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The Case Against Grad School (Infographic)

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From massive student loan debt to a largely competitive landscape, there are a number of reasons why people don’t pursue grad school today. However, before crossing it off your list completely, it’s important to learn more about it.

Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Balance School and Business

In 2001, a reported 473,502 Master’s degrees were awarded. That number increased a whopping 60 percent by 2015, with 758,708 people awarded Master’s degrees. What are most of these people studying? The top graduate programs as of fall 2016 were social and behavioral sciences, engineering and biological and agricultural sciences. And today, more and more of these graduate students are women, with many of those individuals the firsts in their families to go. In fact, approximately 63 percent of first-time graduates are women.

Related: Top 25 Best Grad Programs for Entrepreneurs in 2018

Of course, there are many cases as to why someone would or wouldn’t pursue grad school. The average debt for a person getting their MBA is $42,000. Sound like a lot? For aspiring doctors or medical experts, the average debt is $161,772.

Depending on what you want to do in the long run will help determine if a graduate’s degree is necessary. On the bright side, people with graduate degrees typically have higher salaries, more access to job opportunities and professional connections.

Related: It’s Never Too Late to Get Your Graduate Degree

So if you want to go back to school and get another degree, don’t be discouraged by financial or social pressures. There are a number of fellowships, scholarships and other financial options to help you get there. And if you’re feeling trapped on time, you can also explore online schooling options.

To learn more, check out NowSourcing’s infographic below.

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Amazon Patents Wristband to Precisely Track Its Warehouse Workers

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Warehouse workers often describe high-pressure environments, where a push for maximum efficiency in fulfilling orders keeps breaks short, shifts long and employees constantly aware of their output. Amazon’s warehouses are no exception.

Now, in a move that seems to imply an increased desire by Amazon to keep close tabs on its box packers, the ecommerce giant has been granted two patents for a wristband designed to track not only a wearer’s location within the warehouse, but the wearer’s hand movements as well.

The patents (here and here) describe an “inventory management system” which would include ultrasonic devices placed near inventory bins and embedded in the wristband itself to communicate information about the precise location of a worker’s hand.

Image credit: Amazon via USPTO

The proposed technology also features the capability to provide haptic feedback to the wearer, buzzing to let them know whether they’re picking up the correct item.

Related: The Craziest Patents by Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google and More

Amazon clearly intends for these wristbands — if it ever implements them — to speed up the packing process. One of the patents explains that “Existing approaches for keeping track of where inventory items are stored … may require the inventory system worker to perform time consuming acts beyond placing the inventory item into an inventory bin and retrieving the inventory item from the inventory bid, such as pushing a button associated with the inventory bin or scanning a barcode associated with the inventory bin.”

However, the patent documents have prompted at least one comparison to house-arrest bracelets.

Image credit: Amazon via USPTO

The documents also explain that the implementation of a “computer vision system” would help save time in Amazon’s warehouses, it’s difficult and expensive to implement. Geekwire explains that the complex network of cameras that power the cashierless Amazon Go store, which opened Jan. 22, are an example of such a system.

Amazon employs tens of thousands of workers in its 70 U.S. fulfillment centers, with plans to create 40,000 full-time jobs this year.

Related video: I Tried Out an Exoskeleton That Some Ford Workers Are Using — and It Was Great

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The Management Structure at the New Firm Left Much to Be Desired – Small Business Trends

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Hand Puppet Business Cartoon

Hand puppets are funny; they just are.

I’ve done a few cartoons with them before, but this one is my favorite, I think. I get to use the word “proxy,” the puppet is named “Mr. Handsington,” and I quite like how the cityscape in the background turned out.

I don’t know that this would go over in real life given the current job climate, but I think we can all agree that at the very least, hand puppets are funny.

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Divorce and Your Business: Preparing for the Unthinkable

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Divorce and Your Business: Preparing for the Unthinkable

So, you’ve built the perfect life. You have a spouse and children. You own a home. And you have been successfully operating your own small business for some time now.

When people marry they don’t intend to divorce. However, the truth is 40-50% of all marriages in the United States end in divorce.

And, as if divorce weren’t trying enough, things only get more complicated when you and your spouse own a business.

As a business owner, being prepared for divorce is not a bad thing. It is not telling of what will happen in the future. Nor does it indicate that you love your spouse any less than you should. And it definitely does not make you a bad person.

In fact, protecting your business from a potential divorce is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Plus, it is just a smart business move.

Read on to learn two important ways you can prepare for a divorce. These tips will stand you in good stead even if you and your spouse were to divorce years into your marriage and long after your business has become a success.

 

RELATED ARTICLE: 5 HELPFUL RETIREMENT PLANNING TIPS FOR THE SELF-EMPLOYED ENTREPRENEUR

 

1. Keep It Separated

Though this can be difficult, especially if you and your spouse opened up shop together, try your best to keep family matters and business matters separate. After all, business property that is shared and intermingled with your family, your spouse included, can be considered relationship property during divorce proceedings. This means you could lose half of your business in a divorce.

One great way to help prevent this, especially if you started your business before the marriage, is to have a prenuptial agreement in place. In this way, both parties know ahead of time what to expect.

If you have a prenuptial agreement in place, make sure it meets the following conditions:

  • It is in writing and signed by all involved parties
  • Each party receives independent legal advice pertaining to the agreement
  • The document has been signed in the presence of an attorney

Keep in mind that it is crucial to get the help of an experienced law firm, such as Romano Law, P.C., while setting up a prenuptial agreement. The same goes for those times when you are facing divorce.

This is because if at any time during your divorce proceeding the overseeing judge feels the prenuptial agreement was created as an injustice to one party it can be overturned.

Understanding the complex nature of divorces that involve family-owned businesses, the right divorce attorney can help you get what you deserve and defend you against unsavory exes out to cause unnecessary problems.

divorce 1

2. Create a Trust

Typically, when people are divorced, regardless of the state they reside in, all property and assets are split 50/50, unless there is a pre- or postnuptial agreement in place.

That said, you can protect your business from falling victim to the 50/50 rule if you place it in a family trust. This is because once you transfer your business to a family trust, it can no longer be considered “relationship property.” Now, it officially belongs to only you.

With a family trust you can allocate yourself or your children as beneficiaries. This will prevent your losing your business to your spouse. This is especially important if you had your business in place before marriage. Further, it can save you the hassle of fighting it out in court.

Having an experienced family trust attorney to help you with this is critical. However, keep in mind that you cannot establish a family trust in hopes of cheating a spouse out of property or assets that they are legally entitled to.

 

Take Steps to Protect Your Interests

In the end, protecting your business from divorce can be challenging. This is especially true if you don’t take proactive measures before you or your spouse file the divorce petition. Luckily, with the help of a knowledgeable attorney, such as Michael Romano of Romano Law, P.C., you can receive all the legal counsel you need. Good legal advice will protect your assets, including your business.

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New ezeep Dash Service Moves Small Business Printing to the Cloud

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ThinPrint Cloud Services has a new solution called ezeep Dash which can move your entire print management system to the cloud.

Printers and printer drivers can now be fully managed in one portal without a server while being able to print locally if there is no internet connection. The company says ezeep Dash simplifies the overall printing process by keeping the printing path short and direct.

Optimizing printing services is still a challenge for small businesses. According to the State of SMB Document Management survey by Xerox, 64 percent of small businesses can’t track printer usage or costs. This is despite the fact they are using a more paper-intensive process within their organizations.

Whether you have drivers for printers on all your computers or a server, ezeep Dash looks to remove these barriers to make printing much easier for your small business.

In a release about the new service, Christoph Hammer, CEO at ThinPrint Cloud Services Inc, said:

“With nearly 20 years of experience in network printing and our long-standing cooperation as a member of the Cloud Printing Alliance with virtually all renowned printer manufacturers, we’re able to offer our customers not just a completely serverless, intuitively-operated solution, but also a continuously growing pool of the most up-to-date printer drivers.”

ezeep Dash Features

According to the company, ezeep Dash offers a server-free print management solution with fast setup. It centralizes the management of printers and drivers in the cloud for direct IP printing. When a driver or IP address changes, it is automatically updated using the ezeep Dash Agent.

Users can carry out mobile, BYOD, guest, and remote printing tasks with any device, from any location to any printer.

What ezeep Dash Promises - Dump Your Print Servers and Forget About Driver Updates

What’s more ezeep Dash keeps printing local, meaning it doesn’t take place via the cloud. So printing in your office doesn’t require an internet connection.

You can try ezeep Dash with a free 30-day demo account for 10 users with support for Microsoft Windows 7 and higher. It will be available for Apple MacOS version 10.10 (Yosemite) and higher soon.

Printing Efficiency

The Xerox report pointed out the wait time for a document at a business with a shared central printer comes out to around three minutes for each employee or 13 hours annually in the US. Whether you have one or more employees, those wasted hours can be prevented with a print management solution.

Images: ThinPrint Cloud Services

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