Cybercrime; Is Your Business Vulnerable?

March 9, 2016 by

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Big and small business are vulnerable to cybercrime.  Many small businesses frequently do not have the budget necessary to protect their data from a cyber attack, thus making them more vulnerable. For many small businesses the financial hardship they endure due to this crime leaves them unable to recover for many years, setting back their business and profits for the near future.

For more about this topic, follow the links below.

 Hacked! Business bank accounts vulnerable to cybercriminals

It’s a chilling moment when a small business owner discovers hackers have stolen thousands of dollars from the company checking account.

Cybercriminals took an average of $32,000 from small business accounts, according to a December survey of owners by the advocacy group National Small Business Association. And businesses don’t have the same legal protection from bank account fraud consumers have.

The Electronic Funds Transfer Act, passed in 1978, states that it’s intended to protect individual consumers from bank account theft, but makes no mention of businesses. Whether a business is protected depends on the agreement it signs with a bank, says Doug Johnson, a senior vice president with the American Bankers Association, an industry group. If the business hasn’t complied with any security measures required by the agreement, it could be liable for the stolen money, he says.

Businesses fail to prepare as cybercrime surges globally

Cybercrime is now the second most reported economic crime and has affected at least a third of organizations in the past 24 months, yet many businesses are still underprepared, a PWC report has found.

According to the Global Economic Crime Survey, cybercrime has jumped from being the 4th to 2nd most reported kind of economic crime, behind only asset misappropriation. Meanwhile, the losses associated with cybercrime are huge and growing, but an alarming number of businesses don’t have a plan in place.

The report finds that only 37% of organizations have a cyber incident response plan, despite the fact that 61% of CEOs said they were concerned about cybersecurity. This backs up the findings from last week’s RSA Conference report, which found just one in seven security chiefs report directly to their CEO, despite rising concern within their businesses.

Around 50 respondents to the PWC survey said they had lost in excess of $5 million, while a third of these said the figure was greater than $100 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of companies reporting losses of more than $1 million as a result of cybercrime attacks doubled since 2014.

 Chris McCarty: Protect big, little data against cybercrime

​You probably know about the big breaches. JP Morgan Chase. Home Depot. Target. Maybe you even read a few of those juicy emails between Sony executives bashing Angelina Jolie and Will Smith. I can imagine your reaction: “That’s crazy, but what’re the chances it happens to me or my little company?”

The chances are much greater than you think. In November, during a data breach and privacy law program in Chicago, I attended a session presented by Wesley Hsu, the executive assistant U.S. attorney who headed up the Sony investigation. Here a few statistics provided by Mr. Hsu that should open the eyes of anyone in business:

Every day, there are twice as many cybercrime victims as newborn babies;

There are 50,000 new victims each hour, 820 new victims each minute and 14 new victims each second;

The total number of estimated cybercrime victims over the past year is greater than the combined populations of the United States and Canada.

 

 

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Retirement For The Small Business Owner

February 25, 2016 by

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Many small business owners work way past the time they can retire.  The reasons are simple:  They enjoy their business and the challenges they face day in and day out.  Many small business owners take an active role in their business even if the reins have been passed down to their business partners or their children. Financially, many small business owners are prepared.  Others do count on their retirement that they have set aside, but believe social security will provide some of the funds they need to live well during their retirement years.  If you are a small business owner and need help funding your retirement ,or don’t know where to start, follow the links below for more information.

Captain401 Raises $3.5 Million to Help Small-Business Employees Save for Retirement

Captain401 Inc. has raised $3.5 million in seed funding to help small businesses and startups give their employees retirement savings help similar to that of larger and deeper-pocketed employers.

The company’s site and service allows an employer to set up a 401(k) retirement savings plan for employees in minutes, without the paperwork, manual administration, repetitive data entry and high fees affiliated with traditional retirement plan providers like MetLife MET -0.47%, Fidelity, or Charles Schwab SCHW -2.45%.

And once employees enroll, it helps them set goals and automatically invest towards meeting them.

Investors in Captain401 include SoftTech VC, SV Angel, Y Combinator, Crunch Fund,Slow Ventures, Susa Ventures, FundersClub and several individual angel investors including NerdWallet co-founder Jacob Gibson and Stripe Chief Technology Officer Greg Brockman.

Captain401 co-founder and Chief Executive Roger Lee said he was inspired to help small businesses extend a 401(k) plan to their employees while earlier working an advertising tech startup, PaperG, which is still in business.

“I’m an advocate of personal financial health, and it’s the right thing to help employees save for the future and on taxes,” he said. “But without a full-time HR person, accountant and the like, it took us years to offer a 401(k) benefit, even though that would be a basic part of an offer to employees from a larger company.”

Retirement planning steps for small-business owners

According to the Small Business Association web site, there are 28 million small businesses in America — and that number is growing. For many of these entrepreneurs, their business may be their single largest asset.

So what happens when it’s time to retire?

Often, the business owner may look to cash out of the business either by selling it or by passing it on to family members. In both instances, the business owner needs to have a succession plan in place well before he or she plans to retire.

Unfortunately, many business owners don’t have a written succession plan. According to the Financial Planning Association/CNBC Business Owner Succession Planning Surveyreleased in 2015, 78 percent of respondents said they plan to sell their businesses to fund their retirement, and that the proceeds are needed to fund 60 percent to 100 percent of their retirement needs. Yet, less than 30 percent actually have a written succession plan.

The goal of a succession plan is to allow an organization to continue to conduct business even in the event of a key individual’s departure — whether that departure is planned (such as through retirement) or unplanned. While business succession planning is critical to the survival and stability of any organization, it also is crucial to the retirement goals of millions of aging baby boomers.

 Small businesses could pool retirement plans under Obama proposal

President Barack Obama wants small businesses to help more Americans save for retirement.

One-third of American workers don’t have access to a retirement savings plan at work, and many of them work at small businesses. Only half of employees at businesses with fewer than 50 employees have access to a retirement plan through their employer, according to the White House.

As part of his upcoming budget plan, Obama wants to encourage more small businesses to offer retirement plans by making them easier to administer and providing tax credits to offset some of the costs.

His proposal also includes a new mandate for employers to make part-time workers eligible for their retirement plans. Workers who have worked for at least 500 hours per year for a company for three years would be eligible for this benefit.

This mandate is opposed by the National Federation of Independent Business.

“Many small businesses have a handful of full-time employees and larger part-time workforce,” said NFIB Research Director Holly Wade. “If they’re forced by the government to offer retirement benefits to everyone, some may very well discontinue the plan altogether. That would be a classic unintended consequence.”

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Small Business Financial News

February 18, 2016 by

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Depending on what news you read small business in the United States might be doing great or it may not.  According to CNBC -small business confidence is at the lowest since February 2014.  If you instead look at the survey conducted by Gallup at the beginning of this year for Wells Fargo, you will find that small business optimism jumped 13 points to reach the highest level in a year.

As a small business owner you have to decide for yourself – Bank statements handy — whether the economy and your optimism are at a good point at this time for you and your business.  Your industry may be doing extremely well while others industries are collapsing, or you may be ready to hire employees this year independently of what the polls are telling you. You know your small business better than anyone, make decisions that benefit your business and those working for you. Everything else will fall into place.

For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

Small businesses in best financial shape in eight years

Most small business owners are feeling good about their financial situation, and that’s improved their outlook for the coming year.

That’s according to a quarterly survey of small business owners conducted in January by Gallup for Wells Fargo. This survey’s index of small business optimism jumped 13 points from November to 67, its highest level in a year.

These results run counter to what the National Federation of Independent Business found in its January survey of its members. NFIB’s small business indexfell last month to its lowest level in two years. The questions in each survey are slightly different, so that might account for some of the difference in the results.

The most noteworthy finding in the Wells Fargo survey was that two-thirds of small business owners rated their financial situation as good. That’s the highest percentage in eight years. More than 70 percent expect their financial situation will be good 12 months from now.

What small businesses can learn from a big business’s mistakes

It’s not hard to think of big businesses that have run into problems trying to grow in an economy that’s expanding in low single digits and where organic growth is very hard to generate. Mergers and acquisitions are increasingly becoming the best way to deliver the rapid growth that owners want and investors demand. Unfortunately merging and acquiring is a minefield – no matter how big or small the numbers involved might be.

The list of businesses that have overreached by borrowing money to buy a rival is long. Think of Hewlett Packard’s $5 billion write-off following its $11 billion acquisition of the software group Autonomy. Or Quaker’s disastrous takeover of Snapple, a deal which ended up costing Quaker $2 million for every day it owned the soft-drink group. Then there was the telecommunications giant Sprint, which ended up writing off a staggering $29.5 billion after buying Nextel. Its due diligence and haste to make the deal happen resulted in one of the biggest write-downs in corporate history.

Are the Conservatives losing the small business vote?

Government cuts alongside changes to tax returns, pensions and taxes on dividends is leading to a growing sense of outrage among entrepreneurs.

hen the first Conservative majority government in nearly 20 years came into power last May, there were high hopes among business owners. The Tories had assiduously courted support from SMEs during the election campaign, even launching a small business manifesto, pledging to cut red tape and review business rates.

With Cameron et al in Downing Street, many business owners breathed a sigh of relief. Among them was Richard Merrin, managing director of communications business Spreckley. “The biggest inhibitor over the past year was the prospect of the general election itself,” says Merrin. “It was no surprise to me that the very next day we saw an immediate uplift in new business inquiries and there is no doubt that the more business friendly Tories gaining an outright majority added to that confidence.”

 

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Small Business Confidence in The United States

February 9, 2016 by

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2016 has not been kind to the stock market. The quarter of a percent increase to the interest rate last year scared many people, even though analysts predicted the change would not be felt too much.  Globally, the markets are not doing any better than the US market, and commerce has slow down across the country and industries.  But despite all these issues, and despite the fact the small business confidence it at its lowest since 2014, the small business community feel confident about the labor market in this country.

For more about this follow the links below.

US small business confidence at two-year low

U.S. small business confidence fell in January to its lowest level in nearly two years amid worries about the near-term outlook for business conditions and sales growth, consistent with a recent slowdown in economic growth.

The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index fell 1.3 points to 93.9 last month, the weakest reading since February 2014. Still, small businesses remained fairly upbeat about the labor market.

The NFIB said there was little sign that a stock market selloff and December’s interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, the first in nearly a decade, had impacted confidence. Owners’ perceptions of business conditions in six months weakened sharply as did their views of expected sales.

Workers Are Ready To Quit; Small Business Pay Hikes Hit 8-Year High

Americans are ready to quit, while small firms are hiking pay rapidly despite weak sales and gloomy forecasts. Business continue to trim inventories too.

Job Openings Jump; More Workers Quit

Job openings rose to 5.61 million in December from 5.35 million in November, the Labor Department said in its JOLTS survey. The number of hires climbed to 5.36 million from November’s 5.26 million. That’s the highest since September 2004.

Total separations climbed to 5.1 million. Quits hit a 10-year high of 3.06 million, up sharply from November’s 2.86 million. That suggests workers are growing more confident about finding other, better employment.

Wholesale Destockpiling Continues

December wholesales inventories fell 0.3% vs. the 0.2% drop expected. November stockpiles were revised from -0.3% to -0.4%. Meanwhile, wholesale sales fell 0.3% after tumbling 1.3% in November. The data suggest inventories were a slightly larger drag on Q4 GDP than first thought. Q4 GDP growth was initially estimated at a 0.7% annual rate, with other data also signaling downward revisions.

Rural businesses are struggling to recruit young people

Poor public transport, sluggish broadband and a talent drain to big cities is making it hard for countryside enterprises to survive

​face a number of challenges with running my rural Indian cookery school in Somerset. So when I had a chance to question George Osborne at the recent Federation of Small Businesses policy conference in London, I asked: “What assistance will there be to attract skilled young people to settle and take jobs in rural areas?”

Osborne suggested broadband was the answer, much to our amusement. His response missed the point: we do need better broadband, poor internet speeds are an ongoing problem in rural areas, but it isn’t the solution to attracting young talent.

To recruit young people I’m competing with a talent drain into the cities. Many young people who grow up in rural Somerset leave for university in Bristol, Bath and Cardiff and never return. Poor public transport links and living costs put them off. The majority of new people moving to my village are retirees.

 

 

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So You Want to Buy an Online Business?

December 4, 2015 by

business (2)There’s a cycle in the development of any new technology and how it enters the business community.  Part of the growth process for any new idea is to be a good enough model to establish a business around it, and have that business become valuable enough to resale.

In the small business community we’re beginning to see the maturing of the online business market.  Up until very recently when people talked about owning an online business they were talking about starting one.  But, that’s beginning to change – small online businesses are trickling into the business-for-sale market. 

Owning and running an online business, like any business, has its positives and negatives.  The way to increase the positives and decrease the negatives begins with the buying process, nothing takes the place of solid due diligence.  Here are 2 vital areas to consider.

Technical

An online business is in a volatile and rapidly changing industry.  How much technical knowledge do you have and how much is needed for the business?  Do the ideas of regularly tracking site traffic metrics, developing SEO tactics, rooting out plagiarized content and maintaining your legal/ethical responsibly for security excite or bore you?

If you can’t or don’t want to manage the day to day technical issues you should have answers to these questions – who will, how much will they cost and how hard are they to find?  The problem of attracting and retaining qualified people is an on-going issue that’s not going to be resolved any time soon, if ever.

Financial

Be sure to assess the company’s actual value, risk and outlook.  Traffic totals are routinely unknown, manipulated and lied about.  Traffic is money, so don’t accept guesses or vague numbers.  The financial information should line up with the site’s metrics, all of which should be hard numbers gathered over a realistic time period.

If you aren’t an expert hire someone who is, someone who knows the industry’s past and current benchmarks.  As well as, someone who understands and has the data for the future outlook specific to your product or service.  Over inflated forecasts for the financial potential of online businesses are legendary.

Don’t be swayed by the hype.  The process of buying an online business is the same as buying one in a more established area (i.e., retail or food store, machine shop, insurance agency).  Taking your time and doing the due diligence is still the key. 

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4 Ways to Increase the Bottom Line

November 16, 2015 by

donk1-300x266The majority of small businesses fail because they aren’t able to generate enough operating capital, they simply run out of money.  But, there are ways to prevent this.  The lack or loss of money is overwhelmingly caused by internal problems.  Contrary to most owners’ beliefs, external forces are responsible for just a fraction of small business failures.

Companies run out of money because the owners won’t or don’t know how to address their structural and operational problems.  Commonly, the actual causes of the typical business’s collapse can be traced to 4 problem areas.  Therefore, if addressed in a timely manner, profit and profit margins can be increased when the problems are identified and fixed.

Key to an efficient operation is putting the right person in the right job.  It’s vital to accurately assess employees’ skills, everyone has strengths and weaknesses.  This is especially true in small businesses where family and friends are often in jobs they aren’t suited for.  Putting people in positions they’re not trained to do or just aren’t capable of doing affects the bottom line. 

Lack of accountability – for owners (who usually don’t hold themselves accountable for their actions), managers and workers – is an enormous problem in workplaces.  This area all by itself can financially affect a business to the point of closing.  Employees, owners and managers must be accountable for their responsibilities and behaviors. 

Another area that directly affects profitability is lack of or poor internal and external communication.  Billions of dollars have been lost simply because somebody didn’t pass on important information, talk over a problem, speak up with a concern or listen enough.  Prioritizing effective communication, at all levels, is a smart fix.

The final area, improve production efficiency, is a no-brainer.  Some of the benefits include: it’s cheaper to produce the product, requires less rework, increased customer satisfaction, is easier to sell, generates referrals and decreased waste. All of which contributes to increased earnings.

These are 4 main ways a company can increase its bottom line.  If a small business owner is willing to learn some new skills, and consistently apply them, the monetary and non-monetary rewards (i.e. time off, happier employees, secure future, increased quality of life) are well worth it. 

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Is SEO For The Small Business Owner?

October 29, 2015 by

Customer Relationship Management business chart on a digital tabFor some businesses SEO sometimes does not make sense.  It is no wonder then that many of the small businesses in the United States are not engage in trying or using SEO for their business. If you are a small business owner you may not have the budget or the incentive to undertake SEO as well. And although many businesses struggle to measure the ROI when hiring a company to do they search engine optimization, it is important to be aware of the benefits SEO brings to businesses when they do it well.

7 Credit Card Perks for Small Business Owners

You won’t get these sign-up bonuses and introductory APRs with consumer cards.

Owners of both new and established small businesses can benefit from a broad range of valuable perks offered with credit cards. Business credit cards not only provide a means for building and establishing business credit, but they can assist in record-keeping, preserving cash flow and separating business and personal finances. Much like consumer credit cards, the right business card can offer a plethora of rewards that you can redeem for flights, hotel stays and cash back on purchases.

Here are seven significant credit card perks for small business owners.

1. Valuable sign-up bonuses. Many credit cards offer a range of one-time promotions designed to attract new cardholders and business owners. These promotions might include sign-up bonuses allowing you to earn hundreds of dollars if you meet a specific spending requirement within a few months of opening the account. Sign-up bonuses may also award enough miles and points that you start out with free airline flights or hotel stays, simply for using your credit card.

Why Aren’t More Small Businesses Using SEO?

For more than a decade, thousands of businesses have enjoyed the benefits of high rankings in Google searches (and searches on competing engines) thanks to their SEO efforts. Larger corporations pour hundreds of thousands of dollars and allocate entire departments to gaining more online visibility, but even small- to mid-sized businesses can use a fraction of that budget to get more traffic and sales.

However, according to a recent survey by the Small Business Authority (SBA), less than 50 percent of small business owners in the United States think of inbound traffic from search engines as an “important” source of future business. Another 14 percent declared themselves unsure.

It’s also worth noting that only 17 percent of surveyed small business owners are actively investing in SEO. However, a startling 39 percent of business owners aren’t investing in any marketing strategies whatsoever, indicating that SEO alone may not be the problem.

How will the candidates help small business?

​All politicians express support for small business. These enterprises are the engines of our economy and represent the entrepreneurial grit that has made this country great. Unfortunately, these rhetorical commitments to Main Street have not always been accompanied by meaningful actions. As a result many small businesses are finding it difficult to launch or grow, while others are failing altogether.

Since the misdeeds that led to the financial crisis of 2008, the federal government has adopted a myriad of regulations and requirements designed to reduce risk-taking by Wall Street. The quest for safer banks and greater financial stability is a good thing. However, we must be careful of what we wish for. The most stable financial system is one with no lending at all and many small businesses today are struggling to find credit.

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Strategic Planning For Small Business Owners

October 7, 2015 by

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Developing a business strategy is for many small business owners a fundamental step that they cannot afford to ignore.  Hiring a business consultant to brainstorm ideas and the steps to put this strategy in place is imperative for the success of the strategy.  Many small business owners ignore the importance of not only developing the strategy , but implementing it as well.  Consistent effort should give you the results that a good implemented strategy can bring to your business. For more about this and other news follow the links below.

STRATEGIC PLANNING: Planning for the future

When you bring up the term “strategic planning” to most company owners, you normally get some hesitant stares and mumbled words. Most owners think strategic planning is only for large companies and the time and resource commitment is too large for them to bear. If done properly, it does not have to be so at all. When most companies really think about how much time they think about and discuss all of the future needs of the business, it probably adds up to more time than an actual planning process would take.

Many companies think they have a strategic plan, but what they really have is a one-year operating plan or budget. A strategic plan looks at all phases of the business over a longer time horizon, normally five years or more. It helps companies set a long-term direction that drives short-term activities and behaviors, and helps allocate time and resources to future endeavors, challenges and opportunities that are out there. We all hear “be proactive, not reactive” all the time — a strategic planning process makes you do just that. You can plan for more than you think you can.

 

The 5 Steps of Strategic Planning for a Small Business

Strategic planning for small business is not a process that is completed overnight–or even within one week. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), planning for growth should include a “high level review of the different elements of your business,” almost as if you were “describing” your company for the first time.  Take a close look at the marketplace, delineate the precise “needs you are trying to satisfy,” and describe to yourselves (to owners and top managers) exactly how your “products and/or services” are meeting the needs of your target “consumers, organizations and/or businesses.” Honestly evaluate your “competitive advantages,” and your “competitive weaknesses,” within your industry and locale. Then, take your time within each of the following business areas.:

Is budgetting drowning strategic planning in your organisation?

​“The budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations”…Jacob Lew

We can hardly see any organisation that does not have a well outlined budget in place. Organisations often rely on their budgets to guide them. It is not out of place to have a budget, but it is not enough to rely only on budget in driving the vision of the entire organisation.

Most organisations have missed it. How? They have allowed the budget to drive the organisation’s vision. Such organisations have worked day and night to develop a well outline budget but may not have realised the need to develop a strategic plan first. For the purpose of clarity, your organisation’s vision and the strategic plan are what drive your budget, and not vice versa.

Organisations that are reactive in their operations have low level of planning effectiveness. They allow the budget alone to drive the plan for the entire organisation. They also view planning as synonymous with financial objectives alone. Some other organisations are traditional in their planning effectiveness, and surprisingly are even better than the reactive organisations.

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It’s Time to Get Serious About Strategic Planning

October 6, 2015 by

business (11)It’s that time of year again. The time of year when companies are — or should be — developing their strategic plans for 2016. Compared to larger companies small business owners are in an enviable position. They have more control over the development and execution of their plans. They can have a greater impact on the profitability and success of their business, with significantly less hassles and politics.
But, the downside is they have fewer resources (people, experience and knowledge) to draw from while formulating their plans. Often, in a small business, owners don’t know where to start or what’s needed to put one together and they need to figure it out for themselves. Here are 3 things they can do to fill in these gaps.
Combine data with intuition
Successful planners strike a balance between relying on just their gut or just the numbers. Usually, an owner falls into 1 of 2 camps — the “I don’t even look at the numbers, I go with my gut” guy and the “I’m a by-the-numbers, they don’t lie” guy. Neither is productive for the long term health of the company, good strategic thinkers use both to counterbalance each other.
Develop a trusted group
The most effective planners solicit information from others (i.e., peers, experts, employees, managers, vendors, customers) who’re successful. Because no one can know everything they seek out knowledge they don’t have. They cobble together their own panel of specialists. However, this isn’t group decision making — it’s about owners gathering data and opinions, and then reaching their own conclusions.
Be willing to learn
Questioning and listening aren’t the same thing. We all know people who ask questions, then don’t pay attention to the answer. The best strategic thinkers are open to what others have to say. They don’t substitute someone else’s judgment for their own, but they’re willing to learn from others.

In addition, not only do they seek knowledge, they look for insight from others. Businesses fail everyday because the person(s) in charge made mistakes based on uniformed, misguided assumptions, ideas and biases. Effective planners learn from mistakes and don’t do them again; ineffective planners make the same ones over and over expecting different results.
Successful, well thought out strategic planning relies on good critical thinking skills, which leads to good decisions. As one of our greatest generals Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”.

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Habits of Successful People You Should Emulate

September 24, 2015 by

59948705Emulating successful entrepreneurs’ habits to achieve success  does not necessarily mean we will achieve it, it just means that we may in the process acquire certain habits that will be beneficial for our business. Every entrepreneur is different, and their businesses and processes are widely diverse as well. By acquiring and fostering better habits and applying them in our business will help us achieve the success we are looking for.

12 Habits That Set Ultra Successful People Apart

Ultra successful people delight themselves by blowing their personal goals out of the water. They succeed along many different dimensions of life—their friendships, their physical and mental health, their families, and their jobs (which they are not only good at but also enjoy).

TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that ultra successful people have a lot in common. In particular, 90% of them are skilled at managing their emotions in order to stay focused, calm, and productive.

These super successful folks have high emotional intelligence (EQ), a quality that’s critical to achieving your dreams.

5 Skills That Are the Foundation of Entrepreneurial Success

Entrepreneurship requires many skills, from financial planning to human resource management, and it’s at times both intimidating and frustrating. Fortunately, if you’ve got a good idea and the commitment to making it work, most of these skills can be picked up along the way. Throughout the course of your business ownership, you’ll make mistakes, learn valuable lessons, and gain experience that teaches you these skills over time.

Unfortunately, this style of learning can sometimes come too late. Some skills need to be learned early on, or else their absence could spell a tragic fate for your business.

If you’re planning on becoming an entrepreneur, or if you’ve just entered the world of business ownership, learn these five skills as early as possible:

7 Successful Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter (Plus Their Best Tweets)

Total madness.

Five-hundred million daily jolts of information, reshuffled every second, weighed up for what value they hold. Each with an average lifetime of 18 minutes.

But let me tell you a secret: virtually all of Twitter just equals noise. Smoke. Stuff you don’t want and can’t use. So why bother?

Because every now and then, it works. You discover an invaluable piece of advice, a powerful insight or a link to an incredible resource.

How? Simple: when you select people to follow and pay attention to, do extra diligence. Take discernment to an extreme.

Yes — you can (and should) follow the Richard Bransons and the Bill Gateses. No doubt they have plenty to offer.

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