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 From:  The Balance What skills are most important for companies that are hiring? There are some skills and qualities that employers require of all applicants for employment, regardless of the position they are hiring for. These are called soft skills, and they include the interpersonal skills and attributes you need to succeed in the workplace. In addition, there are the more tangible skills you need in order to do the job effectively. These are called hard skills, and they are the specific knowledge and abilities required to do the job. There's a difference between hard and soft skills.  You’ll need both for most jobs, and it's important to show employers that you have the skills they need when you're applying and interviewing for jobs.

From  99 Business Ideas A  catering business  is a perfect opportunity for the people who love to cook. It is a profitable business and ensures lucrative margin to the owners. Additionally, you can start this business as part-time. As your business grows, you can consider giving your full effort. In this post, we intend to explore  how to start a home-based small catering business . Catering is a financially profitable and self-rewarding business. However, It is a demanding career. It requires stamina, an ability to work under pressure, and excellent interpersonal skills. And the success of this business hugely depends on the personal reputation. You do not need special education or training to become a successful caterer. However, taking some courses at culinary institutes or vocational schools can significantly help improve the quality of your food offerings.  Instead of taking classes, you can also work for an established caterer to know the inside of the business operati

From MarketingProfs ; US teenagers age 13-17 say YouTube and Netflix are the coolest brands, according to recent research from Think With Google. The report was based on data from a survey conducted by YouGov in June 2016 of 1,100 people age 13-17 (Generation Z) in the United States. Respondents were asked to rank 122 popular brands on how known they are and how cool they are. The purpose of this magazine is to provide a glimpse into the world of teens in the US through the lens of what they find cool. Cool is an indication of what people pay attention to, what gets them excited, and can often act as a manifestation of their hope and dreams. Unlike millennials, this group is ambitious, engaged, and feel like they can change the world. For Generation Z, what’s cool is also a representation of their values, their expectations of themselves, their peers, and the brands they hold in the highest regard. What you’re looking at is proprietary research conceived and executed by the Bran

From the FTC : Justin Ramsey permanently banned from robocalling individuals, calling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry The FTC has obtained a settlement order with Justin Ramsey, the ringleader of telemarketing operations that blasted illegal robocalls to consumers and called phone numbers listed on the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry. The order bans Ramsey and his company, Prime Marketing LLC from placing robocalls to individuals to sell goods or services, initiating sales calls to numbers listed on the DNC Registry, and selling data lists containing phone numbers listed on the Registry. This settlement resolves the Federal Trade Commission’s charges against Ramsey. Ramsey and Prime Marketing also agreed to a $2.2 million civil penalty, which will be suspended upon payment of $65,000. The full judgment will become due if they are later found to have misrepresented their financial condition. According to the  FTC’s January 2017 complaint, in 2012 and 2013 Ramsey and several c

From the IRS : The IRS will begin contacting some taxpayers whose overdue federal tax accounts are being transferred to private collection agencies. But watch out for scammers who might claim to be associated with the program to try to steal your money. Keep in mind, the IRS will always send you a letter first before assigning your account to a private collection agency (PCA). Learn more about this new private debt collection program, including how to avoid tax scams and protect your taxpayer rights. Starting this month, the Internal Revenue Service will begin sending letters to a relatively small group of taxpayers whose overdue federal tax accounts are being assigned to one of four private-sector collection agencies. The new program, authorized under a federal law enacted by Congress in December 2015, enables these designated contractors to collect, on the government’s behalf, unpaid tax debts. Usually, these are unpaid individual tax obligations that are not currently being wor

From eMarketer Consumers know what they want, and when it comes to visiting a small business’ website, they expect the same experience they would get from a larger chain. If website visitors don’t get that experience—whether because the site doesn’t provide simple information like an address or business hours, or because it has a poor mobile experience—then they are left with a bad impression.

From  Crisis PR – Top 10 Best and Worst A reputation is a delicate thing, which can take years to build up and mere moments to sully. And the way a company communicates with stakeholders and the general public during a crisis can be pivotal in determining whether it bounces back stronger than ever or is irrevocably tarnished by its response to the situation. Whether it’s adversity towards a product or tragedy, reputation is one of the key elements to business success and companies will work hard to retain one thing from their customers – trust. See More PR News Crisis Management Top 4 Worst-Handled PR Crises of 2016

From the Federal Reserve Bank's Business Payments Coalition: The Business Payments Coalition recently released the third version of its Small Business Payments Toolkit . This document, available as a free download, encourages the adoption of electronic business-to-business (B2B) payments by small businesses. Checks are the main way small businesses make B2B payments. This is a problem because checks are expensive, labor-intensive and prone to fraud. Using plain language, the Toolkit educates small businesses on the benefits of using electronic payment types such as Automated Clearing House credits and debits, wire transfers, and credit and debit cards instead of checks. It offers tips on working with bankers and covers what small businesses need to know to get started making and receiving electronic payments. It provides practical information on how to avoid losses due to payments fraud. An extensive resources section has links to additional information. The Toolkit isn’t just

From NerdWallet This could be the year you decide to stop working for someone else and start your own business. While your individual skills and interests are key to determining what type of venture to pursue, the last thing you want to do is start a business in an industry with a gloomy outlook. Here are five industries with promising futures, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, market research firm IBISWorld and financial information company Sageworks.

From Bplans It is daunting to start your own business—very daunting. There are a hundred and one things that can go wrong, and inevitably it will the thing that you’re least expecting. To be honest, it doesn’t matter if you are starting up a business for the first time, or kicking off your latest venture; it doesn’t get less challenging. This is why advice from people who have gone through something similar can be both hugely helpful and crucially important. I should know: I have started a few online ventures, the most recent of which has grown into a market-leading VPN site. But the road has not always been a smooth and straightforward one, and I am the first to admit that I have made a few mistakes along the way. But if reading this helps you to avoid these five simple—yet costly—mistakes, then it will be a few minutes very well spent. So here is my run-down of the five biggest mistakes I made when starting my business (so you don’t have to make them too)

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics In 2015, households spent an average of $528 on pets, or about 1 percent of average household spending. Pet expenditures include pet food; pet purchases, supplies, and medicine; pet services; and veterinary services. Average household spending on pet food jumped from $190 in 2014 to $230 in 2015, or from 37 percent of average household spending on pets to 44 percent. Average household spending on veterinary services, which reached over $200 in 2008, was $133 in 2015, or about 25 percent of average household expenditures on pets. Average household spending on pet purchases, supplies, and medicine, which represented 34 percent of average household spending on pets in 2010, measured only 22 percent of pet expenditures in 2015, falling from $163 to $116 over that period. On average, households with one consumer spent the least on pet expenditures in 2015 ($360), while households with two consumers spent the most ($672). Average household spending

From MarketingProfs : For over 60 years, the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system has served as a widely accepted structure for the analysis of businesses participating in the US economy. Marketers have long looked to the SIC system and its predecessor—the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)—to simplify the processes behind identifying, segmenting, and targeting potential customers and prospects. But what if you don't have a lot of marketing experience in an industry? Perhaps you are just starting out and need to quickly understand the makeup of your potential customers and prospects, and profile them. Understanding SIC and NAICS can seem like a daunting task, but having a cursory comprehension of these systems can help you support various marketing activities. The US Census Bureau assigns one code to each establishment based on its primary activity (generally the activity that generates the most revenue). Classification codes are typically deri

From The Balance : What skills are most important for companies that are hiring? There are some skills and qualities that employers require of all applicants for employment, regardless of the position they are hiring for. These are called soft skills, and they include the interpersonal skills and attributes you need to succeed in the workplace. In addition, there are the more tangible skills you need in order to do the job effectively. These are called hard skills, and they are the specific knowledge and abilities required to do the job. Here's information on the difference between hard and soft skills. You’ll need both for most jobs, and it's important to show employers that you have the skills they need when you're applying and interviewing for jobs.

Don't Miss U.S. House Committee on Small Business Hearing, "Taking Care of Small Business: Working Together for a Better SBA" Wednesday, April 5, 2017, 11 am EDT Linda McMahon, SBA Administrator will appear in front of the U.S. House Committee on Small Business. The hearing titled, "Taking Care of Small Business: Working Together for a Better SBA" is scheduled to begin at 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday, April 5, 2017 in Room 2360 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The Honorable Linda McMahon was sworn in on February 14, 2017 as the 25th Administrator of the United States Small Business Administration (SBA). From 1980 to 2009, Administrator McMahon was active in her family's company, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., eventually becoming President and Chief Executive Officer. WWE began as a small regional company and grew into a large, global business. The Committee will hear from Administrator McMahon about her priorities for entrepreneurs and the SBA.

Cornell Program on Applied Demographics has updated the series of county profiles it published a few years ago. PAD got many requests for an update and finally, it is here. This update consists mainly of updated data, but also includes some changes in charts and tables. PAD also decided to concentrate on Demographic, Social and Economic data in this update and not update the agricultural and related data that was in the 2013 version. The updated profiles can be found here .

From the American Institute for Economic Research : In March 2017, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made headlines by saying that the displacement of jobs by artificial intelligence was “not even on our radar screen … 50-100 more years” away. This drew a host of shocked responses from those who point out that AI and automation have already eliminated millions of American jobs and may replace many more in the next 5 or 10 years, let alone 50–100. In fairness to the secretary, his comment responded directly to a question about artificial intelligence. In the broader discussion, he spoke about low-paying jobs being replaced by automation, which many of the critiques consider together with artificial intelligence. The impact of automation is of unquestionable importance: One report released on the same day as Secretary Mnuchin’s comments suggested that 38 percent of U.S. jobs are at “high risk” of automation in the next 20 years.

From Entrepreneur : By Brandon Turner, Real Estate Investor and Co-host of the BiggerPockets Podcast! Starting a business is exciting -- and scary. I've started more businesses than I'd care to admit. In my experience, it's a bit like driving through a heavy fog where you are only able to see a few feet in front of the windshield -- you don't know what's up ahead until it's upon you. However, the longer you are an entrepreneur, the better you can navigate through that fog. As I've been driving through the fog for over a decade now, I thought I would take today's post and boil down 15 of the biggest lessons I've learned over the past decade of building and growing businesses. Consider these tips "stuff I wish I had known when I was young and stupid." From Forbes : By Nicole Robinson, CEO, Gloss and Glam. Starting my company Gloss and Glam was the best thing I ever did. But before I opened my business, I spent countless hours s

From MarketProfs : Email has come a long way from rich-text messages and hidden images, and today some emails are works of art. They contain animated gifs and they're responsive by device. So if that's the present, what does the future of email design look like? The folks at EmailMonks took a stab at answering that question in an infographic that looks at email design trends over the past year and predicts what we can expect to see as 2017 moves along. Some throwbacks from 2016 that we're continuing to see are lightweight animated gifs in emails, flat design, and design that builds suspense as the user scrolls on a mobile. Last year also gave us some technical updates to email, such as how emails render in Gmail, and iOS 10's allowing embedded video, the infographic explains. Moving forward, EmailMonks predicts, we'll be seeing...

From Daily Inequality : Younger employees keep getting stereotyped as insecure and needy - perhaps the rest of us need to reconsider why we find it normal for bosses to be jerks Recently, the University of British Columbia’s faculty of medicine circulated a video meant to make its instructors aware of "student mistreatment." With a minor-chord piano medley providing the soundtrack, viewers were asked to avoid putting students on the spot with questions, to minimize "cold and clinical" interactions, and to cultivate "safe" learning environments for the young residents. It seems a little like something created by The Onion, but the video was sincere, and its message will be familiar to a lot of employers dealing with people in their 20s. For many who remember what business was like pre-Internet, millennials seem an appallingly sensitive lot, having been protected from the vagaries of the world by helicopter parents, trigger warnings and—to especially cy

From AIER : One mistake made frequently by economists is to focus on the destination rather than the journey. We like setting two sides of an equation equal, solving for a variable and focusing on that neat and tidy result. But a little common sense shows that even the most canonical equation in the field, “supply equals demand,” requires a process to become true. Firms don’t know the magical market clearing price, they must experiment to find it, and every time there’s a shock an adjustment process must ensue. If shocks are frequent enough, that process would never end—a complex real-world economy might be all journey and no destination. Alexander Salter has an interesting post at the Sound Money Project about nominal versus real interest rates that echoes the scenario above. Economists like to think central banks can only influence real variables in the short-run.