Author: Staff (Page 41 of 62)

Start-ups offer free college education

June 18, 2012 / Staff

The cost of college tuition is skyrocketing, so it’s not surprising that some entrepreneurs are trying to fill the void.

Technology start-ups are cracking into the higher education market and there pitch is an enticing one: A college education for anyone at almost no cost.
Sound to good to be true? The founders of tech start-ups behind this revolutionary idea say they have already had success with their models, but they say there needs to be more momentum if their idea is to succeed.
“The 99% should be protesting college campuses,” says Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford University artificial intelligence professor, who recently co-founded Udacity, a technology start-up dedicated to providing higher education at a very low cost.

Two companies doing this are Udemy and Udacity. The new trend is self-education with all of the tools out there, including free lectures on iTunes and Khan Academy.

Smart employers will start to figure this out as well, and I suspect in the future we’ll see job applicants will put a Self-Education section on their resumes. It shows initiative and prospective employers can always quiz applicants on what they learned for verification.

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Rise of Remote Workers

June 13, 2012 / Staff

Here’s a cool infographic on the remote worker revolution. We’re seeing it with so many companies as more people want to work from home, and more companies are more than happy to accommodate them.

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How Businesses Are Getting Left Behind Because of Phone Numbers

June 13, 2012 / Staff

It would seem some well established businesses may be getting left behind simply because of the type of phone number they use. This may be a forgivable fault for a start-up or business in its nascence as they have not yet learned everything they need to know about how to build up a customer base, but the larger, international firms should never be making these mistakes.

It is bad enough these companies choose to use premium numbers for their customers to pay their bills but for a customer service line or even to join up with a brand, big companies cannot be forgiven for making these lines premium rate.

Free phone numbers bring extra custom; build an effective customer base, build up company consumer trust and increases brand awareness. It seems beyond the case of foolishness for big companies not to be embracing free telephone numbers.

In the UK for example, 0844 numbers are just as easy to install and run as the premium numbers and are readily available from resellers. So why do big companies still cling to their old ways? They must assess the pros and cons of the situation form a very warped view point. Those in charge of public relations at big corporations must not be able to see past the initial revenue gained through the phone callers who pay premium rates. This is a classic case of not being able to see the wood for the trees.

In actual fact, these companies will lose customers in the long run and ultimately the revenue they are attempting to so firmly grasp. The loss of custom though, will not only stem from the substandard customer service they are offering from premium rate phone numbers. What these people are failing to understand, is that if there is a free way to get in touch with a company, the customer will find it. Modern technology and the rise of social media have removed the wall between companies and consumers. There are now many free platforms for your (unhappy) customers to voice their opinions about your company and the reputation of a brand can be tarnished very easily. It would be a much better idea for the big companies to have a quiet, free phone call with their customers and deal with an issue before it goes viral and is splashed over social media.

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Salaries keep rising for tech jobs

June 11, 2012 / Staff

The stories are getting interesting again about what technology companies are willing to do to find qualified tech workers. Engineers in particular are seeing salary offer rise considerably. In the late 1990s we saw the dot com boom drive the frothy growth in salaries. This time around, giants like Google and Facebook are the big drivers. There’s just so much competition for qualified workers, and this is particularly true in Silicon Valley.

The other driver is a new wave of innovation that’s being driven by cloud computing. You have all sorts of companies pushing the envelope on what is possible now that we have the tremendous resource of the cloud. You have companies like Amazon offering server space for incredible prices, and then you have Apple linking up all of their devices through the cloud. When you take a photo on your phone, it now shows up in iCloud and is then accessible from your Mac. But it’s not just the big companies getting in on the act. Startups are popping up every day to take advantage of these trends.

All of this results in an excellent job market if you’re an IT worker or an engineer. It’s another reason why you can never go wrong learning technical skills, and it’s a field that many should consider if they’re looking to be retrained after losing a job. If you have base math skills, this might be an area you should strongly consider.

In the 1990s, the dot com bubble burst and many tech workers found themselves looking for work. Of course the business cycle is still an issue, and the current frenzy will probably abate a bit, but now the foundation for technology workers is very strong, and the level of innovation seems to be accelerating. So long term job security in this area is probably a safe assumption. Salaries might level off, but the need for tech workers seems to be something we can all count on for the future.

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Kathy Ireland discusses entrepreneurship

June 7, 2012 / Staff

When you watch this interview with Kathy Ireland, you get a real sense of the determination and persistence that’s required for someone to be a successful entrepreneur. You have to expect failures but then be prepared to learn from them. It’s easier said than done of course, but you have to be prepared for this.

Watch the video, and you can see the character traits that make a successful entrepreneur.

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