The Margin: Louis C.K. surprises fans with unannounced new web series

Louis C.K. dropped a pleasant surprise on his fans Saturday morning, releasing the first episode of his unannounced new series online.

How To Choose A CPA

Sure, some small business owners in the U.S. prepare their own taxes, but many entrepreneurs wouldn’t even consider handling this aspect of their operations.

Digital Assistants Need To Find A Common Tongue

“Siri, why don’t I have access to all of the data on my phone?”

Report Illuminates Wealth-Creation Gap Among Small Business Owners

A growing number of self-reliant Americans have started one-person businesses in recent years to make a living. But minority and women business owners who opt for self-employment aren't faring as well as they might be, when it comes to building the value of their businesses, according to a new report by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), a national nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. that is dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income families and communities. The report, CFED's "Assets & Opportunity Scorecard," looks at a number of factors affecting the economic picture for low-income families.

The Margin: Bros for Brahmins: Boston Globe susses out San Francisco, c. 2016

Like a 21st-century Alexis de Tocqueville, the Boston Globe’s Christopher Muther traversed the continent to see what it is that makes contemporary Americans tick. Unlike de Tocqueville, Muther got hammered and played some beer pong.

5 Cloud Service Provider Predictions For 2016: Analytics, CRM & CPQ Accelerate Sales

Bottom line: The fastest path to greater sales and profits for cloud service providers in 2016 will be in delivering analytics, CRM, and CPQ apps that fuel new sales in their customers’ revenue pipelines, proving they can quickly deliver results.

The Wall Street Journal: Facebook bans private gun sales

Licensed retailers can still offer firearms on social media site

Freelancers: Get Ready To Stand Up And Be Counted

Freelancers' needs have pretty much been ignored in a society where most institutions are organized around the lifestyles of Americans with traditional jobs. But with a recent study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office showing that 40.4% of U.S. workers now do contingent jobs--such as freelancing, contract work and part-time work--it appears that leaders in Washington are finally getting interested in this fast-growing segment of the population.

Career Site Requirements for Federal Contractors

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program’s pay transparency regulations recently went into effect and with it came new information dissemination obligations for contractors with respect to job seekers.

How To Get The Best Out Of Your Design Team

Where do badly set up design teams typically sink time and become ineffective? This question was originally answered on Quora by Rebekah Cox.

MarketWatch First Take: Microsoft gaining on Amazon in cloud

Microsoft Corp.’s fiscal second quarter showed that its cloud-computing efforts are paying off with major revenue growth and improved profit margins, offsetting declines in its PC businesses.

Want A High Performance Small Biz Sales Team? Learn Analytics Now

33% of high-performing small business service teams are already using predictive analytics.
34% percent of small business marketers identify as heavy tech adopters.
Small business sales teams’ mobile app use will grow by 140% in the next two years.
Growth in marketing automation among small businesses will jump 143% within 12 months.

Court Rules Medical Marijuana Users Can Be Fired

A federal court in New Mexico added to the growing body of U.S. case law holding that employers are under no duty to accommodate medical marijuana use by employees or job applicants, even when state law allows it.

Tax Foundation Analysis Of Sanders Plan Only Shows Downside

The Tax Foundation has scored the Bernie Sanders tax plan. As you might expect, it is not a pretty picture. I think that there is something of a flaw in the Tax Foundation's model in looking at whether the plan is good public policy, but let's dig into the details a bit first.

Hilton Debuts Affordable 'Tru By Hilton' Brand For Millennials, Techies And Those Who Love Them

Tru by Hilton is designed to appeal to younger, tech-minded, design-savvy travelers on a budget, with rates about $90 to $100 per night.

MarketWatch First Take: EBay investors lose patience as PayPal spin-off takes a bite out of earnings

EBay Inc. investors are realizing that the ecommerce giant’s turnaround efforts as a solo company may take longer than they expected, and they appear to be losing patience.

The World's Next Top Tax Haven Is...America

The IRS hunts offshore accounts and tax evasion worldwide. Yet ironically, America is now ranking as a kind of offender itself.

The 10 Best Jobs in the U.S. in 2016

Data scientists—those numbers savants tasked with making sense of the reams of data that companies amass—have the career with the most earnings potential in the U.S., according to Glassdoor.com.

Let's Face It, Tim Cook Is A Manager, Not An Innovator

Once Apple was an innovative company which developed radical products that changed the way people live and work.
That's why the company's revenues and earnings grew by leaps and bounds, beating the most bullish analyst estimates quarter after quarter.
But that was some time ago, when the founder of the company was a serial innovator, competition was almost nonexistent, and market saturation was low.
Today, Apple is still an innovative company. But iy no longer develops radical products. It just churns out different versions of its old blockbuster products as the competition closes in and the market saturation grows high.
That’s why Wall Street doesn’t get as impressed as it used to with the company’s new product releases— and the reason Apple’s stock has been lagging in a strong technology market.

Windows 10 Objectors Should Think Twice About Jumping To Mac

Windows 10 is humming along at a decent clip, but still has a long way to go before it steals the title of de facto desktop operating system. Many Windows users object to Windows 10 for various reasons, and a fair percentage have threatened to just abandon Windows entirely and switch to Mac OS X. I know the grass is greener—blah, blah, blah—but if your reason for avoiding Windows 10 is that you don’t approve of Microsoft’s strong arm tactics you might want to think twice.

Market Extra: Strong dollar took a $5B bite out of Apple’s results, says Tim Cook

Apple disappointed Wall Street late Tuesday. And the tech giant’s Chief Executive Tim Cook was quick to point to a strengthening dollar as one factor hitting the company’s quarterly results.

Content Engagement Strategies To Market To The $3.4 Trillion Multicultural Segment

Two of the U.S.’s largest and fastest growing groups are millennials (see article here) and multiculturals. While much has been written about millennials (see example here), little has been written about the rapidly growing multicultural segment of the U.S. To better understand this segment of the population, I turned to James Briggs, CEO of Briabe Mobile, who discusses the best strategies for targeting this highly influential group by providing insights into multicultural content engagement trends that convert into brand loyalty.

Is Amazon Prime nearing its peak?

The Seattle online retailer is estimated to have had 54 million U.S. Prime members at the end of 2015, up 35% from 40 million a year earlier, according to an analysis from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. But the coveted customers appear to be spending less.

Cortana Now Helps You Keep Promises You Make In Email

The artificial intelligence capabilities of virtual assistants continue to evolve as Microsoft raises the bar. Cortana will now scan your emails for promises you make and help you keep those commitments by automatically prompting you to add reminders to your calendar.

The Wall Street Journal: Jack Dorsey overhauling Twitter’s executive ranks

Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey is revamping his top ranks as he tries to find ways to revive the social media company and earn the trust of investors.

89% of B2B Marketers Have Predictive Analytics On Their Roadmaps For 2016

78% see B2B marketings' role expanding from demand generation to deal acceleration.
Predictive marketers are 1.8x more likely to consistently exceed shared organizational goals.
Predictive marketers are 2.9x more likely to report revenue growth at rates higher than the industry average and 2.1x more likely to occupy a commanding leadership position in the product/service markets they serve.

Marketing Conferences To Check Out In 2016

As the digital marketing industry continues to evolve, these dynamic, inspirational, and actionable conferences will continue be a must for any communication professional or business leaders looking to prepare themselves and their teams to take on this new, evolving industry.

MUSE: Leveraging Blockchain Technology To Revolutionize Music Industry

While growing interest in blockchain technology from companies to governments shows little sign of abating and even the Chinese authorities are looking to create their own digital currency, the power of this technology is also being harnessed for deployment in other industries - including music. Now fintech platform OpenLedger and Danish bitcoin exchange CCEDK are joining forces with MUSE, a music-tailored blockchain, to make monetizing music as easy as new peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms made distributing it 15 years ago.

Earnings Outlook: Apple earnings optimism may be ‘detached from reality’

Apple is projected to report record holiday sales Tuesday, but analysts say expectations might be too high.

Saudi Arabia And Iran Aren't Ready For Syrian Peace

The lifting of sanctions have re-ignited an old fear for the Saudi Kingdom: an open and prosperous Iran that could serve as a model to its own young population, and hence a challenge to its monarchy rule.

Tech companies use materials mined illegally by children in Africa

Amnesty International accuses major technology companies like Apple, Samsung and Microsoft of facilitating child labor in African mines for cobalt