Founding a company can be thrilling, exciting, and overwhelming at the same time. The small-business world is an exciting place to be, with fresh ideas and company strategies leading to unbounded innovation. Taking the proper steps to create a stable and viable young firm starts with many decisions. One is determining whether the organization is a “limited liability company” (LLC), “corporation,” or “doing business as” (DBA). Corporation is a common term, but what is an LLC? And what does DBA mean? Taxation is the crux of the matter when it comes to how companies define themselves. Getting properly registered with the […]
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In today’s digital world, a company’s brand, offering, and reputation are constantly on the line and visible to anyone, at any time. When people hear a brand name, they often form a lightning-speed association with the things that the organization has done in the recent past. The internet is the catalyst for this high-speed connection of company with reputation, and while it has given companies new ways to communicate, it has also created new venues for criticism and negative feedback. The complex interconnections between people, brands, and messages are worth exploring. The Costs of a Bad Business Reputation Are Unquantifiable A Fortune report […]
The world was entrenched in big data before it even realized that big data existed. By the time the term was coined, big data had accumulated a massive amount of stored information that, if analyzed properly, could reveal valuable insights into the industry to which that particular data belonged. IT professionals and computer scientists quickly realized the job of sifting through all of that data, parsing it (converting it into a format more easily understood by a computer), and analyzing it to improve business decision-making processes was too much for human minds to tackle. Artificially intelligent algorithms would have to […]
Cyber security breaches and violations are increasingly on people’s minds and in the news as new threats appear more and more often, compromising our personal data and causing economic damage. Currency manipulation, identity theft and fraud, and web-based espionage are all among the possible calamities that “black-hat hackers” — hackers with bad intentions — can bring about if given the opportunity. In the financial arena, certain alternative techniques can help reduce the chances of costly security breaches. The cryptocurrency bitcoin now has a global presence as a result of its highly secure nature, which stems from the use of information […]
Massive multiplayer online games (MMOs) and massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have taken the gaming world by storm ever since broadband internet was popularized. MMOs are fun, time-consuming, detailed, and, well… massive. The software development teams behind MMOs are equally massive. These teams are composed of entire departments of developers devoted to each aspect of the game, from programming to design, sound, and even economists tasked with sustaining in-game economies. Those who aspire to join an MMO development team would do well to obtain a master’s degree in software development and to focus their efforts on one particular type […]
Computer hacking isn’t a new concept in the real world or popular culture. According to a retrospective piece in CNN, one of the earliest high-profile hacking incidents occurred in 1983 and involved a group of teenagers calling themselves “the 414s.” As described by Timothy Winslow, one of the group’s members, they broke into several computer networks housing extremely sensitive information: the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and the Los Angeles-based Security Pacific Bank, among others. The 414s didn’t steal anything or cause serious damage – they were motivated by curiosity – but the […]
Twenty years ago, most students installed a desktop computer in their dorm room to complete coursework. If they needed to use a computer while on campus, they went to a computer lab or the library. Cell phones were far from “smart” and didn’t have apps, and texting was relatively new. More connected students today than ever before Today’s college students are much more invested in technology than those of two decades ago. For example, according to survey data from the Pew Research Center, roughly half of all Americans own a tablet device or some form of screen reader. Today, college students bring multiple devices with them everywhere they go, and information is at their fingertips 24/7. When […]
Financial Management is Critical for Leaders An article on bPlans listed poor financial management as one of the top reasons why small businesses fail. The article stated, “You must know, down to the last dime, where the money in your business is coming from and where it’s going in order for your business to succeed… Poor accounting practice puts a business on a path straight to failure.” It is not just small businesses that may benefit from a leader who has a strong knowledge of how to handle cash flow, taxes, expenses, and other aspects of financial management. Even large, […]
Business has gone digital, and it can’t go back. This state of affairs has come to pass in every industry imaginable, bringing a new set of practices that leaders will have to follow. If you’re stepping into a position of authority, you’ll have to become aware of your organization’s digital footprint – both how to use data to get ahead in your industry, and how to defend that digital content against the risk of a breach. When organizations only half-embrace the current age of IT-driven business, taking on the advantages without worrying about protecting their digital infrastructure, they make themselves […]
If to govern something means to bring order to it, then data governance involves the ordering and management of data. In its early stages, data governance was viewed as an inconvenient,regulatory mandate devised to ensure that private information didn’t fall into the wrong hands. Today, the scope of data governance not only protects data, it also manages business intelligence, content, and security, and is instrumental in analytics, modeling, and quality control. With business intelligence and analytics revenues predicted to skyrocket in the near future, employers are going to be in need of well-trained, experienced workers in any and all fields […]