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5 Tips If You Are Ever A Social Media Expert Witness http://bit.ly/2CFO80G Being a social media practitioner allows you to utilize your skill-set in a variety of different ways. The traditional social media career used to include managing a brand account or working at a social strategy agency. However, as social media has expanded throughout all components of business, there are a plethora of ways to implement your knowledge-base. This can take the form of working at a university or as an online lecturer, a ghostwriter for celebrities or influencers, or even working in the judicial system as a social media expert witness. This past summer, I was retained as a Snapchat expert witness. Here are five insights that I gleaned from the experience. Know Your Expertise Inside And Out The lawyers hired you as an expert and are counting on you to become a valuable part of their argument. You will be questioned about the minutiae of social media and the product itself. It is imperative to be able to explain every aspect of the tool and how it relates to the case. This can be especially taxing as apps are constantly being redesigned and updated. Make sure you do your due diligence to make sure your arguments are sound by testing out processes, using online resources like YouTube or blogs to read up on certain areas, and engaging with your community of other social media thought leaders to double check your research -- just remember to keep the details of the case under wraps. Understand The Law Working in the judicial system opens you up to a new world of terms that you’ll need to know to succeed as a social media expert witness. It is prudent to truly understand each term and how they relate to the case. These can include arbitrator, opposing counsel, exhibit, deposition, errata, affidavit, and expert letter. There are many nuances to the law, and the more you comprehend them, it will be better for all parties involved. Have Confidence Lawyers need you to explain and defend a compelling argument during the case whether in a deposition or at trial. Because of this, you will need to have confidence while opposing counsel is questioning your abilities. You will do deposition practice that will get you prepared, but you’ll also need to go over your argument because you never know what could be coming your way. To do your best work while under pressure -- as these depositions can go for many hours -- you can practice power poses beforehand or find an activity like meditation or yoga that will give you internal strength and calmness. Be Clear In Your Analysis As your words will have an impact within the trial, be clear and detailed in how you present your analysis. As social media is a new field, it is of utter importance to explain the tactics to an audience that is unfamiliar with the apps. By taking your time to explain the digital landscape and how it relates to the case, it will be beneficial for your side to win. Communicate With Your Lawyers You are providing value and a paid service so it is essential to be as communicative as possible. Lawyers are on a time crunch and need insights and data points as soon as possible. Make it a top priority to communicate swiftly so that the lawyers can prepare all of the information they are gathering from you. To make things easier, you can manage your email notifications so that their correspondence always pops up and gets attention, and always hop on a call if they need more explanation. Conclusion Being a social media expert witness is an incredible way to use your skill-set for the greater good. You can work on court cases that can set a precedent for alleviating sexual harassment, bullying, workplace retaliation, and more. Because social media is such a new phenomenon in the grand scheme of the court of law, it will be interesting to see how social media will be integrated into court cases. By following these five tactics, it will help you if you’re ever a social media expert witness. Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf December 29, 2018 at 07:20PM
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An American who may have been exposed to Ebola in Congo is being monitored back in the US12/29/2018
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An American who may have been exposed to Ebola in Congo is being monitored back in the US https://read.bi/2Sn8Jwd Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP
An American medical worker who may have been exposed to Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of Congo was flown back to the United States on Saturday and brought immediately to the Nebraska Medical Center for monitoring. The person, whose identity wasn't revealed because they requested privacy, will be monitored for up to two weeks in a "secure area" the public can't access, the Nebraska Medical Center said in a press release. The person was privately transported to the medical center Saturday afternoon, Politico reported. "This person may have been exposed to the virus but is not ill and is not contagious," Ted Cieslak, an infectious diseases specialist with Nebraska Medicine and an associate professor of epidemiology in the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health, said in a statement. "Should any symptoms develop, the Nebraska Medicine/UNMC team is among the most qualified in the world to deal with them." The medical center said it would provide updates on the person's condition only if it becomes necessary to transfer the person to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. The medical center treated several Ebola patients in 2014, and monitored several other exposed people in 2015, though none contracted the disease. Congo has been battling an Ebola outbreak since August, culminating in 543 cases confirmed and 357 deaths as of late December, according to the World Health Organization.
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Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic December 29, 2018 at 07:00PM
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A physicist developed a simple formula he says explains ‘the key to long-term success’ https://read.bi/2SmEeXm World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland via Wikimedia Commons
The key to success comes down to a mix of finding what you are good at and sticking with it. Physicist and network scientist Albert-László Barabási recently published a book, "The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success," laying out his and his colleagues' research into the nature of success. In an excerpt from the book at TED, Barabási describes his basic findings in the form of a simple equation. The degree of success for a given product, scientific paper, artwork, or other endeavor, denoted "S," is broken down into two components: The essentially random quality of the underlying idea, symbolized by "r," and the ability of the creator behind the project to actually bring ideas in a given field to fruition, which Barabási calls the "Q-factor." With that framework in mind, success is the product of the random initial idea and the Q-factor of the creator: S = Qr. As an example of the importance of both components of the success formula, Barabási points out that Steve Jobs — someone with an undoubtedly high Q-factor in the realm of designing consumer electronics — had a list of unsuccessful products to his name as well. Barabási wrote, "Think AppleLisa, NeXT, the G-4 Cube, MobileMe. Never heard of them? They're in the graveyard of Jobs's many failures. If an idea has a small r value, no matter how high the Q, the product will be cheapened." Of course, Barabási also noted that a strong combination of a capable, high-Q-factor creator with a really good initial idea can create extremely successful results: "When the Q-factor and r are both high, they enhance each other, leading to a career-defining breakthrough. Think of the iPhone — a fantastic idea with brilliant execution, resulting in the product that defined Jobs's legacy." One perhaps surprising result Barabási and his colleagues found was that a given individual's Q-factor in a particular field tended to stay more or less constant over time. That is, they found that a creator's ability to take advantage of good ideas in their field neither improved with experience nor atrophied with age. That presents a double-edged sword to anyone trying to find success in their career. On the one hand, repeated struggles in a particular field could suggest an underlying lack of talent in that field. Barabási wrote, "if our Q-factor isn't resonating with our job, we should consider if we've pinned our hopes on the wrong career path." On the other hand, Barabási noted that the relative constancy of a Q-factor in a given field means that one's best work can happen at any point in their career. Barabási gave the example of the physicist John Fenn, who after a long and fairly low-impact scientific career developed a revolutionary technique for measuring the masses of large molecules at the age of 67. Fenn would later go on to win the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his late-career work, Barabási noted. Barabási's research suggests that a good way to succeed is to find what you are good at and then keep trying new things in that field. "The key to long-term success from a creator's perspective is straightforward: let the qualities that give you your Q-factor do their job by giving them a chance to deliver success over and over," he wrote. Read the full excerpt at TED here »
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Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic December 29, 2018 at 05:48PM
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Hungryroot, a popular plant-based meal delivery service, makes it possible for vegans and meat eaters like me to assemble healthy meals in under 10 minutes https://read.bi/2AicYSI The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.
When it comes right down to it, my biggest hurdle to healthy eating is convenience. I love neither grocery shopping nor cooking, and I don't want to spend my limited free time deep diving into (often contentious) online nutritional resources to construct balanced meals each week. But, I do want to eat healthy foods that are good for me. So when I heard about Hungryroot through a colleague, I was intrigued. Hungryroot is a meal subscription service that sends healthy, nearly-ready meals to your door, with ingredients and sauces that you essentially just heat and mix together. Each serving costs about $6-$7 when you do the math, and they take fewer than 10 minutes to prepare. Hungryroot meals solve the problems caused by a lack of cooking expertise or time to dedicate to figuring it out. The foods sent are 100% vegan and gluten-free, and they're packed with nutrients, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Healthy fats (olive oil, coconut oil, cashews, almonds, and avocados) and complex carbs (sweet potatoes, cauliflower, quinoa, beans, and oats) keep you energized and satisfied without the pitfalls of "bad" fats and carbs, which can raise your cholesterol and spike your blood sugar, among other concerns. Generally, I’m willing to spend a bit more than I would on the ingredients for the convenience. Hungryroot is more expensive than buying these ingredients in bulk, but you could make the argument that anyone buying single-person groceries may find that— with shelf life of fresh ingredients factored in — it's not altogether that much pricier. What I personally appreciate about Hungryroot is that it aims to make truly healthy foods convenient and inexpensive, since affordability and convenience are what make people (myself included) settle for unhealthy options packed with trans fats, sodium, and preservatives. And this sounded pretty hard to beat: simple, delicious meals that were pretty much already made by the time they got to my doorstep. How Hungryroot works:Choose between The Starter Set or The Good Life.
Shipping is free for both plans, and you can skip or cancel any time in your account online. Once you select your plan and make an account, you can view what meals your shipment will include. If your meal is set to arrive Monday, August 27, you'll have until 5 p.m. the Friday before (in this case, the 24th) to edit it. Since it’s all fresh food, you may get an email prior to shipment that one meal has been altered due to stock (not enough high-quality cauliflower one week, for instance). If you want to change delivery dates, it's as easy as clicking the "Manage Schedule" icon on the upper right and selecting a new date. What Hungryroot is like in person:Shipping was fast and my box arrived as scheduled. Inside, I was happy to find it included biodegradable insulation. I was surprised by how much I liked what Hungryroot sent. I let the company auto-generate the first shipment, and my box included ingredients for the following foods:
The box is supposed to include an instructional recipe booklet but I may have thrown mine away in a primitive hunger-driven craze. Thankfully, you can find everything you need to know online and by clicking on a select meal in the email Hungryroot sends detailing what's in your box. The meals were delicious, easy to make, and the entrees filled me up. I'm not a vegan, and I balance an interest in taste over an interest in strictly healthy food, but I enjoyed everything as meals. It didn't feel like I was eating "healthy" in the sense that I was making compromises. And while I do eat meat, I enjoyed the tofu included. If you really wanted to, though, you could easily substitute and make the recipe with your own choice of meat. I typically wind up eating more than one serving for meal plans that I've tried, but Hungryroot delivered enough ingredients and variety where I ended up making most entrees last for dinner and for lunch. Having said that, the ingredients initially seemed small and few when unpacking, and I'm still not willing to say I'm entirely confident all future plant-based meals would entirely stave off hunger, though these actually did. The standouts were the delicious (and pretty big) Moroccan Spiced Chickpea Tagine, both the ridiculously tasty black bean brownie batter and almond chickpea cookie dough (both ok to eat as is or after baking), and Pad Thai Fried Rice. To be honest, though, everything was really good. True to promise, each meal took under 10 minutes to make — and that's probably the only reason I finished the fresh food before it went bad and ate healthy meals all week. I don’t like cooking, and my schedule usually allows only 30 minutes to cook and eat. For me, Hungryroot succeeded in making it possible to eat healthy in a convenient, fast, and pretty affordable way. Who should get it:If you like the sound of healthy, tasty food you can make in under 10 minutes, you’re probably going to like Hungryroot. It's more expensive than buying the ingredients yourself, but I probably wouldn't do the research and grocery shopping if left to my own devices. If you want convenience and consistency, this is a good tool. The biggest upsides for me were convenience, time-saving (no research, minimal prep), and the ability to learn more about eating healthy if I wished. The company sends emails (not too many) about your upcoming shipment as well as "Nutrition 101." They also include succinct, healthy eating insight under your prep instructions so you can learn as you go. If you don’t have a reliable way to pick up packages day-of, you may want to steer clear. The food is fresh and doesn't include preservatives, so it likely won’t keep for longer than a day or so. And if you'd prefer to be more involved in cooking the meals rather than mixing ingredients together, you'll be better suited to a Blue Apron, Sun Basket, Hello Fresh or another meal kit delivery service. If you just need help with constructing healthy meal plans, you should check out PlateJoy. Another thing to consider is that the snacks are not meal replacements, so it's not necessarily fair to say each part of the box is worth its respective $6-$7 equally. But, if the other pros are worth it to you (or you get more snacks and greater variety with the Good Life Plan), then it may even out for you anyway. All in all, Hungryroot is a great option for anyone looking to eat healthier or learn by doing. In my experience, meals were delicious, filling, and extremely simple to make. It helped me with consistency, provided useful tidbits, and was just enough personalization and minimal effort. If you're looking to make healthy eating convenient or despise cooking, grocery shopping, and are willing to pay a few bucks more for someone else to do the legwork, Hungryroot is worth looking into. Sign up for Hungryroot here.See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic December 29, 2018 at 05:36PM
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Why Companies Fail To Convert Data Into Dollars http://bit.ly/2EVXneQ Leveraging data to drive better decisions is a top priority for most companies. Yet, few companies are doing this well. To better understand the challenges and barriers that companies face, the Digital Analytics Association (DAA) partnered with TMMData to survey more than 800 digital analytics professionals. What follows are some highlights from their research. Top Data-Related Challenges Interestingly, digital analytics experts identify insufficient resources, challenges accessing data, and data accuracy are the top three challenges they face. What this suggests is that creating the right infrastructure/platform is still a common challenge. As companies evolve and become more sophisticated in their analytical programs, they move beyond installing the infrastructure. Yet, many companies still struggle building the foundation of an effective program. Amount of Time Required to Access Data Only 13% of analysts are able to access the data that they need immediately. More than a quarter indicate that it often takes 2 weeks or more to access the data. TMMData Chief Marketing Officer Darren Wagner explained, “Despite the growing technologies in the industry, organizations – large and small – still struggle with gaining quick access to data due to incompatible BI tools, data integration challenges and corporate red tape.” Quality of Data Used Only 3% of analysts believed that the data they used on a regular basis was of “excellent” quality. Half believed it was “okay,” “fair,” or “poor,” reinforcing the challenge that experts are facing with regard to data quality. “It’s unfortunate that so many analysts can’t trust their data. To improve, organizations need a solid data governance infrastructure, the right tools and buy in from the top and bottom,” Wagner said. “Otherwise, we’ll likely see disparities in data quality persist, and dated, siloed and disjointed data will continue to drive business decisions.” What this research suggests is that there is a big and growing divide between those firms who have access to better quality data and those who don’t. This sort of advantage translates into a meaningful competitive advantage for those firms who have figured this out. Join the Discussion: @KimWhitler Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf December 29, 2018 at 05:34PM
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How TUMI Transformed Its Customer Service To Be As Bulletproof As Its Luggage http://bit.ly/2BL4nrH Boarding any plane, any hour of the day, you can see traveling businesspeople enviously eyeing those of their breed who are carrying (or rolling) the latest TUMI luggage. TUMI ownership provides elevation to instant cool-kid status within the traveling business set (at least in the eyes of the poor schlubs consigned to carrying AmazonBasics luggage), like a great lunchbox did at school in days of yore. Yet I don’t recall actual lunchboxes indestructible the way TUMI bags seem to be. (Indestructibility, in fact, is my fundamental complaint with the TUMI brand of luggage: that the stuff so rarely breaks, or suffers wear and tear other than the occasional cosmetic issue, that I can be stuck year upon year without an excuse to buy the brand’s latest, ever more eye-catching and feature-laden models that I in turn find myself eyeing with envy as the coolest kids board the plane.) The product standards at TUMI workmanship provide a challenge as well to Charlie Cole, who took over as Chief Digital Officer at TUMI in 2016, as well as becoming Global Chief eCommerce Officer at Samsonite, TUMI’s corporate parent starting that year. “Being known for our standards in manufacturing and style, when we do get a customer service issue” (and Cole says they get their share: logistics issues, aka, “where’s my stuff?”; customers searching for their refunds, etc.) “our response needs to be commensurate with the product quality, because that’s what customers are expecting from us. Otherwise, in the glare of the contrast, it’s going to be a real disappointment.” And, when Cole came into the company, glaring contrast is essentially what he uncovered. “In the aggregate, we’ve long been known for some pro-customer fundamentals, in the sense of having a solid warrantee and standing behind the product with a great repair center, and never wavering on these. But we were also fairly lackadaisical in our systems to handle such things, and it was making it hard to get the service from us that customers wanted and that we wanted to provide. We weren’t doing a good job of supporting that customer service in our call centers, whether on the phone or by email, because, frankly, we had amazing people using really mediocre tools.” One of the fundamental places the operation was falling down was in speed of response. “One of the things that I always do when I join a company is ask, ‘Please c.c. me on all of the inbound customer service requests.’ I did this for a while when I got here in January 2016, and what I would see is us often taking a long time to get back to our customers. This wasn't a by-product of training. It was simply a by-product of the systems we were using.” The solution TUMI came up with was an integrated approach, provided by the vendor Gladly, that allowed TUMI to be channel-agnostic. “The way we sped up service to our customers was to give them more choice in channels. We didn’t force people to the phones anymore; we didn’t force them to use email. When customers are able to use various real-time channels to reach us, like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, they’re a lot happier, and they get the resolution they’re looking for a lot sooner.” With the new functionality, regardless of which channel the customer initiates the discussion, TUMI’s agents will respond and continue the conversation on the same platform seamlessly, even in extreme cross-channel scenarios, such as if a customer starts out by sending an email, then instantly places a phone call, then while on hold decides to open up a web chat window. Beyond speed of reply, Cole had also been frustrated by “the traditional way customer service operations are arranged by order, ‘Micah ordered this backpack on 12/1,’ or whatever it may be. An improvement I wanted to see, and that we achieved with the new system, is to be able to pull up the entire customer history every time a customer calls in, in a single thread. This gives our customer service reps more actionable insight into what the customer has done with us in terms of purchase and repair history, how they have corresponded with us in the past, and what they may be looking for in the future.” Beyond this easy access to institutional knowledge, Cole found himself hoping for a more personable experience for both his customers and his agents, for what he calls continuity in the human-on-human experience. “It may sound like a small thing, but one of my favorite aspects of the Gladly platform we’re using is that, by default, customers are routed to the last agent they spoke with, thus offering continuity and the immediate historical knowledge and empathetic insight of that agent. I think a great human-on-human interaction is fundamental to supporting the TUMI brand. And, as long as we keep humans in the forefront of how we interact with customers, I want to get the very most out of each agent in a humanistic way, both for their sake and for the sake of the customers.” Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf December 29, 2018 at 05:20PM
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Billionaire Mark Cuban Buys $19M Beach House On Southern California Coast http://bit.ly/2BR4jXd Billionaire Mark Cuban, one of the stars of ABC's Shark Tank, bought a $19 million beach house on the Southern California coast a few days before Christmas. The owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team plans to use the six-bedroom home as a vacation get-away, according to Villa Real Estate's John Stanaland, who brokered the deal. The 7,800-square-foot house is on the grounds of The Montage in Laguna Beach, a five-star resort about an hour south of Los Angeles. Owners of the 13 private residences have access to hotel amenities including housekeeping, spa, and room service. Cuban's deal was the highest-priced transaction at the resort this year, according to Stanaland. Currently, there's another home for sale at The Montage: a five-bedroom home listed for $32 million. Cuban's house sits on a bluff overlooking the beach and has glass doors that disappear into walls when occupants want to merge indoor and outdoor spaces. In addition to six bedrooms, there are nine bathrooms, a media room, a library, a wine cellar, a gym, and a theater. The views from the patios include the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean. Cuban was one of the founders of Broadcast.com in 1995. Four years later Yahoo! bought the company for $5.7 billion. Today Cuban owns the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and has stakes in Landmark Theaters, Magnolia Pictures, and AXS TV. As of this week, Cuban's net worth is close to $4 billion, according to a Forbes estimate. Cuban's Fallen Patriot Fund has given more than $5.3 million to help families of U.S. military personnel killed or injured in combat, according to a statement from the charity. Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf December 29, 2018 at 05:20PM
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State and FBI investigators are reportedly probing allegations that Trump's golf club gave fake green cards to undocumented workers https://read.bi/2EY33FY Carolyn Kaster, File via AP
The FBI and New Jersey prosecutors are reportedly investigating whether management at President Donald Trump's New Jersey golf club provided unauthorized immigrants with fake documents, according to the New York Daily News. Two women recently came forward publicly to declare they had worked illegally at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, when both were undocumented. The women's attorney, Anibal Romero, told the Daily News on Friday that he met with investigators from the state attorney general's office and handed over fraudulent green cards and Social Security numbers that management officials at the club gave to his clients, Victorina Morales and Sandra Diaz. Romero also said met with FBI agents after reaching out to the office of the special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Romero said Mueller's office told him the matter wasn't in its jurisdiction, but FBI agents in New Jersey soon reached out, telling him they had received a referral from Mueller's office. Associated Press/Bebeto Matthews The allegations from Morales and Diaz were first reported by The New York Times earlier this month. In an interview with The Times, Morales said she knew she wasn't the only unauthorized immigrant who works for the president. She said she found Trump's rhetoric about immigrants offensive. "We are tired of the abuse, the insults, and the way he talks about us when he knows that we are here helping him make money," she said. "We sweat it out to attend to his every need and have to put up with his humiliation." Morales also said managers at the golf resort tried to implement new "immigration compliance" rules after Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, but that she was just told to obtain new forged documents. The Trump organization did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Read more: Step inside Trump's private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey Associated Press/Bebeto Matthews But the organization previously responded to Morales and Diaz's comments in The Times, saying in a statement that the company uses "very strict hiring practices." "If an employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately," said Amanda Miller, the Trump Organization's senior vice president for marketing and corporate communications. Romero said Morales and Diaz were afraid to speak out for fear of retribution, but any punishment against them for the practices would be an incorrect response. "This was a practice and pattern," Romero said. "My clients felt like they were trapped and they felt like the fake documents could be used against them." Trump's businesses have come under scrutiny for hiring practices before. Legal documents and first-hand accounts describe the regular hiring of unauthorized immigrants at Trump Tower in New York City and at his modeling agency. Michelle Mark contributed reporting.
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Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic December 29, 2018 at 05:18PM
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The AmEx Business Platinum's annual fee is increasing to $595 a year — we break down whether it's still worth the cost https://read.bi/2QXDefB The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider may receive a commission from The Points Guy Affiliate Network.
The Business Platinum® Card from American Express is a longtime leader in both the business and personal rewards card spaces, but a newly increased fee may be enough for you to cancel that Business Platinum card. An update to the Business Platinum card goes into effect soon. Once it does, should it still earn a slot in your wallet? Let's take a look at the new costs and benefits to help you decide. Higher annual costsLet's start with the big downside. The Business Platinum card annual fee is going up by $145 per year. That comes out to a new $595 annual fee compared to the old $450 fee. The increase in fee is not a shock to anyone with the personal version of the card, which had a similar fee increase last year. The new annual fee for the personal Platinum Card® from American Express is $550 per year. At $595 per year, the cost of the card averages out to just under $50 per month. With the new benefits (more on them below) and value from existing benefits, including a $200 annual airline fee credit, lounge access, and Membership Rewards points, you may still find the AmEx Business Platinum to be worth keeping. New WeWork and Dell benefitsWith new costs, you do get new benefits. That is not always the case in the finance industry, but the new benefits from the Business Platinum card may be very valuable for some independent workers and small businesses. First, AmEx will give you a free year of access to WeWork coworking spaces around the world. The package you get from American Express is valued at $2,700 per year, when looking at comparable WeWork plans. If you have been considering coworking or moving your business to WeWork, this more than pays for the annual fee of the credit card. If you use Dell for computers, printers, or anything else, the card also comes with a new $200 annual statement credit for qualifying Dell purchases. If you need to buy a new laptop or desktop computer every year for a staff member of your small business team, this benefit might come in very handy. Increased Hotel Collection creditThis credit card has offered a $75 benefit for each stay at the Hotel Collection, which is now going up to $100. I don't put much value in The Hotel Collection myself, so I rarely focus on it in AmEx reviews. But with the new $100 benefit, it is worth taking a second look at how The Hotel Collection and this benefit works. The Hotel Collection is a group of hotels you can book through American Express Travel. These are generally higher-end properties, and Business Platinum cardholders get a few perks when staying at The Hotel Collection hotels. Those include 5x points per dollar on prepaid bookings, free room upgrades when available, and a hotel/resort credit each stay. The newly increased credit will give you $100 per stay for qualifying in-hotel purchases including dining, spas, and resort activities like tennis or golf. Depending on the hotel, $100 may get you a message, breakfasts during your stay, or a discount on a big day on the golf course. Alternatives to the AmEx Business PlatinumIf a $595 annual fee is more than you can or want to pay, you have other options available too. AmEx has a wide range of business cards. I'm personally looking to downgrade my Business Platinum to the Blue Business℠ Plus Credit Card from American Express. While it has far fewer benefits, I get lounge access from my personal Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Blue Business Plus doesn't charge an annual fee. The Blue Business Plus offers 2x points per dollar on all purchases up to $50,000 per year (then 1x). Other good options include the Ink Business Preferred Credit Card ($95 annual fee), Ink Business Unlimited Credit Card (no annual fee), or Ink Business Cash Credit Card (no annual fee) from Chase. Choosing the right rewards cardThe right rewards card requires finding the right balance between cost and benefits from your card. If you choose a card with a near $600 annual fee, you should get at least $600 in benefits per year from the card. Between all of the travel, work, and purchase rewards and protections, you may very well get that from the AmEx Business Platinum. If not, it may be time to move on to something new for your small business credit card needs. Click here to learn more about the AmEx Business Platinum from Insider Picks' partner: The Points Guy.See Also:
DON'T MISS: Every small business owner should consider signing up for this Chase card — even freelancers Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic December 29, 2018 at 04:42PM Raising Capital For Fashion Is Notoriously Difficult: Heres How She Raised Over $10M For Her Brand12/29/2018
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Raising Capital For Fashion Is Notoriously Difficult: Heres How She Raised Over $10M For Her Brand http://bit.ly/2An9Dls The fashion industry is notoriously difficult to raise capital for, for a few reasons: 1. It’s a very difficult industry to operate within that has an innumerable amount of competitors. It’s hard to prove to investors (and customers) that your brand is truly differentiated from the pack. 2. Fashion companies are capital intensive to get off the ground as you traditionally have to invest heavily and blindly into inventory that may or may not liquidate. 3. When selling through traditional wholesale accounts you may be vulnerable to chargebacks, requests to buy back unsold inventory, and even requirements to rent retail space or sell on consignment only. Did I forget anything? Oh yes. 4. It takes a long time for fashion companies to build brand recognition and breakeven. On average 5 years or more to arrive at breakeven. But once brand recognition is established with a customer base, the opportunities for revenue-driving can be astronomical. For example, it took Michael Kors 30 years to build the multi-billion dollar revenue brand they have today. But what investor wants to wait 30 years for a return? Investors want to make their return as soon as possible. Which is why technology is currently a much sexier industry for investment than fashion. Knowing how difficult fashion is to raise capital for, I was quite surprised when I was introduced to Linda Balti by a general purveyor of awesomeness Brit Morin of Brit & Co, whom we are collaborating with for a collection on Rent The Runway this Spring. Balti co-founded sustainable fashion brand Amour Vert, and recently exited. I wanted to democratize Linda’s knowledge and ask her about the different stages she encountered while raising capital for AV alongside her co-founder and husband, Stanford adjunct professor Christoph Frehsee. Linda was born and raised in France to an Algerian mother and a Tunisian father. A far cry from the fashion industry, she studied computer science and communications and worked for a large defense company in France as part of a team working on developing simulators for fighter jets and helicopters. Balti founded Amour Vert (AV) in 2010 right after she moved from Paris to Palo Alto where her husband (who was then her fiancé) was doing an MBA at Stanford and a Master’s in Environment and Resources. Their shared inspiration for starting AV was founded on her husband being a serial entrepreneur who sold his company back in 2008, after which they went on a tour around the world. Balti shares, “In Peru, someone had left a Newsweek at the beach hotel we were staying at. I grabbed it and started reading the article that would change my life. It was one of the first articles about the impact of the fashion industry has on the environment and on people. For the first time, I read that fashion was the 2nd most polluting industry after oil.” She was shocked. From that moment, she decided to radically change the way she was consuming fashion. She started buying only second-hand or clothing made from organic or recycled fibers. Balti grew Amour Vert from being a wholesale only brand operating from her living room to a direct-to-consumer brand with 6 retail stores and a strong e-commerce business, with 8 figure revenues and over 60 employees. What set AV apart from its competitors is that it is founded on the belief that fashion can be sustainable and ethical and still affordable. Balti adds, “Because it was so hard to find textiles that would fit the bill of being sustainable, ethical, scalable and affordable I had to engineer new blends of eco-fibers.” Balti and Frehsee raised a $16M in capital over 3 rounds to execute her vision for a more sustainable fashion world. She shares, “When I started AV I wanted to focus on what mattered most to me and that was creating the best sustainable and ethical products. Over the years, I realized that if you have a vision no one will be better than you at executing it. Eventually, I decided to sell my shares and move on to start a new business where I can apply all the lessons I learned the past 8 years.” At the moment, she's being mum about exactly what her new venture is. Questions about Various funding stages: Early Funding AA: Did you use crowdfunding or do any accelerators in the Early stages of AV to test the market? If so which do you do?LB: I never used crowdfunding or any accelerators because I was lucky enough to be able to have friends and family invest in the business very early. AA: Any accelerators you would recommend fashion startups to look into? LB: I am a member of the CFDA, and if I would start a brand today I would try to get into the CFDA fashion fund program or the CFDA launchpad. Friends & Family AA: What steps did you take to successfully fundraise your friends & family round in the early stages of AV? LB: It’s all about selling your vision and allowing people who know you best to be part of your journey. You also have to be very honest and tell your family and friends that they can lose their investment. It is part of the risk of investing. AA: Is there advice you can offer other entrepreneurs about how to pose the inquiry of investment to F&F members without making things awkward? LB: You have to treat friends and family like any other investors. You have to show them that there is a market, that you can capture that market, and that you are the right person to take this to the finish line and eventually provide them with a nice return on their investment. AA: What should an Entrepreneur do when F&F member says no? LB: You have to respect their decision. Investing money is a very difficult thing when you are not a professional angel and it is your first time being approached with an investment opportunity. When you invest in someone you might make 10x your money but you can also lose it all. The probability of losing it all is much higher than making a return. If they say no it is not because they don’t believe in you it is because they might not be in a position to lose their savings. Angel Networks AA: Did you have angel investors and if so, how did you know it was time to start approaching angel investors for the next stage of your business? LB: Fashion is capital intensive and when I realized the potential of the business was limited by our financial ability to satisfy the demand from our customers, I knew it was time to raise money. AA: How did find/approach your angel investors? LB: The angels who invested in AV had a personal connection to me and my husband. AA: What advice would you give to consumer product entrepreneurs seeking angel investment? LB: Ask everyone you know if they know of anyone with whom your story/product would resonate. Everyone is a potential angel. Be open to smaller check sizes if someone is bringing value. VCs AA: Have you approached VCs for investment? LB: I prefer family offices to traditional VCs. Family offices have values that are generally better aligned with more traditional businesses like fashion. With that being said, for VCs to be interested in your business you need to be able to show exponential growth and the ability to be able to either sell the business or IPO in a 5/8 years time horizon. This is a lot of pressure. AA: What can VCs offer that the other categories of investors don’t? LB: VCs can offer more structure than family offices with financial, legal, business development advice because they usually have larger portfolios and more staff than family offices. AA: Anything fashion entrepreneurs should look out for when working with VCs? LB: Fashion is about building a brand that can pass the test of time. This takes years to achieve. Look at Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, their massive success didn’t happen overnight. VCs are more short-term and it is not necessarily a match because goals are not aligned. AA: Anything else you would like to add?LB: My husband and I always joke that cash flow is more important than your mother. As an entrepreneur, you should never run out of cash. You should always be fundraising. You never want to have to slow your growth because you are running out of cash. I know the anxiety of being close to not making the next payroll and this is the worst feeling. Linda Balti is co-founder of sustainable fashion company Amour Vert. She recently exited the company and is working on something new. She resides in Palo Alto, California. Autumn Adeigbo is an ethical fashion designer and founder of Autumn Adeigbo: culture | color| conscience. You can follow her brand story here.
Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf December 29, 2018 at 04:09PM |
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