It’s Sunday morning and I’m writing the Friday Web Bits post. It’s good to be busy…. Here are a few pieces from around the interwebs I enjoyed reading recently. I hope you like them also.
I’m so sleepy. Ever wonder why you’re so sleepy all the time? Sure, you should get more sleep, but that might be just part of the problem. There’s also social jet lag, which afflicts most of us. Internal Time: The Science of Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You’re So Tired on the Brain Pickings blog has an interesting video about social clocks and body clocks at the end of the post. The real culprit might be the alarm clock, but who can live without it?
Business liability tips. Mashable gives business owners a few tips about protecting themselves from liability in What Every Small Business Needs to Know About Liability. Everyone knows they can help protect their personal assets from business liability by incorporating, but that’s not all business people should do.
Intellectual property: handle with care. Guest columnist Antone Johnson provides advice about intellectual property protection in his Wall Street Journal piece 5 ‘IP’ Mistakes Start-ups Should Avoid. Contamination and mixing up what came from where are two of the mistakes Antone discusses.
Are you a coffee shop conqueror? Coffee shops are great places to chat with friends, people watch, read a book, and fight social jet lag, but have you gone too far when you set up office all day and drink a single latte? Bryony Gordon thinks so and she rants about this and other matters of coffee shop etiquette in her piece Coffee-shop conquerors, just take your latte and go in The Telegraph.
Are you paying your interns? Gerry wrote an informative piece on the blog last week called What Risks Do Unpaid Internships Pose to Employers? Cari Rincker also provides some helpful guidance on how to determine whether you are required to pay an intern in Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Your customers aren’t paying? You’re not alone. Slow-paying customers can wreak havoc on your cash flow and increase the amount of working capital required to run your business. If you’ve been experiencing those problems, you’re not alone. According to a study released by the Kauffman Foundation last week, 14.1% of small business owners cited getting paid by their customers as their most challenging problem, as reported in an article about the Kauffman study at entrepreneur.com. This is up from 2% in 2008.
Thank you Tony LaRussa. Tony finished off his great career as a manager in St. Louis by leading the team to its eleventh World Series title, and the Cardinals retired his number 10 in a classy ceremony Friday night. Here’s a picture of the scene.
