of them had ever tried to infuse themselves. No one raised their hand. What we learned early on in research was that the act of infusing is not only second nature because it happens so often, but for the majority of people, there is little to no fear of the needle. Many can do it one-handed, while on their phone, paying no attention at all. It’s a habit, for some, even a ritual, not a sacred and scary moment like our clients imagined. The client wasn’t solving for the right problem. While the compassion was there, there was also a lack of connection to their customers. Having compassion for a group of people can be a catalyst for change, but it doesn’t necessarily result in user-centered solutions. Experience + understanding builds empathy Even physically experiencing someone else’s living situation isn’t enough to design with empathy. I have had all sorts of experiences to simulate someone else’s living experience, from donning weighted gloves and scratched glasses to emulate driving like an elderly person to living on the streets for weeks to experience what it’s like to be homeless. While this is a great technique to better understand how people engage with the physical world, this approach alone focuses too much on the immediate visceral experience, and perhaps more problematically, my interpretation in isolation. Fieldwork, going to the places where people are living their lives to conduct research, is where we start to really connect with people. We learn about who they are, participate in their activities, and uncover their needs. We witness emotional responses, body language, context, and their use of space. By connecting with individuals in the field, we’re able to collect their stories and perspectives. We learn things like testing for diabetes often makes people feel guilty and sick and provides a disincentive to test. We learn how people with mental illness can live productive and full lives and are often shamed only by the stigma others associate with it. We learn how people lose faith in their ability to retire, and as a result, don’t bother contributing to a savings plan. Creating empathy with respondents requires more than listening to them, and more than simulating their lives. By interpreting the world through the lens of their values, history, religion, and culture, we can begin to design for them with them in mind. Exploring the sweet spot for synthesis and problem solvingTurning empathy into action It’s what we do with what we have learned from empathizing that leads to valuable designs. In order to solve a problem, we have to find the sweet spot between understanding from the person’s perspective and an objective outsider’s perspective. Renowned anthropologist Clifford Geertz calls this Thick Description. Without going too far down the design researcher’s rabbit hole, let me explain why the concept of Thick Description is so valuable when it comes to design. On the one hand, there is Emic, which is the full understanding of the individual or community’s internal organization, behavior, and overall perception of the world. Go too far in this direction and we run the risk of “going native,” losing objectivity and distance from what it is that we’re learning. The problem with this is that it can become impossible then to come up with novel or “obvious” solutions because we lose sight of existing constraints. (For instance, our cultural norms like marriage having to be between a man and a woman and higher education as the only way to success were not challenged for years.) On the other hand there is Etic, which takes an outsider’s perspective, assuming everyone should act and think like us and disregards what’s most important to the group we’re trying to solve for (especially problematic when the majority of designers represent a fairly homogeneous population). The problem with Etic is there’s little chance of designing a successful product or service since we have disregarded the workflows, attitudes, roles and what’s generally accepted by the group. In the sweet spot, or Thick Description, the research and design teams understand the population they are designing for, have both compassion and empathy, and also a deeper and richer perspective on the group’s motivations, histories, and values. At the same time, they bring an objective vantage point. For most designers, the goal is to create something useful, emotionally resonant and functionally beautiful that solves a problem in a unique way. Conducting robust research allows us to have empathy. Employing objectivity and thoughtful interpretation allows us to synthesize that research and arrive at rich insights. Finding just the right sweet spot in our perspective empowers us to not just create solutions, but to understand why we’ve arrived at specific solutions. Because knowing what we’re really solving for is just as important as how we’re solving for it. As I think about my weekend runs and return to their distinct signs, smells, and colors in my mind, I am continually inspired by their individual flavor. It’s a great reminder that as a designer, I have the opportunity and obligation to improve the lives of others in ways that solve for their specific needs, not mine. Special thanks to Jonathan Mueller and Jessica Herman for helping bring this piece to fruition.

BUS 437 Entire Course For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com BUS 437 Week 1 Assignment Company Description BUS 437 Week 1 DQ 1 Writing the Business Plan BUS 437 Week 1 DQ 2 Using Outside Help to Write the Plan BUS 437 Week 2 Assignment Marketing Section BUS 437 Week 2 DQ 1 Customer Survey BUS 437 Week 2 DQ 2 Industry Analysis BUS 437 Week 3 Assignment Strategy, Implementation, & Management Sections BUS 437 Week 3 DQ 1 Implementation BUS 437 Week 3 DQ 2 Operations Model BUS 437 Week 4 Assignment Finance Section BUS 437 Week 4 DQ 1 Sequence of Information BUS 437 Week 4 DQ 2 Financial Projections BUS 437 Week 5 Business Plan Final BUS 437 Week 5 DQ 1 Slogan BUS 437 Week 5 DQ 2 Presentation Concerns — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 1 Assignment Company Description For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Company Description. You will be developing the components of your Final Business Plan with each weekly assignment. Be sure to choose your business carefully, as you will not be able to switch later in the course. Submit the following section of your business plan: Company Description: What business will you be in? What will you do? Describe in a 2–3 page APA paper each of the following elements: · Mission Statement · Company Goals and Objectives · Business Philosophy · Legal form of ownership — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 1 DQ 1 Writing the Business Plan For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Writing the Business Plan It is often stated that the process of writing a business plan is as important as the plan itself. Provide a rationale for agreement or disagreement to this statement. What is potentially gained from the writing process? Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 1 DQ 2 Using Outside Help to Write the Plan For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Using Outside Help to Write the Plan. Respond to the following: What are the benefits and liabilities of using a software package to help write a business plan or hiring consultants to write the business plan for you? Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 2 Assignment Marketing Section For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Marketing Section In a 2–3 page APA paper, submit the following sections of your business plan: Product or Service: · Describe your product or service and the benefits it will provide for customers. · Describe the industry and how you will position your company. Market Analysis: · To whom will you market your products? · Describe pricing, promotion, distribution and forecasts for your product/service. Be sure to include at least one scholarly reference in your paper. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 2 DQ 1 Customer Survey For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Customer Survey Develop a one paragraph overview of your product or service. Then, identify at least five questions to include in a customer survey. Respond to at least two of your classmates and critique the questions developed to determine if their questions will address customer benefits of their product — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 2 DQ 2 Industry Analysis For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Industry Analysis Identify two attractive (growth) and two unattractive (dying) industries to enter into as a new entrepreneur. Provide your reasons for the selections. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 3 Assignment Strategy, Implementation, & Management Sections For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Strategy, Implementation, & Management Sections In a 2–3 page APA paper, submit the following sections of your business plan: Strategy and Implementation: · Describe your most important company competitive strengths and core competencies. · Develop an operations flow diagram to show the key steps in the production of a product or the delivery of a service. Management Team: · What background experience, skills, and strengths do you personally bring to this new venture? · Who are the key members of the team? What strengths do they bring to the venture? · What outside assistance will you have (board of directors, board of advisors, etc?) Be specific. Be sure to include at least two scholarly references in your paper — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 3 DQ 1 Implementation For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Implementation There is a vast difference between thinking up a new product idea and actually designing and manufacturing the product. Explain the nature and importance of this difference. Why do you think this task is more difficult than anticipated? Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 3 DQ 2 Operations Model For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Operations Model Why do you think an operations model can serve as the cornerstone of the success of a new venture? Identify one company that has developed a unique operating model (as an example, Dell developed a very unique operating model to sell customized computers online). Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 4 Assignment Finance Section For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Finance Section. In a 2–3 page APA paper, submit the following segment of your business plan: Financial Plan: Include material on the following: 1. Source and use of funds sheet (how much money a firm needs, how it will raise money, and what the money will be used for) 2. Assumptions sheet (explanation of the most critical assumptions that your financial statements are based on) 3. Pro Forma Income Statement 4. Balance Sheet 5. Cash Flow Statement Be sure to include at least two scholarly references in your paper. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 4 DQ 1 Sequence of Information For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Sequence of Information Your friend is getting ready to write a business plan for a new business. Your friend told you the plans are to prepare the financial statements first to get that job out of the way before the rest of the plan is developed. Explain the flaw in this approach. What value does it provide the entrepreneur to write the financial section as the last part of the business plan? Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 4 DQ 2 Financial Projections For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Financial Projections Respond to your friend’s question: “How in the world do you project income and expenses for a business that doesn’t exist?” Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 5 Business Plan Final To Purchase This Material Click below Link For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Focus of the Business Plan 1. Executive Summary: a. A page of plan highlights 2. Company Description: a. What business will you be in? What will you do? Describe the following elements: § Mission Statement § Company Goals and Objectives § Business Philosophy § Legal form of ownership 3. Product or Service: a. Describe your product or service and the benefits it will provide for customers § Describe the industry and how you will position your company 4. Market Analysis: § To whom will you market your products? § Describe pricing, promotion, distribution and forecasts for your product/service 5. Strategy and Implementation: § Describe your most important company competitive strengths and core competencies. § Develop an operations flow diagram to show the key steps in the production of a product or the delivery of a service 6. Management Team: § What background experience, skills, and strengths do you personally bring to this new venture? § Who are the key members of the team? What strengths do they bring to the venture? § What outside assistance will you have (board of directors, board of advisors, etc?) Be specific. 7. Financial Plan: a. Include material on the following: § Source and use of funds sheet (how much money a firm needs, how it will raise money, and what the money will be used for) § Assumptions sheet (explanation of the most critical assumptions that your financial statements are based on) § Pro Forma Income Statement § Balance Sheet § Cash Flow Statement § Appendices (any supporting documentation) — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 5 DQ 1 Slogan To Purchase This Material Click below Link For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Slogan In order to develop your business plan presentation you believe it will be important to develop a catchy slogan to describe your business. Share your slogan with your classmates and critique the slogans presented by two of your classmates. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — BUS 437 Week 5 DQ 2 Presentation Concerns To Purchase This Material Click below Link For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Presentation Concerns Identify your biggest concern in developing a business plan presentation. Describe how you will overcome your concern. Provide advice to two other classmates on possible ways to overcome their concerns.

Unicorn designers don’t exist. Generalists do. If there’s one thing the design industry loves it’s false dichotomies. Should designers learn to code or focus on design? Should they generalise or specialise in one area? These debates distract us from the real issue: it doesn’t matter how you realise your work, as long as the end result is a clear articulation of your design vision. Specific skill sets are merely a means to an end. Take a carpenter. Sometimes they’ll need to use to use a fine-toothed Japanese saw. Other times they’ll need a heavy-duty chainsaw. Part of being a successful carpenter is selecting the right tool for the job. The same is true of product design — you need different skills at different times. You need a blend of specialism and generalism, and at different points of your career. As I’ve helped build the design team at Intercom, I’ve found that both generalists and specialists are essential to a modern product design team. But their value is required at different points in a company’s lifespan. When a company only has a handful of designers, they must by necessity do everything. That means running the full gamut — from thinking at a product level, to interaction design, to high fidelity visual design and more. So what does a generalist need to know? The precise skills required (the technologies you use, the languages you can speak) are less important than the ability to think all the way up the stack of a product. A lot of startups might refer to this person as a “unicorn designer”. This is a misnomer. Unicorns don’t actually exist; generalists do. It is entirely reasonable to expect a smart, talented designer to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills needed to think holistically across all levels of a product. In your early days, having naturally curious designers, who can’t help but soak up everything around them, is table stakes. Curiosity is the single most important attribute in early-stage design teams. Without it, you’re limited by the knowledge and skills your designers carry with them. But designers who possess an insatiable curiosity will learn, adapt, upskill, and push your team forward in ways you could never predict. When something new is required of them, their immediate reaction will be to go and read about the subject. Not because it’s their job; because they simply can’t help being so damn interested in every aspect of design. These generalists are the glue that holds your startup together. They know enough about a range of broad disciplines, can import ideas and influences for a variety of sources, and know enough to collaborate with everyone in their team. Mid-stage startup So if everyone knows how to cook, why bother having chefs? For most companies, you’ll eventually reach the point where having someone who knows enough really isn’t enough. As teams scale, it becomes necessary to add people who are true masters of their craft. People who devote themselves completely to expertise in their chosen area. These are the motion designers who have studied animation, the prototypers who design by making, and the visual designers who have a deep obsession with grids, color theory, and Gestalt principles. Specialists are all about magnifying advantages. They can dig deep into the entire range of local solutions. They bring a degree of experience and domain knowledge that a generalist never could. They can apply a level of polish and professionalism to their niche of the product that their generalist colleagues could never achieve. They can coach and advise other designers in their area of expertise. It’s like adding rocket fuel to your team — they make all output along one specific dimension immeasurably better. The golden ratio So should your startup hire specialists or generalists? The type of designers you should hire really depends on what stage your company is at. At an early stage startup, you should hire a bunch of generalists. As your team matures, as you encounter the murkier corners of your problem domain, start blending in specialists. There’s no one size fits all ratio for product design teams. At Intercom we aim for a rough ratio of 5:1 for generalists to specialists. It means we have broad enough skills to be able to ship quality product, but narrow enough to raise the bar in the places that really matter. However you fall down in the specialist vs generalist divide, remember that the roles of individuals are secondary; what matters is the completeness of the skillset to help you fulfill your product vision. Hire anyone who can help you realise that, because it takes all sorts to truly achieve it. Written by Emmet Connolly, Director of Product Design at Intercom. This post first appeared on the Inside Intercom blog, where we regularly share our thoughts on product strategy, design, customer experience, and startups. Intercom is a platform that makes it easy for web and mobile businesses to communicate with their customers, personally and at scale. Image Credit: Jillian Adel Want to read more articles like this? Principles of bot design - Inside IntercomDespite plenty of excitement it's still unclear how conversational UIs can be made to work in a practical sense. But…blog.intercom.io A future without code - Inside Intercom"What hath God wrought?" was a message that reshaped the world as we know it. Transmitted by Samuel Morse in 1844, it…blog.intercom.io

If you recently launched a startup—or you’re thinking about it—you’ll inevitably hit the “I have no idea what I’m doing” stage (if not once, then multiple times). It seems that there are countless problems to solve that you don’t necessarily have the tools or resources to answer, right? How do I gain early startup traction? How do I find a co-founder or build an early team? How do I come up with the cash to build an early team!? How do I know that my idea is even something people want?...And who in the world are those people, exactly? If you’ve found yourself asking some of these questions, there’s no better way to find the answers than by leaning on the knowledge of those who have already successfully navigated their way through the same entrepreneurial journey . Below, you’ll find ten great books, courses, and other resources to help you build your startup effectively in those early, lean stages. We can’t wait to see what comes out of the learning for you. :-) Startup Launch List Things you must read before launching a startup. There is such an overwhelming amount of content on the internet offering up advice on how to launch a startup. How do you weed through all of the noise? Thanks to Startup Launch List, now you don’t have to. Select from a list of pain points—like coming up with an idea, building a team, raising money, and making money–and then get a beautifully curated list of the must-read articles on each topic. You’ll find great advice from some of tech’s top thought leaders, including: Paul Graham, Mark Suster, Brad Feld, Derek Sivers, Seth Godin, Chris Dixon and more. Traction Course Free course with 7 marketing super-hacks. Justin Mares and Gabriel Weinberg co-wrote a book in 2015 called Traction. It has quickly become one of the most important startup books because it details out exactly how to think about growing your startup, which is the (potentially) billion dollar question all founders want an answer to. Justin and Gabriel created Traction Course to showcase super-tactics in seven different marketing channels, including: email marketing, content marketing, publicity, and display and social ads. This is not to be missed. Good Email Copy Email copy from great companies. Even if it seems like such an overdone marketing channel, email remains one of the most effective ways to build and engage your customer base. And, writing email copy remains one of the most tedious marketing tasks ever. If you don’t want to reinvent the wheel completely, check out Good Email Copy. Created by the Front app team, this is a collection of emails from great companies like Slack, Trello, Pinterest, Basecamp, Everlane, Eventbrite, Shopify, and more. You can sort by tag (e.g. welcome, thank you, new features, billing issue, invitation, upgrade, etc.), which makes it super easy to find sample copy related to the kind of email you’re looking to write. Petit Hacks Acquisition, retention, & revenue hacks used by companies. Petit Hacks is a truly useful resource. Head to the site, and you’ll find countless examples of hacks various websites use to drive acquisition, revenue, referrals, retention, and activation. Each hack includes a screenshot and a short explanatory blurb. This is a fun site to browse if you’re looking for new mini traction strategies to try as you grow your startup. Brick by Brick A free guide to building awesome communities. Building products comes with its own unique challenges. Building communities around a product? That’s another thing entirely. Brick by Brick is a comprehensive, free guide created by Sacha Greif that takes you through the various elements of community building. You’ll learn more about: engagement, promotion, moderation, voice, value, and audience segmentation. This is a useful resource that includes tidbits of wisdom from incredible community builders, like: Pieter Levels, Justin Kan, Josh Owens, and more. Make This Year Grow your core business by launching side projects. When you subscribe to Make This Year, you’ll get a step-by-step lesson every month from an “experienced side project maker,” who will teach you how to grow your business in the most efficient way possible by building tools that create value for your customers. This is as lean as it gets: build one side project at a time, and see what sticks with your audience. And, with only one lesson a month, you won’t feel overwhelmed by the content. Traffic 1M Free lessons from the pros who’ve built massive websites. In the words of Traffic 1M creator Noah Kagan, “If you build it they will come. Just kidding.” It is hard to drive an audience to your site—especially in the very beginning. If you’ve ever asked yourself the question, “How do I drive a ton of traffic to my site quickly and cheaply?,” then this is for you. Noah, who has worked on Facebook, Mint, AppSumo, and SumoMe, along with 15 other traffic generation experts, share some of their best traffic generation tactics. You’ll learn how to incentivize social sharing, own your SEO, test your content, create smart social ads. This is, without a doubt, some of the best advice in the online traffic game. Growth Hacker Course A short course on the future of PR, marketing, and advertising. The Growth Hacker Course was created by Ryan Holiday based on his popular book Growth Hacker Marketing. He walks you through a four-step framework that begins with helping you find product-market fit, and ends with retention and optimization hacking. There’s only so much you can learn about startup growth tactics from a book; at some point, the only thing left to do is start experimenting in real life. This course will guide you through that process with various exercises you can try as you learn about each step in the framework. Since taking action is the whole point (and also the hardest part) of learning, we’re pumped about the design of this course. Business Model Kit Explore revenue models to make money with your idea. This kit makes business modeling fun again. If you aren’t sure exactly what your startup’s business model is yet, The Business Model Kit is a useful tool that will help you whiteboard what your company might look like in 5, 10, or 20 years. There are 16 different blocks to help you visualize your model (e.g. consumers, suppliers, government, product, service, experience, data money, exposure, etc.). When you’re thinking about the bigger picture—like multiple revenue streams, partnerships, and complex supplier transactions—this will help you get your creative (and organizational) juices going. Lean Series Books The entire Lean Series, published by O’Reilly, is packed with incredible insight and strategies for growing your startup—especially in the early stages when there’s often no other option but to run “lean.” We highly recommend starting with Ash Maurya’s Running Lean, which is all about finding the right product-market fit. Effectively, it’s a step-by-step blueprint for taking your ideas, turning them into experiments, and taking action quickly. Once you’ve devoured that book, pick up some of the others based on your startup’s most pressing needs. There are so many other incredible books, podcasts, and software tools designed to help you grow your company as effectively as possible—particularly when you’re first starting out. If you want even more resources to help you think through the best way to build your business, you can find them on Product Hunt, starting with this collection of Lean Startup Tools:

A few weeks ago we told you the story of Joe and Sam and how they developed their e-Commerce ventures. This week we are going to tell you who they selected for software development for their businesses, consultants or full-time employees? Joe believed that consultants were a better option because of their experience, cost effectiveness, quality of work and ease of hiring. However, Sam was not in the favor of Joe’s decision to hire consultants. ‘Why would you spend money on someone who is not even sitting in the same building as you are?’ Sam exclaimed ‘I have heard numerous horror stories of not being able to get the work done from these consultants’. ‘Oh no Sam, this rarely happens! Besides, what if you end up hiring a mismatch? You will be stuck with that employee for a long time since it is not easy to lay off an in-house employee’ said Joe in his defense. ‘Instead of jumping to conclusions and falling into the stereotypes, let’s dig deeper and find out the pros and cons of hiring consultants’ Joe continued. Sam was not moved by the claims of Joe and was mad at his dearest friend for not listening to him. Joe decided to make it easy for Sam to understand the benefits of bringing a consultant on board. Let’s have a look at his findings. Myths about consultants and the truth about them Joe’s research regarding consultants showed that there were numerous myths surrounding them. No wonder why Sam was so afraid to hire consultants. Some common myths included cost burden, lack of communication, poor quality work, and difficulty of managing teams. These are often misunderstood as the disadvantages by employers but in reality are just their fears regarding the hiring process. Joe took it upon himself to break these stereotypes. Have a look at the myths and get to know the truth. 1. Consultants are costly It is usually believed that consultants are expensive to hire. However, it’s a big fat lie! The biggest perk of hiring consultants is the cost effectiveness of the process. You get to skip the burden of employee benefits and the provision of resources which are required in the case of an in-house team. Let us help you understand how hiring a consultant is going to be less expensive. You pay consultants on an hourly basis or decide a fixed budget at the beginning of the contract. The cumulative amount seems a lot but that’s just an illusion. It’s the cumulative cost you will pay to the consultant for several weeks or months of work. In-house employees are a cost burden for your company. From hiring to training to retaining the employee, it involves a lot of effort and money. And once you are done training them, there are chances that your employee resigns and joins any other company. This will leave you with a sore heart, trust us. In the case of in-house employees, all employers focus on is their monthly salary. However, their yearly expense is way greater than that of a consultant. An in-house employee’s salary consists of the following. Annual bonus Paid leaves Health insurance Travel cost coverage Provision of resource (electricity, furniture, equipment etc.) Payroll taxes When all of this is added along with several other indirect costs, it becomes a huge expense which exceeds the expense of hiring a consultant. Makes sense, right? 2. Communication gap It is often believed that if the employee is not in close proximity, there will definitely be a gap in communication which will adversely impact the performance of the consultant and you will lose money. That’s nothing but a terrible myth. In the presence of communication tools such as Skype, Whatsapp, and Viber, complaining about communication issues is not more than just a stereotype. Having said that, let’s talk about the in-house teams. In-house teams have to follow a certain communication path for getting their point across. There are several layers of permission and formal protocols after which a certain issue is addressed. What about the delay in communication here? This does not happen in the case of consultants as they are in direct contact with the people monitoring their project. 3. Difficult to manage remote teams What my team is up to? When will I get the final product? How much work is done? What’s left? The primary concern of employers is how they will be able to manage remote teams and due to this fear, they refrain from hiring consultants. However, it is fairly simple to manage virtual teams and it’s merely a myth that controlling consultants from a distance is difficult. Each and every team of consultants has a project manager who is responsible to manage the work of his team. A project manager acts as a bridge between his team and the client company and makes it easy to control the team of consultants. Secondly, online tools such as JIRA and Asana are a good way to know what your consultants are up to. These platforms help development teams in getting more work done. With the help of JIRA, you can benefit from agile project management and track the performance of the consultants you hire. In addition to these tools, real-time performance checking tools such as Upwork’s desktop application for time tracking and performance assessment have made it easy for companies to hire consultants. This application not only records the activity but also takes screenshots at random intervals which are then sent to the hiring agency. This not only improves efficiency to the process but also helps in the management of remote teams. Solves the issue, right? 4. Poor quality work This is a baseless acquisition. Consultants are experienced in their respective fields of work. The best thing about hiring a team of consultants is that they are highly experienced and hence, can provide good quality work. It is possible to end up with the wrong team of consultants but that happens rarely and only at instants when proper research is not conducted prior to hiring them. Hypothetically speaking, if you hire a team of consultants experienced in android development but with no experience of iOS development, you cannot expect them to provide you a high quality iOS app. That’s a bad hiring decision on your part. Hence, it’s nearly impossible to get poor quality work from consultants. Benefits of hiring a consultant After breaking the stereotypes regarding consultants, Joe decided to brief Sam about the benefits of hiring consultants for his company. 1. Domain expertise We know hiring an in-house employee tempts you but wait. The employee you will hire will be experienced in one domain only. What will you do when the work regarding that domain ends? Lay off the employee? No. You will not do that. You will keep paying him for nothing till you figure out how to engage him in other areas. The best thing about hiring consultants is their experience. You want to get an android app done; you will hire the consultant who is experienced in this area. What’s more, you can ask the consultant to show you some samples of work or request recommendations from the clients served in the past by the consultant. Does this not make consultants a safer option? In addition to that, consultants have industry knowledge. They know what is ‘trending’ in a particular industry. No wonder they will upgrade your system to the industry standards in no time. Having worked with different clients operating in different industries, consultants can enlighten you about the various ways in which you can address your business needs. Furthermore, consultants bring on board all the relevant people required for completing a project. For example, they will have a project manager, a UI/UX designer and a developer on board for any software development project. Based on the type of project, a relevant team of consultants is devised which helps in delivering top-notch services to the client company. Oh, and unlike in-house employees, you don’t need to train consultants, introduce them to new technologies or methods to work effectively. Consultants know their way around. 2. Easy to hire, easy to fire Consultants are hired for a specific project hence their contract is project based. Once the project is completed, you don’t have to keep them with you anymore. And you don’t have to pay them anymore. Isn’t this great? In the case of in-house employees, it’s not easy to lay them off. You spend a lot of money on the hiring process and you need to keep the employee turnover rate low or it will ruin your market reputation. You know what that means? Training costs and idle time expense. On the other hand, if you have hired a consultant and you are not satisfied with the work, you can end the contract anytime you want. There is no ‘notice period’ like in the case of in-house employees. 3. Augment the performance of in-house team Sometimes the in-house team you have hired is not sure how to decipher a problem. It lacks expertise in a particular area of concern. Instead of hiring another in-house employee, you can just take the assistance of consultants who are experienced in that area. For example, your in-house team has the experience of android app development only. However, now you want to launch an iOS application but your in-house team never made one. What you can do is to hire a consultant who specializes in iOS applications. He will not only help your in-house team in building an iOS application but will also be able to train them for future needs of your company. Sam’s Decision Sam was awestruck by the findings of Joe. He couldn’t believe he overlooked all the good aspects of hiring a consultant and was instead falling into the stereotypes. ‘Oh dear Lord, I was so wrong!’ said Sam ‘I’m definitely going to hire a consultant’ Joe beamed with happiness after hearing Sam’s decision. Sam made the right decision as consultants have certain advantages over in-house employees. They have abundant domain experience, provide good quality work, have flexible contracts and are not a cost burden for your company. Have you made the right hiring decision? Originally published at www.tkxel.com.

Once upon a time, going to graduate school was the key to moving up in the food chain, or equipping yourself with the skills and learning to run a company of your own. But that's a thing of the past. Today, you don’t have to shell out the big bucks to pick up new skills or learn in the middle of your career. Related: This Is Bill and Melinda Gates' Prediction for the Future of Online Education Now, we have the Internet. And this tremendous resource has endowed all of us with the resources to learn virtually any skill or subject: In fact, there’s practically nothing standing between us and the knowledge we want to acquire -- regardless of how little time or money we have to spend. Consider the following wealth of resources just waiting for you to try: Email newsletters that help you keep your ear to the ground 1. Hiten Shah's SaaS Weekly. This is the best newsletter around for anyone interested in SaaS. Each Monday, Shah delivers the best content from all around the web covering every aspect of SaaS, from pricing to product to actionable tips for any founder. Hiten is an entrepreneur, startup advisor and all-round SaaS expert. He’s founded multiple startups with million-dollar run-rates, including KISSMetrics and Crazy Egg, and shares his insights on SaaS and the tech world on his personal blog. 2. Mattermark's Mattermark Daily. Mattermark bills itself as the Bloomberg for tech. It’s a powerful business intelligence tool for salespeople and VCs alike to find the startups they want to do business with. And, in addition to its data platform, Mattermark curates some of the best startup-related content on the web. Its daily newsletter, Mattermark Daily, brings together the best content from startup operators and VC investors. That potent combination is why the newsletter has amassed more than 80,000 subscribers and become one of the most influential in tech. 3. Jimmy Daly’s Swipe File. If you’re interested in content marketing, then you have a lot to learn from creator Jimmy Daly. As head of content marketing for email marketing platform Vero, he grew the company’s blog to over 100,000 monthly readers. His personal newsletter, Swipe File, is chockful of insights, not just for content marketers, but for anyone who wants a weekly dose of creative inspiration and tips to work better. From general productivity tips to inspirational stories, Swipe File is well-curated content you don’t want to miss. Related: 5 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Should Get Serious About Online Education Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) 4. Coursera. Why go to one expensive college when you can cherry-pick courses from the top universities of your choosing for much cheaper? Coursera gives you the opportunity to do just that -- some of the courses are even free!  Whether you want to take Stanford’s Intro to Machine learning, an HTML web development course from Johns Hopkins or a classical music course at Yale, Coursera has you covered. 5. Salman Khan's Khan Academy. Founder Khan was tutoring a few relatives in math when he had a huge breakthrough: Instead of teaching everyone at once, why not put the lessons on YouTube where everyone could watch on their own time line? Thus, Khan Academy was born. It’s blossomed into a totally free, non-university affiliated library of courses in every subject you can imagine, from beginner to expert level. 6. OpenClassrooms. It’s a common issue today. Tons of people want to work in the exciting world of tech, but don’t think there’s any place for them without engineering know-how. Enter OpenClassrooms. This is the modern vocational school, teaching pre-professional skills for today’s world in topics like digital marketing, design and web development. Teach yourself a cool new skill. 7. Codecademy. Codecademy offers automated mini-courses in all areas of coding -- from HTML to Ruby. There are no teachers, so users can go at any speed they want. But if they do get stuck or need help, Codecademy has a discussion forum full of fellow students willing to lend a helping hand. 8. Duolingo. The ever-increasing global connectedness gives us the opportunity to interact with people from all over the world. But what good is it if we can’t understand one other? Now it's Duolingo to the rescue. The site offers courses in every language, from Italian to Arabic, to something as obscure as Irish Gaelic. Courses keep students engaged, with a fun, gamified system that gives users points for correct quiz answers. It’s addictive and educational. 9. Yousician. Learning a musical instrument can enrich your life, but most people don’t think they have the time for lessons. Yousician changes that with lessons for the guitar, piano, bass and ukulele. Upload any song you want to learn and get a step-by-step, interactive tutorial that provides instant feedback. Keep the rockstar dream alive! Learn on the go with these podcasts. 10. The Startup Chat. On this podcast, Hiten Shah teams up with Close.io founder and sales expert Steli Efti to bring listeners actionable advice right from the startup trenches. The Startup Chat is required listening for any founder and would-be startup founder. Together, Hiten and Steli have backgrounds in all things startup -- the duo covers everything from building a remote team, to fund-raising, to delivering a kick-ass product demo. 11. Andreessen Horowitz's a16z podcast. Having backed heavy-hitters like AirBnb, Pinterest and Twitter, Andreessen Horowitz is one of the most prestigious VCs around. This podcast, hosted by a rotating cast of thought leaders from across the startup world, covers the macro topics in tech that will determine the future of the industry. 12. Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. On this podcast, historian, political commentator and radio veteran Dan Carlin explores world history in an accessible way. He’s unconventional, puts himself in the shoes of the figures he explores and takes a “what-if” approach that makes for exciting theater of the mind. Stock up your iPad with these free ebooks. 13. Revolunet’s Collection of Python Resources. Revolunet offers you the chance to delve into one of the world’s most-used coding languages, with this massive list of free Python ebooks. Python is one of the most versatile coding languages around, but with 60 ebooks to peruse, you'll find that there’s no skill you can’t learn here. 14. Fifty Shades of Growth. Growth-hacking is all the rage in the startup world these days, and with good reason: It’s enabled companies like AirBnb and Uber to reach millions of users extremely quickly. This ebook draws from the best in the business, and has insights from experts like Brian Balfour Sean Ellis and Entrepreneur's Neil Patel. Related: The Latest – and Unlikeliest – Man to Reinvent Online Education 15. Hubspot’s Cold Email Hacks. Attention, salespeople! According to a recent survey, over 70 percent of people surveyed reported that they would prefer businesses to contact them via email. It stands to reason then, that if you want to close deals, you need to be a great emailer. Luckily, HubSpot has you covered, with this super-comprehensive guide to cold emailing. Overall, sales is one harshest, most unforgiving jobs out there, so salespeople are after any edge they can get. They’d do well to check out this free ebook.