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We may earn a commission from links on this page. For the past few months, I’ve had two salt shakers in my kitchen. One is Morton Salt Substitute, which is potassium-based, and I use it for the first few shakes of salt when I’m seasoning a dish. The other is regular table salt, which I use at the table. Now the World Health Organization is recommending that more of us try salt substitutes, and not just in the name of lowering sodium. Potassium is good for us, and it’s an easy way to get more in our diet. Morton Salt Substitute, 3.12 oz, 2 pk (Limited Edition) $11.98 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Get Deal Get Deal $11.98 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Benefits of potassium-based saltIf you’ve ever tried to lower your sodium intake, you’re probably familiar with low-sodium or no-sodium salt substitutes. One potential benefit is, of course, that they give you an easy way to lower your sodium intake if you do a lot of your own cooking. Sodium can contribute to high blood pressure and other health conditions, so the World Health Organization recommends that most of us keep our sodium intake under 2,000 milligrams per day. (The U.S. recommendation is a bit more generous, at 2,300 milligrams.) But this isn’t just about sodium. When it comes to heart health, most of us get more sodium than recommended and not enough potassium. Potassium is another mineral that our body needs, and consuming more of it has been found to reduce risks of cardiovascular disease. In this study, for example, people who switched to a potassium-based salt had fewer strokes, heart attacks, and deaths during the study than people who kept using a regular sodium salt. We normally get potassium in our diet from fruits and vegetables. Potassium salt shouldn’t replace that, but it can be a good extra source of the mineral. According to the National Institutes of Health, adult women should get at least 2,600 milligrams of potassium per day, and adult men at least 3,400. Downsides of potassium-based saltImportantly, potassium supplementation is not for everyone. If you have kidney disease or impaired kidney function, or if you’re taking a medication that changes how your body processes potassium, you may want to avoid these salts. (Your healthcare provider can tell you more.) How does potassium salt taste?The people promoting salt substitutes for health tend to wave away concerns about flavor. Most people won’t notice the difference, they say. They may be right, but there is a difference. Potassium salts have a subtly different flavor than regular sodium-based table salt. Sprinkle a little on your hand and lick it, and you’ll see what I mean. It’s still salty, and it doesn’t taste bad or anything, but it’s not quite the same. In large amounts, potassium-based salt substitutes can taste slightly metallic or bitter. When companies make low-sodium versions of their products, they know to use a mix of potassium and sodium salts, so that’s what I do at home. I use my salt substitute at the beginning of a recipe, when I’m browning meat or sautéing onions. It contributes a general saltiness to the dish. The next time I add salt, it’s usually the sodium kind. I figure I’m getting a roughly 50/50 balance, and then the salt shaker I bring to the dinner table is regular old table salt. If that’s too complicated, you can just mix both types of salt in the same container. Or buy a salt substitute like Morton Lite, which is a mix of sodium and potassium salts. And if you need a long-term review to convince you it will actually be fine for daily use, one of the largest studies on salt substitutes found that, after five years, 90% of participants were still happily using their salt substitute. View the full article

I am seeing a lot of renewed chatter within the SEO industry of a possible unconfirmed Google search ranking update touching down in the past 24-hours or so. The weird thing is that the tools are not really showing much of a spike in volatility but the chatter seems incredibly high.View the full article

Microsoft published its new Microsoft Advertising features that it released over the past month. This goes across Performance Max tools, reporting, new values, targeting, and more.View the full article

Google AI Overviews are now able to show super detailed comparison within Google Search. If you search for two very specific models, Google may give you a ton of details directly in the AI Overview.View the full article

Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Company’s work-life advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: How do I get a hiring manager to respond to me? A: I’ve been on both sides of this scenario. I know how frustrating it can be to send your résumé and cover letter out into the void and wait for weeks without hearing anything. I also know how overwhelming it can be as a hiring manager to shift through hundreds of applications while meeting all of the normal demands of your job. So it’s a delicate balance. As a candidate you just want to know, but you also don’t want to annoy the person who you are hoping to impress. Here’s how to approach it: Follow the rules The first and most important step is to follow the instructions for applying. If the job posting requires you to upload your résumé to the corporate site, do it. Read the listing carefully to make sure you apply in exactly the format they ask for with exactly the materials they ask for. If the listing asks for a cover letter, write one—and not a generic one, one that’s tailored to the position and company. If the listing asks candidates to include work samples or references, include those. This may sound basic, but many candidates just fire off résumés to hundreds of open positions. Not following basic instructions is an easy way to knock yourself out of the running. Give it a little time, then find a real person Even if the company needs to fill the role urgently, hiring takes time. Wait at least a week after applying to send out your first outreach. Do the leg work to find who is likely the hiring manager—or at least someone who works in the department. Do not blast ten people at the company with a “to whom it may concern” message. The same advice for getting people to respond to any email applies here, too. You have a much better chance of getting a response if you can find a common connection and have that person recommend you. Be clear and concise If you can’t find a connection, and you’re sending a cold email, be as clear and concise as possible. Make your subject line the title of the role you are applying for. Let the hiring manager know that you have applied according to the listing instructions and then in one or two sentences explain why you are excited about the role and how you are a good fit. If you have non-traditional experience, you can briefly explain your transferable skills so they will hopefully take a closer look at your application. If you do land an interview, you can end up with another bout of waiting after the interview. Your first step after an interview is to send a thank you note, which can help solidify a good impression and follow up on things you talked about in the interview. After that, the same rules apply as far as giving it at least a week before following up again and keeping your message short and sweet. Best of luck! Want some more advice on following up on a job? Here you go: How do I get people to respond to my emails? A recruiter shares the best way to follow up on a job application This is how to write a follow-up email that’s not annoying 12 effective strategies for messaging recruiters on LinkedIn that will get noticed Can I ask a hiring manager to reconsider if I don’t get the job? View the full article

Earlier this week, a doctor friend told me about a frustrating new obstacle he’s facing at work. In normal times, he’s relied on websites operated by the U.S. federal government for practical information on everything from vaccine side effects to advice for families traveling to exotic areas. But the Trump administration’s move to strip sites of material relating to “gender ideology” and other topics the new president and his allies find objectionable has resulted in many pages disappearing from the web. My friend has been making do by consulting versions of the pages stored at the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. But that’s hardly a long-term solution. For one thing, those cached copies may be out of date. For another, it’s not a given that the Internet Archive will always be available when we need it. A New York Times article by Ethan Singer details the scale of the purge. More than 8,000 pages have been wiped away on subjects ranging from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Head Start program to avoidance of IRS penalties to telltale signs of dementia. Just the deletions relating to census data—one of the federal government’s most vital resources—have affected 3,000 pages. As pages have continued to vanish, others have returned, and the only explanation has come in the form of vague sitewide banners such as “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.” As with other elements of the administration’s rush to reshape how the federal government works—or doesn’t work—the chaos may be the point. All of this is alarming even before you consider what a government online presence rewritten to Donald Trump’s specifications might look like. Reportedly, it involves excising not just references to “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion,” but also a bevy of other terms, including apparently controversial concepts such as “belonging,” “empathy,” and “fairness.” For more than a quarter century, the web has been a primary interface between citizens and their government. It may be more critical than its physical counterpart—or at least I can’t remember the last time I had to visit a federal office in person. By taking its language policing more seriously than the duty to provide information to the public, the new administration is failing at one of its most basic responsibilities. That raises a new specter that hadn’t been on my list of things to worry about: tactical removal of pages from government sites as a tool for impeding knowledge. For example, I hate to think about a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination website full of information created under the imprimatur of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But simply eliminating the current site’s information and replacing it with . . . nothingness might do nearly as much damage as spreading RFK Jr.’s cherished misinformation on the subject. It could be done with a few clicks—a much simpler task than shutting down entire government departments, which is also part of Trump’s plan for the nation. I’m not saying that an even more sprawling, permanent site-scrubbing is definitely going to happen. As with many things about current events, Trump’s own comments on the edits (“I don’t know. That doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me.”) don’t make clear he’s paying attention, and leave him infinite wriggle room if he is. All we can do is keep paying attention, maybe with a newfound appreciation for a government benefit that has been quietly essential and easy to take for granted—until now. Yes, you can have too much storage Recently, I bought a 16 TB hard drive. It cost about $270, which—unadjusted for inflation—is a little over half what I paid for a drive I remember buying in the 1990s. That one had 500 MB of space, or 1/32,000th the capacity of the drive I just got. 1990s me, who was thrilled to add an entire half-gigabyte (!!!) of space to my PC would have been ecstatic to know that storage would continue to get ever vaster and cheaper. Oddly enough, though, my new 16 TB drive, which I added to a server that sits on my home network, has not brought me unalloyed pleasure. Instead, maxing out the space I already had made me question whether I should concentrate on deleting files rather than making room for more. Not that digital hoarding isn’t tempting. Unlike its physical counterpart, it’s unlikely to result in the new stuff overwhelming the old: I do a fairly respectable job of organizing it all into folders, part of a broader storage strategy that also involves several cloud services. I’m grateful to have enough room for a precious archive of family photos and letters, as well as ancient Word documents I still reference (for articles such as this one) and email that dates to 1994. I even ditched almost all the printed copies of magazines I’ve written for—hundreds of issues—and replaced them with PDFs. Still, like Scrooge McDuck filling his money bin with 3 cubic acres of cash and then burrowing through it like a gopher, I may have gone overboard. I use a wonderful piece of software called Channels to record streaming TV and over-the-air stations directly to my home network. These videos are mine, all mine—a comfort in an era when Netflix has only five movies made before 1980—and tough to part with. Yet they represent the single most voracious disk-space gobbler in my life. And even if I had infinite time on my hands, I wouldn’t use it to binge all the TV and movies I’ve preserved. Another thing that haunts me: An unknown but significant percentage of my disk space is devoted to files that are duplicates, triplicates, or beyond. How I ended up with so many redundant ones, I’m not sure. But they multiply like Tribbles, and eliminating all the redundant ones might feel like getting a new hard disk for free. After mulling all this over, doing some housecleaning, and finding I was still low on available space, I took the easy route by purchasing that new drive. It’ll surely get me well into 2027, and maybe way beyond. By the time it’s full, even more mammoth disks should be available for even less money. It would be nice, however, to think I’ll be more disciplined by then—a little less Uncle Scrooge, a little more Marie Kondo. If you have any tips on digital self-restraint, I’m dying to hear them. You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads. More top tech stories from Fast Company OpenAI reveals new AI tool that can do online research for you Deep Research can gather information from across the web and summarize it in easy-to-read reports. Read More → Will a return to OG Facebook appeal to Gen Z? Mark Zuckerberg certainly seems to think so. Read More → Google teams up with Samsung to take on Dolby Atmos The two companies are betting on the power of branding to turn their new immersive audio format into a success story. Read More → 3 quick ways to free up iPhone storage space Save space, save time, save yourself from the ‘Storage Almost Full’ pop-up. Read More → I tried a mindfulness browser to make work less stressful. Maybe you should, too Open Air from the Norwegian company Opera is billed as the first-ever ‘mindful browser.’ It’s intended to combat the chaotic nature of the web. Read More → This scrappy search upstart is getting thousands of people to give up Google As Google results grow cluttered and AI runs rampant on the web, Kagi is winning over disillusioned searchers with an engine that puts them first. Read More → View the full article

Israeli prime minister makes most explicit comments yet suggesting he will not seek a lasting truceView the full article

Google / Alphabet reported its Q4 2024 earnings last night, where its ad revenue hit $72.46 billion, up 10.6% from last year's quarter of $65.52 billion. Google's revenue was up 12% with $96.47 billion and its profit was up 30.7% to $30.9B. Search revenue specifically was up 12.5% to $54 billion.View the full article

The wedding venue business is constantly evolving. To attract customers – and make money – the wedding venue business owner has to keep tabs on what people want, provide excellent customer service and be ready to adapt. To accomplish this in the ultra-competitive wedding venue industry, you’ll need a business plan that includes options for pivoting as the market demands. Understanding the Wedding Venue Business We’ll start with an overview of trends and challenges in the wedding venue business: Trends Eco-friendly Venues: With a rising emphasis on sustainability and environmental consciousness, many couples are seeking out eco-friendly venues. This includes places that utilize renewable energy, practice waste reduction, or are located in natural, conservation-friendly settings. Smaller, Intimate Weddings: Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a shift towards micro-weddings and elopements. These are smaller, more intimate events, often with less than 50 guests. Versatility: Venues that can adapt to a variety of settings and themes are in demand. For example, a barn that can be dressed up for a glamorous event or toned down for a rustic feel is highly sought after. All-inclusive Packages: Many couples prefer venues that offer comprehensive services, from catering to decor to photography. This simplifies the planning process. Cultural and Non-traditional Venues: As societies grow more diverse, there is an increasing demand for venues that accommodate specific cultural or non-traditional ceremonies. Technology Integration: Modern weddings often incorporate technology. This includes things like live streaming for remote guests, drones for photography, and high-quality audio-visual setups for entertainment. Experiential Weddings: More than just a ceremony and reception, couples are now looking for venues that offer unique experiences, perhaps weekend-long activities or interactive elements for guests. Challenges Economic Fluctuations: Economic downturns can result in fewer weddings or reduced wedding budgets. Increased Competition: With the rise of unique and non-traditional venues, traditional venues may find it harder to attract clients. Regulations and Licensing: Meeting local regulations, obtaining the necessary licenses, and ensuring public safety can be complicated and costly. Weather Concerns: Outdoor venues, in particular, are at the mercy of unpredictable weather, which can disrupt events. Keeping Up with Trends: The wedding industry is trend-driven. Venue owners need to update and adapt to ensure they remain appealing continuously. COVID-19 and Health Concerns: The pandemic led to the closure or significant restrictions on many venues. As we transition back to “normal,” it’s important to be aware of the new health and safety considerations that have emerged. High Expectations: Thanks to platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, couples often have very high expectations and specific visions for their weddings. Meeting these expectations can be challenging. Seasonality: The wedding venue business can be highly seasonal, with certain times of the year (like spring and summer) being particularly busy, while other periods are much quieter. This seasonality can present cash flow challenges. The Importance of a Robust Wedding Venue Business Plan A business plan template is just that – an outline that includes the elements that are necessary in any business plan. The wedding venue business plan should include options for continued growth in the wedding venue business. For example, part of the business plan should include ways to keep up with trends in the wedding event venue. You can do that by attending related events, such as Bride Expos or Travel Conventions. When you connect with others in the wedding planning industry, whether it’s related to dresses or destinations, you’ll be able to monitor current customer trends. This awareness is a crucial element of any wedding venue business plan. Creating Your Wedding Venue Business Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide Every business plan includes certain elements. A well-written business plan is a crucial part of the business’s future, especially when it’s time to seek financing. In addition to receiving all the pertinent financial information, lenders want to see a comprehensive business plan. Writing Your Executive Summary The executive summary is a description of the business. It should include the business name and location, as well as contact information for the owner and/or partners. The executive summary should also describe all the services that will be provided at the wedding venue, such as photography, catering, lodging, and more. If you also plan on learning how to become a wedding planner to offer extra services to couples who book your venue, include those offerings in this section. The mission statement should be carefully crafted and include the reasons for starting that type of business. Crafting Your Company Description The company description is an expansion of the executive summary in the business plan. It should include the history of the business, such as an owner’s prior employment as a wedding planner, restaurant owner/caterer, or other related employment history. It should also include – while not being etched in stone – the nature of the wedding venue services that will be offered. This part should be “written in pencil” as it’s the most likely part of the business plan, which may be tweaked to adapt to the market. Conducting a Thorough Market Analysis of Wedding Venues In the wedding venue business, market analysis should be regularly conducted. Here are the key elements: Define the Objective: Understand why you’re conducting the analysis. Are you trying to start a new venue, optimize an existing venue, or perhaps diversify your services? Define the Geographic Scope: Are you targeting a particular city, region, or country? Clarifying this will assist you in refining your research. Industry Overview: Total number of weddings per year in your chosen area. Average spending on wedding venues. Growth trends in the wedding industry. Segmentation: Identify different segments within the wedding venue market. For example: Luxury venues vs. budget-friendly venues. Urban venues vs. countryside venues. Traditional venues vs. non-traditional venues. Competitive Analysis: Identify major competitors in each segment. Analyze their strengths, weaknesses, services offered, pricing, and unique selling propositions. Look at their online presence, customer reviews, and any media coverage. Demand Analysis: Conduct surveys or focus groups to understand what couples are looking for in a wedding venue. Understand emerging preferences, such as eco-friendliness, technological integrations, or unique experiences. Supply Analysis: Determine the number of venues available in your chosen area. Understand their capacity, availability, and booking trends. Pricing Analysis: Understand the average price range for wedding venues in your area. Determine the factors that influence pricing, like location, services, capacity, etc. Regulatory Environment: Identify any local regulations, permits, or licenses required to operate a wedding venue. Understand any upcoming regulatory changes that could impact the industry. Technological Trends: Investigate emerging technologies that could be relevant, like virtual tours, live streaming capabilities, or advanced lighting/sound systems. SWOT Analysis: Based on your findings, conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for your business or potential business idea. This information will help you form a financial plan. Forecasting: Using the data collected, make projections about the future of the wedding venue market in your area. This will be valuable for long-term planning. Describing Your Organization and Management Structure In your business plan, name your business structure and management structure. For example, if you’re a partnership, name the people and their roles and responsibilities. If you’re a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), name the owner. Provide information about the individuals involved. The simplest method to achieve this is by incorporating a brief resume that outlines their previous employment, educational background, and any prior experience in business ownership. Outlining Your Wedding Venue Services What types of weddings can you accommodate? Black tie or Rustic? Small groups or 500 plus guests? Do you possess or have access to a distinctive feature like a covered bridge, a beautiful view, or a picturesque watercourse? If your primary emphasis is on outdoor weddings, how will you handle situations when the weather doesn’t cooperate? Do you provide limo services? Horse-drawn carriages? Set the scene when you describe the services. Remember that planning a wedding can be very stressful for people – if you can provide (subcontract) the caterer and photographer, customers may be grateful to have fewer details to juggle. Developing Your Marketing and Sales Strategy Marketing and sales are an important part of the wedding venue business plan template. Here are some key elements of the marketing and sales plan: Marketing Branding: Develop a strong brand identity (logo, colors, messaging). Define your venue’s unique selling proposition (USP). Website Development: Create a user-friendly, visually appealing website. Include high-quality photos, videos, and virtual tours of the venue. Add client testimonials and a blog section with wedding tips. Social Media: Regularly post on platforms popular with your target audience (e.g., Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook). Share real weddings and behind-the-scenes content, and engage with followers. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimize your website for search engines to drive organic traffic. Utilize local SEO practices to appear in local searches. Online Advertising: Invest in pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns targeting wedding-related keywords. Use social media ads to target engaged couples in your area. Networking: Collaborate with wedding planners, photographers, and caterers to get referrals. Attend wedding fairs and industry events. Email Marketing: Capture emails through your website. Send newsletters with special offers, upcoming events, and wedding tips. Content Creation: Share blog posts about wedding planning, venue decor ideas, and other relevant topics. Consider creating video content or webinars. Public Relations: Get featured in wedding magazines, blogs, and other media. Foster relationships with influencers in the wedding industry. Feedback and Reviews: Encourage satisfied clients to leave positive reviews on platforms like Google and wedding-specific sites. Respond to feedback constructively and promptly. Sales Site Visits: Offer personalized venue tours for potential clients. Ensure the venue is always presentable. Pricing Packages: Offer tiered packages to cater to different budgets. Provide customizable options for flexibility. Open House Events: Host open house days where potential clients can experience the venue. Collaborate with other vendors for live demonstrations (e.g., catering, decor). Follow-up: Have a system in place to follow up with leads after initial contact or tours. Use a CRM system to track interactions and manage relationships. Referral Program: Offer incentives to past clients or vendors for referring new clients. Special Promotions: Offer limited-time discounts or added-value services during off-peak seasons. Quality Service: Ensure excellent customer service at every touchpoint. Provide clients with clear contracts and transparent communication. Upselling Opportunities: Offer additional services like decor rentals, extended hours, or partnered catering services. Highlight unique features of your venue that can be added at a premium. Training: Regularly train sales staff on the venue’s features, pricing, and how to handle objections. Feedback Loop: Regularly solicit feedback from clients to refine the sales process. Adjust strategy based on performance metrics and customer feedback. Creating Your Financial Projections This can be a daunting part of the business plan, but once you put the numbers together, you’ll have a clearer picture to help you make your financial plan. Start-Up Costs: List all initial costs required to start the business. This might include costs like licenses, initial inventory, equipment, lease deposits, website development, branding, and any other one-time costs. Sales and Revenue Forecast: Estimate the number of units or services you expect to sell monthly. Multiply this by the price per unit or service to get monthly revenue. Be realistic. It’s common for businesses to have slow sales at the start. Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): Calculate the direct costs associated with producing a product or delivering a service. For product-based businesses, this includes material and manufacturing costs. Operating Expenses: List recurring monthly costs like rent, utilities, salaries, marketing, and other overheads. Don’t forget about periodic costs like yearly licenses or subscriptions. Profit & Loss Projection: Subtract COGS and operating expenses from your sales forecast to estimate monthly profit or loss. This can be done on a monthly basis for the first year and then annually for the next two to five years. Break-Even Analysis: Determine when the business will start making a profit. This is the point where total revenues equals total costs. Cash Flow Forecast: Track when money will come in and go out. This is crucial to ensure you always have enough cash on hand to cover expenses, especially if customers don’t pay immediately or if there are seasonal variations in sales. Balance Sheet Projection: Create an anticipated balance sheet for the end of the year. It should include assets (both current and fixed), liabilities, and owner’s equity. Adjust for Seasonality and Growth: Adjust monthly projections if your business is seasonal (e.g., a holiday store). For growth, factor in a reasonable monthly or yearly growth rate based on industry averages and your marketing efforts. Scenario Analysis: Develop best-case, worst-case, and expected-case scenarios. This helps you prepare for different possibilities and understand potential risks. Type of ProjectionDescription Start-Up CostsList all initial costs needed to commence business operations. This includes items like licenses, initial inventory, equipment, deposits, website development, branding, etc. Sales and Revenue ForecastMonthly estimates of units or services expected to be sold multiplied by their prices. Note: It's common for slow initial sales. Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)Direct costs of producing a product or delivering a service. For products, this can be material and manufacturing costs. Operating ExpensesMonthly recurring costs including rent, utilities, salaries, marketing, and other overheads. Consider periodic costs like yearly licenses or subscriptions. Profit & Loss ProjectionMonthly profit or loss estimated by subtracting COGS and operating expenses from the sales forecast. Done monthly for the first year, then annually for the subsequent 2-5 years. Break-Even AnalysisThe point where total revenues match total costs, indicating when the business will start making a profit. Cash Flow ForecastPredicting the inflow and outflow of cash. Essential for ensuring sufficient cash is available to cover expenses, considering payment delays or seasonal variations. Balance Sheet ProjectionAn expected balance sheet at the end of the year, detailing assets (current and fixed), liabilities, and owner's equity. Adjust for Seasonality and GrowthFor businesses with seasonal variations, adjust projections accordingly. For growth, consider a feasible monthly or yearly growth rate based on industry norms and marketing plans. Scenario AnalysisContemplating best-case, worst-case, and expected-case scenarios. A valuable tool for risk understanding and preparation. Using a Wedding Venue Business Plan Template There are numerous templates for creating a business plan. However, given the service nature of the wedding venue business plan, you’ll need to adapt the typical template to include a section on the services you will provide. FAQs: Wedding Venue Business Plan Can owning a Wedding venue be profitable? The US wedding industry is a multi-billion dollar sector. The venue is typically one of the most significant expenses for couples and is often the largest portion of the wedding budget. Wedding venue businesses can include “add-ons” such as catering, decor, a wedding planning app for couples, and other services, which will increase profitability. You can also include equipment rentals, such as a sound system or on-site overnight lodging. However, profitability can be seasonal. The typical peak wedding seasons are spring and summer. Also, economic downturns can impact couples’ wedding budgets, which can affect bookings and pricing. How can I increase my Wedding venue revenue? Try to keep overhead costs down. If you’re managing a large area or maintaining a historic building, costs can be high. Also, add on services such as catering, equipment rentals, photography and other options. You can subcontract those services but charge the subcontractors a percentage. What is the first step in creating a successful Wedding venue business plan? Utilize a pre-existing business plan template and make necessary adjustments. Gather feedback from family, friends, and business associates. How long should a Wedding venue business plan be? There’s no set length. It should include all the needed elements. What makes a Wedding venue business plan effective? As is common with all business plans, the most effective plan is one that is regularly revisited and adjusted as needed. Can I use a template for my Wedding venue business plan? Yes, you can use a business plan template or business startup checklist and adjust it to add sections, such as including the services you’ll provide with your Wedding Venue business. How often should I update my Wedding venue business plan? As a minimum, it should be revisited and updated yearly. Since the business times for a wedding venue business are typically spring and summer, checking the business plan can be accomplished in the fall or winter months annually. Image: Depositphotos This article, "A Step-by-Step Wedding Venue Business Plan" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

The wedding venue business is constantly evolving. To attract customers – and make money – the wedding venue business owner has to keep tabs on what people want, provide excellent customer service and be ready to adapt. To accomplish this in the ultra-competitive wedding venue industry, you’ll need a business plan that includes options for pivoting as the market demands. Understanding the Wedding Venue Business We’ll start with an overview of trends and challenges in the wedding venue business: Trends Eco-friendly Venues: With a rising emphasis on sustainability and environmental consciousness, many couples are seeking out eco-friendly venues. This includes places that utilize renewable energy, practice waste reduction, or are located in natural, conservation-friendly settings. Smaller, Intimate Weddings: Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a shift towards micro-weddings and elopements. These are smaller, more intimate events, often with less than 50 guests. Versatility: Venues that can adapt to a variety of settings and themes are in demand. For example, a barn that can be dressed up for a glamorous event or toned down for a rustic feel is highly sought after. All-inclusive Packages: Many couples prefer venues that offer comprehensive services, from catering to decor to photography. This simplifies the planning process. Cultural and Non-traditional Venues: As societies grow more diverse, there is an increasing demand for venues that accommodate specific cultural or non-traditional ceremonies. Technology Integration: Modern weddings often incorporate technology. This includes things like live streaming for remote guests, drones for photography, and high-quality audio-visual setups for entertainment. Experiential Weddings: More than just a ceremony and reception, couples are now looking for venues that offer unique experiences, perhaps weekend-long activities or interactive elements for guests. Challenges Economic Fluctuations: Economic downturns can result in fewer weddings or reduced wedding budgets. Increased Competition: With the rise of unique and non-traditional venues, traditional venues may find it harder to attract clients. Regulations and Licensing: Meeting local regulations, obtaining the necessary licenses, and ensuring public safety can be complicated and costly. Weather Concerns: Outdoor venues, in particular, are at the mercy of unpredictable weather, which can disrupt events. Keeping Up with Trends: The wedding industry is trend-driven. Venue owners need to update and adapt to ensure they remain appealing continuously. COVID-19 and Health Concerns: The pandemic led to the closure or significant restrictions on many venues. As we transition back to “normal,” it’s important to be aware of the new health and safety considerations that have emerged. High Expectations: Thanks to platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, couples often have very high expectations and specific visions for their weddings. Meeting these expectations can be challenging. Seasonality: The wedding venue business can be highly seasonal, with certain times of the year (like spring and summer) being particularly busy, while other periods are much quieter. This seasonality can present cash flow challenges. The Importance of a Robust Wedding Venue Business Plan A business plan template is just that – an outline that includes the elements that are necessary in any business plan. The wedding venue business plan should include options for continued growth in the wedding venue business. For example, part of the business plan should include ways to keep up with trends in the wedding event venue. You can do that by attending related events, such as Bride Expos or Travel Conventions. When you connect with others in the wedding planning industry, whether it’s related to dresses or destinations, you’ll be able to monitor current customer trends. This awareness is a crucial element of any wedding venue business plan. Creating Your Wedding Venue Business Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide Every business plan includes certain elements. A well-written business plan is a crucial part of the business’s future, especially when it’s time to seek financing. In addition to receiving all the pertinent financial information, lenders want to see a comprehensive business plan. Writing Your Executive Summary The executive summary is a description of the business. It should include the business name and location, as well as contact information for the owner and/or partners. The executive summary should also describe all the services that will be provided at the wedding venue, such as photography, catering, lodging, and more. If you also plan on learning how to become a wedding planner to offer extra services to couples who book your venue, include those offerings in this section. The mission statement should be carefully crafted and include the reasons for starting that type of business. Crafting Your Company Description The company description is an expansion of the executive summary in the business plan. It should include the history of the business, such as an owner’s prior employment as a wedding planner, restaurant owner/caterer, or other related employment history. It should also include – while not being etched in stone – the nature of the wedding venue services that will be offered. This part should be “written in pencil” as it’s the most likely part of the business plan, which may be tweaked to adapt to the market. Conducting a Thorough Market Analysis of Wedding Venues In the wedding venue business, market analysis should be regularly conducted. Here are the key elements: Define the Objective: Understand why you’re conducting the analysis. Are you trying to start a new venue, optimize an existing venue, or perhaps diversify your services? Define the Geographic Scope: Are you targeting a particular city, region, or country? Clarifying this will assist you in refining your research. Industry Overview: Total number of weddings per year in your chosen area. Average spending on wedding venues. Growth trends in the wedding industry. Segmentation: Identify different segments within the wedding venue market. For example: Luxury venues vs. budget-friendly venues. Urban venues vs. countryside venues. Traditional venues vs. non-traditional venues. Competitive Analysis: Identify major competitors in each segment. Analyze their strengths, weaknesses, services offered, pricing, and unique selling propositions. Look at their online presence, customer reviews, and any media coverage. Demand Analysis: Conduct surveys or focus groups to understand what couples are looking for in a wedding venue. Understand emerging preferences, such as eco-friendliness, technological integrations, or unique experiences. Supply Analysis: Determine the number of venues available in your chosen area. Understand their capacity, availability, and booking trends. Pricing Analysis: Understand the average price range for wedding venues in your area. Determine the factors that influence pricing, like location, services, capacity, etc. Regulatory Environment: Identify any local regulations, permits, or licenses required to operate a wedding venue. Understand any upcoming regulatory changes that could impact the industry. Technological Trends: Investigate emerging technologies that could be relevant, like virtual tours, live streaming capabilities, or advanced lighting/sound systems. SWOT Analysis: Based on your findings, conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for your business or potential business idea. This information will help you form a financial plan. Forecasting: Using the data collected, make projections about the future of the wedding venue market in your area. This will be valuable for long-term planning. Describing Your Organization and Management Structure In your business plan, name your business structure and management structure. For example, if you’re a partnership, name the people and their roles and responsibilities. If you’re a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), name the owner. Provide information about the individuals involved. The simplest method to achieve this is by incorporating a brief resume that outlines their previous employment, educational background, and any prior experience in business ownership. Outlining Your Wedding Venue Services What types of weddings can you accommodate? Black tie or Rustic? Small groups or 500 plus guests? Do you possess or have access to a distinctive feature like a covered bridge, a beautiful view, or a picturesque watercourse? If your primary emphasis is on outdoor weddings, how will you handle situations when the weather doesn’t cooperate? Do you provide limo services? Horse-drawn carriages? Set the scene when you describe the services. Remember that planning a wedding can be very stressful for people – if you can provide (subcontract) the caterer and photographer, customers may be grateful to have fewer details to juggle. Developing Your Marketing and Sales Strategy Marketing and sales are an important part of the wedding venue business plan template. Here are some key elements of the marketing and sales plan: Marketing Branding: Develop a strong brand identity (logo, colors, messaging). Define your venue’s unique selling proposition (USP). Website Development: Create a user-friendly, visually appealing website. Include high-quality photos, videos, and virtual tours of the venue. Add client testimonials and a blog section with wedding tips. Social Media: Regularly post on platforms popular with your target audience (e.g., Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook). Share real weddings and behind-the-scenes content, and engage with followers. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimize your website for search engines to drive organic traffic. Utilize local SEO practices to appear in local searches. Online Advertising: Invest in pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns targeting wedding-related keywords. Use social media ads to target engaged couples in your area. Networking: Collaborate with wedding planners, photographers, and caterers to get referrals. Attend wedding fairs and industry events. Email Marketing: Capture emails through your website. Send newsletters with special offers, upcoming events, and wedding tips. Content Creation: Share blog posts about wedding planning, venue decor ideas, and other relevant topics. Consider creating video content or webinars. Public Relations: Get featured in wedding magazines, blogs, and other media. Foster relationships with influencers in the wedding industry. Feedback and Reviews: Encourage satisfied clients to leave positive reviews on platforms like Google and wedding-specific sites. Respond to feedback constructively and promptly. Sales Site Visits: Offer personalized venue tours for potential clients. Ensure the venue is always presentable. Pricing Packages: Offer tiered packages to cater to different budgets. Provide customizable options for flexibility. Open House Events: Host open house days where potential clients can experience the venue. Collaborate with other vendors for live demonstrations (e.g., catering, decor). Follow-up: Have a system in place to follow up with leads after initial contact or tours. Use a CRM system to track interactions and manage relationships. Referral Program: Offer incentives to past clients or vendors for referring new clients. Special Promotions: Offer limited-time discounts or added-value services during off-peak seasons. Quality Service: Ensure excellent customer service at every touchpoint. Provide clients with clear contracts and transparent communication. Upselling Opportunities: Offer additional services like decor rentals, extended hours, or partnered catering services. Highlight unique features of your venue that can be added at a premium. Training: Regularly train sales staff on the venue’s features, pricing, and how to handle objections. Feedback Loop: Regularly solicit feedback from clients to refine the sales process. Adjust strategy based on performance metrics and customer feedback. Creating Your Financial Projections This can be a daunting part of the business plan, but once you put the numbers together, you’ll have a clearer picture to help you make your financial plan. Start-Up Costs: List all initial costs required to start the business. This might include costs like licenses, initial inventory, equipment, lease deposits, website development, branding, and any other one-time costs. Sales and Revenue Forecast: Estimate the number of units or services you expect to sell monthly. Multiply this by the price per unit or service to get monthly revenue. Be realistic. It’s common for businesses to have slow sales at the start. Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): Calculate the direct costs associated with producing a product or delivering a service. For product-based businesses, this includes material and manufacturing costs. Operating Expenses: List recurring monthly costs like rent, utilities, salaries, marketing, and other overheads. Don’t forget about periodic costs like yearly licenses or subscriptions. Profit & Loss Projection: Subtract COGS and operating expenses from your sales forecast to estimate monthly profit or loss. This can be done on a monthly basis for the first year and then annually for the next two to five years. Break-Even Analysis: Determine when the business will start making a profit. This is the point where total revenues equals total costs. Cash Flow Forecast: Track when money will come in and go out. This is crucial to ensure you always have enough cash on hand to cover expenses, especially if customers don’t pay immediately or if there are seasonal variations in sales. Balance Sheet Projection: Create an anticipated balance sheet for the end of the year. It should include assets (both current and fixed), liabilities, and owner’s equity. Adjust for Seasonality and Growth: Adjust monthly projections if your business is seasonal (e.g., a holiday store). For growth, factor in a reasonable monthly or yearly growth rate based on industry averages and your marketing efforts. Scenario Analysis: Develop best-case, worst-case, and expected-case scenarios. This helps you prepare for different possibilities and understand potential risks. Type of ProjectionDescription Start-Up CostsList all initial costs needed to commence business operations. This includes items like licenses, initial inventory, equipment, deposits, website development, branding, etc. Sales and Revenue ForecastMonthly estimates of units or services expected to be sold multiplied by their prices. Note: It's common for slow initial sales. Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)Direct costs of producing a product or delivering a service. For products, this can be material and manufacturing costs. Operating ExpensesMonthly recurring costs including rent, utilities, salaries, marketing, and other overheads. Consider periodic costs like yearly licenses or subscriptions. Profit & Loss ProjectionMonthly profit or loss estimated by subtracting COGS and operating expenses from the sales forecast. Done monthly for the first year, then annually for the subsequent 2-5 years. Break-Even AnalysisThe point where total revenues match total costs, indicating when the business will start making a profit. Cash Flow ForecastPredicting the inflow and outflow of cash. Essential for ensuring sufficient cash is available to cover expenses, considering payment delays or seasonal variations. Balance Sheet ProjectionAn expected balance sheet at the end of the year, detailing assets (current and fixed), liabilities, and owner's equity. Adjust for Seasonality and GrowthFor businesses with seasonal variations, adjust projections accordingly. For growth, consider a feasible monthly or yearly growth rate based on industry norms and marketing plans. Scenario AnalysisContemplating best-case, worst-case, and expected-case scenarios. A valuable tool for risk understanding and preparation. Using a Wedding Venue Business Plan Template There are numerous templates for creating a business plan. However, given the service nature of the wedding venue business plan, you’ll need to adapt the typical template to include a section on the services you will provide. FAQs: Wedding Venue Business Plan Can owning a Wedding venue be profitable? The US wedding industry is a multi-billion dollar sector. The venue is typically one of the most significant expenses for couples and is often the largest portion of the wedding budget. Wedding venue businesses can include “add-ons” such as catering, decor, a wedding planning app for couples, and other services, which will increase profitability. You can also include equipment rentals, such as a sound system or on-site overnight lodging. However, profitability can be seasonal. The typical peak wedding seasons are spring and summer. Also, economic downturns can impact couples’ wedding budgets, which can affect bookings and pricing. How can I increase my Wedding venue revenue? Try to keep overhead costs down. If you’re managing a large area or maintaining a historic building, costs can be high. Also, add on services such as catering, equipment rentals, photography and other options. You can subcontract those services but charge the subcontractors a percentage. What is the first step in creating a successful Wedding venue business plan? Utilize a pre-existing business plan template and make necessary adjustments. Gather feedback from family, friends, and business associates. How long should a Wedding venue business plan be? There’s no set length. It should include all the needed elements. What makes a Wedding venue business plan effective? As is common with all business plans, the most effective plan is one that is regularly revisited and adjusted as needed. Can I use a template for my Wedding venue business plan? Yes, you can use a business plan template or business startup checklist and adjust it to add sections, such as including the services you’ll provide with your Wedding Venue business. How often should I update my Wedding venue business plan? As a minimum, it should be revisited and updated yearly. Since the business times for a wedding venue business are typically spring and summer, checking the business plan can be accomplished in the fall or winter months annually. Image: Depositphotos This article, "A Step-by-Step Wedding Venue Business Plan" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

The folks at Seer put together a study looking at how the click-through rates of the Google organic and paid search results are impacted by having AI Overviews on the page. And the short answer is, AI Overviews seem to be hurting the click-through rates in a big way.View the full article

On Saturday, a little less than two weeks into his second term in the White House, President Donald Trump fired Rohit Chopra, who’d served as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) since October 2021. During his tenure, the Bureau oversaw the return of some $6 billion from financial services providers—banks, credit card companies, mortgage brokers, payday lenders, and so on—who defrauded, gouged, swindled, harassed, stole from, lied to, discriminated against, or otherwise harmed consumers in violation of federal law. In a letter announcing his departure, Chopra expressed hope that the Bureau would “continue to be a pillar of restoring and advancing economic liberty in America,” and wished Trump “good luck in serving our great country.” The most surprising aspect of Chopra’s termination was that Trump waited so long to do it. Congress created the Bureau after the Great Recession to consolidate enforcement authority for consumer protection laws in a single, independent agency. And although Chopra had about a year and a half remaining in his five-year term, Republicans had anticipated that Trump would quickly move to replace him with a director more sympathetic to banking executives eyeing megayacht purchases. In November, shortly after Elon Musk announced the “Department of Government Efficiency” that is now setting fire to the civil service, he called for Trump to “delete” the Bureau posthaste. “There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies,” he said. A firm belief in the villainy of the Bureau has become common of late not only among Wall Street behemoths who want to squeeze poor people for money they do not have, but also among Silicon Valley oligarchs eager to see their fintech and crypto startups compete with the traditional banking industry. Last fall, the CFPB probed allegations that Meta had improperly used personal financial data in its targeted advertising business; in response, during a recent interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested the emergence among regulators of a “quiet consensus” that tech companies like his needed to be brought to heel. In November, and also on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen accused the CFPB of “terrorizing anybody who tries to do anything new in financial services.” In a possibly related story, as Ryan Cooper at The American Prospect notes, in 2021, the CFPB ordered the closure of LendUp, a fintech startup, after determining that the company lied to customers about how they could qualify for better loan terms. Among LendUp’s backers: Google Ventures, PayPal Holdings, and Marc’s firm, Andreessen Horwitz. Sure enough, on Monday, Trump named hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, whom the Senate confirmed as Secretary of the Treasury last week, as the CFPB’s acting director, pending Trump’s decision on Chopra’s permanent replacement. According to NPR, among Bessent’s first acts in his side gig was directing CFPB employees to stop doing anything—implementing new rules, taking enforcement actions, even communicating with the public—in order to “promote consistency with the goals of the Administration.” There is no subtext here: Republicans do not want to install a new person to lead the CFPB so much as they want to kill it. Trump’s return to the White House—and the elevation of Musk, an unelected billionaire with a rudimentary-at-best understanding of how government works, to the position of shadow president—is their best chance in years to do it. Since it opened in 2011, the Bureau has probably done more to rein in abuses of corporate power than any agency in recent memory, returning an estimated $20 billion to millions of consumers victimized by junk fees, predatory loans, and the like. (It was still busy a week before Trump’s inauguration, suing Capital One for allegedly bilking customers out of more than $2 billion in interest payments.) In an effort to shield the Bureau from regulatory capture, the Congress that created the CFPB limited the president’s ability to fire its director, allowing for removal only in cases of “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” A consumer protection watchdog vulnerable to kneecapping by a president with no interest in protecting consumers, lawmakers reasoned, would not do much to prevent the industry from inciting another global financial crisis at its earliest convenience. These statutory handcuffs have long infuriated Republican politicians, who argue that forcing usurious student lenders to comply with modest restrictions on their ability to saddle borrowers with late fees is an unconscionable constraint on their beloved free market. In a 2014 interview with an industry publication, then-Congressman Mick Mulvaney described the Bureau as a “joke” in a “sick, sad kind of way,” a sentiment shared by many of his Republican colleagues at the time.“I don’t like the fact that the CFPB exists,” he said in 2015; that same year, he co-sponsored legislation to abolish the Bureau altogether. Although bills like Mulvaney’s never passed, the Bureau’s opponents started chalking up real victories during the first Trump administration. For starters, Trump appointed Mulvaney as the Bureau’s interim director in November 2017, a choice that is roughly analogous to me asking my dog to keep an eye on a 72-ounce porterhouse while I run to the store to pick up a nice bottle of red. Like Bessent, at the time of his promotion, Mulvaney already had a Senate-confirmed day job as director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget; according to The New York Times, by June 2018, he was only going into the Bureau’s offices twice a week. Also like Bessent, Mulvaney set about the task of bringing the Bureau’s work to a grinding halt, asking courts to block the implementation of new rules and pausing or dropping some investigations, including a lawsuit against a lender that allegedly charged interest rates of up to 950%. Also among the probes the Bureau ended: one of a South Carolina-based payday lender whose political action committee donated at least $4,500 to Mulvaney when he was still in Congress. Then, in 2020, the Supreme Court’s five-justice Republican majority decided that those pesky firing protections created by Congress were unconstitutional. Although the justices rejected the more ambitious argument that the law compelled them to abolish the entire Bureau and strike down a decade’s worth of rules by judicial fiat, they made clear that going forward, presidents like Trump would be able to fire directors like Choprit whenever they felt like it. Musk’s takeover of vast swaths of the federal government, however, is the most serious threat yet to the Bureau, and to anyone who aspires to live in a country in which financial institutions have to comply with laws that require them to treat customers fairly. When he called for its elimination, Musk characterized the Bureau as “duplicative” of other regulatory agencies—essentially framing its work as wasteful and unnecessary, and the notion of closing its doors as a straightforward matter of prudent administration and good governance. But like every other institution that Musk is using DOGE to target, Musk’s conception of “inefficient” government spending is any government spending that does not align with his political ideology, or go into his pockets, or both. Musk has long aspired to make X, the social media platform he bought and ruined, into an “everything app” on which users can pay for purchases, transfer money to friends, and even earn interest on their account balance. Earlier this month, X rolled out a partnership with Visa that would allow it to dispense with onerous state-by-state bank licensing requirements and turn X Money into a Venmo-like digital wallet and peer-to-peer payments service. Linda Yaccarino, X’s chief executive, promised that with Visa in the fold, X Money would debut its services before the end of the year. Under ordinary circumstances, a microblogging website owned by a White House employee announcing imminent plans to enter the financial services business could expect to undergo rigorous scrutiny from the Bureau. As CNET notes, details about “how secure your banking data is” on X Money are “still unclear,” which is the sort of thing about which users will want to know more before opening virtual checking accounts on a platform ridden with porn bots, crypto scams, and crypto scams run by likely porn bots. Just a few months ago, the CFPB under Chopra’s leadership ordered Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and other X competitors to turn over information about how they operate their digital payment systems, citing its ongoing obligation to “monitor for risks to consumers.” Presumably, none of these companies will have to comply with these orders on Bessent’s watch, and X will not be receiving one anytime soon. In Musk’s ideal world, he would be able to turn X into an app that can access your life savings without having to contend with the CFPB at all. But a CFPB run by a Trump lackey under strict orders not to do any meaningful work is a pretty appealing alternative. Complaining about the CFPB’s purported “inefficiency” is a lazy repackaging of the Republican Party’s standard objections to any agency that is good at its job: Safeguarding the financial interests of everyday people is indeed an inefficient method of making the Republican Party’s corporate donors wealthier. But years of sustained political attacks from the right have already weakened the CFPB. The movement fueling the Trump-Musk presidency might be able to quietly finish it off. View the full article

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Cybersecurity startup EchoMark is releasing a new application programming interface (API) to allow for its novel digital watermarking tool to integrate with virtually any existing communications software. Founded in 2022 to develop a digital watermarking system to safeguard organizations’ sensitive and proprietary information, EchoMark originally focused on injecting personalized identifiers into emails and link-based networked document sharing tools. Now, armed with $10 million in seed funding, the company is on a mission to “watermark the world,” as founder and CEO Troy Batterberry puts it. “Our vision is that any piece of private information can be forensically watermarked and tied to a recipient’s identity,” Batterberry tells Fast Company, adding that the company’s customers asked for a way to integrate the software directly into their own bespoke communications channels. “We built this API so we can add this into any commercial application or custom workflow.” Batterberry has been thinking about leaks for a long time. As a young missile systems engineer conducting research and development on new weapons for the U.S. Navy, Batterberry found himself personally entrusted with “deeply classified stuff,” responsible for constantly adding his signature to paper copies of sensitive documents to signal his role as their authorized guardian. “Signing your name on the top of a document indicates you’re the custodian of that information,” he says. “Psychologically, it changes how you think about protecting that information. If you leave it out, you could lose your security clearance—or, even worse, your entire profession.” Following his career in the Navy, Batterberry went into the private sector as an engineer, first at Sony and then Microsoft, where he spent the next 25 years and eventually became a corporate VP in charge of Teams and Webinars. It was at Microsoft that Batterberry developed a digital rights management system to protect streaming media via audio and visual watermarks. Such safeguards ensured that, should content make its way to illegal streaming portals like BitTorrent, the source of the leak would be easily identifiable. Those experiences eventually coalesced in Batterberry’s brain into a pressing organizational question that formed the basis for EchoMark: What if you could take personalized watermarking and apply it to anything, from emails and images to healthcare records and legal documents? EchoMark’s watermarking solution is elegant in its simplicity. When a sensitive document is distributed to its intended recipient, the company’s software generates personalized copies with thousands of slight formatting differences imperceptible to the human eye. Once that document makes its way out into the wild, whether as a photocopy, screenshot, or even as a photograph taken from a personal cell phone, users can employ EchoMark’s proprietary computer vision and AI to scan the target artifact and match it against the original copies. Rather than physically sign copies, as Batterberry did in the Navy, EchoMark applies personalized signatures at scale with lightning efficiency so that leaks are easily traceable back to the source. Batterberry demonstrated the software for Fast Company in real time with a copy of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Roe v. Wade that leaked to Politico in May 2022 (the source of the leak was never identified). Batterberry sent an email containing a PDF of the Dobbs decision processed through EchoMark to seven phony email addresses standing in for those of the sitting Supreme Court justices; he then opened the document from the fake account of Chief Justice John Roberts and took a photo of it on his computer screen with his personal phone. After uploading the photo to EchoMark, the software dashboard quickly analyzed the image and spit out a definitive conclusion: The document pictured in his photo was in fact identical to the one the Roberts account had received. “Whoever leaked the [Dobbs] decision knew that as long as they used a personal device, they would never get caught because multiple people had access to the report,” Batterberry says. “With EchoMark turned on, we could have IDd the source of that leak in minutes.” The Supreme Court is just one example of EchoMark’s potential governmental applications. Batterberry cites as other disclosures where EchoMark’s software may have proven useful the rogue IRS contractor who in 2020 leaked President Donald Trump’s tax records to news organizations, as well as Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who leaked hundreds of classified Defense Department files onto Discord in 2023. EchoMark currently boasts more than a hundred “high respected” clients across the government, financial services, health care, and entertainment sectors, according to Batterberry, with the company projecting 10-time growth in the coming year among. “The federal government is extremely interested,” Batterberry says. “The FBI, for example, has grave concerns about leaks when investigating drug cartels who are willing to spend serious money to get access to information and adapt accordingly.” EchoMarks’ forensic watermarking isn’t just about identifying leakers as part of a breach investigation, but prevention as well, so far that the presence of digital identifiers will purportedly dissuade potential leakers from releasing sensitive information into the wild if they know they’ll be almost instantly identified. And by empowering organizations with a low-cost, easy-to-implement method for investigating and mitigating leaks, EchoMark serves a larger purpose: helping organizations share information openly and with confidence rather than close themselves off internally to stamp out leakers. Indeed, Batterberry cites the September 11, 2001, terror attacks as an example of what happens when sensitive information isn’t allowed to flow freely between intelligence and law enforcement agencies. “A key reason for the breakdown in communication leading up to the 9/11 attacks was that government agencies failed to share information they needed to share with each other,” Batterbery says. “Communication is the lifeblood of any organization.” View the full article

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For all the industries that are facing existential crises from the emergence of artificial intelligence, one is seeing a happily profitable outcome. Architects are increasingly being commissioned to design the brick-and-mortar infrastructure supporting the AI boom. These data centers—big warehouse-like buildings stuffed with whirring servers sucking up hundreds of megawatts of power—are becoming a major, and majorly lucrative, part of the architecture industry’s bottom line. “We’ve got about 200 people working strictly on data center projects,” says Joy Hughes, a design manager at the architecture and design firm Gensler. It’s a subset of the architecture business that has surged in recent years. During the Covid pandemic, the demand for cloud-based online services from Zoom calls to streaming movies caused a spike in data center construction. “Now we’re seeing another jump in growth because of AI and machine learning coming on board,” Hughes says. Gensler, which has more than 6,000 employees in 57 offices worldwide, has seen its data center business skyrocket. The practice area is up 87% year over year from 2023, and the firm is projecting a growth of 40% for 2025. Gensler is not alone. Many other architecture firms, both big and small, are seeing data center work drive significant revenues. More than a dozen firms pulled in $1 million or more in data center revenue in 2023, according to Building Design + Construction’s annual list of architecture firm revenue. Ten firms earned more than $20 million in data center-related revenue in 2023. Third-ranked Gensler’s take was more than $69 million; Corgan, at the top of the list, raked in $135 million. Gabe Clark, data centers sector leader for Corgan, says the firm has been designing data centers for more than 15 years and anticipates year-over-year growth for at least the next five years. “We started executing one megawatt builds. We’re now designing now one gigawatt campuses,” he says. “There’s truly exponential growth in the marketplace, both in advancement of what data center design is and clearly in the need and the demand. And we don’t see that slowing down anytime soon.” The story behind these staggering figures is a simple one of demand. A recent report from McKinsey estimates that global demand for data center capacity could rise at an annual rate of between 19 and 22% through 2030. For architecture firms, that’s a steady pipeline of new projects for years to come. “Under construction data centers are expected to reach record highs in 2025. Demand for modern data center facilities continues to soar,” says Gordon Dolven, director of Americas data center research at the commercial real estate advisory CBRE. Databank Atlanta [Photo: courtesy of Gensler] Data center design evolves This boom is opening up new avenues for design. It’s an unexpected evolution for a very utilitarian building typology, which usually consists of a big warehouse with a few offices tucked in a corner and the majority of the space filled with precise rows of server racks. Gensler’s Hughes, who started her career with the firm doing IT work, has spent a lot of time in data centers and knows that their design is rarely the first priority. “When I walked into my first data center, there were no windows. You are walking into a concrete box,” she says. “A big gray box, sitting out in a corn field or a potato field or whatever. It wasn’t even painted. It was very, very nebulous.” But this is beginning to change, for reasons ranging from location to environmental concern to the availability of power. Hughes says some of Gensler’s large data center projects are being developed in a wide range of places, including the remote greenfields of the past as well as more suburban areas closer to end users. These data centers, often covering hundreds of acres, are becoming a bit more sensitive to their surroundings. Hughes says Gensler’s designers are adding public-facing amenities to them, like hiking trails and open spaces, to soften their edges and reduce the negative visual impact on communities. This is especially relevant for those data centers with their own power supplies, which often require large industrial infrastructure, substations, and power lines that can take up significant amounts of land. “We’ll probably start to see a lot more of that as on-site generation starts to take shape here in the U.S., especially in some of those more suburban and urban locations where we’re seeing some of these pop up,” she says. Databank Atlanta [Photo: courtesy of Gensler] Some data centers are even being built right within the footprint of existing office complexes. Gensler completed a project in midtown Atlanta in 2019 that’s nestled in a mixed use commercial development at Georgia Tech, providing data hall space for the university as well as leasable data center facilities for private sector clients such as the aerospace, security, and defense companies located in the area. “These types of data centers tend to be smaller, more compact, so they can fit within an office building, they can fit within an urban space,” Hughes says. Comarch [Photo: courtesy of Gensler] The overall look of data centers is also undergoing a change. One Gensler-designed project for the IT company Comarch is located in Mesa, Arizona, and the 50,000-square-foot building was designed to include a welcoming front-of-house area for the center’s staff, with lounge seating and informal meeting areas drenched in daylight. “You have floor-to-ceiling glass, you have all of this natural light, and you have all of these views out into the desert,” she says. “We design these buildings for computers, but we have to remember that even though there’s not a lot of people in them, there are still people in them. We still have to design for those people.” Environmental concerns are also affecting the way data centers are designed. Clark says Corgan’s wide range of data center projects are becoming increasingly focused on reducing not only their surging operational energy consumption but also the environmental footprint of the buildings themselves. Lower carbon materials, like mass timber, are becoming more common, as is insulation that allows for the buildings to be cooled more efficiently. “We have seen tremendously more opportunities over the last five years to work with clients to enhance their building image, both purely aesthetically, but also from a sustainability perspective,” Clark says. “There’s also a lot of eyes on data centers out in the world these days and knowing that these facilities are being built and powered in the most sustainable way possible is becoming more and more critical to our clients.” This kind of design thinking is also happening at a more abstract level. Goodman Group, a global data center operator recently announced a partnership with Oxman, designer Neri Oxman’s interdisciplinary innovation lab, to reinvent its building practices. The partnership is focused on developing practices that “maximize the ecological presence and utility of the built environment.” Microsoft [Photo: courtesy of Gensler] Land and power With such high demand for data centers, some of these concerns are pushed aside. Many data center developers and “hyperscaler” data center owner-operators like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services can’t build data centers fast enough. “Data center operators are willing to pay a pretty penny to get these up to meet demand, so getting them up quickly is really important,” says Jennie Karnes, a vice president in the Data Center Solutions group at CBRE. Access to power is the primary parameter guiding the location, size, and design of data centers, according to Karnes, and that’s led to a variety of approaches. Some operators are buying up sites that can easily latch into the electricity grid, while others are building facilities that have their own substations and power sources, including solar arrays, wind turbines, and natural gas. Some are being considered for construction on the sites of shuttered coal power plants, and others are looking at getting permitted for nuclear small module reactors. Karnes says that even though the power demands of data centers are growing—many are being designed to accommodate hundreds of megawatts of demand per hour—the size of the actual data halls in these facilities is remaining relatively stable. New chips, graphics processing units (GPUs), and improved cooling techniques means that the cabinets of servers inside a data center can operate at much higher power densities. “The same cabinet that used to take five kilowatts of power, now we’re looking at designing it to support 100 to 250 kilowatts of power. So 20 to 50 times what we saw five years ago,” Karnes says. That’s leading some data center racks to grow in height, raising ceilings in new builds to upwards of 16 feet. AI is driving much of this increased energy demand. And the higher the power density of a server rack, the more cooling it requires. Clark says that the AI boom is leading data center developers to integrate new approaches for cooling, and that additional mechanical equipment means data center facilities are requiring more space than in the recent past. Clark says data centers built primarily to support cloud services just a few years ago could often fit all of this attendant mechanical equipment on their roofs. Now, with AI in the mix, data centers have to have additional square footage outside the building. “All of the mechanical and electrical infrastructure to support that same footprint of data module or data hall has now, in some cases, doubled,” Clark says. Some of the concern around electricity demand may be tempered by the recent release of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that built state-of-the-art model using a midrange type of computer chip. Because these chips can run using less energy, some have questioned whether data center energy demand will remain so high. But given the growth of AI, more efficient chip utilization isn’t likely to cause the size of data centers to go down, nor to reduce the demand for new facilities. Big boxes will still be built out in empty fields, and many are under construction now. Stargate, a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle, plans to feed AI’s demand by building up to $500 billion worth of large data centers in the coming years. One of Stargate’s first announced data center projects is a 1.2-gigawatt facility being built on more than 1,100 acres in Abilene, Texas. In terms of the form and size of data center designs, there’s no real model to follow. “If you look back even four years ago when everything was cloud-based, the market had kind of gelled around a program,” Clark says. “Generally, they were pretty homogeneous at the end of the day. What’s going on in the world now in regard to designing around AI, it’s a little bit of the Wild West. Everybody’s still trying to find what is the best approach.” [Photo: courtesy Lonestar Data Holdings] To the moon Some are looking far beyond the Wild West. Lonestar Data Holdings is a backup data storage provider that has developed a novel type of extraterritorial data center that are designed to operate beyond the surface of the earth. Its newest data center is the Future Payload, a solar-powered eight terabyte data backup device that will be part of a lunar lander mission launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in late February. Lonestar calls it the first data center to be sent to space. More prototype than product, it is designed to operate from the surface of the moon for a single lunar day, just 14 days here on Earth. Even this niche of the data center business is proving to be a boon to the architecture industry. Lonestar commissioned the architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to design the data center. The device, which measures just 10 by 7 inches will be attached to the side of Athena, a lander developed by Intuitive Machines through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. A thin 3D printed device, it was designed to cast shadows of the silhouettes of the faces of two NASA astronauts as the sun passes overhead. “BIG designs the future I want to live in. The future I thought I’d be living in. The future we’re working to build,” Lonestar CEO Chris Stott tells Fast Company by email. “The Freedom Payload is meant to be a symbol for all of humanity, a beacon of hope to the world as we strive towards that better future.” Compared to terrestrial data centers that can stretch across hundreds of acres and draw hundreds of megawatts of electricity around the clock, this lunar data center is a proof of concept both quaint and complex. But just like its counterparts whirring away on earth, the data center that could soon be running on the moon is the result of a significant amount of design and consideration. “As we prepare to return to the Moon to stay, it is important that everything we do these coming years of lunar settlement is done with intention and care,” says Bjarke Ingels, BIG founder and creative director. “Even if modest in scale, this data center is one of very few artifacts designed to remain part of the lunar landscape for years to come.” View the full article

SEO and PPC are two of the most important strategies for increasing your website’s visibility. While they both aim to attract more traffic, they operate differently. They also serve different purposes. Here, we’ll discuss SEO vs. Pay-per-click advertising and how to choose the best option for you. Table of contents Understanding SEO and PPC What’s the difference between SEO and PPC? Pros and cons of SEO Pros and cons of PPC Conclusion SEO vs Pay-per-click Understanding SEO and PPC As we all know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It consists of everything you do to get your site higher rankings in the original search results. Those tactics are thoroughly researching which keywords to target, writing high-quality content, and making sure that your site is structurally and technically sound. The goal is to get the organic traffic you want by making your site relevant and authoritative. Pay-per-click (PPC), on the other hand, is all about paying for ads — the sponsored listings — that appear at the top of search results. So, every time someone clicks your ad, it costs you money. As it lets you target advertising based on user demographics, this model can lead to immediate results. An example of PPC ads vs organic results for a search term in Google What’s the difference between SEO and PPC? SEO and pay-per-click advertising are both popular options to get traffic to your site. However, both options have their advantages to help you reach those goals. Cost structure For SEO, the costs mostly lie in the initial work and ongoing maintenance. You have to invest in creating high-quality content, optimizing your site, and reaching out to build good links and relationships. With SEO, there are no direct costs per click, but it does require consistent effort and resources to get results. With PPC, you pay every time someone clicks your sponsored listing. To make it manageable, you set a budget; when this budget runs out, your ads will no longer be visible. PPC gives you control over budget, but costs can quickly ramp up — especially in high-demand markets or for competitive keywords. Time to results We always say that SEO is a marathon and not a sprint. Building authority takes time, so it can take months to see rankings go up. But the wait is worth it, as it leads to better and more stable results in the long run. PPC is more direct and to the point. Launch a campaign, and the visitors should come in straight away. As such, this is a great tool for time-sensitive stuff like promotions and launches or when you need instant visibility and reach. Sustainability and impact SEO is the more sustainable option. With your initial work done, you can reap the rewards for a long time. Of course, there’s always more to do with your SEO tasks, but that’s normal. Building a brand is something that will pay off big time. With PPC, you get an incredible boost for a short period — the time you pay for the sponsored listings. Targeting capabilities SEO targets users based on content and keywords. You can target your content on different search intents, but the options are not as direct as with PPC. This offers more precise options, allowing you to publish ads to specific demographics, locations, times, and user behavior. Flexibility and control With SEO, you do put yourself in the hands of search engine algorithms. Algorithm updates could harm your rankings. As a result, you should reevaluate your strategy. You have control over everything on your site, but not search engines. PPC, though, does give full control over your ads. It makes it easier to adapt to changes and needs. Measurement and analytics It’s important to measure your success. For SEO, you are looking at a longer period and need to keep track of traffic and keyword rankings. It can be difficult to get usable insights from data. With PPC, you get detailed insights that show you how your campaigns are doing. You’ll also get the tools to adjust instantly. SEO and PPC, while different channels that require different skills and have different goals, can really complement each other in the long term. To me, PPC is considered more of a science than the art of SEO. The great thing about PPC for SEOs is that it not only attracts quicker returns (that can also be calculated with more precision) but also provides the same accurate and actionable data for SEOs. I have always found data from PPC extremely useful in directing an SEO strategy. Alex Moss – Principal SEO expert at Yoast Pros and cons of SEO Both SEO and PPC have their pros and cons. Let’s go over these. Pros of SEO SEO is cost-effective in the long run. Once you have a strategy and an optimized site, it can continue attracting traffic without additional costs, leading to a sustainable traffic source. Ranking well gives your site a sense of trust and credibility, as people trust sponsored listings less than organic search results. High rankings can boost your brand. Of course, higher rankings lead to a high CTR, and many users simply skip ads because they don’t like them. As SEO improves the general user experience of the website, it will become a better investment for your money overall. Investing in SEO can lead to higher engagement and conversion rates. Cons of SEO Of course, SEO isn’t the end-all solution to everything. For one, building up authority and higher rankings takes a lot of time. It’s not the solution if you want quick results. You must also work on your strategy, content, and site quality. The more work you put in, the better your results can be. And as search engines keep evolving, you must evolve as well. SEO operates in a highly competitive landscape. For some markets, it’s almost impossible to break into the top ten of the results. Plus, it might take a ton of money to do that. And that’s another con for SEO: the results are uncertain due to algorithm changes, competition, and market conditions. Pros and cons of PPC Pay-per-click advertising also has its own good points and bad points, as you’ll read below: Pros of PPC The biggest benefit of PPC is getting immediate results for your money. You can set up campaigns quickly and get results going without much hassle. You also have full control over the budget, so you only pay for what you want to pay for. PPC is also flexible and precise. You have much control over who you target and when, leading to more precise results. And if your strategy needs adjustments, you can update your sponsored listings quickly. Pay-per-click ad systems give you all the data you need to make the proper decisions. Cons of PPC One of the main drawbacks of pay-per-click is that costs could rise quickly. Another main drawback is that you’ll only get results as long as you pay — no money, no results. This makes PPC a viable option only for specific campaigns. How well ads perform also depends on how users perceive them — ad fatigue is a thing. You must experiment with placements and forms to see what works best. For this, you should adhere to the rules of the platforms on which you’re running your ads. Conclusion SEO vs Pay-per-click Whether you choose between SEO and PPC depends on your needs, strategy, and timeline. SEO is amazing for long-term results, while PPC can quickly produce results. Most businesses will probably use a combination of both. You can use the strength of both strategic tools in your toolset to get the results your business is looking for. The post SEO vs. Pay-per-click advertising: Which one should you choose? appeared first on Yoast. View the full article

As a McAfee subscription customer, it’s important that you’re aware of the various scams that are going around so you can protect your computer and data. That’s why, in this article, we’ll reveal McAfee scams you need to watch out for related to phishing emails, your McAfee subscription, and more. Let’s get started! Can You Get Scammed From a Computer Security Software Company Like McAfee? Getting scammed by the official McAfee company is quite unlikely. However, there are many scammers who try to take advantage of the well-known McAfee name. Scammers trick people and gain access to their money or personal information using malicious software. READ MORE: McAfee and Visa Form Partnership Top McAfee Scams Every Small Business Owner Should Know Similar to other widely used antivirus programs, McAfee attracts scammers who focus on identity theft. Below are some of the most prevalent mcafee scams that small business owners should be mindful of: McAfee Phishing Scams Phishing emails are one of the most common types of scams. For this phishing scam, fake email messages are sent by a scammer who poses as a legitimate company. They send phishing emails to try and trick you into clicking suspicious links to a fake company website and giving them your personal information or money. How to Stay Safe: Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails. Verify the authenticity of the email by checking the sender’s address. Use McAfee’s official website for any subscription-related actions. McAfee Pop-Ups Scam Another common scam is fake pop-ups that claim to be from McAfee. These pop-ups usually contain a virus or will install malware that can infect your computer if you click on them. So, be very careful when you see any pop-ups on your computer, even if they claim to be from a reputable company like McAfee. How to Stay Safe: Do not click on unsolicited pop-ups, even if they appear to be from McAfee. Keep your browser and antivirus software updated to block malicious pop-ups. Use pop-up blockers and avoid visiting untrusted websites. McAfee Scam Emails Scam emails are another way that scammers try to trick you into giving them your personal information. These fake emails often contain official-looking offers or deals that seem too good to be true. So, be very careful when you receive any emails claiming to be from McAfee. How to Stay Safe: Be skeptical of emails with offers or deals that seem too good to be true. Look for inconsistencies in the email content, such as spelling and grammatical errors. Always verify offers by visiting McAfee’s official website. McAfee Renewal Scam The McAfee renewal scam is when scammers contact you and try to trick you into renewing your McAfee subscription. They do this by providing fake invoices and offering a special deal or a discount on the renewal price. However, if you give them your login credentials or credit card information, they will actually bill you for a much higher amount than what you were originally quoted. How to Stay Safe: Renew your subscription directly through the official McAfee website or authorized retailers. Be cautious of unsolicited calls or emails offering renewal deals. Do not provide credit card information over the phone to unknown callers. McAfee Antivirus Plus Scam For this scam, scammers contact you and try to sell you a fake version of McAfee’s Antivirus Plus program. They may even send you an email with a link to download the program. However, this program is actually a virus that can infect your computer. How to Stay Safe: Purchase McAfee products only from the official website or authorized retailers. Be wary of emails or websites offering discounted McAfee software. Verify the authenticity of the software before downloading. McAfee Tech Support Scam First and foremost, McAfee tech support will only call you if you have reached out to them first. Therefore, if you receive a call from someone claiming to be from McAfee tech support, it’s a scam. These scammers often attempt to gain remote access to your computer, which allows them to install a virus or steal your sensitive information. How to Stay Safe: Remember that McAfee’s official tech support will not contact you unless requested. Do not grant remote access to your computer to unsolicited callers. If in doubt, contact McAfee’s official support for verification. McAfee Fake Virus Scan Scam This is a scam where scammers create a fake virus scan and claim that your computer is infected with a virus. They will then try to sell you a fake antivirus program to remove the supposed virus so you no longer have your computer “infected.” How to Stay Safe: Do not trust unsolicited virus scan alerts, especially from unknown sources. Use McAfee’s official antivirus tools for scanning your computer. Avoid downloading software from pop-up alerts or unfamiliar websites. McAfee Free Trial Scam The McAfee free trial scam is when scammers offer you a free trial of their fake antivirus program. However, once the trial is up, they will bill you for the full price of the program, which is usually a lot more than what you would pay for a legitimate antivirus program. How to Stay Safe: Sign up for free trials only through the official McAfee website. Read the terms and conditions of any free trial offer carefully. Be cautious of providing payment details for a free trial offer. McAfee Subscription Cancellation Scam This scam involves fraudsters contacting McAfee users, claiming that their subscription is about to be automatically renewed, and offering to cancel it for a fee. The scammer may ask for remote access to your computer to “assist” with the cancellation, during which they install malware or steal sensitive information. How to Stay Safe: Never give remote access to your computer to unsolicited callers. If you receive a call about your McAfee subscription, verify its legitimacy by contacting McAfee directly through their official website. Be aware that legitimate companies like McAfee will not charge you to cancel a subscription. McAfee Refund Scam In this scam, you might receive an email or call claiming that you are eligible for a refund from McAfee. The scammers will ask for bank details to process the supposed refund, but instead, they use this information to steal money from your account. How to Stay Safe: Be skeptical of unsolicited refund offers. Never share your banking details over email or phone with someone claiming to be from McAfee. Verify any refund claims by contacting McAfee through their official channels. Fake McAfee Job Offer Scam Scammers posing as McAfee HR representatives offer fake job opportunities. They may ask for personal information or money for “training” or “equipment” as part of the hiring process. How to Stay Safe: Verify the job offer by contacting McAfee directly through their official website. Remember, legitimate companies will not ask for money during the hiring process. Be cautious of offers that seem too good to be true, especially if you did not apply for the job. McAfee Mobile App Scam Cybercriminals create fake McAfee mobile apps and upload them to app stores. Once downloaded, these apps can infect your device with malware or steal personal data. How to Stay Safe: Always download apps from official and reputable app stores. Check reviews and ratings before downloading any app. Look for inconsistencies in the app’s description and avoid apps with poor grammar or spelling. How to Avoid a McAfee Scam McAfee antivirus software is a popular choice for computer protection, but cybercriminals are now using McAfee branding to scam people. Here are five tips to avoid phishing scams that use the McAfee name and protect your bank account: Check the URL before you click. Cybercriminals will often create fake websites that look like legitimate companies in order to phish for your personal information. Before you click on any links, check to make sure the URL is correct. Grammatical errors. A common method to identify a fake website is to check for grammatical mistakes. Since many scammers are not native English speakers, they often make errors in their grammar. Sender’s address. Be cautious of any emails that come from a free email service like Gmail or Yahoo. These are more likely to be scams. Hover over links. Before you click on any links in an email, hover your mouse over the link to see where it will take you. If the URL looks suspicious, don’t click on it. Call the company. If you’re unsure whether an email or website is legitimate, call the company to verify. Don’t use the contact information in the email, look for the company’s contact information on their website. TipDescription Check the URL before you clickVerify the authenticity of URLs before clicking on them to prevent falling victim to fake websites and phishing attempts. Grammatical errorsIdentify potential scams by examining the grammar in communications. Scammers often make grammatical mistakes due to language barriers. Sender's addressExercise caution with emails from free email services like Gmail or Yahoo, as they are commonly used by scammers. Hover over linksHover your mouse cursor over links in emails to preview the actual destination URL. If it seems suspicious, avoid clicking on it to prevent malware installation. Call the companyWhen in doubt about an email or website's legitimacy, contact the company directly using official contact details from their website to verify the information. Why Do You Keep Getting Fake McAfee Emails? Spam filters are not foolproof, and occasionally, fake emails can get through. If you continue to receive fake McAfee emails, it’s probable that your email address has been included on a list sold to scammers. While you can attempt to block the sender, they will likely use a different email address. The most effective action is to delete the email and report it as spam. Is the McAfee Renewal Email Asking for Credit Card Details a Phishing Scam? The McAfee Renewal email is a phishing scam. The email asks you to update your credit card payment information and renew your subscription. However, the email is not from McAfee, and clicking on the link will take you to a fake website where your personal information can be stolen. Where Do You Report McAfee Scams? If you have been the victim of a McAfee scam, you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can also report the scam to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) if you have lost money or personal information as a result of the scam. Finally, you can report the scam to McAfee’s Anti-Spam Abuse department. Can You Get Your Money Back From a McAfee Scam? If you have been scammed by a fake McAfee website, it is possible to recover your money. If you paid with a credit card, you can dispute the charges by contacting your credit card company. Be prepared to provide the transaction date, the name of the company, and the amount charged. However, if you paid via wire transfer, recovering your money is unlikely. You can report the scam to the IC3, but they can only assist if the scammer is located in the United States. Protecting Yourself from McAfee Scams: Tips and Actions As a vigilant McAfee subscription customer, safeguarding your computer and personal information is paramount. In the digital landscape, scams abound, and being aware of potential threats is crucial. Here are valuable insights to help you stay secure and outsmart scammers: Be Wary of Suspicious URLs: Before clicking on any links, examine the URL closely. Cybercriminals often create fake websites resembling legitimate companies. Verify the URL’s authenticity to avoid falling prey to phishing attempts. Spot Grammatical Errors: Scammers often display poor grammar in their communications, which may be a result of language barriers. If you come across an email or website with obvious grammatical errors, it’s important to be cautious, as it could indicate a fraudulent attempt, possibly related to McAfee scams. Evaluate Sender’s Address: Scammers frequently use free email services like Gmail or Yahoo. Emails from such addresses should raise a red flag. Be skeptical of emails originating from suspicious sources. Hover over Links: Hover your mouse cursor over links in emails before clicking them. This action reveals the actual URL destination. If the link appears suspicious, refrain from clicking to prevent potential malware installation. Contact the Company Directly: When in doubt about an email’s legitimacy, contact the company through official channels. Do not use the contact information provided in the suspicious email. Seek out the company’s contact details on their official website for verification. Report Fake Emails and Scams: If you encounter a fake McAfee email or fall victim to a scam, promptly report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), especially if you’ve suffered financial losses or personal information compromised. Responding to McAfee Renewal Emails: Beware of McAfee renewal emails asking for credit card details; these are phishing scams. Authentic McAfee renewal communications would never solicit sensitive information via email. Always verify the legitimacy of such requests through official channels. Recovering from Scams: In the unfortunate event of falling victim to a McAfee scam, take immediate action. If payments were made via credit card, contact your credit card company to dispute charges. For wire transfers, recovery options may be limited. Reporting the scam to the IC3 can help if the scammer operates within the United States. Educating Yourself is Key: Staying informed about scams and developing a strong sense of digital security is essential. Keep up-to-date with the latest scam tactics and learn to recognize red flags to bolster your defenses against scammers. By following these precautions and remaining vigilant, you can protect yourself from falling victim to McAfee-related scams and other malicious activities. A proactive stance combined with informed decision-making empowers you to navigate the digital world with confidence and security. Conclusion As a customer of McAfee, being aware of common scams is your best defense against cyber threats. This in-depth look at McAfee scams has provided you with valuable insights into the methods scammers use to take advantage of your trust and access your sensitive information. By remaining informed and vigilant, you can effectively protect your computer and personal data. Remember, although McAfee scams targeting users are common, they can be managed effectively. By adopting the suggested security practices—such as checking URLs, examining sender addresses, and being wary of phishing attempts—you can greatly decrease your chances of becoming a victim of these scams. In the ever-evolving landscape of cybercrime, knowledge is your greatest ally. Educate yourself, stay alert, and leverage the available resources to report scams promptly. Through your proactive efforts, you not only protect yourself but also contribute to a safer digital environment for everyone. As technology advances, so do the strategies of cybercriminals. However, armed with the insights and precautions provided in this article, you are well-equipped to navigate the digital realm with confidence, resilience, and the ability to thwart even the most sophisticated scams. Stay informed, stay cautious, and stay secure. Image: Depositphotos This article, "McAfee Scams to Watch Out For" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

As a McAfee subscription customer, it’s important that you’re aware of the various scams that are going around so you can protect your computer and data. That’s why, in this article, we’ll reveal McAfee scams you need to watch out for related to phishing emails, your McAfee subscription, and more. Let’s get started! Can You Get Scammed From a Computer Security Software Company Like McAfee? Getting scammed by the official McAfee company is quite unlikely. However, there are many scammers who try to take advantage of the well-known McAfee name. Scammers trick people and gain access to their money or personal information using malicious software. READ MORE: McAfee and Visa Form Partnership Top McAfee Scams Every Small Business Owner Should Know Similar to other widely used antivirus programs, McAfee attracts scammers who focus on identity theft. Below are some of the most prevalent mcafee scams that small business owners should be mindful of: McAfee Phishing Scams Phishing emails are one of the most common types of scams. For this phishing scam, fake email messages are sent by a scammer who poses as a legitimate company. They send phishing emails to try and trick you into clicking suspicious links to a fake company website and giving them your personal information or money. How to Stay Safe: Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails. Verify the authenticity of the email by checking the sender’s address. Use McAfee’s official website for any subscription-related actions. McAfee Pop-Ups Scam Another common scam is fake pop-ups that claim to be from McAfee. These pop-ups usually contain a virus or will install malware that can infect your computer if you click on them. So, be very careful when you see any pop-ups on your computer, even if they claim to be from a reputable company like McAfee. How to Stay Safe: Do not click on unsolicited pop-ups, even if they appear to be from McAfee. Keep your browser and antivirus software updated to block malicious pop-ups. Use pop-up blockers and avoid visiting untrusted websites. McAfee Scam Emails Scam emails are another way that scammers try to trick you into giving them your personal information. These fake emails often contain official-looking offers or deals that seem too good to be true. So, be very careful when you receive any emails claiming to be from McAfee. How to Stay Safe: Be skeptical of emails with offers or deals that seem too good to be true. Look for inconsistencies in the email content, such as spelling and grammatical errors. Always verify offers by visiting McAfee’s official website. McAfee Renewal Scam The McAfee renewal scam is when scammers contact you and try to trick you into renewing your McAfee subscription. They do this by providing fake invoices and offering a special deal or a discount on the renewal price. However, if you give them your login credentials or credit card information, they will actually bill you for a much higher amount than what you were originally quoted. How to Stay Safe: Renew your subscription directly through the official McAfee website or authorized retailers. Be cautious of unsolicited calls or emails offering renewal deals. Do not provide credit card information over the phone to unknown callers. McAfee Antivirus Plus Scam For this scam, scammers contact you and try to sell you a fake version of McAfee’s Antivirus Plus program. They may even send you an email with a link to download the program. However, this program is actually a virus that can infect your computer. How to Stay Safe: Purchase McAfee products only from the official website or authorized retailers. Be wary of emails or websites offering discounted McAfee software. Verify the authenticity of the software before downloading. McAfee Tech Support Scam First and foremost, McAfee tech support will only call you if you have reached out to them first. Therefore, if you receive a call from someone claiming to be from McAfee tech support, it’s a scam. These scammers often attempt to gain remote access to your computer, which allows them to install a virus or steal your sensitive information. How to Stay Safe: Remember that McAfee’s official tech support will not contact you unless requested. Do not grant remote access to your computer to unsolicited callers. If in doubt, contact McAfee’s official support for verification. McAfee Fake Virus Scan Scam This is a scam where scammers create a fake virus scan and claim that your computer is infected with a virus. They will then try to sell you a fake antivirus program to remove the supposed virus so you no longer have your computer “infected.” How to Stay Safe: Do not trust unsolicited virus scan alerts, especially from unknown sources. Use McAfee’s official antivirus tools for scanning your computer. Avoid downloading software from pop-up alerts or unfamiliar websites. McAfee Free Trial Scam The McAfee free trial scam is when scammers offer you a free trial of their fake antivirus program. However, once the trial is up, they will bill you for the full price of the program, which is usually a lot more than what you would pay for a legitimate antivirus program. How to Stay Safe: Sign up for free trials only through the official McAfee website. Read the terms and conditions of any free trial offer carefully. Be cautious of providing payment details for a free trial offer. McAfee Subscription Cancellation Scam This scam involves fraudsters contacting McAfee users, claiming that their subscription is about to be automatically renewed, and offering to cancel it for a fee. The scammer may ask for remote access to your computer to “assist” with the cancellation, during which they install malware or steal sensitive information. How to Stay Safe: Never give remote access to your computer to unsolicited callers. If you receive a call about your McAfee subscription, verify its legitimacy by contacting McAfee directly through their official website. Be aware that legitimate companies like McAfee will not charge you to cancel a subscription. McAfee Refund Scam In this scam, you might receive an email or call claiming that you are eligible for a refund from McAfee. The scammers will ask for bank details to process the supposed refund, but instead, they use this information to steal money from your account. How to Stay Safe: Be skeptical of unsolicited refund offers. Never share your banking details over email or phone with someone claiming to be from McAfee. Verify any refund claims by contacting McAfee through their official channels. Fake McAfee Job Offer Scam Scammers posing as McAfee HR representatives offer fake job opportunities. They may ask for personal information or money for “training” or “equipment” as part of the hiring process. How to Stay Safe: Verify the job offer by contacting McAfee directly through their official website. Remember, legitimate companies will not ask for money during the hiring process. Be cautious of offers that seem too good to be true, especially if you did not apply for the job. McAfee Mobile App Scam Cybercriminals create fake McAfee mobile apps and upload them to app stores. Once downloaded, these apps can infect your device with malware or steal personal data. How to Stay Safe: Always download apps from official and reputable app stores. Check reviews and ratings before downloading any app. Look for inconsistencies in the app’s description and avoid apps with poor grammar or spelling. How to Avoid a McAfee Scam McAfee antivirus software is a popular choice for computer protection, but cybercriminals are now using McAfee branding to scam people. Here are five tips to avoid phishing scams that use the McAfee name and protect your bank account: Check the URL before you click. Cybercriminals will often create fake websites that look like legitimate companies in order to phish for your personal information. Before you click on any links, check to make sure the URL is correct. Grammatical errors. A common method to identify a fake website is to check for grammatical mistakes. Since many scammers are not native English speakers, they often make errors in their grammar. Sender’s address. Be cautious of any emails that come from a free email service like Gmail or Yahoo. These are more likely to be scams. Hover over links. Before you click on any links in an email, hover your mouse over the link to see where it will take you. If the URL looks suspicious, don’t click on it. Call the company. If you’re unsure whether an email or website is legitimate, call the company to verify. Don’t use the contact information in the email, look for the company’s contact information on their website. TipDescription Check the URL before you clickVerify the authenticity of URLs before clicking on them to prevent falling victim to fake websites and phishing attempts. Grammatical errorsIdentify potential scams by examining the grammar in communications. Scammers often make grammatical mistakes due to language barriers. Sender's addressExercise caution with emails from free email services like Gmail or Yahoo, as they are commonly used by scammers. Hover over linksHover your mouse cursor over links in emails to preview the actual destination URL. If it seems suspicious, avoid clicking on it to prevent malware installation. Call the companyWhen in doubt about an email or website's legitimacy, contact the company directly using official contact details from their website to verify the information. Why Do You Keep Getting Fake McAfee Emails? Spam filters are not foolproof, and occasionally, fake emails can get through. If you continue to receive fake McAfee emails, it’s probable that your email address has been included on a list sold to scammers. While you can attempt to block the sender, they will likely use a different email address. The most effective action is to delete the email and report it as spam. Is the McAfee Renewal Email Asking for Credit Card Details a Phishing Scam? The McAfee Renewal email is a phishing scam. The email asks you to update your credit card payment information and renew your subscription. However, the email is not from McAfee, and clicking on the link will take you to a fake website where your personal information can be stolen. Where Do You Report McAfee Scams? If you have been the victim of a McAfee scam, you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can also report the scam to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) if you have lost money or personal information as a result of the scam. Finally, you can report the scam to McAfee’s Anti-Spam Abuse department. Can You Get Your Money Back From a McAfee Scam? If you have been scammed by a fake McAfee website, it is possible to recover your money. If you paid with a credit card, you can dispute the charges by contacting your credit card company. Be prepared to provide the transaction date, the name of the company, and the amount charged. However, if you paid via wire transfer, recovering your money is unlikely. You can report the scam to the IC3, but they can only assist if the scammer is located in the United States. Protecting Yourself from McAfee Scams: Tips and Actions As a vigilant McAfee subscription customer, safeguarding your computer and personal information is paramount. In the digital landscape, scams abound, and being aware of potential threats is crucial. Here are valuable insights to help you stay secure and outsmart scammers: Be Wary of Suspicious URLs: Before clicking on any links, examine the URL closely. Cybercriminals often create fake websites resembling legitimate companies. Verify the URL’s authenticity to avoid falling prey to phishing attempts. Spot Grammatical Errors: Scammers often display poor grammar in their communications, which may be a result of language barriers. If you come across an email or website with obvious grammatical errors, it’s important to be cautious, as it could indicate a fraudulent attempt, possibly related to McAfee scams. Evaluate Sender’s Address: Scammers frequently use free email services like Gmail or Yahoo. Emails from such addresses should raise a red flag. Be skeptical of emails originating from suspicious sources. Hover over Links: Hover your mouse cursor over links in emails before clicking them. This action reveals the actual URL destination. If the link appears suspicious, refrain from clicking to prevent potential malware installation. Contact the Company Directly: When in doubt about an email’s legitimacy, contact the company through official channels. Do not use the contact information provided in the suspicious email. Seek out the company’s contact details on their official website for verification. Report Fake Emails and Scams: If you encounter a fake McAfee email or fall victim to a scam, promptly report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), especially if you’ve suffered financial losses or personal information compromised. Responding to McAfee Renewal Emails: Beware of McAfee renewal emails asking for credit card details; these are phishing scams. Authentic McAfee renewal communications would never solicit sensitive information via email. Always verify the legitimacy of such requests through official channels. Recovering from Scams: In the unfortunate event of falling victim to a McAfee scam, take immediate action. If payments were made via credit card, contact your credit card company to dispute charges. For wire transfers, recovery options may be limited. Reporting the scam to the IC3 can help if the scammer operates within the United States. Educating Yourself is Key: Staying informed about scams and developing a strong sense of digital security is essential. Keep up-to-date with the latest scam tactics and learn to recognize red flags to bolster your defenses against scammers. By following these precautions and remaining vigilant, you can protect yourself from falling victim to McAfee-related scams and other malicious activities. A proactive stance combined with informed decision-making empowers you to navigate the digital world with confidence and security. Conclusion As a customer of McAfee, being aware of common scams is your best defense against cyber threats. This in-depth look at McAfee scams has provided you with valuable insights into the methods scammers use to take advantage of your trust and access your sensitive information. By remaining informed and vigilant, you can effectively protect your computer and personal data. Remember, although McAfee scams targeting users are common, they can be managed effectively. By adopting the suggested security practices—such as checking URLs, examining sender addresses, and being wary of phishing attempts—you can greatly decrease your chances of becoming a victim of these scams. In the ever-evolving landscape of cybercrime, knowledge is your greatest ally. Educate yourself, stay alert, and leverage the available resources to report scams promptly. Through your proactive efforts, you not only protect yourself but also contribute to a safer digital environment for everyone. As technology advances, so do the strategies of cybercriminals. However, armed with the insights and precautions provided in this article, you are well-equipped to navigate the digital realm with confidence, resilience, and the ability to thwart even the most sophisticated scams. Stay informed, stay cautious, and stay secure. Image: Depositphotos This article, "McAfee Scams to Watch Out For" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Jane, a vice president of Human Resources at a growing tech company, often found herself overwhelmed by her team’s reliance on her. Because her job required her to manage a flat, decentralized organization with a mix of senior managers, rising leaders, and embedded HR personnel within the product business units, she was frequently the go-to person for problem-solving. One particularly hectic week, she skipped lunch for three days. Despite her exhaustion, she agreed to a last-minute meeting late in the day before heading out to her daughter’s soccer match. When her direct report, Jesse, presented a complex issue, Jane, feeling pressed for time, interrupted: “I do not have time for this. Come back tomorrow with your recommendations.” Her response was understandable, but it inadvertently reinforced a culture of dependency, which leaves her team reliant on her and stalling their growth in the process. Jane’s experience highlights a common challenge for leaders in flat organizations—balancing immediate demands while fostering team independence. Overcoming this requires intentional strategies to build autonomy, resilience, and self-reliance within teams. Below are some of the common reasons that explain why organizations create dependency. The need to control outcomes Leaders often hesitate to delegate because they’re worried that their team will make mistakes or can’t handle complex challenges. While this need for control is understandable, it can hinder team growth and create a bottleneck. This leaves leaders overwhelmed and can leave their teams feeling disempowered. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 Report shows that 70% of variance in team engagement depends on managers, underscoring the importance of empowering leadership behaviors. Lack of trust in the team A lack of trust in team members’ skills or judgment can lead to micromanagement. While the leader might take this approach to reduce risks, this deprives the team of learning opportunities, and reinforces reliance on the leader. Inadequate training or clarity on roles According to Gallup’s 2025 US Engagement research, only 46% of employees clearly understand what is expected of them at work—a significant drop from 56% in March 2020. This uncertainty fosters disengagement and diminishes accountability. When team members lack the necessary training or clearly defined responsibilities, they’re less likely to be proactive and act independently. Without a structured decision-making framework, even skilled employees avoid taking risks. They perceive mistakes as failures, rather than growth opportunities. Strategies for addressing dependency Deloitte’s 2024 Global Human Capital Trends report highlights a significant disconnect: 89% of executives believe they are promoting human sustainability, but only 41% of employees share this view. This underscores the importance of investing in workforce development to build trust, enhance engagement, and align with organizational goals. Managers need to foster independence by training direct reports to be self-sufficient problem-solvers. Leaders should also drive growth by cultivating critical thinking and self-reliance, empowering teams and ensuring long-term success. 1. Adopt a coaching mindset Leaders should shift from solving problems to guiding their teams to find solutions. Thus, encouraging greater accountability. One effective technique is the Socratic Method, which uses open-ended questions to explore perspectives, clarify concepts, and challenge assumptions. This approach encourages a discovery process and an experimentation mindset, countering the rigidity of a fixed mindset that views mistakes as failures rather than opportunities for growth. For example, managers ask questions like, “What steps have you already taken?” or “What options are you considering?” The GROW model also offers a structured approach to fostering critical thinking and self-reliance. It stands for the following: Goal setting: “What do you want to achieve?” Reality assessment: “What is the current situation?” Options generation: “What possible strategies can you pursue?” Way forward: “What specific actions will you take?” By utilizing these methods, team members gain on-the-job experience and develop confidence and skills over time. 2. Clarify roles and decision protocols Ambiguity in roles often leads to unnecessary escalation. Establishing clear expectations about when and how to escalate issues can address this challenge. For example, leaders might require team members to conduct stakeholder analyses or gather key insights before seeking guidance. McKinsey’s DARE decision-making model offers a structured approach to clarify roles and responsibilities, enhancing team efficiency and accountability. DARE categorizes roles as: Deciders: The individuals with final decision-making authority. Advisors: Experts who provide insights to inform decisions but do not have the authority to make them. Recommenders: Team members responsible for conducting analyses and presenting options. Execution Stakeholders: Those responsible for implementing decisions and ensuring desired outcomes. In Jane’s case, applying the DARE model brought much-needed clarity and structure to her team’s decision-making process. As the Decider, Jane retained ultimate authority, ensuring accountability for outcomes and alignment with organizational goals. Senior HR and Labor Law experts acted as Advisors, providing critical insights and guidance. Jesse stepped into the Recommender role, conducting analyses, exploring options, and presenting well-researched recommendations. Finally, the Execution Stakeholders, who were the other team members, took responsibility for implementing the decisions, asking clarifying questions, and addressing challenges to ensure success. With these clearly defined roles, managers can effectively distribute decision-making responsibilities, reduce bottlenecks, and empower their teams to operate independently and efficiently. 3. Conduct reflection check-ins and after-action reviews Structured reflection promotes continuous learning and growth. Using the ORID model, leaders engage with employees in brief but meaningful reflection sessions to analyze their actions and decisions with questions like: Objective: “What facts or events were relevant to this situation?” Reflective: “How did this situation make you feel?” Interpretive: “What does this experience reveal about our processes?” Decisional: “What actions will you take?” The After-Action Review (AAR) framework complements reflective practices by guiding teams through a structured evaluation of outcomes. Key questions such as, “What was supposed to happen?”, “What worked well?”, and “What will you do differently next time?” helps ensure a thorough comparison of expectations and actual results, highlighting both successes and areas for growth. These reflective practices play a crucial role in helping team members internalize lessons and apply them in future scenarios, fostering greater independence and resilience. Leaders in flat organizations need to shift from being problem-solvers to enablers of growth and autonomy. By adopting coaching techniques, clarifying roles, and embedding reflection into their team’s workflow, leaders like Jane can reduce reliance on themselves while building a more confident, capable, and self-sufficient team. Over time, these strategies cultivate a culture of continuous improvement and proactive decision-making, empowering everyone to thrive. View the full article

Two-thirds of people have imposter syndrome, according to a 2011 article published in the International Journal Of Behavioral Science. These are people who often feel like a fraud or believe their achievements were a fluke. Bearing those statistics in mind, there’s a high likelihood that mentors suffer from this as well. How is someone who doesn’t recognize the inherent value of their own achievements supposed to mentor others? Imposter syndrome amongst mentors Mentorship discussions typically focus on the mentee’s imposter syndrome but neglect the mentor’s own struggles. When someone, no matter how successful, feels like an imposter (assuming they can get over the first hurdle and agree to mentor someone) it impacts how effective they are in the relationship. They might over-prepare for mentoring sessions and hesitate to offer advice for fear of being wrong. When the mentee succeeds, it can amplify their imposter feelings. If they don’t take steps to address this, it can erode the trust between themselves and the mentee. Nearly half of all Nobel Prize winners had mentors that were award-winners (or their direct professional descendants). In a small sample of 10 Nobel Prize Winners who came out of the Yellow Beret program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the Vietnam War, 100% either trained with a Nobel Laureate (or those only one degree removed). Living in that ecosystem of extreme achievement can increase the pressure to live up to expectations, and might trigger feelings of fraud and doubt. Mentors don’t necessarily need to have all the answers, so they need to know where to look or who to ask. In many cases, they are in in uncharted territory, guiding mentees in fields or skills where they might be less experienced. This can breed feelings of inadequacy. If someone is already battling with imposter syndrome, guiding another person in an unfamiliar area can exacerbate that feeling. Caroline Flanagan, in her insightful work on this subject, highlights that mentors can benefit from actionable strategies to turn their insecurities into opportunities for growth. If you’re a mentor suffering from imposter syndrome, you will benefit from adopting the following mindset and actions. Reframe self-doubt as growth Just because it’s new, doesn’t mean it should cause doubt. You’re learning alongside your mentee, but your experience might lead you to connect dots your mentee doesn’t have the experience of hindsight to see. Go on the journey of exploration together and share the joy of mutual discovery alongside the practical win of helping your mentee. Seek peer mentorship Mentors need mentors—no matter how experienced they are. Having someone to share experiences with can normalize self-doubt. Consider seeking a mentoring supervisor that you can share your challenges with. Having that support can go a long way. Focus on your values and share your experiences No one is an expert on everything, so focus on what you do know. Take some time to reflect on your accomplishments, no matter how big or small they are. Sharing what you have learned on your journey, whether from your successes or your mistakes, can add value and take them down a new line of innovation. Be clear about what you bring to the table, rather than just worrying about what you don’t. Share your vulnerability and be okay with saying ‘I don’t know’ Let your mentee know that you don’t have all the answers—and that you’re fine with that. You’re modeling that it’s okay to show vulnerability. Work with your mentee to find out who does have the answers, because you’ll likely have a stronger network than they will. Being vulnerable with yourself, and accepting your limitations, is also an important conversation for you to have. Celebrate milestones together You should celebrate every milestone on the way to success. Not every one of your mentee’s successes will be because of your actions, but be okay with that. Celebrate their overall progress and your role in your mentee’s journey. Even if you don’t have all the answers, you’re shaping your mentee’s path to success. As a mentor, you might occasionally feel like an imposter, but your mentees don’t see you in that light. They see you as a leader, guide, cheerleader, and champion. View the full article

The branding and packaging for Target’s beloved Up&Up brand is now more colorful than ever. Over the course of three years, design agency Collins reimagined the wide-ranging private-label brand, which has more than 2,000 products spanning aluminum foil and copy paper to pet grooming products and a wrist blood pressure monitor. The Up&Up brand does nearly $3 billion in annual sales for Target. The retailer wanted to relaunch it with reformulated products, reduced plastic usage, and hundreds of new items, which began rolling out in stores last year and will continue through early 2025. [Image: Target]New private-label packaging elevates bargain shoppingThis comes at a time when competitors like Walmart and CVS have invested in relaunching their own private-label brands to appeal to premium shoppers who traded down to beat rising prices. The packaging overhauls had a similar approach. They’re personality-driven and expressive, using color-on-color type or flat graphics that might be familiar to those who shop pricier direct-to-consumer brands. Together, they offer a new design-forward look to generic brands. But Target has long been a category leader, and the retailer sees its more than 45 private labels as key to clawing back market share from competitors. From left: Before and after [Image: Target]Target’s previous Up&Up packaging used matching colors for the typography and arrow logo against a white background. The new packaging dials up the color use. Collins says that during two months of face-to-face research with Target customers, one said, “My life is filled with color, why shouldn’t my products be the same?” That resonated with the design team and gave them permission to be more colorful. [Image: Target]More color and an improved experience This time around, the team designed the packaging for better clarity, with vivid color blocking, a larger logo, and type that’s easier to read, whether on store shelves or while scrolling on a smartphone to shop online. “It’s a lot of work, right?” the design firm’s founder, Brian Collins, says. “But it’s not a complicated thing. The system is incredibly simple.” [Image: Target]The agency also worked with occupational therapists to improve the utility and ergonomics of Up&Up’s product packaging “so you don’t have to feel like you’re cracking a safe to open up” items like a household cleaner or toothpaste, Collins says. The overhaul includes product design improvements throughout the Up&Up line. The team redesigned toothbrushes to last longer, and made the walls of food storage containers thicker so that they’re more durable, Target says. [Image: Target]The key to designing a line with such varied items is to understand what consumers are looking for with each product category and reflect that, according to Collins. “You have to know when to be charming, whimsical, serious, funny, purposeful, lighthearted . . . and you have to learn that each of these categories has a certain personality,” he says. “I remember the caliber of the private-label brands that I grew up with in terms of their quality,” Collins continues, noting that they were bland, and “the packaging design was just terrible.” Target’s approach is all about quality. The goal for Up&Up is similar to that of other private labels: to make a bargain brand feel more valuable by elevating its packaging. “There’s a sense of optimism about this brand,” Collins says. “There’s a sense of joyfulness about it. I think it feels fun.” View the full article

New York City’s congestion pricing program has been in place for one month, implementing tolls on drivers who enter certain, often gridlocked, areas of Manhattan. And so far, the results are “undeniably positive,” transit officials say, with measurably reduced traffic and more commuters choosing public transit. The traffic mitigation plan covers a “congestion relief zone” that spans almost all of Manhattan below 60th street and includes major routes like the Lincoln, Holland, and Hugh L. Carey Tunnels and bridges that go into both Brooklyn and Queens. Since its launch on January 5, one million fewer vehicles have entered that zone than they would have without the toll, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). How does congestion pricing work? Passenger cars with an E-ZPass that travel through that zone face a $9 toll during peak hours, from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends, and a $2.25 toll overnight. Tolls are more expensive for commercial traffic, and vehicles without E-ZPass face a 50% premium. Those charges are meant to reduce traffic in the city and also raise funds for $15 billion worth of transit repairs to the MTA. By cutting traffic and ushering more commuters onto public transit, the program will also reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. It’s the first such plan in the United States, though congestion pricing has been successfully used in London, Stockholm, Singapore, and other cities. In Stockholm, traffic levels dropped about 25%, and the city saw less pollution and more investment in local infrastructure. And though business owners and residents there criticized the program before its pilot began—much like they did in New York—a majority of voters ended up making that toll permanent. Faster trips, more bus riders New Yorkers are already seeing an impact one month in. Along with fewer drivers in general, the vehicles that still travel through the area are dealing with less traffic. Those crossing through the Holland Tunnel see the most time savings, with average trip times down 48% during peak morning hours. The Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges are both seeing an average of 30% faster travel times. During afternoon peak hours, drivers in the entire zone are seeing travel times drop up to 59%. More commuters are opting for buses to cross Manhattan, and those buses are now traveling more quickly, too. Weekday bus ridership has grown 6%, while weekend ridership is up 21%, compared to January 2024. (Subway ridership has also grown by 7.3% on weekdays and 12% on weekends, part of a larger trend in ridership growth happening since the fall, per the MTA. Anecdotally, some subway riders have said they’ve seen more packed trains on their morning commutes.) Buses entering Manhattan from Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx are saving up to 10 minutes on their route times, which also makes their arrivals more reliable. This data comes from the MTA, which released figures at the end of January. A full one-month update won’t be available until the next MTA board meeting at the end of February; the MTA didn’t yet release any information on the amount of money the program has raised or any air quality impacts. (When it comes to air quality, some groups have raised alarms about how congestion pricing is moving traffic and its associated air pollution to poorer neighborhoods, like the South Bronx.) But it shows a trend, and the traffic impacts are supported by other data, like from the Congestion Price Tracker run by two Brown University students, Joshua Moshes and Benjamin Moshes. Driving from Hell’s Kitchen to Midtown East at 5:30 p.m. on a weekday took about 25 minutes on average before congestion pricing, per that tracker. This week, it’s just 15 minutes. Traveling through the Holland Tunnel at 7 a.m. on a Monday once took 23 minutes on average, compared to 14 minutes this week. Some routes, though, like Greenwich Village to Alphabet City within Manhattan are trending “almost identically” to their pre-congestion pricing patterns. There are also “spillover routes” like Park Slope to Dumbo—two Brooklyn neighborhoods entirely outside of the congestion relief zone—that are seeing travel times down by about five minutes or less at various times of the day, though the tracker notes that the program’s effect on these routes isn’t yet fully clear. One month of data, though, isn’t enough to judge long-term impacts, Moshes told Fast Company. “People’s behavior may change with time. We will keep watching the data to see if things change.” The future of congestion pricing is under threat by President Donald Trump, who is considering halting the program. (A poll by Morning Consult this week found that 59% of voters say Trump should allow it to continue. Another poll, though, revealed that support is still split, with a majority of drivers against it and a majority of pedestrians, bikers, and transit riders in support.) For right now, at least, congestion pricing is having an immediate impact for commuters. Daniel A. Zarrilli, the chief climate and sustainability officer at Columbia University, shared his firsthand experience on X on January 29: “Tonight: 24 minutes from City Hall to Staten Island by express bus during the evening commute,” he wrote. “That’s gotta be a record.” A caller to WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show earlier in January told the host that his wife, who takes an express bus from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to Lower Manhattan and back for work, has seen fewer delays every day. “She’s getting home earlier every night,” he said. “I mean, we love it.” View the full article