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Neom, the insane urban development project in Saudi Arabia, appears to be sinking faster than the giant holes they keep digging in the middle of nowhere. Increasing delays and soaring cost overruns have led to project cancellations and a general scaling back of the original vision. Now a Wall Street Journal report has uncovered an internal audit that reveals evidence of deliberate manipulation of finances by management to justify rising cost estimates to investors. The sense of impending disaster is even more shocking when you look at the only crazy structure that is now standing in Neom: an unbelievably giant palace. New satellite images obtained by Business Insider via US space company Maxar Technologies have revealed the gigantic complex, which appears to feature at least 16 buildings (plus other buildings in the property), four swimming pools, private beaches, extensive gardens, a marina, 10 helipads, and its own golf course. The palace is thought to be owned by Saudi Arabian ruler Mohammed bin Salman, and it’s only one of five palaces that will be built for the royal family in the 10,230-square-mile region known as Neom. The development of Neom is supposed to become Saudi Arabia’s transitional path from an oil economy towards one based on technology, advanced manufacturing, green energy, and tourism. It includes a 110-mile-long “vertical city” called the Line—which has since been scaled back to just over one mile—along with other futuristic settlements that will allegedly include everything from hydrogen processing plants to luxury hotels. Bin Salman chairs the boards of Neom and its sub-projects, frequently approving architectural choices seemingly impossible to build, like this giant 30-story-high chandelier conceptualized by a Marvel concept artist because, reportedly, the Prince likes The Avengers. Fraud is in the air These lavish personal palaces and flashy renderings offer a stark contrast to the financial reality of the project. Initially, its promoters were looking to attract $500 billion in public and private capital, but Neom is reportedly having a hard time getting the money. The delays and cost overruns kept mounting and, in 2024, bin Salman fired Neom’s CEO of six years, Nadhmi al-Nasr, putting in a new team tasked with turning the project around in place. Now the WSJ has uncovered an internal audit that reveals evidence of deliberate manipulation of finances by management to justify rising cost estimates. Capital expenditure for building Neom to its “end-state” by 2080 was estimated at $8.8 trillion, more than 25 times the annual Saudi budget. According to the paper, the high costs due to the remote location, ambitious design, and unrealistic projections seem insurmountable, despite executives hiding rising costs by inflating profit assumptions. The audit shows that the crown prince encouraged Neom to use the internal rate of return (IRR) to assess project profitability, leading to concerns about the project’s financial viability. Then revenue estimates were increased to cover cost overruns, leading to a higher internal rate of return. Along the way, the Neom staff suggested a few cost-cutting measures, like reducing the height of The Line, but the crown prince rejected this. He ordered to find cost savings elsewhere. And when a project manager challenged the unrealistic cost estimates, he was removed. The WSJ reports that McKinsey helped create financial models, validated projections, and served as both planner and validator, raising potential “conflicts of interest.” Despite the audit findings, a Neom spokeswoman told the WSJ that the project remains on track and is demonstrating tangible progress. On social networks and YouTube, the organization and its top brass keep posting videos claiming progress. I follow them. They always look like the same holes in the middle of nowhere. We won’t have to wait long to see if the Prince and his organization can actually realize these pharaonic visions or if they will just end digging the most expensive hole in history. The Line’s first phase is supposed to open its first half-mile section, including a stadium, in 2034. Just nine years away. That will be the year the World Cup starts in Saudi Arabia, right in that stadium. No matter if it gets finished on time or not, I’m sure bin Salman will be watching the kick off game from one of the hundred (I’m guessing given its size?) living rooms in his cozy new palace. View the full article

While the rest of the nation watched in horror, bad weather turned deadly and quickly wreaked havoc. Houses were ravaged, and tens of thousands of residents were displaced. That’s Los Angeles since the historic wildfires struck in January, destroying more than 16,000 structures and leaving thousands of people homeless. It was also western North Carolina in late September after Hurricane Helene created raging rivers that flooded some houses and swept others away. Nearly 74,000 homes in the area were damaged or destroyed, around 10,000 of which were in Buncombe County, where the city of Asheville is located. Every disaster is unique, and these two were markedly different. But from a housing perspective, they have some important similarities—and L.A. leaders can learn from what Buncombe County has already gone through in its recovery. Among other things, both regions have been hot real estate markets with ever-increasing property values that have been gradually pushing lower-income people out. Catastrophes like fires and hurricanes can, paradoxically, cause housing prices to rise over time: Supply is tighter, speculators may capitalize on newly vacant properties, and investors and residents often rebuild bigger than before. That makes it imperative to get residents into safe homes as quickly as possible, before conditions change that might make that unfeasible. From left: Before and after roof repair [Photo: Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity] Buncombe County is still in the early stages of its response; the disaster was so overwhelming that simply accounting for everyone and filing initial claims has taken months. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency has come, state legislators have allocated aid and are debating more, and federal assistance seems to be on its way, though given the Trump administration’s focus on government downsizing, it’s unclear when it will arrive or whether the amount will be even close to what’s needed. The governments of Asheville and Buncombe County have been very responsive, observers say. But what’s been truly critical is the work of community organizations, which have cooperated with one another in an unprecedented way to help thousands of renters and homeowners begin returning to their homes. “It’s been a grassroots effort of seeing what the community needs and how to respond,” says Lukas Ray, communications and engagement officer at Mountain Housing Opportunities, an affordable housing group. “It’s a collaboration: Put your head down and work together.” In some ways, the region was well-positioned for a disaster, if such a thing is possible. Weeks before the hurricane, the city had released a 100-plus-page affordable housing plan that it spent a year hammering out with local housing and social service agencies. So when the storm hit and brought mass unemployment with it, they knew just how vulnerable many of the area’s renters were, and made preventing displacement a priority. [Photo: Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity] An eviction moratorium would have been ideal, but that’s a state-level decision that officials in Raleigh failed to enact. However, more than $5 million in rental assistance has been a boon to the 1,000-plus households who received it. Some of those funds came from the city and county, but most were raised through private donations and distributed by a church. “Rental assistance was recommended [in the affordable housing plan] to prevent further displacement,” said Susan Bean, housing and transportation director at MountainTrue, a grassroots environmental group. “That made it easier—it was a need that was clear.” Another of the plan’s recommendations was to expand home repair resources for low-income homeowners, work that was already underway pre-Helene. Following COVID-19, the area’s Habitat for Humanity affiliate had aimed to streamline the work of a few home repair organizations, using bespoke software and a universal intake form. The initiative, Asheville Regional Coalition for Home Repair, or ARCHR, was on the verge of a soft rollout when the storm hit, and the coalition quickly took it live. They’ve since received more than 300 applications from low-income households. “We see a lot of roof issues—trees on roofs, wind damage, or roofs that were already in disrepair before the storm,” said Joel Johnson, home repair director at the Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity. ARCHR is a one-stop shop that allows each group to tackle the job it’s best at, whether that’s roof repair or access issues or water damage. And as an organized, coordinated entity, it’s better positioned to receive government funding and individual donations. [Photo: Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity] ARCHR is also part of a bigger-picture effort that’s getting underway. In the early months after the hurricane, community stakeholders talked to leaders from places like Louisiana, Florida, and eastern North Carolina that had experienced similar disasters. They recommended Buncombe County form a long-term recovery group, a collaborative body composed of key nonprofits, local governments, and community funders that includes subgroups focusing on case management, rental assistance, repairs, and construction. “This is a local way to respond to a disaster, to provide a coordinated process,” says Sarah Roth, interim director of emergency operations at United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County, which is helping lead the process. “The groups look different in every community.” Buncombe County’s long-term recovery group is still figuring out its mission and scope. Leaders are seeking a fiscal sponsor—a tax-exempt nonprofit organization that can accept funding on their behalf—so they can hit the ground running when government assistance finally arrives. In the meantime, they’re sharing real-time data with policymakers and advocating for on-the-ground needs. The housing groups are concerned that damaged or destroyed properties may be replaced by more expensive structures. In response, said David Bartholomew, an attorney with Pisgah Legal Services, “We’re all looking to make sure that when there’s opportunity, we get in there and can take advantage.” One group is already doing that. In December, the nonprofit BeLoved Asheville bought an 8-acre parcel of land in Swannanoa, one of the regions hit hardest by the storm, for $1.6 million in community donations. Its leaders plan to build a small enclave of at least 15 two- and three-bedroom houses for very-low-income people. Their purchase is timely. While Buncombe County’s real estate prices have remained stable so far, they’re likely to rise soon as the weather warms and investors begin eying vacant properties. Property values could look very different next year. L.A. housing leaders may want to take note. The speed, creativity, and collaboration could serve them well, too, as they launch a recovery effort that, as in Buncombe County’s case, is predicted to last around a decade. View the full article

The Lamborghini of baby strollers is literally a Lamborghini. Luxury carmaker Automobili Lamborghini is getting into baby gear by partnering with the British nursery brand Silver Cross for a limited-edition stroller called the Reef AL Arancio. Just 500 of the strollers will be made and each comes with a numbered edition plaque. Silver Cross calls it a “super stroller,” and it retails for about $5,000. [Image: Silver Cross] The stroller’s design borrows from the Lamborghini’s foundations, Silver Cross says, with an automotive-inspired brake pedal, hand-finished handlebar, and high-performance suede with Italian leather details. It comes with a high-gloss polycarbonate carry cot, full suspension wheels, and a cup holder. Lamborghini badging uses the Italian company’s script wordmark, and its bull-and-shield logo is incorporated throughout. The design process for the Reef AL Arancio took more than two years and included meetings with the Automobile Lamborghini design and licensing teams and visits to Lamborghini showrooms to draw inspiration. The finished product is designed “to mirror the intricacy and faceted nature of the vehicles,” Silver Cross says. [Image: Silver Cross] While babies aren’t impressed by luxury brands, their parents increasingly are. High-end baby gear like smart cribs, electronic bottle warmers, and pricey strollers have proliferated as fertility rates have fallen and the age of first-time mothers has risen. With parents having fewer children at older ages, they have more to splurge on their kids; some, apparently, are even willing to drop $5,000 for a one-of-500 stroller. In 2020, Bentley Motors announced its own officially licensed kids bicycle and stroller tricycle brand called Bentley Trike, created in collaboration with Posh Baby & Kids. With the Lamborghini stroller, now your baby can travel in style with luxury car-branded gear all the way from the crib until the training wheels come off. View the full article

A bartender makes a Brandy Alexander, pouring equal parts of a Courvoisier V.S.O.P brandy, Marie Brizard crème de cacao, and fresh cream. He shakes it with ice, strains through a fine mesh strainer, and finishes it off with a neat pile of freshly-grated nutmeg. This imagery may seem to be out of a bartending documentary, but it’s actually a scene from an anime series, Bartender: Glass of God. It’s this unavoidable, radical attention to detail in the animation itself that tells the story of a Japanese way of life–putting extreme care into one’s craft. During scenes inside the bar, the liquor wall features an elaborate selection of spirits, the labels of which are meticulously drawn. They include Maker’s Mark bourbon, Roku gin, and Laphroaig scotch, all of which fall under the portfolio of Suntory Global Spirits, which provided “production support” for the show. The show’s ability to combine real-life liquor brands with attention to detail helps it pull off a focus on craft that isn’t often seen outside of live-action documentary. The series portrays bartending as an empirical trade through the experience of each viewer watching on a screen. Not everyone watching will be a bartender nor will they each absorb every single nuance incorporated into the anime. But the care in the crafts of animation and bartending that Nakazawa meshed together with Suntory and other partners reveal a comprehensive and respectful illustration of the power of a cocktail. A reboot with emphasis on details—and brands Bartender originated as a Japanese manga, or graphic novel, in 2004 to then be turned into an anime series in 2006. Last year, anime studio Liber released a 12-episode revival, with streamer Crunchyroll releasing episodes dubbed in English from July through October. Creatives behind the reboot said the goal was to be as accurate as possible with cocktails and vibes. “We focused on creating an authentic bar ambiance that viewers could experience through anime, ensuring the movements and atmosphere retained a sense of realism,” says Takaaki Nakazawa, the series’ lead producer. [Image: © Araki Joh, Kenji Nagatomo/Shueisha, Bar hoppers] Nakazawa and his team pulled this off by consulting renowned Japanese bartenders Akihiro Sakoh of Sakoh Bar in Tokyo’s Shibuya district and Noriyuki Iguchi of Bar Gaslight in Tokyo’s Ginza district. “Before production, we interviewed them and filmed their actions—cocktail-making techniques and handling bottles—which the animation team studied closely to replicate the movements,” Nakazawa says. “They also prepared all the cocktails featured in the entire anime series.” [Image: © Araki Joh, Kenji Nagatomo/Shueisha, Bar hoppers] Suntory’s involvement is integrated throughout the series—mostly contained to brands behind the bar—but the anime also takes its protagonist, Ryu, to the Suntory Whisky Yamazaki Distillery in Osaka, Japan. It looks precisely in the anime the way it looks on Google Maps street view, down to the shrubbery. “Every glass of whisky is a coalescence of memories–like history, distilled,” Ryu says to his friends outside the distillery. “And even if our guests know nothing about that history, isn’t it better that we know the meaning contained within each glass, so we can serve something that transcends flavor alone?” [Image: © Araki Joh, Kenji Nagatomo/Shueisha, Bar hoppers] This statement sums up the overall message of Bartender, which highlights the longing to feel empowered through human connection. Creating these scenes, with all of the partnerships involved in settings where the Suntory brand is so prominently placed, gives the viewers a sense that they can too feel that sense of empowerment when sipping on its products. Focus on craft Nakazawa has been a huge fan of the original Bartender manga and felt emboldened to reimagine it, borrowing some plot lines but catering it to a new generation. “When a customer visits a bar, they don’t perceive everything in a straightforward way,” he says. “Their perception changes depending on their individual circumstances.” “It’s not what a typical, you know, Western audience would think of immediately,” says Crunchyroll CCO Asa Suehira. “We want to showcase anime more than just entertainment, but an art form that bridges cultures and tells a universal story.” Crunchyroll currently has 15 million subscribers, most of whom are in North America, but the service has been working to expand globally, including into Southeast Asia and India. [Image: © Araki Joh, Kenji Nagatomo/Shueisha, Bar hoppers] From an American perspective, the narrative may come across as cliché and over-exaggerated, but hospitality as an art form is taken more seriously in Japanese culture. The anime takes that reverence for craft and applies to a profession most American viewers might not think about much. “When you have an excellent bartender, they’re able to connect with a lot of people,” says Chris Leavitt, a Las Vegas bartender and cocktail content creator. “That aspect was on par with what I experience as a bartender myself. It’s so important for someone who mans a bar to understand that’s the priority over everything.” Neither Toho nor Crunchyroll commented on sponsorships other than Suntory. But dozens of other liquor brands, like Beefeater gin, Dolin vermouth and Heering cherry liqueur, are heavily featured in the show too despite not being Suntory brands. Leavitt commends the precise attention given to the animation, from the style in which Ryu holds his bar spoon through his fingers, to the motion of his Japanese hard shake, both in close-ups and wide shots. “That’s exactly how these bartenders operate,” he says. “Nothing was inaccurate. Every drink recipe was on point.” View the full article

Nearly 100 years ago, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Harland Bartholomew designed a master plan for the city of Los Angeles, drawing a ring around the river at its heart. The plan addressed their concern about the rapid urbanization of cities in the West, which was frequently pushing nature to the outskirts. By centering the river and allowing it to move freely amid fields and wetlands, the planners envisioned a public green space where distant neighborhoods could come together as one. But the plan was quickly dismissed as out of step with the industrialist vision of the 1920s and ’30s. Then, in 1938, after a devastating flood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to build concrete channels that separated the river from its ecosystem and continue to confine it today. Copies of the original plan still exist, one of which sits in the Los Angeles Public Library, where it fell into the hands of the artist and video game designer Alice Bucknell. A still from The Alluvials [Image: courtesy Alice Bucknell] For Bucknell, the plan served as an essential bridge to the past, and it laid the groundwork for their visionary project, The Alluvials, a computer-generated, speculative fiction world, accessible through both a film and a video game. The Alluvials, which reimagines L.A. through the lens of water and the natural world, brings the lost dream of the Olmsted-Bartholomew plan to life—remixed as a private development known as Next LA, where the river has been transformed into a teeming wetland filled with iridescent beams of light. A series of ethereal voices guide the audience through a climate-stricken Western water system, from the dried-up basin of the Hoover Dam to the fire-torn Malibu coast. Like the plan that inspired it, The Alluvials issues a warning about where society is heading. In the midst of its eco-surrealist imagery, Bucknell offers a stark picture of the future: a deserted downtown, near-total drought, and corporate control over the remaining water resources. But by infusing this dystopian landscape with alternative histories, from the Olmsted-Bartholomew report to an Indigenous sacred site, Bucknell presents a compelling vision of what Los Angeles might have been and what it could still be. The film version of The Alluvials is divided into seven chapters, and the video game contains interactive versions of four of them. The film opens with aerial shots peering down into the city, which has become half desert, then cuts rhythmically through the region’s aquatic ecosystems, each rendered in the digital universe with a neon tech-noir aesthetic. Along the way, viewers meet a cast of familiar characters: the celebrity mountain lion P-22; the Lassen pack of gray wolves from Northern California; and El Aliso, a sycamore tree that once served as a meeting place for leaders of the Kizh-Gabrieleño Tribe, the original occupants of the Los Angeles River Basin. Bucknell was walking the streets of downtown L.A., a few blocks from the design school SCI-Arc, where they teach, when they stumbled upon the plaque for El Aliso. The memorial was created by members of the tribe in 2015 to honor the tree, which had long served as a place of worship and gathering. Set into concrete by Highway 101, however, the story all but disappears—making it precisely the kind of the history that Bucknell felt was important to center in their work. In The Alluvials, El Aliso grows tall in the reforested earth of Next LA. The sycamore tells its own story to players: how it lived for more than 400 years, witnessing waves of colonization and shading lush wineries before it was felled to make way for commercial development. In front of the tree, the memorial plaque hangs, embossed as an enormous hologram, like a curator’s introduction to the work of a venerated artist. In this fictional world scarred by climate disaster, El Aliso appears like an oasis, a momentary glimpse into what a worthy burial might have looked like, and a reminder of the many stories that 400-year-old trees can still tell. Bucknell amplifies the power of El Aliso’s story by bringing this nonhuman being back to vivid life. Stills from The Alluvials [Image: courtesy Alice Bucknell] The artist also celebrates the long history of the yucca moth, which is often outshone by its iconic companion, the Joshua tree. In the dried-out upper basin of Hoover Dam, The Alluvials recounts the symbiotic relationship between the yucca moth and the Joshua tree, describing it as an entrancing love story that dates back more than 40 million years. The depiction is not only uplifting, as it casts a flurry of white moths like snow against red rock; it is also a reminder of how complex relationships can be sustained throughout many ages of the Earth. The Alluvials universe is at its most powerful when viewers are completely immersed in the ambiguity of time. Racing along the lush L.A. River, you can’t tell if you’re deep in the future, experiencing the artificial paradise of Next LA, or deep in the past, exploring the imagination of Olmsted and Bartholomew. By the same token, the spell is broken when the script too closely resembles the modern day. In a later chapter of the film, for instance, viewers learn that Next LA’s private water developer puts mood stabilizers in bottled water to combat chronic anxiety over constant wildfires. It’s a satire that hits too close to home. Zooming out, however, Bucknell’s signature cyberpunk—from the beating electronic score to fluorescent animal silhouettes—largely erases time altogether. Staring up at the dense galaxy of animated stars, I almost wished I didn’t find it so beautiful. Born in the mid-1990s, I remember the precise years when my peers began to diverge into those who spent more time offline, lacing up boots and heading outdoors, and those who found greater fulfillment in the community and self-expression found in cyberspace. Both worlds offer their own comfort and sense of control, and sometimes I don’t know which I find more breathtaking—the natural cathedrals of mountains and oceans, or the technological systems made possible by generations of human hands and minds. Throughout The Alluvials, particularly on the banks of the river, I felt grateful to live in this age of the Earth, when one person can so completely render their imagination into an immersive experience that others can enjoy. Whatever the limitations of the human world, whether bureaucracy or debate, artists can overcome them and create wonders that never made it into reality. This work goes hand in hand with advocacy; in the development of their game, Bucknell worked closely with the nonprofit Friends of the LA River, which for decades has worked to build more connected green space along the river. A still from The Alluvials [Image: courtesy Alice Bucknell] Some critics may be quick to dismiss The Alluvials for its style or poetic flourishes, but they cannot deny its broad appeal to a growing audience. The film and game have been featured at over a dozen exhibitions and festivals, from Los Angeles to Madrid, and Bucknell continues to offer access to both by request via their website. Computer-generated worlds are steadily eclipsing traditional storytelling formats like books and magazines. In this context, Bucknell’s work stands as a compelling contribution to California’s climate fiction, echoing the legacy of the speculative fiction of Octavia Butler, who first offered scenes of a fire-torn California to the popular imagination back in the 1990s. But times have changed; Bucknell and other artists of the 21st century no longer have to imagine what that future might look like. Their task is much harder: They remind us that, to paraphrase Butler, looking into the future is still, as much as it was before, an act of hope. This story was originally published by High Country News. View the full article

US president’s late-night social media post follows company’s 15% share price dropView the full article

It’s popular right now to talk about meritocracy and how we want the most talented people to be able to rise to the top. Yet that’s not the reality for many. Lots of people experience a workplace reality where they see a few charmed people become the darlings of leadership. These darlings get recognized for their contributions and fast-tracked for honor, opportunity, and promotions. Sometimes, that’s for good reason. If you’re feeling jealous of the office favorite, it’s worth trying to be objective. Perhaps you wanted the recognition and reward and didn’t get it, and so you’re projecting your frustration on someone who really deserves the recognition. But, there really can be favorites at work. There is a phenomenon in psychology called the “halo effect,” in which an initial positive impression of someone can lead you to interpret all of their subsequent actions more charitably than you might if you didn’t have that initial positive impression. So, what do you do if you’re not the favorite, and you keep watching others get rewarded for their merit, while you get passed over? Play the long game Halo effects are a result of first impressions. While you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression on someone, the merry-go-round of organizations means that you’re likely to have many chances to make first impressions on influential people. Your supervisor may move on to another role. You may move to a different part of the organization. That means you need to continue doing good work—even when you aren’t being recognized for it. Stifle the urge to complain about the success of others. Be a good colleague and develop a reputation of being trustworthy. Over the long-term, that will help. You also have to hone your skills at making a good first impression. If you find that you have trouble communicating in public or in small groups, then consider getting some training. Join a public speaking group like Toastmasters to get more practice. Pay attention to how your habits affect impressions. Show up to meetings and work on time. If you tend to dress in a way that differs from the norm at work, think about whether that is affecting other people’s initial sense of who you are. Individuality and free expression through your appearance are important values, but you should decide whether they are the hill to die on at work. Create new opportunities Even if you don’t experience any leadership changes, you can still bring yourself to the attention of new people. Large organizations typically require a lot of projects that cross silos to bring people together in a significant effort. If you get involved in those projects, you’ll invariably meet lots of new people. Seek out ways to be part of these other projects—provided you have bandwidth to do so. There are two benefits to these engagements. First, you have an opportunity to make a good impression on a new group of people. Second, people you help from other groups may then pass their positive impressions back to your supervisor and others in your area of the organization. These positive comments that come from others can often lead people who know you to reevaluate their impressions. Make your case It’s hard to toot your own horn, and you certainly don’t want to do it all the time. But when the right opportunities come about, you need to help guide people’s impressions of you. Your annual performance evaluations with your supervisor are a place where you can try to reset the way you are seen. There’s a tendency to use those evaluations as a way to list all of the things you have done during the year. Rather than just listing the things you have done, focus on specific ways you would like to change how you are perceived by your supervisor. Organize your discussion of your accomplishments for the year in a way that highlights those aspects of your work that you want to emphasize. Help your supervisor to see aspects of your contribution that may not ordinarily be obvious. You won’t completely overcome a lackluster first impression with one meeting. But, you may help your supervisor to start seeing aspects of your performance that they have missed in the past. That work can slowly help your supervisor (and others) to see the contribution you’re making. View the full article

When the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently removed the Future Risk Index tool from its website, it not only took away a critical way to quantify the economic impacts of climate change—it also wiped out years of data from multiple federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency. But before all that data went offline, two software engineers were able to re-create the tool—rebuilding it themselves and sharing it on their GitHub free of charge. The Trump administration has been scrubbing all sorts of information from government websites, from details about U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) work to pages that mention “DEI” to anything concerning climate change. FEMA’s Future Risk Index was another recent casualty of those efforts. The tool, launched in December 2024, mapped the projected economic losses from climate change down to the county level, based on hazards like flooding, drought, heat waves, and wildfires under different emissions scenarios. In February, the map was quietly removed from the government website. But before that happened, Rajan Desai and Jeremy Herzog, who both work at the consulting firm Fulton Ring, were tipped off that it would likely come down. In preparation, they took screenshots and downloaded the available data so that they could rebuild it themselves. Though they’re not climate experts—Desai’s background is primarily in data science and Herzog’s is in software engineering—Desai says they believed “this could be one tangible way to actively fight the destruction that’s happening at the federal level right now.” They’re not alone; online archivists, amateur or otherwise, have been rushing to save data sets, web pages, and tools from government websites amid the Trump administration’s attacks. To Desai and Herzog, it was clear that the tool was important, and the result of months of work across agencies. “There was basically about a year’s worth of taxpayer-funded resources that were put into this tool, and it’s ultimately for public consumption,” Desai says. (FEMA did not return a request for comment about the tool or its removal.) The Future Risk Index was a supplement to FEMA’s National Risk Index, an interactive map that shows which communities are most at risk from various climate hazards. (As of publication, that index is still on FEMA’s website). But the Future Risk Index was different in that it included data on the effects of climate change, and how those hazards would become both more frequent and more severe over time. While the National Risk Index could show expected annual losses from climate hazards over the next few years, for example, the Future Risk Index took that further, all the way to mid-century, when the impacts of climate change will be even more extreme—when the sea level could rise more than 8 feet and global temperatures could be 3 degrees Celsius hotter on average. [Image: Fulton Ring] That made the Future Risk Index a crucial tool for people like tribal leaders, local and state elected officials, urban planners, and businesses, because it made the sometimes ambiguous effects of climate change into tangible economic impacts. Looking at Miami-Dade County, for example, the National Risk Index showed that the county could expect annual losses of up to $5.9 million from coastal flooding—but the Future Risk Index showed that by mid-century, even under a lower emissions scenario, those projected annual losses could skyrocket to $29 million. It also showed which hazards (wildfires or floods, for example) would be more or less impactful in a specific area, helping communities prioritize their resources and plan for the future. An internal FEMA worker first reached out to Desai about saving the tool; swift action was crucial. Though they were able to get a version up on their Github and quickly offer an alternative, Desai and Herzog are realistic about the limitations to this ad hoc way of preserving government projects. They took on the task for free, and plan to keep the tool free, but they’re also a small consulting firm with limited resources (Herzog is the cofounder, while Desai is a data scientist there); they can’t do much more to advance the tool—like allow it to get more granular than county-level data—without funds. It’s also now, essentially, frozen: It preserves the data the government already gathered, but there’s no ability to update it as things change. That’s a reality with any individual or small team of archivists doing this work, and there’s a threat, they say, that only big companies with vast resources will keep sharing such data and making these useful tools. “In an ideal world, the government would be maintaining data sets,” Herzog says. But with those coming offline, the only institutions with the actual capabilities to fill the need and take this work further are giant, private companies—which have already been acquiescing to the Trump administration (like Google’s move to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on its maps). When Desai and Herzog were reading the documents associated with the climate data they downloaded, they saw clearly that FEMA workers “interviewed people from every agency with every data set they collected from NOAA, from NASA, etc.,” Desai says. “The amount of work that was poured into this . . . it would take me months to put together.” That speaks to the greater loss of these government resources, and the limitation on the private sector to fill the gaps, attempting to replace the work that was being done by thousands of people who have now been fired. More than 200 FEMA workers have been dismissed since January, and NOAA could soon see more than 1,000 firings—in addition to the more than 800 workers who were already let go. The documents the pair downloaded from FEMA also didn’t include all the specifics on methodology; some information was even censored. All that institutional knowledge held by FEMA staffers gets lost too—even as citizens try to rebuild tools and bring information back online. “Even the best efforts that people are doing to archive this data, there’s so much information that’s lost,” Desai says. “There’s more information that’s in people’s heads that is just not documented, and we’re never going to know what that information loss looks like.” View the full article

Invoice payment terms are essential for several reasons. They impact everything from the strength of business relationships to cash management. Specific payment terms are an integral part of financial management. They even tell businesses when they can expect to have money coming in so they can budget and plan their finances. Read this guide for all the details that small businesses may need to know. Essential Invoice Payment Terms Several critical components are involved, including the invoice and payment due dates. Payment terms such as Net 60 or Net 30 define the time frame where the payment is expected. Some invoices might say “owing on receipt.” Common Invoice Terms Here are a few other terms you should be familiar with. Immediate Payment The money is required right after the invoice for the transactions is issued. That way, the small business has an immediate cash flow. Cash Before Shipment (CBS) Payment needs to be made before the products and services are shipped. This reduces the risk of the invoice not being paid and provides the seller with advanced funds. Cash in Advance (CIA) This is used quite often in international transactions to lessen the risk. Payment must be made before goods and services are provided. Payment in Advance (PIA) One effective method to protect the seller’s interests is to request payment prior to delivery. This approach guarantees cash flow before the work commences. Cash Next Delivery (CND) CND requires the payment to be made the day after the delivery. This is perfect for quick turnaround industries since it offers a short credit period. Cash on Delivery (COD) Payment is made when the goods and services get delivered. Buyers are the winners here because they verify their purchases before paying. Cash With Order (CWO) This arrangement is advantageous for the seller, as they receive payment at the time the order is placed. This means the seller gets the funds before any work starts. Contra Payment This payment type is about two different parties and offsetting debts that work together. This way, there’s no cash exchanging hands. End of Month (EOM) As the name suggests, the payment is due at the end of the month when it is issued. This allows a buyer to manage their cash flow. Monthly Credit Payment This allows buyers to pay off outstanding balances month to month. It’s a tool used to establish regular payment schedules. Interest Invoice These serve as penalties for late payments. Interest invoices act as incentives for timely payments and help compensate the seller for any delays. Terms of Sale The terms of sale encompass various aspects, such as payment requirements and delivery. This approach ensures a clear and transparent agreement. Net 7/10/30/60/90 These are the days the buyer has to pay after the invoice is issued. It’s a way to establish a flexible schedule based on industry standards and the relationship between a seller and purchaser. Payment TermDescriptionImpact on SellerImpact on BuyerBest Used For Immediate PaymentPayment is required right after the invoice is issued.Ensures immediate cash flow.May strain buyer's immediate cash reserves.Small businesses needing instant cash flow. Cash Before Shipment (CBS)Payment is made before goods are shipped.Reduces risk of non-payment and provides funds in advance.Requires trust in the seller and upfront capital.Transactions where shipment risk is a concern. Cash in Advance (CIA)Payment before goods and services are provided, common in international trade.Lessens risk and secures funds upfront.High trust in seller required; impacts cash flow.International transactions to mitigate risks. Payment in Advance (PIA)Payment is made before delivery of goods or services.Secures seller's cash flow before work begins.Requires capital upfront without immediate return.Situations where sellers need assurance of payment. Cash Next Delivery (CND)Payment is due the day after delivery.Short credit period; quick cash flow post-delivery.Very short time to arrange payment post-delivery.Industries with quick turnaround times. Cash on Delivery (COD)Payment made upon delivery of goods or services.Risk of non-payment upon delivery.Allows verification of goods before payment.Buyers seeking assurance of product quality. Cash With Order (CWO)Payments are made when the order is placed.Immediate cash flow before any work starts.Must trust in the seller's delivery without immediate goods.Situations where sellers need funds to begin work. Contra PaymentOffsetting debts between two parties without cash exchange.No immediate cash flow but reduces payable amounts.Similar to the seller; reduces receivable amounts.Businesses with ongoing transactions between each other. End of Month (EOM)Payment is due at the end of the month of invoice issuance.Delayed cash flow until the end of the month.Helps in managing monthly cash flows.Buyers needing to align payments with monthly budget cycles. Monthly Credit PaymentAllows paying off balances month-to-month.Steady but delayed cash flow; risk of non-payment.Flexibility in managing cash flow; builds credit.Long-term business relationships with regular transactions. Interest InvoicePenalty for late payments to incentivize timely payment.Compensates for delays but can strain buyer relations.Additional costs for delays; encourages timely payment.Enforcing payment discipline and compensating for delays. Terms of SaleCovers all elements of a transaction, including payment.Clarity on transaction terms; can include favorable payment terms.Clear understanding of obligations and rights.Comprehensive agreements to avoid misunderstandings. Net 7/10/30/60/90Buyer has a set number of days to pay after the invoice is issued.Flexible cash flow based on terms; risk of delayed payment.Flexibility in managing cash flow; can negotiate terms.Adjusting payment schedules to fit industry standards and relationships. Invoice Payment Terms Example Following is a fictional example of the invoice terms for a website design contract. Invoice Number: #001234 Invoice Date: The date indicated on the invoice From: ABC Web Design Services, 123 Digital Lane, Tech City, TX To: XYZ Retail Company, 456 Commerce Blvd, Market Town, CA Description: Complete website redesign and deployment. Amount: $5,000 Payment Terms: Net 30 (Payment due 30 days from the invoice date, making the due date 30 days after the invoice is issued) Payment Methods: Bank Transfer (Preferred), Check, Online Payment Platforms (e.g., PayPal) Bank Details (for Bank Transfer): Account Name: ABC Web Design Services Bank: TechBank USA Account Number: 123456789 Routing Number: 987654321 Late Payment: Late payments may incur a 2% monthly interest charge. This fictional invoice clearly describes the amounts, due dates, and payment terms. There’s flexibility because Net 30 is offered, and allowing multiple payment methods is convenient. The Impact of Payment Terms on Cash Flow Immediate terms boost on-hand cash and allow for quick access to funds. However, you can limit your customer base if they have cash considerations. EOM or Net 30 can delay a business’s flow but potentially increase opportunities. A business owner should consider all the options for an effective invoicing process. Additionally, options like invoice factoring and invoice financing can help with immediate cash flow issues. Choosing the Right Payment Terms for Your Business Businesses can select suitable payment terms for prompt payment : Choose one that supports your cash requirements. If you need a steady inflow, immediate payment might be your best choice. EOM or Net 30 are best suited to long-term customers with a good track record of paying on time. You can potentially speed up transactions by offering convenient methods like digital payments and checks. Communicating Your Payment Terms Effectively Communicating invoice payment terms effectively is crucial for maintaining a clear and professional relationship with your clients. Here are key points to consider for enhancing transparency and understanding in your invoicing process: Clarity of Payment Terms: Ensure that your invoices clearly state the payment terms. This includes the due date, any early payment incentives, or charges for late payments. Making these terms visible and unambiguous helps set clear expectations. Highlight Payment Terms: To ensure that the invoice payment terms receive proper attention, consider emphasizing them or using bold text. This approach can help make certain that the terms are clearly understood and not missed by the client. Diverse Payment Options: Offering a variety of payment methods can significantly improve the convenience of your clients. This might include: Credit or debit card payments Online payment platforms (e.g., PayPal, Stripe) Bank transfers Checks Providing multiple options caters to different preferences and can expedite the payment process. Detailed Itemization: A transparent invoice should include a detailed breakdown of all products and services provided, along with their respective costs. This itemization helps the client understand exactly what they are being charged for, reducing the likelihood of disputes and confusion. Clear Instructions for Payment: Include specific instructions for each payment method offered. This should cover necessary details like online payment links, bank account information for transfers, or mailing addresses for checks. Contact Information: Ensure that your contact information is easy to find on the invoice. If clients have questions or concerns about their invoice, knowing how to reach you is essential for quick resolution. Use Clear Language: Steer clear of complex terminology or jargon that could confuse your clients. The objective is to ensure that the invoice payment terms and the entire invoice are as clear and comprehensible as possible. Prompt and Polite Communication: When sending invoices, accompany them with a polite message thanking the client for their business and highlighting the importance of adhering to the payment terms. This can set a positive tone for the transaction. Follow-Up System: Establish a system to track and follow up on unpaid invoices. Sending gentle reminders both before and after the due date can promote timely payments and help maintain a positive relationship with your clients. Incorporating these practices into your invoicing process can significantly enhance the clarity and effectiveness of your communication regarding payment terms, leading to smoother transactions and healthier business relationships. Addressing Late Payments You need to have a process for handling overdue accounts. Check the following boxes so your expectations are clear. Make sure your requirements are outlined. Clients prioritize paying when they understand the consequences of late or delayed payments. Legal protection can be provided by defining the consequences of late payment. Ensure you are very upfront about the percentage and amount of late fees and interest charges. Clearly define your overdue procedures. These should include phone calls and reminder emails before a collection agency. Payment Method and Billing Process A variety of customers prefer having multiple payment options. Online payment platforms, credit cards, and bank transfers all simplify the process and expedite transactions. Recurring Payments and Invoices Ongoing services that have recurring invoices and payments automate the entire billing cycle. It’s a great way to have predictable cash flowing in and out, and automation reduces the amount of administration. Common Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Payment Terms Watch out for these errors when you’re drafting payment terms. Make sure the late fees are transparent if you extend payment deadlines. Not enforcing your terms consistently is a big mistake. Some small businesses even forget to offer incentives for early payment. https://youtube.com/watch?v=O6qtAT_SnIM%3Fsi%3Df5t35j-vD2cmg2os FAQs: Invoice Payment Terms Here are some answers to common questions. What are the best payment terms to encourage quick invoice payments? Begin by understanding how to create an invoice that clearly outlines payment terms, facilitating quick transactions for clients. This usually involves detailing the payment steps either in an email or directly on the invoice. Refer to an invoice example to help you get started, then incorporate concise payment deadlines and think about offering early payment discounts. How does the invoice date affect payment terms and due dates? This date marks the beginning of the payment term. If you’ve agreed on a certain length of your payment term with clients, the due date will fall at the end of that term. For example, if your payment term is one week, then the due date would fall one week after the original invoice date. Is it a good idea to offer discounts for early payment? Incentivizing fast payments and improving your cash flow is a good idea for those that need to encourage fast payments. However, discounts can reduce your revenue over time. Communicating clearly and creating strong relationships with ongoing clients can encourage getting paid on time without reducing your revenue. Read More: What is an invoice? Image: Envato Elements This article, "Common Invoice Payment Terms and How to Write Them" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Invoice payment terms are essential for several reasons. They impact everything from the strength of business relationships to cash management. Specific payment terms are an integral part of financial management. They even tell businesses when they can expect to have money coming in so they can budget and plan their finances. Read this guide for all the details that small businesses may need to know. Essential Invoice Payment Terms Several critical components are involved, including the invoice and payment due dates. Payment terms such as Net 60 or Net 30 define the time frame where the payment is expected. Some invoices might say “owing on receipt.” Common Invoice Terms Here are a few other terms you should be familiar with. Immediate Payment The money is required right after the invoice for the transactions is issued. That way, the small business has an immediate cash flow. Cash Before Shipment (CBS) Payment needs to be made before the products and services are shipped. This reduces the risk of the invoice not being paid and provides the seller with advanced funds. Cash in Advance (CIA) This is used quite often in international transactions to lessen the risk. Payment must be made before goods and services are provided. Payment in Advance (PIA) One effective method to protect the seller’s interests is to request payment prior to delivery. This approach guarantees cash flow before the work commences. Cash Next Delivery (CND) CND requires the payment to be made the day after the delivery. This is perfect for quick turnaround industries since it offers a short credit period. Cash on Delivery (COD) Payment is made when the goods and services get delivered. Buyers are the winners here because they verify their purchases before paying. Cash With Order (CWO) This arrangement is advantageous for the seller, as they receive payment at the time the order is placed. This means the seller gets the funds before any work starts. Contra Payment This payment type is about two different parties and offsetting debts that work together. This way, there’s no cash exchanging hands. End of Month (EOM) As the name suggests, the payment is due at the end of the month when it is issued. This allows a buyer to manage their cash flow. Monthly Credit Payment This allows buyers to pay off outstanding balances month to month. It’s a tool used to establish regular payment schedules. Interest Invoice These serve as penalties for late payments. Interest invoices act as incentives for timely payments and help compensate the seller for any delays. Terms of Sale The terms of sale encompass various aspects, such as payment requirements and delivery. This approach ensures a clear and transparent agreement. Net 7/10/30/60/90 These are the days the buyer has to pay after the invoice is issued. It’s a way to establish a flexible schedule based on industry standards and the relationship between a seller and purchaser. Payment TermDescriptionImpact on SellerImpact on BuyerBest Used For Immediate PaymentPayment is required right after the invoice is issued.Ensures immediate cash flow.May strain buyer's immediate cash reserves.Small businesses needing instant cash flow. Cash Before Shipment (CBS)Payment is made before goods are shipped.Reduces risk of non-payment and provides funds in advance.Requires trust in the seller and upfront capital.Transactions where shipment risk is a concern. Cash in Advance (CIA)Payment before goods and services are provided, common in international trade.Lessens risk and secures funds upfront.High trust in seller required; impacts cash flow.International transactions to mitigate risks. Payment in Advance (PIA)Payment is made before delivery of goods or services.Secures seller's cash flow before work begins.Requires capital upfront without immediate return.Situations where sellers need assurance of payment. Cash Next Delivery (CND)Payment is due the day after delivery.Short credit period; quick cash flow post-delivery.Very short time to arrange payment post-delivery.Industries with quick turnaround times. Cash on Delivery (COD)Payment made upon delivery of goods or services.Risk of non-payment upon delivery.Allows verification of goods before payment.Buyers seeking assurance of product quality. Cash With Order (CWO)Payments are made when the order is placed.Immediate cash flow before any work starts.Must trust in the seller's delivery without immediate goods.Situations where sellers need funds to begin work. Contra PaymentOffsetting debts between two parties without cash exchange.No immediate cash flow but reduces payable amounts.Similar to the seller; reduces receivable amounts.Businesses with ongoing transactions between each other. End of Month (EOM)Payment is due at the end of the month of invoice issuance.Delayed cash flow until the end of the month.Helps in managing monthly cash flows.Buyers needing to align payments with monthly budget cycles. Monthly Credit PaymentAllows paying off balances month-to-month.Steady but delayed cash flow; risk of non-payment.Flexibility in managing cash flow; builds credit.Long-term business relationships with regular transactions. Interest InvoicePenalty for late payments to incentivize timely payment.Compensates for delays but can strain buyer relations.Additional costs for delays; encourages timely payment.Enforcing payment discipline and compensating for delays. Terms of SaleCovers all elements of a transaction, including payment.Clarity on transaction terms; can include favorable payment terms.Clear understanding of obligations and rights.Comprehensive agreements to avoid misunderstandings. Net 7/10/30/60/90Buyer has a set number of days to pay after the invoice is issued.Flexible cash flow based on terms; risk of delayed payment.Flexibility in managing cash flow; can negotiate terms.Adjusting payment schedules to fit industry standards and relationships. Invoice Payment Terms Example Following is a fictional example of the invoice terms for a website design contract. Invoice Number: #001234 Invoice Date: The date indicated on the invoice From: ABC Web Design Services, 123 Digital Lane, Tech City, TX To: XYZ Retail Company, 456 Commerce Blvd, Market Town, CA Description: Complete website redesign and deployment. Amount: $5,000 Payment Terms: Net 30 (Payment due 30 days from the invoice date, making the due date 30 days after the invoice is issued) Payment Methods: Bank Transfer (Preferred), Check, Online Payment Platforms (e.g., PayPal) Bank Details (for Bank Transfer): Account Name: ABC Web Design Services Bank: TechBank USA Account Number: 123456789 Routing Number: 987654321 Late Payment: Late payments may incur a 2% monthly interest charge. This fictional invoice clearly describes the amounts, due dates, and payment terms. There’s flexibility because Net 30 is offered, and allowing multiple payment methods is convenient. The Impact of Payment Terms on Cash Flow Immediate terms boost on-hand cash and allow for quick access to funds. However, you can limit your customer base if they have cash considerations. EOM or Net 30 can delay a business’s flow but potentially increase opportunities. A business owner should consider all the options for an effective invoicing process. Additionally, options like invoice factoring and invoice financing can help with immediate cash flow issues. Choosing the Right Payment Terms for Your Business Businesses can select suitable payment terms for prompt payment : Choose one that supports your cash requirements. If you need a steady inflow, immediate payment might be your best choice. EOM or Net 30 are best suited to long-term customers with a good track record of paying on time. You can potentially speed up transactions by offering convenient methods like digital payments and checks. Communicating Your Payment Terms Effectively Communicating invoice payment terms effectively is crucial for maintaining a clear and professional relationship with your clients. Here are key points to consider for enhancing transparency and understanding in your invoicing process: Clarity of Payment Terms: Ensure that your invoices clearly state the payment terms. This includes the due date, any early payment incentives, or charges for late payments. Making these terms visible and unambiguous helps set clear expectations. Highlight Payment Terms: To ensure that the invoice payment terms receive proper attention, consider emphasizing them or using bold text. This approach can help make certain that the terms are clearly understood and not missed by the client. Diverse Payment Options: Offering a variety of payment methods can significantly improve the convenience of your clients. This might include: Credit or debit card payments Online payment platforms (e.g., PayPal, Stripe) Bank transfers Checks Providing multiple options caters to different preferences and can expedite the payment process. Detailed Itemization: A transparent invoice should include a detailed breakdown of all products and services provided, along with their respective costs. This itemization helps the client understand exactly what they are being charged for, reducing the likelihood of disputes and confusion. Clear Instructions for Payment: Include specific instructions for each payment method offered. This should cover necessary details like online payment links, bank account information for transfers, or mailing addresses for checks. Contact Information: Ensure that your contact information is easy to find on the invoice. If clients have questions or concerns about their invoice, knowing how to reach you is essential for quick resolution. Use Clear Language: Steer clear of complex terminology or jargon that could confuse your clients. The objective is to ensure that the invoice payment terms and the entire invoice are as clear and comprehensible as possible. Prompt and Polite Communication: When sending invoices, accompany them with a polite message thanking the client for their business and highlighting the importance of adhering to the payment terms. This can set a positive tone for the transaction. Follow-Up System: Establish a system to track and follow up on unpaid invoices. Sending gentle reminders both before and after the due date can promote timely payments and help maintain a positive relationship with your clients. Incorporating these practices into your invoicing process can significantly enhance the clarity and effectiveness of your communication regarding payment terms, leading to smoother transactions and healthier business relationships. Addressing Late Payments You need to have a process for handling overdue accounts. Check the following boxes so your expectations are clear. Make sure your requirements are outlined. Clients prioritize paying when they understand the consequences of late or delayed payments. Legal protection can be provided by defining the consequences of late payment. Ensure you are very upfront about the percentage and amount of late fees and interest charges. Clearly define your overdue procedures. These should include phone calls and reminder emails before a collection agency. Payment Method and Billing Process A variety of customers prefer having multiple payment options. Online payment platforms, credit cards, and bank transfers all simplify the process and expedite transactions. Recurring Payments and Invoices Ongoing services that have recurring invoices and payments automate the entire billing cycle. It’s a great way to have predictable cash flowing in and out, and automation reduces the amount of administration. Common Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Payment Terms Watch out for these errors when you’re drafting payment terms. Make sure the late fees are transparent if you extend payment deadlines. Not enforcing your terms consistently is a big mistake. Some small businesses even forget to offer incentives for early payment. https://youtube.com/watch?v=O6qtAT_SnIM%3Fsi%3Df5t35j-vD2cmg2os FAQs: Invoice Payment Terms Here are some answers to common questions. What are the best payment terms to encourage quick invoice payments? Begin by understanding how to create an invoice that clearly outlines payment terms, facilitating quick transactions for clients. This usually involves detailing the payment steps either in an email or directly on the invoice. Refer to an invoice example to help you get started, then incorporate concise payment deadlines and think about offering early payment discounts. How does the invoice date affect payment terms and due dates? This date marks the beginning of the payment term. If you’ve agreed on a certain length of your payment term with clients, the due date will fall at the end of that term. For example, if your payment term is one week, then the due date would fall one week after the original invoice date. Is it a good idea to offer discounts for early payment? Incentivizing fast payments and improving your cash flow is a good idea for those that need to encourage fast payments. However, discounts can reduce your revenue over time. Communicating clearly and creating strong relationships with ongoing clients can encourage getting paid on time without reducing your revenue. Read More: What is an invoice? Image: Envato Elements This article, "Common Invoice Payment Terms and How to Write Them" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

When it comes to social media platforms, Facebook is as crowded as they come. The social network currently has a staggering 3 billion active users — so almost a third of the world population has a Facebook account they use regularly. Crowded as it may be, it’s still a powerful social media marketing platform for businesses and creators — if you have the right social media strategy in place. Part of that content strategy involves figuring out the best time to post on Facebook for maximum engagement. When it comes to the Facebook algorithm, engagement — reactions, comments, shares, and the like — is a strong signal that your content is valuable and that more people will enjoy having it in their Facebook news feeds. The higher your engagement, the higher your reach tends to be — and the greater your chance of achieving your social media goals, whether that means driving traffic to your website, making a sale, or simply gaining a new follower. So, how do you pinpoint the best time to post on Facebook for your audience, especially if you’re just starting out? Well, you’ve come to the right place. The Buffer brainiacs (read: our brilliant data scientist, Julian Winternheimer) have poured over the performance of more than 1 million Facebook posts sent via Buffer by businesses, creators, and influencers in the past year to pinpoint the best time to post on Facebook, the best day to post on Facebook, plus the best-performing content on Facebook. In short, expect plenty of helpful recommendations backed by our own data to help you optimize your posting schedule to give your social media content the best chance of success. Ready to jump in? Is there a best time to post on Facebook?Let’s start with a caveat: There’s no magic, universal best time to post on Facebook, during which your content is guaranteed to go viral (if only it were that easy). The best time to post on Facebook — or any social media platform — always depends on your audience — I’ll dig into how you can figure that out below. That said, our data analysis has picked up some definitive links between posting times and high engagement rates, which could be a great starting point if you’re new to Facebook. My advice is to use these times as a springboard for experimentation. Luckily, you have plenty of high-engagement times on Facebook to choose from as part of your digital marketing strategy. The best times to post on FacebookAccording to Buffer data, the best time to post on Facebook is 5 a.m. on Monday. Our analysis showed that the early bird really does catch the worm engagement, with posts shared in the early morning getting the highest media engagement of the entire week. Morning posting times tend to perform the best — we pinpointed other hotspot times on Tuesday at 5 a.m. and Thursday at 7 a.m., which rank in second and third place in our best time to post list respectively. 🌅 Overall posting in the early morning, between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. on weekdays get solid engagement, as you'll see from the heatmap graph below. The darkest slots represent the time slots with the highest engagement rates and, we extrapolate, the best time to post on Facebook. The light to white blocks are the time slots with the lowest engagement — times that are perhaps left out of your posting schedule. Posting times tend to stay strong through the mid-morning until around midday (with a slight peak around lunch breaks) when they start to drop down towards the evening It's helpful to consider these posting times in the context of general audience behavior as part of your overall posting strategy — which is why I always tend to turn to demographics. The largest demographic of Facebook users is aged 25-34 (closely followed by ages 35-44). This suggests that users are more likely to check their Facebook News Feeds before they start their workday, as soon as they wake up in the morning, making it the best time to post. A fascinating report by the Pew Research Center found that an overwhelming majority (93%) say keeping up with friends and family is a reason why they use Facebook. By comparison, the primary use case for other social media platforms like Instagram (86%) and TikTok (95%) is entertainment. With this in mind, it makes sense that the first social media platform users check in the morning is Facebook, where they’ll likely find the latest updates from loved ones — a higher priority than a mindless scroll through, say, some Instagram Reels. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean 5 a.m. is when people are seeing your Facebook posts. It's likely the content needs time to percolate on the news feed, and your fans and followers will find it there when they log on to the platform at a more reasonable hour. Weekend behavior is similar, though don't expect maximum engagement on Saturday and Sunday. Post performance is significantly lower when the workweek is over (more on this below). 🌎To make this data easier to understand, our data scientist Bufferoo has done some mathematical magic to make the recommended time zones universally applicable. In other words, no need to convert. Whether you're in EST (Eastern Standard Time), PST (Pacific Standard Time), or IST (Indian Standard Time), the times apply to you.At a glance: The best time to post on Facebook for every day of the weekMonday: 5 a.m. 🥇Tuesday: 5 a.m. 🥈Wednesday: 5 a.m.Thursday: 7 a.m. 🥉Friday: 9 a.m.Saturday: 7 a.m.Sunday: 7 a.m.The best time to post on Facebook on MondayThe best time to post on Facebook on Monday is 5 a.m. followed by 6 a.m., and then 9 a.m. Monday morning saw the maximum engagement in our study, making it the best time to post on Facebook for the entire week. The best time to post on Facebook on TuesdayThe best time to post on Facebook on Tuesday is also 5 a.m., followed by more optimal posting times at 6 a.m., then 9 a.m. — an exact blueprint of Monday. The best time to post on Facebook on WednesdayThe best time to post on Facebook on Wednesday, according to our data, is also 5 a.m., followed by 7 a.m., then 10 a.m. The best time to post on Facebook on ThursdayThe best time to post on Facebook on Thursday is a little later than the rest of the week at 7 a.m., with other peak posting times at 9 a.m., and 5 a.m. The best time to post on Facebook on FridayThe best time to post on Facebook on Friday is also a little later, at 9 a.m., followed by 7 a.m., then 6 a.m. The best time to post on Facebook on SaturdayThe best time to post on Facebook on Saturday is 7 a.m., with other peak times at 9 a.m., then 6 a.m. However, these posting times are not as great as the high spots on weekdays, above, and engagement pales in comparison. The best time to post on Facebook on SundayThe best time to post on Facebook on Sunday is also 7 a.m., with other solid posting times at 9 a.m. and 6 a.m. Facebook posts shared on Sunday, however, tend to get the lowest engagement of the week, so you might want to shift your social media posts to another day for maximum engagement. ⚡This is where social media scheduling tools like Buffer really shine. Experiment by systematically going through the times on the list above, scheduling posts in those slots, and then tracking their performance to see what works best for your specific audience.The best day to post on FacebookThe best day of the week to post on Facebook is Wednesday — posts shared on the platform mid-week tend to see the highest engagement overall. That said, there is not all that much in it when it comes to posting on Facebook on weekdays, as you can see from the graph above — all of them yield great engagement. Thursday and Tuesday come in second and third place, respectively, but just a smidge above Monday and Friday. There is a more noticeable dip, however, in content posted on the weekend. The worst day of the week to post on Facebook is Sunday. Facebook posts shared on Sunday tend to get 15% less engagement than posts shared on Wednesday. Saturday is also not the best day to post on Facebook, when posts shared see 10.4% less engagement. The best type of content to post on FacebookInterestingly, the best type of content to post for engagement on Facebook is not videos but photos. Our analysis found that posts with images or photos tended to get the most engagement on Facebook, with text-based posts coming in second place. Posts with photos tend to get 34.7% more engagement than text-based posts and 43.8% more engagement than video posts. As you can see, video posts came in third place. Surprising as it may be, it lines up with what we found in another recent analysis on Instagram, in which we discovered that it was photo carousels, not Instagram Reels, that got the most engagement on Facebook. Reels, however, tended to get the most reach, and I theorized why this may be the case in the article. (We’re running a comparison on Facebook and will report back here with the data soon!) The worst-performing content on Facebook’s News Feed is link-only posts (not surprising, given that Facebook wants to keep its users in the app). The best time for you to post on FacebookWhile the Facebook post times above are a great jumping-off point, they may not necessarily reflect the habits of your target audience — which is where figuring out your unique best time to post on Facebook comes in. Pinpointing times that your audience is more likely to be active and engaging is an important part of social media management. To find yours, it’s worth digging into Meta Business Suite. How to find your best time to post on Facebook with Meta Business SuiteMeta Business Suite, the Facebook and Instagram analytics tool, comes with a bit of a learning curve (we’ve got a full guide to Meta Business Suite if you’ve never used it before). Facebook does have Facebook Insights, a pared-down tool within Facebook to check out a handful of page performance metrics, which might be enough for the casual creator. Still, if you’re managing a Facebook Page and don’t plan to use a social media analytics tool like Buffer to help, it’s well worth getting to grips with the more in-depth Meta Business Suite. It also offers some, well, valuable insights that even Facebook Insights doesn't have — like showing when your followers on most active on the platform. These numbers can be a helpful clue in narrowing down your personal best time to post on Facebook. Here's how to find that data: There are several ways to access Meta Business Suite. My preferred route is via Facebook itself. (Make sure you’re logged in via your Facebook Page, not your personal profile.) Click on Meta Business Suite on the menu on the left.Click on Insights on the menu on the left.Click on Audience on the left, Choose Trends above the graph.Scroll down to Most active times. Here, you’ll find when your current followers use Facebook. You can use the button on the right to switch between different days of the week.Note that this doesn’t necessarily indicate the best time to post on Facebook to reach your audience, just when they’re most likely to be online. If you're going this route, I suggest experimenting with some of the peak times and days to note which slots get the maximum engagement, helping you pinpoint your best time to post on Facebook. Your checklist for high-performing Facebook postsFiguring out the best time to post on Facebook can be helpful, but it’s not the ultimate secret to Facebook success (again, if only it were that simple!). As we unpack in our guide to the Facebook algorithm, there are plenty of other things you can do to give your content the best possible chance of reaching more people. Here’s a high-level overview: Share content that prompts conversations: Producing high-quality content should always be your priority on social media. Tap into your Facebook Insights or analytics in Buffer to stay on top of the content that resonates the most with your audience. Remember: Facebook likes authentic accounts that contribute to their community and create meaningful interactions.Cultivate authentic relationships with your fans: Reacting and replying to comments and always responding timeously to DMs is only half the battle — be sure to be thoughtful and authentic in your replies to really connect with your audience.Experiment with different content types: While video may perform best generally, your target audience might respond better to something else. Text, photos, GIFS, Reels — be sure to try them all more than once.Tap into user-generated (UGC) content and mentions: When people tag you in posts, take notice. This is a perfect opportunity to share their content as user-generated content — with their permission, of course.Aim to be on users' 'Favorite' lists: Facebook users can take more control of their feeds with the Favorite list feature. Encourage your fans to add you to that list so they never miss your content.Don’t resort to clickbait or engagement bait: Clickbait is exaggerated, over-sensationalized content that doesn’t deliver on its promise. Engagement bait uses captions or photos that contain phrases like, “Like this if you like dogs better, share this if you like cats better.” Facebook regularly updates its algorithm to downrank content like this, making it a terrible way to attempt to get maximum engagement.Verify all the news you share: Another thing the Facebook algorithm doesn’t like: fake news. Facebook is vigilant in identifying misinformation and takes strict action against violators, potentially leading to removal from the platform.Stick to Facebook's Community Standards: Facebook takes its Community Standards seriously. The algorithm is pretty good at weeding out posts that violate these rules, but even if a post manages to skirt under the radar, Facebook users can report it and have it taken down anyway. Getting strikes against your account like this could impact future content performance.When in doubt, always remember: Facebook’s algorithm values what users value. “Facebook's goal is to make sure that you see posts from the people, interests, and ideas that you find valuable,” the company says. “Whether that content comes from people you're already connected to or from those you may not yet know.” View the full article

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It’s a . . . well, weird job market out there, to put it diplomatically. If you’ve suddenly found yourself looking for work among what feels like a never-ending onslaught of layoffs, you’re not alone. Now more than ever, standing out is essential to landing your dream job. In that spirit, LinkedIn Learning offers a variety of free courses that can help you sharpen your skills, boost your confidence, and navigate the job-seeking landscape with ease. Here are six free LinkedIn Learning courses that can assist you in finding a new job. Polish up your résumé This 2.5-hour course covers everything you need to know about creating a résumé that showcases your skills, experiences, and achievements effectively. You’ll learn how to format your résumé, choose the right keywords, and tailor it to different job applications.Additionally, the course provides tips on avoiding common mistakes and how to use action verbs to highlight your accomplishments. By the end, you’ll ideally have a polished résumé that sets you apart from other candidates. Ace your interviews Interviews can be nerve-wracking, but preparation is key to success. This 1.25-hour course offers expert advice on how to answer common interview questions confidently and effectively. You’ll learn how to research the company, understand the job requirements, and prepare responses to questions about your skills, experiences, and career goals. Also covered techniques for handling tricky questions, such as addressing gaps in your employment history or explaining why you left your previous job. Keep your wits about you You’ve sent out hundreds of résumés. The fish aren’t biting. The ones that are result in rejection. You’re getting discouraged. This quick course is a half-hour pick-me-up that teaches you strategies for setting realistic goals, staying organized, and managing stress. It also provides techniques for building self-confidence, overcoming self-doubt, and staying motivated even when the going gets tough. Land a job on LinkedIn Love it or hate it, LinkedIn is still a powerful tool for job seekers. This hour-long course teaches you how to finesse your LinkedIn profile to make it more attractive to recruiters and hiring managers. You’ll learn how to create a compelling headline, write a professional summary, and showcase your skills and experiences. The course also covers strategies for networking with industry professionals, joining relevant LinkedIn groups, and utilizing the platform’s job search features. Land a job not on LinkedIn (or anywhere else) Not all job opportunities are advertised publicly, and many great positions are found through networking and personal connections. This half-hour course reveals strategies for tapping into the hidden job market, where you can discover unadvertised positions and reach out to potential employers directly. You’ll learn how to identify key contacts, craft persuasive outreach messages, and build meaningful professional relationships. The class also covers techniques for conducting informational interviews and leveraging your network to uncover hidden opportunities. Always be networking Even if you’re not looking for a new job, building a strong professional network is more important than ever. This 40-minute course offers practical strategies for connecting with industry professionals, joining relevant online communities, and using social media to your advantage. You’ll learn how to create an engaging online presence, share valuable content, and participate in virtual events and discussions. Along with all that, you’ll get tips for maintaining and nurturing your network over time, ensuring that you have a solid support system as you navigate your career. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker’s anxiety becomes my problem I have a coworker, “Lily,” who reports to my manager and has been at the company for two years, with our team for four months. She and I are both pretty new to the workforce (we are 25 years old), so I would appreciate some advice on handling this situation in a mature and sensitive way. Lily does great work — she’s diligent, detail-oriented, and on top of all our tasks. However, she seems very anxious all the time, and her anxiety can feel overwhelming. She has a tendency to talk very fast without making eye contact, and as soon as she’s spoken for a while and I open my mouth to respond, she’ll cut in and tell me even more. When she runs into work-related problems, she will run to me and just tell me what the problem is, and then wait expectantly for me to say or do … something. If I ask questions in response, she’ll jump in the second I finish my sentence and blurt even more about the problem, with a great sense of desperation. She has seemed on the verge of tears because of very small things and she will insist with urgency that I need to help her solve the problem immediately, even though I know from my experience it is not a big deal at all. I’m really struggling not to let her anxiety make me anxious. I try very hard to respond to her panic with calm, but no amount of reassurance, explanations of what’s important and what’s not, or positive feedback (even specific notes on what she is doing well) seems to sate the fire-hose of urgency. I don’t manage Lily. When I asked our manager for advice, he told me that he had seen this in junior employees before, and it would naturally go away as Lily became more experienced. That advice is not helpful for my day-to-day interactions with Lily. Is there anything that can be done here, or do you think I just need to do a better job of riding the wave of Lily’s anxiety? To what extent is it your job to be fielding so many questions from Lily in the first place? Obviously you want to be collegial and that means some amount of willingness to help troubleshoot things … but that’s only true up to a point. If a lot of that is going on — and it sound like it is — Lily should normally be seeking help from her manager, not a peer. So the first thing is to be less available for these anxiety spirals! Say you’re busy and can’t help and she should check with your mutual manager … or skip the declaration of busyness and just say, “Oh, you should talk with Manager about that.” Right now it sounds like Lily is treating you as a manager stand-in (probably because it’s less intimidating to go to you than to her boss) and you should stop serving in that role. You’re not her manager, you’re not being paid as her manager, and by soaking up all her anxious questions, you’re keeping your boss from seeing the extent of the issue, as well as taking on an emotional burden that you don’t need to take on. Related: how should I deal with an anxious and needy coworker? 2. Micromanager is now checking everyone’s version histories — hourly My supervisor has always been a micromanager to our five-person unit. He literally rewrites everyone’s work to suit how he is feeling that day, and this includes emails to upper management, stakeholders, etc. We are all nearly at our wit’s end, but unfortunately there are no other openings to apply to or request transfer to without taking pay cuts. Over the past two weeks, he expanded his micromanagement toolbox to include demanding editing access to everyone’s assignments via OneDrive, where he monitors our version histories to see what we accomplished each hour and calls us out if we didn’t get what he considers enough done. It now just outright feels like he has created a toxic waste dump of an environment to work in. Are there any next steps you can suggest? We have no idea what to do. Good lord. He’s monitoring version histories? By the hour? Does he have no work of his own? Is the team up for pushing back as a group and saying, “This is interfering with our ability do our work and making us feel you don’t trust us to act with integrity and in the company’s interests”? It’s possible that if you speak up about it as a group rather than individually, it’ll create enough pressure to get him to stop. If that doesn’t work, in some companies it would be the sort of thing you could speak with either HR or his own boss about, framed as, “This is demoralizing the team and harming everyone’s productivity and he needs more support on how manage properly.” But in other companies, that would get you nowhere at all, so it depends on what you know about his boss and the abilities of your HR people and their willingness to intervene. (It’s worth noting HR doesn’t typically have the power to curtail this kind of thing on their own, but in some companies they’d respond by coaching him on how to manage more effectively, especially if they hear it from the whole team.) 3. How to handle a GoFundMe for laid-off employees I work at a large nonprofit, and we went through a massive layoff yesterday. Most of the staff is reeling. The staff quickly put together a GoFundMe for the laid-off employees and raised thousands of dollars in the past day. It’s generous, but something about it doesn’t sit right with me. It’s coming from a good place — people are shocked, frustrated, and want to help — but it feels misguided. If people were serious about showing some kind of solidarity, I can’t help but feel that we’d be talking about a different kind of organizing (a work stoppage with a set of demands about getting rid of the overpriced, mostly empty office building or inflated executive pay before we lay off staff, for example). Instead, this feels kind of like condescending/poorly designed severance. Am I being unreasonable here? Should I just kick in some cash and hope it helps? I don’t think you’re entirely off-base. I don’t think it’s condescending and anyone who doesn’t want the help can turn it down, but it doesn’t sit right to have coworkers, who might be in precarious financial positions themselves, take on the responsibility of providing financial support to laid-off employees rather than the organization to provide severance. However, the impulse is a very kind and understandable one! The GoFundMe is something people can do now and which provides immediate help for people who might need it urgently, which can’t be said of a hypothetical campaign that might or might not succeed (and which, even if it does succeed in some ways, could easily not result in people getting their jobs back). Ultimately I’d judge the GoFundMe on its own merits: do you want to contribute? You don’t have to! But I wouldn’t reject it solely because you’d rather see the staff organizing. Also, though, if you want to see the staff organizing … are you willing to explore what it would look like to lead it yourself? If not, I wouldn’t judge the thing people are willing to organize. Also, what it’s worth, responding to staff cuts at a nonprofit through a lens of solidarity is likely not the right lens; you need to look at what the organization can actually do with its budget, at a time when many nonprofits are seeing their funding dramatically cut. Maybe in your org’s case there are smarter trade-offs they should have made, ones that would avoid layoffs; if so, that’s a more realistic framing than one of general staff solidarity, since a nonprofit’s loyalty needs to be to its mission above individual jobs, as rough as that can be to live through. 4. Telling a coworker she has a beautiful name Can I tell a female worker that she has a beautiful name when we are introduced or will I get in trouble? I’m a man. Would you ever tell a male coworker that? I’m guessing no, which is a good litmus test indicating you shouldn’t say it to a female colleague either. Most women really don’t want male colleagues commenting on their face/hair/clothing/smile/name/other things they don’t have any control over; even if your intentions are wholesome, it’s going to feel rooted in relating to them as a woman, rather than as a professional person who’s at work. Interact with us the same way you would interact with male colleagues, please. 5. Should I explain the termination of federal probationary employees in my cover letter? I’m one of the many federal probationary employees who recently received a termination letter. Can I assume that potential employers will know that I was swept up in mass layoffs of questionable legality, or is it safer to provide an explanation in my cover letter as to why I worked for less than five months at my old job? I was thinking that at the end of the cover letter, after discussing my old position, I could say something like, “Unfortunately, my time at X was cut short by blanket layoffs of probationary employees (anyone with less than one year of service) across the federal government. However, I am excited by the opportunity to bring my experience to…” I imagine the answer to this question differs by industry. For context, I’m a social scientist with a PhD who worked in a federal statistical agency. I’ll be looking for research positions both remotely and in the greater D.C. area. Most people will know without you spelling it out, but there’s also nothing wrong with explaining it — just use as few words as possible on it so that the focus of your letter can stay on your qualifications. I’d edit your proposed language down to: “Unfortunately, my time at X was cut short by blanket layoffs of probationary employees anyone with less than one year of service across the federal government. However, I am excited by the opportunity to bring my experience to…” Mostly that’s to use fewer words, but it’s also true some people have been misunderstanding the term “probationary” and thinking it means “on probation because of your performance,” rather than because you were new. While it should be clear from the context, it’s better to leave no doubt. View the full article

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A federal grand jury has indicted Edward Michael Greer, a Newport Beach businessman, on charges of tax evasion. According to the indictment, Greer, the owner of insurance salvage company Greer & Kirby Co. Inc., allegedly misclassified millions of dollars in personal expenditures as business expenses between 2017 and 2020. The indictment alleges that Greer used his company’s bank accounts to cover personal expenses, including payments to bookmakers Wayne Nix and Ken Arsenian to settle gambling losses, as well as the purchase of a 2021 Mercedes Benz. Greer allegedly concealed these payments in the company’s financial records and directed them to be recorded as business expenses to lower taxable income. Wayne Nix and Ken Arsenian have previously pleaded guilty for their roles in operating an illegal sports gambling business. If convicted, Greer faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of tax evasion. Sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The case is being investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation. The charges were announced by Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph T. McNally for the Central District of California. Image: Canva This article, "California Businessman Indicted for Tax Evasion" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

A federal grand jury has indicted Edward Michael Greer, a Newport Beach businessman, on charges of tax evasion. According to the indictment, Greer, the owner of insurance salvage company Greer & Kirby Co. Inc., allegedly misclassified millions of dollars in personal expenditures as business expenses between 2017 and 2020. The indictment alleges that Greer used his company’s bank accounts to cover personal expenses, including payments to bookmakers Wayne Nix and Ken Arsenian to settle gambling losses, as well as the purchase of a 2021 Mercedes Benz. Greer allegedly concealed these payments in the company’s financial records and directed them to be recorded as business expenses to lower taxable income. Wayne Nix and Ken Arsenian have previously pleaded guilty for their roles in operating an illegal sports gambling business. If convicted, Greer faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of tax evasion. Sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The case is being investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation. The charges were announced by Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph T. McNally for the Central District of California. Image: Canva This article, "California Businessman Indicted for Tax Evasion" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Fiverr has introduced a Freelancer Equity Program, granting shares to top-performing, eligible freelancers based in the United States. The initiative aims to provide financial benefits beyond traditional earnings, reinforcing Fiverr’s commitment to its freelancer community. As freelancers are projected to represent half of the U.S. workforce by 2027, Fiverr sees this program as a means of offering additional financial incentives. The program will provide up to $10,000 in Fiverr shares to eligible freelancers, with equity grants distributed over four years based on annual eligibility requirements. “Freelancers are the backbone of today’s economy and the heart of Fiverr’s success,” said Micha Kaufman, Founder & CEO of Fiverr. “With this initiative, they’re not just shaping the future of work—we’re actually giving them a piece of it, making Fiverr not just a platform for work, but a place where equity can also be earned.” Eligible freelancers will be notified in the coming days regarding their participation in the program. The initiative is structured to encourage sustained excellence and continued engagement among Fiverr’s highest-performing freelancers, while also serving as an aspirational goal for others on the platform. “This is something we’ve long wanted to offer, and after careful development and extensive work, we’ve created a program around how we can build success together with our talent,” added Kaufman. “This initiative demonstrates our commitment to innovation not just in technology, but in how we value and invest in our talent community.” The Freelancer Equity Program marks a significant step in Fiverr’s efforts to strengthen its relationship with freelancers by offering them a direct stake in the company’s success. This article, "Fiverr Launches Freelancer Equity Program, Offering Shares to Top Freelancers" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article