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Founding partner Bob Lyons will help ensure continuity. Frank Pallotta and Kathleen Koprowski will lead an advisory board for the auditing and consulting firm. View the full article

Some letters from Minneapolis: For the past several weeks, the Twin Cities, and the state of Minnesota overall, has been under siege by federal agents. My friends and coworkers are scared to leave their homes. Every day we see and hear about another innocent person being harassed, detained, and spirited away by plane and kept from their family, friends, pets, and lawyers. Neighbors exercising their constitutional rights are gassed and beaten. Victims emerge from detention centers with horrifying accounts. My friend was on the scene when Renee Good was murdered. In some of the coldest weather of my life, we stood outside for hours screaming for ICE to leave. People are not exaggerating with their comparisons to the gestapo. The streets crawl with them. And yet I’m at an employer that has kept largely quiet about it. We’re a nonprofit (though not the kind that provides a public service) headquartered in Minneapolis, and after the execution of Alex Pretti the C-suite sent another email that they don’t make position statements unless it has to do with our mission. My expectations of my org’s leaders were already in the toilet thanks to their previous poor decisions, but my coworkers, passionate people who took lower paying jobs at a nonprofit to do good in the world, are repeatedly infuriated by this. There are constant conversations about “what to do” and “how could they do this”? My personal solution is to not give a fig about this place and put my energy into activities outside of my job, but I won’t tell my coworkers to stop caring. How am I supposed to work when what little motivation I muster evaporates upon hearing the frustration of my coworkers? How can we take anything seriously for this org at all? I just need to get the bare minimum done so that I don’t find myself needing to stay late to finish whatever task and never think about my job after 4 pm hits. I even dropped out of a job candidacy because I just cannot handle interview prep with this actively happening. This feels so very different from Covid, or even George Floyd, where most people in government at least tried to deescalate things. Now the federal government is actively lying and making calculated decisions to attack us even more, and many of us that are in the midst of it have no idea how many people outside Minnesota truly get what’s going on. * * * * * I live in Minnesota. I don’t live inside Minneapolis/St. Paul but grew up there and I have many friends and immediate family there. As you can imagine, life is difficult right now. The news feels constant and unrelenting. I am doing what I can to support my community, but no one knows when the occupation will end and it feels like things are escalating. I worry about my community and my country, I have friends who have been targeted by ICE, and in the midst of this I have to carry on for my young children. I work for a large multinational corporation. We have a massive office here but I work from home permanently. My boss, my line of leaders, and everyone on my team lives elsewhere. And it feels impossible to work now, which is unfortunate because this is a busy time of year and I have many things to get done. Telling my coworkers that I’m under stress is hard because what is happening has been politicized, so I don’t know how it will be received or how people will respond. And everyone else seems to be going along just fine with their days, discussing projects and deadlines, while I stare at my screen, unable to form sentences. I have a therapist and I’m not in a mental health crisis, I’m just struggling to work while the world falls down around my community. I know the answer is “take time off’ but how do I explain this to my leaders, who are expecting me to deliver on high-profile projects? * * * * * I work in Minneapolis. Renee Good and Alex Pretti were murdered here. My employer has not acknowledged the murders. They have not acknowledged that the office’s collective mental health is in the gutter. There are wind chills of -35F today, with frostbite of exposed skin in 10 minutes or less, but we are still expected to go in to the office in person. We all are. I have been grabbed by ICE multiple times and demanded that I turn over my passport to them, as well as my work ID, trying to get to the office. They don’t care. They’re more afraid of speaking up than of something happening to any of us. We’re just dead weight to them. I don’t know what to do anymore about any of it. * * * * * I work full-time as an admin assistant for three different professionals. There is a central office I work out of that I commute to by bus, but the people I support are elsewhere (one in another city in the same state, two together in the same office out of state). I don’t currently have the ability to work from home. I also live in south Minneapolis, literally blocks from where Alex Pretti was recently killed. Needless to say, this is affecting me on multiple levels. On a logistical level, I’ve had to request PTO on short notice due to the ongoing volatile situation. On a cognitive and emotional level, I’ve been making mistakes at work due to stress. My job requires consistency, strong communication, and a high level of attention— all of which I have! Normally. I’m doing my best to keep work and emotions separate, but there’s some inevitable bleed and it’s showing up in ways that make me look careless. I’ve only had this position for six months, and although my three-month review was glowing and the professionals I support have had overwhelmingly positive feedback for me so far, I’m worried I don’t have enough of a track record established for what’s going on right now not to cause problems for me down the line. How transparent should I be about what’s going on? I’m sure the people I support have a general idea of the situation, and they know I live in Minneapolis, but I’m not sure they’re aware how literally and figuratively close to home all this is for me. If it was a personal issue, I wouldn’t hesitate to let them know in appropriately vague terms that I was dealing with temporary extenuating circumstances that I am doing my best to mitigate. As it is, though, I work in a somewhat conservative industry and I worry even introducing the topic runs the risk of being inappropriately “political” at work. But also, my city is under armed occupation and my neighbor was just shot in the street in broad daylight, so I am (understandably I think) extremely not okay! It is okay that you do not feel okay. We just watched our government brutally murder a man in the street. None of us should feel okay. None of this is okay. You don’t need to pretend that it is. You are allowed to be human. It is normal not to be your usual productive self right now. You, like many of the rest of us, are exhausted, distracted, overwhelmed, sickened, and scared. It is okay to scale back the expectations on yourself and your coworkers to just the minimum right now. If you need to spell it out for colleagues who aren’t in the area, do: “It’s really rough here right now. We’re right in the middle of everything that’s on the news.” … “People are being accosted on the streets going to and from work, and we’re terrified. No one here is at 100% right now.” … “People are being pulled out of their cars for driving down the wrong street. We’re working in what’s essentially a war zone, so some of this will need some extra time.” If you do have like-minded colleagues, think about banding together to demand that people in a position to do more — your company’s leadership — do more. There is safety in numbers, and there is power in numbers. Maybe that means calling out your leadership for staying quiet and expecting business as usual from you and your colleagues and not actively working to keep employees safer. It could mean asking them to do things like: • explicitly giving people permission to do what they need to feel safe, including working remotely or delaying travel • covering hotel rooms for people who can’t safely go home • providing more mental health days and breaks • pulling back on expectations while you’re under siege • sharing detailed instructions for scenarios involving ICE that might come up at or near work, including contact information for legal help And it could also mean calling on them to use their influence with higher levels of government to demand that ICE leave your city. We have more power than they want us to think. The post letters from Minneapolis appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

It’s easy to assume that landing clients and building your portfolio are the hardest parts of freelancing. However, the numbers paint a different reality. More than half of new freelancers never make it past their first six months, not because of a lack of talent, but because their money management falls apart before the business can grow.​ Here’s what the data actually shows. According to Bonsai’s 2025 freelancer survey, over 60% of independent workers admit to starting without a budget or financial plan in place. Industry-wide reports back this up: most new freelancers do not separate business and personal finances early on, nor do they consistently track cash flow, resulting in missed expenses, lumpy savings, and confusion around taxes.​ If you believe that steady work and a few well-paid gigs will naturally lead to financial stability, it’s time to look closely at the facts. What really causes so many promising freelancers to hit a wall so quickly? And which changes, backed by hard numbers, actually make a difference? Most Freelancers Start Without a BudgetMost new freelancers start strong but skip the single step that keeps a business stable: setting a clear budget. Many simply pay bills as they come and hope that new projects will always cover new expenses. Take a freelancer who lands two big contracts in their first month, only to see both clients pay late the next month. With no savings or tracking habit in place, one surprise bill can throw everything off balance. Without a budget or separate business account, it is nearly impossible to spot a cash flow gap, plan for recurring expenses, or save for taxes. Cash Flow Problems Are CommonFreelancers cite inconsistent payments as a top problem. Genius’s 2025 freelance stats show that 47% of freelancers reported at least one late or missing client payment in their first six months. This pattern repeats more often than new freelancers realize, especially for those with only a handful of clients or long payment cycles. In reality, this makes it hard to forecast income or save for slow periods. This instability is the leading reason so many run out of runway, even when work is available. Personal and Business Funds Get MixedIf you pay for groceries and web hosting from the same card, it is tough to know what belongs where at tax time. Nearly half of respondents in The Freelancer Study 2025 said they still pay business expenses out of a personal account. This leads to messy records at tax time, frequent overspending, and missed opportunities for business deductions. Freelancers who separate their accounts are better at tracking spending, calculating profits, and finding ways to cut costs. Poor Saving and Spending HabitsIt is tempting to spend large payments as soon as they hit your account, treating each one as a sign you are “making it.” Picture a freelancer who buys a new laptop after a big project, only to face a dry spell the following month. With little set aside, they may have to borrow or use credit to keep the business afloat. Experienced freelancers flip the habit: each payment gets split, some for bills, some for taxes, and some stashed for quieter months. This is how financial stability takes hold. Undercharging and Unsustainable PricingData shows that many freelancers, especially those new to the space, charge too little for their services. The 2025 YunoJuno Freelancer Rates Report notes that average rates remain largely stagnant in many sectors, and just 28% of freelancers surveyed said they increased their fees within their first year. This may work for landing projects, but when expenses rise or larger opportunities come, the math no longer adds up. For example, undercharging by just $10 per hour over six months could mean hundreds lost, even as costs for tools and subscriptions keep climbing. Without scheduled rate reviews or clear pricing strategies, even busy freelancers see their earnings squeezed by rising costs and inflation. What the Data Says to Do InsteadIf the numbers illuminate the traps, they also point to solutions: Always create a budget first: The most successful freelancers use budget tools or simple spreadsheets from the start and adjust as their business grows.Separate your finances: Open a business checking account before your first invoice and process every client payment and business expense through it.Automate savings for taxes and emergencies: Set aside a fixed percentage of every payment as soon as it clears.Formalize contracts and payment terms: Use written agreements to clarify rates, deadlines, and late fees, reducing payment delays.Review and raise your rates regularly: Leading freelancers benchmark against industry averages and use data to justify annual price increases.Lean on data, not gut instinct: Use financial apps and regular monthly reviews to make spending, saving, and pricing decisions.The Takeaway: Systems and Data Beat Luck Every TimeThe statistics are clear. Most freelancers who fail in the first six months do so not because of a lack of skill or drive, but from avoidable money mistakes. The solution, backed by data, is to build simple routines for budgeting, saving, separating finances, and reviewing rates. Treat your freelance business like a true business from day one, and you dramatically improve your odds of not just surviving, but growing for the long haul. View the full article

It’s easy to assume that landing clients and building your portfolio are the hardest parts of freelancing. However, the numbers paint a different reality. More than half of new freelancers never make it past their first six months, not because of a lack of talent, but because their money management falls apart before the business can grow.​ Here’s what the data actually shows. According to Bonsai’s 2025 freelancer survey, over 60% of independent workers admit to starting without a budget or financial plan in place. Industry-wide reports back this up: most new freelancers do not separate business and personal finances early on, nor do they consistently track cash flow, resulting in missed expenses, lumpy savings, and confusion around taxes.​ If you believe that steady work and a few well-paid gigs will naturally lead to financial stability, it’s time to look closely at the facts. What really causes so many promising freelancers to hit a wall so quickly? And which changes, backed by hard numbers, actually make a difference? Most Freelancers Start Without a BudgetMost new freelancers start strong but skip the single step that keeps a business stable: setting a clear budget. Many simply pay bills as they come and hope that new projects will always cover new expenses. Take a freelancer who lands two big contracts in their first month, only to see both clients pay late the next month. With no savings or tracking habit in place, one surprise bill can throw everything off balance. Without a budget or separate business account, it is nearly impossible to spot a cash flow gap, plan for recurring expenses, or save for taxes. Cash Flow Problems Are CommonFreelancers cite inconsistent payments as a top problem. Genius’s 2025 freelance stats show that 47% of freelancers reported at least one late or missing client payment in their first six months. This pattern repeats more often than new freelancers realize, especially for those with only a handful of clients or long payment cycles. In reality, this makes it hard to forecast income or save for slow periods. This instability is the leading reason so many run out of runway, even when work is available. Personal and Business Funds Get MixedIf you pay for groceries and web hosting from the same card, it is tough to know what belongs where at tax time. Nearly half of respondents in The Freelancer Study 2025 said they still pay business expenses out of a personal account. This leads to messy records at tax time, frequent overspending, and missed opportunities for business deductions. Freelancers who separate their accounts are better at tracking spending, calculating profits, and finding ways to cut costs. Poor Saving and Spending HabitsIt is tempting to spend large payments as soon as they hit your account, treating each one as a sign you are “making it.” Picture a freelancer who buys a new laptop after a big project, only to face a dry spell the following month. With little set aside, they may have to borrow or use credit to keep the business afloat. Experienced freelancers flip the habit: each payment gets split, some for bills, some for taxes, and some stashed for quieter months. This is how financial stability takes hold. Undercharging and Unsustainable PricingData shows that many freelancers, especially those new to the space, charge too little for their services. The 2025 YunoJuno Freelancer Rates Report notes that average rates remain largely stagnant in many sectors, and just 28% of freelancers surveyed said they increased their fees within their first year. This may work for landing projects, but when expenses rise or larger opportunities come, the math no longer adds up. For example, undercharging by just $10 per hour over six months could mean hundreds lost, even as costs for tools and subscriptions keep climbing. Without scheduled rate reviews or clear pricing strategies, even busy freelancers see their earnings squeezed by rising costs and inflation. What the Data Says to Do InsteadIf the numbers illuminate the traps, they also point to solutions: Always create a budget first: The most successful freelancers use budget tools or simple spreadsheets from the start and adjust as their business grows.Separate your finances: Open a business checking account before your first invoice and process every client payment and business expense through it.Automate savings for taxes and emergencies: Set aside a fixed percentage of every payment as soon as it clears.Formalize contracts and payment terms: Use written agreements to clarify rates, deadlines, and late fees, reducing payment delays.Review and raise your rates regularly: Leading freelancers benchmark against industry averages and use data to justify annual price increases.Lean on data, not gut instinct: Use financial apps and regular monthly reviews to make spending, saving, and pricing decisions.The Takeaway: Systems and Data Beat Luck Every TimeThe statistics are clear. Most freelancers who fail in the first six months do so not because of a lack of skill or drive, but from avoidable money mistakes. The solution, backed by data, is to build simple routines for budgeting, saving, separating finances, and reviewing rates. Treat your freelance business like a true business from day one, and you dramatically improve your odds of not just surviving, but growing for the long haul. View the full article

Towards the end of 2025, we circulated a survey to our members, asking how they as freelancers will be affected by the expiration of the Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies. Of the over 600 respondents, 58% said that they purchase their healthcare plan through the state marketplace. Seventy-seven percent of freelancers said that without the ACA enhanced subsidies, they would lose coverage, downgrade their plans, or need to cut back on essential spending, like housing, groceries, and transportation. Freelancers are overwhelmingly in support of the Affordable Care Act subsidies, with 91% of respondents saying they want to see the ACA subsidies extended. Whether or not freelancers are personally enrolled in state marketplace plans, they heartily support other freelancers’ ability to easily access affordable healthcare. In fact, 82% of freelancers said that access to healthcare is an issue that affects how they vote — a key touchpoint to consider ahead of the June 2026 midterm elections. As the freelance workforce grows, both the government and market must catch up to their needs. Freelance workers put in the same amount of work as any full-time employee; they deserve the same benefits, be it healthcare, sick time, personal leave, and more. Portable benefits present a potential path forward. Although 70% of respondents were unfamiliar at this time with portable benefits, upon explanation, 41% believed portable benefits could improve their lives. See below for more takeaways from the survey. Freelancers make our economy work; we deserve a healthcare system that works for us in turn. View the full article

Towards the end of 2025, we circulated a survey to our members, asking how they as freelancers will be affected by the expiration of the Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies. Of the over 600 respondents, 58% said that they purchase their healthcare plan through the state marketplace. Seventy-seven percent of freelancers said that without the ACA enhanced subsidies, they would lose coverage, downgrade their plans, or need to cut back on essential spending, like housing, groceries, and transportation. Freelancers are overwhelmingly in support of the Affordable Care Act subsidies, with 91% of respondents saying they want to see the ACA subsidies extended. Whether or not freelancers are personally enrolled in state marketplace plans, they heartily support other freelancers’ ability to easily access affordable healthcare. In fact, 82% of freelancers said that access to healthcare is an issue that affects how they vote — a key touchpoint to consider ahead of the June 2026 midterm elections. As the freelance workforce grows, both the government and market must catch up to their needs. Freelance workers put in the same amount of work as any full-time employee; they deserve the same benefits, be it healthcare, sick time, personal leave, and more. Portable benefits present a potential path forward. Although 70% of respondents were unfamiliar at this time with portable benefits, upon explanation, 41% believed portable benefits could improve their lives. See below for more takeaways from the survey. Freelancers make our economy work; we deserve a healthcare system that works for us in turn. View the full article

Treasury yields are stuck, but gold and the dollar are flashing unusual signals that could push rates after the FOMC, according to the CEO of IF Securities. View the full article

Prominent Republicans and gun rights advocates helped elicit a White House turnabout this week after bristling over the administration’s characterization of Alex Pretti, the second person killed this month by a federal officer in Minneapolis, as responsible for his own death because he lawfully possessed a weapon. The death produced no clear shifts in U.S. gun politics or policies, even as President Donald The President shuffles the lieutenants in charge of his militarized immigration crackdown. But important voices in The President’s coalition have called for a thorough investigation of Pretti’s death while also criticizing inconsistencies in some Republicans’ Second Amendment stances. If the dynamic persists, it could give Republicans problems as The President heads into a midterm election year with voters already growing skeptical of his overall immigration approach. The concern is acute enough that The President’s top spokeswoman sought Monday to reassert his brand as a staunch gun rights supporter. “The president supports the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens, absolutely,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Leavitt qualified that “when you are bearing arms and confronted by law enforcement, you are raising … the risk of force being used against you.” Videos contradict early statements from administration That still marked a retreat from the administration’s previous messages about the shooting of Pretti. It came the same day the president dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, seemingly elevating him over Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino, who had been in charge in Minneapolis. Within hours of Pretti’s death on Saturday, Bovino suggested Pretti “wanted to … massacre law enforcement,” and Noem said Pretti was “brandishing” a weapon and acted “violently” toward officers. “I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign,” Noem said. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, an architect of The President’s mass deportation effort, went further on X, declaring Pretti “an assassin.” Bystander videos contradicted each claim, instead showing Pretti holding a cellphone and helping a woman who had been pepper sprayed by a federal officer. Within seconds, Pretti was sprayed, too, and taken to the ground by multiple officers. No video disclosed thus far has shown him unholstering his concealed weapon -– which he had a Minnesota permit to carry. It appeared that one officer took Pretti’s gun and walked away with it just before shots began. As multiple videos went viral online and on television, Vice President JD Vance reposted Miller’s assessment, while The President shared an alleged photo of “the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!).” Swift reactions from gun rights advocates The National Rifle Association, which has backed The President three times, released a statement that began by casting blame on Minnesota Democrats it accused of stoking protests. But the group lashed out after a federal prosecutor in California said on X that, “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.” That analysis, the NRA said, is “dangerous and wrong.” FBI Director Kash Patel magnified the blowback Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo.” No one, Patel said, can “bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple.” Erich Pratt, vice president of Gun Owners of America, was incredulous. “I have attended protest rallies while armed, and no one got injured,” he said on CNN. Conservative officials around the country made the same connection between the First and Second amendments. “Showing up at a protest is very American. Showing up with a weapon is very American,” state Rep. Jeremy Faison, who leads the GOP caucus in Tennessee, said on X. The President’s first-term vice president, Mike Pence, called for “full and transparent investigation of this officer involved shooting.” A different response from the past Liberals, conservatives and nonpartisan experts noted how the administration’s response differed from past conservative positions involving protests and weapons. Multiple The President supporters were found to have weapons during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The President issued blanket pardons to all of them. Republicans were critical in 2020 when Mark and Patricia McCloskey had to pay fines after pointing guns at protesters who marched through their St. Louis neighborhood after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And then there’s Kyle Rittenhouse, a counter-protester acquitted after fatally shooting two men and injuring another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during the post-Floyd protests. “You remember Kyle Rittenhouse and how he was made a hero on the right,” Trey Gowdy, a Republican former congressman and attorney for The President during one of his first-term impeachments. “Alex Pretti’s firearm was being lawfully carried. … He never brandished it.” Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor who has studied the history of the gun debate, said the fallout “shows how tribal we’ve become.” Republicans spent years talking about the Second Amendment as a means to fight government tyranny, he said. “The moment someone who’s thought to be from the left, they abandon that principled stance,” Winkler said. Meanwhile, Democrats who have criticized open and concealed carry laws for years, Winkler added, are not amplifying that position after Pretti’s death. Uncertain effects in an election year The blowback against the administration from core The President supporters comes as Republicans are trying to protect their threadbare majority in the U.S. House and face several competitive Senate races. Perhaps reflecting the stakes, GOP staff and campaign aides were reticent Monday to talk about the issue at all. The House Republican campaign chairman, Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, is sponsoring the GOP’s most significant gun legislation of this congressional term, a proposal to make state concealed-carry permits reciprocal across all states. The bill cleared the House Judiciary Committee last fall. Asked Monday whether Pretti’s death and the Minneapolis protests might affect debate, an aide to Speaker Mike Johnson did not offer any update on the bill’s prospects. Gun rights advocates have notched many legislative victories in Republican-controlled statehouses in recent decades, from rolling back gun-free zones around schools and churches to expanding gun possession rights in schools, on university campuses and in other public spaces. William Sack, legal director of the Second Amendment Foundation, said he was surprised and disappointed by the administration’s initial statements following the Pretti shooting. The President’s vacillating, he said, is “very likely to cost them dearly with the core of a constituency they count on.” Associated Press writer Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report. —Bill Barrow and Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press View the full article

Funding your franchise is an essential step in ensuring your business’s success. You’ll need to assess your total investment, including franchise fees and operational costs. There are various financing options available, from SBA loans to personal funding sources. Comprehending these avenues can greatly impact your ability to secure the necessary capital. In the following sections, we’ll break down each option and guide you through the application and approval processes. Key Takeaways Assess your total startup costs, including franchise fees and operational expenses, to determine your funding needs. Explore various funding options like SBA loans, traditional bank loans, and personal savings for financing your franchise. Prepare a comprehensive loan package with a solid business plan and financial projections to enhance your approval chances. Maintain a strong credit score and organize required documentation, such as financial statements, to demonstrate creditworthiness to lenders. Consult with a financial advisor or franchise expert to develop an effective funding strategy tailored to your specific situation. Understanding Franchise Financing When you’re considering investing in a franchise, awareness of franchise financing is vital to guarantee you’re making informed decisions. Franchise financing typically includes initial franchise fees, which range from $20,000 to over $100,000, depending on the brand. Well-known franchises, like McDonald’s, can demand substantial upfront investments, sometimes exceeding $2 million. Grasping these costs is fundamental for effective financial planning. Personal funds usually cover 10% to 30% of total expenses, demonstrating your commitment to lenders and enhancing your chances of approval. There are various financing options available, including franchise loans and SBA loans for franchise, which offer favorable terms and can provide up to $5 million. Knowing how to get a franchise loan can greatly impact your franchise funding success. Importance of Funding Your Franchise Securing sufficient funding for your franchise is vital, as it directly impacts your ability to operate effectively and achieve long-term success. Without adequate resources, covering initial franchise fees, equipment costs, and ongoing operational expenses can become challenging. Working capital for small businesses is important, as it helps manage expenses until your franchise generates positive cash flow. You might consider a personal loan for business or explore various franchise financing options, such as how to get a 1 million dollar business loan or a 3 million loan, depending on your needs. Engaging a knowledgeable business advisor can be invaluable in developing a funding strategy that aligns with your financial requirements and helps mitigate risks associated with personal funding. Personal Funding Options When considering personal funding options for your franchise, personal savings often serve as your main source of capital, with many entrepreneurs using a portion of their own finances to showcase commitment to potential lenders. You might likewise think about liquidating assets like 401(k) accounts to gather necessary funds, but be aware of the risks involved, including tax penalties if not handled correctly. Though self-funding gives you control over your investment decisions, it likewise means you’re taking on significant financial risk if your franchise doesn’t succeed. Utilizing Personal Savings Utilizing personal savings can be a strategic choice for funding your franchise, as it allows you to maintain direct control over your investment without the burden of debt. Many franchise owners rely on personal savings to cover 10% to 30% of their franchise costs, demonstrating commitment to lenders when seeking additional financing. Self-funding means you won’t incur interest payments or fees associated with loans, which can greatly aid cash flow management during the startup phase. Nevertheless, relying solely on personal funds poses financial risks, including the potential for substantial loss if the franchise doesn’t succeed. It’s crucial to weigh these risks carefully as you consider using personal savings for your franchise ownership endeavor. Liquidating Assets Effectively Liquidating assets can be an effective strategy for funding your franchise, providing you with immediate cash flow to cover initial costs. By carefully evaluating market conditions, you can maximize your returns from liquidating personal assets like stocks or real estate. Here are three key strategies to keep in mind: Utilize 401(k) Funds: Use the Rollover for Business Startups (ROBS) mechanism to access your retirement savings without penalties. Tap into Personal Savings: Contributing 10% to 30% of your total franchise costs demonstrates your commitment to potential lenders. Engage a Financial Advisor: They can help you navigate the intricacies of liquidating assets, optimizing funding while minimizing tax implications and financial losses. Risks of Self-Funding Self-funding your franchise can seem like a straightforward solution, especially after considering the benefits of liquidating assets. Nevertheless, it comes with significant risks that you should be aware of. Utilizing personal savings or assets can jeopardize your financial security and limit your funds for emergencies. Here’s a quick overview: Pros Cons Direct control High financial risk Demonstrates commitment Limits additional financing Quick access to funds Risk of losing personal assets While self-funding shows commitment to lenders, it may likewise hinder your ability to secure further financing. Financial advisors typically recommend balancing personal investments with external funding options to mitigate these risks effectively. Always assess your financial situation before proceeding. Exploring Franchise Financing Options When considering franchise financing options, it’s essential to understand the various avenues available to fund your investment. You may explore multiple sources that can cater to your specific needs: SBA Loans: These loans can provide up to $5 million for franchise-related expenses with favorable terms and government backing. Conventional Bank Loans: These often require a solid credit history and a detailed business plan, but they can offer lower interest rates for qualified applicants. Rollovers as Business Startups (ROBS): This option allows you to use your retirement funds for your franchise investment without early withdrawal penalties. Additionally, personal funds typically cover 10% to 30% of total costs, demonstrating commitment to franchise financing lenders and aiding in securing business loans for franchise startup. SBA Loans: A Popular Starting Point SBA loans serve as a popular starting point for many franchisees due to their favorable terms and accessibility. These loans are particularly customized for small business owners, offering lower down payments and longer repayment terms, making them an excellent choice for franchise financing. With competitive interest rates, SBA loans can cover initial investment costs and acquire crucial fixed assets necessary for launching your franchise. The SBA 7(a) loan program allows financing up to $5 million, with repayment terms of up to 10 years for equipment and 25 years for real estate. To qualify, you must be included in the SBA Franchise Directory, ensuring you pursue recognized and vetted business opportunities, enhancing your chances for success. Traditional Bank Loans When considering traditional bank loans for your franchise, you’ll need to meet specific eligibility criteria and navigate a detailed application process. Strong credit scores, a solid business plan, and collateral are key factors that lenders look for to secure funding. Comprehending these requirements is essential for streamlining your path to financing, so let’s break down what you need to know. Eligibility Criteria Overview Securing a traditional bank loan for your franchise involves meeting specific eligibility criteria that lenders require to mitigate their risk. Comprehending these requirements is vital for franchise financing. Here are three key factors to take into account: Credit Score: A strong credit score, typically above 680, is fundamental for qualifying for a business loan. Collateral: Many lenders require collateral, like real estate or personal assets, to secure the loan. Financial Documentation: You’ll need to provide documents needed for a business loan, including income statements and tax returns from the past two years. Research banks that offer specialized commercial loans for franchises to improve your chances of securing business loans for franchise startup. This preparation can notably streamline how to get a business loan. Application Process Steps Once you understand the eligibility criteria for obtaining a traditional bank loan, it’s time to focus on the application process. Start by preparing a thorough loan package that includes a detailed business plan, financial projections, and personal assets to demonstrate your repayment capability. A strong credit score, typically 700 or higher, is essential for securing favorable terms, as banks closely review your credit history. Be prepared to submit financial statements and collateral documentation during the application. Approval timelines can vary, often taking weeks to months, so plan accordingly and maintain open communication with your lender. Research specialized commercial financing options for franchise startup loans to identify the best fit for your financing franchise opportunities, especially if you’re considering a million dollar loan or how to get a loan with an LLC. Franchises That Offer In-House Financing Many franchise opportunities come with the added advantage of in-house financing, which can greatly streamline the funding process for aspiring franchisees. Franchises that offer financing directly simplify the capital access, allowing you to focus on launching your business. Here are three key benefits of in-house financing options: Tailored Programs: Many franchises provide financing solutions designed for your specific needs, making it easier to secure funds. Reduced Paperwork: In-house financing typically involves less documentation compared to traditional small business loans for franchise. Favorable Terms: Using in-house financing can result in better terms than a business loan for franchise startup. 401(k) Rollovers or ROBS Using a Rollover for Business Startups (ROBS) can be a smart way to fund your franchise without tapping into your savings or facing early withdrawal penalties. ROBS allows you to use your 401(k) or IRA funds as a retirement plan investment, helping cover franchise fees and other start-up costs. Here’s a quick overview of ROBS: Aspect Details Initial Investment Access to significant capital Business Type Required Must create a C corporation Necessary Consultation Consult a financial professional Equipment and Asset-Based Loans When considering funding for your franchise, equipment and asset-based loans can be a practical choice. These secured loans use the value of your equipment, vehicles, or real estate as collateral, often allowing you to finance up to 100% of the equipment cost. It’s essential to evaluate your startup costs and ongoing expenses carefully, as these loans can help manage your cash flow with predictable monthly payments and potential tax benefits. Definition and Types Equipment and asset-based loans serve as a crucial financial resource for franchise owners seeking to acquire necessary tools and facilities without overwhelming upfront costs. These secured loans use your business equipment, vehicles, or real estate as collateral, making it easier to secure funding at lower interest rates. Here are three key aspects to evaluate: Financing Amount: It typically hinges on the collateral’s value, ensuring lenders have security in case of default. Fixed-Rate Financing: This allows you to predict expenses and manage cash flow effectively. Startup Cost Review: Thoroughly assess your startup costs and ongoing expenses to align financing with your business needs. Understanding equipment financing for startup business and exploring franchise finance options can guide you in how to get a business loan effectively. Benefits of Secured Financing Secured financing offers several benefits that can greatly improve your franchise’s financial stability and growth potential. By using collateral, such as equipment or real estate, you can lower interest rates and increase your chances of loan approval. Equipment loans allow you to finance specific machinery, often with terms matching the equipment’s useful life, which improves your financial planning. Asset-based loans provide flexibility, enabling you to leverage existing assets for additional capital to cover growth or operational expenses. With secured financing, you typically enjoy predictable monthly payments, which aid in cash flow management for franchise owners. Overall, these financing options can considerably reduce upfront costs, making vital equipment and assets more accessible for your business. Evaluating Startup Costs Grasping startup costs is crucial for any franchise owner looking to establish a successful business. Evaluating these costs can help you secure the right financing, such as equipment loans for startup businesses. Here’s what to contemplate: Identify Equipment Needs: Determine what equipment is necessary for your franchise and its associated costs. Explore Financing Options: Research various franchise startup loans and the best small business equipment financing available, focusing on fixed-rate options. Assess Working Capital: Verify you have enough working capital for new business expenses, like marketing and operations, during adherence to business loan guidelines. Alternative Lenders and Financing When you’re exploring funding options for your franchise, alternative lenders can offer a practical solution, especially if you don’t meet the requirements set by traditional banks. These lenders provide fast financing solutions with quicker access to funds, often requiring less documentation than conventional loans. Specialized alternative lending Kiva companies can cater to unique business needs, offering immediate funding options for startups and franchises facing urgent expenses. Nevertheless, it’s essential to compare multiple offers, as interest rates and terms can vary considerably. Although alternative financing can be a lifeline for quick cash, you should be aware of potentially higher interest rates compared to traditional banking options. Always read the fine print to fully understand the associated costs. Friends, Family, and Private Investors Funding a franchise often extends beyond traditional lending sources, and tapping into your personal network can be a practical approach. Friends and family can provide funding with more flexible terms, whereas private investors can improve your resources. To make the most of these relationships, consider the following: Communicate Your Business Plan: Clearly outline your vision and financial projections to build trust. Formalize Agreements: Treat loans or investments as business transactions to protect both parties and maintain relationships. Engage in Open Discussions: Talk about expectations and potential returns to guarantee alignment of interests. Building partnerships with private investors can ease financial burdens and set a solid foundation for your franchise’s long-term success. Loan Application Process When you start the loan application process, you’ll need to gather specific documentation to demonstrate your business’s potential. This includes preparing detailed financial statements and comprehending how your creditworthiness will be evaluated by lenders. Required Documentation Overview Securing a loan for your franchise requires careful preparation and organization of required documentation. This documentation is vital in providing lenders with a clear comprehension of your franchise operations. Here are three fundamental items to include: Financial Statements: Prepare balance sheets and income statements to illustrate your business’s current financial health. Business Plan: A well-researched business plan, along with financial projections, showcases your franchise’s potential for profitability and growth. Personal Assets: Document your personal assets to demonstrate your financial stability and commitment to the franchise investment. Additionally, expect a thorough credit check, as lenders will assess your creditworthiness before approving your loan. Organizing these documents effectively can greatly improve your chances of securing funding. Financial Statement Preparation Preparing financial statements is a critical step in the loan application process, as lenders rely heavily on these documents to assess your business’s financial viability. To meet business loan requirements, include a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement, which together provide a thorough view of your financial health. Make certain these financial statements reflect at least three years of historical data and incorporate projections for the next three to five years. Don’t forget to include personal financial statements detailing your assets, liabilities, and income to further showcase your stability. Utilize accounting software or consult a professional accountant to make sure your statements comply with widely accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and are error-free, enhancing your chances of loan approval. Creditworthiness Evaluation Process After you’ve prepared your financial statements, the next step in the loan application process involves evaluating your creditworthiness. Lenders assess your financial health and repayment ability based on several key factors. Grasping these can help you figure out how to get a million dollar business loan. Credit Score: A thorough credit check reveals your credit score, which is essential for approval. Personal Assets: Demonstrating your personal assets strengthens your application and shows financial stability. Well-Structured Business Plan: Including a detailed plan with financial projections improves your chances. Approval Process Guiding the approval process for franchise financing can be challenging, especially since it varies considerably by lender and the type of loan you’re pursuing. You’ll need to prepare a thorough loan package that includes detailed documentation like your credit history, financial statements, and business projections. Lenders use this information to evaluate your creditworthiness and ability to repay the loan. Grasping the specific lender requirements and criteria is essential to navigate the approval process successfully. The timeframe for approval can range from a few days to several weeks, depending on the complexity of your application. A well-prepared loan package can notably increase your chances of securing the financing needed to launch your franchise. Seeking Guidance for Franchise Financing Steering through the intricacies of franchise financing can be overwhelming, especially after you’ve tackled the approval process with lenders. To navigate this complex environment effectively, consider these steps: Engage a financial advisor specializing in franchise funding to improve your comprehension of financing solutions that fit your needs. Consult a franchise consultant who can provide expert guidance on franchise financing options and help you prepare an all-encompassing business plan and loan package financing. Seek insights from seasoned franchise owners to learn financing strategies that worked for them, helping you avoid potential pitfalls. Using resources like Neighborly can likewise connect you with qualified lenders franchise, ensuring you find customized financing solutions that align with your specific situation. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the 7 Day Rule for Franchise? The 7 Day Rule for franchising mandates that franchisors must provide you with a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) at least seven days before you sign any agreements or pay fees. This rule guarantees you have adequate time to review important details about fees, obligations, and the franchisor’s financial performance. It’s designed to promote transparency and protect you from hasty decisions, helping you make an informed choice before committing to a franchise. Why Is It Only $10,000 to Open a Chick-Fil-A? The initial fee to open a Chick-fil-A franchise is only $10,000 since the company retains ownership of the restaurant and covers the majority of startup costs, including real estate and equipment. This model allows for lower financial barriers, encouraging committed franchisees to manage their locations actively. Even though total investments range from $200,000 to $2 million, Chick-fil-A provides extensive training and support, contributing to the franchise’s overall success and profitability. What Are the 4 P’s of Franchising? The 4 P’s of franchising are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. First, you need to guarantee your product meets customer needs during aligning with your brand. Next, set competitive pricing that reflects your offerings’ value. Then, choose the right location, focusing on accessibility and visibility for your target market. Finally, implement effective promotional strategies to create brand awareness, utilizing any marketing resources provided by your franchisor to attract customers effectively. Can You Get a Loan of $50,000 for a Startup Business? Yes, you can secure a loan of $50,000 for a startup business through various financing options. Consider applying for an SBA loan, which often provides favorable terms for new entrepreneurs. Traditional bank loans are another option but may require strong credit, a solid business plan, and collateral. On the other hand, explore alternative lenders for quicker access to funds. Additionally, some franchises offer in-house financing, simplifying the process further for new owners. Conclusion In conclusion, securing funding for your franchise involves a clear comprehension of your financial needs and available options. By evaluating personal funding sources, exploring loans like SBA options, and preparing a solid business plan, you can effectively navigate the financing terrain. Connecting with friends, family, and private investors may likewise provide valuable support. Finally, seeking professional guidance can further improve your chances of obtaining the necessary capital to launch and sustain your franchise successfully. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Funding Your Franchise – A Step-by-Step Guide to Get Funding" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

With the monumental winter storm recently covering most of the nation, now seems a good time to look at some cold and winter weather myths and misinformation. You might be freezing, but there's no excuse for being freezing and ignorant. Myth: A blizzard is a heavy snowstormTechnically, for a storm to be a blizzard, it must have these things: wind speeds of over 35 mph and low visibility (under 1/4 mile) for at least three hours. So you could have blizzard from blowing snow, even if no snow is falling, and you could get a ton of accumulation without it technically ever being a blizzard. (Whether it's a snowstorm or a blizzard likely won't matter to you if you're trapped in it, however.) Myth: It can be too cold to snowThere's some nuance to this one. Extremely cold air contains very little moisture, but it has to be very cold. According to Matt Peroutka, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, "Once the air temperature at ground level drops below about -10 degrees Fahrenheit, (-20 degrees Celsius), snowfall becomes unlikely in most places." But there could still be something like snow. "There actually is no such thing as too low a temperature for some sort of ice crystal to form and for such crystals to settle out and land on the surface," explains Fred W. Decker of the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University, in an interview with Scientific American. "Such a deposit of ice needles is not usually considered 'snow,' however; in the Arctic, for instance, we might refer instead to an ice fog." Myth: You lose most of your body heat through your headI dug deeply into this myth here, but the bottom line is, not wearing a hat accounts for around seven to 10 percent of bodily heat loss because your head accounts for about seven to 10 percent of your body. On the other hand, how cold you feel is subjective, and not wearing a hat in cold weather will probably make you feel colder, even if you're not actually losing most of your body heat. Bottom line: Wear a hat to feel warm in cold weather, or don't wear a hat to prove you're not losing too much heat. Myth: Alcohol keeps you warm in cold weatherIn an emergency situation, drinking brandy from the cask around a rescue St. Bernard's neck is a bad idea. Alcohol makes you feel warm by dilating blood vessels, but it actually lowers your body temperature by drawing heat away from your core, which increases your risk of hypothermia. But, much like "losing heat through your head" myth, drinking alcohol often makes people feel warmer, so if you're safe on your porch and you want a hot toddy, it will seem to "warm you up." Speaking of... Myth: Drinking hot liquids warms you faster than drinking cold liquidsIt's probably impossible to drink enough of a hot liquid to raise the temperature of your body’s core. On the other hand (and for the third entry in a row) it might make you feel warmer to drink something warm, and often that's what you really want, even if it isn't literally making you warmer. So if you're safe on your porch and you want a hot tea to feel cozy, go for it. Traditional winter signs that don’t actually predict anythingThere might be a lot we can learn from folk traditions, but man, they get a lot of things wrong too. The following are some folklore sayings about winter that seem dubious: Thick corn husks, onion skins, and apple skins means a cold winter: The thickness of the outside of vegetables reflect the condition under which they were grown; they don't predict the future. Squirrels with very bushy tails means a cold winter: Like the vegetables, the thickness of a squirrel's tail is generally determined by how healthy and fed it was leading up to winter. More nuts in summer means beefier squirrels. You can predict winter severity by looking at a caterpillar tail: They say the wider the rusty brown sections on a wooly caterpillar, the milder the coming winter will be. The more black there is, the more severe the winter. The problem is, you'd have to look at a lot of caterpillars to even check if this is true, because some would have wider brown stripes and some wouldn't. According to University of Massachusetts entomology Mike Peters in the Farmer's Almanac, “There’s evidence that the number of brown hairs has to do with the age of the caterpillar—in other words, how late it got going in the spring. The [band] does say something about a heavy winter or an early spring. The only thing is … it’s telling you about the previous year.” Weird myth: This winter storm was manmade and designed to freeze a gigantic sea serpentThe weirder corners of the internet are spreading the theory that the Biblical beast Leviathan has awakened, and the winter storm was created by us to freeze it in its tracks. Their evidence is satellite photos which seem to show a gigantic serpent shape in the Atlantic Ocean. As much as I'd welcome a Biblical sea monster rising from the ocean to seek retribution—all hail Leviathan!—it's unlikely to exist. I'm 99.9% certain (still have some hope) these were natural geological formations seen on Google Earth being mistaken for a sea monster as a result of pareidolia, the human tendency to see patterns in random data. Also: We can't control winter storms any more than we can control hurricanes, even if we were about to be eaten by a sea monster. View the full article

In an era where small businesses strive to optimize every dollar spent, a new piece of legislation could significantly impact their bottom line. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) recently urged Congress to pass the Credit Card Competition Act, a bill aimed at reforming credit card processing and alleviating the financial burdens associated with high swipe fees. The NFIB, the leading advocacy group for small businesses in the U.S., emphasizes that these fees have escalated disproportionately, now ranking among the most significant monthly expenses for many small business owners. This legislation, reintroduced by Senators Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), seeks to foster competition in the credit card processing market. It aims to provide small business owners the flexibility to choose between multiple credit card networks, a right that 92% of NFIB members firmly support. Brad Close, President of NFIB, commented on the impetus behind the bill. “Introducing much-needed competition into the credit card processing market will force networks to compete for their customers, just as small businesses compete for customers every day,” he explained. “Small business owners pay exorbitant fees just to be able to accept credit cards from their customers, and those costs have skyrocketed. It’s time for Washington to advance the Credit Card Competition Act so small business owners can invest in their own employees and communities instead of Wall Street’s bottom line.” The current landscape for credit card fees has left small businesses feeling the financial pinch. Swipe fees, known as interchange fees, can eat into profits, especially for businesses operating with tight margins. The proposed act would allow small business owners the flexibility to utilize different networks, potentially leading to lower fees. This shift might offer significant relief by allowing them to reinvest in their operations, from hiring additional staff to enhancing customer experience. However, while the benefits appear promising, small business owners will want to remain vigilant. Transitioning to new processing networks could introduce complexities regarding compatibility with existing systems and customer preferences. Not all networks offer the same services or ease of use, and businesses would need to evaluate which networks best align with their financial and operational needs. Moreover, the passage of this legislation could disrupt the current balance in the credit card industry, leading to shifts in practices among larger banks and networks. Small business owners might encounter a learning curve as they navigate these changes. It would be essential for them to stay informed about the evolving landscape and be proactive in seeking out the best options. The bipartisan support for the Credit Card Competition Act reflects a growing recognition of the challenges small businesses face. President The President echoed similar sentiments, labeling swipe fees as “out of control.” His early support adds an influential voice to the campaign for reform. For small business owners, staying abreast of this legislative development can provide much-needed insight into financially optimizing their operations. As the NFIB continues its push for the Credit Card Competition Act, small businesses should begin preparing strategies to take advantage of potential cost savings. Understanding these dynamics and preparing for the potential implications of new credit card processing options could give small business owners not only an edge in managing operational costs but also a greater sense of empowerment in a market traditionally dominated by large corporations. For more details on this initiative and to keep track of its progress, small business owners can refer to the NFIB’s website for ongoing updates. The Credit Card Competition Act could ultimately be a game-changer, allowing small businesses to reclaim some financial control and focus on what truly matters: fostering growth and innovation within their communities. For further information, you can read the original press release here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Congress Urged to Pass Credit Card Competition Act to Aid Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Yahoo has launched its first version of its AI-based answer engine named Yahoo! Scout. Yahoo! Scout is available at scout.yahoo.com and is also embedded through Yahoo’s massive network of sites; Yahoo News, Finance, Mail and of course, Yahoo Search. Think of it as a Yahoo-branded AI companion for Yahoo users, that is there to help you along the way within those specific properties. What is Yahoo Scout. Yahoo Scout is Yahoo’s take at an AI search engine and companion, much like Google’s AI Mode or OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but with a flare from Yahoo. Yahoo told me that they wanted Yahoo Scout to have personality, to make it fun and engaging for users to interact with and allow all consumers of all ages to easily use and understand. When you first visit Yahoo Scout, you are greeted with a fun home page, with a search box, a fun slogan and an animated icon above it, making it feel friendly and warm to use. There are also suggested searches below the search box, including ways to filter those suggestions based on topics such as news, finance, sports, shopping and travel. On the left are your previous queries, so you can go back in time and pick up from where you left off. Here is a screenshot of the home page – this one has a cowboy hat, but you can find a crystal ball, gold medal, walking cartoon brain, and much more. Yahoo Scout’s advantage. The Yahoo Search team gave me early access to play around with Yahoo Scout and while the interface is familiar to some of its competitors, the Yahoo-only elements do stand out as unique to Yahoo. Yahoo’s advantage over many other companies doing AI in Search is that it already has a massive user base across Yahoo Mail, News, Finance and even search. Yahoo has over 500 million user profiles, and stores data such as queries, usage, intent, and more. It also has over one billion entities in its knowledge graph, and 18 trillion consumer events and signals across all those properties. Yahoo can use this to make a more personal AI-search experience. It can also categorize queries better than most because of this data. Note, Yahoo is the second largest email company and third largest search engine, the company told me. Yahoo Scout can incorporate its rich content from its properties directly into the responses, including the best of Yahoo such as Yahoo Finance widgets, detailed financial information, tables and citations. Weather results, news results and much more. “Search is fundamentally changing, and our team has been inspired to use our decades of experience and extremely rare assets to create something uniquely useful for Yahoo’s hundreds of millions of monthly users,” said Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo. “This beta launch is just the starting point. From search to our industry-leading verticals, Yahoo Scout will help our users accomplish their goals online faster and better than ever before.” Sending traffic to you, the publisher. Jim Lanzone, the CEO of Yahoo, told me that Scout is very much close to heart with Yahoo’s original mission of being the trusted guide to the internet. And thus from the ground up in building Yahoo Scout, Yahoo incorporated ways to honor the relationship with the open web by driving traffic downstream, to the content creators. Yahoo Scout responses have big and wide blue highlights over its textual responses, that when overlayed by your mouse cursor, can be clicked on to go to the source of that response. Each response also has a “featured source” that is bright and easy to see and click on. Yahoo uses tables, imagery and other methods to highlight content, plus it promotes relevant news articles and sources throughout the answers. Jim Lanzone told me that the first iterations of AI engines did not do nearly enough to send traffic downstream, to where the content of those answers were coming from. Yahoo wanted to set an example on how to try to do this right. There isn’t enough revenue out there for every publisher to make licensing deals with AI companies and the way, historically, the relationship worked, and worked well, was to send traffic to those sources. Here is an example of how Yahoo Scout has links to sources – hovering over that blue highlight, shows the source and you can click on it to navigate there. The purple highlight, “Read more” featured source section also aims to drive traffic downstream: CTR expectations. I asked Yahoo, what is the expected click-through rate from Yahoo Scout to publishers. The truth is, they did not know. They hope to learn a lot when it goes public and iterate to continue to improve clicks downstream, they told me. This is its first release of Yahoo Scout and real user data should be telling. What they expect is that query length with be longer in Yahoo Scout than Yahoo Search, ad loads will be lighter and they are all hoping there will be a much higher CTR than the industry average. Yahoo promised me that they will build a way to let publishers see impressions and click data at some point in the future. Maybe a Yahoo Webmaster Tools without the crawling and indexing data, since that is still powered by Microsoft Bing. Yahoo Scout in every Yahoo property. You will be able to find Yahoo Scout through all of the Yahoo properties: Yahoo Search will incorporate AI summaries powered by Yahoo Scout Yahoo News will give you key highlights from articles and even incorporate the daily digest audio summary Yahoo Finance will incorporate a new Analyze button also powered by Yahoo Scout Yahoo Mail will also summarize your emails with AI and even extract actionable items, like adding items to your calendar. Examples of Yahoo Scout in action. Here are some examples of Yahoo Scout, it is not perfect, but for a 6 month project, I have to say I am impressed. I asked Yahoo Scout with some help on how SEO works and it gave a nice response (of course, SEO is complex and not everyone would agree with this response). There are citations throughout the summary: I asked it to give me some sources of sites to use to find content on the topic as a follow up to that query. Clearly there are many missed opportunities here to link out more, whcih I shared with Yahoo and they agreed. I asked Yahoo Scout how can I navigate to these sources mentioned above and it did give me links at that point: Here is a screenshot of another citation, when you hover your mouse cursor over it: Here are some other searches I tried including: Entertainment: As you can see, it incorporates news articles, with larger graphics in very clickable card formats. Finance: For finance-related queries, Yahoo brings in Yahoo Finance. I was not able to generate stock charts, although in a demo I was given, I was shown that live. So maybe it was being worked on during my tests: Weather: I was testing this Sunday morning, as the big snow storm was touching down in New York: I was able to get a Yahoo Weather chart: With tips on how to stay warm: Sports: The Super Bowl is coming up and I was hoping to get some predictions: As a Jets fan all my life, I wanted to know if the Jets will have any chance at winning the Super Bowl in the next 10 years – I guess not likely. But I am happy to see that chart embedded in the answer: Shopping: And then Yahoo gave me some advice on how to dress during this weather: Ads and commissions. Yahoo Scout will have ads at the bottom of some of the responses. Plus, the commerce-related queries will be monetized through affiliate commissions, which is a common revenue method across the web. Yahoo told me the ads are still powered by Microsoft Advertising, but Yahoo controls how those ads appear within these interfaces. These ads will be charged on a CPC basis, not an impression basis, as some other AI engines announced. Here is a screenshot of a Progressive Insurance ad for questions about car insurance. Here is a screenshot of product results that are labeled, “Yahoo may earn commission from these links.” How Yahoo Scout came about. For about three years now, Yahoo has been hinting about making a return to the search game. In 2009, Yahoo made a deal with Microsoft to have Microsoft power Yahoo Search and that was the end of Yahoo building its own search technology. Literally, Yahoo has outsources Search since then and has not done its own search technology until now, with Yahoo Scout. That is until now. About six month ago, Yahoo acquired Eric Feng’s company to lead up consumer search at Yahoo. Eric Feng is known for co-founding an online video platform startup called Mojiti, which was acquired by Hulu in 2007, in which Eric became the founding CTO and head of product at Hulu. But before that, he worked at Microsoft in the Research labs, working on solving problems with Search. “Yahoo’s deep knowledge base, 30 years in the making, allows us to deliver guidance that our users can trust and easily understand, and will become even more personalized over the coming months,” said Eric Feng, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo Research Group, the creators of Yahoo Scout. “Yahoo Scout now powers a new generation of intelligence experiences across Yahoo, seamlessly integrated into the products people use every day.” Jim Lanzone, the CEO of Yahoo, who in his own right has a long history in search, as the CEO of Ask.com for many years, told me that Eric Feng has been instrumental in building out Yahoo Scout in the past 6 months. And there is so much more to come, this is just the first public release and you can expect many more interations and improvements to Yahoo Scout in the near future. Anthropic. Yahoo Scout is not built on its own LLM, Yahoo partnered with Anthropic to use Claude as Yahoo Scout’s primary foundational AI model. Anthropic is one of the top artificial intelligence companies in the market. It has arguably the best AI for coders and coding frameworks named Claude. Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former members of OpenAI, including siblings Daniela Amodei and Dario Amodei, who serve as president and CEO, respectively. In September 2023, Amazon announced an investment of up to $4 billion. Google committed $2 billion the next month. As of November 2025, Anthropic has an estimated value of $350 billion. While the foundational AI models use Anthropic, Yahoo has customized it and incorporates Yahoo’s proprietary data to make it unique and useful. Doing these searches on Anthropic will not give you anywhere close to the same experience as you would get on Yahoo Scout. “When you’re serving hundreds of millions of users, you need AI that can do more than retrieve information – it has to reason, synthesize, and explain. Yahoo is building toward a more personalized, trustworthy kind of search, and Claude’s ability to deliver that quality of guidance at scale is at the heart of Yahoo Scout,” said Ami Vora, Head of Product at Anthropic. Microsoft Bing. Plus, Microsoft Bing data is also incorporated into Yahoo Scout. The underlining search index is from Bing, but the responses, ranking, and experience is all Yahoo. “Yahoo Scout also builds on Yahoo’s long-standing relationship with Microsoft by leveraging Microsoft Bing’s grounding API. By combining this API with Yahoo’s trusted data and content ecosystem, Yahoo Scout ensures that answers are informed by authoritative sources from across the open web, Yahoo wrote. Plus, Yahoo is also joining Microsoft’s Publisher Content Marketplace pilot. Microsoft’s Publisher Content Marketplace can help support revenue for publishers, the company said. Yahoo wrote this is, “reflecting a shared commitment to expanding publisher reach, connecting original work with new audiences, and supporting sustainable revenue opportunities for publishers.” Hallucinations. I asked about hallucinations and Yahoo told me they put in a lot of guardrails to prevent hallucinations as much as possible. The Yahoo entity graph, the news content, and other Yahoo-specific data are used to ground the responses so that communications should be minimal and less than some other AI engines. In fact, they believe the hallucination rate would be “very low” compared to other AI engines. Agents. Many AI-engines are releasing agentic experiences, AI-agents, to complete tasks for you. Google, OpenAI and Microsoft are investing big time into this. Yahoo Scout has added some elements of this including inside of Yahoo Mail to add calendar events, smart compose features and more. Yahoo promises a lot more to come on this front. Why we care. It is such an exciting time for search these days and to see Yahoo enter the space, especially for someone like me who has been in search for over 20 years, it is just so nice to see. Seeing industry legends, such as Jim Lanzone, Eric Feng and Brian Provost take up search with AI is making search fun again and I very much look forward to seeing what else Yahoo has up its sleeves. The Yahoo Scout answer engine is available today in beta for U.S. users at Scout.Yahoo.com and in the Yahoo Search app on iOS and Android. For more about Yahoo Scout, see this help document. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...View the full article

Big changes have come to social media platform TikTok. On Jan. 22, TikTok's operations were passed from Chinese company ByteDance to TikTok USDS Joint Venture, a new entity backed by Larry Ellison's Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and United Arab Emirates-based investment firm MGX. Days later, on Jan. 23, TikTok introduced new Terms of Service for users. So far, the transition has not been smooth. Users immediately raised privacy concerns over the new TOS, taking to X with posts like this: This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Changes to TikTok's privacy policy While TikTok's new terms sound draconian, they aren't vastly different from TikTok's old TOS (which were draconian). The main change covers AI. The company added a new section to its TOS saying it will collect information from "AI interactions, including prompts, questions, files, and other types of information that you submit to our AI-powered interfaces, as well as the responses they generate," so don't think the conversation you have will stay between you and the chatbot. TikTok also says it will collect "precise location data," unless users opt out. This will let the service collect user's exact coordinates instead of a general city or region, that the company will use to serve "customized ads and other sponsored content." Another tweak: TikTok now promises it will act in accordance with "applicable law, such as for permitted purposes under the California Consumer Privacy Act," instead of the more general "applicable state privacy laws" in the old terms. Other than that, the terms remain largely the same as they were before. TikTok says it collects data that is user-provided, inferred, or contextual, that includes location data, age, email, phone numbers, chat messages, metadata on anything you upload, religious beliefs, mental or physical health diagnosis, sexual life or sexual orientation, immigration status, and more. Then it uses that data to advertise to you, to "infer additional information about you," train its algorithm, and basically anything else it's legally allowed to use it for. Opting out of TikTok's data collection Credit: Stephen Johnson If you'd prefer that TikTok collect less of your personal data, you can go to the settings and privacy page in the app and opt out of "Targeted ads outside of TikTok," "Using Off-TikTok activity for ad targeting," turn off location tracking, stop contact syncing, and make other changes. You can also go to your phone’s Settings page, select TikTok, and change its permissions to track your location. Here's a deeper dive into how and why to change TikTok's privacy settings. Accusations of TikTok censorshipAlong with promising to delete the app over data-collection worries, many TikTokers are alleging that the platform is censoring or throttling posts based on politics, particularly videos related to the shooting of Alex Pretti. On the #TikTokCensorship hashtag on X, users report that the Democratic Party's TikTok videos have gone from millions of views to zero views and that the platform is censoring videos about Jeffrey Epstein as well as other subjects. It's too early to tell whether these reports are a result in changes in TikTok's algorithm or the result of a technical glitch. TikTok released a statement blaming videos with zero views and other performance issues on a "cascading system failure" caused by a power outage: This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. TikTok's new management vowed last month to retrain the platform's recommendation algorithm "on US user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation." What being free of "outside manipulation" looks like in a practical sense has yet to be seen. View the full article

AI Max is Google’s latest foray into semi-keywordless targeting. While you need keywords for the system to have a starting place, Google uses signals beyond keywords in deciding how to show ads to searchers. In accounts with a strong history of broad match success, AI Max can be highly effective at finding new conversions. If accounts are not well-optimized or have not been successful with broad match, AI Max can be a huge money pit. To clear up a rumor before we get into the data: you do not have to use AI Max to have ads appear in AI Overviews. Broad match keywords can show ads in AI Overviews regardless of your AI Max usage. We’re looking at AI Max as a conversion expansion option, not just an option to show in AI Overviews. This article examines the review steps you should take before you decide to test AI Max. What to check before enabling AI Max Accurate conversion tracking Your conversion tracking must be accurate, deduplicated, and focused on business outcomes. AI Max optimizes toward what you have defined as success. If you aren’t tracking all your conversions, or if your conversions are inflated, AI Max will be working from inaccurate data and making poor decisions. Automated bidding with a conversion-focused strategy Broad match only works well when you have a bid strategy that is focused on conversions, such as: Maximize conversion value. Maximize conversions. Target CPA. Target ROAS. Our experiments with AI Max have shown that it is much more predictable with one of the target options (Target CPA or Target ROAS) than with the max bid options (Maximize conversion value or Maximize conversions). Since the Max conversion options are meant to get you the most possible, regardless of the CPA or ROAS, they will often continue to spend your budget when the next set of conversions could have exceptionally high CPAs or very low ROAS. If you use AI Max with one of the max bid options, pay close attention to your budget and the AI Max data. Conversion volume Technically, you can enable AI Max without any conversions for a campaign. However, with under 30 conversions per month, AI Max has been highly erratic. At over 100 conversions per month, it has done well more often than not, assuming you have had success with broad match in the past. In general, you will want to test AI Max in campaigns that have at least 30 conversions per month. If you are going to test AI Max, starting with non-brand campaigns that have a high conversion volume will usually give you a better introduction to AI Max’s possibilities for your account. No impression share lost due to budget If you’re already losing impressions due to your budget, your handpicked keywords will receive even less budget if you enable AI Max. The goal is to spend as much as you can on your top keywords, and then have AI Max experiment with the budget we can’t spend. If you are already losing impressions due to your budget, then enabling AI Max usually results in poorer performance. Have proven broad match success AI Max will treat all of your keywords as broad match, and then expand even further than your broad match keywords. If you haven’t successfully used broad match, then enabling AI Max will be a waste of money. You should first ensure that broad match can work for you, which might require reorganizing ad groups, testing new ads, and optimizing your landing pages. Only after you have consistently seen good results with broad match should you try AI Max. Dig deeper: How to tell if Google’s AI Max for search is actually working Should you use URL expansion? When you enable AI Max, you can expand URLs to other pages on your website. This means that Google can pick any page of your website to use as a landing page when AI Max triggers an ad. Google allows you to exclude URLs. Most sites should exclude: Help files and support pages. Pages not built for conversions. Pages that do not have conversion tracking enabled. FAQs. Blogs. Old landing page tests that are still live. Old website designs that are still live. A few people have found success with using AI Max with blogs and support pages. However, these seem to be exceptions more often than the standard result. AI Max has struggled when there are many geographic landing pages. We’ve seen accounts that target different geographies by campaign, and each campaign has its own set of landing pages. AI Max has routinely mismatched the campaign’s geographic target with landing pages intended for other geographies. For example, your California campaigns are sending all of their traffic to landing pages dedicated to Texas traffic. If you want to use AI Max URL expansion, and you have landing pages dedicated to various geographies, you will need to exclude all the landing pages that are irrelevant to the geography of your campaign. For companies that create dedicated landing pages for each campaign or ad group, I have yet to see an example of AI Max finding better landing pages. In every example, AI Max’s URL expansion has needed to be turned off. Eventually, this option might work for advertisers, but I have yet to see that happen. You can review the URLs that Google is using and exclude them. If you turn on URL expansion, you will want to regularly review these URLs. Dig deeper: AI Max in action: What early case studies and a new analysis script reveal Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Should you try automatically created assets? My great hope for AI Max is the automatically created assets. I wish I could enable this only for extensions. AI Max can help you scale messaging tremendously. It can go through all of your ad groups and automatically create sitelinks and callouts at the ad group level. This level of customization is one that many advertisers never have time to fully explore. We had a client who enabled this feature, and suddenly, all their sitelinks linked to pages that were irrelevant to the keywords. We’ve seen other clients use this feature, and their callouts improved dramatically. Google still has a ways to go in how they auto-create assets, but this is a feature I have high hopes for. Unfortunately, you can’t enable this feature for only ad assets (extensions). If you enable automatically created assets, Google will create additional RSA assets for you. These assets can cause customer confusion by: Making promises your brand doesn’t meet. Using messaging that isn’t compliant with the law for regulated industries or doesn’t follow your brand guidelines. You can write guidelines for how you want your ads to appear and rules on what shouldn’t be used. If you’re going to have Google automatically create assets, you’ll want to add guidance on how the ads should be created. Note that term exclusions and text guidelines (Google’s official names for these features) don’t appear to be enabled in all accounts right now and may still be rolling out to advertisers. Overall, Google’s auto-generated RSA assets have a poor track record, and if you enable them, you will want to regularly review what Google is creating on your behalf. How to test AI Max Since Google has a history of matching broad match keywords to other brands and generic keywords, AI Max has been very inconsistent with brand keywords. I’d suggest starting with your top non-brand keywords to test AI Max. For most brands, there are more conversions to be had in non-brand expansion than in finding more people who are already searching for your brand. AI Max can be enabled at the campaign or ad group level. One of the best ways to run a limited test with AI Max is to enable it only in a few ad groups that have a lot of conversion data and a successful history with broad match. In the interface, enabling AI Max for only a few ad groups is painfully slow. You have to enable AI Max at the campaign level, then go into every ad group and turn it off where you don’t want it enabled. The Google Ads Editor lets you turn AI Max on or off at the ad group level. If you want to test AI Max in only a few ad groups, then use the editor for your initial setup. Dig deeper: When to trust Google Ads AI and when you shouldn’t Is your account ready to test AI Max? Google has long sought a keywordless targeting option for search. Its first step was Performance Max. AI Max is another foray to introduce advertisers to the idea that they don’t have to choose every keyword in their search campaigns. Like all Google Ads products, they usually perform poorly when first launched. After a few years of data gathering, refinement, and additional advertiser controls, these products often prove successful. AI Max is still a new product. Some accounts have had success with it. Others have only found failure. As with everything Google Ads-related, you should test it before widely adopting it. The best way to test AI Max is to find non-brand ad groups with high conversion volume and a successful history with broad match keywords. Perform limited tests in these ad groups. If you find success, you can expand the ad groups that use AI Max. During your tests, you must review your search terms, URLs, and auto-created assets. If you are not going to add these tasks to your workflow, then you are not ready to test every AI Max feature. AI Max’s potential is enormous. However, it isn’t a good solution for everyone. Its ad writing can be quite poor. The new search terms can be hit-or-miss. You must babysit it. However, the time savings and potential are undeniable. While I believe there is a bright future for AI Max, you must first ensure you complete all steps to verify that your account is ready to test it. If you follow the steps outlined in this article, you’ll know if you’re ready to test AI Max and see what these new campaign options can do for you. View the full article

A privacy-centric cellphone carrier called Cape is now officially available across the United States, offering a unique set of features to protect users from surveillance and identity theft. Many cellphone users already use virtual private networks, encrypted messaging apps, and secure password managers to help keep their data safe. But those tools can’t always protect against security issues with the underlying cell network itself, and other phone companies don’t typically compete on privacy, says Cape CEO John Doyle. “Before we built Cape, there was not an obvious differentiated choice in the network space,” Doyle says. But Cape, founded in 2022, is designed to protect customers from privacy risks like SIM swapping, where a cellphone number is transferred to a new phone without the owner’s permission to intercept sensitive messages like authentication codes, and IMSI catchers, which snoop on phone users by impersonating legitimate cell towers and monitoring the unique international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) codes they transmit. That enables their operators, whether spy agencies or other mysterious parties, to track how people move about and potentially intercept calls and texts. (Cape also assisted the Electronic Frontier Foundation in developing technology to spot such devices, which led to evidence of one being found near the 2024 Democratic National Convention.) The company also doesn’t collect subscriber names, addresses, or Social Security numbers, and automatically encrypts voicemails its customers receive so that the company cannot access them. Cape has raised $61 million in funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Costanoa Ventures, Forward Deployed VC, and Karman Ventures. Doyle says he launched the company after learning about various vulnerabilities in cellular networks, with an early focus on people involved in security-sensitive work. It then expanded to offering service to users like survivors of domestic violence, investigative journalists, and people working in other high-risk fields, says Doyle, who previously ran the national security business at Palantir and served in the U.S. Army Special Forces. Cape launched an open beta program in March 2025 and has now officially emerged into general availability. Doyle says he believes new consumers will appreciate the company’s privacy features enough to pay Cape’s monthly fee of $99 per month before discounts. That’s pricier than many plans from carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon, which offer base plans at $75 or less before their own discounts, not to mention discount providers like Mint Mobile, though Doyle points out that Cape’s cost includes all taxes and fees—not to mention the added privacy features. And with most people essentially required to carry cellular phones for business and personal reasons, and growing concerns about data privacy and security, he believes there’s a market for a service that makes everyday people harder to hack and track. “We find there’s just a wide swath of citizens who are really attracted to the idea of having some choice and taking that little bit of control over how their data is presented to and shared on mobile networks,” Doyle says. Though Cape doesn’t own its own cell towers—it’s what’s called a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), paying for radio spectrum and other services from carriers with their own physical network—the company operates its own “mobile core” network, meaning it’s able to offer a level of customization and security beyond what other carriers offer. In other words, its partner carriers handle radio connectivity, but Cape’s cloud-based system then takes over the logic of verifying that phones have access to the network, routing calls and messages, and maintaining and securing its own logs. The company disallows less secure 2G and 3G connections, and regularly changes IMSI numbers to discourage tracking, similar to how iPhones randomize Wi-Fi network addresses. And when users travel overseas, Cape verifies their phones’ locations using its app before routing connections through foreign networks, reducing the risk of impersonation attacks. The company also offers a partnership with Proton, a Switzerland-based provider of secure email, VPN, and other digital services, enabling a discount for new customers. Proton offers email features like encrypted message storage and filtration of trackers embedded in messages and a VPN that can filter out ads, trackers, and malware. And Cape explicitly supports GrapheneOS, an Android app-compatible mobile operating system optimized for security and lack of dependence on Google and Apple. The company doesn’t have an explicit partnership with the nonprofit behind Graphene, but it does make a donation to the organization for each new Graphene user that signs up, and even offers phones preloaded with the OS, unusual among mobile carriers. “It’s a somewhat technical process to install Graphene,” says Doyle, “so we do that for people if they want.” Customers with modern iPhone or Android devices that support eSIM—essentially, purely digital SIM cards—don’t have to buy phones through Cape and can activate an existing device and port existing numbers. If you do purchase a phone through Cape, which currently offers a range of Google Pixel devices, Cape offers a $500 phone bill discount spread over six months to help defray the device cost (and pledges to delete customer shipping and billing info after 180 days). Users are also entitled to three numbers per line as a privacy measure, so they can provide one to friends and family and use others to receive authentication codes from businesses, for online dating, or any other privacy-centric purpose they wish. The numbers show up as ordinary numbers, so they’re not barred from services that ban purely internet-based numbers like Google Voice assigns, Doyle says. While the carrier can’t entirely protect people’s privacy when they interact with other apps—ride-hailing apps will still know people’s locations, and users may still elect to share photos or other potentially sensitive data with apps and websites—it can help people keep their primary phone numbers safe. If subscribers wish to port their numbers to another phone or out of the Cape network, they need to provide a predetermined 25-word passphrase. That may seem daunting, but it’s designed to prevent number hijacking accounts that can be a serious risk to privacy. In general, though, Cape’s privacy measures are designed to be relatively unobtrusive. Some may even save users time and complexity: Requiring less personal information from account holders makes the sign-up process quicker, Doyle says. For potential customers wanting more detail about Cape’s privacy policies, the company offers a set of “privacy principles” along with information about how it will handle law enforcement requests for customer information. Cape pledges to notify customers of such requests whenever it’s legally allowed to do so (and says so far it “has not received any requests for subscriber data that contained a nondisclosure obligation”) and to challenge any secret request that “is not narrowly tailored or otherwise lawful.” In addition, Cape says it doesn’t log phone GPS coordinates, deletes more general location data, and purges call logs after 60 days, except in situations like resolving fraud cases. And if the company is ever acquired, Doyle says, it will require the buyer to agree not to monetize user data. Of course, it’s possible some security-conscious users will be wary that Cape will keep its promises, perhaps especially given Doyle’s background in the military and at Palantir. But Doyle says he hopes the company’s record of transparency will help it continue to establish trust among potential customers. “We do everything we can, basically, to be transparent and to do what we said we would do, and say what we’re going to do,” he says. “And I think that over time, that will just build more and more trust in the market.” View the full article

Yahoo may not be the most headlined company in tech anymore, but its reach can’t be denied. With nearly 250 million monthly users across the country and 700 million globally, it’s still the second most popular email client in the world, and the third most popular search engine in the U.S. (even though that search engine has technically been powered by either Bing or Google since 2009). As a privately owned company since 2021 (once worth $125 billion, but purchased for a mere $5 billion at the time), its CEO Jim Lanzone says that the last few years have been about “getting the house in order.” But now, he promises, “this is one of the biggest turnarounds people have tried in internet history.” Lanzone says that turnaround begins with Yahoo Scout, which launches today in beta. In short, Yahoo Scout is a new, free AI search engine (it’s also an omnipresent button across Yahoo verticals like Finance, Sports, and Mail) that’s there to summarize the performance of a business or break down the key moments of a game. In one mode, it’s essentially Yahoo’s version of Claude or ChatGPT. (Yahoo Answers for the AI era!) In the other, it’s an AI-translate button accompanying Yahoo’s editorial content, boiling down articles into takeaways. It will even summarize the sentiment of the comments on stories you read across Yahoo. “We [aren’t] the first to market here, but in evaluating whether we should keep outsourcing or build the AI layer ourselves, it just became clear that we could do this best for our users,” says Lanzone. “We had a lot of unique assets to do that. And so in that context, timing is almost irrelevant, right? Because this is about Yahoo users on Yahoo, searching on Yahoo, versus what they were getting before.” Led by Eric Feng, SVP & general manager of the Yahoo Research Group—who is best known for recruiting and leading the technical team that created Hulu—it’s powered by a combination of Yahoo’s knowledge graph, Anthropic’s Claude, and Bing’s open web APIs. (Yahoo says that user data is kept internally and does not train Claude or Bing.) Yes, that means Yahoo is still relying on external partners, but the team says that search will feel like Yahoo because it’s so based within the Yahoo ecosystem. Specifically, Yahoo Scout can answer a question with everything Claude knows within its LLM (and gosh, does Yahoo Scout love to build a table breaking down information!) And it can also search the web itself as well as Bing. But the team insists that Yahoo’s own knowledge graph provides a lot more on top of Claude and Bing today, and it promises even more into the future. Specifically, Yahoo publishes 30,000 pieces of licensed stories and other content each day that are at its fingertips, and users create 18 trillion “events” across its services each year. “Every event you get just makes the overall totality of the experience smarter,” says Feng. Even if it’s something as simple as searching for the score of your favorite team, that’s actionable data for Yahoo in the short term, but even more so in the medium to long term as it shifts Scout from a generalized AI search engine or summarizer to more of a personal AI. “Just to be direct about it, you will see the roadmap include personalization [of AI],” says Lanzone. “That’s certainly where the category is headed, and it is a unique asset to Yahoo to be able to already have that built in. You know, we’re not trying to acquire an audience to start to build that up from scratch. We actually have all that knowledge and that relationship to dip into then layer this on top of.” The experience of Yahoo Scout, and what that means for publishers Yahoo Scout lives as a responsive website and also as a standalone app. As a search engine, Scout’s white search bar is accompanied by an ever-changing rotation of animated clipart (yeehaw, it’s quite a cute cowboy hat), bringing back some of the brand’s original quirk. The rest of the experience will be pretty familiar to anyone who has used an LLM, as every query is less a collection of blue links than an explanation of an idea. From a demo I watched, it really does have a bias to break searches down into comparative tables (which may be useful or cloying, depending how often that approach is taken). But it’s also less text heavy than many LLMs, because it makes liberal use of thumbnails listing news stories and products to buy. That penchant for prominent, colorful linking isn’t coincidence. Publishers are amidst a 30-year mass extinction event, spurred on most recently by AI search tools that mine their reporting and present it to a public that no longer needs to click through to the actual story. Lanzone argues that prominent linking is key to protecting the health of the publishing industry—publishers that Yahoo relies upon for its core media aggregation business. “Our No. 1 job is to bridge the gap for publishers . . . [with] a beautiful UI that’s very rich and intuitive but still leans into linking out without cluttering the page,” he says. “We’ll see if this is the exact version of where we wind up, but from day one, that’s a priority for us. And then [priority] two is, can we bring search advertising along as well?” Speaking from two decades in digital publishing, I know that what Yahoo has shown thus far is certainly not enough to protect publishers—and I challenged Lanzone on this point. Yahoo’s design may improve clickthrough rates a hair, but not nearly enough to support the publishing industry. Cloudflare research on search engine referrals demonstrates just how dire this moment is: For every 70,900 times Anthropic bots scraped information off a website, users clicked through only once. Much like McDonald’s couldn’t survive if Uber Eats began distributing its hamburgers for free, reported news can’t live on if search engines are snatching their insights without meaningful compensation. “It’s not in version one, but we are also passionate about the idea that search advertising was really effective for both publishers, search engines, and advertisers. And there should be a way to cross the chasm, and to bring that model along with generative AI search engines” says Lanzone. “I don’t know. It won’t wind up exactly where it was, but it can be a lot closer to it than we’ve seen to date. And we are actually working on versions of that. It’s just going to be very hard to scale nine-step agentic processes where you get paid downstream, and it’s just a very difficult model to really scale up.” And make no mistake, Yahoo is advertising with Yahoo Scout. While Anthropic has yet to introduce ads and OpenAI is only starting to, Yahoo is including ads in Scout searches from day one. Those ads appear in traditional paid links in the feed (think Google Adwords). It’s also monetizing its shopping referrals (thanks to an AI shopping platform Vetted it acquired late last year). These are just the beginning of Yahoo’s extensive advertising roadmap, which will be realized with more intricacy later this year. Outside search, though, Yahoo believes that Scout living across Yahoo services will offer indirect benefit to monetization. “If you are on Mail, Finance, or Sports, we want the technology that we’re providing to make that experience better, and then we get more engagement,” says Feng. “We get those users sticking around longer, and then those properties are able to better monetize.” For now, Yahoo believes that monetization will be significant enough that it justifies keeping Scout free. That said, even Yahoo cannot resist the allure of subscription service revenue, and suggests that a premium paid version of Scout could live somewhere in the future. “Look, we have subscription products of finance and sports and places, and you can definitely see a version of that coming here,” says Lanzone. “But 100% of our effort [for launch] has been the evolution of Yahoo search into Yahoo Scout. And we have the luxury of doing that because we have a really good business search already.” View the full article

President Donald The President said Monday he is increasing tariffs on South Korean goods because the country’s legislature has yet to approve the trade framework announced last year. The President said on social media that import taxes would be raised on autos, lumber and pharmaceutical drugs from South Korea with the rate on other goods going from 15% to 25%. The U.S. president previously imposed the tariffs by declaring an economic emergency and bypassing Congress, while South Korea needed legislative approval for the framework announced in July and affirmed during The President’s October visit to the country. “Our Trade Deals are very important to America. In each of these Deals, we have acted swiftly to reduce our TARIFFS in line with the Transaction agreed to,” The President said. “We, of course, expect our Trading Partners to do the same.” The threat was a reminder that the tariff drama unleashed last year by The President is likely to be repeated again and again this year. The global economy and U.S. voters might find the world’s trade structure constantly being subject to disruption and new negotiations as The President has already sought to levy tariffs in order to bend other nations to his will. The President has in the past tied his tariffs to commitments by South Korea to invest $350 billion in the U.S. economy over several years, including efforts to revitalize American shipyards. But the The President administration’s relations with South Korea have at times been rocky with the raid last year by immigration officials at a Hyundai manufacturing site in Georgia in which 475 people were detained. South Korea’s presidential office responded after a meeting of top South Korean officials that it will convey its commitment to implementing last year’s deal to the U.S. The presidential office said that South Korea’s Industry Minister Kim Jung-Kwan will travel to the U.S. for talks with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, while Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo will travel separately to meet with Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Kim was on a visit to Canada. South Korean lawmakers have submitted five bills on implementing South Korea’s proposed $350 billion investment package to the National Assembly. The bills are currently before the assembly’s finance committee. Kim Hyun-jung, a spokesperson for South Korea’s governing Democratic Party, said his party will coordinate with the government to organize swift debate and action on the bills. Assembly officials said the five bills will likely be incorporated into a single proposed law, which will need approval from the finance and judiciary committees before it can go to a floor vote. The President’s announcement of new tariffs fits a pattern in which The President plans to continue to deploy tariffs, possibly to the detriment of relations with other countries. Just last week, the president threatened tariffs on eight European nations unless the U.S. gained control of Greenland, only to pull back on his ultimatum after meetings at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The President on Saturday said he would put a 100% tax on goods from Canada if it followed through with plans to bolster trade with China. The President has bragged about his trade frameworks as drawing in new investment to the U.S., yet many of his heavily hyped deals have yet to be finalized. The European Parliament has yet to approve a trade deal pushed by The President that would put a 15% tax on the majority of goods exported by the EU’s 27 member states. The United States is poised this year to renegotiate its amended 2020 trade pact with Canada and Mexico. There are also ongoing Section 232 investigations under the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, as well as an upcoming Supreme Court decision on whether The President exceeded his authority by declaring tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea. —Josh Boak and Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press View the full article

In cold calling, your opening line can greatly influence the outcome of the conversation. A strong opener captures your prospect’s attention and sets a positive tone for the rest of the call. By using effective strategies, such as referencing recent achievements or acknowledging the unexpected nature of your outreach, you can encourage engagement. Comprehending the nuances of these techniques will help you craft your approach. Let’s explore five impactful opening lines that can make a difference in your calls. Key Takeaways Heard of Us?: Leverage social proof by referencing your company’s credibility to establish trust quickly. Relevant Content Opener: Mention specific recent achievements or content from the prospect’s company to demonstrate genuine interest and relevance. Honest Opener: Acknowledge the unexpected nature of your call, which can disarm the prospect and open up the conversation. Funny Cold Call Opening: Use humor to break the ice and create a relaxed atmosphere, making the prospect more receptive to the conversation. Offering Help Opener: Identify a specific need or challenge faced by the prospect, positioning your call as a valuable solution to their problems. The Importance of a Strong Opening Line The effectiveness of a cold call often hinges on the strength of its opening line, as it sets the tone for the entire conversation. A strong opener can mean the difference between sparking a dialogue or facing an immediate hang-up. In the first few seconds, prospects form snap judgments, making impactful cold call openers crucial. Personalizing your introduction by including the prospect’s name or company greatly boosts engagement. Furthermore, clearly communicating your value proposition within the first 5-7 seconds captures interest effectively. Utilizing curiosity-inducing questions or surprising statistics can further intrigue prospects, encouraging them to listen and engage. Consequently, perfecting the art of cold call openers can lead to more successful interactions and ultimately better results. Key Elements of Successful Cold Call Openers Successful cold call openers hinge on a few key elements that can greatly impact engagement and conversion rates. The best cold call openers personalize the conversation by incorporating the prospect’s name or company, immediately establishing credibility. It’s essential to highlight a clear value proposition within the first 5-7 seconds to keep the prospect interested. Moreover, using intriguing questions or surprising statistics relevant to the prospect’s industry can spark curiosity and encourage further dialogue. Acknowledging the prospect’s busy schedule with a concise introduction shows respect for their time, increasing the likelihood of a positive response. Examples of Effective Cold Calling Opening Lines What makes an opening line for a cold call effective? The best cold call intro captures attention and encourages conversation. Here are some examples of effective opening lines you can use: Opener Type Description Example Heard of Us? Leverages social proof and credibility. “Hi, this is [Your Name] from Your Company. Heard of us?” Relevant Content Opener Mentions specific content from the prospect’s company. “I loved your recent blog on [Topic].” Honest Opener Acknowledges the cold call nature. “I know this is unexpected, but…” Funny Cold Call Opening Uses humor to break the ice. “I promise I’m not a telemarketer!” Offering Help Opener Identifies a specific need or challenge. “I’ve noticed [Challenge] in your industry; can we chat?” These examples can help you create engaging and effective cold call openings. Best Practices for Cold Calling Success When aiming for success in cold calling, it’s essential to prioritize thorough research on your prospects before making the call. This preparation allows you to craft the best cold call opening lines that truly resonate. Here are some best practices to improve your cold calling efforts: Research thoroughly: Understand the prospect’s industry, challenges, and recent developments. Maintain a friendly tone: Confidence combined with a warm demeanor cultivates a comfortable atmosphere. Utilize effective openings: Reference mutual connections or address specific pain points to grab attention. Express gratitude: Thank prospects at the start and end of the call to build goodwill. Tips for Maintaining Engagement During the Call How can you keep a prospect engaged during a cold call? Start by maintaining a positive and confident tone, as this establishes rapport. Utilize active listening to show genuine interest in their responses, nurturing a collaborative atmosphere. Ask open-ended questions to prompt deeper discussions and steer the conversation away from a monologue. Summarize key points to reinforce value and connect them to the prospect’s challenges or goals. Adapt your approach based on feedback, demonstrating responsiveness. Here’s a quick reference table for engagement strategies: Strategy Description Benefit Positive Tone Maintain confidence and friendliness Builds rapport Active Listening Show genuine interest in responses Encourages dialogue Open-Ended Questions Ask questions that prompt deeper discussions Invites prospect input Implementing these strategies can improve your cold call effectiveness, especially when using great cold call openers. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Opening Line for Cold Calling? The best opening line for cold calling grabs attention quickly by establishing credibility. You might reference a mutual connection or relevant industry news to boost engagement. Personalizing the line with the prospect’s name and company can greatly improve receptiveness. Furthermore, incorporating a brief value proposition addressing a specific pain point can capture interest within the first few seconds. A transparent approach about the call’s nature often leads to higher engagement rates. What Are the 3 C’s of Cold Calling? The 3 C’s of cold calling are Clarity, Confidence, and Curiosity. Clarity means you clearly articulate the purpose of your call, helping prospects understand your value right away. Confidence involves using a strong tone and positive demeanor to establish trust. Curiosity is about asking insightful questions that engage prospects and encourage dialogue. Perfecting these elements not just improves your interactions but further increases your chances of booking meetings and making sales. What Do You Say at the Beginning of a Cold Call? At the beginning of a cold call, start with a friendly greeting, like “Hi” or “Hello.” Then, introduce yourself by stating your name and company to establish credibility. Follow this with a brief mention of why you’re calling, ensuring it’s relevant to the prospect’s needs. It’s crucial to express gratitude for their time upfront, as this sets a positive tone. Personalizing your approach can greatly improve engagement and build rapport. What Is a Catchy Opening Statement for Sales? A catchy opening statement for sales should immediately grab attention and establish relevance. Consider asking a thought-provoking question related to the prospect’s industry or sharing a surprising statistic that highlights a common challenge. Personalizing the statement with the prospect’s name or company can improve engagement. Furthermore, referencing a mutual connection or recent industry trend can build credibility, making prospects more receptive to continuing the conversation. Aim for clarity and conciseness to maintain interest. Conclusion To conclude, a strong opening line can greatly improve your cold calling success. By utilizing techniques like social proof, relevance, and humor, you can quickly engage prospects and establish a connection. Remember to remain adaptable and attentive to the prospect’s responses throughout the conversation. By incorporating best practices and maintaining a focus on their needs, you’re more likely to nurture meaningful interactions that lead to successful outcomes. Prioritize these strategies to boost your cold calling effectiveness. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "5 Effective Cold Calling Opening Lines to Hook Prospects" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

In cold calling, your opening line can greatly influence the outcome of the conversation. A strong opener captures your prospect’s attention and sets a positive tone for the rest of the call. By using effective strategies, such as referencing recent achievements or acknowledging the unexpected nature of your outreach, you can encourage engagement. Comprehending the nuances of these techniques will help you craft your approach. Let’s explore five impactful opening lines that can make a difference in your calls. Key Takeaways Heard of Us?: Leverage social proof by referencing your company’s credibility to establish trust quickly. Relevant Content Opener: Mention specific recent achievements or content from the prospect’s company to demonstrate genuine interest and relevance. Honest Opener: Acknowledge the unexpected nature of your call, which can disarm the prospect and open up the conversation. Funny Cold Call Opening: Use humor to break the ice and create a relaxed atmosphere, making the prospect more receptive to the conversation. Offering Help Opener: Identify a specific need or challenge faced by the prospect, positioning your call as a valuable solution to their problems. The Importance of a Strong Opening Line The effectiveness of a cold call often hinges on the strength of its opening line, as it sets the tone for the entire conversation. A strong opener can mean the difference between sparking a dialogue or facing an immediate hang-up. In the first few seconds, prospects form snap judgments, making impactful cold call openers crucial. Personalizing your introduction by including the prospect’s name or company greatly boosts engagement. Furthermore, clearly communicating your value proposition within the first 5-7 seconds captures interest effectively. Utilizing curiosity-inducing questions or surprising statistics can further intrigue prospects, encouraging them to listen and engage. Consequently, perfecting the art of cold call openers can lead to more successful interactions and ultimately better results. Key Elements of Successful Cold Call Openers Successful cold call openers hinge on a few key elements that can greatly impact engagement and conversion rates. The best cold call openers personalize the conversation by incorporating the prospect’s name or company, immediately establishing credibility. It’s essential to highlight a clear value proposition within the first 5-7 seconds to keep the prospect interested. Moreover, using intriguing questions or surprising statistics relevant to the prospect’s industry can spark curiosity and encourage further dialogue. Acknowledging the prospect’s busy schedule with a concise introduction shows respect for their time, increasing the likelihood of a positive response. Examples of Effective Cold Calling Opening Lines What makes an opening line for a cold call effective? The best cold call intro captures attention and encourages conversation. Here are some examples of effective opening lines you can use: Opener Type Description Example Heard of Us? Leverages social proof and credibility. “Hi, this is [Your Name] from Your Company. Heard of us?” Relevant Content Opener Mentions specific content from the prospect’s company. “I loved your recent blog on [Topic].” Honest Opener Acknowledges the cold call nature. “I know this is unexpected, but…” Funny Cold Call Opening Uses humor to break the ice. “I promise I’m not a telemarketer!” Offering Help Opener Identifies a specific need or challenge. “I’ve noticed [Challenge] in your industry; can we chat?” These examples can help you create engaging and effective cold call openings. Best Practices for Cold Calling Success When aiming for success in cold calling, it’s essential to prioritize thorough research on your prospects before making the call. This preparation allows you to craft the best cold call opening lines that truly resonate. Here are some best practices to improve your cold calling efforts: Research thoroughly: Understand the prospect’s industry, challenges, and recent developments. Maintain a friendly tone: Confidence combined with a warm demeanor cultivates a comfortable atmosphere. Utilize effective openings: Reference mutual connections or address specific pain points to grab attention. Express gratitude: Thank prospects at the start and end of the call to build goodwill. Tips for Maintaining Engagement During the Call How can you keep a prospect engaged during a cold call? Start by maintaining a positive and confident tone, as this establishes rapport. Utilize active listening to show genuine interest in their responses, nurturing a collaborative atmosphere. Ask open-ended questions to prompt deeper discussions and steer the conversation away from a monologue. Summarize key points to reinforce value and connect them to the prospect’s challenges or goals. Adapt your approach based on feedback, demonstrating responsiveness. Here’s a quick reference table for engagement strategies: Strategy Description Benefit Positive Tone Maintain confidence and friendliness Builds rapport Active Listening Show genuine interest in responses Encourages dialogue Open-Ended Questions Ask questions that prompt deeper discussions Invites prospect input Implementing these strategies can improve your cold call effectiveness, especially when using great cold call openers. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Opening Line for Cold Calling? The best opening line for cold calling grabs attention quickly by establishing credibility. You might reference a mutual connection or relevant industry news to boost engagement. Personalizing the line with the prospect’s name and company can greatly improve receptiveness. Furthermore, incorporating a brief value proposition addressing a specific pain point can capture interest within the first few seconds. A transparent approach about the call’s nature often leads to higher engagement rates. What Are the 3 C’s of Cold Calling? The 3 C’s of cold calling are Clarity, Confidence, and Curiosity. Clarity means you clearly articulate the purpose of your call, helping prospects understand your value right away. Confidence involves using a strong tone and positive demeanor to establish trust. Curiosity is about asking insightful questions that engage prospects and encourage dialogue. Perfecting these elements not just improves your interactions but further increases your chances of booking meetings and making sales. What Do You Say at the Beginning of a Cold Call? At the beginning of a cold call, start with a friendly greeting, like “Hi” or “Hello.” Then, introduce yourself by stating your name and company to establish credibility. Follow this with a brief mention of why you’re calling, ensuring it’s relevant to the prospect’s needs. It’s crucial to express gratitude for their time upfront, as this sets a positive tone. Personalizing your approach can greatly improve engagement and build rapport. What Is a Catchy Opening Statement for Sales? A catchy opening statement for sales should immediately grab attention and establish relevance. Consider asking a thought-provoking question related to the prospect’s industry or sharing a surprising statistic that highlights a common challenge. Personalizing the statement with the prospect’s name or company can improve engagement. Furthermore, referencing a mutual connection or recent industry trend can build credibility, making prospects more receptive to continuing the conversation. Aim for clarity and conciseness to maintain interest. Conclusion To conclude, a strong opening line can greatly improve your cold calling success. By utilizing techniques like social proof, relevance, and humor, you can quickly engage prospects and establish a connection. Remember to remain adaptable and attentive to the prospect’s responses throughout the conversation. By incorporating best practices and maintaining a focus on their needs, you’re more likely to nurture meaningful interactions that lead to successful outcomes. Prioritize these strategies to boost your cold calling effectiveness. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "5 Effective Cold Calling Opening Lines to Hook Prospects" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

The rise of agentic commerce ends marketing-first SEO and forces brands to compete on data integrity and product truth. The post How Do You Compete In Agentic Commerce? appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Quality power tools are an investment, and if you take proper care of them, they’ll last a long time. It’s not unheard of for someone to have a decades-old drill or a circular saw that was manufactured in a previous century. Even older cordless power tools can maintain their usefulness for a surprisingly long time if you take good care of them and observe proper battery maintenance. But power tools have seen a lot of advancement in recent years. While your old warhorses might still perform their core function well enough, if your drills, saws, and other power tools are five years old or older, it’s time to consider upgrading to a more modern version, for a range of reasons. Advances in battery technologyThere have been huge advances in battery technology: Today’s cordless tools are often as powerful—or even more powerful—than their corded brethren. Older cordless tools often used Nickel-Cadmium (NiCad) batteries, which just don’t stand up to modern Li-ion batteries (and if your NiCad batteries are ten years old, they’re probably not holding much charge these days anyway). Most major tool brands have high level battery systems (e.g., DeWalt’s PowerStack, Milwaukee’s FORGE, or Bosch’s AmpShare system) that offer more power than any of those old batteries, and modern systems make swapping batteries between tools pretty easy (as long as you stay within a brand, of course). Improved ergonomicsModern power tools are generally smaller, lighter, and cause less fatigue than older generations. Combined with more powerful batteries, these tools fit into a toolbelt without sacrificing power and come with vibration reduction technology, better balance, and improved grips that make it more comfortable to hold the tool for a long time. A prime example is this Milwaukee M12 Fuel 3″ Compact Cut Off Tool. Designed for one-handed use, it’s as powerful as a similar corded tool from a decade ago, but lighter and easier to handle. Another power tool from Milwaukee that has put a focus on ergonomics is its M12 Jig Saw, which features robust vibration reduction and a barrel-shaped grip that makes it comfortable to use even for long durations. When I think about the jig saw I had ten years ago, my hands still ache, so this is definitely an upgrade worth considering. Circular saws have also seen a lot of ergonomic enhancements. Makita offers the 5377MG Hypoid saw, which uses magnesium components for a lighter saw that doesn’t sacrifice cutting power. And cordless circular saws like the Bosch Profactor are a lot more comfortable to use than older models—and the brushless motor means its as powerful as any corded tool from a decade ago (and many corded tools being sold today, as well). BOSCH GKS18V-25GN PROFACTOR™ 18V 7-1/4" Circular Saw with Track Compatibility - BITURBO Brushless Technology, ECO Mode, One-Touch Depth Adjustment, 0-50° Bevel Range, Ergonomic Handle (Bare Tool) $390.35 at Amazon Learn More Learn More $390.35 at Amazon More powerful motorsIt’s not surprising that newer power tool models are more powerful and offer better performance. Today’s brushless motors are more efficient, more powerful, and more durable by default. They deliver significantly more torque and RPMs than older models, which makes jobs easier and faster. The DeWalt 20V Max XR Hammer Drill (model DCD1007) packs a punch with 1,495 in-lb of torque, for example, which dwarfs what you got just a decade ago. Sure, your old drill still drives fasteners well enough, but with newer models you’ll get through the work much more quickly because you’ll have fewer jams and stripped screws. If you’re using an older orbital sander, that’s another easy upgrade to consider. Modern sanders like the Bosch Palm Sander or cordless models like DeWalt’s XR sander offer more power (often up to 12,000 OPM), as well as improved dust collection and reduced vibration. Better safety featuresPower tools released in the last few years have a host of safety features not present in older tools. Table saws are an easy example: The saws like the SawStop Compact Table Saw offer instant stopping when the blade touches skin, making it a lot harder to maim yourself while working. Other table saw models, like the Bosch GTS15, offer safety features like blade brakes and riving knives that may not be quite as impressive, but are still miles above what older models offered. You can find improved safety in other power tools, too. The DeWalt DCD1007 isn’t just powerful, it also features anti-rotation technology that reduces the chance that the tool will twist out of your hands, causing injury. Smart technologySome folks don’t really care if their power tools are “smart,” but smarter tools definitely offer some real advantages. Milwaukee’s M18 Fuel Drill gives you a lot more control over the RPMs and torque to reduces the number of snapped screws and improves safety, and their M18 Sawzall has a range of smart safety features that make it nearly impossible for anything dramatic to happen while you’re using it. Add to that the ability to gather data about your jobs and keep track of your tools' location and condition, and smart features start to make a lot of sense. Milwaukee Sawzall 2822-20 M18 Fuel Reciprocating Saw w/ONE-KEY (Tool-Only) $397.88 at Amazon Learn More Learn More $397.88 at Amazon View the full article

After two weeks of intense political and legal scrutiny, the Federal Reserve will seek to make this week’s meeting about interest rates as straightforward and uneventful as possible, though President Donald The President probably still won’t like the result. The central bank’s interest rate-setting committee is almost certain to keep its key short-term rate unchanged at about 3.6%, after three straight quarter-point cuts last year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said after December’s meeting that they were “well positioned to wait to see how the economy evolves” before making any further moves. When the Fed lowers its short-term rate, it can over time influence other borrowing costs for things like mortgages, auto loans and business borrowing, though those rates are also affected by market forces. This week’s meeting — one of eight the Fed holds each year — will be overshadowed by the bombshell revelation earlier this month that the Justice Department has subpoenaed the Fed as part of a criminal investigation into testimony Powell gave last June about a $2.5 billion building renovation. It’s the first time a sitting Fed chair has been investigated, and prompted an unusually public rebuke from Powell. Now, Powell will have to shift from a dispute with the White House to emphasizing that the Fed’s decisions around interest rates are driven by economic concerns, not politics. Powell said Jan. 11 that the subpoenas were “pretexts” to punish the Fed for not cutting rates as sharply as The President wants. Powell will be “under even more pressure to underscore, ‘everything we’re doing here … is all about the economics,'” said Claudia Sahm, a former Fed economist and chief economist at New Century Advisors. “‘We didn’t think about the politics.'” Michael Gapen, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley and also a former Fed staffer, said that despite the scrutiny, the Fed can be expected to consider its interest rate policies like it always does. “The meetings have a regular flow to them,” he said. “There are presentations that are made, there are discussions that have to be had. … Some of these other broader-based attacks on the Fed don’t really come up.” Not long after the Justice Department’s subpoenas, the Supreme Court last week considered whether The President can fire Fed governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud, which she denies. No president has fired a governor in the Fed’s 112-year history. During an oral argument, the justices appeared to be leaning toward allowing her to stay in her job until the case is resolved. Other Fed officials have also signaled the central bank is likely to keep rates unchanged at their two-day meeting that ends Wednesday. The Fed’s three rate cuts last year were intended to bolster the economy after hiring slowed sharply over the summer and fall in the wake of The President’s April tariffs on dozens of countries. Yet the unemployment rate ticked lower in December, after picking up for much of last year, and there are other signs the job market may be stabilizing. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits has stayed historically low, a sign layoffs haven’t spiked. Meanwhile, inflation remains elevated and actually ticked higher last year, according to the Fed’s preferred measure. Prices rose 2.8% in November from a year earlier, the latest data available. That is up from 2.6% in November 2024. Unless businesses start cutting jobs or the unemployment rate rises, the Fed is unlikely to cut rates again for at least a few months, economists say. If inflation slowly declines this year, as economists expect, the Fed may cut again in the spring or summer. Wall Street investors expect just two quarter-point rate reductions this year, according to futures prices. Many economists expect growth could pick up in the coming months, which would be another reason to forego rate cuts. Gapen estimates that tax refunds could be about 20% higher this spring than last year as the The President administration’s tax cuts take effect. Refunds could average $3,500, Gapen said. The economy expanded at a 4.4% annual rate in last year’s July-September quarter and may have grown at a similarly healthy pace in the final three months of last year. If such solid growth continues, Fed officials will likely wait to see if hiring picks up as well, further reducing the need for more rate cuts. —Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer View the full article

Whether he’s climbing skyscrapers in Taiwan or working to build the Honnold Foundation, free solo climber and activist Alex Honnold remains an optimist. He sat down with Fast Company to talk about why a good outlook is essential—both for his sport and in the fight for the planet. Honnold also reflects on education, human potential, overconsumption, and what’s at stake for American national parks and public lands. View the full article

Roku was one of the original names in streaming, and even with so many options now available from Amazon, Apple, Google and others, it remains one of the most popular options thanks to its affordable boxes and streaming sticks and widespread availability as an integrated operating system on some TV sets. The platform is speedy, simple, and supports just about every streaming app out there. If you've got a Roku or two in your life, you may not be using it to its full potential. These tips, hacks, and hidden features should help you go beyond the basic business of launching your streaming apps and get more out of your hardware, whether you've just unboxed your first Roku device, or you've been using one for years. Set up PIN protection to protect your RokuIf you've got young kids or nosy housemates living with you, you can lock certain parts of the Roku experience (including making purchases and adding new channels) behind a PIN number. This is actually done through your Roku account page on the web: Click PIN/parental controls on the left, and you can set a new PIN or change an existing one. Change the look and feel of your Roku with a new themeYou don't have to settle for the standard Roku interface visuals—you can easily switch to a different theme (which basically means a different wallpaper and screensaver). From Settings on your device, choose Themes to see alternatives provided by Roku and other people in the Roku community. You can always pick Restore default theme to go back to the original look. Enable captions on replayYou might not want closed captions on all the time, but you can have them enabled whenever you skip backward. From the home screen, pick Settings > Accessibility > Captions mode > On replay to enable this. Note that the streaming app you're using needs to support the feature as well, so it may not work everywhere. Put your most-watched apps up topThis is a simple and effective one that you might not have got around to doing: You can organize the apps on the home screen so your most-used are nearer the top and easier to get to. Select any tile on the home screen, press the star button on your remote to bring up the context menu, and you'll see the Move app and Move app to top options. Make use of Guest Mode when you have company Roku devices come with a Guest Mode included. Credit: Lifehacker It's great having guests—but don't let them mess up your recommendations and viewing progress. You can put your Roku device into Guest Mode by opening Settings from the main Roku menu, then choosing Guest Mode > Enter Guest Mode. You'll be signed out of all your apps, and the Roku device will restart ready for someone else to use it. Send your photos to your Roku to view them on the big screenYou won't always be watching films and shows on your Roku of course—and when your streaming device isn't doing anything else you can get images from your Google Photos library up on your TV. To set this up, you need to head to the Photostreams page on the Roku website, sign in using your account, and then follow the instructions online. Set up a cross-platform Roku watchlistThere will often be times when you see something interesting, but don't have time to watch it right away, and that's when the Roku watchlist feature can help. Select any movie or show from the home screen, and on the listing page use the Save button to add it to your list: You can then pick Save List from the main menu to see what you've saved. Pair your Bluetooth headphones to your RokuIf you've got a pair of wireless Bluetooth headphones and a Roku device that supports Bluetooth, you can pair the two together for some private audio listening— handy if you don't want to disturb anyone around you. You can do this by heading to Settings from the main Roku menu, then choosing Remotes & devices > Wireless headphones. Listen to your Roku via your smartphoneThere's another way to listen through headphones, and it doesn't require Bluetooth or wireless headphones. If you install the aforementioned Roku app on your smartphone, then plug a pair of headphones into your phone as well, you can tap Remote control in the app and then the headphone button to stream the audio right to your ears. You can use the mobile app to listen over headphones. Credit: Roku Mirror your other devices to your RokuApple devices: Roku sticks, boxes and TVs come with support for the Apple AirPlay standard built right in, so you can beam across audio and video from Apple devices, or even mirror your Mac display on the big screen. On the Roku, choose Settings then Apple AirPlay and HomeKit to make sure you're set up, then just select the AirPlay button on your Apple hardware. Android devices: For screen casting, you're not left out if you're on Android, though—as usual with Android—capabilities vary between devices. Samsung Galaxy phones have the smoothest integration: Swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen, choose Smart View, and your Roku should show up as a connection option (if it's on the same wifi network). Windows devices: If you want to mirror your screen to a Roku from Windows, the process is different again. First, enable the feature on the Roku via Settings > System > Screen mirroring. Next, from Windows, click the volume and wifi icons down in the lower right corner, click the Display button, then select your Roku. Again, it needs to be on the same wifi network. Quickly find the cheapest way to rent a show or movieIf you're in the mood for a movie rental, then you've got a whole host of different streaming services to choose from—all the big ones offer film rentals on top of the content you get with your subscription. Use the Search option from the main Roku menu to look for a title, and compare the different prices across all the services you're signed up to. Control your TV with your Roku remoteYou can turn your TV on and off and adjust its volume with your Roku remote, if you'd like to. You're asked if you want to do this when you first set up your Roku device, but you can configure it afterwards too: Pick Settings > Remotes & devices > Remotes, then choose the remote you've currently got connected, and then pick Set up remote for TV control. 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