List of 70+ awesome ‘Okay Google’ voice commands

By Marc Knoll on January 31, 2016@marcknoll

http://trendblog.net/list-of-google-now-voice-commands-infographic/

O que proponho para esse momento político

Estado de exceção... pensei agora a pouco com um áudio. Concordo, estamos em estado de exceção! Falta de bom senso, raciocínio, cooperação, interesses mútuos, visão de presente e futuro, pequenez. Liberação de áudio e informações privilegiadas, grampos da ABIN e da Polícia Federal, antecipação de impedimento da Presidente e congresso morno, Câmara e Senado em compasso de espera, economia em queda vertiginosa e a guerra política... Onde chegaremos?

É isso aí meus amigos, estamos em guerra. Ah, não é tudo isso! É sim. Não conseguimos conversar nem entre amigos e discutir o que está acontecendo. Não conseguimos convergir para um ponto comum. Ou contra ou a favor de um ou de outro. E você acha que não é guerra? Em todos os ambientes que vou ou todos são a favor de alguém e se começa a listar as informações recebidas nesse sentido, ou todos contra. Se tivermos no mesmo espaço um e outro, logo, logo, vem aquela frase: “política não se discute...”. Ora, e se faz o que com política?

E o que acontece na guerra? Existem os comandantes, os soldados, as regras e as sombras, os heróis e os covardes. Não há meio termo, não dá para meditar sobre as razões de cada uma das partes. Há muitas ações fora das regras do jogo. Mas, e guerra tem regra? Tem, mas na Teoria do Jogo quem vai esperar que sejam cumpridas? Então, não te parece similar? será que se tivermos uma guerra nas ruas você vai ser condescente com seu amigo que tem opinião contrária ou você vai denunciá-lo? Simule esse raciocínio!

Mas exceção mesmo foi aquela que fizeram com meu pai na Petrobrás da década de 1960. Foi forçado a ir a uma passeata e como não foi, passou um ano contando parafusos. Aí não tinha Direito, defesa, liberdade, vontade e nem cadeia. Tinha sim o Cumpra-se ou Torture ou mesmo Morra.

Agora, o pior não é isso. O pior para mim é a falta de lideranças... Qual o nome do líder do Vemprarua? Quais as lideranças empresariais que mobilizam seus pares? Quais as lideranças religiosas que falam? Muitos caíram no passado enfrentando a verdadeira exceção, alguns heróis, outros nem tanto, mas foi graças a eles que evoluímos 1 metro na democracia. Infelizmente parece-me que evoluímos somente 1 centímetro na cidadania.

Então eu peço: externe sua opinião, mas ouça, pondere, converse, avalie, aproxime-se do outro para entender seus motivos e vamos construir algo mais do que um Brasil 2016!

10 Invaluable Online Resources To Help You Start Your Own Creative Business

by Faith Towers on Feb 18, 2016

If you're contemplating starting your own creative business but don't know where to begin, you're not alone. The prospect of becoming your own boss can be a daunting one. So today I'm sharing ten online resources that have been invaluable to me throughout my journey to becoming a small business owner. And the best part? Most of them are free!   

1. By Regina - This website has a wealth of (free) information beyond just creating an action plan. Tips for building an audience, being productive, creating an effective website, etc.Check out this awesome post here.

2. Coursera - This might be one of my favorites. Coursera is a site with thousands of university-level courses taught by real college professors. And every course has a free option. I find the business and marketing courses to be particularly helpful. Check it out here.

3. Dear Handmade Life - This site sells affordable online workshops on a variety of creative subjects. See their current offerings here.

4. Lynda.com - This one has a large selection of courses on topics ranging from business to software to creative skills. And you can try it out for free for ten days. Head over here to check it out.

5. Wonderlass - This post has a great step-by-step overview that will help you get started. There are lots of other informative posts on the site as well. See this one here.

6. Freelancers Union - This has a super helpful blog with all kinds of interesting information, as well as resources for freelancers such as insurance information and discounts.Explore the site here.

7. Elegance and Enchantment - This post would be helpful for those of you who are starting your own Etsy shop. See all of Michelle's helpful tips here.

8. Whitney Blake - This blog post has five excellent tips for starting your own business, along with lots of helpful links to additional resources. Read it here.

9. Skillshare - This site has tons of useful video courses on a wide range of creative business-focused topics. Check out their course listings here.

10. Creative Live - This is another one of my favorites; they offer tons of different live courses which are free if you watch them live, or you can buy any past course. Which means it pays to keep an eye on their schedule! Check it out here.

Fonte: http://www.curbly.com/

Blogging - 50 dicas para melhorar um blog

Blogging can be a great way to draw new customers to your business website. But if your blog hasn't been updated in months or all your posts are thinly disguised sales pitches, your blog marketing plan could backfire.

A great business blog doesn't sell. Instead, it shows customers why they should do business with you and not your competitors.

Here are 50 types of blog posts that can draw new visitors and help build customer relationships.

1.      Customer success story. When you receive a great testimonial from a customer, ask for permission to turn it into a post. Use the post to solicit more customer stories.

2.      Mention a popular post. If you notice a post by a popular blogger in your niche getting a lot of attention, add your viewpoint and link to the original post. Be sure to let that A-list blogger know about your comment and link.

3.      Disagree with a popular opinion. Get traffic by stirring up controversy and taking a contrary position.

4.      Riff on the news. How are current events affecting your customers? Run a Google Alert on certain keywords related to your business or industry to find relevant news items to discuss.

5.      Compile a link roundup. If you notice several interesting opinions on a topic, you can pull them together into a single post of the best ideas.

6.      Play off the familiar. Mention a celebrity or a pop culture touchstone and your readers will instantly relate.

7.      Answer the questions everyone is asking. An FAQ post shows you're responsive and saves customers time.

8.      Pose your own question. What would you like to know about your customers? Just ask, and let your readers create the content.

9.      Talk about trends. You convey authority when you tell how things are evolving in your industry.

10.  Discuss future plans. Give readers a sneak peek at what you'll do in the coming year to start generating interest.

11.  Review a book. If you've read a book you think customers might like, give it a write-up.

12.  Review a product or service. This shouldn't be one of your own products or services or a direct competitor's offering, but rather a related item your customers might want to learn about.

13.  Comparison test. Provide even more value by comparing two or more related products or services.

14.  Post a video. Create variety with a video post. You can give a sneak preview of a new product or show a promotional event.

15.  Make a podcast. Record a quick interview with an expert, or just give a few of your own useful tips.

16.  Create an infographic. Fact-filled, graphic posts get shared a lot on social networks. This infographic got more than 10,000 retweets.

17.  Report on a conference. Quote inspiring speakers or tell readers about the latest trends and ideas from the conference that you'll be implementing.
 

18.  Go behind the scenes. Give readers a photo or video tour of your plant, customer service desk or the backroom of your store.

19.  Explain how you do it. Do you have a special way you make your product, handle returns or welcome new customers? Describe your process.

20.  Staff profiles. Give a human face to your company by introducing new or seasoned employees.

21.  Show your charity work. If your business gives back to the community, post a video or photo essay of that park your staff cleaned up.

22.  Gush about your idols. Talk about the blogs you read regularly or the thought leaders who inspire you. Be sure to alert those bloggers and business gurus so they'll spread the word.

23.  Have a debate. Invite someone who disagrees with your views to do a "Point/Counterpoint" post.

24.  Talk about your blunders. Everyone loves to read aboutbusiness failures. End your post by telling how you're fixing the problem.

25.  Create a regular feature. Do a "customer of the week" spotlight or create a monthly collection of the best online articles that match your customers' interests.

26.  Write a series. If you'd like to teach customers something complicated, break the topic into several parts. Series are an effective way to turn casual readers into subscribers.

27.  Make a prediction. Everybody wants to know what may happen in the future, so share your opinion.

28.  Conduct market research. Are you wondering which product name would attract more customers? Hold a virtual focus group on a blog post.

29.  Create a contest. Offer a prize for the most interesting customer suggestion or use of your product.

30.  Take a reader poll. SurveyMonkey makes this easy. Or you can simply set up a poll on your business Facebook page and draw readers to "like" your page.

31.  Share poll or contest results. Don't leave readers hanging; do a follow-up post to announce the results.

32.  Create an award. Giving a "best of" honor is guaranteed to get attention. Readers will want to check out who won, and all the finalists will likely share the news in social media.

33.  Share your customer feedback. If you use customer comment cards or do customer surveys, turn some highlights into a post.

34.  Reveal industry secrets or expose lies. When you promise to tell people what others won't, it's sure to be a hit.

35.  Tell the story of your origins. Everybody loves to read aboutother people's dreams and challenges, so write about why and how you started your business.

36.  Share a highlight. What were the big milestones in your company's history? Tell about an important moment and how it changed your business.

37.  Keyword posts. Check your Google Analytics to see which keyword searches bring customers to your site. Then do posts on those topics.

38.  Read your competitors. If you're out of ideas, see what topics are drawing a crowd on your competitors' blogs and give your own take on those subjects. You can even link to your competitor's post. Readers will think that's cool.

39.  Display a sense of humor. Everyone loves business owners who can laugh at themselves when something goes wrong at the office. Consider giving a "how-to" post a funny spin.

40.  Show your passion. What aspect of your business gets you excited? What customer experience was especially gratifying? Tell those personal stories.

41.  Share your vision. If you're different from competitors because of your philosophy, talk about it.

42.  Informational, how-to. Is there more than one way to use your product or service? Describe one of the less common uses in a how-to post.

43.  Tips and tricks. Don't have time for a step-by-step how-to post? Give readers a few random suggestions for how to get more out of your product.

44.  Celebrity Q&A. An interview post can be quick and easy if you simply email questions to an expert of interest to your customers. If you have some dream interview subjects, go ahead and ask if they'll participate. You'll probably be surprised how many say yes.

45.  Be inspiring. Sometimes, customers would just like to feel good. Write about something you found inspiring in the course of your day or how you keep a positive work culture.

46.  Resource list. You could spotlight your vendors, companies you partner with, or a list of good books related to your business.

47.  How you got the idea for your product. This is an opportunity to credit team members and tell an interesting story about product development.

48.  A day in the life. Give customers an hour-by-hour account of a typical day at your company.

49.  Offer something special. Announce a party that gives your best customers a first look at a new product or create a giveaway just for blog subscribers.

50.  Round up the best of your blog. If you think some of your best stuff is buried in the archive, repost your 10 favorite posts from the past year.

The key to a successful business blog is variety -- so mix it up with different types of posts. If every post is "Seven Ways to Use Our Product," it's going to get old fast. 

Fonte: Entrepreneur magazine

Plano de Negócios - Business plan preparation - Manual for Entrepreneurs

Source: McKinsey

Standard use of business plans

▪Start-up companies:

–Application for venture capital

–Search for management team members

–Communication with partners, suppliers, …

▪Established, developed businesses for investment decisions

–In-house budget allocations

–External financing

Generic requirements

Explanation

Constantly adapting

▪Business planning is an iterative and adaptive process that requires constant update and adjustment work

Impressing by clarity

▪Not the quantity of analyses, but the clarity and preciseness of the pack are important

Convincing by facts

▪No hype, but factual statements. Enthusiasm will be generated by the investor realizing the opportunity on his own

Understandable even for non-experts

▪Those who allocate investment resources rarely are technical experts for the technology used in the proposal

Consistent and concise

▪Those who allocate investment resources rarely are technical experts for the technology used in the proposal

Optically compelling

▪A clear, precise structure is a courtesy to those investing their time in reading the proposal

Executive summary

▪Gives a brief overview of the concept's most important aspects

▪Describes idea as clearly, compellingly, and concisely as possible

▪Raises interest of decision makers

▪Is not more than 5 - 10 minutes to read

▪Quality of summary decides if rest of business plan is read

– Key questions

Idea description

▪What is your business idea? In what way does it fulfill the criterion of uniqueness?

▪Who are your target customers?

▪What is the value for those customers?

▪What market volume and growth rates do you forecast?

▪What competitive environment do you face?

▪What additional stages of development are needed?

▪How much investment is necessary (estimated)?

▪What long-term goals have you set?

Rough business plan

▪How high do you estimate your financing needs?

▪What are the sales, cost, and profit situations?

▪What are the most important milestones along the way to your goal?

▪What test customers have you approached/ could you approach?

▪What distribution channels will you use?

▪What partnerships would you like to enter into?

▪What opportunities and risks do you face?

▪What is the picture on patents?

Product/service

▪Potential foam plus applicator to replace expensive and space consuming earth that must be spread over garbage dumps every day

▪Space savings of ~30% for dump operators

▪Costs of coverage reduced by ~50% for dump operators

Market and competition

▪Customers: household garbage dump operator

▪Market: 300 to 500 dumps in Eastern USA with capacity of 500 to 10,000 tons/day

▪Major competitor: 3M/Sanifoam (application takes longer and is more complicated)

Marketing and sales

▪2007: Investments of USD 850,000 required

▪2008: Sales of USD 2 million (break-even)

▪2012: Sales of USD 15 million, profit of USD 1.5 million

Business system

▪Sale of foam and applicators (product business)

Opportunities and risks

▪Necessary approval from authorities

▪Proof of system's operational efficiency

Content of product/service section

▪Describes the function the product/service fulfills and the benefits the customer will gain from it

–Product/service description

–Customer value

▪Explains status and next steps of product/service development

▪Addresses patents/IP protection issues

▪Product/service section has to prove that entrepreneur can integrate the customers' perspective

– Key questions

Idea description

▪What end customers will you address?

▪What are the customers' needs?

▪What customer value does your product/service provide?

▪What is the nature of your innovation? Why is it unique?

▪What partnerships are necessary to achieve full customer value?

▪What competitor products already exist or are under development?

▪What stage of development has your product or service reached?

▪Do you have patents or licenses?

▪What further development steps do you plan to take? What milestones must be reached?

Rough business plan

▪Which versions of your products/services are designed for which customer groups and applications?

▪What patents/licenses do the competitors have?

▪What kind of service/maintenance will you offer?

▪What product or service guarantees will you grant?

▪Compare the strengths and weaknesses of comparable products/services with yours in an overview!

Successful product positioning

Identify relevant customer needs and problems

Define clear, sufficiently large customer segments

Define uniqueness and position offering vis-à-vis competition

Address subjective perception of customers

Content of management team section

▪Outlines educational background and professional experience of founders

▪Describes how existing skill gaps can be closed in the future

▪Convinces potential investors that both managerial and technological expertise is present to run the venture

▪Venture capitalist will invest only if the venture is managed by an excellent team

Management team – Key questions

Complete business plan

▪Who are the members of your management team and what distinguishes them: education, professional experience, success, standing in the business world?

▪What experience or abilities does the team possess that will be useful for implementing your concept and setting up your company?

▪What experience or abilities are lacking? How will the gaps be closed? By whom?

▪What targets do the team members pursue by starting up the business? How high is the motivation of the individual team members?

Reasons for business plan rejection

Inadequate technical expertise

Not patentable

Money commitment too large Long time frame

Not market-driven

Weak management team

Content of market and competition section

▪Provides thorough understanding of markets and competitors:

–Market size and growth

–Market segmentation

–Competition

–Positioning of product vis-à-vis the competition

▪The market and competition section has to outline the full economic potential of the venture

Market and competition – Key questions

Idea description

▪How is the industry developing?

▪What role do innovation and technological advances play?

▪How will you segment the market?

▪What market volumes do the individual market segments have, now and in the future (rough estimates)?

▪Who are your target customer groups?

▪What major competitors offer similar products/services?

▪How sustainable will your competitive edge be?

Rough business plan

▪What market volume (value and amount) do you estimate for your individual market segments over the next five years?

▪What will influence growth in the market segments?

▪What is your estimate of current and future profitability of the individual market segments?

▪What market shares do you hold in each market segment? What segments are you targeting?

▪Who are your reference customers? How do you plan to get reference customers?

▪What are the key buying factors for customers?

▪How does the competition operate? What strategies are pursued?

▪What are the barriers to market entry and how can they be overcome?

▪What market share does your competition have in the various market segments?

▪How profitable are your competitors?

▪What are your competitors' marketing strategies?

▪What distribution channels do your competitors use?

▪How will competitors react to your market launch? How will you respond to this reaction?

▪Profile the strengths and weaknesses of your major competitors with your own in the form of an overview!

Content of marketing and sales section

▪Outlines planned marketing and sales activities (four "Ps" framework):

–Product

–Price

–Place

–Promotion

▪Marketing and sales section has to explain how market is developed

Marketing and sales – Key questions

Idea description

▪What final sales price do you want to charge (estimated)? What criteria did you use to arrive at this final sale price? How high is the profit margin (estimated)?

▪What sales volumes and sales revenues are you aiming for (estimated)?

Rough business plan

▪In which partial market segments will you make your market entry? How do you plan to turn this "toehold" into a high-volume business?

▪What sales volumes are you targeting (detailed data by market segment)?

▪Describe the typical process of selling your product/service. Who, among your buyers, ultimately makes the purchasing decision?

▪How will you win reference customers?

▪How much, in time and resources, will it cost to acquire a customer?

▪Which advertising materials will you use to do so?

▪What other planning steps are necessary in the run up to launching your product/service? Draw up a schedule with the most important milestones!

Content of business system section

▪Outlines what parts of the value chain are covered by the venture

▪Discusses organizational issues

▪Describes necessary partnerships

▪Makes "make or buy" decisions

▪Business system section describes all necessary elements that enable the venture to physically deliver the customer value

Business system – Key questions

Rough business plan

▪What does the business system for your product/service look like?

▪What activities do you want to handle yourself?

▪Where will the focus of your own activities lie?

▪What business functions make up your organization, and how is it structured?

▪What resources do you need (quantitative and qualitative) to create your product/service?

▪How high is your need for technical input (raw materials, materials to create your service)?

▪What will you make, what will you buy?

▪Which partners will you work with? What are the advantages of working together for you and your partners?

Content of implementation plan section

▪Describes the most important activities and milestones for the development of the business

▪Lists the planned short- and long-term investments

▪Links the investment needs with major milestones

▪The implementation plan section gives the investor a clear roadmap to control the business development

Implementation plan – Key questions

Complete business plan

▪What are the most important milestones for the development of your business, and when must they be reached?

▪How do you plan to structure the work to reach these targets?

▪For which tasks/milestones do you anticipate bottlenecks?

▪How many new employees will you need in the individual business areas over the next five years? What will this cost?

▪How much real capital is necessary to achieve initial sales?

▪List your planned short-term investments!

▪List your planned longer-term (3 - 5 years) investments!

▪What investments will be required when which milestones are reached?

▪How high is the annual depreciation for each investment?

Content of financing section

▪Provides rough cash-flow forecasts

▪Outlines forecasts of profit and loss statements

▪Gives overview of future balance sheet structure

▪The finance plan explains the timing and volume of necessary financing rounds

Financial planning – Key questions

Complete business plan

▪How will your revenues, expenses and income develop?

▪How will your cash flow develop? When will you expect to break even (= sum of all revenues greater than the sum of all expenses)?

▪How high is your need for financing based on your liquidity planning? How much cash is needed in the worst case scenario?

▪What assumptions underlie your financial planning?

▪Which sources of capital are available to you to cover your financing needs?

▪What deal are you offering potential investors?

▪What return can investors expect?

▪How will they realize a profit (exit options)?

Financial plan outlines

▪Cash flow statement

▪Income statement

▪Balance sheet

Content of opportunities and risk section

▪Describes the venture's specific opportunities

▪Identifies the venture's main challenges

▪Tries to assess and quantify risks (e.g., with sensitivity analysis)

▪Develops countermeasures for "killer" risks

▪Consideration of risk involved will win the confidence of a potential investor

Opportunities and risks – Key questions

Rough business plan

▪What basic risks (market, competition, technology) does your business venture face?

▪What measures will you take to counter these risks?

▪What extraordinary opportunities/business possibilities do you see for your company?

▪How could an expansion of your capital base help?