Day 50: Not Negotiating your Salary can Cost you Half a Million Dollars

If you don’t negotiate your salary, statistics say it can cost you almost half a million dollars over your lifetime! This is particularly important for millennials, many of whom fail to negotiate their first job salary.

The first paycheck is also known to determine all your future raises.

“Not negotiating your first salary in a low-wage job can amount to a sacrifice of half a million dollars over the course of your career,” says Sara Laschever, a negotiating expert and the author of “Ask For It.” “In a higher-wage job, that loss is magnified.”

According to an exclusive survey, 82% of people (out of 548 millennials) did not negotiate their first salaries because:

• they didn’t feel comfortable – 38%,
• they didn’t know they were allowed to negotiate – 44%.

 

If you need a little push with asking for that raise, study these 37 tips for negotiating your salary.

 

Sources: http://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-and-negotiating-salaries-2014-6

http://www.businessinsider.com/survey-on-millennials-and-first-jobs-2014-6

http://www.payscale.com/salary-negotiation-guide/negotiation-tips-for-millennials

https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-negotiate-salary-37-tips-you-need-to-know

Day 47: Which Colors are “in” this Year

According to Pantone, the world’s color authority, these ten colors will be the Colors of 2016. They can be used in fashion, graphic design, architecture and interior design.

Source: http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr/?season=spring&year=2016&pid=11

https://designschool.canva.com/blog/design-trends-2016/?utm_source=newsletter52&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=thisweekindesign

 

Day 46: The 5S Methodology

The 5S methodology was developed in Japan in the (successful) effort to improve the manufacturing industry. It started as a workplace organization system that uses five Japanese words, all beginning with the letter “S”: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke (sort, straighten, shine, standardize, sustain, though other words in English have also been used to translate 5S).

The idea behind 5S is to organize your work space in order to ensure your efficiency and effectiveness. It quickly evolved and spread to other industries. Today, 5S is applied in business, education, health care, government, etc.

“Although the origins of the 5S methodology are in manufacturing, it can also be applied to knowledge-economy work, with information, software, or media in the place of physical product.”

 

 

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5S_(methodology)

https://www.graphicproducts.com/articles/what-is-5s/

http://www.creativesafetysupply.com/content/education-research/5S/index.html

Day 36: Largest Companies by Revenue in Each US State

Here’s another map, this time of the US. It shows which industries dominate in all 50 states.

Broadview Networks makes this interesting distinction:

“At first glance, you may ask, “Where are Apple and Microsoft?”  Yes, these are huge companies but this map is specifically looking at total revenue from the last fiscal year.  If we look at California with Apple vs. Chevron, there is a large discrepancy between market value and total revenues.  Apple’s market value as of March 31, 2015 was $724 billion while Chevron’s was only (and we use “only” lightly) $197 billion.  In terms of revenue, Chevron comes out on top with $203 billion in the last fiscal year while Apple had revenues of $182 billion.”

Which company is at the top in your state?

State	2014 Company	2014 Revenue (Billion)	2015 Company	2015 Revenue (Billion)	Headquarters
AL	Regions Bank	$5.89	Regions Bank	$5.40	Birmingham AL
AK	Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation	$4.44	GCI Inc.	$0.91	Anchorage AK
AZ	Avnet Inc.	$25.45	Avnet Inc.	$27.49	Phoenix AZ
AR	Wal-Mart Stores	$476.29	Wal-Mart Stores	$485.65	Bentonville AR
CA	Chevron Corporation	$228.84	Chevron Corporation	$211.97	Sam Ramon CA
CO	Arrow Electronics Inc.	$21.35	Arrow Electronics Inc.	$22.78	Inverness CO
CT	General Electric	$146.04	General Electric	$148.58	Fairfield CT
DE	E.I du Pont de Nemours and Company	$36.14	E.I du Pont de Nemours and Company	$36.04	Wilmington DE
FL	World Fuel Services	$41.56	World Fuel Services	$43.38	Miami FL
GA	Home Depot International Inc.	$85.53	Home Depot International Inc.	$85.90	Atlanta GA
HI	Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.	$3.23	Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.	$3.23	Honolulu HI
ID	Micro Technology Inc.	$9.07	Albertson’s LLC.	$23.56	Boise ID
IL	Archer Daniels Midland	$89.80	The Boeing Company	$90.76	Chicago IL
IN	WellPoint	$71.02	Anthem Inc.	$73.87	Indianapolis IN
IA	Transamerica Life Insurance Company	$19.04	Transamerica Life Insurance Company	$23.34	Cedar Rapids IA
KS	Sprint Communications Inc.	$34.56	Koch Industries	$115.00	Wichita KS
KY	Humana Inc.	$42.31	Humana Inc.	$48.50	Louisville KY
LA	CenturyLink Inc.	$18.09	CenturyLink Inc.	$18.03	Monroe LA
ME	Hannaford Bros. Co.	$3.98	Hannaford Bros. Co.	$4.41	Scarborough ME
MD	Lockheed Martin	$45.35	Lockheed Martin	$45.60	Bethesda MD
MA	Liberty Mutual Holding Company Inc.	$38.50	Liberty Mutual Holding Company Inc.	$36.94	Boston MA
MI	General Motors	$155.42	General Motors	$155.92	Detroit MI
MN	Cargill Inc.	$136.65	UnitedHealth Group	$130.47	Minnetonka MN
MS	Sanderson Farms Inc.	$2.68	Koch Foods Incorporated	$2.80	Flowood MS
MO	Express Scripts Holding	$104.09	Express Scripts Holding	$100.88	St. Louis MO
MT	Stillwater Mining Company	$1.03	Stillwater Mining Company	$0.94	Billings MT
NE	Berkshire Hathaway	$182.15	Berkshire Hathaway	$194.67	Omaha NE
NV	Las Vegas Sands Corp.	$13.76	Las Vegas Sands Corp.	$14.58	Paradise NV
NH	Sprague Resources LP	$4.60	C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc.	$21.70	Keene NH
NJ	Johnson & Johnson	$71.31	Johnson & Johnson	$74.33	New Brunswick NJ
NM	Presbyterian Healthcare Services	$4.60	Presbyterian Healthcare Services	$2.05	Albuquerque NM
NY	Verizon Communications	$120.55	Verizon Communications	$127.07	New York NY
NC	Bank of America	$101.69	Bank of America	$95.18	Charlotte NC
ND	MDU Resources Group Inc.	$4.46	MDU Resources Group Inc.	$4.67	Bismarck ND
OH	Cardinal Health	$101.09	The Kroger Co.	$108.46	Cincinnati OH
OK	Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Inc.	$26.09	Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Inc.	$26.09	Oklahoma City OK
OR	Nike Inc.	$25.31	Nike Inc.	$27.79	Beaverton OR
PA	AmeriSourceBergen	$87.95	AmeriSourceBergen	$119.56	Chesterbrook PA
RI	CVS Caremark	$126.76	CVS Caremark	$139.36	Woonsocket RI
SC	Sonoco Products Company	$4.48	Sonoco Products Company	$5.01	Hartsville SC
SD	Sanford Health	$3.10	Poet LLC.	$6.00	Sioux Falls SD
TN	FedEx Corporation	$44.28	FedEx Corporation	$45.46	Memphis TN
TX	Exxon Mobil	$438.25	Exxon Mobil	$411.93	Irving TX
UT	Huntsman Corporation	$11.07	Huntsman Corporation	$11.57	Salt Lake City UT
VT	Keurig Green Mountain Inc.	$4.35	Keurig Green Mountain Inc.	$4.70	Waterbury VT
VA	Freddie Mac	$81.22	The Long & Foster Companies Inc.	$42.70	Chantilly VA
WA	CostCo Wholesale	$105.15	CostCo Wholesale	$112.64	Issaquah WA
WV	West Virginia University Hospitals Inc.	$1.38	Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc.	$1.24	Morgantown WV
WI	Johnson Controls Inc.	$42.73	Johnson Controls Inc.	$42.82	Milwaukee WI
WY	Cloud Peak Energy Inc.	$1.39	Cloud Peak Energy Inc.	$1.39	Gillette WY

Sources:

http://www.broadviewnet.com/blog/2015/06/largest-companies-by-revenue-in-each-state-2015-map/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/10/biggest-companies-revenue_n_7552802.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/company-revenue-map-2015-2015-6

 

Day 32: Long-Form Content for your Business

If you are trying to improve your website’s Google ranking, one of the things you can do is create longer content. Turns out, the longer the content (2000 words or more), the better ranking the website gets. Studies show that if you want to land in the first 10 pages of Google search, all your posts should be at least 1100 words long. (Easier said than done, right?)

“According to the Searchmetrics report, Google is showing a preference for longer content, even more so than in 2014. They found that the average word count for pages in the top 30 search results was 1140; and this number was even higher for top 10 results, with the average word count being 1285.”

If we convert the number of words per post into how many minutes it would take to read the highest-ranking ones, turns out the ideal reading time is about 3-6 minutes.

Source: https://blog.bufferapp.com/optimal-length-social-media

Sources:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252884

http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/12/20/the-science-behind-long-copy-how-more-content-increases-rankings-and-conversions/

http://www.johnrampton.com/the-6-essential-elements-of-high-ranking-content-in-2015-research/

https://blog.bufferapp.com/optimal-length-social-media

 

 

Day 16: The AIDA Rule

AIDA is a useful marketing tool and one of the most important principles of advertising. The acronym stands for:

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

It encourages a step-by-step process from grabbing your audience’s attention, evoking (and keeping) their interest to creating desire and getting action.

The term AIDA was first coined by a legendary ad man and sales pioneer Elias in 1899:

“The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader, so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement.”

The AIDA rule is usually used in marketing and advertising; however, I find that it works in any field where a consumer engages with something (e.g., graphic design, writing).

Have you ever used the AIDA approach?

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_(marketing)

http://advertising.about.com/od/successstrategies/a/Get-To-Know-And-Use-Aida.htm

Day 14: Best and Worst Time to Post to Social Media

If you work in Marketing, this will be very helpful.

Day 12: Being Irreplaceable at a Job can Cost You a Promotion

It almost seems counterintuitive, but if you become irreplaceable at your current position at work – that is, you are the ONLY person who can do certain things or perform specific duties – your management will be reluctant to move you from this position because finding a replacement would be very hard for the company. What to do in this situation? Do your level best, but spread the knowledge!

” [T]eaching is a critical leadership skill. So, in addition to alleviating concerns about finding your replacement, you’ll demonstrate that you can handle the responsibility that comes with a more advanced position.”

 

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252879

Day 3: Life and Business are like the Changing Seasons

The Four Major Lessons In Life – Winter

“The four major lessons. It is so important to study the majors. Have you ever notice that some people don’t do well, because they major in minor things. Whatever you do, check at the end of the week, the end of the year, and make sure you’re not spending major time on minor things. Otherwise, you’ll wind up with a below average life.

Now, before I get into the four major lessons, here are two phrases to consider. First, life and business are like the changing seasons. That’s one of the best ways to illustrate life. It’s like the seasons, the change. Frank Sinatra sang “life is like the seasons”. Here is the second phrase: you cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself.

Now, with those two key phrases in mind, here are the four major lessons in life to learn.

The first is, learn how to handle the winters. They come right after fall with regularity. Some are long, some are short. Some are difficult, some are easy. But they always come right after fall. Remember, it isn’t going to change. Now, there are all kinds of winters, right? The winter when you can’t figure it out. The winter when it all go smashed. We call it ‘the winters of your life’. One writer call it ‘the winter of discontent’. The winter when it turns upside down, when it all goes wrong. There are economic winters, social winters, personal winters. When your heart is smashed into a thousand pieces. Winter time, disappointments. Disappointment is common to us all. So learn how to handle the winters. You must learn how to handle the nights, they come right after days. You must learn how to handle difficulties, they always come right after opportunities. You must handle recessions, they come right after expansions. It isn’t going to change.

So the big question is: what do you do about the winters? Well, you can’t get rid of January simply by tearing it off the calendar. But here is what you can do: you can get stronger, wiser and better. Make note of the trio of words: stronger, wiser, better. See, the winter won’t change, but you can.

Before I understood this, when it was winter, I used to wish it was summer. I didn’t understand. When it was difficult, I used to wish it was easy. I didn’t know. Then Mr Shoaff (my mentor) gave me the answer from a part of his very unique philosophy, when he said, “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom.”

Source: