Starting the Conversation People completely fulfilled by their jobs likely aren’t seeking new employment, passively or actively. Many top performers, however, are merely content and would be open to pursuing new opportunities. These passive candidates pose less of a turnover risk but are difficult to attract. They’re choosy and usually more expensive, but they deliver on promises and stick around longer than their flightier counterparts. Opening a dialogue with the best prospects begins with establishing a strong narrative that presents your company as a world-changing organization in an environment conducive to meaningful achievement....

– Jacques Bastien of Boogie – Angela Delmedico of Elev8 Consulting Group – Steven Buchwald of Buchwald & Associates – Arry Yu of GiftStarter

Every startup is looking for funding at one point or another. Whether you’re a bootstrapping company that’s in need of some capital or a unicorn that’s looking to expand its reach, there’s no such thing as too much funding. And while many founders look to angel groups and venture capital firms to fill their monetary needs, federal funding options are plentiful in the land of the free. We reached out to a number of budding founders and successful CEOs that have knowledge and took advantage of the many federal startup funding options available in the country....

According to data from InsuranceQuotes, self-employment and freelance work are the way to go when it comes to being happy. The freedom, paired with the flexible work schedule and the absence of a boss, leads to an overall lack of stress and few distractions/obstructions to productivity. As for the bottom of list, employees receiving tips in addition to a menial base pay are by far the least happy, with hourly and salaried employees rounding out the top five....

You have the basic marketing channels covered. You have a blog and you update it regularly. You have social media pages, too, and you know how to use them. You measure ROI and work the funnel, so you are filling in the edges of the marketing puzzle, but something’s missing still, because the picture never seems complete. Marketing is more difficult than your average jigsaw puzzle because the playing field keeps changing....

Writing for Geekwire, Tren Griffin weighed in on the elements that a startup city needs and that Seattle has. Here’s a summary of the best points in his opinion piece: 1. Its Neighbors Are Close Enough to Pitch In Open working spaces; Apple HQ’s intentionally inefficient office layout; and the concept of Silicon Valley — they all rely on being close to others who have similar but different interests. Collaboration makes things happen....

Here are the four essential strategies to help you dominate the local search results, gain the initial traction and feedback and proceed to the successful national and worldwide expansion. Identify Your Ideal Buyer Persona While you’ve likely researched and identified your target market (you should have at this point), it’s worth making an extra step and map out the exact persona you’ll be marketing your products and services too. Having an ideal buyer persona in mind will help you tailor your content, messaging and overall marketing more precisely from day one and bring you better results as you start expanding....

All too often we hear cases where high profile users of Gmail, including US government officials, reporters and political activists – have had their email accounts hacked. But don’t be naive and think that this only happens to the “big guys”. Email account hacking can happen to anyone at anytime and prevention is often better than the cure. So, here are the steps should you take to reduce the chances of your Gmail account being hacked....

A number of HR processes have been made simple by technology with improved accuracy. Here are some of the ways in which technology has changed the landscape of human resources. Hiring Before the digital age, the classified ads were the main place to browse job listing and the process involved a heap of paper applications. Then, human resources reps had to screen and test potential candidates to determine who to bring in for an interview....

If you’re looking for ways to give your company a better chance at achieving success, here are a few ideas to get you started. Implement New Technology You’re probably already using Square to process your payments, or using Uber Eats to order lunch for the office. But to really make your startup stand out from the crowd, look beyond these trends and catch on to the next big thing before it becomes the norm....

Mukai Matsiga of Galvanize provides some insight on how this portion of your interview could be a great opportunity to show your value. The Purpose of the Whiteboard Test For those of you in the tech industry who are unfamiliar, or just lucky enough to have never been asked to participate in one, the whiteboarding portion of the technical interview process typically consists of the interviewee hand-writing code in front of their potential future employer....

Codecademy Codecademy is an online collaborative platform that offers free coding classes it’s One of my favorite places to learn coding. In fact, not only me but more than 20 million people have already learned how to code here. At Codecademy, you can make a dive and take courses that show you everything from HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP etc. Udemy Established in 2010, Udemy is a web based learning platform for users that can be utilized to enhance or learn different codding language....

Who Else Is Sharing the Space? Every coworking environment is a bit different from the other. One environment might have a very serious, heads down, get to work vibe. If you are trying to kick off a financial services business, this might be ideal. On the other hand, if you are heading up a boisterous team of video game developers that environment is probably not a good fit for you. Hopefully, the owners of the space are willing to give you the heads up on what to expect....

Public WiFi can pose serious risks to privacy if people aren’t careful about what they’re doing. There have been countless instances of identity theft after people decide to do their banking without a secure connection. And behold, there’s a pernicious thief in range downloading all of their private information. But for one reason or another, some may have it in their heads that all those privacy concerns go out the door once they hit 10,000 feet in the air....

One incubator who has received national attention for their effort to incubate impact-driven ventures is the Phoenix- and DC-based SEED SPOT. They are recognized as one of the top 20 accelerators in the world and received a 2016 Emmy for their partnership with Univision supporting Latino entrepreneurs. Their Demo Day is one of the most well attended events by investors, mentors and community members looking for startup solutions to change the world....

Affected services and apps include the App Store, iCloud, Siri, iMessage, Apple Maps, Apple TV+, and FaceTime, among many more. Even if the outage gets resolved soon, it’s a major incident that just reminded the one billion people using Apple devices worldwide just how dependent they are on the tech provider. What’s Happening Some of the other Apple services that are suffering outages include Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Apple Arcade, Business Manager, School Manager, the Device Enrollment Program, Schoolwork, Radio, Fitness+, Notes, and Stocks....

With ActiTime, this is never an issue. You have access to an easy-to-use cloud based interface that will allow you to book your time with a few clicks. You’ll have your timesheets on hand and you’ll know how much time each project is taking and, most importantly, you’ll know how much you need to bill to each client. ActiTime allows you to no longer worry about where those mystery hours ran off to....

The report, which surveyed more than 10,000 global workers, revealed that remote and hybrid employees are actually more likely to feel connected to their direct managers than full-time office workers, and 4% more productive to boot. The survey also revealed that although burnout is at an all-time high, executives are still dragging their feet when it comes to embracing flexible environments. Here’s a summary of the report’s main findings, as well as practical advice for employers serious about tackling burnout in their teams....

The aviation industry is no stranger to data breaches, but they’re becoming increasingly common across almost all industries and sectors of the economy. Not enough companies use tech like password managers to create secure passwords for business email accounts, nor train staff to recognize suspicious communications. Weak credentials can be easily compromised with brute-forcing and credential stuffing, and in this case, a crafty phishing campaign duped employees. American Airlines Breached American Airlines have said that the personal information of a “very small number” of customers and employees was accessed by an unauthorized party that compromised business email accounts....

The DC area has fewer venture capital firms than Silicon Valley, but steady startup investment is coming from tech industry veterans who have experience working with area universities, government agencies, and telecom companies including AOL, said John Taylor, head of research for the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Entrepreneurs in Washington, DC, also have a greater chance to compete for talent and to distinguish their startup as a unique business because there is less tech sector overlap than in Silicon Valley, Taylor said....