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You are here: Home / Blog

F*** You Pay Me Founder Lindsey Lee Knows People Are Tired of ‘Accepting Less Than You’re Worth’

March 5, 2021 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment



March
5, 2021

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


Jason Falls‘ Winfluence: Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your Brand is out Feb. 23 via Entrepreneur Press. Pre-order your copy now via Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Bookshop.

They say money is the root of all evil. It’s most certainly the root of heated topics among influencers who depend on brand collaborations for revenue. The influencer pay gap — the difference in pay between white and non-white influencers, and the similar difference in what men are paid versus women — is a powder-keg issue across the board.

Influencer Lindsey Lee’s frustration with being undervalued by brands led to her developing F*** You Pay Me, a platform that allows influencers to publish reviews of brand partnerships. Since launching late last year, the site — which keeps users’ info anonymous and information on brands “locked” until at least 10 reviews of it are posted — has generated more than 500 posts as of this writing, despite still being in its minimum viable product (MVP) phase. 

Lee’s vision for the site is to function as a sort of Glassdoor for the influencer set, allowing users to compare the rates they command from brands and more accurately identify their own value. They can also distinguish brands that typically pay well from those that don’t.

Image credit: F*** You Pay Me

“The pain points of an influencer are the exact same pain points of a freelancer,” Lee says of the parallels with Glassdoor. “You’re presented with an opportunity for a job, and you have no idea how much to charge because every job is different. But you don’t want to lose the job, so you end up accepting less than what you’re worth.”

Lee adds that her site is necessary because, too often, money is left on the table at the expense of the creator.

Related: Where Do You Fall on the Philosophical Spectrum of Influence Marketing?

How the site works

When an influencer registers to use the site, they’re required to file their first review. The site’s membership is limited to what Lee calls true influencers, i.e. anyone who has contracted with a brand to post content online. Each is asked to identify demographic information, like gender and race, to allow the site to produce appropriate filters within reviews. 

Site users can navigate to a brand and see details, including the brand’s average engagement payout, what type of content they look for and what other creators have to say about working with them. And eventually, you’ll have visibility into the aforementioned demographic discrepancies. (Influencer-marketing platform Klear found the average pay for male influencers in 202 was $476 per post, while women earned just $348.)

Lee views F*** You Pay Me as a complement to the forces already driving pay-gap conversations, and specifically credits Instagram account @influencerpaygap — a clearinghouse for influencers to share individual experiences of prejudice or low-balling — with helping close that gap.

“I created F*** You Pay Me because it’s a product I wish I had when I first started influencing,” she elaborates. “Black, brown, womxn and LGTBQ+ creators, advocates and activists have long been driving the conversation and action in this space. F*** You Pay Me is merely a tool available for data and support.” 

Utility born of rage

Lee admitted on her blog post announcing the business that F*** You Pay Me was born out of rage, writing, “I feel it every time a brand asks me to perform this work yet is offended by my desire to be compensated for said work.”

Prior to ideating the site, she spent several years as a freelance model and a social media manager, sandwiched around a stint in finance. It was during the latter that she emerged as an influencer, creating the Instagram account Ms. Young Professional to spoof the daily sexism she experienced. As she amassed followers, brands reached out for collaborations, many of whose offers Lee did not find amusing.

“‘We don’t have a budget’ was one of my favorite lies,” she remembers. “When you hear, ‘We have no budget,’ what that means is they have no budget for you.”

Her inner voice began crying out to respond, “F*** you. Pay me.”

What’s in a Name?

“I named it F*** You Pay Me because I didn’t want there to be any doubt from the creator or freelancer that this is a platform actually built for them,” Lee tells me. “There are dozens of platforms out there that say they’re built for influencers. That’s not true. They’re built for brands’ needs first and creators’ needs second.”

In her experiences as a social media manager, she even used a tool that gave her the option to only search for influencers that will accept free product as payment. “It just drives the value of a creator’s work down,” she says. “And I don’t like it.”

Related: How to Build a Successful Influence Marketing Campaign

The business plan

The roadmap for F*** You Pay Me includes adding influencer-marketing software companies and agencies to the list so creators can share experiences with them, too. Agents and talent managers will eventually be invited to contribute as well.  

Lee says she is currently seeking funding and has applied to at least one accelerator. Her plans for a business model are “still being worked out,” she concedes, but she allowing brands to post opportunities for influencers is something she’s considered.

“My hope is that if I have a huge pool of influencers, it will create a network effect, and the brands will follow,” she explains. “Most platforms go get brands and hope the influencers will follow. I’m just flipping that around.”

Still, she is adamanet that influencers’ reviews will always remain anonymous. “This is about sharing information and helping creators and freelancers,” she says. “But I do want it to be mutually beneficial for brands, too.”

The initial reaction from brands may be to shudder, but Lee says they might be surprised to know that “more than half of our reviews so far are positive.” 

It’s the ones that aren’t that will keep some brand managers up at night, because now they know the market is holding them accountable.





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5 Reasons Why You Should Start a New Business in 2021 – Startups

March 4, 2021 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


Featured image by Speedkings from Shutterstock

The year 2020 was a massively tough year for most businesses. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic roller coaster, many businesses were either shattered or barely stayed afloat. Even businesses that thrived often had to execute extreme changes to their business models. However, in 2021, a new day is dawning for new business as the COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out.

The U.S. will, hopefully, soon be open for business in person again. Even as the pandemic continues to pose challenges, many online businesses are performing strong numbers and making big plans for growth. If you’ve been contemplating starting a new business in 2021, now is the perfect time to get your plan together and apply for a business license, business bond, and other essentials. Why? Here are five reasons that new businesses could find ways to thrive in the new year. 

RELATED ARTICLE: BUDGET PLANNING ADVICE FOR NEW BUSINESS OWNERS

1. E-commerce Businesses Are Poised for Another Year 

Many eCommerce businesses were experiencing strong growth even before the pandemic, and 2020 turbocharged that phenomenon to the tune of 30% year over year market growth. There’s no real reason to think that eCommerce will see anything but more growth for new business in 2021, even if it doesn’t increase as explosively as it did in 2020. 

Today’s entrepreneurs are flocking to eCommerce not just because of its massive growth, but also because of its relatively low start-up costs and easy-to-use platforms like Shopify. Business models like the tremendously popular drop-shipping, in which an entrepreneur never has to store or handle items themselves, have made it easier than ever to start an online business with not much more than a computer and a bank account. 

Even more so than in other sectors, the secret to success for a new eCommerce business will be finding a niche. Giants like Amazon and Walmart already play the mega-retail game better than anybody else. So, start by thinking small and looking for specialized opportunities. Hand-crafted goods, niche collectibles, and reselling are great examples. There are abundant opportunities for playing the kind of small game that can turn into a successful eCommerce business. 

2. Demand for In-Person Experiences Will Rise

The pandemic has been nothing short of a disaster for the hospitality industry, with thousands of bars and restaurants closing permanently. Brick and mortar retail has weathered tough times as well. Yet, once the vaccine has helped right things somewhat, many consumers likely will be craving the in-person experiences that they’ve largely had to abstain from for over a year. 

Aspiring restaurateurs, bar owners, shop owners, and other purveyors of in-person experiences stand to benefit from the impending return to going out. Although it’s hard to predict exactly what will come, experiential consumer attractions like pop-up bars, themed restaurants, and VR experiences are likely to come roaring back to an entertainment-starved populace. 

Of course, things won’t just be going back to the way they were if you were to start a new business in 2021. In-person businesses will have to change and accommodate the new normal, including finding effective ways to follow safety precautions while the pandemic remains a threat. And, as we’ll discuss next, these changing times will produce the greatest commodity of all: innovation. 

Image by sabthai from Shuttershock

3. Different Sectors Will Be Ripe for Innovation 

Recovery periods after disasters frequently offer opportunities to disrupt old models and build new ones. Thus, if you’ve got an innovative business idea you think could succeed, 2021 might have the opening you’re looking for. 

Many experts are predicting a so-called “Great Reset”. This means old business models can be wound down and new ones can begin to grow and thrive. There’s abundant precedent for this. The Great Depression of the 1930s produced many important advances in materials science. However, the Great Recession of the late 2000s and early 2010s spawned many startups that are now household names. For example, Airbnb and Bitcoin. 

This is one area in which fortune will favor the bold, so don’t hesitate to get started on your preparations. Learn about the big questions you’ll need to answer: “How much initial capital do I need to get started? What are the requirements for getting a business license in my state? What is a surety bond?” The sooner you find the answers, the sooner you can take the plunge and seize the chance to create something new. 

RELATED ARTICLE: 4 MISTAKES TO AVOID WITH SMALL BUSINESS LOANS

4. Labor Pool Will Be Full of People Looking to Get Back to Work 

Unemployment remains devastatingly high as we enter 2021. That means, depending on which industry they’re in, new business owners may have a substantially larger than average labor pool to work with when hiring. 

Skilled workers of all kinds who’ve had trouble finding work will be eager to return. People who’ve stayed in jobs they don’t like due to economic uncertainty will likely begin to explore their options more. Also they will seek work that suits them better and which offers improved benefits. Employers who can provide fulfilling work for good pay will find that workers are willing and able. 

However, understanding the realities of the 21st-century labor market means innovating along with workers. It also means involving them in the leadership of the business’s ground-level operations. It also includes offering living wages and healthcare benefits that allow workers to provide for their families and take care of their health. 

Image by G-Stock Studio from Shutterstock

5. The Real Estate Market Could Be Ripe With Opportunity

For years, the trend of increasing urbanization and consolidation has made it tough for new businesses to afford prime urban core real estate as deep-pocketed players snapped up prime spots. Now, some of the real estate markets that were once America’s hottest have dropped precipitously in price. This created many potential opportunities. 

That means that new businesses in 2021 may have a slightly easier time finding a place to set up shop. No one celebrates the closure of thousands of businesses. However, it does clear the way for new businesses to find the perfect spot in newly vacant commercial real estate. Commercial landlords will be in search of new tenants for their spaces. So, businesses that act quickly and know what they’re looking for could be able to score an excellent price. 

RELATED ARTICLE: GROW YOUR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES WITH THESE 3 TIPS



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He Sacrificed the Job He Loved to Pursue His Passion. Today he’s returning green areas to cities.

March 4, 2021 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment



March
4, 2021

9 min read

This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.


When Daniel Gómez-Bilbao was a child, he liked to read the Time Life encyclopedias at home. There were three chapters that I used to review over and over again. He was a little boy who wore glasses who had a hard time distinguishing figures, but those volumes had images that caught his attention: fish, insects and the last one, plants.

In those books little Daniel studied the colors, textures and colors of living beings because he could not believe the strange shapes that existed in the world. There was born a love for nature that was driven by his family in an almost predestined way.

His grandparents, of Asian descent, had a house in Cuernavaca and little Daniel saw that every day they got up early to take care of their garden. “There I understood that there is no good or bad hand for plants, simply dedication,” he says.

As a young adult, Daniel put his passion for plants aside and fully dedicated himself to leading a corporate career as a sales consultant for an Asian technology company. His work led him to live in Venezuela and to travel throughout Latin America. However, it was a somewhat lonely life and he often stayed in hotel restaurants to see the plants and flowerpots on the buildings.

“I asked the people who worked in those places the names of the plants that caught my attention and the companies that made pots and I wrote them down in a little black notebook,” he recalls for Entrepreneur en Español .

Unfortunately, conditions in Caracas changed and for safety reasons, the company Daniel worked for took him out of the country. This causes him to start to have a lot of time left over because his clients and his contacts were in the southern cone and on each trip he made to South America he had to connect with several countries at the same time to reduce travel expenses. In the dead times that his schedule allowed, Daniel began to look for pots and plants to build a terrace in his house.

“I did the inauguration of my terrace and people began to ask me about the plants and pots that I had. My mother-in-law asked me to get her a plant, then my sister’s friends, my sister-in-law, etc. My house had become a showroom ”, says Gómez-Bilbao.

Daniel Gómez-Bilbao / Image: Courtesy Huatan

The day “El Chino” left his office in Montes Urales

It was then that Daniel decided to take advantage of the contacts he had made while living and traveling to South America to become a distributor of plants and pots.

“It turned out that the manufacturer of the pots that I had seen in another country was from Guadalajara and all its production was exported because it believed that there was no market for Mexico because at that time, in the 2000s, people only consumed clay pots”, Daniel points out. “Now fiberglass is very common, but back then it didn’t exist.”

His surprise was capitalized when in the first two weeks he managed to place 100 pots. He realized that there was a business opportunity where he could have direct contact with the decision maker.

“I came from the corporate world where you had to climb the CEO and a series of executives to close a software sale. In this world the sale was direct. Curiously, the director to whom I sold programming, bought me pots for his house ”.

Daniel then opened a small urban landscaping company called Huatan , whose name in Chinese means “Terrace with plants” because he wanted to remember it as “El Chino”, a nickname that Daniel had since childhood due to his slightly slanted eyes. He started a business with plants at home.

While his business started up, Daniel continued working for the technology company from its offices in Montes Urales. But as the sale of his products progressed and grew, he realized that sooner or later he would have to cut the umbilical cord.

Image: Courtesy Huatan

In his own words, Daniel was lucky because at the age of 25 he was earning in dollars, he was paid for a department and he was a sales director for several countries. “I was in a privileged position and it took a lot of work to make the decision,” he says.

The inspiration to make the final decision to venture forth came when he understood that for him the tranquility that a salary could offer him, that stability with that umbilical cord is great, but that dependency was only going to get bigger with time.

When he was considering leaving the company he loved to dedicate himself to Huatan, Daniel approached his mentor who was none other than the CEO who had hired him years ago and said “I have this discrepancy in my life. On the one hand I love what I do here and on the other I enjoy selling flowerpots ”. Daniel was looking for him to convince him to stay, but his mentor told him “Daniel, chase the plants. If it catches your eye, go after it. But make up your mind and make up your mind now ”.

“I will never forget what he told me, – for something he is my mentor-, because he made me understand that when you are passionate about something, things are given to you and the more you look for them, the more they come to you.”

The landscape architecture office that now dresses Mexico City

After this process of detachment, Daniel launched Huatan in all forms in 2006 and has been working for 15 years doing landscaping with the creation, setting, care and conservation of more than 500 sustainable green spaces that allow the reunion with nature.

His office is dedicated to dressing corporate buildings, commercial chains and residential spaces with the design, execution and maintenance of green spaces.

“It has been 15 years since I started, but it was very difficult. There were times when I didn’t even have to pay my children’s tuition. The entrepreneur has to understand that the company comes first before the entrepreneur ”, warns Gómez-Bilbao.

Daniel was faced with the reality that he had to learn if he really wanted to succeed in a new but very complicated industry. An industrial engineer by training, he decided to go to work in a nursery to understand the market.

And it is not a small market. According to Statista , the gardening and landscaping industry in the United States is $ 99 billion annually. In other words, a house with a garden spends around $ 500 a year and the market is expected to reach a value of $ 30 trillion by 2030 in the American Union alone.

Huatan is the first Mexican company that hopes to participate in this industry and, why not, – as Gómez-Bilbao says-, partner with Elon Musk and bring Latin plants to Mars.

Among the works that Huatan has done are an intervention by the hand of graffiti artists Orgullo Bravo in the Chapultepec botanical garden during the Flower and Garden Festival of Mexico City, vertical gardens and green interior design for high-end restaurants. range such as Aromas Cotidianos and Blanco Bistro and events such as Millesime.

For the following years, Huatan claims to have a couple of projects on the horizon in the United Arab Emirates and Texas, but Gómez-Bilbao hopes to soon be able to enter California, Florida and Spain.

Image: Courtesy Huatan

Green options for the “new normal”

The work that Huatan does has acquired a new dimension with the sanitary restriction measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, either because more outdoor spaces are needed in cities to cope with confinement or because urban gardening has acquired greater importance among people seeking to produce organic food.

For example, restaurants that could previously ignore the importance of having open spaces have been forced to adapt previously unused areas to have a place to serve diners and comply with sanitation measures.

“The pandemic took us away from other human beings and from nature,” said Gómez-Bilbao, noting that green areas help offer an extra service to diners by giving them the opportunity to be in contact with plants and natural spaces through green dining experiences.

However, it is not just a trend to cope with the pandemic. Biophilic architecture, one that considers green spaces as a central part of its design, is gaining ground. A very clear example is the new Amazon headquarters (in which the brand wants to invest 5 billion dollars) or the Singapore Jewel Changi Airport.

Image: Courtesy Huatan

On the other hand, Huatan’s mission is to help bring green spaces to cities and for that they also offer two pre-assembled urban gardens so that people can install and plant: One type Greenhouse with a shade and plastic mesh cover that generates its Its own microclimate and a Tutor type, with a structure to help the correct growth of plants and vegetables.

“We are all gardeners,” says Gómez-Bilbao, “All our lives we have had plants on the roofs, bamboos on the desks, spices in the kitchens, well, we have even planted beans in cotton wool. We just have to reconnect with the plants. “



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Griswold Home Care Franchise Information

March 3, 2021 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


Why Choose Griswold?

Griswold Home Care launched an industry and continues to set the standard for care and compassion.

Griswold was one of the first franchise companies in the United States to offer in-home care to seniors and adults with disabilities, illnesses, or injuries, and we are the gold standard when it comes to delivering compassionate care. For our franchisees, franchise ownership is a potentially lucrative business opportunity that allows them to fulfill their calling—to dedicate their lives to serving people in their communities who need their help the most.

Griswold remains true to our guiding principles: provide the best possible home care to seniors and other adults with disabilities, illnesses, or injuries; provide comfort, joy, and peace of mind to our clients; and provide our franchisees with a business model that gives them the opportunity to realize their own dreams. That is the essence of our Griswoldness, and why we’ve been successful for so many years, and why we’ll continue to grow well into the future.

We focus on client care before profit.

Often, companies start up to take advantage of this huge industry and focus on making money, leaving customer care as a secondary goal. This is where we stand out from the rest. Our business model emphasizes compassion for our clients over profits for ourselves. Service should be affordable for customers, and caregivers should be well-compensated. The entire company was built around those important cultural values.

“Griswold is unique in the bustling and crowded home care franchising space,” says COO Mike Magid. “Unlike most brands that were started on a spreadsheet to take advantage of the sheer number of aging baby boomers, our founder, Jean Griswold, started with a heartfelt desire to help people. She is our lodestar and is a model we can point our franchisees to aspire to. This is a calling. Can it be lucrative? Yes. But it’s a calling first and foremost, and you need to remember that if you’re going to be successful.”successful.”

Our franchisees are eager to share what they love about their businesses.

We have some of the longest-tenured and most successful franchisees in the industry, and, most importantly, our franchisees think highly of our brand. We’re proud to say that we work hard to foster great relationships with our franchisees. We work alongside our franchise network to develop new initiatives, listen to their needs, and seek to provide all the tools they need to grow their businesses.

“I looked at 10 brands before I looked at Griswold, and the difference became apparent as soon as I got on the phone with Griswold. Other brands would tell me how great the margins were, but when I got on the phone with Griswold they told me how important the care was. It was an entirely different tone — they were the only ones who said anything about care. They remembered that the end product was care to seniors, and we appreciated that and decided to franchise with them because of their integrity.”

– Scott Savel, owner of a Griswold franchise in Scottsdale, Arizona

Our future is brighter than ever.

New franchisees are finding their calling by helping adults in their community age in place with dignity and providing peace of mind to their families. There has never been a better time to build a brighter future by taking care of those in your community who need you most.

If you’re a deeply empathetic person and you place compassion and a desire to help others above everything else, then Griswold is the right fit for you. We have developed a business model, the training, and the ongoing support that will help you become established, and we’re going to be with you the whole way. We’re most passionate about the success of our franchisees because we see the work they do and the good they bring to their communities. There is no other brand like Griswold in the senior home care space, and we’re here to ensure that the next 35 years are even better than the last.

 



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Stop Giving Clients Your Personal Email. Here’s Why.

March 2, 2021 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


If you hate managing your email inbox, try changing the way you use email – and stop giving clients your personal address.


March
2, 2021

4 min read

This story appears in the
March 2021
issue of
Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Imagine this alternate universe: Email addresses were never assigned to individual people. Instead, they were assigned to groups of people — maybe because they’re part of a team or are working on a project together. What would have happened as a result?

Here’s what I think: Our workflow would have radically changed. And it is not too late to do this in your business.

By eliminating the connection between email and people, you will, with one grand gesture, destabilize everyone’s expectations about how communication should unfold, making it much easier for you to rebuild these expectations from scratch with a protocol that makes more sense. You can make your email inbox more manageable and shift how and when people communicate with you.

Related: 4 Things You Should Change About Your Email Marketing

Consider, for example, how a company interacts with its clients. The client is generally used to contacting a specific individual in the organization whenever they have questions or issues. The client also has an expectation of a quick response. They will personalize these interactions and begin treating delays as a personal affront (Why are you ignoring me?!). Now imagine instead that each client is assigned a dedicated email address in the form of  clientname@yourorganization.com. If you run Jane LLC and your client is Joe LLC, the email address might be joellc@janellc.com.

It’s now much easier to break your client from the idea that their messages are going to an individual person, who is seeing them right away and therefore better answer them quickly! By depersonalizing communication, you have many more options to optimize it. Perhaps a rotating team of individuals will respond, or emailed requests will be added to a workflow system that can be monitored.

I deployed this strategy to help manage my author communication. When I used to offer only a single email address, associated with my name, for readers to reach me, the messages became overwhelming — ­not in just their volume but also their complexity. When you think you’re interacting with an individual, it’s natural to assume they’ll be reasonable enough to read your long story and offer detailed advice, or set up a call to talk about your business opportunity, or connect you to relevant people in their network. I used to do this gladly, but as my audience grew, it became more difficult.

Related: 6 Quick Tips for Cleaning an Out-of-Control Inbox

To improve my author communication protocols, I introduced nonpersonal email addresses. One of these, for example, is interesting@calnewport.com, which my readers use to send interesting links or leads. On my website, the address is listed with a simple note: “I really appreciate these pointers, but due to time constraints, I’m usually not able to respond.” In my experience, if you put such a disclaimer next to a personalized address, like cal@calnewport.com, it will be widely disregarded, as our expectations for one-on-one interactions are so strong. But when the disclaimer appends a nonpersonal address, like interesting@calnewport.com, I receive few complaints. Without preconceived expectations, you’re able to set them from scratch.

There are many different ways to build low-cost protocols into your professional life or organization, but in many cases, freeing email addresses from individuals provides a powerful boost to these efforts.

Excerpted from A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload, by Cal Newport, with permission of Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © Cal Newport, 2021



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When Does Daylight Savings Time Start in 2021?

March 1, 2021 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


The 2021 summer schedule will start in a few weeks and will last just over six months.


March
1, 2021

1 min read

This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.


The time change seeks to help save energy by taking advantage of natural daylight and has been implemented in Mexico since 1996.

The 2021 summer schedule will start in a few weeks and will last just over six months.

When does daylight saving time start in 2021?

Image: Ocean Ng via Unsplash

In Mexico, the 2021 summer schedule will begin on April 4 at 2 in the morning and will end on the last Sunday in October at the same time in the morning.

Is the clock fast or slow?

Image: Lukas Blazek via Unsplash

On April 4, you will have to advance your clock one hour. We recommend doing it from Saturday, April 3 at night so that you wake up with the new schedule. Remember that your electronic devices make the change automatically.

Where will the schedule adjustment take place?

Image: Laura Chouette via Unsplash

The time change will apply to most of the states of the country with the exception of Quintana Roo and Sonora, which for economic and tourist reasons do not adhere to this adjustment.



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How to break the paradigms of an industry?

February 27, 2021 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


Edurne Balmori, CEO of Metco, the creator of the Svetia brand, shares her secrets to leading and breaking paradigms. Join us on March 4.


February
27, 2021

2 min read

This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.


How to break paradigms, lead change and achieve your life goals? These are some of the questions that we will address on March 4 at 7:00 pm in Entrepreneur Masters.

Edurne Balmori Palacios, CEO of Metco , the creator of the Svetia brand, will share with us her strategies to break down barriers, customs, beliefs and labels, and position herself as one of the most innovative directors in the country.

Edurne was born in Mexico City, completed a degree in Food Engineering and Technology at the Universidad Iberoamericana and has specializations in Senior Management and Business Administration, as well as Finance at ITAM.

Since 2008, he joined Metco as Research and Development manager and has been the General Management of the company for three years. Under his leadership Metco has managed to achieve sustained sales growth, exceeding targets with double-digit year-over-year growth.

It also managed to catapult the company into new markets in Mexico and several countries such as the United States, Spain, Central and South America through the diversification of high value-added products to both B2B and B2C clients.


Edurne Balmori. Photo: Courtesy Metco

The directive has focused on institutionalizing and supporting the creation of plans for organizational development and training of internal leaders, strengthening the commitment and identity of employees with the company, providing tools such as technology platforms for effective decision-making. decisions even seeking equal opportunities, equity, inclusion and diversity in their work teams.

Join us next Thursday, March 4 at 7:00 pm and learn the strategies of this leader.

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Filed Under: Entrepreneur

Twitter ‘Super Follow’ to Let Users Charge Followers to View Exclusive Tweets

February 26, 2021 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


The upcoming Super Follow system takes a page from Patreon, and is part of Twitter’s efforts to make revenue outside of simply serving digital ads.


February
26, 2021

2 min read


This story originally appeared on PCMag

Twitter is working on a way for you to make money off your tweets. 

During an investors’ event on Thursday, the company unveiled “Super Follow,” an account subscription system that’ll let users charge followers for monthly access to exclusive content.

The company is basically taking a page from Patreon or OnlyFans. For example, if you’re an artist or actor, you can use the Super Follow system to charge willing followers $4.99 per month for access to private tweets containing songs or video trailers.

Credit: Twitter

Twitter’s chief design officer, Dantley Davis, said the Super Follow system will enable content creators on the platform to receive funding from their loyal fans. And presumably, Twitter will take a cut of the revenue.

Related: How to Use Twitter Analytics: The Complete Guide

The company posted images of what Super Follow could entail. One image, in particular, shows content creators will be able to have audio conversations with their paid followers, which sounds similar to the Clubhouse app. Davis also mentioned Twitter is exploring adding a “tipping” function, giving content creators another way to draw funding from their fans.

 

Twitter's Super Follow imagesCredit: Twitter

Twitter didn’t say when the Super Follow system will arrive. But it’s part of the company’s effort to generate revenue outside of digital ads through subscription services. Other avenues will include charging users access to Tweetdeck and other analytic programs that can help influencers and businesses gain followers, Twitter executives said during the investors’ event. 

Last month, the company acquired newsletter platform Revue. The goal is to use Revue as a way for Twitter’s users to publish free or paid newsletters, which their followers can subscribe to. 





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]The Promise Cycle Is Your Way Out of Uncertainty

February 25, 2021 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


Being an entrepreneur implies adapting to changes and having a flexible vision.


February
25, 2021

4 min read

This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


By Carlos Flores, Head of Business Development Mexico

Being an entrepreneur implies adapting to changes and having a flexible vision to react in a coherent and prudent way to the unknown, although it is in its nature to adapt, 2020 showed that there are many things to learn and adjust. The pandemic increased the levels of uncertainty not only in the business environment, but in people’s lives, previously economic, social or governmental movements were foreseen, but never an impact on every person and business in the world.

In Peter Senge’s book The Fifth Discipline , the importance of having a vision that everyone in the company can follow is discussed. Normally in organizations, the vision is embodied in stupendous walls, it is disseminated in the manifestos or in each newsletter, despite this, all these stimuli are ignored by most of the collaborators as advertising spots with smoking warnings. People do not react to inconsequential stimuli, until they are useful.

A few months ago, the CEO of Descifra , a startup promoted by Wayra of Telefónica Movistar, had an accident that prevented him from working for several months, the co-founders had to fill in the functions of the CEO. Most of the processes remain in the knowledge of the responsible person, but there is no communication of these procedures to be carried out by a third party in a contingency.

One of the best immediate reactions made by the co-founders of Descifra, was to meet as a team and speak clearly about the steps to follow, the reason for the company’s existence, and of course, ask for support in this time of crisis, to add everyone to the vision they were permeating. As Peter Senge points out, “A shared vision is not an idea. It is not even an idea as important as freedom. It is a force in people’s hearts, a force of awesome power. “

After having clarity of the shared vision, it is necessary to assign roles and responsibilities, an effective way is through the “promise cycle”, whose steps are described below:

  1. Establish an environment of trust to dialogue with collaborators. Having a shared vision helps create this environment of clarity and trust.
  2. Request the task in an explicit way and agree on all the details: time, form of delivery, quality levels, formats, etc., do not allow doubt about what is requested.
  3. Validate with the person to whom the task is given the clear understanding and obtain -an explicit acceptance- or, -an explicit refusal-. It is essential to have a forceful answer “yes, I can comply in the time and in the form” or “no, the conditions are not achievable”. In particular when doing innovation, it is essential to achieve clear and concrete agreements. In cases where you get the “no”, you can ask more questions to negotiate agreements such as: what can we achieve? What conditions would you need to achieve it?
  4. Agree with the person to whom you delegate a task the follow-up, ensure the completion of the task through reviews and intermediate adjustments.
  5. When the delivery time arrives there will be two options: a) The agreement is fulfilled, for which it is essential to thank and acknowledge the good work, or b) the agreement is not fulfilled, it will be necessary to make an -effective claim-, review the agreements , make a request to finish or carry out the task (corrective actions) and verify learning to avoid non-compliance (preventive actions).
  6. Restart the cycle, talk about learning to fulfill or not fulfill the task and reach new agreements.

Actions like these can be useful in this changing environment, do not let time pass and give yourself the opportunity to resume conversations with your team about the vision (the reason for the company’s existence) and look for the “explicit yes or no” when assigning tasks , your management will benefit.



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How to Measure WiFi Signal Strength – Running Your Business

February 25, 2021 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


Featured image by Alexander Supertramp

In my house, WiFi signal strength is a currency. With it (or rather through its availability), we ensure that homework is completed, bedrooms are cleaned, grandparents are spoken to, and dinner is consumed. It also underpins my peaceful consumption of Grey’s Anatomy in the evening, along with the ability to enjoy, without interruption, a nice glass of Malbec alongside it.

Conversely, unreliable WiFi is a biblical plague upon the peaceful living. Aside from my retro-Meredith Grey reverie, reliable WiFi signal strength is a critical component in my ability to earn a living. Packet loss, connection interruptions, and congestion do not a smooth and successful video conference make.

What Can Cause Poor WiFi Signal Strength?

WiFi problems come in many shapes and sizes. Aside from the distance between the router and the device and the thickness of the walls in a house, there are a number of factors that can influence the connection. Some of these are rooted in the user or the quality of their hardware, since not all WiFi devices are created equal. Other factors that can have a detrimental effect include:

  • Neighbors and their WiFi configurations. Avoid overlaps where possible.
  • Microwave ovens. Significantly older ones may be faulty or have poor seals. (Fun fact: Microwave ovens run at 2.4GHz, a common WiFi band.)
  • Televisions, baby monitors, walkie talkies and all manner of other devices can also operate in the same band.
  • Big lumps of metal, especially metal connected to earth, such as water tanks and water pipework, boilers, radiators, and so on. These can all have an effect if they are in the signal path between the access point and your device.
  • Metalized film on glass windows and partitions. This is often used in office environments as a sunblock, tint, or filter. Signal attenuation over a metalized glass unit can be huge. Often the only solution in these circumstances is to increase the density of access points.

RELATED ARTICLE: WHAT IS A NO LOG VPN? DOES IT MATTER TO YOUR BUSINESS?

Measuring and Monitoring: What Is Important?

The modern world is a hostile place if you are a radio wave. This is particularly the case if you’re a low energy wave like a WiFi signal, since 2.4GHz WiFi is limited to only 100mW. It is even more true if you are a 5GHz WiFi signal. This is because 5GHz radio waves propagate over shorter distances than 2.4GHz signals do.

The good news is that all the above problems are addressable in some form. However, to address them properly, you’ll need some planning, some thinking, some testing, and some tools.

At the root of all these issues, whether you’re dealing with 2G or 5G WiFi, is the quality of the WiFi signal your device is receiving. The primary determinant of quality is the strength of the WiFi signal your device is receiving. What is signal strength? Simply put, it is a measure of the energy being exchanged between your device and the WiFi access point. This is often expressed in dBm (decibels relative to 1mW). Measuring WiFi signal strength in various positions can inform the planning and design of your wireless network and indicate where you may need to place extra repeaters and access points.

Don’t worry too much about the absolute values of these parameters. Often our devices don’t offer up much insight into these. That is, they simply indicate some arbitrary signal strength in terms of the number of bars they display in the network icon.

This is what it looks like on a Windows system.

In order to derive more useful detail regarding signal levels, we need to use a specialist software tool. I tend to use NetSpot. You can download this tool with a free-to-use option. It provides a stable but highly informative source of engineering data.

Let’s Take a Look at Some Practical Examples

Let’s have a look at some results from a live environment (mine) and some of the key parameters.

WiFi signal strength

This is a default NetSpot view showing that there are three access points visible from this location:

  • The signal received from two of the access points is very strong. Mine is about 4 meters away (through a brick wall), and one (my neighbor’s) is at the edge of the cover. NetSpot also offers a time-series view of signal strength. This shows that WiFi signal strengths are broadly consistent over time. This is what I would expect, as I am not moving. (We’ll get to that.)
  • There are two networks at 2.4G and one at 5G. The Vodafone access point is offering one network (SSID) in each band.
  • On the Vodafone SSID, the 2.4G signal strength is stronger than the 5G at the same measurement distance. This is to be expected because of 5G propagation characteristics.
  • The Vodafone access point is offering connectivity based on the newer AC standard (2013). The Shell access point is offering an older (2007) N standard signal.
  • There is adequate channel separation between the 2.4G access points. We can get a good view of this from the AP Channel view, also offered by NetSpot. Both the Shell and Vodafone access points occupy at 20MHz segment. There is no need to retune the access points to avoid interference.
WiFi signal strength
In the 5G space, there is only a single channel visible at this point, but the channel width is greater, at 80MHz.

Finally, let’s see the effect of moving farther (approximately 5 meters and another brick wall) from the access point. The time-series graph below clearly shows the effect of this. Signal strengths decline dramatically, and the neighbor’s access point increases markedly.

Signal strength is the key indicator of the quality of WiFi service a device is likely to receive from the network. Typically, devices give a very “raw” view of connection quality, and this is not suitable for problem diagnosis. Instead, you need a dedicated monitoring and survey tool to accurately identify and diagnose issues. There are a number of tools available, but NetSpot is an excellent option.

RELATED ARTICLE: GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR CLOUD SYSTEM

NetSpot is available for MAC and Windows. It has a free tier license, which makes basic functionality available. A professional tier unlocks some funky survey and mapping functionality, which will more than adequately support even professional users. In professional mode (that is, the licensed option), full NetSpot is capable of providing full coverage mapping across a number of advanced engineering parameters.

Contributed to the Business Opportunities blog by Alexandra for NetSpot.



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