Inspire - Tips To Grow Your Business, Productivity & Relationships

Baby Boomers own 40% of all small businesses and franchises in the US. Over a third have operated for 10+ years, and 3 in 4 are profitable. They’re an important part of the nation’s economy, but what happens to these businesses as their owners age? The youngest Baby Boomer is 58 this year. Thousands of Boomers are retiring every day. 

Some Boomer-owned businesses may go to the owner’s children, but that outcome isn’t guaranteed. 58% of small business owners have no succession plan. With rising costs for health services and long term care, some Boomers may sell their business to pay for retirement. Such a sale can be difficult.

Most small businesses aren’t on private equity’s radar. Despite this, they can still be a good investment for a Millennial looking to become his or her own boss. As mentioned, many are already established and profitable. They have a distinct brand with loyal customers. Buying an existing business from a retiring owner may be easier than starting one. Exiting business owners want to leave their labor of love in good hands. They want to know the new owner will have the experience necessary and will keep their business’s current workers employed.

Your company’s cyber security is important for several reasons. First, online security threats are becoming more and more common. Second, if your company’s data is breached, it could cost you a lot of money in terms of lost business and legal fees. Finally, a strong cyber security program can protect your employees’ personal information from being stolen.

There are many things you can do to improve your company’s cyber security. Here are five of the most important:

1. Educate your employees about online security threats.

Make sure your employees are aware of the latest online security threats and how to protect themselves from them. Provide them with regular training on cyber security best practices and make sure they understand the importance of following these practices.

2. Implement strong password policies.

Make sure your employees are using strong passwords for all of their online accounts. Consider implementing a password management system to help them keep track of their passwords and make sure they’re using different passwords for different accounts.

3. Use two-factor authentication whenever possible.

Two-factor authentication is an extra layer of security that requires users to enter a second code in addition to their password when logging into an account. This makes it much harder for hackers to gain access to accounts, even if they have the password.

4. Keep your software up to date.

Make sure all the software on your company’s computers is up to date. Hackers often exploit security vulnerabilities in outdated software to gain access to systems. By keeping your software up to date, you can help close these security holes.

5. Use a reliable cyber security solution.

There are many different cyber security solutions available, such as firewalls and antivirus software. Choose a solution that offers comprehensive protection and make sure it’s always up to date.

Protect Your Business

By taking these steps, you can help improve your company’s cyber security and protect your business from online threats.

Learning digital art opens up an artist’s career to new opportunities in game design, web design, graphic design, fashion design, product design, concept art, comic art, illustrative art, architecture, 3D modelling, and so much more. Since you are considering a career path in digital art, it would be safe to assume that you already have good control over your art in some form or the other.

However, talent and knowledge alone does not guarantee success in any artistic field, whether it’s on a digital platform or not. Creative professionals must also ensure productivity that is in line with the requirements of their respective jobs. As per established and successful digital artists from a myriad of fields, the following hold the most importance in ensuring that boosted productivity.

Get a Comprehensive, Digital Artist’s Laptop or Tablet PC

When you are only starting out, you may want to restrict your hardware expenses to a minimum. At the same time, that cannot come at the cost of performance, as that would pretty much defeat the whole purpose of boosting productivity as a professional. Therefore, the best solution would be to get a single 2-in-1 laptop or a tablet PC that comes with:

• A high-resolution touchscreen with support for pressure-sensitive inputs.
• A digital pen with support for 2,048 – 4,096 points of pressure sensitivity.
• A powerful graphics processor capable of rendering highly detailed sketches, drawings, and animations in QHD and UHD resolutions.

For example, the all Yoga 9i 2-in-1 laptops come with Lenovo Intel Arc Graphics, and the Precision Pen 2 digitizer, and you can choose a bright OLED panel in 4K resolution. A laptop like that makes it unnecessary for the digital artist to buy external, touchscreen monitors or a digital artist’s pen. You may need more later on, but until the time that you do, a comprehensive laptop/tablet PC is the best way to save money and boost productivity.

Get a Degree and Learn the Process

Getting a degree in any particular art form may not always be a strict requirement for digital artists, provided that they are good at getting the job done. However, certification is indeed an essential requirement if you wish to work in technical fields such as architecture, medical illustration, fashion designing, etc. These are jobs that need more than artistic talent and just a basic understanding of what must be done.

For example, the job of a medical illustrator is not as much about learning how to draw on a digital platform as it is about knowing the human anatomical design in all its intricate details. Similarly, an artist with a civil engineering degree would be a natural architect on both platforms. It’s more important to learn the process behind your desired field of work than it is to learn digital art.

Get a Degree in Digital Art

This is a secondary requirement, but for traditional artists, it can make a big difference. If you are a decent comics character artist on pen and paper, then you already have what it takes. You don’t need to go through the long process of learning how to draw stylized characters, add expressions to them, draw different poses for their movement from one frame to another, etc.

However, it will still take you some time to learn how to do all that on a digital canvas, using a digital pen. There is also the need to maximize your productivity by learning how to use the various software tools to their full extent. Complete a small online course in digital art and animation to make that learning curve no longer seem as steep.

We all know the way we communicate is changing: for better or worse, once in-person interactions are becoming virtual. One thing that remains the same is a need for visuals, which are processed 60,000 times faster than text by the human brain. Live video fulfils this need, while accommodating the flexibility and convenience demanded by those who work from home. 

70% of professionals now work at least one day a week at home. Not just meetings, but everything from hospital appointments to webinars to gaming sessions are now conducted over live video. 

New issues have arisen following such mass adoption of live video. Platforms must comply with privacy laws such as GDPR. They must fulfil customer needs by integrating popular features such as screen share, all while providing a low-latency service with high quality visuals. Most current solutions are not up to par. 

Eyeson is one platform that has come up with an innovative angle to tackle the challenge of providing quality live video streams. The company has a patented single stream technology that is browser-based, meaning users do not need to download or register to use it. The same video stream can be viewed on all devices, and the platform is fully encrypted and GDPR compliant.