Are you poised to transform how you craft marketing eBooks? Step into the future where AI is more than just a trendy term; it’s a revolutionary force in content creation. Picture a realm where producing insightful, compelling, and customized marketing eBooks becomes seamless and straightforward.

For both experienced marketers aiming to expand their content reach and small business owners desiring significant impact, the capabilities of AI to create captivating eBooks that engage and persuade represents a thrilling advancement. Let’s explore how AI is reshaping the eBook creation process, making what was once a labor-intensive endeavor into a streamlined and innovative task.

1. Tailored Content with Artificial Intelligence

A standout feature of AI in eBook production is its proficiency in customizing content. Envision an eBook that fine-tunes its case studies, examples, and even language to meet the specific needs of different industries, interests, or locations. Through analyzing extensive data, AI algorithms can pinpoint trends and preferences, crafting eBook content that goes beyond generic advice to provide targeted insights that directly address the reader’s specific challenges and needs.

2. Efficiency and Expandability

In today’s rapid digital marketing environment, the capacity to quickly generate high-caliber content is invaluable. AI significantly reduces the time required to go from eBook idea to online book printing, without sacrificing quality. It ensures uniformity in style, tone, and branding throughout the eBook, preserving a professional and consistent narrative.

3. Boosting Creativity and Fresh Ideas

Contrary to inhibiting creative thought, Artificial Intelligence expands the horizon for what can be achieved in eBook content. By sifting through successful content available online, AI can unearth innovative ideas, structures, and visual elements that might elude human creators. This leads to not only informative but also visually appealing and engaging eBooks that help your brand stand out. All of this ultimately leads to more leads and greater revenue.

4. Leveraging Data for Content Optimization

The power of artificial intelligence to sift through and analyze data informs the eBook creation process, allowing for real-time adjustments based on what content resonates with readers. This approach, rooted in actual data about reader preferences and engagement, ensures the eBook aligns closely with audience interests. Moreover, this also guarantees relatability and a modern touch as and when required.

5. Blending AI with Human Insight

It’s crucial to recognize that AI can enhance the eBook creation process but cannot replace the invaluable human element. The blend of artificial intelligence capabilities and human creativity, empathy, and strategic insight ensures that the content not only connects but also resonates on a deeper emotional level with readers. The synergy between human creativity and AI’s efficiency is where the true power lies in creating impactful marketing eBooks for true business success.

It’s evident that AI is set to not only streamline but thoroughly transform the creation of marketing eBooks. Utilizing artificial intelligence allows marketers and businesses to produce content quicker while making sure it is more personalized, and impactful, marking a new era in eBook creation. The future of crafting eBooks is here, powered by the innovative capabilities of AI, opening up new possibilities for content creation that were once just imagined.

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While AI has been around for some time, it’s only recently that workers in tech jobs started raising concerns about the negative impacts of job augmentation. Most technology fields implemented AI in an attempt to streamline processes and boost accuracy. All this happens with minimum human interference.

Typically, the sheer power of modern computer systems facilitates complex processes previously reserved for human professionals. As AI technology gets better, most tech jobs are likely to be dominated by AI.

Tech Jobs That AI Will Take Over

Here are a few tech jobs that are going to be affected by AI the most:

1. Coding and Development

Coding and programming skills are in high demand, but advanced AI tools will likely dominate these careers in the future. Most tech jobs like data science, software development, programming, and web development are amenable to AI. This means technology can replace some or most of the processes involved in the job.

Some AI tools are highly competent in crunching numbers with astounding accuracy. Therefore, AI can complete coding tasks faster than humans, meaning companies need fewer people to accomplish a project.

However, it might not be possible to eliminate the need for human workers in the entire process. Savvy professionals can leverage AI tools to improve their skills and become more valuable. However, if you are a victim of unfair termination, you have the right to legal redress, and a worker’s compensation attorney can help you with the process.

2. Graphic Design and Engineering

While some jobs that demand high creativity might be hard to automate, some tasks in graphic design are easily completed by AI tools. For instance, the Generative Fill feature in Photoshop is a perfect example of how AI can dominate the graphic design sector. This tool lets anyone with minimal editing experience execute photorealistic edits using simple prompts.

Generative design leverages AI to carry out the design process. Typically, the tool assists with the idea generation and then generates numerous possible solutions for the query. Regardless of the nature of the design, AI works within specific parameters to produce feasible designs within a short time.

3. Research Analysis

Artificial intelligence is already a powerful trend in research and data analysis. The technology is essential for streamlining the process and processing new data without external intervention.

Modern computers with advanced processing capabilities help in extrapolation and analysis of complex data sets. On the other hand, research analysts play an integral role in creating the right message and content for marketing purposes. However, AI tools can administer surveys, process the data, and compile necessary information more accurately within a short time.

While automated tools have the advantage of speed, scale, accuracy, and consistency, human experts have unique experiences that are hard to replicate with an algorithm. Researchers who leverage AI tools can ensure efficiency and relevance in their jobs.

4. Health Tech

Health tech is an essential part of the modern healthcare system since it helps develop and deliver advanced solutions. Advanced AI algorithms, trained on sufficient medical data, can surpass human capabilities. The technology solution can eliminate delays and optimize healthcare costs. Some models can accurately diagnose health conditions years before any symptoms manifest. In addition, AI algorithms can determine potential responses to medical interventions and customize some treatments.

Nevertheless, AI adoption in healthcare is sluggish due to regulations and costs. While medical AI holds a huge potential, replacing physicians may not be immediate. Instead, the technology will help streamline service delivery in the medical sector. This means healthcare providers won’t be overworked, and they can focus on delivering better services to patients.

The fundamental revolution will happen after the mass adoption of AI-based diagnostic and treatment solutions. This can eliminate late treatments and embrace early detection and prevention.

Artificial intelligence is a fast-evolving field that is creating a massive revolution in the technology sector. Consequently, the future workforce has no option but to go through a similar transformation to remain relevant in their jobs. While the changes lead to disruptions in conventional jobs, new opportunities will arise.

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Organizations face endless challenges, especially now when everything revolves around tech. These range from sophisticated cyber threats to commonly ignored compliance requirements. However, amidst the rapidly evolving cyber threat realm, organizations must protect sensitive company data for various benefits. Being cyber-secure and having a healthy cybersecurity posture preserves and improves customer trust and business continuity.

How to Protect and Strengthen Your Cybersecurity Posture

One of the key components of a comprehensive organizational cybersecurity posture is attack surface management (ASM). This revolves around looking for and finding ways to stop potential cybersecurity issues. Below are a few ways attack surface management improves your company’s cybersecurity.

1. Risk Reduction

ASM plays a significant role in reducing cybersecurity risks. Attach surface management helps address various vulnerabilities within your organization’s digital footprint. It allows your cybersecurity teams to find and prioritize vulnerabilities. As such, they get ample time to stop these risks at an early stage.

Reducing the attack surface, which is the entry point that attackers exploit, significantly lowers the likelihood of successful attacks. ASM tools continuously scan and assess your organizational digital footprints for vulnerabilities such as weak security controls and software flaws.

Attack surface management also plays an important role in patch management. Identifying digital systems that require updates ensures timely patches and updates are made. This closes the gaps and reduces the likelihood that present vulnerabilities get exploited. Generally, systematically identifying and prioritizing system vulnerabilities and weaknesses in attack surfaces minimizes organizational exposure to cyber threats.

2. Incident Response

Incident response is an important cybersecurity element. Having an incident response strategy reduces the time it takes to respond and bounce back from an infiltration. Attack surface management helps businesses detect and respond to cybersecurity issues effectively by providing in-depth visibility into their vulnerabilities in the following ways:

• Early detection: Cybersecurity professionals conducting ASM continually monitor the organization’s attack surface for signs of compromise or unauthorized access.
• Threat hunting: ASM empowers cybersecurity teams to conduct proactive threat hunting for signs of compromise or malicious activities. ASM tools help organizations identify hidden threats and emerging attack patterns.
• Incident triage and prioritization: Through ASM, organizational incident response teams can triage and prioritize cybersecurity incidents based on potential impact on company data and business operations.

Integrating attack surface management into the incident response process helps organizations adopt a proactive approach to cybersecurity. This allows for a coordinated response to potential and emerging threats.

3. Improved Resilience

Improved resilience is the other key outcome of proficient attack surface management. Better resilience makes it possible for organizations to withstand and recover faster from cybersecurity incidents. Attack surface management involves continuous monitoring of your organization’s digital assets to identify and address weaknesses.

Introducing measures that adapt to arising cybersecurity threats helps organizations remain resilient to cyber threats. ASM also provides a solid base for agile incident response. Security teams can quickly pick up and respond to potential threats. This significantly minimizes the impact of successful attacks on your business operations.

Organizations can effectively improve their resilience against threats by embracing ASM in their cybersecurity strategies. Adopting these proactive measures improves your ability to withstand and recover from an attack.

4. Cost Saving

An effective ASM also has cost-saving benefits to businesses and organizations. For starters, a good ASM helps identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities in your organization’s digital infrastructure. This prevents breaches and incidents that cost your organization in terms of remediation efforts, legal fees, and damaged reputation.

That aside, a proper ASM reduces downtime and disruption. Cybersecurity incidents like DDoS attacks significantly disrupt business operations. This leads to downtime and disrupts productivity. Attack surface management minimizes the occurrence of such incidents. ASM similarly improves operational efficiency. Automating various aspects of threat detection and vulnerability management improves your organization’s operational efficiency.

ASM also saves costs by streamlining compliance efforts. Well drafted attack surface management ensures that organizations remain compliant with various industry regulations and data protection guidelines. Meeting compliance requirements proactively helps businesses avoid non-compliance penalties.

5. Better Visibility

Proper visibility of your digital systems is the backbone of an effective cybersecurity strategy. Attack surface management improves visibility into your organization’s digital assets and vulnerabilities in many ways. ASM solutions like network scanning and asset profiling regularly take an inventory of the organizations’ digital assets and possible attack surfaces.

Attack surface management also provides real-time monitoring of your businesses’ attack surface for potential vulnerabilities. Real-time monitoring makes it possible for your cybersecurity teams to detect suspicious activities in their early stages. Early detection of potential vulnerabilities also promotes risk prioritization.

Cybersecurity teams use ASM tools to gather insights into the potential impact and severity of identified vulnerabilities. This allows them to prioritize mitigation efforts based on the level of risk exposure.

Proper attack surface management is a key foundation of a robust cybersecurity posture. It gives organizations the requisite tools and insights required to strengthen their defense. Managing the attack surface improves the organization’s visibility into potential threats and vulnerabilities.

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Artificial Intelligence is a growing concept in today’s business processes. AI has become essential for businesses around the world. Over the past few years, technology has grown significantly and now affects people’s daily lives in one way or another.

The major place where artificial intelligence is used in business is sales and marketing.

Why Do You Need Sales Automation?

Sales automation has changed the work of sales representatives significantly, allowing them to grow and do very well. Due to technological advances, the sales teams can:

• perform many functions and work steps automatically;
• get rid of the tasks and use the free time and resources to develop many relationships;
• close deals.

Sales automation using AI will spur sales growth, boost efficiency, and lead to better performance.

How to Apply AI to the Best of Sales and Marketing

Let’s look at the use cases for AI that can help maximize your business’s potential.

Identify Potential Deals Using Predictive Vote Scoring

Imagine having a personal assistant who can instantly identify your most promising leads. Artificial intelligence doesn’t just crunch numbers and compile statistics. It reads the behavior and predicts the client’s intentions (whether he or she buys or not).

This is mainly included in the sales manager’s responsibilities. However, now you can trust this work to AI services.

AI can help you determine which potential customers are ready to act and which may need additional advice. While your competitors are processing all the leads, you can focus on those who are truly interested in your product.

Improve Communication Quality Using Customer Data Mining

Artificial intelligence will help you understand customers’ preferences, behaviors, and needs.

The logic is simple: AI collects information about the contact from your CRM and creates an approximate portrait based on the data received. The more information you fill in about the client, the more accurate their profiles will be, down to nuances such as hobbies or marital status.

Such analytics can make your communication with the buyer more focused and help you more accurately identify pain points. This strategy is especially useful when making calls or creating a segment for email campaigns.

Personalize Mailings

Regarding e-mail and the AI-powered systematic send-outs of letters and messages, it is not limited just to sending messages. The idea is that customers become your constant clients and maintain communication with you. Among the top AI tools for sales managers are:

• Mixmax is a sales engagement platform that enables you to tailor the sales emails
• using AI or optimizing the existing ones.
• Lavender is an artificial intelligence email assistant that is located on top of several platforms, such as Gmail, Outlook, and LinkedIn. It gives instant feedback in the process of writing emails, consequently making written emails clearer and faster.

AI turns every customer interaction into a quality interaction point. A personalized salutation and timely follow-up can add a human touch to every message that will build trust and engagement.

Improve Process Organization

Artificial intelligence can undertake repetitive and mechanical work. This can actually make sales and marketing managers work less, giving them more time to understand customers and eventually become effective.

For instance, each customer feedback and analysis can take a long time for the sales team. Nevertheless, using AI, a part of the task of the sales team will be left to the automated system.

Customer data collection and developing useful insights is a long process that takes time. Nevertheless, AI assists to automate this task and to make it even more efficient.

AI-based systems can track, gather, and analyze data in great detail and provide better information. With a system like this, marketers can leverage it to work smarter and produce unique campaigns that are well-received by the target audience.

AI gives sales and marketing teams an opportunity to focus on their targets more. It encompasses the creation of creative campaigns and establishing strong relationships with the clients.

Expanding 24/7 Customer Support With Chatbots

An artificial intelligence chatbot will solve problems at lightning speed. Chatbots are one of the most common use cases for artificial intelligence in online business. In addition to the work of the marketing department, chatbots with built-in AI greatly facilitate the work of sales departments and customer support (technical support).

Chatbots remove the time gap between the customer and the information they seek, providing smooth and immediate support. This is a major benefit for companies whose sales strategy is focused on long-term customer relationships.

Time-saving for Sales Departments

Among the greatest advantages of chatbots is the fact that they cut the sales team’s time with great efficiency. Sales personnel do not have to handle routine queries and repetitive tasks manually anymore. They can entrust this to chatbots.

Let’s imagine that a user on the site has issues concerning the products or services. In this scenario, the chatbot can open a dialogue and give real-time responses, thus, making the sales team use this saved time for other things to do.

Efficiency in Email Marketing

AI mailing platforms offer a unique capability to streamline your email marketing process, automating everything from capturing leads to executing follow-up sequences seamlessly.

Imagine not having to manually send out every email or remember to follow up with prospects. Automated email platforms do it all, ensuring your messages reach the right people at the right time.

Call Transcription and Analytics

Every interaction with a customer or a lead is a chance to acquire vital information about their business and the pain points they face.

But listening to long minutes or hours of telephone conversations with the client more than one time is expensive. Thanks to AI, you can get a “squeezed” version or a detailed transcription of the conversation and also receive valuable analytical observations.

If you cannot remember the details of a conversation with an old client last week, artificial intelligence will make a quick summary of the essence. That will enhance the quality of customer interaction and make the sales managers’ tasks simpler.

Conclusion

AI-empowered sales automation services are an excellent method for performance. In spite of this, the success of AI can be attributed to the readiness of the companies to invest in the technology as well as the training of their staff. Subsequently, the company will acquire the best outcome thanks to the use of AI in sales.

Companies are relying on AI as a very vital mechanism. This could be the next face of the many companies to come, regardless of the size.

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Nearly every industry is being transformed by AI’s familiar yet disruptive technology, including the real estate sector. Its impact has become more compelling as institutions realize its generative capabilities.

The real estate sector isn’t too far ahead in using AI as an aid for residents, builders, mortgage brokers, agents, and contractors. Going beyond ChatGPT, other platforms can help streamline other more complicated areas in real estate. It’s hard to tell what AI will do, but it’s already changing the real estate sector.

AI is Impacting Real Estate. Here’s How.

1. Generating and validating real estate leads

It remains a challenge for real estate brokerages to gather contacts that match their ideal client profiles. The cost and time needed to generate high-quality leads have always been a critical issue, but with AI platforms, easing up the process is possible.

Using predictive analytics, real estate businesses can seek out leads with updated addresses and contact details. AI can also help clean up entire databases to remove invalid contacts and redundancies. This helps increase the success rate of marketing campaigns and avoids DNC policy violations.

2. Running accurate property valuations

For property owners looking to put their homes up for sale, selling at the right price has always been a major hindrance. There are numerous factors to consider such as the age of the property and the median selling price within the neighborhood.

This won’t be ideal for homeowners who, according to a home cash buying company, have to deal with too many repairs and avoid foreclosure. AI streamlines the task by using algorithms to create accurate valuations and propose sweet spot asking prices.

3. Ease up property management

For landlords and investors who own entire condo buildings or townhouses, keeping track of tenant satisfaction and property health has always been a matter of guesswork. This is expected to change with the inclusion of AI in property management processes. Using the right software, property owners can accurately measure rent collections, ROI, and maintenance expenses.

Not only that, AI can help reduce the paperwork needed for compliance and handle the more intricate parts of tenant screening and tenant communications. At the moment, there are software packages on the market that are specifically meant for property management, offering owners and landlords a great way to stay profitable.

4. Come up with an accurate market analysis

Market research serves as the guiding force for realtors. How buyers and sellers behave provides insight into the overall health and the availability of opportunities on the market. Rather than conduct surveys, real estate professionals can use AI software to analyze and predict market trends. That way, they will be able to make informed decisions in crafting marketing campaigns and business strategies.

Whether you like it or not, AI is here to lessen the grunt work in the real estate sector. It will make life easier for buyers, sellers, and investors. It’s only a matter of using the right software and understanding what else this technology is capable of in the near future.

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The artificial intelligence market is growing at an unprecedented rate. The real estate industry has recently begun integrating AI to streamline its processes. This will impact the process of buying and selling a house and it will improve customer service.

With customers relying on AI and other online tools more often, you must stay on top of real estate market trends and AI advancements, especially if you want to sell a house as-is. This article explores the impact of AI on real estate and its benefits for buyers, sellers, and real estate agents.

1. Price Predictions and Market Analysis

AI algorithms are fluent in data analysis and processing, meaning they can give you information on trends in the real estate market within seconds. Machine learning models can analyze historical property data, demographics, economic indicators, etc., and develop a reasonably accurate price estimate for your property.

They can also help you foresee any potential changes in the market, and you can make your buying or selling decisions accordingly. That ensures the property price is set competitively and fairly, benefiting both parties.

2. Property Search

One of the most apparent and handy uses of AI is in improving property search efficiency. Traditionally, if you want to buy a house, you must scan through several property listings, which could take hours. Nowadays, AI-powered tools use machine learning to understand your preferences as a buyer and recommend properties that match your criteria. That saves you time as a buyer and increases the chances of a successful sale by connecting sellers to qualified and interested buyers.

3. Customer Service and Transactions

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are changing customer service in many industries. In real estate, they can handle routine inquiries, schedule appointments, and provide information about listings. This will free up real estate agent’s time to focus on more complex tasks like mediating negotiations between you and the potential property buyer or seller.

AI also plays a role in making real estate transactions more transparent, shielding you from fraudulent activities in the industry. It adds an extra layer of security by verifying the buyer’s and seller’s identities and assessing their credibility, making you more confident as you go through the process.

Traditional real estate also involves significant paperwork for legal purposes before a transaction. This can now be automated with AI, reducing the chances of human error. Real estate agents speed up the contract preparation process and mortgage applications by using advanced natural processing algorithms to extract relevant information from documents when looking for files for a specific client.

4. AR and VR

Augmented and virtual reality technologies are now also changing how buyers view properties. With virtual property tours, buyers can remotely explore houses. This technology provides a realistic and detailed view of the house, helping buyers make decisions without physically visiting the house. If you’re a seller, you can showcase your home more engagingly.

Endnote

As AI advances, its impact on buying and selling a house will only intensify. Integrating AI technologies into the current real estate landscape will make it more efficient, transparent, and user-friendly. Embracing AI can shape the industry’s future and bring more benefits than drawbacks in the long run. However, it’s essential to strike a balance between leveraging AI to streamline real estate operations and maintaining human contact. The real estate industry heavily relies on developing a relationship of trust between the buyer, seller, and their real estate agent.

The post The Impact of AI on Buying or Selling a House appeared first on ReadWrite.

Technology platforms have proven to be vital assets for businesses of all sizes. Yet having multiple platforms in place doesn’t always equate to smooth sailing. As a leader, you need to find ways to make sure you get all the upsides (not the downsides) from your software, systems, and other tools. Often, that means taking advantage of marketplace solutions aimed at helping you maximize your cross-platform operations.

To be fair, there’s nothing wrong with using multiple platforms at once. It’s a great strategy that can help you grow your organization quickly. Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce outlined a report that studied the effects of technological platforms on smaller companies. The report found that 84% of businesses that leveraged six or more technologies saw a bottom-line boost. Nearly as many experienced an uptick in their sales.

These figures bode well for you if you’re interested in improving your internal ecosystem with platforms. However, you can’t afford to overlook the obstacles that can come when you incorporate many platforms into your workflows.

Understanding the Pitfalls of Multi-Platform Adoption

Perhaps the biggest roadblock that’s common to multi-platform use is attempting to use them together. Some platforms aren’t built to “talk” to one another. Frequently, team members will discover this right away. When they do, they may decide to simply move data manually between the platforms. While this makes sense in a pinch, it can eat up their precious work hours. It can also lead to human error, which can necessitate additional time spent on data hygiene.

A second concern with using multiple platforms involves the end user. Customers and clients expect a seamless experience with the brands they trust. As a Gartner study showed, 85% of professionals involved in developing stronger consumer-corporate relationships planned to compete on user experience. That’s not possible when the user experience is frustrating between cross-platform errors and delays.

Another final reality of using many technology platforms revolves around training and access. If the people using certain platforms aren’t well-trained in those platforms, they won’t be able to make the most of those platforms. For instance, your digital marketing administrator may be tasked with using a platform that he’s never been officially trained on. Out of exasperation, he may only use the basic functions of the platform and ignore the higher-level ones that require more education. This means you — and he — only get a small benefit out of the platform.

The good news is that these and other multi-platform usage challenges are avoidable. The following best practices will help you and your team achieve a higher degree of success with the platforms you choose.

1. Seek out additional tools and integrations to iron out the wrinkles.

Your first course of action should be to sit down with your colleagues and identify their daily snags. What are they experiencing most often when working across your platforms? What difficulties are they having? Are those difficulties isolated to one department or are they happening to everyone in your workforce? By asking and answering these questions, you can create a “hot list” of items to correct.

For example, a common challenge between customer relationship management (CRM) systems and email providers (e.g., Outlook, Google) is making sure all data is synced. It’s not unusual for the same contact information to have different fields in two different systems because one system hasn’t been updated. The same holds for calendars. When multiple people are adding calendar items through dissimilar platforms, calendars can become messy and inaccurate.

In this type of situation, you would want to invest in a tool to provide real-time integration and syncing. In 2022, Cira Apps launched CiraHub, an SaaS product designed to provide instant two-way and multi-way syncing of contact and calendar data between different platforms. CiraHub removes the need for your team to manually keep their contacts and calendar items accurate and updated when hopping between tools. The result is a seamless interface between the apps you use most, like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 entities, Pipedrive, and Hubspot.

Every year, more integration tools come onto the market. Keep an eye out for them. By staying on top of what your company needs most for optimal collaboration, you can streamline your operational efforts across your business.

2. Test and retest the end-user experience.

You can’t assume that your B2C customers or B2B clients are having an unparalleled experience with your company. Every few months, set up a laboratory environment in your company to test the customer experience. Be sure to evaluate all touchpoints, starting with top-of-funnel awareness and ending with brand loyalty.

In addition to your testing, ask for constant feedback from buyers. Send out surveys, conduct online group discussions, and do whatever you can to elicit insights. You can’t make changes in your ecosystem if you aren’t aware of problems. It’s especially important to probe every time you add a new technology platform into the mix. Instead of spicing up your recipe, you could end up with a recipe for disaster.

When you realize that you have a user experience hitch, look for ways to fix the difficulties efficiently and permanently. For example, you may discover that users are fatigued by all the pop-ups on your site. However, you don’t want to get rid of pop-ups because they can increase conversions by around 11%, on average. One idea is to either use your current tools or add new tools to only show pop-ups when they’re relevant. In this case, “relevance” could be driven by a user behavior or demographic.

One word of note: Be sure that you don’t get into the habit of collecting consumer feedback only to shelve it. Listen to what’s being said to you. Learn from it and leverage it to get stronger, as well as get more power from your platforms.

3. Put a premium on platform education and upskilling.

Do you wonder if you’re getting the most bang for your buck with your platforms? You might not be, particularly if your employees aren’t drilling deep into all your platforms’ features. Many times, workers only scratch the surface when it comes to using their preferred platforms.

The obvious answer to this problem is upskilling. And when you upskill your team members, you could get a nice morale and engagement lift, too. A full 65% of professionals told Gallup they evaluated employers based on how many development opportunities the employer gave employees. Consequently, if you give your people more room to grow their abilities, you may also end up beating back employee turnover.

You can take many different routes when it comes to increasing everyone’s confidence on a platform. Some cloud-based platform providers offer free extra training onsite or online as part of your subscription. Others may charge a fee to have their consultants work with your teams. Or, you may want to hire outside platform experts based on their reputation and experience.

The more your people know how to use the platforms they interface with, the more juice you’ll squeeze from those platforms. You may be surprised at the opportunities your company’s been missing, all because the potential of your platforms went untapped.

Technology platforms can help you move your business into a more competitive spot. However, you first need to make sure they’re integrated, they’re improving the customer experience, and you’re using them at their fullest capacity.

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Your property’s value will likely increase when the features present are amazing, and technology is a powerful way of making your place more functional and appealing in the market. If you are considering selling your home or want to make it more attractive, here’s how tech can enhance your property’s value.

1. Search For Inspiration 

Visiting online sources lets you find new and modern ideas for renovating homes and learn how to integrate the latest technology. Whether it is a transition to smart home solutions for living space, energy-saving upgrades, or research into garage design ideas, the number of resources online makes an excellent guide. You can also learn about the benefits of working with custom garage contractors if you want to add more functionality and value to your property. Garage plays a crucial role, especially in:

• Incorporating smart storage solutions
• Installing electric vehicle charging stations
• Creating integrated workspace setups for remote work or home-based businesses

2. Smart Home Integration

Smart home integration revolutionizes the quality of life inside homes. It combines high-tech sophistication with easy convenience. This includes the inclusion of devices like:

• Smart thermostats to control a home’s heating and cooling system.
• Lighting controls, with remote and automation control, for an energy-efficient and modern living appeal.
• Smart home energy management systems that monitor and optimize energy consumption. This is an ideal pick for environmentally conscious buyers.
• Smart security systems, including video surveillance, smart locks, and monitored alarm systems, give homeowners greater control and peace of mind.

Most smart features integrate well and are customizable to fit your lifestyle. Highlighting these tech-savvy additions during the selling process can give your home a competitive edge and appeal to a tech-oriented demographic.

3. Energy-Saving Home Features

Going green is more important now, and homes with energy-saving gadgets can increase market value. Upgrade to energy-efficient windows, Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, and compact fluorescent lamps, and consider installing a smart thermostat and solar.

Check whether your region provides benefits or money-back deals whenever you make your home greener through energy-saving upgrades. This allows you to enjoy incentives such as tax breaks or lesser installation costs while elevating your home’s value.

4. Home Maintenance Systems

Your house’s tech goes beyond the living room. Nowadays, it is possible to enhance your yard with smart watering systems, robot mowers, pool cleaners, and phone-controlled lights. They will enhance the exterior appearance of your home and simplify garden maintenance. Smart irrigation systems also optimize the water usage in the compound. This doesn’t just show off how up-to-date your place is but also draws in buyers who appreciate the easy upkeep of your outdoor area.

5. Home Automation Hub

The hubs act as the central control towers for all internet-connected electronic devices. They control the security lights, cameras, monitors, sensors, and robotics around the house, like the automatic vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers. Some also come with voice-activated assistants where you need to give out commands.

Additionally, consider a high-speed internet connection to make your home a perfect continuation of your office, allowing you to do all your work remotely. Go for only the high-speed internet solutions and compare their packages to identify the suitable package to work with.

A property’s value can increase through improvements in its looks and functionality. Innovations in smart home integration, energy-efficient improvements, and automated maintenance systems not only enhance your property’s appearance but also bring it up to date with the expectations of contemporary buyers.

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The intricate interplay between tech advancements and the evolution of workforce skills has grown significantly vital. AI stands out as a pioneering marvel in this paradigm shift, reshaping the methods organizations employ for enhancing employee capabilities. There are many opportunities for Organizations to use AI for employee training.

As businesses strive to optimize their training programs, AI offers tailored solutions that cater to individual learning needs. For instance, incorporating AI into free CE for social workers enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of learning and contributes to personal development.

How to Leverage AI in Employee Training

Below are three practical strategies for harnessing the potential of AI in employee training:

1. Personalized Learning Paths

A significant advantage of incorporating AI into employee training is its ability to create personalized learning paths for each person. Traditional training initiatives frequently struggle to meet the diverse requirements and learning inclinations of staff. Conversely, AI algorithms can analyze performance data, identify strengths and areas for improvement, and modify training materials accordingly.

Through advanced machine learning algorithms, AI can align with an individual’s learning pace. This guarantees a comprehensive understanding of concepts prior to progressing to subsequent modules. For instance, in cases where an employee demonstrates exceptional proficiency in particular domains, the AI system can expedite those segments. This optimizes time utilization and sustains interest.

When a team member encounters challenges with particular ideas, the AI can provide additional materials and alternative approaches to address those hurdles. Tailored learning journeys enrich the educational process and foster skill development.  This results in a workforce that is more capable and flexible.

2. Real-time Feedback and Assessment

Conventional training approaches frequently incorporate intermittent evaluations, causing employees to anticipate feedback, occasionally enduring weeks following module completion. On the contrary, AI facilitates instantaneous feedback and evaluation, presenting a more dynamic and adaptive learning experience.

AI algorithms can swiftly assess the performance of individuals within a workforce, delivering in-depth analyses of both strengths and areas requiring enhancement. This rapid feedback loop serves to enlighten employees about their advancement and permits them to enact essential adjustments in real-time. AI can also produce recommendations for additional resources or specialized training modules tailored to the outcome of assessments, promoting continuous improvement.

This dynamic method of providing feedback elevates the effectiveness of the learning journey, fostering a more iterative and adaptive response to the changing requirements of both staff members and the overall entity.

3. Interactive Simulations and Virtual Reality

AI can revolutionize employee training by introducing interactive simulations and virtual reality experiences. Through AI-driven algorithms, simulations can authentically recreate real-world situations, enabling employees to employ their expertise in a secure and controlled setting. This practical, experiential method proves especially beneficial in sectors where hands-on experience holds paramount importance.

Virtual reality, coupled with advanced artificial intelligence, elevates this notion to the next level by crafting an immersive learning environment. Team members can immerse themselves in realistic simulations, refining their ability to tackle problems, make decisions, and heighten their situational acumen. For instance, a healthcare practitioner might rehearse intricate medical techniques within a virtual domain. A customer service agent could replicate demanding exchanges with customers.

By utilizing AI-powered simulations and virtual reality, companies can furnish their workforce with immersive learning experiences that seamlessly connect theoretical knowledge with practical application. This leads to the development of professionals with greater confidence and competence in their respective fields.

In summary, the incorporation of AI into employee training offers a myriad of opportunities for organizations aiming to evaluate the expertise and competencies of their workforce. Tailored learning trajectories, immediate feedback, and immersive simulations are among the tangible methods through which AI can transform training programs.

The post Practical Ways to Leverage AI for Employee Training appeared first on ReadWrite.

Cryptocurrency will become more popular and more accepted as more mainstream businesses support it. Without that ongoing recognition and perceived legitimacy, cryptocurrencies may continue to exist in an isolated niche.

But how can your startup support cryptocurrency? And how can it benefit you as an entrepreneur?

The Benefits of Supporting Cryptocurrency

These are some of the strongest benefits of supporting cryptocurrency in your business:

Strengthening Cryptocurrency

A currency is only as strong as the number of individuals and businesses using it. Even the simple act of accepting cryptocurrency as payment is a small step in the direction of more widespread adoption. You probably won’t be able to boost the value of a cryptocurrency on your own, but you’ll still be a part of the overall momentum that reshapes our financial world.

Investments and Appreciation

Any Bitcoin price watch can tell you about the historical dynamics of this relatively mainstream coin. Yes, the price fluctuations can be volatile, but anyone who’s held Bitcoin for a long enough time would have seen a massive profit. That’s obviously not proof that Bitcoin will continue to appreciate, but it (and other coins) certainly could. If you trade in crypto and it appreciates, your business will have more capital to work with.

More Payment Options

Customers appreciate having multiple forms of payment available to them. Not all your customers will want to pay with crypto, but they’ll at least enjoy seeing the option available.

Potentially Lower Fees

In some situations, processing and transaction fees associated with cryptocurrency are lower than similar processing and transaction fees associated with more traditional forms of payment. This isn’t a guarantee, so do your homework and crunch the numbers to determine whether it makes financial sense for your business.

Decentralization and Independence

Many businesses appreciate using cryptocurrency as a way to take advantage of decentralization and achieve more independence. While you may need to rely on a wallet or a gateway to process crypto payments, you can functionally separate from your banking institutions to a degree.

Perception of Innovation

New coins are constantly emerging, offering new dynamics and innovations for crypto enthusiasts and investors to enjoy. If your business accepts crypto and promotes innovations in the crypto world, your entire brand will start to be perceived as innovative, conferring reputational benefits.

New Target Demographics

Accepting crypto payments and promoting these digital coins could be a way to attract a new target demographic to your business. Your products and services may suddenly become more attractive to the crypto enthusiast cohort.

Broader Reach

Bitcoin and other mainstream cryptocurrencies are freely traded around the globe (with a few exceptions). Adopting this as a payment method could broaden your geographic reach without you needing to understand other international currencies.

Privacy for Customers

Many people love crypto because it gives them more privacy. Some of your customers may benefit from having their transactions somewhat veiled (though most mainstream coins aren’t perfectly anonymous).

Competitive Differentiation

Are your competitors and rivals supporting cryptocurrency? If not, this could be a critical way to differentiate your business.

An Inflation Hedge

Economic inflation is harmful for startups, but crypto offers a reasonable hedge against inflation. Because it’s generally finite in volume and decentralized, it’s not subject to the same inflationary pressure that mainstream fiat currencies are.

Less Chargeback Fraud Risk

Finally, because crypto functions via an immutable ledger, it reduces the risk of chargeback fraud significantly, potentially saving your business a lot of time, money, and headaches.

How Your Startup Can Support Cryptocurrency

These are some of the best ways that your startup can support cryptocurrency:

Accept crypto payments.

Customers like having options when it comes to payment, and you probably already accept many different types of payment. This is simply one more addition to expand that range of options. The most common options for accepting crypto payments are through a crypto wallet directly or through a crypto gateway.

Invest in crypto and hold it on your balance sheet.

You can go a step further by investing in crypto and holding it on your balance sheet. As with any investment, it’s important to do your own due diligence and be aware of the risks associated with each strategic move. However, many businesses have benefited from holding a portion of their capital in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Consider alternative and new coins.

Crypto technology is always advancing, so consider alternative and new coins as well as established, mainstream coins like Bitcoin. Not only is it appealing to cutting edge crypto enthusiasts, but it could also be a way to get in on the ground floor of something capable of changing the financial world. Just make sure you properly understand the dynamics of each new coin, reading the documentation carefully, before you choose to accept it.

Advertise your activities.

Don’t just list your acceptance of cryptocurrency on a payment screen or at the cash register. Go out of your way to market and advertise your activities. Include cryptocurrency in your marketing materials, and make it known that you’re an avid supporter. In addition to generating more business from crypto enthusiasts, this is a way to improve the reputation of your brand as an innovative leader and a way to further differentiate yourself.

Teach others about cryptocurrencies.

If you’re a proud believer in the future of cryptocurrency, evangelize those beliefs and spread knowledge about cryptocurrency by teaching others how to use it and educating them on why this financial product is so advantageous.

Host groups and workshops.

Similarly, if you have a physical business, you can host groups and workshops in which you introduce people to cryptocurrency or exchange ideas about how to integrate crypto into the mainstream.

Get involved in forums and online discussions.

Even if you don’t have a physical business, you can get involved in forums and online discussions. Popular crypto forums are a great place to learn new things, establish your authority in this space, and potentially get some incidental exposure for your business.

Additional Considerations

There are risks associated with cryptocurrencies. While Bitcoin and other mainstream coins are generally regarded as safe, secure, and resistant to most types of attacks, there are still some vulnerabilities to keep in mind, like the possibility of a 51 percent attack. Cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile, and transactional costs can actually be higher in some cases.
The landscape of cryptocurrency changes rapidly and often without warning. The emergence of new coins, new regulations, and new technological breakthroughs can change not only the price of cryptocurrency, but also how people use it. If a central bank digital currency is released, it could introduce even more challenges and considerations for your business.

Crypto doesn’t appeal to everyone, nor is it accessible for everyone. There’s nothing wrong with accepting crypto payments and advertising your support of cryptocurrency, but making crypto your exclusive payment method is usually a bad idea. It’s still important to accept other, or mainstream forms of payment.

With these strategies and considerations in mind, your business can successfully support cryptocurrency – and strongly benefit from that support. Whether you’re a diehard enthusiast or a casual hobbyist, there are multiple ways to take advantage of these impressive digital currencies.

The post How Can Your Startup Support Cryptocurrency? appeared first on ReadWrite.

Technology in the legal field lets lawyers hold remote meetings and attend virtual courtrooms.

Technological developments also impact family law, especially with regard to divorce proceedings. Before modern forensics tools, authorities relied on physical documents to establish paper trails. Sifting through the paperwork was laborious at best. With digital tools lawyers are able to reduce the time and effort it takes to organize and analyze evidence.

Many divorce lawyers are hiring digital forensic experts to collect electronic data and find clues that may be useful to their client’s cases.

This article considers how digital forensics is used in the context of divorce proceedings.

What Are Digital Forensics?

Digital forensics encompasses the identification, extraction, examination and preservation of electronic information. Sometimes the information could be vital during investigations or litigations. The electronic data can be extracted from computers, cell phones, smart appliances, laptops, and other digital devices. The main reasons for using digital forensics in divorce proceedings include the following:

• More evidence: Divorce attorneys can use digital forensics to gain insight into digital information.
• Reveals motive: Digital evidence collected can enable lawyers to look into the minds of the divorcing parties. It can help unveil useful information on what they do, why, and how.
• Overrides privacy and deletion: It can recover deleted files and information hidden behind privacy settings. This provides divorce attorneys with necessary information that they could admit in court to substantiate their client’s claims.
• Establish credibility: Information collected can confirm the truthfulness of allegations made by divorcing parties. It enables divorce attorneys to establish the facts that they can use in building a robust and accurate case.

An important aspect of digital forensics is the analysis of metadata that contains detailed information about the underlying data that one cannot easily deduce just by looking at it at first glance. This is information about the data such as the author, creation date, and size of the file. Information from system logs, caches, deleted files, databases, and past hard drive activities can also provide additional clues.

Its Application in Divorce Cases

The extracted digital forensic evidence helps reveal many aspects of divorce cases and even affects their result. Electronic transactions like communication, finances and online activity provide valuable information on the attitudes, motives and interplay of concerned parties.

This information may help in issues like property or asset division, spousal support, child custody, and more as determined under the law, or by mutual agreement of both parties as part of the divorce settlement. Listed below are some of the ways digital forensics can influence divorce proceedings:

Tracking Whereabouts

Digital forensics experts can help lawyers ascertain the whereabouts of a marital couple by analyzing metadata associated with the social media posts of one party on location-based apps as well as other relevant information sources. It is through this that they are able to come up with appropriate time schedules which either support or refute some of the evidence presented in addition to supplying relevant data concerning vital divorce issues like child custody and maintenance. This could be particularly important when there is an injunction such as a court order that requires a parent not to remove their child across a specific zone boundary without the authority of the court

Proof of Infidelity or Misconduct

Social media data from individuals’ personal social media and email accounts, text messages and other sources can be retrieved and analyzed to uncover conversations, messages and photographs that could help reveal instances of adultery or other potentially harmful behaviors such as bad parenting habits, addiction, abuse, or harassment. It can also be relevant to child custody, spousal support or restraining orders and injunctions aimed at preserving the safety and well-being of parties involved in divorce proceedings.

Financial Irregularities

The parties to a divorce may choose to take measures to minimize their losses and make better claims on their divorce settlement including hiding some assets from the marital estate, downplaying their own wealth or exaggerating that of their spouse. These unfair practices can be revealed by digital forensics, providing for a more equal division of property and financial provision after the divorce. The digital footprint provides information about an individual’s assets, which include emails, bank statements, and other financial transactions. This data can help to locate hidden funds or properties highlighting any financial misrepresentation.

More importantly, digital forensics can identify financial irregularities that have gone undetected. Unreported assets and liabilities could serve as sufficient evidence establishing the other party’s financial irresponsibility.  This will also create a more comprehensive picture of the nature of the divorce case, allowing attorney’s to come up with a more effective legal strategy. The costs and time it takes to reach a proper settlement will also decline significantly.

In Conclusion

Divorce attorneys should never underestimate new technology in helping them win even the most complicated cases. Harnessing these tools can amplify a lawyer’s skills and raise their success rate. Decision-making becomes easier, and the outcomes more ideal.

Digital forensics can play an important role in divorce proceedings. It is important to follow the correct procedures when collecting electronic information. If you use invasive investigation methods that breach privacy rights, or obtain data by illicit methods such as spying or through unauthorized entry, then not only can this affect the admissibility of the gathered information as evidence, but it can also jeopardize the outcome of your case. To ensure a fair and just outcome, it is advisable to consult a divorce attorney who specializes in digital forensics.

The post The Use of Digital Forensics in Divorce Cases appeared first on ReadWrite.

In today’s cutthroat online economy, it’s not enough to just have a website. Your website needs to be aesthetically pleasing. Working with competent web designers is vital because establishing a functional website demands expertise and accuracy.

You’re working with a group of experts, but you’re not sure how to maximize your efforts together. Here are five ways to make the most of your time working with professional web designers.

How to Effectively Work With Web Designers

Clear Communication Is Key

Work on your communication in the corporate world. Working with an expert web design company is no exception to the rule that communication is the key to a successful project. If you want your website to reflect your vision, include specific instructions in the project brief. Define success, who you’re writing for, and how you want the finished product to look.

If you give web designers clear direction on what you want, they should be able to create a site that works in tandem with your business objectives. It’s also important to have check-ins and feedback meetings on a regular basis, as this promotes teamwork and ultimately leads to a better final product.

Embrace Customization

Your website needs to highlight what makes your company special. Despite their widespread use, cookie-cutter websites rarely succeed in making their mark on the increasingly competitive web. Web design agencies employ professionals that know how to create unique, effective solutions for each client. Custom websites let you stand out from the crowd while also improving your visitors’ overall experience and keeping them engaged to increase your chances of making a sale.

Prioritize User-Centric Design

Web design revolves around the user’s experience. In order to keep visitors on your website, it must be user-friendly, straightforward, and aesthetically pleasing. produce sure your site designers are working with you to produce a design that is user-friendly. Among these are reducing wait times, simplifying access to material, and making sites mobile-friendly. If you want your website to be successful, use a professional web design company that understands the value of a smooth user experience.

Stay Updated with the Latest Trends

As new technology and design aesthetics emerge, the internet is forever changing. Hiring a professional web designer ensures that your project will be up-to-date and reflect these changes. Working with professionals allows you to take advantage of cutting-edge design methods, guaranteeing that your site will always look current and attractive to visitors. Web designers are able to assist you make use of the most recent design trends, such as responsive design, parallax scrolling, and minimalist layouts, to increase your site’s appeal.

Invest in Ongoing Maintenance

The process of creating a website is never complete. You can maximize its usefulness by giving it consistent attention and tweaks over time. Hire a professional web designer if you need help keeping your site up-to-date, secure, and running optimally. Maintaining long-term vitality requires consistent updates, patches, and content revisions. Keeping your website up-to-date with the newest technological advances is an investment that will pay dividends in terms of longevity.

A website that not only meets your expectations but also helps you reach your company goals is the product of web designers with the right knowledge and creativity. With these five strategies in place, your business will be better able to compete in the modern digital economy and enjoy the benefits of working with professional web designers.

The post How to Maximize the Benefits of Working with Professional Web Designers appeared first on ReadWrite.

With news of data breaches and scandals around the misuse of people’s data becoming a worrying norm, one company is working to put data ownership back in the hands of individuals and organizations.

Akord is a web3 platform offering digital vaults for storage and collaboration. For the first time, both traditional cloud and permanent blockchain storage is combined in one application. This gives users unparalleled control over how to store, manage and share their data.

Introducing Permanent Storage

Akord provides the most user-friendly solution for accessing a new technological offering: permanent storage. This is possible thanks to Arweave, a decentralized blockchain project that stores data forever with a one-time upfront fee.

This is realized through Arweave’s blockchain-like structure, the blockweave, as well as its storage endowment.

The blockweave holds all the data stored on the network, using a consensus mechanism called Succinct Random Proofs of Access (SPoRA), to validate whether miners are storing all data correctly.

Permanent storage for 200 years seems like it would be very costly but when considered over this time frame it’s actually quite the opposite. Storing a GB of data for 200 years costs  $6.4 at today’s prices. It’s also important to understand how the endowment mechanism functions. It enables users to only pay an upfront fee once when storing their data on the network.

The Arweave protocol charges users to hold a minimum of 15 replicas with extremely pessimistic future assumptions. Over the past 50 years, the cost of storage on average has gone down by 30.5% every year. To be on the very conservative side, the endowment makes an assumption that the decline will be 0.5% each year when calculating the cost of storing data on the network. Therefore, whenever the cost of storage decreases > 0.5% a year, it stretches out the lifetime that the protocol can store data. Since genesis no tokens have been released from the endowment.

On-chain or in the cloud, you decide

Akord’s vaults can either be set to Permanent or Cloud, Public or Private.

Permanent vaults store data on the Arweave blockchain, where data is stored for at least 200 years. All data is cryptographically immutable guaranteeing its integrity.

Stored in hundreds of nodes spread across the globe, the decentralized nature of this storage protects against ransomware attacks and other single-point-of-failure risks associated with traditional cloud storage providers.

For data that may need to be deleted due to regulatory or other reasons, Akord also offers cloud storage vaults. These cloud vaults can act as a testing environment before sending data on-chain. Or, it can act as a more secure alternative to centralized storage providers like Dropbox and Google Drive.

What makes Akord so secure?

Akord’s private vaults use true end-to-end encryption where the user has complete control over the keys. This means that all data is encrypted on the user’s device before being sent to Akord, adding a robust layer of security.

Furthermore, users hold a recovery phrase which gives them sole control over their account and data. This recovery phrase is the user’s safeguard. It ensures that only they have access to their stored data, akin to holding a private key to a cryptocurrency wallet.

Such a level of security is so secure that not even Akord has the ability to access the user’s data. The encryption keys are solely in the user’s possession, and without the recovery phrase, the data remains inaccessible, even to Akord.

The social vault

When we store data that’s valuable, we often want or need to share it with others, precisely because it’s so valuable. That’s why Akord’s vaults can be social spaces, managed privately through access control or shared with the world.

Akord is not just for dumping files and forgetting about them, unless of course that’s what you want to do. Their vaults are designed to be dynamic, with the ability to invite others and set access controls, offer end-to-end encrypted chat, note creation, media galleries, and an in-app notification feed.

You can also transfer ownership of a vault. You can leave the vault and pass on control of the vault and its contents to someone else.

From ancient Buddhist texts to precious family photos

Since launching in 2021, the platform has seen diverse use cases. Examples include ancient Buddhist teachings and other digital heritage projects, NFT artists, reforestation data, insurance certificates, podcasts, accounting and legal firms, media companies, and many individual users storing their precious family photos and other digital assets.

The common thread between these various organizations, individuals and businesses is a desire to hold greater control over their data.

Whether that’s the ability to ensure data will be preserved for future generations, secured with end-to-end encryption and genuine ownership through keys, or shared and managed within a collaborative space, Akord delivers on all fronts.

For businesses and organizations, the ability to white label the platform is helping them redefine their relationship with customers. This enables them to better protect privacy, build trust and earn loyalty.

If you’re interested in getting a demo of Akord, you can book a demo here.

Sounds great, but what if Akord no longer exists?

Storing data forever and never losing access sounds pretty great. However, companies and products come and go: what if Akord isn’t around in X years from now?

As the Arweave blockchain is a data storage network it’s possible to host applications from Arweave, meaning these “permaweb dApps” live independently, governed purely by their own code.

Akord will soon release their own permaweb dApp, Akord Explorer. Even if the Akord app, company and team cease operations, Explorer will continue running, providing perpetual access to data. Users only need their recovery phrase to connect to Explorer. They will find all their vaults and data inside.

What’s more, Explorer also functions as a portal to discovering and following any public vault deployed on Akord. This permanent discoverability means anyone publishing public data can ensure their data can be discovered for generations to come.

Final Thoughts on Seizing Control of Your Data

Data is often described as the “new oil.” However, with increasing concerns about how this data is being handled, controlled, and potentially misused, there is a growing need for solutions that put data ownership back into the hands of the people who generate it.

Akord is positioning itself at the forefront of this movement. It is leveraging the power of web3 technology to offer digital vaults where data is stored, managed and shared securely.

Akord’s unique offering of both permanent blockchain and cloud storage in a single platform, coupled with end-to-end encryption and collaborative features, sets it apart. Whether it’s the permanence of blockchain storage or the flexibility of cloud vaults, Akord provides a versatile platform for individuals and organizations to take control of their data.

Sign up for free to explore Akord’s digital vaults. If you’d like to subscribe to a plan, use the code AKORD30 to get 30% off your first month.

The post Seize Control of Your Data appeared first on ReadWrite.

You’re busy, but you’re never too busy to spend some quality time with your pet. And you certainly don’t want buying your pet necessities to get in the way.

Thankfully, we live in an on-demand world where it’s possible to get just about anything delivered right to your door. Whether it’s a mess-free pet grooming kit or a super-deluxe cat tree, anything your pet could want is available with a swipe or click.

Buy Your Pet Necessities Online

If you’re tired of catering to your personal to-do list rather than cuddling with your new kitty or hiking with your four-legged companion, start ordering these pet necessities online. You’ll waste less effort and energy — and have a much happier, healthier furry friend, too.

1. Freshly-made, nutrient-rich food for famished fur babies.

Gone are the days when pet parents picked up any food they could find for their dogs, cats, and other critters. As CNBC reports, pet owners are scrutinizing what they feed their favorite pals. For many, this means budgeting for premium brands made from wholesome, pronounceable ingredients. That way, they can feel confident that their pets are getting the specialized nutrition they need.

Though some groceries and retailers carry physical containers of high-quality food, they may be limited both in options and shelf space. Online alternatives aren’t, and they have the advantage of being deliverable. Plus, some companies offer extras, such as the ability to personalize mealtimes. Nom Nom, an emerging leader in the dog food market, creates customized meal plans based on in-depth questionnaires filled out by pet owners. Nom Nom’s scientifically formulated meals are made in the USA and shipped in small batches according to customers’ desired order frequencies.

Like Nom Nom, Smalls is another winner in the delivered-to-your-door pet food category. Smalls focuses on satisfying finicky felines with its various menu items. Smalls advertises its proprietary blends as made from human-grade proteins and more. It’s the next best thing to whipping up an entree every evening.

2. Litter box and dog waste needs for those less-than-fun chores.

One of the hardest parts of having pets is cleaning up after them. Cats can be particularly notorious for making life difficult by insisting on a pristine place to go to the bathroom. Dogs aren’t much better. Every conscientious dog owner knows how hard it is to keep enough supplies of baggies on hand for the dirty “pick up” job that happens on nearly every walk.

Ordering the right toiletry supplies can’t make the need to use them go away. However, it can lessen your load by allowing you to avoid last-minute trips to pick up litter or doggy waste bags. A business like Kitty Poo Club provides you with the opportunity to join a subscription service. For instance, their basic bundle includes a once-a-month delivery of a disposable litter box, as well as your choice of specialty litter blend. With Kitty Poo Club, you just take a “set it and forget it” approach to one of the least glamorous parts of pet ownership.

Pet necessities like dog waste bags, including ones that are more earth-friendly, are easy to find on both pet-specific sites like Chewy and larger e-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon. Unless you have an Amazon Prime subscription, you’ll probably want to bundle your order to save on shipping costs. Or, you could always buy enough to have on hand for several months. Bulk online purchases are simple to make. Just be sure you have a place to store all the bags. Oh, and if you’re getting a puppy, toss some puppy pads into your online cart.

3. Pet meds to treat furry companions’ chronic and acute conditions.

Humans aren’t the only creatures who need prescription medications. Dogs and cats are frequently prescribed an array of pharmaceutical drugs. This phenomenon may even be on the rise. As noted in The New York Times, when Covid-era lockdowns were lifted, some pets experienced separation anxiety. Their owners — once present all day, every day — were suddenly gone. In many cases, the best answer was a course of antidepressants along with behavioral therapies. (Consider looking into the latest pet tech innovations for some future-forward ways to encourage healthier habits.)

No matter what kind of prescription your pet needs, you might be able to get it at the same pharmacy where you get your own prescriptions. Nevertheless, why make a special visit when you could just have your pooch’s pills dropped off while you’re romping at the park? Online pet pharmacies, including PetMeds, can ensure you stay ahead of your furry friend’s prescriptions so you never run out.

Remember that you’ll need to work with a veterinarian if you’re looking for a true prescription rather than an over-the-counter drug. PetMeds clearly marks on its site which products require substantiation from a veterinarian. Other pet pharmacies should, too. Never order a prescribed drug for your pet from another country just to bypass requiring a veterinarian’s okay. You can’t be sure the quality or product is right for your pet’s needs and condition.

4. Professional pet sitters ready to give lots of attention.

When Motel 6 asked pet parents what they planned to do with their pets while they were on vacation, more than half said their pets were coming along. Not everyone goes to pet-friendly destinations, though. For instance, traveling overseas with a pet can be tricky at best, even if you work with an internationally based pet transportation provider. Consequently, if you can’t take your pet along for a vacay, you’ll want to find a way to keep your pet cozy, comfortable, and stress-free at home.

The easiest answer may be to ask a friend or family member who’s not traveling with you to step in as a pet sitter. If that’s not possible, you can always check out sites that connect pet parents with professional pet sitters of all ages. Rover tops many lists as a premiere place to find people to walk your dog while you’re away or even house-sit so your pet isn’t lonely. Other contenders are Fetch! Pet Care and the cat-centric Meowtel.

With pet-sitting apps, you can conduct everything from potential sitter reviews to digital interviews all from the comfort of your home if you like. Nevertheless, do yourself the favor of requesting to meet your pet sitter unless you’re in an emergency situation. Even an amazing pet sitter with five-star reviews may not be the right match for a feisty feline or suspicious pup. You’ll feel better taking off on your trip knowing that you chose someone your pet accepts as a temporary member of the family.

Instead of frittering away the hours driving to stores to buy pet necessities, let everything come to you. It’ll give you the chance to make more memories with the furballs who make life more fun, interesting, and worthwhile.

The post The Ultimate Convenience: Pet Necessities Delivered for Busy Owners appeared first on ReadWrite.

Building a tech stack can be a daunting (and long-term) process for any size business. Paying for several applications, each of which is “necessary for success,” can strain a budget. Keeping those apps organized, understanding their value, and choosing the necessary version of each tool can easily overwhelm limited team resources, too.

Managing a tech stack for a smaller business is particularly challenging. The time and effort alone required to sort through all of the options and keep everything up-to-date drains resources.

Thryv equips small businesses with a solution to get over the burden of app management. If a small business struggles to manage its tech stack, Thryv’s comprehensive communication, CRM, and marketing software solutions unify and simplify processes, delivering the ideal tech stack.

The Struggle With Too Much Tech

Too much tech has been an issue for decades now. In the 2020s, though, the struggle has shifted from too much hardware to an oversaturation of software.

Statista reports that the average number of SaaS applications used by individual businesses worldwide is 130. BusinessWire puts the number at 254 total applications.

With either estimate, the sheer number of tech tools that every business, department and individual manages has become mind-numbing. And simply updating every app properly is a task in and of itself. Tracking efficiency, value and overall spend can feel impossible. This is what motivated the team at Thryv to create a solution that brings order to the tech chaos.

How Thryv Brings Order to the Technological Chaos

Thryv is an all-in-one small business software platform designed to support small businesses in ways that are hard to achieve without large enterprise resources. The software brand has a proven track record and deep experience in SaaS spend management.

Thryv more recently pivoted into the SaaS CRM space, filling a growing need for SMBs. The company has empowered over 55,000 customers to achieve success.

These organizations utilize Thryv to streamline communications, improve day-to-day management and improve brand awareness, setting the stage to scale their operations in the process.

Thryv offers three distinct product offerings:

• Thryv Command Center
• Thryv Business Center
• Thryv Marketing Center

Together, this dynamic trio of tools are, in the words of the company, “impactful when used on their own, but unstoppable when used together.” Let’s take a closer look at each one and the benefits it offers a smaller brand.

The Command Center Unifies Communication

The sophisticated, streamlined software deftly brings the majority of a brand’s communication channels into a single inbox.

This centralized inbox provides an omnichannel experience for customers, meeting them where they are and allowing them to engage with a brand on their terms. At the same time, it provides a single, simple go-to spot for customer communication and an easy way to capture communication history with each client.

The Business Center Simplifies CRM

Thryv Business Center attacks one of the biggest issues small businesses face: excessive workloads. Small business team members wear a lot of hats, and they can easily drown in a sea of administrative minutia.

This software solution encapsulates several of the most important tasks, from managing client portals and CRMs to generating invoices, scheduling appointments, sending emails, and organizing files. Altogether, this turns the tech tool into a software assistant capable of saving small business teams as much as 18 hours of busywork per week.

The Marketing Center Amplifies Advertisements

21st century marketing is a challenge due to an overabundance of options. Small businesses often lack the resources to effectively take advantage of the plethora of marketing options available.

Thryv Marketing Center solves this issue by centralizing a small business’s marketing endeavors. It provides comprehensive campaign management, website and landing page templates, and AI-powered recommendations — once again, all in one single dashboard.

Add-ons and Industry Customizations

While Thryv’s central SaaS management software consists of its three-headed solution, the company is constantly innovating to improve and target its services.

One way is through analytics. Thryv’s software automatically analyzes internet referral traffic, feeding it into the larger software system to impact recommendations and improve marketing over time.

The SaaS offering also provides market-leading display, search, social, and print directory solutions. In addition, it can promote brands in front of consumers on its proprietary search sites, including Yellowpages.com, Superpages.com, and Dexknows.com.

Thryv has also created over 20 specific industry customizations. The brand also has a selection of 34 different small business niches to choose from to help potential customers target their software solutions as they shop. These span the gamut from retail services to dental practice software.

Thryv: A Tech Stack on a Platter

Thryv understands the challenge of running a small business. Its commitment to modern technology has allowed Thryv to create innovative and comprehensive SaaS management software offerings. From communication to marketing, business administration to niche industry needs, the company helps small businesses streamline their activity and deliver a lean, mean tech stack that helps brand growth.

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Today’s startup ecosystem is dynamic and competitive. Innovators and entrepreneurs struggle to secure funding to launch their ventures to the next echelon. Traditional paths like venture capital and angel investment are still viable. But Reg A and CF offerings provide practical, accessible, and efficient means to accumulate much-needed capital.

Understanding Reg A and CF Offerings

Instituted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Regulation A (Reg A) and Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) offerings allow private companies to raise capital from the general public. This change in fundraising democratizes investment. This lets small-scale investors participate in the financial journeys of growing companies. 

Etan Butler, chairman of Dalmore Group, a leading broker-dealer specializing in Reg A and CF raises, says the choice between these two hinges on “the why behind your raise and the unique goals for your company.”

Choosing Between Reg A and CF

A company leveraging Reg CF can expediently initiate its fundraising campaign. This starts by tapping into a broad base of potential investors with minimal upfront costs. “Reg CF allows you to get started quickly and inexpensively to raise a maximum of $5M from any investor over 18,” notes Butler. Though enticing for its ease and low-cost entry, Reg CF has restrictions.

The one-year waiting period for secondary market transactions does limit the liquidity of the raised capital.

Though more intricate and costly to initiate, Reg A facilitates a large capital influx. This permits companies to raise up to $75M. Butler points out an advantage, “the shares are freely tradable immediately, which gives issuers a path to potential liquidity opportunities.” The immediate tradability of shares increases Reg A’s appeal, providing an expedited avenue for return on investment.

Preparing for a Successful Raise

Embarking on the Reg A or CF journey necessitates a strategic foundation. “The first step is understanding that the success of your raise is dependent on your effectiveness at building an audience around your product or service and then converting that audience into investment interest,” says Butler. A structured, interactive, and engaging community is a peripheral advantage and a core component of a successful raise.

In this context, Butler’s advice pivots towards the operational mechanics of online capital raising. Drawing a parallel to e-commerce, he emphasizes the transactional nature of this venture, wherein the average investment often falls below $1,000 and is facilitated chiefly through mobile credit card transactions. The implication for founders is clear: the platform for raising capital must be ingrained with e-commerce tools adept at capturing and converting digital foot traffic into tangible investment.

Moreover, startups’ success depends on their ability to “connect with a wide mainstream audience of potential investors”. For Butler, the pre-raise phase should be characterized by robust community building. This imbues the process with momentum and could potentially unlock future equity value.

Building a Strategic Community Foundation

Venturing into Reg A or CF offerings isn’t merely a financial endeavor. It is also deeply entrenched in strategic community building, audience engagement, and implementing e-commerce pragmatics. For startups on the edge of expansion, the choice between Reg A and CF is a strategic decision. You must consider immediate financial needs and long-term goals, liquidity prospects, and the intrinsic value of the engaged community.

Navigating this landscape with foresight, precision, and informed strategy morphs these offerings from financial instruments to holistic ecosystems where community engagement, capital influx, and corporate growth coalesce. This drives the startup into its future with both financial and communal capital firmly in tow. It’s about connecting to a wide mainstream audience of potential investors and morphing those connections into a foundational base for sustained growth and innovation.

Tools for Evaluation by Investors

From an investor’s vantage point, the allure lies in the accessibility and potential lucrative returns associated with emerging enterprises. However, it is not without its intricacies. Prospective investors need to harness a keen sense of discernment. They need to meticulously evaluate the startup’s business model, market positioning, and competitive landscape. The evaluation should extend beyond financial projections. It should also encompass the quality of leadership, organizational resilience, and adaptability in a fast-evolving market landscape.

In an era where technology intertwines with every facet of business, the integration of advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning can elevate the efficiency and outreach of Reg A and CF campaigns. These technologies enable startups to refine their investor targeting, enhance engagement, and optimize the conversion pipeline. For investors, technology offers tools for thorough due diligence, risk assessment, and informed decision-making.

While Reg A and CF offerings present profound opportunities for raising capital, it’s pivotal for startups to exhibit due diligence in considering their long-term implications and strategic fit. The integration of these offerings into the company’s overarching financial and operational strategy requires attention to detail and strategic foresight.

The Future Outlook

As the startup landscape evolves, the synergy of technology, regulatory innovation, and global investor participation is poised to reshape capital raising. Reg A and CF offerings are not mere alternative funding avenues but are emblematic of a more inclusive, diversified, and dynamic investment ecosystem. 

The future of capital raising is not solely predicated on financial ingenuity. It is equally based in the creation of vibrant, engaged communities of investors and innovators. In this symbiotic ecosystem, value is co-created, risks are mitigated, and opportunities are amplified.

For business owners and investors alike, the emergence of Reg A and CF offerings heralds an era marked by inclusivity, opportunity, and innovation. By harnessing these offerings with strategic acumen, startups can transcend traditional capital constraints. This unleashes a trajectory of sustainable growth and innovation. Endowed with a broader spectrum of opportunities, investors are empowered to partake in the entrepreneurial journey. This contributes to the next wave of business innovation.

In this changing landscape, informed decision-making, strategic alignment, and technological integration emerge as the triumvirate forces moving both startups and investors towards unprecedented horizons of opportunity and growth.

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Your business might be everything you could ever want it to be, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. We should all be striving for success in everything we do. Exploring enhancement opportunities with the latest technology and AI makes sense. Not every business owner will know the most effective ways to use tech to their advantage, so it doesn’t hurt to perform research. 

How to Enhance Your Business With AI

Automated Employee Screening

Many HR processes can be time-intensive. This can be frustrating if your job involves hiring new employees quickly to fill employee shortages. Your business may not have time to browse hundreds of applications and interview dozens of potential employees. 

That’s where recruitment AI or automated employee screening comes in. Some AI programs can perform initial assessments of potential employees on your behalf to determine their suitability. For example, if you own a therapy clinic and need to hire a new therapist who has EMDR training, your automated screening program can prioritize the most fitting applicants on this basis. Once the AI has done its job, you can make your hiring decision from a much smaller pool of potential applicants to save time. 

Social Media Management Tools

Most business owners know how effective social media can be for enhancing a business. Yet, they can find these platforms overwhelming when there are so many to join. Fortunately, many social media management tools are designed to help companies streamline this critical task. You no longer need to create posts on each platform. Instead, you can schedule them and monitor the results within one piece of innovative software. 

Accounting Software

Accounting is a crucial operation within businesses. Accounting processes show you where you’re growing your revenue, whether customers pay their bills on time, and if you’re making profits or losses. 

However, it can be complex and time-intensive. As a result, many businesses outsource accounting to professionals at a significant cost. AI in accounting could be a game-changer. AI accounting software can analyze financial data, predict trends, calculate financial health, and identify patterns to help you make budgeting decisions. 

Manufacturing Robots

Worker shortages are affecting many industries, manufacturing included. While you might think you just have to wait until skilled workers come along, that might not be the case. Many technology companies are working on robotic systems to supplement human workforces. 

They can work with and around humans, adjust their behaviors to suit workflow speeds and tackle tasks you might otherwise need to hire humans for. It’s important to note that these robots aren’t designed to replace humans. Instead, they are being marketed as ‘cobots’ or collaborative robots who work independently in a shared space with humans. In most situations, they are coded to perform single tasks.

As a result, they can free up human employees for more complex and skilled tasks. While expensive to implement in some industries, manufacturing robots might save your business money in the long run. 

Enhancing your business with AI and technology won’t happen overnight, but it can happen with effort and time. Don’t be afraid to try new processes and technologies in your business, even if you’re unsure if they’ll work for you. You might then be in a strong position to see your business thrive.

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Electric bikes, also known as e-bikes, have gained immense popularity recently due to their convenience and eco-friendly nature. One such e-bike that has captured the attention of both enthusiasts and beginners is the HeyBike Brawn. In this comprehensive review, we will delve into the various aspects of the HeyBike Brawn electric bike, including its design, performance, safety features, and more. Let’s jump right in!

Unboxing and Assembly

When you first receive the HeyBike Brawn, you’ll notice the careful packaging that ensures the bike arrives in pristine condition. The unboxing experience is straightforward, and all the necessary components are included in the package. These components include the handlebars, gooseneck, front tire, headlight, and pedals. With the help of the provided tools, assembling the HeyBike Brawn is a breeze and can be completed in just 15 minutes.

Motor and Battery

The HeyBike Brawn is equipped with a powerful 48V 750W brushless motor, setting it apart from other e-bikes on the market. This motor provides ample power and speed, allowing you to tackle any terrain effortlessly. Additionally, the Brawn features a rechargeable 864Wh removable battery, which offers a generous range of 45-65 miles with pedal assist and 35-45 miles in pure electric mode. The battery can be easily charged in 4-5 hours using the included charger.

Design and Features

The HeyBike Brawn boasts a motorcycle-inspired design that is both stylish and functional. Its aluminum alloy frame is sturdy and can support a maximum load of 400 pounds, making it suitable for riders of all sizes. The 26″ x 4″ fat tires provide excellent traction and stability, allowing smooth rides on various terrains. The dual-crown front fork and hydraulic seat post add to the overall comfort and control of the bike.

The handlebars of the HeyBike Brawn are straight and fitted with silicone rubber grips for a secure and comfortable grip. The bike features a 7-speed Shimano derailleur, hydraulic disc brakes, and a thumb throttle for easy acceleration. The multi-functional LCD mounted on the center of the handlebars provides essential information such as battery level, speed, and distance traveled.

Safety Features

Safety is paramount for e-bikes, and the HeyBike Brawn has several features to ensure a secure riding experience. The bike has a bright front headlamp that automatically adjusts its brightness based on the lighting conditions. Reflective strips and reflectors are also on the tires, enhancing visibility during nighttime rides. Furthermore, the HeyBike Brawn has front and rear hydraulic disc brakes, providing reliable stopping power even at high speeds.

HeyBike App

To enhance the riding experience, HeyBike offers a companion app for iOS and Android devices. The app allows you to control various aspects of the bike, such as turning it on and off, setting a proximity lock, and personalizing the pedal assist level and top speed. The app also provides detailed information about your rides, including distance, speed, and battery usage. While the app is user-friendly, some users have reported occasional issues with the ride-recording function.

Performance and Handling

The HeyBike Brawn delivers an exceptional performance on various terrains. Its powerful motor enables a top speed of 28 mph, allowing for swift and effortless rides. The hydraulic front suspension effectively absorbs shocks and bumps, ensuring a comfortable and smooth ride. However, some riders have noted that the bike would benefit from rear suspension to improve its handling capabilities further.

The HeyBike Brawn’s 48V/18Ah battery provides ample power and allows for long rides without the need for frequent recharging. Even when the battery power is low, the bike maintains its performance, ensuring a consistent and enjoyable riding experience. The hydraulic seat post makes adjusting the saddle height a breeze, allowing for quick and easy customization.

See Also: Apple, Google Call on California to Change Self-driving Tests

Quality Control Issues

While the HeyBike Brawn offers impressive features and performance, some users have reported quality control issues out of the box. These issues include noisy brakes and difficulty maintaining the bike in first gear. However, it’s worth noting that HeyBike has been responsive to customer concerns and has provided prompt replacements for defective components.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the HeyBike Brawn electric bike offers a powerful and versatile riding experience suitable for urban commuting and off-road adventures. With its robust motor, long-lasting battery, and comfortable design, the Brawn is a reliable companion for riders of all skill levels. While some quality control issues have been reported, HeyBike’s customer support has been commendable in addressing these concerns. If you’re searching for an e-bike that combines performance, style, and affordability, the HeyBike Brawn is definitely worth considering.

Featured Image Credit: From the HeyBike Brawn Product Page. Thank you!

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Tech companies, with their fast-paced innovation and scaling ambitions, are not immune to the financial ebbs and flows that can cripple any business. When it comes to managing cash flow, the stakes are high, and the challenges are unique to this high-growth industry.

Common Cash Flow Issues for Tech Companies

According to the latest business data and reports curated by Exploding Topics, 90 percent of startups fail. Pretty encouraging, right?

Across basically all industries, the average failure rate for year one is 10 percent – meaning one out of every 10 businesses is no longer open 12 months after launch. That number skyrockets in years two through five when 70 percent of all new businesses will close up shop.

While you can’t look at all businesses in a vacuum, studying the trends is interesting. For example, first-time startup founders have a success rate of just 18 percent. But if there’s one statistic that stands out as a universal truth for tech companies, it’s this: 16 percent of all businesses fail due to cash flow problems.

Cash flow problems are the number one cause of failure outside of poor product-market fit and incorrect marketing strategies.

“Cash flow problems contribute significantly to the business failure rate in the United States,” Exploding Topics explains. “Most entrepreneurs who launch with insufficient funding, product or service prices that are not market-related, or optimistic sales projections end up with a failing startup.”

Tech companies are known for their fast-paced innovation and desire to scale past all issues and restraints ambitiously. However they often find themselves victimized by costly cash flow issues. Here are some of the big challenges:

Rapid Growth

Tech companies thrive on innovation, and R&D is at the core of their operations. However, pursuing cutting-edge technologies and product development can be a double-edged sword. While R&D is essential for staying competitive, it can strain a company’s cash flow due to its high costs. This includes expenses related to hiring top talent, procuring equipment, and conducting experiments. Without the proper prioritization and allocation of the R&D budget, things can go sideways quickly.

Expanding Workforce

As most tech companies scale, there’s a need to hire more employees to support the growth that’s happening. This is great, but it’s also a gamble. Hiring too quickly can lead to massive overhead and HR expenses. If sales slow down, management is left holding an expensive bag with nowhere to go.

Irregular Revenue

Combine all of the rapid growth with irregular revenue and things get sticky in a hurry. Tech companies often rely on the launch of new products or updates to generate revenue. This dependency on product release cycles can lead to irregular cash flow patterns. During the development phase, cash may be pouring into R&D and marketing, causing temporary imbalances in the company’s cash flow.

Subscription Challenges

The big trend for tech companies is to offer subscription-based products that deliver consistent and predictable recurring revenue. While this is nice in theory – and can be highly profitable once the business steadies – many companies fail to account for high churn rates. This is especially problematic when businesses use free and discounted trials to bring customers in the door. They might feel like they’re scaling rapidly, only to see 40 to 50 percent of these new users walk out the door within 30-60 days.

When you combine rapid growth with irregular revenue streams, it’s often like having a ticking time bomb beneath the surface of your business. Things might work well for a while, but it’s unsustainable. Eventually, something breaks. And that’s precisely why something must be done to counteract the underlying issues and improve cash flow…sooner rather than later.

5 Strategies for Dealing With Cash Flow Issues

If your company is struggling through cash flow issues, it’s essential that you don’t just sit back and hope things get better. Top tech companies – the ones that scale and thrive – implement proactive strategies for dealing with these underlying issues. Let’s explore a few of the top options you have available to you.

1. Optimize R&D Expenditures

To maintain a competitive edge in your company, you must invest in research and development. But as discussed above, investing too heavily in R&D can knock your cash flow and balance sheet out of whack.

One effective approach is to become more strategic by prioritizing critical projects that will deliver an immediate ROI. This ultimately boosts your cash flow and gives you more resources to focus on in the long-term ROI projects down the road.

Additionally, consider streamlining R&D processes to reduce costs and speed up the time-to-market. This may involve implementing agile methodologies or fostering cross-functional collaboration.

2. Master Customer Billing Cycles

As previously mentioned, many tech companies operate with subscription business models. The benefits of this are clearly documented – and you likely already know what they are – but the challenges are less commonly discussed. If you want to operate on a predominantly subscription-based model, that’s totally fine. (Many successful tech companies do.) You just need to have a plan for mastering customer billing cycles to have a more predictable cash flow.

One option is to implement tiered pricing models, which can help attract a wider range of customers and provide a steady stream of income. By offering different pricing tiers with varying features and services, tech companies can cater to cost-conscious customers and those seeking premium offerings.

Leveraging automated invoicing and payment systems is another crucial step. Automation reduces the risk of late or missed payments, improves billing accuracy, and frees up resources that would otherwise be spent on manual billing processes.

3. Form Strategic Partnerships

Have you ever considered building out strategic partnerships or collaborations with other tech companies? Assuming they aren’t direct competitors, this can open up new revenue and cost savings avenues.

Consider how entering into a joint venture or revenue-sharing agreement with a partner could complement some of your existing offerings. It could also open you up to entirely new customer bases, which paves the way for more customer onboarding and cash flow.

The key is to identify the right partners. This usually means finding:

• Companies that sell complementary products or services
• Companies that are not direct competitors
• Companies that serve a niche or segment of the marketplace that you don’t currently have access to
• Companies that can help you achieve lower expenses in certain areas

Now, it’s obviously not all about you. The other company is also going to want to find reasons to partner with you. That being said, it can take a lot of effort and due diligence to find the right partnership. However, once you do, it can instantly alleviate a lot of cash flow pressure.

4. Look to External Funding Options

In cases where internal cash flow is insufficient to support growth initiatives, tech companies can explore external funding options. These include seeking venture capital, angel investors, or crowdfunding.

Venture capital firms and angel investors often provide funding in exchange for equity, allowing tech companies to secure the capital needed for expansion. Conversely, crowdfunding involves raising funds from many individual investors or backers through online platforms.

If you do go down this route, carefully consider the terms and conditions of the funding source to ensure that it actually aligns with your company’s long-term goals and isn’t just a short-term stopgap.

5. Consider Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Nobody wants to think about bankruptcy. However, if your cash flow issues are severe enough, it’s something to at least consider. And despite what most people think, it doesn’t necessarily spell the end of your business. In a lot of cases, it provides the relief you need to move on. It’s kind of like hitting the “reset” button.

“I like to think of Chapter 13 bankruptcy as a ‘pay what you can afford’ approach to dealing with overwhelming debt,” attorney Rowdy G. Williams explains. “It can be an uncomfortable 36 to 60 months, but there’s immense relief on the back end.”

Unlike other forms of bankruptcy, Chapter 13 gives you options for keeping your business. You basically spend three to five years paying what you can on your taxes and debts. (These debts usually come with a zero percent interest attached to them.) After that, you’re relieved from the responsibility to pay any remaining balance on certain types of debt.

With Chapter 13, you give yourself time and allow you to keep valuable business assets. While it’s not the perfect option in every instance, it’s often the best choice for tech companies and founders who can’t escape cash flow issues using other methods.

Put Your Business on the Fast Track for Success

There’s no perfect formula for success. Every tech company faces unique cash flow problems and circumstances. However, if you’re willing to lean in, understand the problems, and tackle each issue with proactive strategies proven to work, you’re much more likely to succeed. Hopefully, this article has given you some ideas and food for thought. Now, it’s up to you to get out and execute.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels; Thank you!

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The trucking industry plays a vital role in the economy, transporting goods across vast distances and ensuring the smooth flow of commerce. However, with this role comes significant responsibility, particularly concerning road safety. Despite federal truck regulations, most truck drivers do not adhere to them. Therefore, investigating trucking companies for negligence is a crucial and complex process to ensure the highest levels of safety and accountability within the industry.

This comprehensive investigation involves analyzing various aspects of a trucking company’s operations, compliance with regulations, and hiring practices. By shedding light on potential negligence, these investigations contribute to a safer transportation environment and promote accountability within the industry.

Gathering Evidence: The Foundation of an Investigation

Collecting and analyzing comprehensive evidence is at the core of any investigation into trucking companies for negligence. This evidence provides a foundation for the investigation, allowing for a thorough examination of the company’s practices and compliance with safety regulations. Key elements of evidence gathering include obtaining driver logs, maintenance records, and dispatch communications.

Driver logs offer critical insights into drivers’ working hours, rest breaks, and compliance with mandated rest periods. Analyzing these logs can reveal if drivers adhere to hours-of-service regulations designed to prevent driver fatigue—a leading cause of accidents in the industry.

Maintenance records offer crucial information regarding the upkeep and safety of the company’s vehicles. Regular maintenance is vital to ensure the proper functioning of essential systems and components, ultimately reducing the risk of accidents caused by mechanical failures.

Dispatch communications provide valuable data regarding how drivers are managed and assigned routes. Examining these communications can offer insights into the company’s oversight and management practices, shedding light on any potential negligence or pressure to violate safety regulations.

Scrutinizing Hiring Practices and Training Protocols

A trucking company’s hiring and training practices are fundamental aspects of ensuring safety on the road. Investigating these practices involves assessing the company’s screening processes for new hires, the adequacy of training provided to drivers, and ongoing professional development opportunities.

The first step in this process is evaluating the company’s hiring criteria and procedures. This includes examining how thoroughly the company screens potential drivers, checking their qualifications, experience, driving history, and compliance with regulatory standards. Rigorous hiring practices help ensure that only qualified and responsible individuals are entrusted with operating large commercial vehicles.

Training protocols are equally important in promoting safety. Investigating the training programs a company provides to its drivers involves assessing the comprehensiveness of the training, the inclusion of safety modules, and the frequency of refresher courses. These ongoing training are highly recommended as they are vital in mitigating truck accidents.

Analyzing Compliance with Regulations: A Key Pillar of Safety

These regulations encompass a wide range of safety measures, including hours-of-service requirements, weight restrictions, vehicle maintenance standards, and drug and alcohol testing policies.

Hours-of-service regulations dictate the maximum number of hours a driver can operate a commercial vehicle within a specific timeframe. Investigating a company’s compliance with these regulations involves verifying that drivers are not exceeding these limits, which is crucial in preventing driver fatigue — a significant road hazard.

Weight restrictions are in place to ensure that vehicles are not overloaded, which could jeopardize their stability and safety on the road. Investigating compliance with these restrictions involves reviewing records to confirm that the company adheres to weight limits and properly distributes cargo.

Vehicle maintenance standards mandate regular inspections and upkeep of commercial vehicles to maintain their safety and functionality. Investigating compliance with these standards entails examining maintenance records and ensuring that the company follows recommended maintenance schedules.

Drug and alcohol testing policies are essential for maintaining a drug-free work environment and ensuring that drivers are fit for duty. Investigating compliance with these policies involves reviewing records of drug and alcohol tests, confirming adherence to testing protocols, and taking appropriate action if violations are found.

Assessing Monitoring Systems and Technologies

In the modern era, technology plays a significant role in monitoring and improving safety within the trucking industry. Investigating trucking companies for negligence includes assessing the monitoring systems and technologies they have in place to track driver behavior, vehicle performance, and compliance with safety regulations.

One key technology is Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs), which are now mandated by law to record a driver’s hours of service accurately. Investigating a company’s use and implementation of ELDs involves ensuring compliance with ELD regulations and confirming that the devices are effectively used to prevent hours-of-service violations and reduce driver fatigue.

Telematics systems provide real-time data on a vehicle’s location, speed, braking patterns, and more. Investigating a company’s utilization of telematics involves assessing whether they effectively monitor and use this data to promote safe driving behaviors and optimize routes for efficiency and safety.

Dashcams and driver monitoring systems are additional technologies that can provide valuable insights into driver behavior and adherence to safety practices. Investigating the use and integration of these systems helps determine if the company effectively utilizes the recorded data to identify areas for improvement and address potential safety concerns.

Delving into Accident History: Patterns and Recurring Issues

Examining a trucking company’s accident history is a critical aspect of the investigation process, as it provides valuable insights into any patterns of negligence or recurring safety issues. This analysis involves reviewing accidents, incidents, and near-miss records to identify common factors and determine if the company has taken appropriate corrective actions.

The aim is to identify any trends or recurrent issues that may indicate systemic problems within the company. For instance, frequent accidents related to driver fatigue may suggest inadequate hours-of-service compliance or insufficient training on fatigue management. By identifying these patterns, appropriate steps can be taken to rectify the underlying issues and prevent future accidents.

Legal Measures and Accountability: Holding Negligent Companies Responsible

One of the primary goals of investigating trucking companies for negligence is to hold them accountable for their actions and ensure that they prioritize safety in their operations. Legal measures are crucial in achieving this objective and promoting a culture of responsibility within the industry.

Legal action may be initiated to hold the company accountable when negligence is uncovered through an investigation. This can involve filing lawsuits to seek compensation for victims of accidents caused by the company’s negligence. Additionally, regulatory authorities may impose fines or other penalties based on the severity of the violations found during the investigation.

The legal process helps send a clear message that negligence and non-compliance with safety regulations will not be tolerated. It serves as a deterrent for companies to maintain the highest safety standards and act responsibly, ultimately contributing to a safer road environment for all.

Conclusion

Investigating trucking companies for negligence is a critical step toward ensuring the public’s safety on the roads. By carefully examining various aspects of a company’s operations, compliance with regulations, hiring practices, and accident history, these investigations aim to uncover negligence and promote accountability within the industry. Through the diligent gathering of evidence, scrutiny of hiring and training practices, analysis of compliance with regulations, assessment of monitoring technologies, and evaluation of accident history, the transportation sector can strive for continuous improvement and prioritize safety. Legal measures further reinforce the importance of safety and encourage companies to uphold the highest standards, ultimately working towards a safer future for all road users.

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