ResidentialBusiness

HP’s latest collaboration with Microsoft aims to transform the hybrid workplace by integrating advanced technologies that cater specifically to the evolving needs of modern businesses. This initiative is set to enhance productivity and simplify operations for small business owners who often juggle multiple responsibilities amidst shifting work environments. At the heart of this integration is the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP), which will be seamlessly integrated into HP’s Poly video conferencing solutions. This integration includes IP phones, room controllers, and scheduling displays, cornerstones for effective communication and collaboration in today’s work landscape. The integration promises numerous benefits for small businesses. First and foremost, it elevates the quality of virtual meetings. With Poly’s high-definition audio and video capabilities combined with Microsoft’s ecosystem, users can expect clearer communication, minimizing miscommunication and misunderstandings. This technology allows teams to connect effortlessly, whether in the office or working remotely. Another significant advantage is the ease of scheduling and managing meetings. Small business owners often find themselves caught up in organizing communications, leading to lost productivity. The scheduling displays integrated within the system streamline this process, making it easier to book, reschedule, and manage appointments without hassle. Moreover, the system allows for a flexible hybrid work model. Employees can choose where and how they work, leading to increased job satisfaction and retention rates. This flexibility is increasingly essential as businesses strive to attract and retain talent in an increasingly competitive labor market. Quotes from HP’s representatives underline the importance of this collaboration. “With the integration of Microsoft’s Device Ecosystem Platform into our solutions, we are empowering businesses to create seamless and engaging hybrid work experiences,” says the spokesperson. However, while the benefits are substantial, small business owners should also consider potential challenges. The upfront investment in technology might pose a financial strain, particularly for startups or smaller enterprises. It’s essential to assess whether the long-term benefits of increased productivity and collaboration outweigh the initial costs. Furthermore, integrating new technology can require a learning curve for employees. Adequate training programs will be vital to ensure that staff are comfortable using the new systems so that businesses can fully realize their benefits. There’s also the consideration of ongoing support and maintenance. Small businesses may not have extensive IT departments, making it important to seek solutions that come with robust customer support to address any potential issues as they arise. In summary, the partnership between HP and Microsoft positions itself as an innovative solution tailored for small businesses navigating the complexities of hybrid work. By investing in this technology, small business owners can enhance their operational efficiency, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately drive growth in a competitive marketplace. For further information on these developments, interested readers can visit the original post here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "HP Integrates Microsoft Platform to Enhance Hybrid Work Solutions" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

HP’s latest collaboration with Microsoft aims to transform the hybrid workplace by integrating advanced technologies that cater specifically to the evolving needs of modern businesses. This initiative is set to enhance productivity and simplify operations for small business owners who often juggle multiple responsibilities amidst shifting work environments. At the heart of this integration is the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP), which will be seamlessly integrated into HP’s Poly video conferencing solutions. This integration includes IP phones, room controllers, and scheduling displays, cornerstones for effective communication and collaboration in today’s work landscape. The integration promises numerous benefits for small businesses. First and foremost, it elevates the quality of virtual meetings. With Poly’s high-definition audio and video capabilities combined with Microsoft’s ecosystem, users can expect clearer communication, minimizing miscommunication and misunderstandings. This technology allows teams to connect effortlessly, whether in the office or working remotely. Another significant advantage is the ease of scheduling and managing meetings. Small business owners often find themselves caught up in organizing communications, leading to lost productivity. The scheduling displays integrated within the system streamline this process, making it easier to book, reschedule, and manage appointments without hassle. Moreover, the system allows for a flexible hybrid work model. Employees can choose where and how they work, leading to increased job satisfaction and retention rates. This flexibility is increasingly essential as businesses strive to attract and retain talent in an increasingly competitive labor market. Quotes from HP’s representatives underline the importance of this collaboration. “With the integration of Microsoft’s Device Ecosystem Platform into our solutions, we are empowering businesses to create seamless and engaging hybrid work experiences,” says the spokesperson. However, while the benefits are substantial, small business owners should also consider potential challenges. The upfront investment in technology might pose a financial strain, particularly for startups or smaller enterprises. It’s essential to assess whether the long-term benefits of increased productivity and collaboration outweigh the initial costs. Furthermore, integrating new technology can require a learning curve for employees. Adequate training programs will be vital to ensure that staff are comfortable using the new systems so that businesses can fully realize their benefits. There’s also the consideration of ongoing support and maintenance. Small businesses may not have extensive IT departments, making it important to seek solutions that come with robust customer support to address any potential issues as they arise. In summary, the partnership between HP and Microsoft positions itself as an innovative solution tailored for small businesses navigating the complexities of hybrid work. By investing in this technology, small business owners can enhance their operational efficiency, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately drive growth in a competitive marketplace. For further information on these developments, interested readers can visit the original post here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "HP Integrates Microsoft Platform to Enhance Hybrid Work Solutions" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Intentional listening helps professionals grow faster. Accounting Influencers With Rob Brown Go PRO for members-only access to more Rob Brown. View the full article

Intentional listening helps professionals grow faster. Accounting Influencers With Rob Brown Go PRO for members-only access to more Rob Brown. View the full article

A sales strategy is a structured plan that outlines how your business will sell its products or services to achieve specific goals. Comprehending this concept is essential for optimizing revenue and improving sales efficiency. This guide will explore various aspects of sales strategy, including its importance, key components, and effective building steps. By grasping these elements, you can improve your approach and better target your audience, setting the stage for your business’s success. Key Takeaways A sales strategy is a detailed plan for selling products or services, focusing on target customers and revenue objectives. Key components include target market identification, sales process definition, performance metrics tracking, and resource optimization. Different types of sales strategies include inbound, outbound, and hybrid approaches, each with its advantages. Effective sales strategies require clear objectives, understanding customer demographics, and setting measurable SMART goals. Utilizing tools like CRM and sales analytics enhances sales effectiveness and supports data-driven decision-making. What Is a Sales Strategy? A sales strategy serves as the blueprint for how a business approaches selling its products or services. The definition of a sales strategy encompasses a thorough plan that outlines how you’ll identify target customers and achieve specific revenue goals. To define sales marketing effectively, you should consider key components like grasping your ideal customer profile, crafting a unique value proposition, and establishing clear sales processes. The meaning of sales strategy additionally includes setting defined sales goals that align with your overall business objectives. Keep in mind that a sales strategy evolves over time; it requires ongoing analysis of market trends and sales performance data to stay relevant and effective in meeting your business needs. Why Is a Sales Strategy Important? Comprehending why a sales strategy is important helps you recognize its role in driving business success. Here are four key reasons to evaluate: Alignment: A sales strategy aligns your team around common goals, enhancing focus and efficiency in achieving sales targets. Lead Prioritization: It provides a structured approach to identify and prioritize leads likely to convert, encouraging consistent growth. Resource Allocation: With a clear strategy, you can better allocate limited resources and navigate high-pressure environments effectively. Performance Analysis: Regular analysis of sales performance data allows for timely identification of risks and trends, ensuring ongoing strategy adaptations. Key Components of a Sales Strategy To build an effective sales strategy, you need to focus on several key components, including target market identification, sales process definition, and performance metrics tracking. Comprehending who your customers are helps you tailor your approach, whereas a clearly defined sales process guarantees your team follows a consistent path to close deals. Furthermore, tracking performance metrics allows you to assess progress and make necessary adjustments to meet your sales goals. Target Market Identification How can identifying your target market transform your sales strategy? By honing in on specific customer segments, you can considerably improve your effectiveness. Here are four key aspects to evaluate: Customer Segmentation: Break down your audience by size and industry to tailor your approach. Regional Needs: Understand local market conditions to adapt your strategies for global expansion. Demographics and Behavior: Analyze existing customer data to create detailed buyer personas that guide your outreach. Resource Optimization: A well-defined target market aligns your sales and marketing efforts, driving efficient revenue growth. Sales Process Definition Comprehending the sales process is crucial for any business aiming to improve its sales strategy, as it provides a structured framework that guides your team from initial contact with prospects to closing deals. The sales process consists of several key components: Step Objective Activities Lead Generation Attract potential customers Networking, advertising Qualification Identify qualified leads Evaluating need and budget Needs Assessment Understand customer requirements Interviews, surveys Proposal Present solutions Drafting proposals, pricing Establishing milestones helps your team track progress and make timely adjustments. A well-defined process aligns your sales efforts with organizational goals during enhancing customer experience through clear engagement strategies. Continuous refinement guarantees adaptability in a changing market. Performance Metrics Tracking Effective performance metrics tracking is crucial for any sales strategy, as it allows you to assess how well your team is meeting established goals and objectives. To optimize your efforts, focus on these key areas: Define KPIs: Identify key performance indicators for each sales goal, such as leads generated and conversion rates. Regular Tracking: Monitor both activity metrics (calls made, emails sent) and results metrics (deals closed, revenue growth) consistently. Utilize Analytics Software: Implement sales analytics tools for real-time insights into team performance and customer behavior. Continuous Monitoring: Adjust strategies based on performance metrics to align with market changes and business objectives. Types of Sales Strategies When you investigate the types of sales strategies, you’ll find that they can be broadly classified into two main categories: inbound and outbound. Inbound strategies involve customers initiating contact after engaging with your marketing efforts, resulting in warmer leads and a higher conversion likelihood. Conversely, outbound strategies require your sales team to proactively reach out to potential customers through methods like cold calling and emailing. Meanwhile, outbound allows for targeted outreach to specific demographics, it can demand more effort and may face challenges in building trust. Furthermore, hybrid strategies combine both inbound and outbound tactics, maximizing effectiveness and addressing diverse customer preferences. Comprehending these types helps you align your approach with your business goals and your target market’s needs. Steps to Build an Effective Sales Strategy Building an effective sales strategy starts with defining clear objectives that guide your efforts and set measurable targets. Next, you need to identify your target market by comprehending their demographics and preferences, which helps in tailoring your approach. Finally, develop an actionable plan that outlines the steps necessary to reach your goals and engage your audience effectively. Define Clear Objectives Defining clear objectives is crucial for guiding your sales strategy effectively. To set yourself up for success, consider the following steps: Set SMART Goals: Guarantee your sales objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound to provide clarity. Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Use KPIs to track your progress and measure success against your defined goals. Develop a Strong Value Proposition: Create a value proposition that resonates with your target market, encouraging customers to choose your offerings. Regularly Review Objectives: Consistently assess and adjust your objectives based on sales performance data to stay aligned with market trends and business goals. Identify Target Market A well-defined target market is key to crafting an effective sales strategy that resonates with potential customers. Start by segmenting your target market based on demographics like company size, industry, and geographic location. Analyzing existing customer data helps identify common traits and behaviors, guiding your ideal customer profile. Utilize buyer personas to gain insights into their needs and pain points, allowing for better connections. Research market trends and competitors to spot gaps your product can fill. Finally, continuously refine your target market based on feedback and performance metrics to adapt to changing conditions. Demographic Factors Importance Company Size Tailors approach Industry Identifies needs Location Localizes strategy Develop Actionable Plan To create an effective sales strategy, it’s essential to develop an actionable plan that outlines clear steps toward achieving your sales goals. Follow these steps: Set SMART goals: Make sure your sales goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Conduct market research: Identify your target audience’s demographics, behaviors, and preferences to inform your approach. Choose sales channels: Select the appropriate channels based on your target customers’ buying habits, enabling effective engagement. Develop a sales process: Outline each step from initial contact to closing the deal, including key milestones to track progress. Regularly monitor performance metrics, adjusting your strategy as needed to stay aligned with market changes and organizational goals. This structured approach will improve your sales effectiveness. Analyzing Your Target Market Comprehending your target market is essential for developing effective sales strategies that resonate with potential customers. Start by segmenting your audience based on demographics like age, gender, income, and location. This approach lets you tailor your marketing efforts particularly. Conduct market research to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns, which can highlight pain points that your solutions address. Creating buyer personas helps you empathize with your ideal customers, aligning your messaging with their needs. Furthermore, performing competitive analysis reveals your rivals’ strengths and weaknesses, helping you differentiate your offerings. Finally, regularly update your target market analysis using sales performance data and market trends to guarantee your strategies remain relevant in an ever-changing environment. Choosing the Right Selling Channels Selecting the right selling channels is a pivotal step in executing your sales strategy effectively. To do this, consider the following: Research Competitors: Analyze how competitors engage customers and which channels they utilize. Understand Customer Preferences: Identify where your target audience prefers to shop, whether online or in-store. Choose Direct vs. Indirect Channels: Direct sales, like your website or in-house teams, offer personal engagement, whereas indirect channels, such as third-party retailers, can broaden your reach. Implement a Mixed-Channel Strategy: Combining both methods improves customer engagement and maximizes sales opportunities across demographics. Additionally, make sure your sales team is trained on industry-specific language and regulations to navigate these channels effectively. This preparation improves your overall sales performance. Tools to Enhance Your Sales Strategy When you want to optimize your sales strategy, leveraging the right tools can make a significant difference in your team’s effectiveness. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools streamline customer interactions and data management, automating follow-ups and tracking leads. Sales automation tools further boost productivity by reducing repetitive tasks, allowing your team to focus on selling. Utilizing sales analytics software provides insights into trends and performance, enabling data-driven adjustments in real-time. Lead generation tools help identify potential customers and simplify outreach, increasing conversion rates. Finally, sales enablement tools centralize sales materials, improving accessibility and refining onboarding processes with relevant training resources. Frequently Asked Questions What Do You Understand by Sales Strategy? A sales strategy is a detailed plan that helps you attract and convert customers. It identifies your target market, outlines sales channels, and defines your sales processes to meet specific goals. It’s vital for aligning your sales team with overall business objectives. A successful strategy requires comprehension of your ideal customers and offering a unique value proposition. Regularly monitoring and adapting your approach is fundamental, especially in response to market changes. What Are the 4 P’s of Sales Strategy? The 4 P’s of sales strategy are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. You define your Product by highlighting its features and benefits that meet customer needs. Next, you set the Price, ensuring it reflects value and is competitive. Place involves choosing distribution channels that make your product accessible to your target audience. Finally, Promotion encompasses your marketing strategies, aimed at informing and persuading potential customers about the offerings you provide. What Is the 3-3-3 Rule in Sales? The 3-3-3 rule in sales suggests you spend three minutes on preparation, three minutes on your pitch, and three minutes on follow-up when making a sales call. This method helps you manage your time effectively, ensuring you deliver a concise message during the engagement with the prospect. What Are the 7 Steps of a Sales Strategy? To develop a successful sales strategy, follow these seven steps: First, set SMART goals that guide your efforts. Next, identify your target audience by analyzing customer demographics. Then, choose the right sales channels to reach them effectively. After that, map out your sales process to clarify each interaction stage. Finally, monitor your performance metrics and adapt your strategy as needed to stay responsive to market changes. These steps guarantee a structured approach to achieving sales success. Conclusion In conclusion, a well-defined sales strategy is essential for driving revenue and optimizing sales processes. By comprehending its meaning and importance, you can effectively define your objectives, target your market, and choose appropriate selling channels. Following the outlined steps will help you build a robust strategy that adapts to changing conditions. Incorporating the right tools and regularly analyzing performance metrics will improve your sales efforts, ensuring your strategy aligns with your business goals for sustained success. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Understanding Sales Strategy Meaning: A How-To Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

A sales strategy is a structured plan that outlines how your business will sell its products or services to achieve specific goals. Comprehending this concept is essential for optimizing revenue and improving sales efficiency. This guide will explore various aspects of sales strategy, including its importance, key components, and effective building steps. By grasping these elements, you can improve your approach and better target your audience, setting the stage for your business’s success. Key Takeaways A sales strategy is a detailed plan for selling products or services, focusing on target customers and revenue objectives. Key components include target market identification, sales process definition, performance metrics tracking, and resource optimization. Different types of sales strategies include inbound, outbound, and hybrid approaches, each with its advantages. Effective sales strategies require clear objectives, understanding customer demographics, and setting measurable SMART goals. Utilizing tools like CRM and sales analytics enhances sales effectiveness and supports data-driven decision-making. What Is a Sales Strategy? A sales strategy serves as the blueprint for how a business approaches selling its products or services. The definition of a sales strategy encompasses a thorough plan that outlines how you’ll identify target customers and achieve specific revenue goals. To define sales marketing effectively, you should consider key components like grasping your ideal customer profile, crafting a unique value proposition, and establishing clear sales processes. The meaning of sales strategy additionally includes setting defined sales goals that align with your overall business objectives. Keep in mind that a sales strategy evolves over time; it requires ongoing analysis of market trends and sales performance data to stay relevant and effective in meeting your business needs. Why Is a Sales Strategy Important? Comprehending why a sales strategy is important helps you recognize its role in driving business success. Here are four key reasons to evaluate: Alignment: A sales strategy aligns your team around common goals, enhancing focus and efficiency in achieving sales targets. Lead Prioritization: It provides a structured approach to identify and prioritize leads likely to convert, encouraging consistent growth. Resource Allocation: With a clear strategy, you can better allocate limited resources and navigate high-pressure environments effectively. Performance Analysis: Regular analysis of sales performance data allows for timely identification of risks and trends, ensuring ongoing strategy adaptations. Key Components of a Sales Strategy To build an effective sales strategy, you need to focus on several key components, including target market identification, sales process definition, and performance metrics tracking. Comprehending who your customers are helps you tailor your approach, whereas a clearly defined sales process guarantees your team follows a consistent path to close deals. Furthermore, tracking performance metrics allows you to assess progress and make necessary adjustments to meet your sales goals. Target Market Identification How can identifying your target market transform your sales strategy? By honing in on specific customer segments, you can considerably improve your effectiveness. Here are four key aspects to evaluate: Customer Segmentation: Break down your audience by size and industry to tailor your approach. Regional Needs: Understand local market conditions to adapt your strategies for global expansion. Demographics and Behavior: Analyze existing customer data to create detailed buyer personas that guide your outreach. Resource Optimization: A well-defined target market aligns your sales and marketing efforts, driving efficient revenue growth. Sales Process Definition Comprehending the sales process is crucial for any business aiming to improve its sales strategy, as it provides a structured framework that guides your team from initial contact with prospects to closing deals. The sales process consists of several key components: Step Objective Activities Lead Generation Attract potential customers Networking, advertising Qualification Identify qualified leads Evaluating need and budget Needs Assessment Understand customer requirements Interviews, surveys Proposal Present solutions Drafting proposals, pricing Establishing milestones helps your team track progress and make timely adjustments. A well-defined process aligns your sales efforts with organizational goals during enhancing customer experience through clear engagement strategies. Continuous refinement guarantees adaptability in a changing market. Performance Metrics Tracking Effective performance metrics tracking is crucial for any sales strategy, as it allows you to assess how well your team is meeting established goals and objectives. To optimize your efforts, focus on these key areas: Define KPIs: Identify key performance indicators for each sales goal, such as leads generated and conversion rates. Regular Tracking: Monitor both activity metrics (calls made, emails sent) and results metrics (deals closed, revenue growth) consistently. Utilize Analytics Software: Implement sales analytics tools for real-time insights into team performance and customer behavior. Continuous Monitoring: Adjust strategies based on performance metrics to align with market changes and business objectives. Types of Sales Strategies When you investigate the types of sales strategies, you’ll find that they can be broadly classified into two main categories: inbound and outbound. Inbound strategies involve customers initiating contact after engaging with your marketing efforts, resulting in warmer leads and a higher conversion likelihood. Conversely, outbound strategies require your sales team to proactively reach out to potential customers through methods like cold calling and emailing. Meanwhile, outbound allows for targeted outreach to specific demographics, it can demand more effort and may face challenges in building trust. Furthermore, hybrid strategies combine both inbound and outbound tactics, maximizing effectiveness and addressing diverse customer preferences. Comprehending these types helps you align your approach with your business goals and your target market’s needs. Steps to Build an Effective Sales Strategy Building an effective sales strategy starts with defining clear objectives that guide your efforts and set measurable targets. Next, you need to identify your target market by comprehending their demographics and preferences, which helps in tailoring your approach. Finally, develop an actionable plan that outlines the steps necessary to reach your goals and engage your audience effectively. Define Clear Objectives Defining clear objectives is crucial for guiding your sales strategy effectively. To set yourself up for success, consider the following steps: Set SMART Goals: Guarantee your sales objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound to provide clarity. Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Use KPIs to track your progress and measure success against your defined goals. Develop a Strong Value Proposition: Create a value proposition that resonates with your target market, encouraging customers to choose your offerings. Regularly Review Objectives: Consistently assess and adjust your objectives based on sales performance data to stay aligned with market trends and business goals. Identify Target Market A well-defined target market is key to crafting an effective sales strategy that resonates with potential customers. Start by segmenting your target market based on demographics like company size, industry, and geographic location. Analyzing existing customer data helps identify common traits and behaviors, guiding your ideal customer profile. Utilize buyer personas to gain insights into their needs and pain points, allowing for better connections. Research market trends and competitors to spot gaps your product can fill. Finally, continuously refine your target market based on feedback and performance metrics to adapt to changing conditions. Demographic Factors Importance Company Size Tailors approach Industry Identifies needs Location Localizes strategy Develop Actionable Plan To create an effective sales strategy, it’s essential to develop an actionable plan that outlines clear steps toward achieving your sales goals. Follow these steps: Set SMART goals: Make sure your sales goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Conduct market research: Identify your target audience’s demographics, behaviors, and preferences to inform your approach. Choose sales channels: Select the appropriate channels based on your target customers’ buying habits, enabling effective engagement. Develop a sales process: Outline each step from initial contact to closing the deal, including key milestones to track progress. Regularly monitor performance metrics, adjusting your strategy as needed to stay aligned with market changes and organizational goals. This structured approach will improve your sales effectiveness. Analyzing Your Target Market Comprehending your target market is essential for developing effective sales strategies that resonate with potential customers. Start by segmenting your audience based on demographics like age, gender, income, and location. This approach lets you tailor your marketing efforts particularly. Conduct market research to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns, which can highlight pain points that your solutions address. Creating buyer personas helps you empathize with your ideal customers, aligning your messaging with their needs. Furthermore, performing competitive analysis reveals your rivals’ strengths and weaknesses, helping you differentiate your offerings. Finally, regularly update your target market analysis using sales performance data and market trends to guarantee your strategies remain relevant in an ever-changing environment. Choosing the Right Selling Channels Selecting the right selling channels is a pivotal step in executing your sales strategy effectively. To do this, consider the following: Research Competitors: Analyze how competitors engage customers and which channels they utilize. Understand Customer Preferences: Identify where your target audience prefers to shop, whether online or in-store. Choose Direct vs. Indirect Channels: Direct sales, like your website or in-house teams, offer personal engagement, whereas indirect channels, such as third-party retailers, can broaden your reach. Implement a Mixed-Channel Strategy: Combining both methods improves customer engagement and maximizes sales opportunities across demographics. Additionally, make sure your sales team is trained on industry-specific language and regulations to navigate these channels effectively. This preparation improves your overall sales performance. Tools to Enhance Your Sales Strategy When you want to optimize your sales strategy, leveraging the right tools can make a significant difference in your team’s effectiveness. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools streamline customer interactions and data management, automating follow-ups and tracking leads. Sales automation tools further boost productivity by reducing repetitive tasks, allowing your team to focus on selling. Utilizing sales analytics software provides insights into trends and performance, enabling data-driven adjustments in real-time. Lead generation tools help identify potential customers and simplify outreach, increasing conversion rates. Finally, sales enablement tools centralize sales materials, improving accessibility and refining onboarding processes with relevant training resources. Frequently Asked Questions What Do You Understand by Sales Strategy? A sales strategy is a detailed plan that helps you attract and convert customers. It identifies your target market, outlines sales channels, and defines your sales processes to meet specific goals. It’s vital for aligning your sales team with overall business objectives. A successful strategy requires comprehension of your ideal customers and offering a unique value proposition. Regularly monitoring and adapting your approach is fundamental, especially in response to market changes. What Are the 4 P’s of Sales Strategy? The 4 P’s of sales strategy are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. You define your Product by highlighting its features and benefits that meet customer needs. Next, you set the Price, ensuring it reflects value and is competitive. Place involves choosing distribution channels that make your product accessible to your target audience. Finally, Promotion encompasses your marketing strategies, aimed at informing and persuading potential customers about the offerings you provide. What Is the 3-3-3 Rule in Sales? The 3-3-3 rule in sales suggests you spend three minutes on preparation, three minutes on your pitch, and three minutes on follow-up when making a sales call. This method helps you manage your time effectively, ensuring you deliver a concise message during the engagement with the prospect. What Are the 7 Steps of a Sales Strategy? To develop a successful sales strategy, follow these seven steps: First, set SMART goals that guide your efforts. Next, identify your target audience by analyzing customer demographics. Then, choose the right sales channels to reach them effectively. After that, map out your sales process to clarify each interaction stage. Finally, monitor your performance metrics and adapt your strategy as needed to stay responsive to market changes. These steps guarantee a structured approach to achieving sales success. Conclusion In conclusion, a well-defined sales strategy is essential for driving revenue and optimizing sales processes. By comprehending its meaning and importance, you can effectively define your objectives, target your market, and choose appropriate selling channels. Following the outlined steps will help you build a robust strategy that adapts to changing conditions. Incorporating the right tools and regularly analyzing performance metrics will improve your sales efforts, ensuring your strategy aligns with your business goals for sustained success. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Understanding Sales Strategy Meaning: A How-To Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Court says The President ally was planning to take advantage of a demonstration outside his home to escapeView the full article

EU and Nato leaders warn they must be given a voice on the most pivotal moment in the warView the full article

Being an owner sole proprietor means you have total control over your business decisions and profits, but it additionally comes with significant responsibilities. You’ll manage everything from daily operations to legal compliance, all during facing unlimited personal liability. This structure can be appealing because of low startup costs and simplicity, yet it demands a strong commitment. As you consider this path, it’s essential to understand both the advantages and challenges that lie ahead. What will you prioritize as you begin? Key Takeaways As a sole proprietor, you own and operate the business independently without any legal distinction from it. You retain all profits as personal income, simplifying tax reporting on your individual tax return. You bear unlimited personal liability, risking your personal assets if the business incurs debts. Establishing a sole proprietorship requires minimal paperwork and compliance with fewer regulations than other business structures. You have complete control over business decisions, allowing for flexibility in operations and branding. Sole Proprietorship: Definition and Structure A sole proprietorship is a straightforward business structure where one individual owns and operates the entire enterprise. This setup means there’s no legal distinction between you and your business, allowing you to retain all profits as personal income. Nonetheless, it’s important to evaluate the sole proprietorship disadvantages, such as unlimited liability; your personal assets could be at risk if the business incurs debts. Establishing a sole proprietorship requires minimal paperwork, making it easy to start, but this simplicity comes with its own set of sole proprietorship pros and cons. Whereas you enjoy full control and straightforward tax reporting, the lack of legal protection can be a significant drawback. Weighing the advantages of sole proprietorship against the potential risks is vital for your decision-making. Advantages of Being a Sole Proprietor When you choose to operate as a sole proprietor, you gain several distinct advantages that can improve your entrepreneurial path. Here are some key sole ownership advantages: Complete control over business decisions and operations. Minimal setup costs with no formal registration requirements. Simplified tax reporting, as business profits are personal income. Flexibility to use a “Doing Business As” (DBA) name for branding. Lower regulatory burden, leading to fewer compliance costs. These advantages make the owner sole proprietor model an appealing choice for many aspiring entrepreneurs. Although there are disadvantages of proprietorship to reflect upon, the benefits of autonomy, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness often outweigh the drawbacks for those looking to start their own business. Disadvantages of Being a Sole Proprietor As a sole proprietor, you face several significant disadvantages that can impact your business. Unlimited personal liability means your personal assets are at risk if your business incurs debts, whereas raising capital can be tough since you can’t sell stock and often rely on personal savings. Moreover, limited growth potential and the absence of business continuity can hinder your long-term planning and stability. Unlimited Personal Liability Operating as a sole proprietor exposes you to unlimited personal liability, which means your personal assets, like your home or savings, can be targeted by creditors if your business incurs debts. Unlike corporations or LLCs, you don’t have legal protection against personal liability for business obligations. This situation can lead to significant financial risks, including: Personal responsibility for business debts Potential liquidation of personal assets in bankruptcy Difficulty attracting investors or lenders Increased financial strain from legal judgments Lack of separation between personal and business finances These factors highlight the serious implications of unlimited personal liability, emphasizing the importance of comprehension of the risks involved in running a sole proprietorship. Without a safety net, you could face severe financial consequences. Funding Challenges Faced Funding challenges can greatly hinder your ability to grow and sustain a sole proprietorship. Unlike corporations, you can’t sell stock or attract investors, which limits your financing options to personal savings or loans. This situation is compounded by your unlimited liability; if your business incurs significant debts or legal issues, your personal assets are at risk, making lenders wary. Bank of America typically require a strong personal credit history, posing a problem for those with poor credit. Furthermore, you usually lack access to government grants or funding programs available to incorporated businesses. Finally, the absence of a formal business structure can make it difficult for you to establish credibility with potential investors or lenders, further impacting your funding opportunities. Limited Growth Potential Limited growth potential is a significant challenge for sole proprietors, primarily due to their reliance on personal funds and credit for financing. This limitation makes it tough to secure larger investments or financing options. Here are some key factors contributing to this issue: Inability to sell shares restricts capital for expansion. Difficulty attracting investors hinders growth opportunities. Competition with larger businesses reduces market presence. Personal financial situations impact the business directly. Lack of formal structure may cause operational inefficiencies. These factors collectively create barriers that can stifle innovation and adaptability, making it harder for you to scale your business effectively. As a result, you may find it challenging to compete in a market dominated by larger, resource-rich companies. Employment Obligations of Sole Proprietors When you run a sole proprietorship, grasping your employment obligations is crucial, especially if you decide to hire employees or independent consultants. You must comply with employment laws, ensuring fair wages and safe working conditions. Furthermore, you’re responsible for contributing to employees’ Provident Fund and Social Security, which means staying updated on local regulations. Accurate business records are critical, as you need to submit tax returns that report your business income as personal income. If your revenue exceeds certain thresholds, registering for VAT and meeting associated tax obligations becomes necessary. Rules for Sole Proprietorships by Country When you run a sole proprietorship, comprehension of the specific rules in your country is essential for compliance. Each nation has unique registration requirements and regulations that you must follow to operate legally, from obtaining a VAT ID in the Netherlands to notifying revenue authorities in New Zealand. This section will outline these country-specific regulations so you can guarantee your business meets all necessary obligations. Country-Specific Regulations Sole proprietorships are subject to various country-specific regulations that you need to navigate to run your business legally. Here are some key regulations to keep in mind: In the Netherlands, register your business with the Chamber of Commerce and obtain a VAT ID for taxation. In Ireland, if you’re not using your true surname, you must register a business name. Malaysian law requires registration within 30 days of starting your business. In New Zealand, notify the Inland Revenue and register for GST if your income exceeds $60,000. In the United Kingdom, register with HM Revenue and Customs for tax compliance. Understanding these rules is essential for maintaining your business’s legal standing and avoiding penalties. Registration Requirements Guiding through the registration requirements for sole proprietorships can be crucial for your business’s success, as these regulations vary markedly from one country to another. In the Netherlands, you must register with the Chamber of Commerce and obtain a VAT ID. If you’re in Ireland and not using your true surname as the business name, registering it with local authorities is necessary. In Malaysia, you need to register within 30 days of starting your business, following the Companies Commission’s guidelines. New Zealand requires you to notify the Inland Revenue and register for GST if your income exceeds $60,000 annually. In the UK, whereas registration with HM Revenue and Customs is necessary for tax purposes, requirements are minimal compared to other structures. Compliance Obligations Grasping compliance obligations is essential for running a successful sole proprietorship, as these rules vary greatly across different countries. Here are some key requirements you should be aware of: In the Netherlands, register with the Chamber of Commerce and obtain a VAT ID. In Ireland, if you’re not using your true surname, business name registration is mandatory. In Malaysia, register your business within 30 days of commencement under various laws. New Zealand requires you to notify the Inland Revenue and register for GST if your annual income exceeds $60,000. In the United Kingdom, registration with HM Revenue and Customs is necessary to comply with tax obligations. Understanding these compliance obligations guarantees you’re operating within the legal framework specific to your country. Starting a Sole Proprietorship When you’re ready to launch your business, starting a sole proprietorship can be a straightforward path, since it doesn’t require a formal registration process at the federal or state level. You automatically become a sole proprietor as soon as you begin conducting business activities. Nevertheless, if you wish to operate under a name other than your own, you’ll need to file a “Doing Business As” (DBA) registration with your local county clerk. It’s crucial to check local regulations, as certain business licenses and permits may be required based on your business type. As a sole proprietor, you’ll enjoy all profits, which you report as personal income, but keep in mind that you assume unlimited personal liability for all business debts and obligations. Business Licenses and Permits Once you’ve established your sole proprietorship, comprehending the necessary business licenses and permits becomes crucial for operating legally. Depending on your business’s nature and local regulations, you may need to secure various licenses. Here are some key points to reflect on: Many localities require a general business license to comply with zoning laws. Specific industries, like food service or healthcare, may need additional permits. If you’re operating under a name different from your legal name, you’ll need to file a “Doing Business As” (DBA) certificate. Regulations can vary by state and municipality, so check your local requirements. Failing to obtain the necessary licenses can lead to fines or even closure of your business. Operating Under an Assumed Name Have you considered the benefits of operating under an assumed name, or “Doing Business As” (DBA)? A DBA allows you to present a distinct business identity separate from your personal name. Although not all states mandate DBA registration, it often safeguards your business name from being claimed by others. It can improve your branding, making your business more memorable and attractive to customers. Remember, you’ll need to file with your local county clerk or government agency to register your DBA and comply with any local licensing requirements associated with it. Aspect Details Registration File with local county clerk Legal Compliance Protects the business name Branding Benefits Improves recognition and appeal Flexibility Allows for diverse services or products Tax Implications for Sole Proprietors Comprehending the tax implications of being a sole proprietor is vital for effectively managing your finances and ensuring compliance with tax laws. Here are some key points to reflect on: You report your business income and expenses on Schedule C of your personal tax return (Form 1040). Business losses can offset other income, potentially lowering your overall tax liability. You must pay self-employment tax on net earnings, which is 15.3% for Social Security and Medicare. If your revenue exceeds specific thresholds, you may need to register for and collect VAT or GST. Maintaining accurate business records, including receipts and invoices, is critical to support your income and expense claims. Being informed about these aspects can help you navigate your tax responsibilities effectively. Comparing Sole Proprietorships and LLCs When you’re considering how to structure your business, comparing sole proprietorships and LLCs is crucial. A sole proprietorship offers simplicity and ease of formation, but it leaves you personally liable for any business debts. Conversely, an LLC provides liability protection, more flexible taxation options, and a more formal structure, but it comes with additional costs and compliance requirements. Liability Protection Differences Grasping the differences in liability protection between sole proprietorships and LLCs is crucial for anyone considering these business structures. Here’s what you need to know: Sole proprietorships expose your personal assets to business debts. LLCs provide limited liability, protecting your personal property from business liabilities. As a sole proprietor, you’re personally responsible for all business losses. LLC members are only liable up to their investment in the company. The lack of liability protection in sole proprietorships can deter potential investors. Choosing between these structures impacts your financial security. Although sole proprietorships offer simplicity, LLCs safeguard your assets, making them a more secure option for many entrepreneurs. Grasping these differences can inform your decision-making process. Formation and Compliance Costs Grasping the formation and compliance costs associated with sole proprietorships and LLCs is crucial for making an informed business decision. Sole proprietorships have minimal formation costs, requiring no formal state filing beyond potential local business licenses. Conversely, LLCs typically incur higher setup costs because of necessary state filings and fees. The ongoing compliance costs for sole proprietorships are lower, with fewer regulatory requirements, whereas LLCs face additional costs, such as annual reports and registered agent fees. You can start operating a sole proprietorship immediately, whereas LLCs must complete their formation process first. Finally, sole proprietorships don’t require specific business name registration except when using a DBA, whereas LLCs must comply with state naming regulations, including “LLC” in their business name. Taxation and Reporting Methods Comprehending the taxation and reporting methods for sole proprietorships and LLCs is essential for any entrepreneur. Here’s a quick comparison: Sole proprietors report income on Schedule C of Form 1040, simplifying the process. Profits for sole proprietorships are taxed as personal income, subjecting you to self-employment tax at 15.3%. LLCs can choose their tax classification, allowing flexibility for potentially better tax treatment. LLCs may likewise face self-employment taxes, but the S corporation election permits salary and dividend distributions. Both structures require accurate financial records, but LLCs often encounter more reporting and compliance obligations. Understanding these differences can help you make informed decisions about your business structure and tax responsibilities. Key Considerations for Aspiring Sole Proprietors As you consider becoming a sole proprietor, it’s essential to understand the implications of operating your business without a legal distinction between yourself and your business entity. This means you’re personally liable for all debts and obligations incurred. While you enjoy complete control over decision-making and profits, you likewise bear the responsibility for tax obligations and maintaining business records. If you plan to operate under a name other than your own, registering a DBA may be necessary. Remember, if your income exceeds certain thresholds, like $60,000 in New Zealand, you’ll need to register for GST or VAT. Furthermore, if you hire employees or contractors, you must comply with employment laws and contribute to their social security and provident funds. Frequently Asked Questions What Does It Mean to Be the Owner of a Sole Proprietorship? Being the owner of a sole proprietorship means you run your business independently, with no legal separation between you and the entity. You’re responsible for all profits, losses, and debts, exposing your personal assets to risk. You have complete control over business decisions and enjoy simplified tax reporting, as you file income and expenses on your personal tax return. Nevertheless, you must comply with employment laws if you hire others. What Qualifies You as a Sole Proprietor? To qualify as a sole proprietor, you need to operate a business independently without registering as a formal business entity. You maintain full control over business decisions and are entitled to all profits. Nevertheless, keep in mind that you’re personally liable for any debts or obligations incurred by the business. Reporting business income and expenses on your personal tax returns is crucial, typically using Schedule C of Form 1040 for accurate tax documentation. What Is the Main Disadvantage of Being a Sole Proprietor? The main disadvantage of being a sole proprietor is unlimited liability. This means your personal assets, like your home or savings, can be pursued to pay off business debts. Furthermore, raising capital can be challenging since you can’t sell stock, often relying on personal savings or loans instead. If you pass away, your business ceases to exist, complicating ownership transfer. Finally, all responsibilities fall on you, increasing pressure and potential burnout. What Is the Difference Between a Sole Proprietor and a Single Owner? A sole proprietor is someone who runs a business independently, without any legal separation from the business. Conversely, a single owner might operate an LLC, which offers limited liability protection, meaning personal assets are safer from business debts. Sole proprietorships don’t require formal registration, whereas LLCs do. Furthermore, the owner of a sole proprietorship reports profits as personal income, whereas an LLC owner can choose different tax options for their business. Conclusion In conclusion, being a sole proprietor offers unique advantages, like complete control and simplicity, but it additionally carries significant risks, particularly regarding personal liability. Comprehending the obligations, tax implications, and regulations in your country is critical for success. Although operating under an assumed name can improve your business’s appeal, it is important to weigh the benefits against the potential downsides. For those considering this path, thorough research and careful planning are essential to navigate the intricacies of sole proprietorship effectively. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Does It Mean to Be an Owner Sole Proprietor?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Being an owner sole proprietor means you have total control over your business decisions and profits, but it additionally comes with significant responsibilities. You’ll manage everything from daily operations to legal compliance, all during facing unlimited personal liability. This structure can be appealing because of low startup costs and simplicity, yet it demands a strong commitment. As you consider this path, it’s essential to understand both the advantages and challenges that lie ahead. What will you prioritize as you begin? Key Takeaways As a sole proprietor, you own and operate the business independently without any legal distinction from it. You retain all profits as personal income, simplifying tax reporting on your individual tax return. You bear unlimited personal liability, risking your personal assets if the business incurs debts. Establishing a sole proprietorship requires minimal paperwork and compliance with fewer regulations than other business structures. You have complete control over business decisions, allowing for flexibility in operations and branding. Sole Proprietorship: Definition and Structure A sole proprietorship is a straightforward business structure where one individual owns and operates the entire enterprise. This setup means there’s no legal distinction between you and your business, allowing you to retain all profits as personal income. Nonetheless, it’s important to evaluate the sole proprietorship disadvantages, such as unlimited liability; your personal assets could be at risk if the business incurs debts. Establishing a sole proprietorship requires minimal paperwork, making it easy to start, but this simplicity comes with its own set of sole proprietorship pros and cons. Whereas you enjoy full control and straightforward tax reporting, the lack of legal protection can be a significant drawback. Weighing the advantages of sole proprietorship against the potential risks is vital for your decision-making. Advantages of Being a Sole Proprietor When you choose to operate as a sole proprietor, you gain several distinct advantages that can improve your entrepreneurial path. Here are some key sole ownership advantages: Complete control over business decisions and operations. Minimal setup costs with no formal registration requirements. Simplified tax reporting, as business profits are personal income. Flexibility to use a “Doing Business As” (DBA) name for branding. Lower regulatory burden, leading to fewer compliance costs. These advantages make the owner sole proprietor model an appealing choice for many aspiring entrepreneurs. Although there are disadvantages of proprietorship to reflect upon, the benefits of autonomy, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness often outweigh the drawbacks for those looking to start their own business. Disadvantages of Being a Sole Proprietor As a sole proprietor, you face several significant disadvantages that can impact your business. Unlimited personal liability means your personal assets are at risk if your business incurs debts, whereas raising capital can be tough since you can’t sell stock and often rely on personal savings. Moreover, limited growth potential and the absence of business continuity can hinder your long-term planning and stability. Unlimited Personal Liability Operating as a sole proprietor exposes you to unlimited personal liability, which means your personal assets, like your home or savings, can be targeted by creditors if your business incurs debts. Unlike corporations or LLCs, you don’t have legal protection against personal liability for business obligations. This situation can lead to significant financial risks, including: Personal responsibility for business debts Potential liquidation of personal assets in bankruptcy Difficulty attracting investors or lenders Increased financial strain from legal judgments Lack of separation between personal and business finances These factors highlight the serious implications of unlimited personal liability, emphasizing the importance of comprehension of the risks involved in running a sole proprietorship. Without a safety net, you could face severe financial consequences. Funding Challenges Faced Funding challenges can greatly hinder your ability to grow and sustain a sole proprietorship. Unlike corporations, you can’t sell stock or attract investors, which limits your financing options to personal savings or loans. This situation is compounded by your unlimited liability; if your business incurs significant debts or legal issues, your personal assets are at risk, making lenders wary. Bank of America typically require a strong personal credit history, posing a problem for those with poor credit. Furthermore, you usually lack access to government grants or funding programs available to incorporated businesses. Finally, the absence of a formal business structure can make it difficult for you to establish credibility with potential investors or lenders, further impacting your funding opportunities. Limited Growth Potential Limited growth potential is a significant challenge for sole proprietors, primarily due to their reliance on personal funds and credit for financing. This limitation makes it tough to secure larger investments or financing options. Here are some key factors contributing to this issue: Inability to sell shares restricts capital for expansion. Difficulty attracting investors hinders growth opportunities. Competition with larger businesses reduces market presence. Personal financial situations impact the business directly. Lack of formal structure may cause operational inefficiencies. These factors collectively create barriers that can stifle innovation and adaptability, making it harder for you to scale your business effectively. As a result, you may find it challenging to compete in a market dominated by larger, resource-rich companies. Employment Obligations of Sole Proprietors When you run a sole proprietorship, grasping your employment obligations is crucial, especially if you decide to hire employees or independent consultants. You must comply with employment laws, ensuring fair wages and safe working conditions. Furthermore, you’re responsible for contributing to employees’ Provident Fund and Social Security, which means staying updated on local regulations. Accurate business records are critical, as you need to submit tax returns that report your business income as personal income. If your revenue exceeds certain thresholds, registering for VAT and meeting associated tax obligations becomes necessary. Rules for Sole Proprietorships by Country When you run a sole proprietorship, comprehension of the specific rules in your country is essential for compliance. Each nation has unique registration requirements and regulations that you must follow to operate legally, from obtaining a VAT ID in the Netherlands to notifying revenue authorities in New Zealand. This section will outline these country-specific regulations so you can guarantee your business meets all necessary obligations. Country-Specific Regulations Sole proprietorships are subject to various country-specific regulations that you need to navigate to run your business legally. Here are some key regulations to keep in mind: In the Netherlands, register your business with the Chamber of Commerce and obtain a VAT ID for taxation. In Ireland, if you’re not using your true surname, you must register a business name. Malaysian law requires registration within 30 days of starting your business. In New Zealand, notify the Inland Revenue and register for GST if your income exceeds $60,000. In the United Kingdom, register with HM Revenue and Customs for tax compliance. Understanding these rules is essential for maintaining your business’s legal standing and avoiding penalties. Registration Requirements Guiding through the registration requirements for sole proprietorships can be crucial for your business’s success, as these regulations vary markedly from one country to another. In the Netherlands, you must register with the Chamber of Commerce and obtain a VAT ID. If you’re in Ireland and not using your true surname as the business name, registering it with local authorities is necessary. In Malaysia, you need to register within 30 days of starting your business, following the Companies Commission’s guidelines. New Zealand requires you to notify the Inland Revenue and register for GST if your income exceeds $60,000 annually. In the UK, whereas registration with HM Revenue and Customs is necessary for tax purposes, requirements are minimal compared to other structures. Compliance Obligations Grasping compliance obligations is essential for running a successful sole proprietorship, as these rules vary greatly across different countries. Here are some key requirements you should be aware of: In the Netherlands, register with the Chamber of Commerce and obtain a VAT ID. In Ireland, if you’re not using your true surname, business name registration is mandatory. In Malaysia, register your business within 30 days of commencement under various laws. New Zealand requires you to notify the Inland Revenue and register for GST if your annual income exceeds $60,000. In the United Kingdom, registration with HM Revenue and Customs is necessary to comply with tax obligations. Understanding these compliance obligations guarantees you’re operating within the legal framework specific to your country. Starting a Sole Proprietorship When you’re ready to launch your business, starting a sole proprietorship can be a straightforward path, since it doesn’t require a formal registration process at the federal or state level. You automatically become a sole proprietor as soon as you begin conducting business activities. Nevertheless, if you wish to operate under a name other than your own, you’ll need to file a “Doing Business As” (DBA) registration with your local county clerk. It’s crucial to check local regulations, as certain business licenses and permits may be required based on your business type. As a sole proprietor, you’ll enjoy all profits, which you report as personal income, but keep in mind that you assume unlimited personal liability for all business debts and obligations. Business Licenses and Permits Once you’ve established your sole proprietorship, comprehending the necessary business licenses and permits becomes crucial for operating legally. Depending on your business’s nature and local regulations, you may need to secure various licenses. Here are some key points to reflect on: Many localities require a general business license to comply with zoning laws. Specific industries, like food service or healthcare, may need additional permits. If you’re operating under a name different from your legal name, you’ll need to file a “Doing Business As” (DBA) certificate. Regulations can vary by state and municipality, so check your local requirements. Failing to obtain the necessary licenses can lead to fines or even closure of your business. Operating Under an Assumed Name Have you considered the benefits of operating under an assumed name, or “Doing Business As” (DBA)? A DBA allows you to present a distinct business identity separate from your personal name. Although not all states mandate DBA registration, it often safeguards your business name from being claimed by others. It can improve your branding, making your business more memorable and attractive to customers. Remember, you’ll need to file with your local county clerk or government agency to register your DBA and comply with any local licensing requirements associated with it. Aspect Details Registration File with local county clerk Legal Compliance Protects the business name Branding Benefits Improves recognition and appeal Flexibility Allows for diverse services or products Tax Implications for Sole Proprietors Comprehending the tax implications of being a sole proprietor is vital for effectively managing your finances and ensuring compliance with tax laws. Here are some key points to reflect on: You report your business income and expenses on Schedule C of your personal tax return (Form 1040). Business losses can offset other income, potentially lowering your overall tax liability. You must pay self-employment tax on net earnings, which is 15.3% for Social Security and Medicare. If your revenue exceeds specific thresholds, you may need to register for and collect VAT or GST. Maintaining accurate business records, including receipts and invoices, is critical to support your income and expense claims. Being informed about these aspects can help you navigate your tax responsibilities effectively. Comparing Sole Proprietorships and LLCs When you’re considering how to structure your business, comparing sole proprietorships and LLCs is crucial. A sole proprietorship offers simplicity and ease of formation, but it leaves you personally liable for any business debts. Conversely, an LLC provides liability protection, more flexible taxation options, and a more formal structure, but it comes with additional costs and compliance requirements. Liability Protection Differences Grasping the differences in liability protection between sole proprietorships and LLCs is crucial for anyone considering these business structures. Here’s what you need to know: Sole proprietorships expose your personal assets to business debts. LLCs provide limited liability, protecting your personal property from business liabilities. As a sole proprietor, you’re personally responsible for all business losses. LLC members are only liable up to their investment in the company. The lack of liability protection in sole proprietorships can deter potential investors. Choosing between these structures impacts your financial security. Although sole proprietorships offer simplicity, LLCs safeguard your assets, making them a more secure option for many entrepreneurs. Grasping these differences can inform your decision-making process. Formation and Compliance Costs Grasping the formation and compliance costs associated with sole proprietorships and LLCs is crucial for making an informed business decision. Sole proprietorships have minimal formation costs, requiring no formal state filing beyond potential local business licenses. Conversely, LLCs typically incur higher setup costs because of necessary state filings and fees. The ongoing compliance costs for sole proprietorships are lower, with fewer regulatory requirements, whereas LLCs face additional costs, such as annual reports and registered agent fees. You can start operating a sole proprietorship immediately, whereas LLCs must complete their formation process first. Finally, sole proprietorships don’t require specific business name registration except when using a DBA, whereas LLCs must comply with state naming regulations, including “LLC” in their business name. Taxation and Reporting Methods Comprehending the taxation and reporting methods for sole proprietorships and LLCs is essential for any entrepreneur. Here’s a quick comparison: Sole proprietors report income on Schedule C of Form 1040, simplifying the process. Profits for sole proprietorships are taxed as personal income, subjecting you to self-employment tax at 15.3%. LLCs can choose their tax classification, allowing flexibility for potentially better tax treatment. LLCs may likewise face self-employment taxes, but the S corporation election permits salary and dividend distributions. Both structures require accurate financial records, but LLCs often encounter more reporting and compliance obligations. Understanding these differences can help you make informed decisions about your business structure and tax responsibilities. Key Considerations for Aspiring Sole Proprietors As you consider becoming a sole proprietor, it’s essential to understand the implications of operating your business without a legal distinction between yourself and your business entity. This means you’re personally liable for all debts and obligations incurred. While you enjoy complete control over decision-making and profits, you likewise bear the responsibility for tax obligations and maintaining business records. If you plan to operate under a name other than your own, registering a DBA may be necessary. Remember, if your income exceeds certain thresholds, like $60,000 in New Zealand, you’ll need to register for GST or VAT. Furthermore, if you hire employees or contractors, you must comply with employment laws and contribute to their social security and provident funds. Frequently Asked Questions What Does It Mean to Be the Owner of a Sole Proprietorship? Being the owner of a sole proprietorship means you run your business independently, with no legal separation between you and the entity. You’re responsible for all profits, losses, and debts, exposing your personal assets to risk. You have complete control over business decisions and enjoy simplified tax reporting, as you file income and expenses on your personal tax return. Nevertheless, you must comply with employment laws if you hire others. What Qualifies You as a Sole Proprietor? To qualify as a sole proprietor, you need to operate a business independently without registering as a formal business entity. You maintain full control over business decisions and are entitled to all profits. Nevertheless, keep in mind that you’re personally liable for any debts or obligations incurred by the business. Reporting business income and expenses on your personal tax returns is crucial, typically using Schedule C of Form 1040 for accurate tax documentation. What Is the Main Disadvantage of Being a Sole Proprietor? The main disadvantage of being a sole proprietor is unlimited liability. This means your personal assets, like your home or savings, can be pursued to pay off business debts. Furthermore, raising capital can be challenging since you can’t sell stock, often relying on personal savings or loans instead. If you pass away, your business ceases to exist, complicating ownership transfer. Finally, all responsibilities fall on you, increasing pressure and potential burnout. What Is the Difference Between a Sole Proprietor and a Single Owner? A sole proprietor is someone who runs a business independently, without any legal separation from the business. Conversely, a single owner might operate an LLC, which offers limited liability protection, meaning personal assets are safer from business debts. Sole proprietorships don’t require formal registration, whereas LLCs do. Furthermore, the owner of a sole proprietorship reports profits as personal income, whereas an LLC owner can choose different tax options for their business. Conclusion In conclusion, being a sole proprietor offers unique advantages, like complete control and simplicity, but it additionally carries significant risks, particularly regarding personal liability. Comprehending the obligations, tax implications, and regulations in your country is critical for success. Although operating under an assumed name can improve your business’s appeal, it is important to weigh the benefits against the potential downsides. For those considering this path, thorough research and careful planning are essential to navigate the intricacies of sole proprietorship effectively. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Does It Mean to Be an Owner Sole Proprietor?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

In 2023, Pop-Tarts changed the world of brand mascots forever when it sacrificed the life of a Strawberry Pop-Tart and fed its remains to the Kansas State football team as a reward for winning the Pop-Tarts Bowl game. The weirdly macabre stunt got 4 billion media impressions, and in the eight weeks following the game, parent company Kellanova sold 21 million more Pop-Tarts than in the eight weeks before the game. Riding on that success, the brand upped its ambitions and brought three flavors to the Pop-Tarts Bowl last year, letting the winning team’s MVP choose which one was toasted and eaten (Iowa State’s quarterback, Rocco Becht, picked Frosted Cinnamon Roll). Now Pop-Tarts has announced that it’s dramatically expanding its “edible mascot” lineup for the next big game, scheduled to be played in Orlando’s Camping World Stadium on December 27th. Six edible Pop-Tarts mascots—three on Team Sprinkles and three on Team Swirls—will be up for mass consumption, with fans voting ahead of time on which team should be sacrificed. For Pop-Tarts, it’s a significant jump in both sacrificial anthropomorphic breakfast pastry and the stakes for its brand stunt strategy. Many viewers will undoubtedly be giddy at the prospect of doubling the number of mascots involved, but there’s a cost to escalating the premise so much in such a short period of time: Pop-Tarts is now entering into an unnecessary arms race with itself. When I posed this theory to the brand’s VP of marketing, Leslie Serro, she didn’t agree. “Expanding from three to six edible mascots this year isn’t about an arms race; it’s about evolution,” she says. Serro tells me that they concluded after last year’s success that fans have an “insatiable appetite for the playful and unexpected nature of the Pop-Tarts Bowl.” Thus, the doubling down from three to six mascots and “raising the stakes.” To be fair, will I be looking for social clips from the game on the 27th, in that dead zone between Christmas and New Year’s? Sure. Serro’s got me there. But will I feel as sick as if I ate six Pop-Tarts rather than just one (or even three)? Yes. Let me explain why Pop-Tarts, which so brilliantly spoke to the culture two years ago, risks toasting all that goodwill. Mascot Power It’s easy to see why Pop-Tarts would want to crank up the mascot machine and get even more brand characters into the game (albeit to kill and eat them). A 2021 whitepaper by the Moving Picture Council found that long-term campaigns featuring a character increased market share 39.2%, compared with 29.7% for campaigns without a character; it also boosted profit gain 34.2% (versus 29.7%). A report by System1 found that 2025 Super Bowl ads with brand characters performed better than those featuring celebrities. For example, an M&M’s 2023 Super Bowl spot starring Maya Rudolph underperformed because people didn’t make the connection between Rudolph and the brand. As a celebrity, she could’ve been selling anything. Scores then soared once the M&M’s characters returned in a second spot. Mascots aren’t just cute and fun. They create a faster route to being memorable, and being memorable tends to directly influence what we buy. Two key factors in any successful mascot are longevity and consistency. Just think about the lifespan of some of the most iconic mascots: The Michelin Man was created in 1898! Tony the Tiger was born in 1952. Mr. Clean’s mascot came around in 1957. Chester Cheetah of Cheetos fame first dropped in 1986. And the Energizer Bunny started banging that drum in 1989. Both the Aflac Duck and Geico’s Gecko have been flogging insurance since 1999. Even Duolingo’s Duo, often considered a new-wave TikTok darling brand mascot, has been around since 2011. These are brand assets built for the long game. Pop-Tarts is attempting to do something similar. Six months before the 2023 Pop-Tarts Bowl, the brand unveiled its new cast of characters, the “Agents of Crazy Good,” as an update to characters from its “Crazy Good” ads of the early ’00s. The Agents were described as “representations of the beloved toaster pastries brought to life, including Frosted Strawberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Hot Fudge Sundae, and a squad of Bites. The ingenious crew come fully frosted and ready to challenge expectations for where the brand can show up next.” Funnily enough, in tying the Agents back to the “Crazy Good” doodle characters from 20 years ago, Pop-Tarts is at least trying to conjure a new history of consistency. (Side note: Bring these ads back!) Beyond Breakfast The original goal of introducing Pop-Tarts as edible mascots, and even sponsoring the college bowl game in the first place, was to expand our purchase intention beyond breakfast and into the rest of the day. To go from breakfast to snack. The brand saw college football as the perfect vehicle to take that message. The edible mascot came about as the brand knew it had to contend with a laundry list of branded College Bowl games, each with their own brand mascot gimmick (Duke’s Mayo dumping mayonnaise on the winning coach, or Kellanova sibling Cheez-It’s mascot Ched-Z officiating a wedding during a game time-out). 100% real love at first bite! Congrats to our newlyweds for tying the knot! #CitrusBowl pic.twitter.com/jhHq1H3nd7 — Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (@CitrusBowl) December 31, 2024 According to Serro, last year’s Pop-Tarts Bowl drove nine times more share of voice than 20 other non-Kellanova Bowl games combined, a 275% increase in social engagements versus 2023, and the highest brand search in more than 15 years on game day. The brand also sold millions more Pop-Tarts in the month following the game than the month before it. The brand could have stuck with the single edible mascot for a few years, then slowly, methodically, year after year, started adding more characters and concepts. In my opinion, this would build more familiarity, anticipation, and, by extension, enthusiasm. But where do we go from here? If it’s 6 edible mascots this year, do we jump to 10 or 12 in 2026? When will the numbers game cease? Maybe it goes full Bud Bowl, and we have two full football squads of Pop-Tarts on the field playing for the right to be enthusiastically toasted and devoured. Glorious. To be clear, I love this idea, and it’s a prime example of a marketer cleverly finding “white space” in a saturated marketing landscape and eventizing something, seemingly out of nothing. In that way, it’s kindred to FanDuel’s “Kick of Destiny” work in the last three Super Bowls. It also turned things up a notch, going from Rob Gronkowski as a single kicker during a live commercial break to Peyton and Eli Manning facing off in a special pregame show. Both 2024 and 2025 attracted about 2 million participants on FanDuel, so the evolution appears to have worked. With Pop-Tarts, the edible mascot barely became a tradition before it was hurriedly super-sized and multiplied. As a result, Pop-Tarts may have just bitten years off the gimmick’s lifespan by so quickly feeding into our culture’s insatiable appetite for newer, bigger, now now now. It’s a reflection of a broader issue in brand culture, where marketers are churning through ideas so quickly that nothing is given the time to become truly iconic. It’s also possible the brand needs to cash in its Bowl hype on a short timeline, given it signed a one-year title sponsorship deal for 2023, then exercised its two-year extension option last year. Serro wouldn’t provide details on whether the brand will extend its Bowl investment beyond this year. “While we can’t share much just yet, let’s just say we love football and the way it brings fans together,” she says. But based on its popularity so far, and if they play their breakfast pastry cards right, the horizon for edible mascots could be incredibly long. They could star in ads, and then dip into real life as pop-culture nomads, showing up at any given extravaganza—state fairs, movie premieres, music festivals, the Super Bowl—until the end of time. Let’s face it, with a yearslong legacy like that, the people would . . . ahem . . . eat it up, and we’d have the Energizer Bunny of deliciously suicidal brand mascots. View the full article

This week, politics, memes, and protest movements kept colliding with the economy, turning everything from Black Friday shopping to stock charts into a referendum on power and attention. Investors who spent the last couple of years riding AI and crypto gains are getting a reminder that gravity is still in charge, as once-screaming-up charts now introduce terms like “death cross” and “profit-taking.” Retailers are heading into the holidays knowing that some shoppers are planning not to spend at all, on purpose. And on the cultural front, a single insult from the president is now ricocheting around social networks, while a local New York election is being framed as a national story about socialism, faith, and economic justice. Here is what actually moved the week in business. Housing’s long plateau: Moody’s maps a decade of flat “real” home prices Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi expects the U.S. housing market to spend the next decade slowly working off the excesses of the pandemic era, with prices rising roughly in line with inflation and no real gains once you adjust for it. After the massive run-up in prices and the mortgage rate shock, he sees existing home sales staying frozen for years as affordability gradually improves. Moody’s projects nominal home prices will climb about 23.5% between December 2025 and December 2035, with modest declines likely in parts of the South and West and more stability in the Northeast and Midwest. Zandi also points to long-term headwinds like restrictive immigration that could limit construction labor, and to higher Treasury yields that may keep mortgage rates closer to 6%. “Quiet, Piggy” turns into a meme war the president cannot control A clip of President Donald The President saying “Quiet, Piggy” to Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey aboard Air Force One went viral and quickly turned into a memetic insult aimed right back at him. Users on Bluesky and X are now quote-posting The President and his allies with the phrase, often pairing it with unflattering photos or AI-generated images of The President as Miss Piggy or yelling at Miss Piggy. The reaction taps into The President’s long record of calling women “pigs,” “dogs,” and “slobs,” and his years of attacking journalists in order to discredit negative coverage. That history makes this latest jab feel especially juvenile and very on brand, fueling frustration that fellow reporters did not push him harder in the moment. XRP sinks as profit-taking and macro fears hit crypto again XRP, the token tied to Ripple’s XRP Ledger, has dropped to around $2.13, more than 26% below where it was three months ago and well off its July peak of $3.65. The decline comes even after the launch of three XRP exchange-traded funds, including Canary Capital’s XRPC, which has already fallen about 11% as large holders reportedly sold 200 million XRP within two days. Analysts say the pullback is part of a broader risk-off mood as investors worry about a possible tech and AI bubble, economic uncertainty, and the odds of future rate cuts. Bitcoin is under similar pressure, recently flashing a “death cross” that has reinforced bearish sentiment and wiped out its gains for 2025. Epstein’s “Bubba” email becomes NSFW merch and a headache for platforms The release of more than 23,000 pages of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate documents has spawned a wave of NSFW The President-and-Clinton-themed merchandise on Etsy and Amazon. Sellers are zeroing in on a 2018 email in which Epstein’s brother jokes about “photos of The President blowing Bubba,” a line that has sparked online speculation about the two former presidents, even as both deny any wrongdoing and the documents do not explicitly implicate them. The email has become fodder for T-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, and other items built around suggestive slogans and winks at “Big, Beautiful Bill.” A few designers have pushed into more creative or graphic territory, including artwork styled after the film Brokeback Mountain. Netflix’s 10-for-1 stock split shocks casual chart watchers, not investors Netflix shares appear to have fallen more than 90% on some charts, dropping from over $1,100 to around $111. But the move comes from a 10-for-1 stock split rather than an actual collapse in value. For existing shareholders, nothing fundamental has changed, since each old share was simply divided into 10, and holders received nine additional shares for every one they already owned. Netflix says the goal is to make shares more accessible to employees in stock purchase and option programs, where a four-digit price can be a psychological and financial barrier. Lower nominal prices can also make the stock more approachable to smaller retail investors who balk at four-figure tickets. Holiday boycotts aim to turn non-spending into a political weapon Two overlapping campaigns, “Mass Blackout” and “We Ain’t Buying It,” are calling on Americans to sit out Black Friday and the surrounding shopping days to protest The President-era policies and corporate alignment with them. The Mass Blackout boycott urges people to stop shopping, streaming, and even working, if they can, from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the day after Cyber Monday—while still supporting small, local businesses with cash. The We Ain’t Buying It boycott focuses on Target, Home Depot, and Amazon, citing everything from DEI rollbacks to alleged cooperation with ICE and tax cut lobbying. Organizers frame the actions as economic noncooperation in an economy where the wealth gap keeps widening and the system “works” for the wealthy by design. Bitcoin’s “death cross” deepens anxiety, makes token roughly flat for 2025 Bitcoin has fallen from October highs above $124,000 to around $94,000, giving back its year-to-date gains and putting the token firmly in bear market territory. The slide has been accompanied by a classic technical warning sign known as a “death cross,” when short-term moving averages drop below longer-term ones on a chart. That pattern has added to fears that the current downturn could deepen, even as some analysts note that previous death crosses have lined up with local bottoms rather than full-scale collapses. Other cryptocurrencies are following suit, with a major market index down in line with Bitcoin over the past week. The broader backdrop is a mix of profit-taking by long-term holders, institutional outflows, and macro worries that make speculative assets a tougher sell. Zohran Mamdani becomes conservative media’s new favorite villain New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has not taken office yet, but conservative media has already cast him as its latest symbol of everything wrong with the left. Commentators on Fox News, Newsmax, and elsewhere have called him a communist, a Marxist, and a “jihadist sympathizer,” often blurring the line between socialism and communism while attacking his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America and his Muslim faith. The New York Post ran a string of attention-grabbing covers about him ahead of the election and is now monetizing those images as merch, further cementing his role as a polarizing figure. Right-leaning outlets describe Mamdani’s agenda as fundamentally at odds with American values, while progressive watchdogs say he is being used much like Nancy Pelosi or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were before him, as a stand-in for the entire Democratic Party. Verizon cuts 13,000 jobs to “reorient” around customers Verizon is laying off more than 13,000 employees, roughly 20 percent of its non-union management workforce, as part of a major push to streamline operations and free up money to invest in customer experience. In a memo to staff, new CEO Dan Schulman said the company’s cost structure has become a drag, creating friction that slows Verizon down and frustrates customers. The carrier reported about $33.8 billion in third-quarter revenue and continued growth in prepaid wireless subscribers, but it is losing higher-value postpaid lines and facing intense competition from AT&T, T-Mobile, and others. Alongside the layoffs, Verizon plans to sharply reduce outsourced labor and has created a $20 million Reskilling and Career Transition Fund to support affected workers. Tech’s roller-coaster week leaves investors dizzy Thursday turned into a full roller coaster for tech investors. Nvidia’s blowout earnings pushed its stock up nearly 5% early in the day and briefly lifted the entire Magnificent Seven, thanks to better-than-expected revenue, strong profit, and a bullish fourth-quarter forecast. But fears of an AI bubble and fading confidence in a December Fed rate cut quickly erased those gains, sending the major tech names and the Nasdaq composite into sharp intraday swings. By Friday morning, rate-cut odds had risen again, and several of the big players were inching back into positive territory, even as Nvidia slipped. View the full article

Consumers chose better value and superior performance over slim new design of Air modelView the full article

Sometimes, a simple summary is all you need. Me? I’m a man of many words. (Understatement of the century, I know.) I appreciate interesting writing, where language matters and a person’s personality shines through in the prose. But let’s be real: 99% of the articles you encounter on this musty ol’ web of ours aren’t exactly awe-inspiring. They’re a means to an end. The same is true for most videos, too. And in any such scenario, you aren’t in it for the pleasure of reading or viewing and being entertained. You just want to get the gist of what’s happening without wasting any time wading your way through unimaginative drivel. The next time you find yourself facing that predicament, today’s Cool Tools discovery will be exactly the advantage you never knew you needed. This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures! Simple summaries, served up swiftly So, first things first: In this day and age, there’s no shortage of supposedly “smart” AI-powered systems offering to summarize stuff for you. Such systems are built into almost every browser at this point, not to mention most AI chatbots and an awful lot of regular ol’ apps as well. ➜ But a free stand-alone service called Kagi Summarize​ is a cut above the rest in some pretty significant ways, both practical and philosophical. ⌚ And you’ll need less than a minute to get it going. ✅ Choose your own adventure: On any device, you can simply head over to ​the Kagi Summarize website​—and then paste any article or YouTube link (or even a block of plain text!) into the box on that page. Note that you will need to sign in with an email address or a Google, Microsoft, Apple, or GitHub account in order to use this web version—but it’s completely free once you do, and the service never spams you or sells your info. Better yet: On a phone or tablet, you can install the free Kagi Summarize Android app​ or ​Kagi Summarize iOS app​—and then save yourself a step by sharing any article or video there directly from another app, using the standard system-level sharing option. This is also free and doesn’t require any kind of sign-in or account to use. Either way you go, you’ll end up with a quick ’n’ simple bulleted breakdown of your item’s key points for easy skimming. ☝️ And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. On the desktop front, you can switch between that default “Key Moments” view and a more narrative “Summary” option, and you can use a “Discuss Further” command to interactively ask specific questions about the material and get instant answers. And on mobile, you can move between those same setups along with a super-simplified “Explain Like I’m 5” approach—and you can change the length of your summaries to get more or less detail. Kagi Summarize’s mobile version also has some interesting options for customizing the appearance of your summaries to make ’em easier on the eyes, in whatever style you prefer. 💡 So why is this better than other summarizing tools, you might be wondering? I’d point to three specific reasons: It works with anything, anywhere—without tethering you down to one specific browser or program you have to use to access it. It offers some genuinely nice extras in the way of customization and control, which makes the summaries much more useful in return—since you can experience ’em in whatever form, length, and visual appearance you find most appealing. And it’s focused fiercely on privacy. The underlying organization, if you aren’t familiar, is a Google search alternative​ that’s all about (a) quality of experience and (b) avoiding any collection of any personal info. Kagi Summarize follows that same philosophy and promises to keep all your activity anonymous. The mobile apps don’t even ask for a single permission—which is pretty darn rare in this day and age. 🧠 To summarize: It’s useful, it’s customizable, it’s free, and it doesn’t do anything with your data. If you think you’ll ever find a scenario where it’d be helpful to have something summarized, this one is well worth keeping around. Kagi Summarize is available on the web​ as well as in a more fully featured Android app​ and ​iOS app​, for mobile use. It’s completely free to use. And its creator is ​adamant about the fact​ that it doesn’t collect or share any significant data. The desktop site requires you to sign in, while the mobile apps don’t—but neither requires any privacy compromises. Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletter—starting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app that’ll tune up your days in truly delightful ways. View the full article

Jon Armstrong never intended to create the booming live-commerce platform Stacked Golf. All he wanted was to join the local golf club, but his wife, Ashley, gave him an ultimatum: Yes, he could join, but only if he could find a way to pay for it himself. His solution? Start a YouTube channel reviewing golf balls. The problem was that he didn’t even have the money to buy balls to review, so he scoured the woods at his Daytona Beach golf club for lost balls and started making videos comparing the Titleist Pro V1 balls he plays to whatever he found in the rough. Zero budget. Zero business plan. Just a guy with a phone and a hunch that people might search for golf ball reviews. That was in 2019. Within two months, his channel garnered enough traffic to monetize. Within six months, it became the Armstrong’s full-time income. Today, the Stacked Golf YouTube channel has 325,000 subscribers, and earlier this year, the Armstrongs launched a multi-seller marketplace by the same name, which generates $150,000 in weekly sales and is approaching $3 million in total sales after just six months. With a community of 26,000 members and more than 1,000 active sellers, the Armstrongs have accidentally built a case study for the booming live shopping economy—a market projected to explode from $128 billion in 2024 to $2.5 trillion by 2033. “We got super lucky,” Armstrong says. “With everything we were doing—filming the golf ball reviews and thrifting golf clubs—we were basically filming ourselves making money.” American Pickers, but for golf The channel’s real trajectory shift came when Armstrong’s wife, Ashley, added her passion and expertise in thrifting to the equation. What emerged, by their own description, was “American Pickers, but for golf clubs,” which entails them driving for hours through Central Florida hoping to find a $400 putter sitting in a Goodwill for $3. The polished videos hide an unglamorous reality. “For every one thrift store we show you in a video, we’ve probably been to like 15,” Armstrong admits. “There were a lot of days where we wore the same clothes back to back to try and figure out how to fill out one 10-minute video.” They occasionally sold items on eBay and other platforms, but tired quickly of the tedious product-by-product selling process and fees that ate into profits. Mostly, they hoarded inventory, waiting for a better solution. Meanwhile, over the next three years, their community grew organically. “We really wanted to create a platform where we make buying golf clubs online as exciting as it is in our videos,” Armstrong explains. “It’s kind of a soulless transaction when you’re buying from eBay. The thrill of the hunt didn’t really exist.” A million-dollar tech shortcut The technical breakthrough came through—of all things—a golf game. Armstrong played a round with Commonwealth Picker, another YouTuber who had built a marketplace on District, a platform that provides the infrastructure for custom shopping platforms with livestreaming and multi-seller marketplaces. Armstrong, who previously ran an app development company, recognized the value of District immediately. “The technology stack that they give you is millions of dollars,” he says. “So it was kind of a no-brainer. They handle support, they handle the whole tech side, and all we have to do is focus on growing the user base and selling as much as possible.” Founded in 2022 by three former Snapchat product builders (and backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Kindred Ventures, and Greylock Partners), the Los Angeles–based company has 12 employees, a lean operation compared to competitor and live-shopping giant Whatnot. The Armstrongs’ timing couldn’t have been better. While Whatnot has reached an $11.5 billion valuation, proving massive investor appetite for the category, District is democratizing access. Where Whatnot built a centralized marketplace, District enables creators to build their own branded ecosystems. By using District, Stacked Golf isn’t selling on someone else’s platform, such as eBay or Craigslist: It’s more like they’re building their own golf-focused, mini-eBay right on District. They control their own marketplace, set their own rules, and earn commission fees from their 1,000-plus sellers. Stacked Golf’s Timed auctions Here’s how it works: Sellers schedule livestreams that generally last anywhere from 45 minutes to four hours, or longer. They hold up a product—say, a Nike Method Core putter—give a brief pitch, and start the countdown timer, which is typically 10 seconds. Last person to bid wins. It’s simple, fast-paced, and wildly effective. Stacked Golf also features standard marketplace and buy-it-now listings, as well as seven-day auctions, but 98% of sales come from livestreams, with clubs selling from $5 to several hundred dollars. One seller recently hosted a marathon nine-and-a-half-hour livestream, which generated nearly $20,000 in sales, according to Armstrong. Some of the biggest sellers on Stacked Golf are golf stores, like Play It Again Sports which recently made $17,000 in two hours, more than that seller normally does in a week of non-livestream selling. The format taps into why live commerce conversion rates run up to 10 times higher than conventional e-commerce: urgency, entertainment, and real-time interaction that traditional online shopping lacks. But Armstrong’s secret weapon isn’t the format. It’s curation. Community over commerce Stacked Golf preapproves every seller, verifies product legitimacy, and rejects gambling gimmicks and NSFW content that plague some live-selling competitors. “We really wanted to create an atmosphere where people want to buy and sell on our platform just because it’s the best place to do it,” Armstrong says. The philosophy extends to seller selection. Armstrong prefers passionate collectors over spreadsheet arbitrageurs. “The ones that have the most people in their chats are the ones that know what they’re selling because they like it,” he says, citing sellers who specialize in Nike golf clubs—discontinued since 2016 but beloved by collectors. The strategy is working. Since launching earlier this year, the marketplace grew from zero to 15,000 members in just three months and has since reached 26,000 after six months. Multiple individual sellers have generated more than $150,000 in personal sales on the platform. The business itself now employs three full-time staff and operates from a 2,500-square-foot Ocala, Florida, warehouse, which it has already outgrown. It has also attracted brand partnerships with golf apparel company Pins & Aces and hosts sellers who have relationships with Adidas North America, Titleist, and Mizuno, among others. But Armstrong is cautious about diluting the community with corporate sellers. “We wanted to create a marketplace that we would both want to buy and sell on and not feel ashamed of marketing it,” he says. “As soon as you start getting too corporate in terms of the sellers on there, you kind of kill the vibe.” Right idea, right time In the U.S., the live commerce market accounts for approximately 5% of e-commerce sales—far less than China’s 60%—suggesting an enormous runway for companies like Stacked Golf as American consumers embrace the format. The U.S. market is expected to grow at 37.2% annually through 2033, fueled by platforms like TikTok Shop and stand-alone marketplaces like Whatnot. TikTok Shop—which blends livestream shopping with traditional product listings—hosted over eight million hours of live sessions in the U.S. in 2024. Whatnot, focused on collectibles and resale, recently surpassed $2 billion in annual livestream sales, while Amazon Live and eBay Live are expanding their live commerce offerings. The trend is driven by the urgency and entertainment that Armstrong has built into Stacked Golf’s model. District’s infrastructure democratizes this opportunity. Where building live commerce tech might require millions in investment, creators can now launch sophisticated marketplaces overnight and focus on what, according to Armstrong, matters most: building authentic communities. “It’s still kind of surreal,” he says. “Just thinking about how we started with finding golf balls in the woods, and now we’re here.” The business he built with his wife—”the CEO of everything,” as he calls her—demonstrates something fundamental about modern commerce: Authentic community-building The Presidents traditional business planning. They didn’t start with a pitch deck. They started with a bet, a phone, and a genuine love for the hunt. And that authenticity might be the company’s most valuable asset. “It just grew naturally, which I think people appreciated,” Armstrong says. “Even to this day, it’s kind of clear that it ain’t all about the money.” View the full article

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. John Rogers, the chief data and analytics officer of Cotality (formerly known as CoreLogic), returned to ResiDay this year to give a two-part presentation: first, how risk—insurance, climate, construction cost—is reshaping the housing market, and second, how AI is about to turn property professionals into “superheroes.” In 2011, the firm was predominantly a U.S. mortgage-data company. Today, Cotality is a multicountry, multi-industry analytics platform that supports more than 1 million real estate agents, touches more than 8 out of every 10 U.S. mortgages, and interacts with a similar share of property insurance policies. Across those businesses, Cotality collects data from 22,000 unique sources—from county recorders to satellite imagery to lidar scans on smartphones. “I’m fortunate to look after this 21st-century data and AI manufacturing plant,” Rogers told the audience. He manages a team of about 200 data scientists and meteorologists. Insurance premiums reach a record share of monthly payments Insurance now accounts for 9% of the typical U.S. homeowner’s payment—the highest share on record, according to Cotality. Several states have seen double-digit premium increases in just the past year. Looking ahead, Cotality expects average annual U.S. homeowner insurance premiums to rise another 8% in 2026, followed by an additional 8% increase in 2027. According to Cotality, three forces are putting upward pressure on home insurance. First, there’s rising construction and material costs. Cotality tracks the exact reconstruction cost for every property in the country—“every nail and two-by-four.” During the Pandemic Housing Boom, there was historic overheating in both home prices and material prices, which has led to higher replacement costs. That’s still feeding into higher home insurance premiums. Second, more homes are facing climate-related hazards. Roughly 12% of today’s U.S. housing stock sits in high-risk hazard zones (wildfire, winter storm, hail, and flooding) representing $4.3 trillion in hypothetical reconstruction costs. By 2050, that share rises to 20%, or $7.2 trillion. Cotality models the financial impact of each hazard on every property, giving insurers—and, increasingly, homeowners—risk scores that account for both current and future conditions. Third, there’s migration into high-risk areas. The densification of the U.S. housing stock mirrors the growth of homes in hazard-prone regions. “One in six Americans now lives in a high-wildfire-risk area,” Rogers noted. Florida and Georgia, which experienced rapid population growth, are among the states most exposed. After outlining why home insurance premiums are rising, Rogers turned to how science and data can reduce losses—and premiums. Urban conflagration drove the Los Angeles losses, he said. Despite relatively low wildfire-risk scores, neighborhoods in the Palisades burned because of building-to-building ignition. Cotality is now modeling this “urban conflagration” risk at the individual-property level, giving insurers a clearer view of how fires spread across aging housing stock. Rogers added that rebuilding communities like Palisades for a safer future can help contain premiums. He said that following the 2018 Palisades fire, Cotality helped design a rebuilding blueprint that could reduce wildfire risk by up to 75%, and cut insurance premiums by more than 50%. The blueprint included IBHS-standard hardened homes, redesigned lower-density layouts with fire breaks, and risk-mitigation strategies around community perimeters. Finally, Rogers said that premiums can be lowered through home-level resilience assessments. Cotality worked with the California Department of Insurance to evaluate every home using aerial imagery and AI. Attributes such as roof materials, closed eaves, setbacks, and nonflammable defensible space feed into resilience scores that insurers use to cut premiums by 20% or more. These resilience assessments are now being deployed beyond California, he said. One striking example: Seminole County, Georgia—far from coastal hazards—has six times the risk level of hardened-home counties in Florida, underscoring the power of building codes. View the full article

How can you tell if someone is a great leader? They always want to know more. They’re interested in mastery of a subject or skill. They ask great questions. And, as they find out more, they sometimes change their mind. They’re a “learner.” But these days, most CEOs and other leaders take the opposite approach. They think of themselves as “knowers.” They appear to have all the answers. That’s bad for them, their direct reports, and the organizations they lead. That insight comes from researcher and author Brené Brown and Wharton professor and author Adam Grant. The two behavior experts had an open-ended discussion about the nature of courageous leadership during a recent episode of Grant’s ReThinking podcast. Being a learner seems to have fallen out of favor in recent years, Brown observed. “That’s not going to serve us right now,” she said. “When I talk to senior leaders all over the world, they’re saying, ‘Boy, it’s really problematic when people come in and they act like they know everything. What I’m looking for are candidates who have exquisite questions and are really hungry to solve the problem.’ And so I think we have to shift the thinking there a lot.” Great leaders ask great questions Both Brown and Grant believe that asking the right questions is a powerful leadership skill that’s much more important than knowing all the answers. “If I go into an organization, I’ll spend three weeks just asking questions,” Brown said. “I’ll look at a CEO and say, ‘What’s on your heart and mind? If you sit up straight in bed at 4 o’clock in the morning, what are you worried about?’” It’s important to ask these sorts of questions when dealing with your employees, as well as your potential customers, investors, or company leadership, Grant added. “So many people, when they try to motivate someone, they project their own motivations onto them, as opposed to saying, ‘If I want to motivate you, I’ve got to know what you value,’” he said. Once you get answers to your questions, the most important next step is what Brown calls “the playback.” You repeat back the answer you heard and ask if you have it right. It’s vital for two reasons. First, you may not have heard everything correctly. This gives you a chance to correct anything you misunderstood and catch anything you may have left out. Just as important, that question lets you build a connection with the other person. Research shows that in hostage situations, whether people live or die often comes down to two words, she explained. The goal is for the hostage negotiator to repeat back what the hostage taker says, and for the hostage taker to say, “That’s right.” ‘Hardwired to Be Seen and Heard’ If it happens, that simple exchange improves the odds of survival for both the hostages and the hostage taker, Brown said. “As human beings, we are neurobiologically hardwired to be seen and heard.” It’s another reason why asking the right questions, and being willing to listen, learn new information, and even change your mind are some of the most important skills a leader can have. There’s a growing audience of Inc.com readers who receive a daily text from me with a self-care or motivational microchallenge or tip. Often, they text me back and we wind up in a conversation. (Want to know more? It’s easy to try it out and you can easily cancel anytime. Here’s some information about the texts and a special invitation to a two-month free trial.) Many of my subscribers are entrepreneurs or business leaders. They know how important it is to always keep learning throughout their careers. Knowing how to ask the right questions and then repeat back the answers is a good place to start. —Minda Zetlin This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy. View the full article

As Sesame Street’s 56th season gets underway, Elmo, Big Bird, and the Sesame organization are navigating a volatile chapter in the show’s history—marked by government funding cuts, evolving new media habits, and AI’s impact on education. Sherrie Westin, CEO of Sesame Workshop, discusses balancing risk-taking with brand trust, partnering with Netflix, and why emotional well-being and kindness are the skills that matter most in today’s world. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. Sesame Street’s new season appears on Netflix on the same day as it goes live on PBS Kids. Last year at this time you were on HBO or Max or whatever they were calling it at that point. Right. At that time, yes. HBO dropped the show. Netflix came in. It’s a head-spinning situation. Was this all by design on your end? Well, listen, I mean it all worked out really well. . . . We announced it as a public-private partnership between Netflix and PBS because it was so important that we not only got the incredible reach that Netflix offers, but also that we were still available for all children across the U.S. on PBS. And it’s fantastic that it’s the same time, day, and date, but that part was by design, for sure. And listen, we had a long partnership with HBO. We still have a library deal so that there are still some seasons on HBO Max, but HBO Max was clear that children’s was not their priority. So we don’t take it personally, and we still have a great relationship, but Netflix is such a great place for us to be. As of today, we are reaching children in 190 countries. That’s 330 million households in over 30 languages, and it’s the first time in 56 years that we’re reaching this many children all over the world. So that is something to celebrate. And so even though Netflix, as I understand this, maybe paying you a little less than that HBO deal. Yes. It’s a good trade-off because your reach is so much broader? Well, listen, most people don’t understand that we’re a nonprofit mission-driven organization, so while we desperately need the funding, at the same time the most important thing is our reach because we have to reach to teach. Did you consider moving everything to Netflix? I mean, I imagine you might get a more lucrative deal from Netflix if it was exclusive and the financing being what it is. No . . . Netflix was great. They understood how important it was for us to be on PBS, to reach all children across the country, whether or not they can afford a streaming platform. So that’s just part of our mission and our DNA. You mentioned your long relationship with PBS. It’s been a wild year, this wave of government funding cuts. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS, you had to lay off 20% of your staff. How hard has it become this year? I don’t ever remember a more difficult, more challenging year than this past year. There were some really difficult decisions and periods. No one ever wants to have to lay off 20% of their staff. That’s one of the hardest things. Any organization, whether it’s for-profit or nonprofit. And again, a lot of organizations have had to deal with downsizing, or rightsizing, if you will. But it has been a really challenging year. I’ve talked to someone about this, how, in some ways, public media has just become media because the support from the public sector isn’t quite there anymore. At the same time, there was that Congressional hearing back in the spring with PBS with this title, like, “Anti-American Airwaves.” I mean, I’m curious how you address that mood, that climate, with your team when your partner is being, I don’t know, politicized in that way? (Safian is referring to the House subcommittee on government efficiency hearing in March titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable,” chaired by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.) The hardest thing is there is such value in public broadcasting, and we find it so painful to have lost the CPB. I think the biggest tragedy is to see some children no longer have access to public broadcasting or the quality early education that PBS has always brought, of course including Sesame Street. You don’t feel like any of this has hampered Sesame Street’s own brand by its relationship with these [Congressional hearings]? No. I think, if anything, that it’s clear that the need for Sesame is greater than ever. And it’s true that we are part and parcel public broadcasting. So if you’re attacking PBS, you’re attacking Sesame Street. It’s true. But at the same time, I think that if there’s one silver lining to some of the negative press we’ve had throughout the year, it’s that so many people have stepped up to say, “We love Sesame.” We’ve actually gotten a wonderful outpouring of support from new donors and from people who just want to see Sesame Street remain. Think about what we teach. Our mission is to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. And that may sound like a clever tagline, but it’s not. It’s a whole child curriculum that’s baked into everything we do. Smarter: ABCs and 123s, the academic basics. Stronger: resilience, health. Kinder: empathy, understanding. . . . Our whole new season is about building community. It’s about kindness. If you use the vernacular of child development, it would be called a compassionate mindset. And that means helping children see themselves and others with kindness, with understanding, with non-judgment. So quite frankly, I think we are rising to meet the needs of the day. I mean, Sesame’s never been shy about addressing tough topics, from diversity in the early days, the first HIV positive puppet, to Big Bird getting vaccinated during COVID. But things have become so polarized now, especially in the U.S. What kind of conversations do you have about where you can and can’t go and how you decide? Well, we are a nonpartisan organization, but you are correct that there are an awful lot of issues today that one would never have thought of as being political that are political. And while we would never weigh in on very specific partisan politics, we have to stay true to our values. And are some things more controversial? Yes. But if you look at what we all have in common, it’s so interesting because we just did a road tour through the summer and the fall to visit children and families all across the country. But during this road trip, in all these various states, we had a couple of researchers on the ground. And after the events, with everything from state fairs to Minor League Baseball, farm corn mazes, we would have staff saying, “Hello, I’m with Sesame Street. I’m asking parents of young children, would you be willing to talk to us a little bit about your children, about Sesame Street, about who do you trust most? What do you want for your children?” And one of the things I just love about this is regardless of where we were, there was such a clear commonality. What do parents want for their children? They want them to be safe, healthy, and they want them to be kind and get along with others. I mean, that was so consistent. It came up again and again. To me, it’s hopeful and reassuring because when it does feel more divided than ever, you do realize that the one thing that unifies us is hope for our children and what we want for our children. And that’s where, I think, Sesame can play a powerful role. There has been this decline in trust across everything. Absolutely. Media, public officials, business. Sesame remains still pretty well trusted. We are still, if you do brand surveys, we are the No. 1 trusted brand in children’s properties. And that’s something we really cherish. I mean that’s very important to us. Everything we do is based on research. We are always listening to parents and experts. We have a whole team of child development experts, but any project we do, we’re also bringing in advisers and learning from the community. We did an incredible amount of work around parental addiction because of the opioid crisis, working with partners on the ground to distribute those resources. Our emotional well-being work, again, we partner with organizations that are serving children and families, and often it’s the only content you’ll have that looks at those tough issues through the lens of a young child. And that’s something, again, that I think sets Sesame apart. View the full article

Last week, the Financial Times reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook may step down next year. This news seemed to have little impact on Apple’s stock price, but it certainly sparked conversations among Apple fans and armchair tech pundits. Some people have long criticized Cook as a bean counter and “ops guy,” believing he was not the right person to helm the 21st century’s leading consumer technology company, especially one previously guided by a product visionary like Steve Jobs. Many of these same people are now hoping that Apple’s next CEO will be Apple’s current senior vice president of hardware engineering, John Ternus. They see Ternus as a “product guy” like Jobs. Or, probably more accurately, they see Ternus as a “product guy” unlike Cook. But I think that this does Cook a disservice. And for the good of the company, I hope whoever ends up taking the reins is as much like Cook as they are like Jobs. Because while Steve Jobs may have been a visionary, Tim Cook pulled off the impossible. Tim Cook, the product guy Let me first address the false idea that Cook isn’t a product guy. Just look at the groundbreaking new products—hardware, software, and services—Apple has released under Cook’s leadership since 2011. In 2014, Apple released Apple Pay, which brought contactless mobile payments to the masses for the first time. A year later, in 2015, the company redefined the smartwatch with the Apple Watch. Also in 2015, Apple officially became a streaming services company, with the launch of Apple Music, giving the world its first competent alternative to Spotify. The launch of the AirPods in 2016 upended the headphone industry and changed the way we listen to audio. In 2017, the iPhone X eliminated the iPhone’s dated Home button in favor of an all-screen design and Face ID—a consumer biometric authentication system that is still unmatched to this day. From 2019 to 2020, Apple expanded its services footprint with the launch of Apple Card, Apple TV, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, and Apple News+. That same year, Apple took its biggest risk in decades by switching its Macs from Intel chips to Apple Silicon—a move that has reinvigorated Mac sales and enabled stunning new Mac designs. And most recently, in 2024, Cook swung for the fences with the Apple Vision Pro, a product that was personally important to him. So far, that product hasn’t performed well commercially, but it has more innovation packed inside it than the iPod or iPhone did when Jobs shepherded those devices to the masses. It also exemplifies that Cook, like Jobs, is not afraid of trying new things. Sure, Cook isn’t an engineer, and he didn’t personally invent these products. But Jobs didn’t hunch over a workbench with a soldering iron to assemble the first prototype of an MP3 player with a clickwheel, or a phone with a touchscreen. Instead, both men oversaw the organization—and, more importantly, trusted its visionary engineers and designers—in order to bring these gadgets, which so many of us couldn’t imagine living without today, to market. At the time of Jobs’ passing, Apple had only four main products: the Mac, the iPod, the iPad, and the iPhone. Under Cook’s leadership, Apple has added the AirPods, Apple Watch, iPad Pro, and Apple Vision Pro to that lineup, while constantly improving the iPhone and Mac experience in significant ways. I’m not sure how a CEO who shepherded all that can’t be considered a “product guy.” Cook had the hardest act in business history But shepherding so many beloved products during his time as CEO isn’t why I say Tim Cook has done the impossible. I say this precisely because he had to undertake the hardest act in business history: following in the footsteps of Steve Jobs. And Cook succeeded wildly. It would have been easy to fumble the reins at Apple after Jobs’ passing, especially considering that for many people, including Apple’s employees, Jobs was Apple. It’s not difficult to imagine that morale was at an all-time low and uncertainty at an all-time high within the company after Jobs’ untimely death. There are plenty of leaders who would have been unable to pull together an organization of Apple’s size and successfully steer it down the path of not just continuing, but outpacing Jobs’ legacy. It’s easy to imagine that if Jobs could strap the latest Apple Watch to his wrist, put the latest AirPods in his ears, and look through the display of the Apple Vision Pro, he would say “Wow!” and be proud that the company he built is still creating industry-defining products. Of course, if you need more proof of Cook’s success in steering Apple, just look at the company’s financials. In 2010, Apple had an annual revenue of around $65 billion. By the end of fiscal 2025, the figure exceeded $416 billion. And Apple’s stock price has reflected the company’s growth under Cook. Apple recently reached a valuation of $4 trillion. It was valued at just around $350 billion when Jobs passed. This success is all the more astonishing considering that Cook has faced challenges Jobs likely never even would have conceived. Technology’s role in society, government, and politics has changed significantly over the past decade, and today’s tech giant CEOs need to be not only chiefs of their companies but also quasi-diplomats as they interact more regularly with governments and their leaders. The geopolitical changes of the last decade have necessitated this, and it’s not something everyone could pull off—perhaps including Jobs, who was known for his anger and arrogance. But over the last decade, Cook has carefully threaded the needle in dealing with increasingly challenging individuals and landscapes. As Tesla’s recent $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk shows, many people believe that there are companies with futures inextricably linked to their CEOs’ continued involvement. Many people thought that about Apple in the early 2000s, too. Unfortunately, Apple didn’t get the choice to keep Jobs around. It needed to find a replacement. Fortunately for the company, that replacement was Tim Cook. Now comes the second hardest act in business history As successful as Cook’s reign at Apple has been, he won’t be leading the company forever. And, if the FT’s report is correct, Cook could step down in 2026. I’ve cautioned before that it’s dangerous to deify tech CEOs—and that goes for Cook, as well. Like Jobs, Cook has made choices that haven’t always panned out well for Apple. But Cook has proved he can steer the company through its most tumultuous times—and take Apple farther than it’s ever gone before. Those are big shoes to fill. Whether or not John Ternus will indeed be the one stepping into them is uncertain. The company has other leadership options available. Yet one thing is certain: whoever ultimately becomes Apple’s new CEO will have to pull off the second hardest act in business history: following in Tim Cook’s footsteps. View the full article

Camps are finally emerging in the big fight over whether and how to regulate AI. President Donald The President earlier this week declared that he would block local officials who try to regulate the technology; according to a draft executive order leaked on Wednesday, the administration will punish states that try. State lawmakers and members of Congress—including Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—are now pushing back. This has been a long time coming. Members of Congress have put out myriad proposals for regulating artificial intelligence, but no significant legislative package has come through. The Biden administration issued a major executive order on the technology, but the The President administration has spent significant capital attacking it, ultimately rescinding much of the measure. “The federal government has not taken even the minimal actions despite quite broad bipartisan support, for example, about managing the risks and harms to kids. If there’s one thing we can all agree on, that’s it,” Arati Prabhakar, former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) during the Obama administration and head of the Office of Technology and Science Policy during the Biden administration, tells Fast Company. “To say that the states shouldn’t do anything because the federal government should do it—and then yet to oppose every action at the federal level—just makes no sense whatsoever.” Fast Company senior writer Rebeccah Heilweil spoke with Prabhakar—who has also filed a major brief defending Congress’s ability to support science research amid federal funding squeezes—about where we stand with AI regulation today, and what the technology’s continuing rise could mean for the future of American democracy, governance, and well-being. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. The administration has made clear that it doesn’t think there should be state-level AI regulation, and is continuing to route this toward the federal government to regulate. That’s obviously in the interest of some AI companies. What do you think about that? States have been very active. Every state has considered, often, multiple bills. Yet, when you look in aggregate, most of what’s been enacted are transparency measures. That’s a start, but it’s a pretty small start. I think we’re very far from wrangling this technology and putting it on the right course. Pretending that the federal government is going to achieve that without the states is ludicrous. The The President administration rescinded the big Biden executive order on AI. What’s been the impact of that? (Editor’s note: The Biden executive order on AI, which was signed in October 2023, gave federal agencies a range of new responsibilities related to the tech, as well as guidance on how to use it.) The actions that this administration has taken on many fronts are deeply concerning. They’ve put the country into a national crisis. The AI front is one in which it hasn’t been as dramatic. It’s positioned as this big, dramatic shift, but a lot of the implementation of the executive order under President Biden had already happened. I’ve even seen cases where they’re taking credit for things that departments and agencies were doing better because of their good use of AI. The bigger issue really is that this administration is not stepping up to the two things we need to be doing as a country to get AI fully on the right track. The market is doing all the experimentation to figure out where the business productivity applications are, but there are two public roles that aren’t really being addressed right now in this administration. One is managing risks and harms, and the other is just actively going after AI for public purposes. That’s where we are falling short. In a time when the most powerful technology of our time is just surging, this government is not stepping up. How concerned are you about people developing highly psychological—even highly romantic or even sexual—relationships with chatbots? To me, it’s part of this distortion of reality that started in the social media era—which, by the way, was AI as well, right? It was AI behind the scenes that determined what was being fed to you. Now it’s being exacerbated by AI that’s right in your face with chatbots or image generators. I think it’s very concerning. It’s a whole spectrum—from the polarization that has been driven by mis- and disinformation, all the way to these parasocial relationships. There have been some really tragic cases, even suicides that were the result of a dialogue that sent someone who was in a really dangerous, fragile state to a terrible end. AI evokes conversations about cognitive offloading. We often cite the calculator, where, yeah, we’re not as good as doing math in our heads. But in general, automating calculating has been a net good for our overall intelligence. But a lot of people are freaked out by the prospect of outsourcing thinking to these platforms. I think about the calculator example a lot. There’s a difference between relying on a calculator to do calculations—which all of us do—and not understanding what a fraction means. You need to understand what a fraction means to just deal with the world. I think that’s the sorting out that needs to happen with large language models. I saw Gallup did some polling where they included talking to students about their attitudes about AI. I was really surprised to find out how anxious high schoolers, for example, are about AI. Part of their anxiety is a lack of clarity about when they can and can’t use it in school. But part of their anxiety is also their concern about their critical thinking skills. I love the fact that they had good enough critical thinking skills to be worried about that. Is there a risk that focusing too much on the AI race with China is going to prevent us from coming up with better regulations for the technology domestically in the United States? That argument is being used to avoid regulation. But I think we need to be really clear that what’s happening right now is that every country around the world is racing to use AI as a tool to build a future that reflects their values. I do not want to live in a future defined by this Chinese authoritarian government’s values. If you look at their human rights abuses, the way they have used AI to create a deep surveillance state . . . if you look at their military aggression and the potential for using AI in aggressive ways in the military context . . . that’s not a world that I think most people want to live in. It’s certainly not one that reflects long-held American values. Of course, it’s very concerning that we see some of those tactics being adopted here by our Department of Homeland Security. That’s a huge red flag about what’s happening with this authoritarian push in our government. But, again, the core question is: How do we bring AI to life to serve people and to build the kind of future that reflects the values we have—centered on people and their creativity and our ability to chart a course for ourselves, rather than letting that be driven by a king or a dictator? That’s what I want to be using AI for. It strikes me that the Biden administration and the The President administration both at least said they really care about government use of artificial intelligence. But at the same time, you’re saying there are concerns about that being used by the federal government to inch more toward authoritarian approaches. It’s all about how you use it. In the Biden administration, the Department of Homeland Security rolled up its sleeves and did the work, for example, to use facial recognition at TSA PreCheck or for Global Entry. These are places where there’s a very narrowly defined function, and you’re comparing a fresh camera image with a database that you have a legitimate reason to have. And if you’ve gone through TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, you can see how that has sped up and made those processes much better by using technology appropriately and respectfully. This is in stark contrast to the horror stories of police forces around the country who were using off-the-shelf facial recognition technology that purported to make matches from grainy video, for example, in a convenience store that had been held up. Really poor, completely inappropriate use of flawed facial recognition technology led to wrongful arrests of Black men—in one case for a crime committed in a state that this man had never stepped foot in. That’s completely unacceptable. So the difference between using these technologies wisely and appropriately and with respect for our core values, and then just using it flagrantly without really thinking through what it means for the society that we want to live in—that’s all the difference in the world. I’m wondering what you make of the rise of firms like Anduril and Palantir that are really interested in selling AI and automated platforms for use on the battlefield and for defense purposes. How should we be thinking about that? I want to broaden your question to say it’s not just on a battlefield. These are technologies that are being deployed against Americans here at home. So it’s an incredibly important question. And the core issues are: Do we have democratic control over how the technology is used? These technologies, again, if misused, can violate Americans’ privacy in dangerous and horrific ways. We’re seeing that right now with some of the things that are happening. And that’s just unacceptable. And the companies tend to take the position of “I’m just providing the technology.” But the implementations that they are doing are contributing to this really dangerous misuse. That’s one example of a loss of democratic control over these very powerful new capabilities. We hear a lot about the AI race. I think about the space race. There was the race to get someone into space. Then there was the race to get someone into orbit. And then there was the race to get someone to the moon. And now it’s to have people live on the moon. When will the AI race be over? When we say we need to be first in the AI race, I’m wondering: First to what? That is the whole ball game—first to what? What I keep thinking about, and what I really think we have to get focused on, is what AI can do for the things that fundamentally change people’s lives. We ran a conference called “AI Aspirations” in 2024, when I was still at the White House, and we highlighted seven different huge ambitions for AI. They ranged from closing educational gaps for our kids to getting better drugs faster, to better weather forecasts, to new materials for the advanced generations of semiconductor technology, to changing transportation infrastructure, to making it much more safe. Right now, the conversation about AI is really just about LLMs and maybe image generators. But what we’re talking about is the more general power of training AI models on very different kinds of data. We live in such a data-rich world, so it’s not just language. It’s sensor data, scientific data, it’s administrative data, financial data. It’s already every bit of data you generate when you’re clicking or navigating around on the web. The other key point to me is that it won’t simply happen by companies commercializing products. There’s deep research that’s required. There are datasets that are required to build the weather models or the transportation models that we need. Those are public responsibilities. Ultimately, we need regulatory advances so that we don’t just invent things faster, but our regulatory process can sort out what is safe and effective—for example, for drugs. We’re at a point where this powerful technology is breaking loose. There’s no more important time for our federal government to be stepping up. And instead, it’s pulling back from so many other things that will determine who really succeeds at AI. View the full article

Tie-up would create one of the most powerful right-leaning media groups in BritainView the full article

Guidelines issued to state-controlled media said Russia’s president should not be personally linked to VAT riseView the full article

The next election may be fought as much on how safe people feel as on the economyView the full article

As contentious claims over rising diagnoses get a presidential platform, Simon Baron-Cohen explains where talk of an ‘epidemic’ goes wrong — and why we need more recognition that autism comes in different forms View the full article

Two increasingly different countries are contesting the AshesView the full article