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When business professionals do well at their jobs, they get to negotiate for a higher salary at their next review.  When we freelancers do well at our jobs, we usually don’t get that kind of adjustment option. Worse yet, many freelancers get sucked into working for free. Recent research from Approve.io found that 70 percent of freelancers were propositioned to work for free in 2016. And, out of all the creative freelancers studied in this research, photographers and graphic designers were the most likely to be asked to do free work. In the past, other surveys have found that the amount…

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 “Everything’s a battle,” Cindy Gallop sighs, although ti’s clear she relishes those battles. What she means is that the entire Internet has long been divided into two separate, walled fiefdoms: one labelled “pornography,” the other marked with those three dread words “no adult content.” The territory between those two worlds, which she is trying… Read More

Over 10,000 words on productivity – purposely randomized for your exploratory enjoyment! 1. Write down your goals Studies show that while people have the ability to learn in three different modalities visual, auditory and kinesthetic, they prefer one of those over the rest. That being said using all three still reinforces your ability to remember…

The post 100 Ways to Be 100% More Productive In 2018 appeared first on hellofuture.

With the current strong economy, and sparked by the last recession, I’m seeing a real resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit, and more startup activity than ever before. I believe the days of the “job work” mentality are thankfully waning, with more people looking to get satisfaction by making the world a better place, rather than just tolerating brain-numbing work to fund enjoyment elsewhere.

According to the 2017 Kauffman Startup Activity Index, the share of new entrepreneurs who started businesses to pursue opportunity rather than from necessity reached 86 percent, more than 12 percentage points higher than in 2009 at the height of the Great Recession. In addition, young businesses enjoyed a three-decade high five-year survival rate of nearly 50 percent.

There is additional encouraging news for aspiring entrepreneurs on many fronts, just in case you are thinking about joining the existing ranks:

1. Valuations of successful startups have hit an all-time high. An unprecedented number of startups, almost 200 at last count, are now valued above $1 billion, according to a recent Forbes article. Two of these, Uber and Didi Chuxing, have already passed $50 billion. Thus a record number of entrepreneurs (and team members) are getting rich.

2. Initial Public Offerings (IPO) are back as an exit strategy. Bloomberg reports that forty-nine percent more companies went public in 2017 versus 2016. The average amount raised also increased to $175 million. Investors showed an increased appetite for new stocks, with 18 percent of deals pricing above the marketed share price range.

3. Funding for early-stage startups is more available than ever. Last year 200,000+ American angels invested an estimated $25 billion in more than 71,000 startup deals. Crowd funding is setting new records worldwide, with an additional $34 billion in 2017, and VCs poured around $150 billion more into private growth companies last year.

4. Cost of entry for a startup is at an all-time low. I can remember when creating a web site for eCommerce could easily require a million dollar investment. Now you can create a web site for almost nothing – and be on your way with your latest invention or personal services. Smartphone apps can be built for less than $10K, so who needs an investor?

5. Startup incubators and accelerators are popping up everywhere. Business incubators were all the rage before the dot-com bubble (700 for profit, many more non-profit). After the bubble burst and the recession, more than 80% of them disappeared. Now they are back in every community, with the best even waving money at graduates.

6. The world is a now single market, both homogeneous and heterogeneous. Entrepreneurs now can think globally about the opportunity, from day one but start locally. This approach, popularly known as “glocalization,” means you design and deliver global solutions that have total relevance to every local market you plan to attack.

7. Social media is a boon for entrepreneurs and startups. With the key social media platforms today, an entrepreneur can tune a product, build a brand, and grow the business with very low cost and a high interactivity never before possible. The elements include communications, mobile platforms, and location-based services.

8. Large corporations have lost their ability to innovate. Conglomerates, which were the engines of growth and vitality in the twentieth century, have proven themselves unable to innovate, and have a tarnished public image due to financial woes and poor management. Most now routinely buy startups for new technology and new products.

9. Women are a growing force as entrepreneurs. According to the latest Women’s Entrepreneurship Report, overall female rates have increased by 10% and the gender gap has narrowed by 5%. Women inherently should have an advantage, since women already control over 70% of household income and $20 trillion of consumer spending.

10. Baby Boomers are joining the fun in record numbers. The percentage of startups created by entrepreneurs between the ages 55 and 64 continues to grow more than any other age demographic. Driving forces include their need to work and stay energized for the longer life expectancies, as well as the opportunity to give life to long-held dreams.

Looking ahead, Investopedia predicts that in 2018 the supply of VC money will continue to grow. The record-high fundraising activity of the past 18 months has been driving a growing amount of dry powder. They also suggest that a business valuation discipline has returned to the Valley. The investment thesis has shifted from “growth at all costs” to “growth with fundamentals.”

The image of an entrepreneur is at an all-time high, so why would you continue to work in a job that you hate, or provides no satisfaction? Step into a new entrepreneur era where the definition of “work” is something you love. It’s not too late to start, but don’t forget the fundamentals.

Marty Zwilling

 When Google Arts & Culture’s new selfie-matching feature went viral earlier this week, many people of color found that their results were limited or skewed toward subservient and exoticized figures. In other words, it pretty much captured the experience of exploring most American or European art museums as a minority. Read More

If you win this, you truly have what it takes.

Attending one or more of these events is a great way to get your creative juices — and maybe even VC funds — flowing.

Sramana Mitra: So your hypothesis is that a lot of these surplus IT workers with different levels of IT expertise will get absorbed by, at least a portion of them, the startup ecosystem – the…

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Many passengers may take some convincing.