September 2018 Summaries

As eCommerce businesses face increasing competition and costs, they need to find new ways to cut expenses to stay afloat. The Supreme Court's South Dakota v. Wayfair ruling has opened up the possibility for states to collect sales tax from online vendors worldwide. To reduce costs, businesses can consider reducing product returns by making sure buyers know what they're getting before buying, extending return policies, and identifying high-risk customers. They can also negotiate with suppliers to improve payment terms, order sizes, and freight fees. Additionally, businesses can minimize credit card processing fees by negotiating with their processor, using alternative payment methods, and experimenting with digital marketing tactics that offer a good ROI. Furthermore, they can cut inventory costs by using promotional campaigns, automating business tasks, and optimizing packaging to reduce shipping costs. By implementing these strategies, eCommerce businesses can save money and stay competitive in the market.

When a residential realtor realized he could automate his tasks, he gained time back to focus on the activities that matter most: helping clients. Matt Castillo, a realtor at Keller Williams, works with over 150,000 associates worldwide and helps people find new places to call "home." Real estate transactions are significant financial decisions, and clients need someone they can trust who'll work hard for them. To streamline his workflow, Matt used app automation tool Zapier to funnel leads from Facebook Lead Ads to other apps like LionDesk CRM, automating tasks such as checking leads and sharing MLS listings. By eliminating time-intensive processes, Matt can now focus on helping clients, reducing the time spent checking leads and increasing productivity.

Mark Novak, team leader at Mark's Home Team at Cummings & Co Realtors, used automation with Zapier to build a more efficient process for his leads, saving him and his team several hours every week by automatically updating contacts across all platforms, including generating new leads from their website and Facebook ads, sending emails to the team with lead information in real-time, and managing leads within a CRM.

"Pinterest is a great place to promote your business and content, with nearly a third of American adults using the platform. To use Pinterest for your business, create a personal account and switch to a business account, which provides useful metrics such as view counts, click-through rates, and engagement metrics. To drive more traffic to your store or website, use Rich Pins, which display more information than general Pins, such as article headlines, product pricing, and recipe ingredients. To optimize for Pinterest search, fill out your profile, boards, and Pin descriptions with relevant keywords, and consider using SEO keyword tools like Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner. To boost Pinner quality, pin regularly, repin content from other users, and engage in group boards with industry influencers. Finally, use pinnable images on your website and automate your Pinterest account using tools like Zapier to increase efficiency and reach a wider audience."

Salary negotiations can be uncomfortable, but it's worth doing to avoid losing $1 million over the course of a career. There is no one-size-fits-all solution due to the infinite variables involved in human interactions. However, recruiters agree on several key points regarding salary negotiation within the tech industry. Capitalizing on the recruiter's incentive to hire you can be beneficial, as they have every reason to get you as much money as possible. Knowing your true market value is crucial and involves researching with real humans, not just relying on company review sites. If you're going to negotiate, do it early, being transparent about expectations and gracious in interactions. Being the first to say a number when working with a recruiter can also be advantageous. Considering the value of benefits, such as signing bonuses and flex time, is important, as some are negotiable while others are not. Practicing makes perfect, especially confidence, which can be gained through practicing talking to recruiters and hiring managers via job interviews.

The best productivity apps for Android are carefully selected based on universality and context, with a focus on features that aid productivity when using an Android phone or tablet as the primary internet-connected device. The list includes Adobe Acrobat Reader for annotating and viewing PDFs, Any.do for managing to-dos, Asana for collaborative task management, Automate for creating automations, Clip Stack for reusing copied text, DocuSign for electronically signing documents, Dragon Mobile Assistant for controlling phones with voice commands, Dropbox for file syncing and backup, Evernote for taking notes of all kinds, Grammarly for checking writing, LastPass for managing passwords and logging into accounts, Lucidchart for diagramming, Nirvana GTD for managing tasks in the GTD method, Pocket for reading, Pushbullet for quickly sharing information among devices, RescueTime for passively tracking time, Solid Explorer for exploring and managing files, Tide for enhancing focus, Toggl for tracking time while remote, and VMware Boxer for managing email. Each app has been evaluated based on its quality, ease of use, design, value, and other subjective factors to provide the best productivity experience for Android users.