Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Amy Harris/Invision/AP Images
LONDON — Young people in Britain are more trusting of tech giants such as Amazon and PayPal than they are of banks when it comes to personal data, according to a new survey.
A survey of 2,000 people across the UK by business intelligence group RFI found that most 18-to-24-year-olds put Amazon and PayPal above banks when asked to rank a number of organisations by how much they trust them to "hold and maintain the privacy and security of your personal information."
MasterCard and Visa also ranked above banks, although below Amazon and PayPal. The name of the banks asked about were not made public.
The findings come in the wake of serious IT problems at TSB, one of the UK's major banks. Some customers were left unable to access their accounts for weeks and several reported being given access to other people's accounts when they did manage to gain access.
Advertisement
77% of the UK public said they did not trust Facebook to hold their data, RFI's survey found. The survey was conducted in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal that highlighted the amount of data Facebook collects on users and how advertisers use the platform.
(Despite the findings, recent data shows activity on the platform has actually increased since the scandal.)
Charles Green, CEO of RFI Group, said in a statement: "At an overall consumer level, from a trust-scale point of view, banks are in the lead by a small margin. However, PayPal, Amazon, and the card schemes are very close behind and are winning for younger millennials.
"The threat from Facebook can most likely be discounted, however, there should be concern around what PayPal and Amazon might do. Traditional banks should be thinking specifically about what those brands have done to earn consumer trust."
Many in banking and financial services have long worried that tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook could be plotting a move into financial services and new UK laws dubbed "Open Banking" give them a potentially easier route into the system.
Advertisement
RFI's survey found just 16% of Brits are aware of the new "Open Banking" rules, which came into force in January, while just 3% are aware of PSD2, which is a new European regulation mandating similar changes to "Open Banking."
There are similar fears in the USA, where 73% of millennials say they would be more excited about a new financial services offering from the likes of Google, Amazon, or Paypal, than their bank.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were just seconds away from taking down the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, but came up short thanks to a questionable foul call in the final seconds of the game. Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
The Golden State Warriors took home Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers, 124-114, in overtime to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
While the game was hard-fought on both ends, there's little doubt that extra attention will be paid to the officiating in the final seconds of regulation.
The Cavaliers held a 104-102 lead with 36 seconds left in regulation when maybe the biggest turning point of the game occurred. Kevin Durant drove to the basket, drawing contact from LeBron James. While the impact was initially called as an offensive foul, the officials gathered at the review booth and would go on to change the call to a blocking foul on James.
The resulting free throws would tie the game, 104-104, and after another exchange by both offensive powerhouses, the game would head to overtime 107-107.
Advertisement
The Warriors would eventually prevail in overtime, outscoring the Cavaliers to take home a Game 1 victory, 124-114. But the call that sent the game to five extra minutes would not sit well with Cavaliers fans.
Former NBA referee Steve Javie broke down the play after the game on "SportsCenter," making clear just how close the call was.
"This is a real difficult call," Javie said. "They obviously changed it to a blocking foul because [James] was moving."
He added: "This is the kind of play that's 50/50, some guys will say it's a charge, some guys will call it a block. In real time, it's definitely a charge. In slow motion, instant replay, it's a really difficult play."
You can hear Javie's analysis and judge for yourself below.
Across the NBA, fans and analysts were dismayed by the call. ESPN's Stephen A. Smith made his feelings clear on the referees' change of heart, calling the decision "Inexcusable."
Advertisement
"If you call it in the moment, that's one thing, But it's too close to call, for the referees to insert themselves into that equation by going to the videotapes and reviewing it, and overturning a call that's clearly is not that decisive."
Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue was equally in disbelief of the call, saying it had never been done before, especially on such a big stage.
Many in the NBA world criticized the reversal.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, the questionable call would end up ultimately deciding the game. The Warriors dominated in overtime to finish with a 124-114 win in Game 1.
Vogue Arabia's spread on "trailblazing" Saudi women has been called out for being "tone deaf" following the arrests of nearly a dozen women's rights activists.
The cover of the June 2018 edition features Princess Hayfa Bint Abdullah Al Saud, the daughter of late King Abdullah, sitting in a Mercedes to celebrate the lifting of a ban on women driving on June 24.
Critics have slammed the magazine for its decision to put Princess Hayfa, whose family has ruled the Kingdom for centuries and has overseen the ban's enforcement, on the cover. The edition was also ill-timed with dozen women's rights activists connected to the Women to Drive movement arrested last week.
Vogue's promotional material made no mention of this fact.
But Manal al-Sharif, a key figure in the Women to Drive movement who was profiled in the issue, praised the magazine for celebrating Saudi women, while highlighting those who were arrested in the crackdown.
Malaysia has so much national debt the government has announced a crowdfunding campaign to raise money from residents.
In the first 24 hours since the Malaysia Hope Fund, or Tabung Harapan Malaysia, was launched on Wednesday, donations totaled $1.76 million.
In a statement, the Finance Ministry said it is "humbled" by the number of the donations to help pay off the country's "staggering debt."
"Truly, Malaysians have taken their patriotism to a greater height, willing to part with their allowances and spare cash to help rebuild this nation we all love."
Advertisement
A national debt of one trillion ringgit (about $251 billion), which is 80% of the country's GDP, was announced when the new government took office in May. The handing over of power to the former opposition alliance was a first for Malaysia, where prime minister Najib Razak was ousted after financial scandals plagued his last years in office.
The financial ministry also praised Shazarina Bakti, who created a fundraising campaign called "Please Help Malaysia!" on GoGetFunding a week ago. It has since raised $3,600.
Shazarina appears to have been the inspiration for the government's crowdfunding campaign.
"The rakyat [people] voluntarily want to share their earnings with the government to help ease the burden," said Minister of Finance Lum Guang Yeng, on Wednesday when he announced the fund. "In order to provide a systematic and transparent platform to ensure all contributions and donations from the people are properly managed and organized, the government has decided to establish a special trust fund."
The government provided a bank account number to receive donations in the local currency, and said it will publicize the fund's tally daily.
Special counsel Robert Mueller. Alex Wong/Getty Images
The federal Russia investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller has so far cost about $17 million, according to a report the DOJ released on Thursday.
The special counsel's office released its mandatory statement of expenditures itemizing costs accrued between October 2017 and March 2018. About $10 million was spent within that six-month timeframe. About $6.7 million was spent in the opening 4 1/2 months of the probe, which began in May 2017.
Here's a breakdown of the costs for October 2017 through March 2018, which according to the special counsel's office, is within the approved budget:
Salaries and benefits for employees in the special counsel's office: $874,069
Cost of Justice Department employees temporarily assigned to the special counsel's office: $1.9 million
Travel expenses: $532,340
Information technology services: $226,730
Supplies and materials: $29,694
The Russia investigation was launched as part of an effort to determine the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, and to see whether members of Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia.
Advertisement
Mueller has also been working to determine whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice in connection with the investigation after he took office.
Communication plays a crucial and vital role to enhance the domestic trade to global business. Thus, business phone systems are considered as an absolute necessity for all types of business organizations.
The purchase of the business phone systems are considered as one of the most important investments in any business establishment. Telephones serves as easiest and most convenient source to connect entrepreneurs with their customers. It smooth ens the various business activities .. Thus, conferencing phone becomes a relevant medium for trade transaction and communication purposes.
There are various types of conferencing phone that depends on numerous factors. They serve a wide range of variety which is based on shape, size and acoustical treatments. Also, the features of these phones variates from a simple reliable audio solution to cordless conferencing. Thus, they together serve the business to earn maximum profit in less cost and efforts.
In the series of business conferencing phone, the VoIP conferencing phone is the latest innovation in business phone systems. They are considered revolutionary in the field of communications. The innovations like VoIP phones saves both time and money of several big and small organizations. Here, it promises to replace the existing telephone system by voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).
The VoIP Phones supported by Microsoft Windows with high-tech technology serves various features. It consist of the common features like call wait, call transfer, inbound and out bound call register, call forward, caller ID, call mute, etc. In addition to this, it also serves a good sound quality, increased standby and talk time. Thus, business establishments have clearly identified the potential of VoIP services and are investing more in VoIP than in any other communication sector.
The VoIP phone technology is easy to use and maintain. It only requires an internet connection and an appropriate device to make a call anywhere in the world with much reduced cost. Also, this type of business phone systems facilitates the business delegations to make international calls, at a much lower rate in comparison to the other modes of communication. Thus, VoIP phones is emerging as a smooth and cheap way of business communication.
Apart from the cost-saving benefits, the VoIP phones serves other addition facilities too. It includes facility to check the voice mail over the internet. Also, it facilitates to attach messages to e-mail and sent to the computer or PDA. Due to multiple benefits of VoIP conferencing phone, business associations have started hiring the best service and equipment service provider.
Italy's Prime Minister-designate Giuseppe Conte talks to the media at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, Italy, May 31, 2018. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi
A government coalition has finally been reached in Italy, ending a months-long stalemate that seemed to be headed towards a snap election.
Prime Minister-designate Giuseppe Conte initially dropped his bid to lead a coalition after President Sergio Mattarella blocked Conte's initial choice for economy minister because of his euroskeptic views, which cast doubt on the ability of parties to form a government.
But on Thursday Conte presented a second cabinet list to Mattarella, which proposed economics professor Giovanni Tria who doesn't advocate leaving the euro, though is critical of the EU. The president approved the list Thursday and announced Conte would be the country's new prime minister.
Conte, along with the rest of his cabinet, will be sworn in Friday.
Advertisement
Italy has struggled to form a government since its March 4 elections. The anti-establishment Five Star Movement, together with far-right League won approximately 50% of the popular vote, but failed to secure the majority needed to win. As coalition attempts remained in deadlock, calls were made to appoint a technocratic interim government until fresh elections could be held early next year.
Shortly after the coalition announcement was made, League leader Matteo Salvini criticized an EU leader for reportedly racist comments made about Italy's impoverished southern region, Reuters reported. Salvini called the comments "shameful and racist," adding: "The new government will make sure that the rights and the dignity of 60 million Italians will be respected."
Ron Conway, one of the tech industry's most prominent and powerful startup investors, who had early stakes in Facebook, Twitter, and Airbnb, said in a Medium post on Thursday that his early-stage investment firm, SV Angel, will not be raising a new fund.
Conway and his son, Topher, who co-manages the fund, said they will continue to use the SV Angel brand and cut checks — but in smaller amounts and as angel investors.
"Writing smaller checks allows us to stay true to our DNA, remain nimble and fulfill our commitment to supporting founders," said the letter, which was co-signed by the Conways, as well as general partners Brian Pokorny, Kevin Carter, and Robert Pollak.
The letter described a changing ecosystem in early-stage tech investing — a space that has "gone through significant changes over the last 10 years."
Advertisement
Seed funding was once a field in which angel investors and specialized firms invested tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars into unknown startups. Since then, the competition and the prices have grown significantly. On Thursday, for instance, San Francisco women's health startup Modern Fertility raised $6 million in seed funding (in a funding round that included SV Angel).
While there were just a handful of funds investing in seed rounds when SV Angel launched in 2009, today, there are thousands of firms and individuals investing. In 2016, about 250 venture capital funds raised over $40 billion — breaking a 10-year record — to deploy into startups, according to the National Venture Capital Association.
Ron Conway's firm SV Angel made early investments in Facebook, Google, PayPal, and Twitter, among many others. Scott Olson/Getty
As billions and billions more dollars flowed into venture capital, it become tougher for some investors to compete for participation in a company's funding round.
With it no longer raising outside funding, SV Angel will operate, effectively, as a family fund run by the Conways. They expect to invest $25,000 to $100,000 per company.
Here's the Medium post in full:
"The investing ecosystem has gone through significant changes over the last 10 years. When we started SV Angel, there were just a handful of funds investing in seed rounds. We all worked together for the best outcome of founders and our early investments in companies like Twitter, Pinterest, Airbnb and Square were done in that spirit. We invested in great founders who pitched a compelling vision for the future, rarely having more than their word to invest on.
Advertisement
"Today there are thousands of firms and individuals investing in seed rounds. Seed investors are raising larger funds, becoming more ownership-focused and investing primarily on adoption and traction. Seed investing now encompasses both backing founders at the earliest stages of a company and investing in teams with early-adoption. The amount of money raised in seed rounds has doubled and valuations have increased significantly.
"As we thought about how best to serve founders in this environment, we also realized we no longer need to write big checks in order to help. There are many great investors that we'd like to partner with and being involved at any level in a company we like is more important to us than getting the right allocation for the fund.
"As this dynamic materialized more, we realized there were diverging interests between what's best for founders and what's best for our investors.
"For this reason, we have decided to go back to basics and invest as individual angels instead of raising a new fund. Ron and Topher will continue to use the SV Angel brand going forward, investing $25k — $100k per company. This allows us to better align ourselves with founders and other investors which is ultimately what' best for founders.
"With these changes, we will scale back the existing SV Angel team. Our partners, Brian Pokorny, Kevin Carter and Robert Pollak, will stay on as advisers to SV Angel. We all plan on remaining active members of the investing community and collaborating with each other on future investments.
Advertisement
"Ron and Topher will continue to co-manage the existing SV Angel funds to help founders and evaluate follow-on opportunities.
"Writing smaller checks allows us to stay true to our DNA, remain nimble and fulfill our commitment to supporting founders. This approach and unmatched relationship network will continue to set us apart in our ability to support startups at every turn.
"We know that if we continue to get behind the right people, success for us and the founders we support will follow.
Trump with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Boeing Chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg. Dennis can't be too happy about higher steel prices of trade war in general. Sorry, Dennis. Reuters
Here's what we should have instead of a trade war — a plan. We should have a plan for the US economy.
I'm not talking about some kind of socialist quota-based system, I'm talking about a reasonable set of goals and ways to achieve them.
This has been completely absent from the Trump administration, and frankly the GOP (where was their Obamacare replacement?)
Instead of coming up with a plan to enrich the United States and advance its economy, this administration thinks that if it punishes the rest of the world, the US will some how come out unscathed and on top. This is silly on its face since other countries can retaliate, but even worse since it's taking up valuable time that we could be using to come up with an actual plan.
Advertisement
And as I've written before, we desperately need one. America has been living off short-term thinking for too long.
We do not have a real plan for healthcare, and costs continue to gobble up American wages.
We do not have a plan for dealing with globalization and economic change, but that change continues to shape our economy.
We do not have a plan to update our decrepit infrastructure.
The one plan we did have — the Federal Reserve's post-financial crisis program — is being unwound, marking the end of the last clear, executable plan to bolster America's economy.
All of these problems have been addressed laughably, if at all. And I mean that literally, when Trump announced his drug-pricing plan, the very companies he was trying to target saw their stocks surge and Wall Street said he was wasting their time. Literally, that's what people said.
Sick of whiners
There seem to be two main thrusts for every Trump administration argument about trade. The first is that we need tariffs to aid in the resurgence of American manufacturing, and second we need to force countries to treat the US "fairly," especially China.
The first argument has us putting steel and aluminum tariffs on our friends and allies (the European Union, Canada, and Mexico). No matter that the last time the Bush administration put a tariff on steel it lasted all of 30 months and when all was said and done, the Institute for International Economics (IIE) estimated that as many as 26,000 jobs were lost in steel-using industries (like the auto industry, for example).
In other words, it was no magic bullet for the steel industry. All it did was make the United States look like a bunch of whiners who can't solve their own problems.
Advertisement
According to the Financial Times, EU officials were planning tariffs on everything from orange juice to whiskey to dairy, if the tariffs are enacted against them. In 2002, threats like that were enough to get Bush to back down, luckily.
"The proposed cure is worse than the disease," Lee Branstetter said of these tariffs when Business Insider caught up with him a few months ago, adding that it's "quite likely" US allies and rivals would retaliate.
"The WTO will give them a right to inflict equal pain on other industries," he said.
What's more, we're whiners who invoke national security for every little problem. This too has consequences. It could "set a precedent that anyone, especially the Chinese, can use against us," Branstetter said.
No Planistan
Speaking of the Chinese — who Trump feels have treated the United States more unfairly than any other nation — they have a plan. It's called the "Made in China 2025 Plan," and it's basically a plan to conquer technological space. It's why China's been doing things like quietly buying US "crown jewel" tech companies.
Advertisement
And we, stupidly, have been letting them. Perhaps because we didn't have any respect for plans (though we're working on that).
The United States used to be better at this, especially in the technological space. Back during the Reagan administration we used technological planning to out maneuver the USSR. Part of that was a Department of Defense project called Project Socrates, it was directed by a then 30-something physicist named Michael Sekora. Reagan moved to make the project a government agency, but President H.W. Bush shut it down.
To Sekora, the way the Trump administration — and in fact most people in corporate America — look at technology is inherently flawed. They look at it as one off products or companies, when in fact it's an entire space.
"We have cell phones, laptop computers, smart watches, etc. as individual products," Sekora explained to Business Insider over email. "And people think in terms of the impact of these individual products. [They think] if the Chinese gain a technology the impact is they can produce these individual, separate products. MBAs are taught to put products in small little silos which they can then address as neat little packages.
"They don't think of technologies as nodes in the technology space, which is the foundation of all competitive advantage... The nodes give the Chinese more ability to maneuver in tech space to increase and maintain the competitive advantage via excelling at satisfying various customer needs through a variety of various products and services (interconnected in tech space) that will come and go over time."
Advertisement
In other words, China is looking at the entire rink and skating to where the puck is going to be and we...
"While we are 'playing hard ball' with the finance [tariffs]. China continues to out maneuver us in the technology space that fully dictates the finances," Sekora said.
We aren't thinking hard enough. We aren't thinking long-term enough. We're not looking forward, we're desperately trying to reshape a past that's already gone. It's a losing strategy.
Many businesses are simply are not getting enough out of their websites, and too many small businesses do not even have a website. Perhaps, it is the technological barrier of entry, the cost, or just the time it takes to dive into the issue. Whatever the reason, it is important for a business to maximize online revenue. One means to start doing this is by hiring website evaluation services.
Businesses spend thousands, millions, or even billions of dollars a year to acquire new customers, depending on their size. Having an effective website can make a large impact on a company's bottom line and may allow them to cut down on expensive, antiquated advertising methods such as yellow page phone book ads.
Whether you are just getting started or already have an established website, it is important to know where you and your customers stand in terms of external links, keyword search engine rankings, features, design, and customer conversion. Website evaluation services will better help you understand how you are competing, what opportunities you are missing, and what it will take for your website to be successful. This service may also be known as a website competitive analysis.
Also by evaluating your competitors' websites, you will gain a better understanding of what is working for them and what is not. One of the great things about the Web is how open it is and how easy it is to obtain information. You can learn a lot by exploring other websites. And having perspective is helpful in making business decisions.
So who performs website evaluation services? Most search engine optimization (SEO) firms provide this service. They typically can offer it is a stand-alone service as part of a broader package of SEO services.
A quality SEO firm can help your business grow organically in the search engine rankings without having to do pay-per-click or pay per lead Internet advertising. Moving up in the search engine rankings can have a huge impact on your business.
Did you know there are now more than two billion searches a day being performed on Google? The Internet is now the primary place where people get information on business products and services and accounts for billions of dollars in sales, both directly and indirectly. With the growth of the Internet particularly with mobile devices, it is very important for your company to have a powerful online presence.
As US District Judge Kimba Wood was deciding Wednesday on a deadline for Michael Cohen's lawyers to finish their review of documents seized by the FBI during raids on Cohen's home, office, and hotel room, Cohen's attorneys made a pitch.
Todd Harrison, one of the attorneys for President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer Cohen, said in pushing for a mid-July completion date that their team was "working around the clock" and "as fast as we can" to finish the review. Harrison said one member of his team had a "tremor in his hand from lack of sleep."
Harrison said Cohen's team of attorneys was utilizing 15 lawyers and two data specialists to review the documents and determine what constitutes as privileged communications. Over the past month, Cohen's team has reviewed, along with lawyers for Trump and the Trump Organization, more than 1.3 million documents, designating slightly more than 250 as protected by attorney-client privilege and unable to be used in a potential prosecution of Cohen.
Still, the team has nearly 2.5 million documents left to examine.
Advertisement
But Wood wasn't sympathetic to their time span, instead setting a June 15 deadline. If Cohen's team isn't done by then, the remaining documents would be turned over to a separate group government lawyers — known as a "taint team."
US District Judge Kimba Wood Amy Sussman/Getty Images
That's exactly the option Cohen and Trump didn't want to have happen amid Cohen's status as the focus of a criminal investigation in the Southern District of New York into whether he violated campaign-finance laws or committed bank fraud.
Cohen's team successfully argued in April to have a special master appointed to oversee the document review. Wood agreed to do so on one condition — that the review process wouldn't take any longer than it would if it was being handled by the "taint team."
Why Cohen lost
There's a simple reason why Wood was unimpressed with team Cohen's pitch, one expert told Business Insider: 15 lawyers and two data specialists is nowhere near the level of personnel you'd utilize for such a review.
Mitchell Epner, an attorney at Rottenberg Lipman Rich and former assistant US attorney, told Business Insider that he was confident the size of that team would at least triple. Under orders to meet a deadline, he said he's seen review teams as large as 60 attorneys.
"The statement by Michael Cohen's attorneys that they have a team of 15 attorneys and two data specialists working around the clock on this is not likely to have impressed Judge Wood as a big effort," he said.
He added: "It is not unusual for large law firms like McDermott Will and Emery (which has about 1,000 attorneys) to create teams of more than 50 attorneys to meet tight discovery deadlines. A team of 15 attorneys to review over 3 million documents would likely strike Judge Wood as designed to guarantee that the process would stretch on for months."
Earlier this week, the special master, Barbara Jones, released her most in-depth report yet on the review process. After the report was published, experts zeroed in on the surprisingly low number of documents that Cohen, Trump, and the Trump Organization had designated as privileged.
Advertisement
"For a person who claims to be a lawyer, the minuscule amount of allegedly privileged matter is surprising, and what it tells us is that Cohen wasn't acting as a lawyer very often," Roland Riopelle, a partner at Sercarz & Riopelle who was formerly a federal prosecutor with the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, told Business Insider.
"He was doing something else," Riopelle said.
During an interview on "Fox & Friends" late last month, Trump seemed to suggest that the investigation into Cohen appeared to focus more on Cohen's business dealings than on his work as an attorney. But on April 10, the day after the raids, Trump tweeted: "Attorney-client privilege is dead!"
Meanwhile, in a Thursday court filing, Wood announced that Jones will issue a report next week detailing which of the roughly 250 items Cohen, Trump, and the Trump Organization designated as privileged that she believes should actually fall under that designation. Any objections to her recommendations would then need to be filed by Cohen, Trump, and the Trump Organization within a week.
The new Apple iPhone has many great features that you do not have on the regular cell phones most people own. The iPhone is a great tool to keep everything you need handy with just a touch of your finger. Some new features include:
* Phone Conferencing
* Call Holding
* Call Merging
* Song fade when call is received
* Visual list of voicemail
* Ringtones purchased through itunes
* Album cover music library
* Wi-Fi hot spot automatic search
* Video play on widescreen orientation
The ipod and video features are great entertainment tools. You will need to find a good website to get movies and music for your iPhone or your ipod for that matter. Some things to look for when choosing a download website:
* Make sure you are getting the most for your money
* Make sure they offer a large selection of choices
* Make sure there is a technical suppoert line you should get stuck in the process.
You will want to get the most enjoyment possible from your new iPhone so be sure and maximize all of the features that you have. The applications are easy to use and maneuver around. The design is beautiful and very user friendly. It is a great source of entertainment in one small package.
There are several paid membership sites where you can download movies and music. You want a source that is dependent. Many of the fees are lifetime or yearly subscriptions that are reliably inexpensively and give you unlimited downloads. Do your homework and compare to make sure you are getting the best offer possible.
The main appeal of truck driving is the freedom, drivers say, and that's been curtailed with this latest mandate. Dennis Van Tine/MediaPunch/IPX
The US government is forcing Steven Wright to take naps.
The 47-year-old college graduate has been a long-haul truck driver since 1995. He used to set his own schedule during his nearly-100-hour work weeks: he would drive for eight hours, take a nap for four to six hours as the receiving company slowly unloaded his truck, and then drive for another five or so before a proper sleep.
That's no longer possible. Since December of last year, drivers like Wright have been required to keep an electronic logging device (ELD) in their trucks to ensure they don't drive for more than 11 hours a day, only work for 14 hours a day total, and take regular breaks.
"The longer you spend on the road, the more money you get," said Wright, who lives in the Northeastern Ohio town of Cuyahoga Falls. Due to the ELD, Wright and other drivers said they aren't able to drive as much as they used to.
Advertisement
The rule, which came into effect in December 2017, arose from safety concerns, but Wright said it's not practical.
Truckers are paid by the mile, but usually don't spend a full 11 hours driving. They might spend six unpaid hours at unloading sites, which cuts into how many hours they spend driving and earning money. With the cap now set at 14 hours of overall work a day, Wright is unable to squeeze in an extra five hours of driving after unloading his truck.
In addition, Wright said drivers are also forced to take 30-minute breaks every eight hours, even if they just spent six of those hours at an unloading site.
A few hours here and there add up over time. Wright said squeezing in an extra 1,000 miles in a week translates to $450.
What's more, because nearly everyone takes their 10-hour breaks at the same time, Wright said parking is scarce at trucker stops. There's nowhere for drivers to park the trucks they'll sleep in for weeks, he said.
Advertisement
"Nobody actually listens to us," Wright told Business Insider. "People in Washington, DC, or wherever they are, make these rules."
While the ELD mandate was designed to lessen driver fatigue and make the roads safer, in practice, the ELD mandate has lowered productivity, according to freight exchange service DAT solutions and supply chain management company Zipline Logistics. It's also raised the cost of shipping.
And it's especially angered truck drivers, which number 1.8 million nationwide.
Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Highway Loss Data Institute
The electronic logging device rule was designed to protect drivers' safety
The ELD rule came into effect in December 2017 under a larger act passed by Former President Barack Obama in 2012. Called MAP-21, the act was the first highway legislation with long-term provisions since 2005.
Advertisement
MAP-21 set aside $105 billion for new programs improving existing highways, restructuring federal transportation programs, and "supporting Department of Transportation's (DOT) aggressive safety agenda."
One component of that agenda was the ELD mandate, which became mandatory in December, 2017. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration estimated in 2014 that ELDs could prevent up to 1,714 crashes, 522 injuries, and 24 deaths each year.
"The theory is that drivers are working longer hours to make more money, which is causing them to drive while exhausted, which poses a safety risk on the roads," Andrew Lynch, the cofounder and president of Columbus-based supply chain company Zipline Logistics, told Business Insider.
The hours of service rules haven't actually changed, according to Collin Mooney, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, which oversees the coordination of commercial vehicle safety enforcement across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
The only thing that's changed is that these hours are now tracked electronically rather than by paper and pen.
Advertisement
"Drivers in general are covering fewer miles in a day than they were before the ELD mandate," Lynch said. "The little cheats and fudges they could pull off on their log books before the mandate went live are no longer available to the large population of drivers that were running on paper logs."
David McNew/Getty Images
In practice, drivers say they're becoming more reckless
Nashville area resident Steve Manley, 51, has been driving for more than 20 years. He said the ELD hasn't benefitted drivers' safety.
"The electronic logs are supposed to make it safer, but really it has created a hazardous race to beat the clock," Manley told Business Insider. "Drivers are now more reckless than ever trying to make it to their destination before the clock runs out with the mandatory breaks and such."
"The DOT says it's to prevent driver fatigue, but in reality it's just another way to control us as drivers, and the country has to pay for it," truck driver and West Virginia resident Brian Lawson, who has been driving for six years, told Business Insider. "Truck drivers used to be free, and now we are chained up."
Advertisement
Drivers are also less able to find a place to park their trucks at truck stops, as sleep schedules have been forced into a 10-hour break time.
"If the mandate exacerbates the truck parking constraints, which it is, … then any safety gains from better rest could be lost to other behaviors," Lynch told Business Insider.
Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, truck driver Steven Wright
Some of the most experienced drivers are quitting to seek fortunes elsewhere
Albert Ratcliffe was a truck driver for more than 40 years. But he recently retired, in part because of the ELD mandate.
Dozens of drivers told Business Insider they're becoming fed up with the trucking industry. "Many veteran drivers quit when the mandate happened," Lawson said.
Advertisement
The main appeal of truck driving is the freedom, they say, and that's been curtailed with this latest law.
"Nobody in the industry is in favor of this, as the flexibility of being a driver with these devices has gone way down," Reno resident Sam Chahal, 31, told Business Insider.
But most frustratingly for these career drivers, trucking has become less and less lucrative. As drivers now travel fewer miles a day, they're paid less.
A rookie trucker earns a median of 28 cents per mile, while experienced drivers like Wright can earn up to 45 cents a mile. A few years ago, Wright could expect to drive around 3,300 miles a week. Now, due to recent regulations and a failure of efficiency for shippers and receivers to adapt, he says he's down to 2,700 miles a week.
That ultimately works out to $270 less a week, or $14,040 less for the entire year.
Advertisement
The money used to be worth it for Wright, who said his hectic work schedule caused his 27-year-old daughter to become estranged from him.
"I wasn't there for my daughter when she was growing up because I was trying to make money," Wright said. "That's just the price you pay."
Now he works fewer hours, but he'll still be away from his wife and son for weeks, and paid less for it.
"Drivers don't think about how many hours they work," Wright said. "They think about how long they were away from home."
Many businesses nowadays, regardless of size, have started taking advantage of social media networks to boost their customer service. Undeniably, your ability to assist customers via their chosen platform is crucial to your success. As social media continues to get bigger, so does the importance of getting on board and set to participate in the conversation. To help you, below are top 5 techniques to improve customer service experience via social media:
1. Take orders via Facebook and Twitter - Virtually everyone is on these two major social networking sites, including many of your customers. And most of them prefer ordering through FB and or Twitter instead of picking up the phone and waiting for someone to answer. Be sure to utilise these two major social media channels to improve your revenue and ease of order-taking. This also applies for booking appointments and reservations and or enquiring about your products and services. Don't forget to assign someone to manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts so that all requests and enquiries are answered on time.
2. Use social media to educate customers - Customers don't only want to be served and accommodated. They also want to be informed so they can make a wise decision when purchasing your products/services. As most customers are highly-visual people, they'd certainly appreciate useful and interesting pictures, how-to guides and infographics from your company. Pinterest and Instagram are an appropriate platform for those.
3. Utilise social channels to send messages out instantly - Bad weather, natural calamities and accidents can easily ruin a smooth business transaction. Customers would usually demand for immediate answers during these predicaments. Social media channels allow you to communicate important announcements and messages to the masses on a real-time basis, most especially when every minute counts.
4. Respond to complaints - No complaint should be overlooked, particularly now that tweets, posts and reviews are widely available for the entire cyber universe to see (and believe). Address complaints and negative comments promptly and professionally (even though they can be unreasonable sometimes). Doing so also shows that your business truly cares for its customers' concerns and welfare. This can also give your company a great opportunity to shine even in the midst of criticism. Be sure to validate claims and know when to take the conversation offline to find agreeable resolution like when offering a discount or freebie.
5. Listen and learn via social media - Facebook and Twitter are great channels to listen and learn what your customers/prospects want and require from you or your industry. Use hashtags to look for mentions of your brand or keywords. Pay attention and take notes about the good, the bad and the ugly and use them to improve your products/services and customer service experience.
If properly implemented, social media can help your company improve your customer service experience and overall business operations. However, if done in poor taste, your flaws are public for the world to see. Just keep in mind these tips above so you can leverage social media to your advantage.
The Warriors defeating the Cavaliers to win their second straight title might already feel like a forgone conclusion, but there's still plenty of bets to be placed to help make the NBA Finals compelling for sports fans looking for an extra incentive to watch. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
The NBA Finals are upon us, with the Golden State Warriors facing off against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for the fourth straight year.
Despite the heroic effort of James to get the Cavaliers to the Finals, the outcome feels like a foregone conclusion. ESPN asked 24 analysts for their prediction on the series, and all 24 picked the Warriors to prevail, and just two of them projected the series to even make it to seven games.
This should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched basketball this season. Cleveland has been the LeBron show more than ever, so much so that "The Other Cavaliers" earned a skit on "Saturday Night Live" earlier in the postseason. Meanwhile, Golden State employs two of the best five basketball players on the planet and four of the top 20. Unless a radioactive basketball bites Jeff Green and JR Smith in the next three days, it doesn't feel like the Cavs have much of a chance.
That said, there are still plenty of reasons to watch the NBA Finals! First and foremost, it's always a delight to watch the best in the world excel, and the Warriors will undoubtedly put on a show on their way to the title. And if LeBron somehow pulls off the upset, he'll cement his legacy as the Greatest of All Time even further than he already had.
Also, there's money to be made! Plenty of good bets are available for anyone looking to invest a bit of their finances to keep them engaged in the series. Take a look below at our best bets to make before tip-off of the NBA Finals.
A reverse cell phone number search is a neat trick that allows you to find out who the owner is of any phone number. Using a reverse telephone number lookup will provide you with complete information about the owner of the telephone, including their full name and other details. Let's take a quick look at the way a search works.
To use this type of lookup you have to find a company that specializes in this type of lookup. These companies have built up big databases with information on all telephone numbers. The databases are built by these organizations - they are required to spend money to have access to telephone documents and information.
Regardless of the type of telephone number you are researching, info can be found. Full information about business phone numbers, cellphones and home phones can be uncovered. These businesses need to charge a bit for each lookup. Since it costs the organizations money to assemble and update the databases, they need to be compensated, but it is not expensive.
You are best to look for a service that provides infinite lookups for a one time only fee. You can then login and run a search anytime you need. This is much less expensive over the long term and a membership is not much more than using a individual search.
Let's quickly look at a tactic that anyone can utilize to attempt to locate the same details free of charge. Enter the telephone number you want to find information on into Google and press the search key. Once you conduct your search, take a see at the websites that come up. We are experiencing that there's an internet site somewhere on the web that has the telephone number published on the site.
There's a good chance that you will not get the info you want, but you may as well give it a shot before you pay money for a reverse phone search.
A reverse cell phone search is a useful tool to have up your sleeve whenever you need to learn who owns a number. It's impressive to see the huge amount detail you can learn about who owns the phone.
Television host Samantha Bee poses at the 2017 Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California on September 9, 2017. Danny Moloshok/Reuters
Comedian Samantha Bee apologized to Ivanka Trump on Thursday for calling the first daughter a "feckless c---" on her show "Full Frontal" the day prior, stating she "deeply" regrets the language she used.
"I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night," Bee said in a statement. "It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it."
The White House described Bee's language as "vile and vicious."
"Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast, and executives at Time Warner and TBS must demonstrate that such explicit profanity about female members of this administration will not be condoned on its network," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
Advertisement
Bee was criticizing Ivanka over her silence on President Donald Trump's immigration policies and the administration's position on separating unauthorized immigrant children from their parents.
This policy has come under rampant criticism and in this context Bee seems to have felt a recent tweet from Ivanka of her and her child was somewhat tone deaf.
"You know, Ivanka, that's a beautiful photo of you and your child, but let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad's immigration practices, you feckless c---!" Bee said Wednesday.
Business Insider reached out to the White House asking if it wished to respond to Bee's apology but did not receive an immediate response.
Advertisement
Trump has blamed Democrats for the separation of migrant children from their parents, despite vocal support for the policy from members of his administration.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently said, "If you cross the border unlawfully... we will prosecute you."
"If you're smuggling a child, then we're going to prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you, probably, as required by law. If you don't want your child separated, then don't bring them across the border illegally," Sessions added.
Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday traded blows with Michael Avenatti, the attorney for the porn star known as Stormy Daniels, after Avenatti experienced a rough day in federal court during proceedings for his client's case..
Giuliani, President Donald Trump's outside attorney, fired the first shots, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity on his Wednesday night program that US District Judge Kimba Wood "threw" Avenatti "out of court" during a Wednesday hearing in the Southern District of New York.
Giuliani claimed Wood suggested that Avenatti "doesn't belong in a New York court" and was "not ethical enough" to appear before her."
"You want to know why?" Giuliani asked. "Because he's a big liar. And he wanted to debate me. Like heck he's going to debate me. He should go debate in some gin mill."
What went down in Wood's courtroom
Giuliani's recounting of Avenatti's day in court served as his extrapolated interpretation of the events. But Wednesday did not go as planned for the porn star's lawyer.
Advertisement
The dramatic proceeding was highlighted by the battle between Avenatti and the lawyers for both Cohen and Trump. Avenatti ended up withdrawing his petition to appear before the court as part of the case.
Cohen is the focus of a criminal investigation in the Southern District of New York into whether he violated campaign-finance laws or committed bank fraud.
Avenatti's client, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing Cohen and Trump in California, seeking to get out of a nondisclosure agreement that paid her $130,000 for her silence about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump. Cohen facilitated that agreement just prior to the 2016 presidential election, and Trump recently admitted to reimbursing Cohen for that expenditure.
During the Wednesday hearing, Wood needled Avenatti for his "publicity tour," saying Avenatti's frequent press appearances would have to end if Cohen faces a criminal trial and Avenatti is allowed to appear before the court because of its potential effect on a jury pool.
She said that would mean no more document dumps from Avenatti — such as when he released information on Cohen's financial dealings — and no opinions on Cohen's abilities.
Advertisement
In concluding the proceedings, Wood put Avenatti's motion to appear on hold.
"Until you are admitted here, I don't expect you to stand and be heard here," she said.
Wood did not throw Avenatti out of the courtroom, however, and she did not express judgment about his ethics.
After his appearance in court, Avenatti withdrew his petition to appear, saying he'd refile the motion "if necessary, at a later time." Daniels has a separate motion in the case to become an intervenor, and that motion is on hold.
Avenatti blasts Giuliani in response
Avenatti responded to Giuliani's attack just moments later. While appearing on MSNBC's "The Last Word" with Lawrence O'Donnell, Avenatti called Giuliani "pathetic" and expressed shock that he was "the best lawyer" Trump could find to represent him.
Advertisement
"This guy is a known liar, he can't keep his facts straight, he contradicts himself, he's an absolute buffoon on television," Avenatti said. "This is the lawyer that represents the president of the United States? It's an absolute joke."
Michael Avenatti on MSNBC watching Giuliani's Fox News comments. Screenshot/MSNBC
And on Giuliani's comment about Avenatti's suggestion that the two hold a one-on-one debate, Avenatti said it's "clear as day" why Trump's attorney won't argue with him on TV.
"It's because he can't handle it," he said. "He would be absolutely destroyed. He knows it, the president knows it, and anyone with any common sense knows it."
The two have been going at it for the last month
Earlier this month, Giuliani told Business Insider during a phone interview that he wouldn't debate Avenatti because the lawyer was "pimping for money."
"I don't get involved with pimps," Giuliani said. "The media loves to give him room because he makes these roundabout charges and they turn out to mean nothing. I think he's going to get himself in serious trouble."
Advertisement
Avenatti fired back at Giuliani on Twitter, posting a 2000 video of Giuliani dressed in drag with Trump performing a skit for the then-mayor's Inner Circle Press Roast.
Last week, the two went at it again after Daniels sought to revive her civil suit against Trump and Cohen by filing a motion with a federal judge in California.
That filing claimed the president and Giuliani have made public comments that allow her case against Trump to proceed without Cohen.
Giuliani told Business Insider he thought that argument made "no sense."
"I think they're shooting all around the place for something to land," Giuliani said of Avenatti's and Daniels's strategy. "And so far it hasn't."
Advertisement
Asked about Giuliani's comments, Avenatti told Business Insider in an email that Giuliani "is clueless."
"Next time, maybe he should review the motion and the law before speaking," he said.
In business, reaching out to your target market is one of the primary functions of marketing. The traditional way of promoting a product or service is through print and media, but when desktop computers, laptops, and lately tablet computers, and smart phones become widely used, marketing did not fail to keep up. Now, besides online marketing, mobile marketing is the newest addition to the mix.
For the past couple of years or so, mobile marketing has slowly conquered the world of marketing. This is to make sure that local businesses reach out to their customers looking for products and services within their area. Out of about 4 billion users of mobile phones, there are about 1.08 billion people who use smart phones. And almost all of these smart phone users are using their gadgets to search for local businesses. That's quite a lot of potential customers, don't you think?
Additionally, the fact that users of tablet computers and smart phones, for as long as they are connected to the internet, there is a great chance that they will search for local businesses to eat, shop, for entertainment, or for other purposes as well. If only local businesses would begin to see this area of opportunity, mobile marketing will be a huge hit. Again, the mobile market is a really big market and the potential to increase sales is also great. But how does mobile advertising actually work?
Obviously, the only thing needed is mobile phone numbers in order to get into mobile marketing. So if you want your message go out in to the public in real-time, this is definitely the way to go. Look at it this way, between mobile and email marketing, the rate in which your messages will be opened will only take less than 5 minutes with text messaging as compared to hours in email marketing. That is the reason why it's about time that local businesses consider this marketing option now. It's just hard to let this opportunity to cater to your customer pass by considering how big mobile market is.
Mobile marketing will become more effective during the times when you have promotional offers that will run for one day, week, or longer. And because of the high open rate, it's definitely easier to send out your messages and be read by your target customers faster than email marketing.
However, text messaging is only effective in sending out promotional information. In fact, you can use this method to keep in touch with your customers about the latest happenings with your business. As you can see, there are several ways to use text messaging and not just for marketing purposes. So, use it to widen your market base and to increase in sales as well.
As the Cleveland Cavaliers prepare for the for a fourth straight NBA Finals showdown with the Golden State Warriors, one of the most significant plot points is about a man who isn't there.
One of the biggest differences for the Cavaliers this Finals is that they don't have Kyrie Irving by their side.
Ten months since the Cavs traded Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics following his shocking trade demand, the deal and its repercussions still loom large.
First, there are questions about whether LeBron James has enough help to have any shot against the Warriors this year. In 2017, against the Kevin Durant-era Warriors, the Cavs still had a chance, knowing they could go toe-to-toe in offensive power, even if they had little shot at defending Golden State.
Advertisement
Second, there are questions about what the Cavs got in return for Irving. The Brooklyn Nets pick remains, but a package that initially included Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder has turned into Rodney Hood, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr.. All three have been in and out of the postseason rotation, producing minimal returns when they are on the court.
In a sit-down interview with ESPN's Rachel Nichols, James and Nichols discussed how James called the Cavs in the summer to ask them not to trade Irving.
"The odds has not been with us all season," James said of the Cavs' Finals chances. "Even if you start back to the summer when I felt it was just bad for our franchise to be able to just trade away our superstar point guard ... I just felt like it was bad timing for our team to just get rid of our point guard in Kyrie Irving. So, I felt like the odds was against us from the summer."
Irving had reportedly requested a trade, in part, to get out from under James' shadow in Cleveland. Cleveland.com's Joe Vardon reported in January that James had reached out to the Cavs to suggest not trading Irving. The Cavs insisted on trading Irving, believing the relationship was beyond repair. According to Vardon, Irving threatened to get knee surgery and sit out the season if he wasn't traded.
Irving was a huge part of any success the Cavs had against the Warriors over the past three years. He got injured in Game 1 of the 2015 Finals, but in 2016, his shot-making, alongside James', helped propel the Cavs to a comeback from a 3-1 deficit to win the championship. He owns one of the greatest shots in NBA Finals history.
In the 2017 Finals, which the Warriors won in five games, Irving was still a force to be reckoned with, averaging 29 points on 47% shooting, 42% from three. His ability to relieve James from carrying the offense for long periods of time and score against the Warriors' suffocating defense was huge.
Without Irving, the Cavs lack the shot-creators to give James any palpable relief on the offensive end. Kevin Love, if he clears concussion protocol, can ease the overall scoring burden as a face-up or post-up option, but he lacks Irving's dribble penetration skills.
Advertisement
When the Cavs blew up their team at the trade deadline, there was a sense that the i ncoming pieces might make them better-suited to face the Warriors. They would be longer, switchier, with players that could spread the floor and provide more athleticism.
Instead, Hood and Clarkson have provided little offensive punch while Tristan Thompson has essentially replaced Nance as the Cavs' go-to big man.
It's worth wondering if the initial return for Irving would be better for Cleveland. If a healthy Isaiah Thomas could give James that secondary scorer and off-the-dribble force (his health would be a major "if"; Thomas missed the end of the season to get hip surgery), or if Crowder, who struggled playing alongside James, could be the type of brute force defender needed to make Durant uncomfortable.
Irving alone wouldn't necessarily tilt the series in Cleveland's favor, but it would give them at least a puncher's chance — that if the Warriors had an off-night, a common occurrence this postseason, that the Cavs could catch fire and take a game.
Without him, they are wholly reliant on James to work his magic against the team perhaps best suited to guard him. They'll need to play a perfect game in almost all facets, and if they don't the question will persist: were they right to trade Irving?
Many people receive strange numbers that they do not know the origin of. There are many possibilities of who the number could be from. If you suspect the number to originate from any of the following sources, then you should perform a reverse lookup phone number to get answers:
-Telemarketers.
You definitely want to nip this bud as soon as possible to eliminate future annoying calls and get your name off the list or block the phone number.
-Ex boyfriend or girlfriend.
This is very common, and you definitely want to find out if your ex is trying to get hold of you. Whether you have the desire to get back together, or just re-unite for a fling, or if your ex is bothersome and annoying then you want to find out as well.
-Lost friends or relatives.
These can be a one shot deal. If you do not forget them right away, it could be years before you hear from them again. Many old friends or relatives can be very reluctant to leave messages.
-Possible Job opportunities.
Many employers looking to hire want an immediate response or else they look elsewhere. Some companies will not even bother to leave messages, so if you do not return the call, you lose out on the gig.
So how do you do a reverse lookup phone number search?
There are 2 ways to go about doing a search to find the origins of mystery numbers:
First you want to eliminate whether or not this is a telemarketer or some sort of business calling you. Get on your computer, log onto the internet and go to your preferred search engine. Type the number right in the search engine, hit search and examine your results. You may be surprised to learn that other people have been receiving calls from the same number, indicating most likely that it is some sort of sales call. Some will have used the second method to forget the exact name and location of the business.
This second method is the best method because it gives you the most complete results. What you do is again get on the internet and go to a reverse lookup website. From there, all you have to do is enter the number into their search box. You may be prompted to sign up for the service since they will be providing all the personal information on the number. The results you receive will include everything from full name, the city, state, and actual address where the number is coming from, plus much more personal information such as all other names on the account, places of work and so forth.
For an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Serena Williams wore an outfit containing the words "Queen. Don't be afraid to rule like a king."
And Williams has ruled the tennis kingdom for decades. The 36-year-old has banked over $84 million in career earnings, has an extraordinary overall winning ratio of 85.6%, and is a 23-time Grand Slam champion.
Williams is, quite rightly, considered the queen of tennis — the best to ever do it.
But the internet is filled with conspiracy theories that she was born a man. Theories that Williams is well aware of as she wrote an open letter to her mother, thanking her for her support over the issue, last year.
Advertisement
Speaking to Harper's, Williams admitted that the ordeal "was hard" for her. She said: "People would say I was born a guy, all because of my arms, or because I'm strong.
"I was different to Venus: she was thin and tall and beautiful, and I am strong and muscular - and beautiful, but, you know, it was just totally different."
Williams returned to Grand Slam tennis this month for the first time since her 2017 Australian Open victory — a tournament she won while eight weeks pregnant.
Williams is currently cruising through the opening stages of the 2018 French Open and has attracted attention for her Black Panther style catsuit, an outfit that makes her feel "like a warrior princess" from Wakanda.
It is clear Williams has learned to handle the criticisms and has even embraced her strong and muscular body.
Advertisement
She now calls her bulging biceps her "weapons" and her "machine."
Williams arms her weapons for battle on Thursday, when she takes on Ashleigh Barty in the Round of 64 at Roland-Garros. Williams beat Kristýna Plíšková in the Round of 128 on Tuesday.
Many Americans are now searching the internet and classifieds section of their daily newspapers to find a source of steady income that can help them make money even during a time of financial crisis. Fortunately, there are many home business and internet business opportunities that can provide a nice income for those entrepreneurs or stay at home workers who are willing to some work researching the various opportunities that are available.
Examine the Marketplace and Demand for the Product or Service
The most important first step that someone should take when deciding on a home business opportunity is to find a product that serves a large and established industry. In other words, the product that you are selling must be in demand. For example, you don't want to be selling ice in Antarctica or typewriters to a population of computer users.
When evaluating any new business opportunity you should seriously investigate whether there is a real need in the marketplace for your goods or services. This will help save you a lot of time in the long run and could also save you a lot of money. If your business is going to be sold on the internet, one great resource that you can use is the Google AdWords Tool. Using the free Google AdWords Tool will show you exactly how many people used Google in the past month to search for your product or service.
For example, if you are selling travel businesses, like I do, then you would look to see how many people searched for terms such as "vacation travel". According to Google AdWords Tool there were approximately 2.5 million searches using those words last month. That's an extremely high number, meaning that there is a large market for the travel industry.
Conversely, if you are investigating a business opportunity that sells "personalized welcome mats" you will only find that there were 880 searches last month on Google for that keyword phrase. 880 searches is not a lot when you consider how many people are searching online everyday. This does not mean that you can't be successful selling "personalized welcome mats" but it does mean that you will be working a lot harder to capture a large portion of a relatively small market.
Investigate the Company that you are Doing Business With
There is an old business adage that says: "You can make a bad deal with a good person but you can't make a good deal with a bad person". This holds true today just as much as it did 100 years ago. The internet is a great resource for finding out about the company that you will be working with.
Try Googling the name of the company. If 8 out of the first 10 results are negative reviews about the company, its products, services or management then this might be a big warning sign to stay away. When investigating the company try to see if you can contact anyone who has already signed on with them.
Ask the referrals that you correspond with if they are happy with the products they are selling and also find out if they are happy with the training and support that they receive from the home office. You don't want to be working with a company that takes 3 weeks to answer your emails. Also find out if they have email support or phone support or both.
President Donald Trump released a photo on Wednesday night of his White House meeting with Kim Kardashian West.
"Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing", Trump tweeted along with the photo on Wednesday evening.
Kardashian West has taken the lead in trying to get Trump to grant clemency to 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson, a low-level drug offender serving a life sentence without parole since the 1990s.
Kardashian West has spoken with White House senior adviser Jared Kushner to discuss the issue, as well.
Advertisement
Last month, Kardashian West called Kushner and pressed Trump's son-in-law to encourage the president to grant Johnson clemency. Like Kardashian West, Kushner has advocated strongly for criminal justice and prison reform.
Kardashian West took interest in Johnson's case after her story went viral last year.
"She has embraced my cause and taken to heart my plight," Johnson told Business Insider's Michelle Mark in April. "Kim has been my war angel, and I'll never forget what she is doing for me."
Kardashian West posted on Twitter and Instagram about Johnson's case and her White House meeting on Wednesday, thanking Trump for considering giving Johnson "a second chance at life."
It's unclear whether Trump will ultimately grant Johnson clemency. On Thursday morning, he abruptly announced he was going to pardon Dinesh D'Souza, the far-right author and pundit who was convicted of campaign finance fraud and has become a vocal Trump supporter.
