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To excel in sales skills training, you need to master five fundamental techniques that can markedly improve your effectiveness. Comprehending product benefits and customer needs is vital, as is developing active listening and empathy to build trust. Furthermore, you must emphasize adaptability in a dynamic market and focus on cultivating strong relationships for long-term engagement. Finally, incorporating effective communication and negotiation strategies will further raise your performance. Discover how each technique can transform your approach. Key Takeaways Focus on understanding product features and customer benefits to tailor sales pitches effectively. Develop active listening and empathy skills to build trust and enhance customer relationships. Emphasize adaptability and continuous learning to thrive in a dynamic sales environment. Foster strong relationships through personalized engagement and high-quality service for long-term customer retention. Incorporate effective communication and negotiation strategies to improve closure rates and handle objections confidently. Understanding Product Benefits and Customer Needs To effectively sell, you must understand not just your product’s features but likewise how those features translate into benefits for your customers. This comprehension is essential during professional selling skills training. By identifying specific customer pain points, you can tailor your sales pitch to address their needs directly. Statistics reveal that 68% of buyers value sellers who demonstrate problem-solving abilities. A strong grasp of product benefits allows you to articulate clear value propositions, which can boost retention rates by 25%-60%. Training should emphasize the difference between features and benefits, ensuring you connect product attributes to customer desires. Regularly updating your product knowledge based on customer feedback and market trends keeps you relevant and effective in meeting evolving expectations. Developing Active Listening and Empathy Skills Active listening and empathy are crucial skills in sales that can greatly improve your ability to connect with customers. Research shows that active listening boosts sales effectiveness by 70%, as it requires you to fully concentrate on the speaker. In addition, empathy helps you comprehend customer needs, nurturing trust that can lead to a 50% increase in customer retention. During sales skills training, practice reflective listening techniques, like paraphrasing customer statements, to clarify comprehension and avoid miscommunications. Use open-ended questions to encourage deeper conversations, revealing valuable insights about customer preferences. By enhancing these skills, you can expect a 25% improvement in team performance metrics, making active listening and empathy critical components of successful sales strategies. Emphasizing Adaptability in a Dynamic Market In today’s fast-paced sales environment, being adaptable isn’t just beneficial; it’s essential for success. As a sales professional, you must adjust your strategies to align with dynamic market conditions. With 68% of buyers valuing problem-solving abilities, demonstrating adaptability can set you apart. The ever-changing terrain, driven by increased customer knowledge and technology, demands continuous refinement of your approach. You’ll find that 59% of top performers benefit from ongoing coaching, reinforcing the importance of adaptability in the sales training process. Embracing new methodologies and tools is critical since companies that prioritize adaptability often outpace competitors. Building Strong Relationships for Long-term Engagement Strong relationships serve as the foundation for long-term customer engagement and business success. By honing your professional selling skills, you can build trust and improve interactions. Remember, 68% of buyers value sellers who demonstrate problem-solving abilities; this boosts their trust in you. Establish rapport through active listening and empathy, which leads to higher satisfaction and loyalty. Providing high-quality service and prompt follow-up can differentiate you from competitors, nurturing lasting relationships. Regular communication and networking keep these connections strong, opening doors for referrals and repeat business. Focus on comprehending your customers’ needs and preferences through personalized engagement. This approach not just boosts retention rates but additionally drives revenue growth for your business, ensuring sustainable success. Incorporating Effective Communication and Negotiation Strategies Building strong relationships with customers is just the beginning; effective communication and negotiation strategies are crucial for enhancing those connections. In your sales strategy training, focus on active listening to fully understand customer needs, which can increase sales performance by 20-25%. Incorporate open-ended questions during conversations, encouraging deeper engagement and gathering insights for customized solutions. When negotiating, aim for mutually beneficial outcomes, improving closure rates by up to 30% by promoting collaboration and trust. Enhancing emotional intelligence through training helps you empathize with customers, a quality appreciated by 68% of buyers. Role-playing negotiation scenarios can markedly boost your confidence and effectiveness, with practitioners reporting a 70% improvement in handling objections and closing deals compared to traditional methods. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the 7 Essential Selling Skills Every Sales Person Should Know? Every salesperson should master seven important skills: product knowledge, which allows you to explain features and benefits clearly; active listening, to understand customer needs; and persuasiveness, which helps influence decisions ethically. Furthermore, time management is critical for prioritizing tasks, whereas negotiation skills enable you to find common ground. Finally, adaptability is essential for adjusting your approach based on customer feedback, ensuring you meet various challenges effectively in a dynamic sales environment. What Are the Five Methods of Sales Training? You can improve your sales skills through five effective training methods. First, instructor-led training encourages group discussions and immediate feedback. Second, role-playing lets you practice in realistic scenarios. Third, online training modules provide flexibility and improve retention rates considerably. Fourth, workshops and seminars focus on specific skills, offering hands-on experience. Finally, on-the-job training allows you to apply your knowledge in real-world settings as you receive guidance from experienced colleagues. Which Skill Is Essential for a Successful Salesperson? A vital skill for a successful salesperson is effective communication. You need to articulate your value propositions clearly and cultivate trust with customers. Active listening is likewise important; it helps you understand customer needs, setting you apart from competitors. Furthermore, being persuasive can greatly improve your closing rates, whereas emotional intelligence allows for better relationships. Finally, adaptability enables you to respond effectively to market changes, ensuring long-term success in sales. Which Method Is Effective for Improving Sales Training? An effective method for improving sales training is a blended learning approach, combining in-person and virtual sessions. This method boosts retention rates considerably. Furthermore, role-playing and simulation-based training help you practice real-life scenarios, enhancing your confidence. Continuous feedback and coaching are essential, as nearly 60% of top performers benefit from regular guidance. Setting SMART goals provides clear direction, whereas reviewing training programs based on team feedback keeps the content relevant and effective. Conclusion Incorporating these five crucial techniques into your sales skills training can lead to significant improvements in your performance. By grasping product benefits, developing active listening, emphasizing adaptability, building strong relationships, and perfecting communication and negotiation strategies, you can better meet customer needs and respond to market changes. This all-encompassing approach not just improves sales effectiveness but additionally nurtures lasting customer engagement, driving overall success in your sales efforts. Focus on these areas to boost your skills and results. Image via Google Gemini This article, "5 Essential Techniques for Sales Skills Training Success" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Having previously been tested as an experimental flag, Google Chrome's Split View feature is now rolling out in the stable version of the browser (version 142). It doesn't seem to be live for everyone at the same time, but some people are seeing it. (I've got it in Chrome on my Mac, but not yet on Windows.) To check you're on the latest version of Chrome, click the three dots (top right) in a browser tab, then choose Settings and About Chrome. If an update is available, it'll be downloaded, and you can restart your browser to apply it. If you're running the latest version of Chrome and still don't see Split View, you can either wait for the feature to reach you or switch the flag on. Type "chrome://flags/#side-by-side" into your browser address bar and hit Enter, then enable the feature and restart your browser. You should then have Split View. It works exactly as you might guess from the name: Split View enables you to have two sites or apps open in the same tab, so you can, for example, dive deep into a Lifehacker article while also keeping an eye on social media. It works much better than just having two Chrome windows up side-by-side in Windows or macOS. How to create a Split ViewThere are a couple of ways to create a Split View. One is to right-click on a tab header and then choose Add tab to new split view from the menu that pops up: The selected tab takes up one half of the Chrome window, and in the other half you can choose another open tab (if there aren't any other open tabs, you'll see the New Tab page). The other method is to click and drag an open tab (using its header), or a web link, to the far left or far right of another tab—you should then see a small space open, with a Create split view label. Getting the dragging and positioning right can take a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty straightforward. Look for a new Split View feature in Chrome. Credit: Lifehacker After that, the split tab works more or less like any other normal tab. You can drag it into a different position or into a different window, and you can right-click on it to access the tab options (for muting or pinning, for example). The split view tab will have two small "x" icons on it, for closing either half of the tab separately—to close them both, right-click on the tab and choose Close. Whenever you're in a split tab, you'll see a new icon on the Chrome toolbar, which you can click to access related features: You can separate the two views, close the left or the right view, or swap the views over from this toolbar button. The same options are available if you right-click on the Split View tab header. How you can use Split ViewSplit view can help any time you need two webpages or web apps on screen at once. One of Google's own suggestions is keeping a document open while you're on a video call, so you can make notes more easily. It's going to work well for any kind of research or note-taking where you're looking something up and then having to write about it. It may also be less than ideal for our attention spans, because you can load up a video on one half of your Split View, and then scroll through social media on the other half. Two sites open in Split View. Credit: Lifehacker You can adjust the sizes of each pane by dragging the divider in the middle, though you are limited overall by the size of the Chrome window. You're also able to switch to different websites within a Split View by typing into the address bar as normal—just make sure you've selected the right half of the pane first. The same sort of effect has long been possible in Windows and macOS by snapping two Chrome windows to each side of the screen, but there's something more convenient and straightforward about having two pages up in the same tab. I can see this being something I make use of a lot, especially on an ultrawide monitor. View the full article

The Senate passed legislation Monday to reopen the government, bringing the longest shutdown in history closer to an end as a small group of Democrats ratified a deal with Republicans despite searing criticism from within their party. The 41-day shutdown could last a few more days as members of the House, which has been on recess since mid-September, return to Washington to vote on the legislation. President Donald The President has signaled support for the bill, saying Monday that “we’re going to be opening up our country very quickly.” The final Senate vote, 60-40, broke a grueling stalemate that lasted more than six weeks as Democrats demanded that Republicans negotiate with them to extend health care tax credits that expire Jan. 1. The Republicans never did, and five moderate Democrats eventually switched their votes as federal food aid was delayed, airport delays worsened and hundreds of thousands of federal workers continued to go unpaid. House Speaker Mike Johnson urged lawmakers to start returning to Washington “right now” given shutdown-related travel delays, but an official notice issued after the Senate vote said the earliest the House will vote is Wednesday afternoon. “It appears our long national nightmare is finally coming to an end,” said Johnson, who has kept the House out of session since mid-September, when the House passed a bill to continue government funding. How the stalemate ended After weeks of negotiations, A group of three former governors — New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine — agreed to vote to advance three bipartisan annual spending bills and extend the rest of government funding until late January. Republicans promised to hold a vote to extend the health care subsidies by mid-December, but there was no guarantee of success. Shaheen said Monday that “this was the option on the table” after Republicans had refused to budge. “We had reached a point where I think a number of us believed that the shutdown had been very effective in raising the concern about health care,” she said, and the promise for a future vote “gives us an opportunity to continue to address that going forward.” The legislation includes a reversal of the mass firings of federal workers by the The President administration since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. It also protects federal workers against further layoffs through January and guarantees they are paid once the shutdown is over. In addition to Shaheen, King and Hassan, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, home to tens of thousands of federal workers, also voted Sunday in favor of moving forward on the agreement. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman and Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen also voted yes. All other Democrats, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, voted against it. The moderates had expected a larger number of Democrats to vote with them as 10 to 12 Democratic senators had been part of the negotiations. But in the end, only five switched their votes — the exact number that Republicans needed. King, Cortez Masto and Fetterman had already been voting to open the government since Oct. 1. Many Democrats call the vote a “mistake” Schumer, who received blowback from his party in March when he voted to keep the government open, said he could not “in good faith” support it after meeting with his caucus for more than two hours on Sunday. “We will not give up the fight,” Schumer said, adding that Democrats have now “sounded the alarm” on health care. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats, said giving up the fight was a “horrific mistake.” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., agreed, saying that voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in last week’s elections were urging them to “hold firm.” House Democrats swiftly criticized the Senate. Texas Rep. Greg Casar, the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said a deal that doesn’t reduce health care costs is a “betrayal” of millions of Americans who are counting on Democrats to fight. Others gave Schumer a nod of support. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries had criticized Schumer in March after his vote to keep the government open. But he praised the Senate Democratic leader on Monday and expressed support for his leadership throughout the shutdown. “The American people know we are on the right side of this fight,” Jeffries said Monday, pointing to Tuesday’s election results. Health care debate ahead It’s unclear whether the two parties would be able to find any common ground on the health care subsidies before a promised December vote in the Senate. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he will not commit to bringing it up in his chamber. On Monday, Johnson said House Republicans have always been open to voting to reform what he called the “unaffordable care act” but again did not say if they would vote on the subsidies. Some Republicans have said they are open to extending the COVID-19-era tax credits as premiums could skyrocket for millions of people, but they also want new limits on who can receive the subsidies. Some argue that the tax dollars for the plans should be routed through individuals. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins said Monday that she’s supportive of extending the tax credits with changes, like new income caps. Some Democrats have signaled they could be open to that idea. “We do need to act by the end of the year, and that is exactly what the majority leader has promised,” Collins said. Other Republicans, including The President, have used the debate to renew their yearslong criticism of the law and called for it to be scrapped or overhauled. In a possible preview, the Senate voted 47-53 along party lines Monday not to extend the subsidies for a year. Majority Republicans allowed the vote as part of a separate deal with Democrats to speed up votes and send the legislation to the House. Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Michelle Price and Stephen Groves contributed to this report. —Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking, Associated Press View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon just marked down the Nothing Phone 3 to $678.99, its lowest price yet, according to price trackers. That’s about $120 off the usual $799 tag for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage base model. Nothing Phone 3 Cell Phone $678.99 at Amazon $799.00 Save $120.01 Get Deal Get Deal $678.99 at Amazon $799.00 Save $120.01 It’s the company’s most ambitious phone to date, moving confidently into flagship territory while keeping intact its trademark minimalist aesthetic. This PCMag review calls it “the company’s best yet,” awarding it an "excellent" rating for performance, design, and camera improvements. The Phone 3 keeps Nothing’s signature transparent back, now redesigned with a Glyph Matrix—a ring of 489 micro-LEDs that light up for notifications, timers, and even playful “Glyph Toys” like a mini clock or a spin-the-bottle game. It’s a fun detail, though one you’ll probably either love or switch off entirely. The phone feels sturdy, built from 100% recycled aluminum and shielded by Gorilla Glass 7i, with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. Its 6.67-inch AMOLED display is sharp and bright, with a 2,800 x 1,260 resolution and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate that keeps scrolling and animations smooth. Under the hood, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chip powers through everything from multitasking to heavy games like Genshin Impact without a hitch. The 5,150mAh battery lasted about 15 hours in PCMag’s rundown test and supports 65W wired charging, 15W wireless charging, and reverse charging for smaller devices. Camera performance is another step forward for Nothing. The triple 50MP setup covers wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto ranges, producing images with crisp detail and accurate colors. The software side feels clean, too—Nothing OS 3.5, layered on Android 15, keeps things simple without unnecessary clutter. It’s not loaded with AI features like some rivals, but it gets the basics right, offering five years of Android updates and seven years of security patches (which is reassuring longevity). The only major drawbacks are the lack of mmWave 5G support and the still-limited AI integration, which might bother future-focused users. But overall, the Nothing Phone 3 manages to feel refreshing in a market where everything looks the same. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 2 Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $169.99 (List Price $249.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $329.00 (List Price $349.00) Shark AV2501AE AI XL Hepa- Safe Self-Emptying Base Robot Vacuum — $297.99 (List Price $649.99) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — $24.99 (List Price $49.99) Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) — $69.99 (List Price $139.99) Sony WH-1000XM5 — $328.00 (List Price $399.99) Fitbit Versa 4 Fitness Smartwatch (Black) — $199.95 (List Price $199.95) Blink Outdoor 4 1080p Wireless Security Camera (5-Pack) — $159.99 (List Price $399.99) Google Pixel 9 128GB Unlocked 6.9" OLED Smartphone (Obsidian) — $544.98 (List Price $799.00) Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus 1080p Security Camera (White) — $99.99 (List Price $179.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Thanks to the magical maths of AI, what the chipmaker loses on one hand it may gain with the otherView the full article

The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history appears to be nearing an end, but not without leaving a mark on an already struggling economy. About 1.25 million federal workers haven’t been paid since October 1. Thousands of flights have been canceled, a trend that is expected to continue this week even as Congress moves toward reopening the government. Government contract awards have slowed and some food aid recipients have seen their benefits interrupted. Most of the lost economic activity will be recovered when the government reopens, as federal workers will receive back pay. But some canceled flights won’t be retaken, missed restaurant meals won’t be made up, and some postponed purchases will end up not happening at all. “Short-lived shutdowns are usually invisible in the data, but this one will leave a lasting mark,” Gregory Daco, chief economist at accounting giant EY said, “both because of its record length and the growing disruptions to welfare programs and travel.” The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that a six-week shutdown will reduce growth in this year’s fourth quarter by about 1.5 percentage points. That would cut growth by half from the third quarter. The reopening should boost first-quarter growth next year by 2.2 percentage points, the CBO projected, but about $11 billion in economic activity will be permanently lost. The previous longest government shutdown, in 2018-2019, lasted 35 days but only partially shut the government because many agencies had been fully funded. It only nicked the economy by about 0.02% of GDP, the CBO said then. The current shutdown is adding to the economy’s existing challenges, which include sluggish hiring, stubbornly elevated inflation, and President Donald The President’s tariffs, which have caused uncertainty for many businesses. Still, few economists foresee a recession. About 650,000 federal workers didn’t work during the shutdown, which will likely boost the unemployment rate by about 0.4 percentage points in October, or to 4.7% from 4.3% in August, when the last report was released. Those workers would all then be counted as employed once the government reopens. Here are the ways the government closure is weighing on the economy: Missed paychecks All told, federal workers will have missed about $16 billion in wages by mid-November, the CBO estimates. That has meant less spending at stores, restaurants, and likely reduced holiday travel. Large purchases will probably be postponed, slowing the broader economy. The President had threatened during the shutdown to not provide back pay but the deal struck in Congress would replace those lost wages once the government reopens. The shutdown has added to the Washington, D.C. area’s economic woes, where the unemployment rate was already 6% before the shutdown, after The President’s cuts to the federal workforce this spring caused job losses. While the Washington, D.C. area—including the nearby suburbs in Virginia and Maryland—has the highest concentration of federal workers, most live and work outside of the nation’s capital. Federal workers make up about 5.5% of Maryland’s workforce, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. But they also comprise 2.9% of New Mexico’s workers, 2.6% of Oklahoma’s, and 3.8% of Alaska’s. Then there are the federal contractors. Bernard Yaros, an economist at Oxford Economics, estimates they could total as many as 5.2 million, and they are not guaranteed back pay once the shutdown ends. Flight disruptions Airlines scrapped more than 2,000 flights by Monday evening after canceling 5,500 since Friday on orders from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is seeking to reduce the burden on overworked air traffic controllers, who have now missed two paychecks. Even before the flight cancellations, Tourism Economics, an economic consulting firm, estimated that the shutdown would reduce travel spending by $63 million a day, which means a six-week standoff would cost the travel industry $2.6 billion. The canceled flights also mean less business for hotels, restaurants, and taxi drivers. And federal employees have already pulled the plug on upcoming trips, according to Tourism Economics, which may not be able to be rescheduled even when the government does reopen. Consumer sentiment The shutdown has worsened Americans’ outlook on the broader economy. Declining consumer sentiment can over time reduce spending and slow growth, though in recent years Americans have kept shopping even when their outlooks turned grim. Consumer sentiment dropped to a three-year low and close to the lowest point ever recorded in a survey by the University of Michigan, reported Friday, with pessimism over personal finances and anticipated business conditions weighing on Americans. The November survey showed the index of consumer sentiment at 50.4, down a startling 6.2% from last month and a plunge of nearly 30% from a year ago. Federal spending While the shutdown hasn’t cut off all federal government spending, it has reduced purchases of equipment and has cut off the issuance of new contracts. Yaros estimates that about $800 million in new contracts were at risk of not being awarded each day of the shutdown. “The federal award spigot has all but turned off at the Department of Defense, NASA, and the Department of Homeland Security,” Yaros wrote. SNAP benefits The shutdown delayed the payment of $8 billion in monthly SNAP food aid to 42 million recipients in November, creating a significant financial disruption for many households that likely reduced spending. Some states have managed to pay full benefits for this month, though the The President administration is still fighting over the issue in court. The deal currently under consideration in Congress to reopen the government includes full funding of SNAP benefits. Interest rate cuts The government shutdown cut off the flow of economic data on unemployment, inflation, and retail spending that the Federal Reserve depends on to monitor the economy’s health. Even as the government reopens, some of that data will still be delayed. As a result, the Fed may not deliver a third interest rate cut at its December meeting, which was widely expected before the shutdown. “What do you do if you’re driving in the fog? You slow down,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference late last month. Powell said the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee is deeply divided over whether to reduce its key rate, partly because the economy’s health is unusually cloudy right now. The government has missed two monthly jobs reports and the October inflation data, scheduled to be published Thursday, will likely never be issued. Powell said a rate cut in December was not a “foregone conclusion” and added that the lack of data could contribute to a decision by the Fed to skip a rate cut at its next meeting December 9 and 10. Fewer rate cuts could discourage borrowing and spending and weigh on the economy in the coming months. —Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer View the full article

When starting your LLC, obtaining Articles of Organization is a crucial step in establishing your business legally. This document outlines fundamental information, such as your business name, address, purpose, and registered agent. Knowing how to navigate the filing process can save you time and guarantee compliance with state regulations. So, let’s explore what you need to prepare and the steps to successfully file your Articles of Organization. Key Takeaways Choose a unique LLC name that complies with state regulations and is not already in use. Complete the Articles of Organization form with necessary information like address, purpose, and registered agent. Submit the completed form and required filing fee to the appropriate state agency for processing. Wait for the processing time, typically one to two weeks, to receive your certificate of formation. Consider creating an Operating Agreement and obtaining an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS post-filing. What Are Articles of Organization? Articles of Organization serve as the foundational documents for establishing a limited liability company (LLC) in your state. These official documents are filed with the state to secure legal recognition and liability protection for your business. They typically include crucial information such as the LLC’s name, principal address, purpose, and the registered agent’s name and address. To get Articles of Organization for an LLC, you’ll need to check your state’s specific requirements, as filing fees usually range from $50 to $300, and processing times can vary from one to two weeks. Once approved, you’ll receive a certificate of formation, confirming your LLC’s legal status and allowing you to enjoy benefits like limited liability protection and pass-through taxation. Information Required to File Articles of Organization When you file Articles of Organization, you’ll need to gather vital information to guarantee a smooth process. This includes the LLC’s name and principal address, details about your registered agent, and a brief statement outlining the business purpose. Each of these components plays a significant role in your LLC’s formation and compliance with state regulations. LLC Name and Address Choosing the right name and providing an accurate address are vital steps in filing your Articles of Organization for an LLC. Your LLC name must be unique and compliant with state regulations, which means including “Limited Liability Company,” “LLC,” or “L.L.C.” in the title. Before filing, conduct a name availability search through the Texas LLC lookup to confirm your desired name isn’t already taken. Moreover, you’ll need to provide a physical address for your LLC; it can be a home office but can’t be a P.O. Box. This address will be where legal documents are sent, so it’s important to verify accuracy. Finally, specify the purpose of your LLC in broad terms for the articles of organization Florida. Registered Agent Information A registered agent plays a crucial role in the formation and operation of your LLC, as they’re responsible for receiving legal documents and official communications on your behalf. When filing your Articles of Organization, you must include specific registered agent information, such as their name and physical address. Remember, the registered agent must have a physical address in Florida; P.O. Boxes aren’t allowed. This agent can be an LLC member, a professional registered agent service, or an attorney, but not the LLC itself. Maintaining a registered agent is legally required for your LLC, ensuring you receive important documents in a timely manner and remain compliant with state regulations. Make sure you choose wisely for your Florida registered agent LLC. Business Purpose Statement After securing your registered agent, it’s time to focus on another key component of your Articles of Organization: the business purpose statement. This statement describes your LLC’s business activities and can be broad to cover various operations. Here’s what to reflect on when drafting it: General Purpose: Most states allow a simple phrase like “to engage in any lawful business.” Specificity: A detailed purpose can clarify your objectives to regulators and investors. State Requirements: Some states demand more specific information, especially for regulated industries. Alignment: Confirm your purpose statement matches your business name and intended activities to avoid compliance issues. Refer to a limited liability company articles of organization example for guidance. Steps to Prepare and File Articles of Organization To prepare and file your Articles of Organization, start by choosing a unique business name that meets state requirements. Next, complete all necessary filing requirements, which typically include filling out the appropriate form and gathering any additional documentation needed. Once you’ve prepared everything, submit your documents to the designated state agency along with the required filing fee to officially establish your LLC. Choose Unique Business Name Choosing a unique business name is a crucial step in preparing to file your Articles of Organization. To guarantee your name meets the necessary criteria, follow these steps: Include “Limited Liability Company,” “LLC,” or “L.L.C.” in your title. Conduct a name availability check using the Texas LLC lookup tool to confirm your desired name isn’t already in use. If you’re unprepared to file, reserve your name for up to 120 days for a $40 fee. Avoid restricted terms, like “bank” or “insurance,” to prevent complications during the filing process. A well-chosen business name won’t just comply with state regulations but will also improve your brand recognition, fulfilling Florida requirements and providing a solid articles of organization example. Complete Filing Requirements Once you’ve chosen a unique business name, it’s time to tackle the filing requirements needed to establish your LLC formally. First, verify your name complies with Florida requirements, including the inclusion of “LLC,” “L.L.C.,” or “Limited Liability Company.” Next, gather crucial information such as your LLC’s principal address, a general statement of purpose, and the name and address of your designated registered agent. Then, complete the Articles of Organization form available on your state’s Secretary of State website. Make certain all required fields are filled accurately to avoid delays. Finally, submit the completed Articles of Organization along with the filing fee to the appropriate state office, either online, by mail, or in person. Submit Required Documents Before you file your Articles of Organization, it’s essential to gather all necessary documents and information to guarantee a smooth submission process. Here’s what you need to do: Choose a name for your LLC that complies with Texas naming rules, including “Limited Liability Company,” “LLC,” or “L.L.C.” Prepare your LLC’s address and purpose, ensuring clarity and accuracy. Designate a registered agent and include their details, as required by state regulations. Submit the Articles of Organization to the Texas Secretary of State, either online or via mail, along with the $300 filing fee. Following these steps will help you understand how to create an LLC in Florida and how to get articles of organization efficiently. What to Expect After Filing Your Articles of Organization After you file your Articles of Organization, you can expect to receive a certificate from the state, confirming that your LLC is officially established. This process typically takes 12-14 business days for expedited filings or 70-72 days for non-expedited filings. With this certificate, you can obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS, crucial for tax purposes and hiring employees. Depending on your industry and location, you may additionally need to apply for specific business licenses or permits. Even though it’s not legally required in Texas, creating an Operating Agreement is advisable to outline members’ rights and responsibilities. Amending Your Articles of Organization Amending your Articles of Organization is essential when your LLC experiences changes in its name, address, management structure, or registered agent. Here’s how to proceed: Identify the changes: Determine what information needs to be updated, such as your Florida resident agent or LLC name. Obtain the amendment form: Visit your state’s business filing website to download the correct amendment form. Complete and submit: Fill out the form accurately, ensuring compliance with state laws, then submit it along with the necessary filing fee—typically around $15 in Texas. Keep records: After filing, retain the confirmation as it becomes part of your LLC’s official documentation. Regularly review your Articles to avoid compliance issues. Resources for Assistance With Articles of Organization When maneuvering the process of filing your Articles of Organization, where can you turn for reliable assistance? Online legal services like LegalZoom or BizFilings offer step-by-step help, including sample articles of organization and supplementary services like registered agent support. Your state’s Secretary of State website is another vital resource, providing specific forms and filing instructions for compliance with local laws. Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) provide free consultations to guide you through the process, whereas hiring a business attorney can guarantee all legal requirements are met. Furthermore, consider attending community workshops hosted by local chambers of commerce, which often cover how to get an LLC in Florida and the necessary steps to file your Articles of Organization effectively. Frequently Asked Questions How Do I Obtain My Articles of Organization? To obtain your Articles of Organization, start by visiting your state’s Secretary of State website. There, you can find the necessary filing forms and requirements. Before submitting, check that your LLC name complies with state regulations through a name availability search. Complete the form with details like your LLC’s name and registered agent, then submit it along with the required filing fee. Once processed, you’ll receive confirmation of your LLC’s formation. Conclusion In conclusion, obtaining your Articles of Organization is a straightforward process that involves selecting a unique business name, gathering necessary information, and filing the appropriate forms with your state agency. Once submitted and approved, you’ll receive confirmation of your LLC’s legal status, enabling you to operate your business. If needed, don’t hesitate to seek resources or professional assistance to guarantee accuracy throughout the process. Following these steps will help you establish your LLC efficiently and effectively. Image via Google Gemini This article, "How to Get Articles of Organization: A Step-by-Step Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

When starting your LLC, obtaining Articles of Organization is a crucial step in establishing your business legally. This document outlines fundamental information, such as your business name, address, purpose, and registered agent. Knowing how to navigate the filing process can save you time and guarantee compliance with state regulations. So, let’s explore what you need to prepare and the steps to successfully file your Articles of Organization. Key Takeaways Choose a unique LLC name that complies with state regulations and is not already in use. Complete the Articles of Organization form with necessary information like address, purpose, and registered agent. Submit the completed form and required filing fee to the appropriate state agency for processing. Wait for the processing time, typically one to two weeks, to receive your certificate of formation. Consider creating an Operating Agreement and obtaining an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS post-filing. What Are Articles of Organization? Articles of Organization serve as the foundational documents for establishing a limited liability company (LLC) in your state. These official documents are filed with the state to secure legal recognition and liability protection for your business. They typically include crucial information such as the LLC’s name, principal address, purpose, and the registered agent’s name and address. To get Articles of Organization for an LLC, you’ll need to check your state’s specific requirements, as filing fees usually range from $50 to $300, and processing times can vary from one to two weeks. Once approved, you’ll receive a certificate of formation, confirming your LLC’s legal status and allowing you to enjoy benefits like limited liability protection and pass-through taxation. Information Required to File Articles of Organization When you file Articles of Organization, you’ll need to gather vital information to guarantee a smooth process. This includes the LLC’s name and principal address, details about your registered agent, and a brief statement outlining the business purpose. Each of these components plays a significant role in your LLC’s formation and compliance with state regulations. LLC Name and Address Choosing the right name and providing an accurate address are vital steps in filing your Articles of Organization for an LLC. Your LLC name must be unique and compliant with state regulations, which means including “Limited Liability Company,” “LLC,” or “L.L.C.” in the title. Before filing, conduct a name availability search through the Texas LLC lookup to confirm your desired name isn’t already taken. Moreover, you’ll need to provide a physical address for your LLC; it can be a home office but can’t be a P.O. Box. This address will be where legal documents are sent, so it’s important to verify accuracy. Finally, specify the purpose of your LLC in broad terms for the articles of organization Florida. Registered Agent Information A registered agent plays a crucial role in the formation and operation of your LLC, as they’re responsible for receiving legal documents and official communications on your behalf. When filing your Articles of Organization, you must include specific registered agent information, such as their name and physical address. Remember, the registered agent must have a physical address in Florida; P.O. Boxes aren’t allowed. This agent can be an LLC member, a professional registered agent service, or an attorney, but not the LLC itself. Maintaining a registered agent is legally required for your LLC, ensuring you receive important documents in a timely manner and remain compliant with state regulations. Make sure you choose wisely for your Florida registered agent LLC. Business Purpose Statement After securing your registered agent, it’s time to focus on another key component of your Articles of Organization: the business purpose statement. This statement describes your LLC’s business activities and can be broad to cover various operations. Here’s what to reflect on when drafting it: General Purpose: Most states allow a simple phrase like “to engage in any lawful business.” Specificity: A detailed purpose can clarify your objectives to regulators and investors. State Requirements: Some states demand more specific information, especially for regulated industries. Alignment: Confirm your purpose statement matches your business name and intended activities to avoid compliance issues. Refer to a limited liability company articles of organization example for guidance. Steps to Prepare and File Articles of Organization To prepare and file your Articles of Organization, start by choosing a unique business name that meets state requirements. Next, complete all necessary filing requirements, which typically include filling out the appropriate form and gathering any additional documentation needed. Once you’ve prepared everything, submit your documents to the designated state agency along with the required filing fee to officially establish your LLC. Choose Unique Business Name Choosing a unique business name is a crucial step in preparing to file your Articles of Organization. To guarantee your name meets the necessary criteria, follow these steps: Include “Limited Liability Company,” “LLC,” or “L.L.C.” in your title. Conduct a name availability check using the Texas LLC lookup tool to confirm your desired name isn’t already in use. If you’re unprepared to file, reserve your name for up to 120 days for a $40 fee. Avoid restricted terms, like “bank” or “insurance,” to prevent complications during the filing process. A well-chosen business name won’t just comply with state regulations but will also improve your brand recognition, fulfilling Florida requirements and providing a solid articles of organization example. Complete Filing Requirements Once you’ve chosen a unique business name, it’s time to tackle the filing requirements needed to establish your LLC formally. First, verify your name complies with Florida requirements, including the inclusion of “LLC,” “L.L.C.,” or “Limited Liability Company.” Next, gather crucial information such as your LLC’s principal address, a general statement of purpose, and the name and address of your designated registered agent. Then, complete the Articles of Organization form available on your state’s Secretary of State website. Make certain all required fields are filled accurately to avoid delays. Finally, submit the completed Articles of Organization along with the filing fee to the appropriate state office, either online, by mail, or in person. Submit Required Documents Before you file your Articles of Organization, it’s essential to gather all necessary documents and information to guarantee a smooth submission process. Here’s what you need to do: Choose a name for your LLC that complies with Texas naming rules, including “Limited Liability Company,” “LLC,” or “L.L.C.” Prepare your LLC’s address and purpose, ensuring clarity and accuracy. Designate a registered agent and include their details, as required by state regulations. Submit the Articles of Organization to the Texas Secretary of State, either online or via mail, along with the $300 filing fee. Following these steps will help you understand how to create an LLC in Florida and how to get articles of organization efficiently. What to Expect After Filing Your Articles of Organization After you file your Articles of Organization, you can expect to receive a certificate from the state, confirming that your LLC is officially established. This process typically takes 12-14 business days for expedited filings or 70-72 days for non-expedited filings. With this certificate, you can obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS, crucial for tax purposes and hiring employees. Depending on your industry and location, you may additionally need to apply for specific business licenses or permits. Even though it’s not legally required in Texas, creating an Operating Agreement is advisable to outline members’ rights and responsibilities. Amending Your Articles of Organization Amending your Articles of Organization is essential when your LLC experiences changes in its name, address, management structure, or registered agent. Here’s how to proceed: Identify the changes: Determine what information needs to be updated, such as your Florida resident agent or LLC name. Obtain the amendment form: Visit your state’s business filing website to download the correct amendment form. Complete and submit: Fill out the form accurately, ensuring compliance with state laws, then submit it along with the necessary filing fee—typically around $15 in Texas. Keep records: After filing, retain the confirmation as it becomes part of your LLC’s official documentation. Regularly review your Articles to avoid compliance issues. Resources for Assistance With Articles of Organization When maneuvering the process of filing your Articles of Organization, where can you turn for reliable assistance? Online legal services like LegalZoom or BizFilings offer step-by-step help, including sample articles of organization and supplementary services like registered agent support. Your state’s Secretary of State website is another vital resource, providing specific forms and filing instructions for compliance with local laws. Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) provide free consultations to guide you through the process, whereas hiring a business attorney can guarantee all legal requirements are met. Furthermore, consider attending community workshops hosted by local chambers of commerce, which often cover how to get an LLC in Florida and the necessary steps to file your Articles of Organization effectively. Frequently Asked Questions How Do I Obtain My Articles of Organization? To obtain your Articles of Organization, start by visiting your state’s Secretary of State website. There, you can find the necessary filing forms and requirements. Before submitting, check that your LLC name complies with state regulations through a name availability search. Complete the form with details like your LLC’s name and registered agent, then submit it along with the required filing fee. Once processed, you’ll receive confirmation of your LLC’s formation. Conclusion In conclusion, obtaining your Articles of Organization is a straightforward process that involves selecting a unique business name, gathering necessary information, and filing the appropriate forms with your state agency. Once submitted and approved, you’ll receive confirmation of your LLC’s legal status, enabling you to operate your business. If needed, don’t hesitate to seek resources or professional assistance to guarantee accuracy throughout the process. Following these steps will help you establish your LLC efficiently and effectively. Image via Google Gemini This article, "How to Get Articles of Organization: A Step-by-Step Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Planning out what you’re going to do is huge for productivity, which is why SMART goals (and their alternatives) are so popular throughout the working world. Another important—but perhaps more overlooked—element of the productivity process is the assessment, however. Reviewing what you did is just as integral as planning how you’ll do it—in reviewing, you get a chance to plan better (and improve!) for next time, while also carving out space to appreciate what you did well—also a major motivator! What is an after-action review? An after-action review, or AAR, is a way to measure the results of your performance and improve on your processes. It was first introduced by the U.S. Army to give units feedback after they had collective training exercises. The Army has actually released a ton of literature on it, but all you need to know is that when carried out right, it’s standardized, done the same way every time, and useful for building a framework that can enhance future labor. If you do end up diving into that mountain of literature on the AAR, you’ll notice that it was designed for units or teams and is typically conducted by a facilitator who encourages members to discuss each part of the effort with the group. But it can be useful for individuals, too, since the process of completing an AAR is standardized and easy to follow. Build time into your schedule to conduct your own personal AAR after completing a major project, whether at work or in your personal life. You can complete it at the end of every week, or once you've finished a specific project. Either way, you'll want to keep notes of these reviews, whether in your planner or in a document you can add to a larger file about the project, like a single source of truth (SSOT). You may feel silly "reviewing" work you just completed, but the arguments for it—and the potential benefits—are substantial. First, if you're honest with yourself about what went wrong, you can figure out why the parts that didn't work were inefficient or ineffective, then seek solutions. In identifying what went well, you can set plans to replicate your process in the future, and find a little motivation in a job well done. An AAR (or something similar) is an integral part of many popular productivity techniques, including Getting Things Done and Agile Results. All the planning in the world doesn't matter if you never reflect on how it all went so you can improve next time around. What you should put into your after-action reviewThis is where we get into the rigid, structured process of the Army. There are four questions you’ll ask yourself when conducting your AAR and they’ll always be the same: What did I intend to accomplish? What did I do? Why did it happen the way it did? What will I do to change my strategy or execution for a better outcome next time OR how can I duplicate my success? Essentially, consider what you wanted to get done, what you actually got done, what impacted the outcome, and what you can take away for future attempts. Even running over this checklist in your head is a good practice, but writing it down is best, so you can refer back to it next time you’re in the planning stages on a new project. For instance, say you want to clean your kitchen. That’s the answer to the first question. What you really did, whether it was clean the kitchen, avoid the task, or only give it a half-effort, is the answer to the second. The third question is where you get introspective: If you did clean the kitchen, was it because you had company coming over and felt a sense of urgency, aligning your productivity with the Yerkes-Dodson Law? Or maybe it was because you needed to feel a sense of accomplishment after an otherwise unproductive week, but you were so burned out that you didn't do a great job. If you didn’t clean, was it because you felt overwhelmed? Did you get too busy? Did you lack the right tools for the job? Once you’ve established your reasons, you can build them into the answer to the fourth question, writing something like, “I will clean my kitchen weekly to make sure I’m always ready for unexpected company,” “I will follow a regimented cleaning method to avoid feeling overwhelmed,” or, “I will invest in better cleaning tools to make the next attempt go smoother.” When cleaning time rolls around again, you’ll pre-plan your actions as normal, scheduling out time for the activity and setting goals. Refer back to your AAR to refresh your memory on what went right and what went wrong the last time you tried to do the task. Eventually, you’ll smooth out the issues that are preventing you from being most efficient and get more results. View the full article

Shares in CoreWeave Inc are sinking this morning after the company revealed its third-quarter 2025 results yesterday. While the New Jersey-based AI infrastructure firm more than doubled its revenue from the same quarter a year earlier, it also revised down its full fiscal 2025 forecast, sending its stock price tumbling. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? Yesterday, AI infrastructure company CoreWeave announced financial results for its Q3 2025, which ended on September 30. There was some good news for the quarter, including revenue of nearly $1.4 billion (up 134% year over year) and a revenue backlog of $55.6 billion (up 271% YoY). Revenue backlog is a metric that includes future revenue that CoreWeave expects from existing client deals. CoreWeave’s main business is leasing AI hardware—mainly servers powered by Nvidia’s AI GPUs—to AI software companies. Some of CoreWeave’s most prominent customers include OpenAI and Meta. However, that means CoreWeave’s future growth depends on two primary factors: growing its client base and building massive data centers to house advanced AI servers to meet client demands. It’s that latter factor that has caused CoreWeave’s stock price problems today. Data center delay necessitates revised 2025 forecast Unfortunately for investors, when CoreWeave announced its strong Q3 2025 revenue numbers, the company also said that it was revising down its full 2025 fiscal year guidance. As noted by FXLeaders, CoreWeave said it now forecasts fiscal 2025 revenue of between $5.05 billion and $5.15 billion. The company had previously forecast fiscal 2025 revenues of up to $5.35 billion. The reduced revenue forecast is due to a data center delay. During the company’s earnings call, CEO Mike Intrator revealed that the development of a third-party data center on which CoreWeave was counting is behind schedule. “There is a problem at one data center that’s impacting us, but there are [41 data centers] in our portfolio,” Intrator said, adding that the “overwhelming majority” of the data center delay should be resolved within the company’s first quarter of fiscal 2026, which correlates to January through March of next year. That data center delay will impact one of the company’s clients. As reported by CNBC, CoreWeave did not name the client but said the client had agreed to keep the full value of the contract intact, meaning CoreWeave will not lose out on that revenue backlog; it will merely be delayed. In addition to revising down its full fiscal 2025 revenue forecast, CoreWeave said it expects to end 2025 with adjusted operating income of between $690 million and $720 million and capital expenditures of $12 billion to $14 billion. CoreWeave stock sinks nearly 10% Despite CoreWeave’s assertion that the data center issue isn’t a long-term problem, the delay and disappointing guidance are affecting CoreWeave’s stock (Nasdaq: CRWV),which sank in premarket trading on Tuesday. As of the time of this writing, CRWV shares are currently trading down almost 10% to $95.54 in premarket. That’s a low CRWV has not seen since September. CoreWeave went public in March of this year. Despite lowering its IPO price right before its Nasdaq debut, the company’s stock has skyrocketed in 2025. In its March IPO, CRWV stock began trading at $40 per share. By June, shares had surged to $187. As of yesterday’s market close, CRWV shares had risen more than 170% for the year. But CoreWeave’s double-digit stock decline this morning highlights the fact that investors are increasingly on edge about the valuations and lofty stock prices of companies operating in the AI space. There are growing concerns about an “AI bubble” that could mirror the Dotcom bubble of the early 2000s. CoreWeave’s data center delay isn’t a sign of any such bubble in itself, but the company’s stock price fall may indicate that investor nerves are high when AI companies don’t meet expectations. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’ve been looking to replace an aging desktop without spending a small fortune, this refurbished 2023 model HP Slim Desktop might be worth considering. It’s on sale for $189.99 on StackSocial, and while that price suggests bare-bones, it’s more suited for everyday computing than you might expect. Since it’s a refurbished “Grade A” model, it should arrive looking nearly new, with minimal signs of previous use. Plus, the one-year parts-and-labor warranty from a third party adds some reassurance. The HP Slim lives up to its name. At approximately 8 by 17 inches, it fits neatly on a small desk or shelf without occupying much space. The design looks clean and professional, blending easily into a home or office setup. You also get practical connectivity options, including HDMI and VGA ports for monitors, USB 2.0 and SuperSpeed ports for accessories, and a headphone/microphone combo jack. It runs Windows 11 Home, so you’ll get the latest Microsoft interface and features without needing to upgrade. That said, the Intel Pentium Silver J5040 chip isn’t designed for gaming or heavy editing, but it handles daily tasks such as spreadsheets, streaming, and light photo editing smoothly. With 8GB of RAM, multitasking feels effortless, and the 256GB solid-state drive helps the system boot up quickly, making a significant difference if you’re accustomed to older desktops that take forever to start up. At $189.99, this desktop is a practical choice for anyone who needs a simple computer for browsing, streaming, schoolwork, or office tasks. It’s not built for gaming or creative projects, but it’s steady and efficient for daily use. If you're looking for a compact, quiet, and easy-to-manage desktop without paying premium prices, the HP Slim Desktop makes a strong case for itself. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 2 Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $169.99 (List Price $249.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $329.00 (List Price $349.00) Shark AV2501AE AI XL Hepa- Safe Self-Emptying Base Robot Vacuum — $297.99 (List Price $649.99) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — $24.99 (List Price $49.99) Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) — $69.99 (List Price $139.99) Sony WH-1000XM5 — $328.00 (List Price $399.99) Fitbit Versa 4 Fitness Smartwatch (Black) — $199.95 (List Price $199.95) Blink Outdoor 4 1080p Wireless Security Camera (5-Pack) — $159.99 (List Price $399.99) Google Pixel 9 128GB Unlocked 6.9" OLED Smartphone (Obsidian) — $544.98 (List Price $799.00) Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus 1080p Security Camera (White) — $99.99 (List Price $179.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

You already know that scheduling your tasks—whether you’re time blocking, task batching, or theming entire days—is a major priority when it comes to being productive and getting stuff done. But when you have a bunch of tasks and don’t even know where to start with scheduling them, you need an efficient method to decide what to get on right away, what to delegate, and what to forget about. Essentially, not only do you need to know what you need to do, but you need to rank those tasks based on how crucial they are, how much time they'll take, and what you'll need to get them done. What is the Eisenhower Matrix?This assessment and productivity tool is named for former president Dwight Eisenhower, who once quoted Dr. J. Roscoe Miller’s proclamation, “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” Apologies to Dr. Miller, but the more famous man ended up with the honor of having this system named after him. Further apologies to both men, but I didn't fully get this quote when I first read it. To me, important things are pretty urgent, even if their due date is far off. Still, the quote stands as it is and the method for prioritizing tasks that sprang from it is effective, regardless of any word salad that came first. When using the Eisenhower Matrix, you draw a standard matrix with two intersecting lines that create four quadrants. The X axis represents urgency and the Y axis represents importance, so the top left quadrant will show you tasks that are both urgent and important; the top right quadrant houses tasks that are not urgent but are important; the bottom left quadrant is for tasks that are not important but are urgent; and the bottom right quadrant contains tasks that are not urgent and not important. This four-way divvying makes a lot more sense to me than the original claim that "the important are never urgent," because it recognizes that they can be. It looks like this: Credit: Lidiia Lykova / iStock via Getty Images How to use the Eisenhower MatrixYou can create your own matrix on paper or with software like draw.io or even specialty services like eisenhower.me. Next, just plug your tasks into the matrix, sorting them by their combination of urgency and importance. The real key is what you do next. The quadrants have secondary purposes beyond identifying what is urgent or important: The top left quadrant is for tasks you have to buckle down and do now. The top right quadrant is for tasks you need to schedule to do in the future. The bottom left quadrant represents tasks you need to delegate to someone capable. The bottom right quadrant shows you the tasks you can simply delete or put off. Once you see all your duties on the matrix, delegate the urgent-and-not-important ones, schedule the important-but-non-urgent ones, and get to work on your pressing, upper-right-quadrant tasks. If the deadline is seriously looming, do those first before worrying about delegation or scheduling. This visual representation of how important and urgent each responsibility is can help you figure out what to devote your time to instead of wasting time panicking about how much you think you have to get done. Use of the matrix is especially helpful for people who think visually, but don't forget that you still need to think strategically. Consider moving from the Eisenhower Matrix to a rigid to-do list, like the 1-3-5 list. That calls on you to plan your day around one major task, three medium ones, and five small ones. Obviously, those urgent and important tasks will be the first ones you try to take on, but in addition to factoring in their urgency and importance, you have to factor in the time and resources they'll take. The most urgent, important, and resource-heavy task should be your one major to-do list item. Ones that are still important but require less of you fill in those three in the middle. Five small tasks can include things that are important but not urgent and can even include the act of delegating the ones you don't have to do. The matrix is just the first step to getting to work. I'd also recommend using a system like kanban here. You need to consider the resources you have available, not just what needs doing. It might be urgent and important to clean your home, but if you don't have supplies, the more pressing task is actually going to the store. The same goes for a project you need to work on when you're waiting on a team member to send you a crucial piece of information you can't move forward without. In that case, it would make more sense to work on a less-urgent task while you wait, even if the project is technically more pressing. Using a system that takes into account the time and resources necessary to do something will help you get a clearer picture of your prioritized tasks and make your day even more productive. View the full article

President Donald The President downplayed criticism of the potential creation of a 50-year mortgage product, saying it would help more Americans afford monthly payments on homes. View the full article

Darin Fisher is a little older than the fresh-faced, newly minted PhD types you see roaming the well-appointed floors at OpenAI’s second location in San Francisco’s Mission Bay district. Before arriving at the AI super-startup, he spent 25 years working on some of the most important web browsers in the history of the web: He worked on Netscape Navigator, which helped define the early consumer internet. He worked on the popular Firefox browser at Mozilla, then went to Google, where he was a member of the Chrome team. After Google, he wanted to explore alternative browsers; he did so first at Neeva (which offered an ad-free experience), then at the Browser Company, which built the influential Arc browser. “The opportunity to come to OpenAI and infuse the AI model into all of this and to think about how that can really transform the experience was all kinds of super interesting to me,” Fisher says. In OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Atlas browser, all tasks start with a prompt to the AI models working in the background. As the user accesses the web, the chatbot, which rides along at the right of the screen, can see the content of each webpage, answer questions about it, or take actions on it. An agent mode allows the AI to perform complex, multi-step tasks like filling out forms or shopping on the user’s behalf. We asked Fisher about the choices, trade-offs, and innovations that went into designing OpenAI’s AI-first browser. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. What’s the core philosophy behind Atlas? One of the most important features of Atlas is really that chat is at the heart of it. You should start your journey with ChatGPT. Not because we work at OpenAI, but because I actually realize so many times, I kick myself “why didn’t I just ask the model first?” It would save me time. It should be the thing that’s there on autocomplete in the browser. It should be there so conveniently, effortlessly. This is the feedback we hear from people who’ve gotten to try Atlas. How did you approach the design challenge of getting people to adopt new habits? There’s this dance of the familiar as well as moments when you can optimize some things. I worked on browsers that have tried much more radical takes on browser UI, for good reasons, because there’s frustrations with a traditional browser UI. When you have all these little tabs at the top, at some point that starts to break down and you’re like, “Well, I guess I have to clean up now.” We really tried to get the basics right because people live in this thing. Not only are they used to it, but you’re working. You don’t want to be frustrated by it. One of the big challenges of browser design is tab management. Can you explain Atlas’s scrolling tabs feature? We built a classic tabs mode which works just like Chrome, but we also have a scrolling tabs mode in Atlas. What it does is it makes the tabs stay a fixed width and they start to scroll. But importantly, for this to work, new tabs enter at the left, which can be very disorienting for people. But once you get used to it, it’s kind of neat because what it means is new tabs are always opening on the left, old tabs are going off to the right. Your area of focus and what you’re working on stays on the left and all the tabs are nice and visible. What’s really cool is once you get used to this, you start accumulating a bunch of tabs and you can use the tab search feature Command+Shift+A. It’ll find your tab, and then you can zoom it back to the left. How did you approach building on Chromium while maintaining design freedom? [Chromium is a Google-developed open-source browser project that provides the foundation of several major browsers, including Google Chrome itself.] When people build on top of Chrome, you’re sort of constrained in some ways to the shape that it takes and the structure that it has. Not because you couldn’t change a lot of stuff, but because the more you change, the harder it is to update Chrome. What we really wanted to do was have our cake and eat it too. We came up with this clever way of essentially running Chrome almost unmodified, projecting the contents of the web pages into a Swift app [Swift is an Apple-developed programming language for building apps for Apple devices.] So Atlas could just be a pure Swift app, a relatively small app actually. It means we had this blank canvas on which to make anything look like anything we want. We were very free from a design perspective to rethink how so many things work. The main constraint is what people think a browser is and how they think it should work. Can you walk me through the side chat feature? When you click on links inside of ChatGPT inside of Atlas, it does this transition of moving the chat into side chat and opening the web page. This side chat . . . is now connected to the site that you’re on. You can ask questions about the site. [While shopping for couches at a retail site, for example] it could be things like, “What is the price range of your couches?” or “Who else sells something like this?” The model can go and look at the internet and tell you about all that stuff and you can just ask it a very simple question. Sometimes these websites are so cluttered too. A good example is a recipe site. You might say, “Can you just tell me the recipe?” You just ask the model to do that for you. Even on the recipe, you can be like, “I actually want to make this for four people, not six. Adjust the amounts of each portion.” When you open a new tab, you don’t immediately see the chat sidebar. You see a chat window right in the middle of the page. Why did you do it like that? We really went with this idea of one box. You should feel like it’s a simpler, cleaner experience. When we did this, we got a lot of feedback where people were like, “Where’s my URL bar?” We discovered that we could put one there—you just have to hover and then it will be there. Or if you’re a keyboard user and you did Command+L, it would activate. One of the innovations with Chrome was one box where you can enter URLs or searches. But if you go to Chrome and you open a new tab, you’ll actually see there are two boxes—one at the top and one in the middle. We’re like, “Well, can we have one instead of two?” It was remarkable that it didn’t have to actually be in your face for that to be true. Everybody was happy. Everybody has no problem finding it. Using “agent mode,” you might, for example, ask Atlas to go out and find the best deal on a plane ticket, or even go further toward a purchase. You’re definitely asking this thing to go do stuff on your behalf, but you want to feel in control too. There’s a stop button that’s very prominent. There’s a take control button. The model is tuned to understand that it should present you with results at a certain point and now you can take it to the next step, review its work, see what it’s doing. The model can open multiple web pages in the background to do its work. Also prominently, you can choose, “Do I want this to use my authentication, my cookies, or no?” [This might be your username and password at Google, and your preferences stored as cookies.] This is actually huge because maybe you just don’t trust it yet and you want to develop some trust. You want to see what it’s going to do and you want to try it out in a safe way. How do you think about ChatGPT search versus traditional search engines? Google, full stop, is amazing. It’s an amazing tool. But at the same time, it works the way it works. It works a certain way. People are used to it as the tool that it is. This AI stuff is different and it’s a different kind of interaction. What we’ve done to improve ChatGPT search capabilities inside of Atlas was not just because it was important for ChatGPT, but also because it’s kind of essential when you’re approaching it from a browser lens. Sometimes you’re typing in that box because you have high navigational intent. Like, “I want DNS for the web” or “I want to go look at a product on Amazon.” I don’t need anything else other than just get me there. Google’s outstanding at that, but ChatGPT with these capabilities does a great job at that, too. What did Sam Altman and the leadership team tell you about wanting to build a browser when they brought you in? The focus was squarely on bringing ChatGPT to more people more readily and having it be just core to that experience—realizing that in a browser traditionally you’re like Open tab, Go to ChatGPT.com. There’s just an extra clunkiness to that. The time’s right, you want a more streamlined experience, let’s go build it. Sam was super clear about that, which actually I really appreciate. This is a company that is rapidly putting out features. We’re often in the mode of “what can we do this month?” But this is an investment, because it’s not just what we’re going to do in January—it was what are we going to do in January to unlock what we could do in November? We spent all that time building a foundation and now we’re on a weekly cadence of putting out new features and new things and building on this foundation. How did you approach testing and getting feedback during development? We are an opinionated bunch, that’s for sure. But you want to validate your ideas. We had the internal population of OpenAI, which is not the most representative sample—these are really heavy tech folks. The kind of features that people are asking for internally would be things that we know from past experience might not be what everybody wants. We also brought in trusted testers. We brought in friends and family. There was this cohort of students and other cohorts—we got feedback from different folks to help inform and understand just how people experience this. We had this guiding principle that people can only learn so many things differently. You’ve got to start out with the familiar. What’s been the feedback since launch? I think we’ve gotten an enormous amount of positive feedback. There’s general excitement around these agentic browsers. Maybe some degree of people wanting to just kick the tires and see what it’s all about and maybe some level of skepticism too, but also enthusiasm, generally . . . The feedback really hasn’t been surprising at all. For example, we know that it’s a lot to ask for people’s habits to change on anything. Bringing ChatGPT front and center in the experience is a big change actually. For many people, early tech adopters, this feels very natural and they actually remark at how comfortable it feels that they’re [the browser and the AI] side by side. But I think for most people, they’re still early on that journey to be honest. What features are you working on for the future? Every week we put out a new version addressing feedback. We’ve already addressed some of the top feedback that we got. There’s a lot of stuff that was in the hopper that we paired back because we didn’t want to just go out—we wanted to go out with as polished of an experience as we could. Adding a model picker in the side chat was one—they already added that. Vertical tabs is another feature that we’re getting a lot of requests for. What was the biggest design challenge in Atlas? Thematically, probably one of the biggest arguments was just, “Is this in or out? How do you keep it simple?” Pretty soon if you’re not careful, you have the kitchen sink, you have the Swiss Army knife. You’re trying to satisfy everybody, but you satisfy nobody. You don’t want to overwhelm at the start. You want it to be familiar, easy. They [users] can do things that maybe aren’t the most efficient, but that’s okay. Then they can start to learn how to leverage more efficient ways. As a user, it keeps you in control. When I want to use chat, it’s there for me. But if I don’t want to be using chat on a web page, I don’t have to. I think that’s very important. You should feel empowered. How do you design a product that has a deep set of features but still looks simple? There’s this idea of progressive disclosure in design. [We] have a new product that can do all these things and maybe you’re really eager to try to tell everybody about it, but if when they open the product the first time, it’s telling you about all the things you can do, suddenly you’re like, “I don’t know what to even do.” Progressive disclosure can mean that as you use the product it might advertise progressively different features, but I also think of it as there’s a bunch of Easter eggs for you to discover. What do they do? They give you superpowers and help you feel like you can do better, but they aren’t in your face so you still get a product that’s approachable. Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of Atlas? This is the beginning of a journey. It’s going to continue evolving. I think it’s also going to continue evolving as ChatGPT itself evolves. All these things are being built in tandem by different teams at OpenAI. A lot of ChatGPT’s best features, including things like deep research and study mode—all of those are in Atlas too. There’s all these modes—model picker, tools that you can invoke. At some level, those are powerful tools—but do you want to try them out? But over time, the model absorbs some of that. There’s a natural tension there. You give people a palette of things, but you also want to keep it simple. Ultimately, it’s just meant to be “ask the model to do stuff for you.” View the full article

Ikea’s new CEO Juvencio Maeztu is calling to tell me about the Ingka Group’s latest earnings (that’s the parent company behind Ikea). As it turns out, there are worse fates than a company making a little less money than it did last year. In August, Ingka Group announced that its long-time CEO Jesper Brodin would be stepping down, as Maeztu took the role. An economist by training, Maeztu has worked at the company for more than 25 years, and brings a powerful international perspective to the position—having started as a store manager in Madrid, before eventually taking over as CEO of Ikea India. For the past seven years, he’s served as deputy CEO and CFO under Brodin. We spoke around the release of Ingka’s 2025 financial earnings, which Maeztu characterizes to me as “mostly flat.” Revenue is down 0.9% (to €41.5 billion) as the company fights inflation to keep prices low. Tariffs have yet to fully enter the equation in these figures—but The President’s 50% tariffs on furniture announced in September were significant enough that Ikea raised prices to help offset them. On the brighter side, store traffic was up 1.3%, online sales were up 4.6%, and overall item sales grew 1.6%. In our conversation—representing some of Maetzu’s first public comments since being appointed to the position—he detailed his biggest priorities for the company, while addressing the challenges of operating a budget-friendly furniture business in a volatile global economy. Now that you’re officially CEO, what is your immediate focus for Ikea? The announcement was made mid-August, and the last three months I have been traveling around many countries to learn about the reality from the shop floor, and then talking with consumers and colleagues and coworkers. And that has cemented three things that are quite important to deliver to the care vision (that caring for people and the planet is core to Ikea’s purpose). Because we will not change the care vision. We will not change the business idea. I will keep putting a lot of focus on growth; not growth only in mature markets or more European-based growth, but many markets, U.S. included, and India and China. Growth is a way to be more present in homes. So growth is not connected with profit to the shareholder, it’s connected with affordability for the many people. You could say we can never achieve our vision if we don’t grow. So we have to substantially grow. The second thing is to double down . . . on the need for cost transformation . . . and the need to keep costs low. Because the best frame of low price is a low cost. You cannot be a low-price company if you are not a low-cost company. And I will double down on the resilience of the company. And then the third one is simplicity. So normally, big companies like us start to be bureaucratic, and from the leadership perspective, we have to learn how to lead the company in a more agile way, faster decision making, less layers, and at the same time, more agility in the decision making. We have a good brand, we have a good omni channel capabilities today. We have amazing cultural values with high coworker engagement, super high right now. And then at the same time, we have a strong balance sheet. So you could say we have a lot of assets that allow us to really double down in the growth, in the cost transformation, and the simplicity. Looking over your earnings, where is that revenue dip coming from? We are selling more quantities at a lower price. If I take one step back, we measure performance in four dimensions. So one of the four is a financial dimension, and I will comment on that. But the other three are the climate dimension (we call it “better planet” for all), the social dimension (“better life” for people), and the consumer dimension (“better homes” for the customer). Today, as we release the financial result. It’s almost flat revenue—0.9% lower, almost flat, which is €41.5 billion (approximately $47.9 billion). However, what’s happening is exactly what we wanted to happen, because our physical visitation is growing, our online visitation is growing, and our [sold] quantities are growing. So basically, [revenue is down] because we have kept low prices. But then we are very happy [about] the underlying business. For us, growth is not a mechanism to pay more dividends to the shareholder. Because we are owned by a foundation. So 85% of the profit remains in the company, and 15% is the dividend to support the charitable activities. . . . We normally say profit gives us resources to keep investing in the future and low price. How are general inflation and other factors affecting your supply chain? The overall supply chain is quite stabilized now. We came from many disruptions in the last year, and that disruption is still happening at the end of this fiscal year, but now it’s quite stable. So we are not increasing prices in general. We constantly hear that physical retail is challenged, or on the brink of collapse. But I noticed Ingka centers—your malls, basically—had an influx of new foot traffic this year. I’m curious about your take on large-scale retail right now. People still have the need to socialize. People still have the need to go out. That’s why it’s important that we call it a meeting place—not necessarily a shopping center—and when you visit our meeting place it’s a way to connect with the communities . . . to create traffic with engagement and food and events. So in a world that is omnichannel and online, people still have the need to socialize. So that’s why we keep seeing more visitors in the shopping center and more visitors in the Ikea physical store. Then what is really important is that the visitor still finds a good value for money. That’s why we don’t have too much in discount activity on Black Friday. We are more trying to have everyday low prices. And that’s why we keep investing in that. So somehow customers recognize that, you offer them a fun day out in the meeting place, shopping center, the Ikea store, and then you keep prices low. You know, cost of living is increasing, not only in U.S., but anywhere in the world. The cost of housing is increasing all over the world, so [our] care vision—better life at home by providing more affordable home furnishings—it’s not only timeless. It’s even more relevant today than some years ago. Now that they’ve stabilized a bit, how do you see the impact of tariffs affecting Ikea? I think the entry point is not only tariffs. The entry point is that companies who operate globally, like us, are living in a more complex world, in a more volatile world. Sometimes because of tariffs, sometimes because of currencies, sometimes because of the limitation in global trade or geopolitics. But we need to learn as a company, how can we build the resilience to keep navigating the circumstances? And that’s why we distinguish what is the short term and the long term. And for us, the long term is to build the resilience in the company, and the low cost in the company, that can keep us in the low price agenda. And then, of course, we always try to mitigate the impact—not necessarily when we have to increase prices because of tariffs—normally . . . we try to absorb the impact. But I would say it’s not only tariffs in U.S. There are many reasons why global trade is a bit volatile, but in the long term, we will keep growing. In Europe, in the U.S., in China and India, all over the world. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. View the full article

North Northamptonshire set to vote on policy earmarked for introduction in 2027View the full article

Every year, the $463 billion global footwear industry make 20 billion pairs of shoes for just 8 billion humans. Since virtually none of them are recyclable, they will end up clogging up landfills around the world. For decades now, the fashion industry has been on a mission to make products recyclable. But shoes have been a much harder puzzle to crack than clothing. While garments are made from just a handful of materials, shoes are far more complex objects. A sneaker can be made of 50 different materials from foam insoles to leather exteriors to cotton laces, all glued together with adhesives. A handful of brands have prototyped one-off recyclable shoes, like Adidas’s Futurcraft Loop or Nike’s IPSA Link Axis. But the shoe industry is far from recycling at scale. But change is on the horizon. A group of sustainability experts wants to make shoe recycling as widespread as recycling paper or aluminum. Their solution: Radical collaboration among the biggest shoe rivals in the world. Yuly Fuentes-Medel, a fashion sustainability expert who runs MIT’s Climate Project, has just launched The Footwear Collective (TFC), a non-profit devoted to building circular solutions for the footwear industry. She’s convened eight founding shoe companies—including Brooks, On, New Balance, and Steve Madden—and is recruiting more. It has also partnered with Goodwill to collect large quantities of shoes at scale. The sustainability teams within these organizations meet with each other on a regular basis to tackle a pipeline of 50 different projects with achievable goals, like working with industrial recyclers to develop the technology to recycle shoes and finding secondary markets for the resulting recycled materials. “The shoe industry is competitive, and these brands are rivals,” says Fuentes-Medel. “But by sharing costs, data, and infrastructure, they can achieve the sustainability goals that have eluded them for years.” Collaboration is Crucial The fashion industry is one of the biggest polluters in the world. Over the past three decades, fast fashion has driven down the price of both clothing and shoes, allowing consumers to cycle through products quickly. Extracting large quantities of raw materials and shipping them to factories all over the world to turn them into products results in roughly 8% of global carbon emissions, accelerating climate change. For years, the industry has realized that circularity is one solution. Recovering the materials in old shoes and clothes, then transforming them back into materials for the fashion industry would dramatically reduce both waste and carbon emissions. But to achieve this circular system, you need a lot of infrastructure. First, you need to build out large, high-tech factories that can process these materials, and then you need to develop ways of collecting old products from consumers. In the world of clothing, companies like Circ have only just developed the technology to recycle polyester cotton blends, the most common material in the apparel industry, and is now building out factories around the world. But the shoe industry is much farther away from a similar solution. Fuentes-Medel observed that the footwear industry was struggling with this challenge. So in 2023, she hosted a footwear circularity summit at MIT, and was surprised by how much interest there was: Sustainability experts from 45 different shoe brands showed up. As they discussed possible solutions, Fuentes-Medel wrote up a “Footwear Manifesto” that laid out the obstacles to circularity and how to overcome them, such as building markets for recycled materials and ways of collecting old shoes. But one thing was clear from this summit: None of this could happen without collaboration. “This approach makes sense,” says Katherine Petrecca, GM of footwear innovation at New Balance. “We’re working together on pre-competitive spaces. All of us will win if we have the infrastructure to collect and recycle shoes.” After the event, brands were clamoring to continue this work. So Fuentes-Medel launched The Footwear Collective, with eight founding brands who pay dues to fund the project. Sustainability teams within these organizations meet every week with one another, as well as with other companies, to work towards solutions across seven pathways, including getting more value from waste, designing for circularity, and influencing consumer behavior. And together, they have come up with projects to work on, including finding a use for a particular recycled material to creating marketing materials that get consumers excited about recycling shoes. The Problem of Scale Many footwear brands have been on a mission to become more sustainable. But when a brand is going at it alone, there are many hurdles to achieving goals. “Recycling can only work at scale,” says David Kemp, director of corporate responsibility at Brooks. For one thing, it will require a lot of work to develop the technology to automate the disassembly of shoes at scale, then recover their component materials. “Shoes companies hire teams of engineers to design and develop their products,” says Fuentes-Medel. “You really can’t think of them in the same category as clothing. They have to live up to much higher technical performance standards.” Kemp says that the recycling industry is not incentivized to invest in developing this kind of high tech recycling facility because there isn’t a big market for the recycled materials that would come out of this process. For footwear brands, this would mean working with their factories to start using recycled foams, and leather, and hardware. “Recyclers are for-profit businesses,” he says. “Through the Collective, we can finally show recyclers that there’s business volume here worth investing in.” A Pilot Program Then, there’s the problem of how you collect large volumes of old shoes to recycle. Some brands, like Brooks, invite customers to bring back their old shoes once they’ve reached the end of their life. But Kemp says that participation in these programs is very low. “Historically, only around 3% of customers bring their shoes back to us,” he says. “This isn’t enough volume to bring to a factory to ask them to develop a recycling program for us.” Again, Fuentes-Medel believes that the solution is to collect shoes from across many brands. And there’s already an organization that is doing this: Goodwill. TFW has decided to work with Goodwill’s California division, since the state has strong Extender Producer Responsibility (ERP) laws which mandate that companies fund and manage the collection, recycling, and reuse of their products. As a result, California can fund more sophisticated recycling operations. With this new project, consumers are invited to drop off shoes from any brand at participating Goodwill locations in California. Shoes that cannot be resold will be sent to three recyclers, where they will be shredded. The shredded material will be separated by weight and density, so they can be sorted by material. (Rubber, foam, and cotton all have different densities.) Then the recycler can determine what materials can be recycled and sold. “We’re aligning with California, since we can help put their legislative policy into practice,” says Petrecca, of New Balance. This is just one of many projects that TFC is working on right now. Other groups are working on changing the way brands design shoes to make them easier to disassemble, without losing any of their performance qualities. “We’re running two offenses,” Petrecca says. “We’re designing for what’s next, but we also need to figure out what to do with the billions of shoes that are already out there.” For Fuentes-Medel, collecting data is crucial throughout all of these early pilots and tests. From all her years immersed in MIT’s quantitative approach to sustainability, she believes it is important to track exactly what happens so that they can measure impact. “We if don’t base our strategy on data, it’ll be just another greenwashing initiative that gets press but changes nothing,” she says. But ultimately, Fuentes-Medel is optimistic that this small but committed collective is building a movement. So as TFW continues to grow and communicate with consumers, it wants to make circularity exciting and tangible, thanks to good storytelling. “Movements are built on joy,” she says. “Collective action depends on everyone feeling motivated to do their little bit, from sending in one pair of shoes to telling one friend.” View the full article

Turing Award winner seeks to depart as Mark Zuckerberg makes ‘superintelligence’ pushView the full article

The newest plaza in Valencia, Spain, has everything one might expect from a public space in a temperate seaside Spanish city. Its five acres contain green space, a playground, ball courts, and walking paths, and the plaza connects to a new market hall, with restaurants and bars serving a wide range of local specialties. Next to all this—and the real reason for any of it existing at all—is Roig Arena, the new multipurpose stadium built for the men’s and women’s professional basketball teams of the Valencia Basket Club. The basketball arena is hardly the second thought here, but it’s much more a piece of this broader civic space than the typical pro sports facility. Especially compared to the U.S., where the stadium is often the only element of such a project, Roig Arena and its public amenities offer a refreshing take on a form of urban development that favors the “development” over the “urban.” Open since September, the project was designed by the international architecture firm Hok and Valencia-based Erre. With a fluid, scaly facade of precisely angled ceramic tiles, the arena has an unmistakable presence in a neighborhood just outside the center of the city. But because it was sunk down into the ground, the arena is actually much shorter than most of the surrounding neighborhood, softening the unavoidable intrusion of such a big building. There’s room inside for more than 15,000 people during basketball games, and upwards of 20,000 when the venue is used for concerts, which, according to its business plan, represents a large chunk of its calendar. Even more significant is the market hall, which is open every day, even when there’s no basketball game or concert happening. In contrast to stadiums in the U.S., Valencia’s was a relative bargain at €400 million, or about $461 million. (The Intuit Dome, the flashy new home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, for instance, cost more than $2 billion.) The project was financed entirely by Juan Roig, owner of the Valencia Basket Club and majority owner of Spain’s largest supermarket chain, Mercadona. It’s a unique financial arrangement in Spain, where most sports arenas are publicly financed. The Valencia basketball arena’s design was led by Erre partner Amparo Roig, who also happens to be the daughter of Juan Roig. “He wanted to do something important for Valencia and for Spain,” she says. “It was very important to be sustainable economically.” More than an arena Making it financially sustainable required focusing on ways the arena could be more than just a sports venue. In the U.S., arenas typically host professional basketball and hockey teams as their anchor users, with concerts and performances as a substantial side business, and fine dining and other concessions adding to the bottom line during events. In Spain, hockey is not part of the mix, which meant the arena had to be designed to make concerts and events sit on almost equal footing as basketball games, and have concessions that would actually draw more than just the captured audience of a sports game or concert. One sit-down restaurant in the complex specializes in paella and grilled fish. Another offers croquettes and Valencian flatbreads. “We’re not doing hot dogs here,” Amparo Roig says. In other ways, the arena is a typical sports and concert venue, with priority given to spectators’ view lines, easy ingress and egress, and comfort inside the space. Roig took the designer’s prerogative and included more restrooms for women than men. Specially designed piping systems allow beer vendors to operate on the floor level during concerts. “Subtle things like that make sure that it is very much a party building when it’s in party mode,” says John Rhodes, director of sports and entertainment at Hok. The venue also has its share of luxury lounges. But unlike the stuffy, windowless lounges inside most arenas, Roig Arena’s were designed to stretch to the exterior edge of the building, much of which is open to the usually warm air of Valencia. “What we tried to do was actually ensure that the lounges were almost connected with the outside, with this beautiful climate,” Rhodes says. An outdoor arrangement That connection to the outside extends throughout the building. Its facade, made of 8,600 ceramic scales, was carefully configured to block the intensity of the sun while still allowing coastal breezes to enter the building. This partially cools the building, cutting down on its energy use. A rooftop solar array also reduces its energy demands. The openness of the Valencia basketball arena’s facade raised some concerns from locals. This, after all, is an existing neighborhood; a local school was relocated to create room for the project. As such, the designers focused heavily on community outreach, and on addressing issues that residents raised. The big one was noise—a challenge that forced Madrid’s main stadium to cancel concerts after the roar of a Taylor Swift concert spilled out across the surrounding neighborhood. “We made a lot of effort that the sound didn’t go outside, not through the roof and not through the facade,” Roig says. It’s part of the project’s civic gesture. In the end, it’s still a big event venue that will always stick out a bit in a city with thousands of years of history. But among the sports stadiums being built around the world, it does at least try to soften the impact, and possibly add more than it takes. “As a designer, it’s very, very rare that you get to introduce such significant public realm into a heritage city,” Rhodes says. View the full article

Affordable housing has gone in search of collaborations. Across the country, developers and cities have found a solution in pairing housing with unexpected projects to save money and build more vibrant communities. A wave of libraries, fire stations, and even Costco stores have been built below or adjacent to much-needed, lower-cost apartments. Now a new development in the Southern California city of San Juan Capistrano is sharing a lot with City Hall. Salida del Sol, a $31 million, 49-unit supportive housing development by Jamboree Housing Corp., opened this past July on a 2.2-acre site downtown. At a time when federal support for homeless services is wavering and cities in California and elsewhere have taken more conservative approaches to unhoused communities, San Juan Capistrano’s decision to place housing next to the seat of city government sends a strong message. According to Mayor Troy Bourne, it was a perfect opportunity to marry strategic development and attack a growing problem in the city and region, all while avoiding the typical pushback such developments often provoke. Supportive housing—which combines accessible, affordable homes with a suite of social services to help individuals navigate challenges such as chronic homelessness—tends to attract significant angst from nearby neighbors. “This says to the community, ‘We’ll go first, we trust this to go well,’” Bourne says. “These developments aren’t going to be universally popular in a community. People want this problem figured out far away from their front door. Putting this next to City Hall says not only are we supportive, but we’re putting it on our front porch.” Jamboree, which manages approximately 11,000 units across Southern California, has never seen a project utilize government land and pair up with such a symbolic civic building, says CEO Laura Archuleta. The city was able to both provide land at a competitive rate and help finance the construction via a municipal fund to support affordable housing. The old City Hall building had been deteriorating for decades and needed a refresh, which coincided with the city’s push to add more supportive housing. More importantly, Archuleta says, the potential for interaction, observation, and understanding at the new site provides immense social value, giving lawmakers and local residents a more realistic impression of the challenges of rehabilitation, and the difference such housing projects can make. Law enforcement and local officials will get a more accurate sense of the challenges and lives of the unhoused, while those living at Salida del Sol may gain more trust of local police. “I see compassion and learning taking place on both sides,” Archuleta says. “That’s an added benefit.” She says there’s already interest from other communities in California, including discussions around another co-development on a city hall campus in East Los Angeles County, and plans to build another building on a senior center campus. The challenge in building this kind of deeply affordable housing includes combining a variety of funding sources—Salida del Sol utilizes state and local subsidies as well as housing voucher funding from the federal government—and finding a site. Especially in a wealthier community like San Juan Capistrano, finding land that isn’t prohibitively expensive remains a challenge, as well as persevering through neighborhood pushback. There were some local business owners wary of the residents hanging out near their storefronts, Archuleta says, but Jamboree mitigated that with community outreach and education and didn’t face widespread opposition. Jamboree and other supportive housing providers passionately believe in the value of a housing-first approach to giving the unhoused a place to recover and access social services; a 2017 study completed with researchers at nearby University of California, Irvine, found it was more cost-effective for cities to provide housing to the homeless, as opposed to the various costs associated with medical and criminal issues that come from not having a permanent home. Once the city and developers decided on a location for Salida del Sol, the design went through a few iterations. For one version, the housing would have been on the second floor above City Hall. At another point, it became clear the supportive housing wouldn’t fit on the lot with a building that contained a full city council chambers. To make room, local leaders converted a nearby community center so it could double as a chamber room when needed. The final layout placed the resident entrance on the opposite side of the lot from the City Hall entrance. Archuleta says the project includes full wraparound services such as access to social managers and other support for the residents. It’s a big deal to know the city manager works next door and can simply pick up the phone and call her if he sees a resident having a hard time. According to Bourne, placing unhoused people near city services, as well as in the middle of downtown near transit and jobs, offers the connection and assistance they need to get back on their feet. “You can’t throw money or a building at a problem. At the end of the day you need human capital,” he says. “We’re providing access to jobs, a train station, and support. Presenting someone with that I think is a real solution.” Bourne adds: “We would do it again in a heartbeat. This has been a huge win.” View the full article

One of the many ways Americans practice gratitude in the month of November is by honoring those who have served in the U.S. military. This federal holiday is always observed on November 11—even if that falls on a weekday, as is the case this year. Many federal services take the day off to give workers time to observe Veterans Day. It can get a bit confusing to know how this impacts what’s open and closed. The ongoing federal government shutdown adds another layer of uncertainty. Before we clear all that up, let’s take a look at the history of the day. A brief history of Veterans Day World War I was supposed to be the war that ended all wars. On November 11, 1918, a temporary armistice went into effect at 11 a.m., which ended fighting between the Allied nations and Germany. This halting of hostilities became permanent on June 28, 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed, but the November 11 ceasefire would have a historical stronghold and continue to be celebrated. The following year, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 Armistice Day. Congress followed suit eight years later with a concurrent resolution. Unfortunately, as we are all too aware, WWI did not end all wars. The United States went on to fight in World War II and get entangled in conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq, to name just a few. The holiday evolved to honor not just those soldiers who served in WWI but in any of the conflicts that came after. In 1954, Congress officially amended the Act of 1938 to include all veterans. The Uniform Holiday Bill of 1968 moved the observance to Monday, October 25, 1971. People did not love this change, so President Gerald R. Ford reversed the decision in 1975, which took effect in 1978. Are banks open on Veterans Day? No. Veterans Day is a federal holiday, so most major banks are closed. You can turn to online banking in a pinch. Also, most ATMs are operational on Veterans Day. What about the post office? No. The United States Postal Service is closed on Veterans Day. Is mail delivered on Veterans Day? No. You will get a day off from bills and junk mail. The exception is USPS Priority Mail Express, a premium service that guarantees delivery even on federal holidays. Are FedEx and UPS open? Yes. FedEx locations are open, and most services will run as normal. Some delivery and pickup times for standard FedEx Express/ground services are modified because of the holiday. UPS stores are also open for business. Most pickup and delivery services will run as usual, but UPS Ground Saver and UPS Mail Innovations will need an additional day for deliveries. Is the stock market open on Veterans Day? Yes. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are open for trading. What about schools? No. Most schools are not in session on Veterans Day. Some districts even took November 10 off to give everyone a four-day weekend. Are retail stores and restaurants open on Veterans Day? Yes. Most major retail stores and eateries are open for business. Some businesses even offer discounts or deals for service members. Applebee’s, California Pizza Kitchen, and Red Robin are all offering a free entrée. Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, is offering veterans and their families discounted tickets. The Nashville Zoo is offering free admission for veterans and their immediate family members. Here’s a full list of deals and discounts compiled by the American Legion. What about pharmacies? Most pharmacies are open, including major chains like Walgreens and CVS, but some locations may observe different hours in the pharmacy section, so it’s best to check with your local store if you need medication. View the full article

More profitable companies are weighing deals because they're bullish on their leverage or are simply eying today's big price tags, the expert said. View the full article

The wholesale giant hasn't endured setbacks in litigation against five brokerages it's accused of selling loans to rivals Rocket Cos. and Fairway Independent Mortgage. View the full article

While the program is still going strong in spite of the shutdown, many misconceptions about its rules, even in normal times, are holding back use. View the full article

When you think of leaders you admire, you likely imagine them as authentic, at least in the sense of seeming genuine, real, and trustworthy. Science confirms this is usually the case. For example, data tells us that trustworthy leaders stand out for their “no thrills” patterns of behavior: They are, in other words, predictable, reliable, and unlikely to shock their employees or followers with erratic or excitable behavior that freaks them out. Furthermore, the best meta-analysis (quantitative review of hundreds of independent top studies) on personality and leadership tells us that one of the most consistent predictors of whether someone emerges as a leader, and is in turn actually effective in that role, is conscientiousness—a trait embodied by people who are methodical, disciplined, gritty, and who excel at self-control and resisting temptations (in other words, the opposite personality to Charlie Sheen, though his current self has no doubt become more conscientious!). Unsurprisingly, leaders with this profile also tend to create higher levels of psychological safety, which as my colleague Amy Edmondson and I have recently illustrated is likely to create the conditions that enable teams to experiment, take healthy risks, fail smart, and speak up without fear of being reprimanded. Ironically, then, the more leaders can edit themselves, the less pressure their teams will feel to edit themselves. In other words, if you want people to feel safe and included, focus on being your best rather than your “real” or natural self. Works in progress More importantly, every leader is a work in progress. That is, the growing complexities and uncertainties underpinning each and every one of the new challenges leaders must face (e.g., navigating the human-AI age, coming to terms with global geopolitical conflicts, managing shareholder and stakeholder value, having a voice on polarizing matters without alienating or antagonizing or acting like a cult leader), make it imperative that leaders improve, evolve, and develop. This requires being coachable, and having the necessary curiosity, humility, and motivation to not just be yourself—to not be limited by your past and present self. As my colleague Herminia Ibarra noted, the evolution of the self always consists of going beyond who you already are and finding ways to broaden or enrich your identity. Inevitably, this means resisting the temptation to stay within your comfort zone, playing it safe or playing it to your strengths, and mastering new behaviors and adaptations. Simple example: A naturally extraverted leader will probably have a tendency to dominate meetings, making it hard to let other people speak. However, if they were interested in becoming better and evolving as a leader, they could develop the “micro-skills” needed to shut up and listen! By the same token, a naturally creative and innovative leader may have a tendency to jump from one idea to the next, getting easily bored with executional details or tactical operational road maps. However, if they were interested in being more effective and becoming a more complete version of themselves, they would benefit from cultivating some patience and interest for these details, and so on. Broadening skills So, as it turns out, self-editing is not just helpful when it comes to making leaders understand that their obligation to others generally eclipses their right to be themselves, but also broadening the skills and behavioral repertoire leaders must possess to manage in complex times. Indeed, even if you think you are effective—perhaps even talented—as a leader, the only way to get better is by not simply applying your current skills, but learning new adaptations. This means decoupling the trigger-response connection to allow for a wider range of possibilities, responses, and behaviors, turning you into a more diverse and broader version of yourself, a kind of personal enrichment that expands your potential and gives you more choices to respond appropriately to each situation. Because let’s not forget: Every situation benefits from the right response, rather than the first or most natural thing that comes to mind. In that sense, acting spontaneously and without much consideration or concern for what others think of you may make you feel more authentic, but also be less effective in the eyes of others. With that, here are eight simple tips for being better at self-editing. Eight practical ways to master the art of self-editing Don’t believe your own hype. The moment you start inhaling your own PR, your learning curve flattens. Confidence is useful; self-delusion is not. Good leaders act like their reputation is a rumor they still need to verify. Remember: It’s not how good you think you are—it’s how good others think you are. Decades of psychological research show that self-ratings of talent or performance barely correlate (and often correlate negatively) with actual performance. Self-perception is comforting fiction; reputation is data. Pause before you react. The gap between impulse and action is where leadership lives. Emotional self-regulation—thinking twice before sending that late-night email—is often the difference between credibility and regret. Curate what you share. Transparency doesn’t mean oversharing. The best leaders disclose enough to build trust but not so much that it burdens others. Edit for relevance, not confession. Seek out editors. Every great writer has an editor; every great leader should too. Surround yourself with people who challenge, critique, and occasionally deflate you. If everyone around you nods, you’re in an echo chamber, not a team. Balance passion with predictability. Enthusiasm is energizing, but mood swings are exhausting. Your team shouldn’t need to forecast your emotional weather. Reliability is charisma’s less exciting but more mature (and employable) sibling. Audit your habits. What you do repeatedly—how you listen, decide, interrupt, and delegate—forms your leadership brand. Record yourself in meetings, solicit feedback, or keep a behavior log. Then rewrite the bad sentences. Edit forward. View your leadership style as a draft in progress. Ask: What part of me needs less airtime now? What version of me do my team and context need next? Continuous revision is how leaders evolve rather than ossify. In short, leadership maturity is less about finding yourself than about refining yourself. The best leaders don’t broadcast every thought or impulse, they run an internal editorial process that filters noise, amplifies value, and leaves others with clarity rather than confusion. View the full article