In the cut-throat business world, self-doubt can be the difference between success and failure, costing you everything.
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United Airlines has announced its plans to offer travelers free in-flight WiFi. The service will be powered by Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet technology and is expected to commence next year.
United is aiming to install Starlink WiFi across more than 1,000 aircraft.
Related: Carnival Cruises Officially Installs Elon Musk’s Starlink Internet on 100% of its Ships
“Everything you can do on the ground, you’ll soon be able to do onboard a United plane at 35,000 feet, just about anywhere in the world,” United CEO Scott Kirby announced Friday.
For United MileagePlus members, WiFi is currently $8, and $10 for non-members, per the Washington Post.
“We’re excited to team up with United Airlines to transform the inflight experience,” said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer at SpaceX, in a press release. “With Starlink onboard your United flight, you’ll have access to the world’s most advanced high-speed internet from gate to gate, and all the miles in between.”
Delta Air Lines offers complimentary in-flight WiFi on domestic legs for SkyMiles members and smaller carriers, such as Hawaiian Airlines and JetBlue, also offer free WiFi.
Around one in five people on planes in the U.S. are connecting to in-flight WiFi, according to the Airline Passenger Experience Association.
United Airlines Adding Starlink, Free WiFi to All Flights Read More »
Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.
Businesses in the United States waste $8 billion on managing paper each year, with an average price tag of $20 to file a document, according to Corp! Magazine. This might be especially costly to smaller businesses and emerging entrepreneurs, but it’s easier than you might think to cut down on such expenses—and promote greener business operations.
Relying on paperless software like PDFs can cut costs for your company, but while these are the most universally shared and used document types, they’re tricky to edit, protect, or combine without the proper tools. Outfit your business with PDF Extra Ultimate, an all-in-one PDF management solution that’s available for $99.99 (reg. $239).
You may think the cost of PDF Extra Ultimate is a little steep for your growing business, but let us put it into perspective.
You could opt for Adobe Acrobat—only to pay a recurring monthly fee—but what you’d pay for in a year ($14.99 monthly) costs more than you’d pay for this option. That’s at least $180 a year going toward PDF management tools. With PDF Extra Ultimate, you can get the same tools for life for under $100.
The next time you notice you or a colleague made a typo on a PDF that’s about to be sent to a client or partner, this platform can help you correct your mistake. Along with helping you correct spelling or spacing errors, PDF Extra Ultimate empowers users to adjust text styles and fonts and add local or web images to their documents.
Create PDFs out of any file, whether it’s an Excel spreadsheet or Word file. Use the drag-and-drop feature to combine, rotate, move, duplicate, or delete files. You’ll also be able to divide your PDF into individual pages for easier reading or extract specific pages that are most relevant to your business.
If you’re delivering a PDF to a client to review and sign, you can use this tool to make your document fillable via digital signatures through typing, handwriting, or a signature image. For extra security, you can encrypt your PDF with digital certificates, secure it with passwords, or place timestamps to authenticate when an action was made.
Make your PDF work experience more seamless with PDF Extra Ultimate, now $99.99 for life. That’s the best price online.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Correct Your Spelling Errors on PDFs With This All-in-One PDF Tool Read More »
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Everyone wants a million-dollar idea, but it takes more than just imagination to turn brainwaves into a bankroll — it helps to have a proven method. Like most kids, I learned the scientific method in school, so, the first time I wanted to start a business, I went with an approach I knew: I tested my business hypothesis, analyzed my results and revised until I had arrived at a solution. In the process, I learned to love solving business challenges through product innovation, which led me to start Influence Mobile, develop our flagship product and transform a simple idea into millions.
As a leader, I still use that same scientific approach for innovative product development. To be competitive, we always need to be innovating, which means staying on the lookout for new problems to solve. Such innovative solutions often ask us to make improvements we’ve never attempted, inviting questions we may not know how to answer. Even when approaching the unknown, we always have a tool to draw conclusions for better-informed decision-making — the scientific method.
Related: The Scientific Method for Entrepreneurs: 6 Steps to Long-Term Success
To fully realize a million-dollar idea, start with a clear goal in mind. Finding that initial spark often comes through its own scientific process: observing a problem to be solved and asking questions about the best way to solve it. At our company, we recently observed that push messages were a major revenue driver and asked ourselves, “How can we engage long-term players of our app and increase their acceptance of push messages and retention?” Our traditional strategy had centered on early engagement and Day 1 ROAS, so this marked our first major investment in extending the engagement window.
To navigate this new terrain, we let the scientific method be our guide: We observed end-user behavior and preferences, compared that to past experiences and asked how to drive engagement based on that data. Using our market knowledge and what we know about our users, we hypothesized that people would respond well to a game with monthly collect-and-win opportunities and attractive giveaways. We also came up with several other hypotheses, but when we held them up against our existing data, we went with the one that seemed to most effectively bring us toward a solution.
Related: How Do You Bring Innovation to Market?
To transform a product hypothesis into a revenue stream, we need to test and refine it into its most effective form. Once we had developed our game and the aspects we predicted users would enjoy, we built a small prototype and shared it with a few hundred players. Again, we observed their behavior and asked more questions: How did they engage with the game? How many push notifications did they accept?
Remarkably, 90% of players enabled push notifications and 6 out of 10 players opted to receive the maximum of 10 daily. Nearly 40% of players who traded game pieces chose to haggle rather than have trades conducted automatically. This high acceptance of push messages and community engagement added new challenges for us to address, but the initial feedback was promising.
Still, no product is perfect right out of the gate. This is why the scientific method calls for continuous experimentation. In product development, this means quick, frequent tests to confirm our theories or garner immediate feedback to refine the approach. After our initial testing, we rolled out the game to increasingly larger groups, surveyed players and identified areas for improvement. Through user feedback and our own experiences, we determined that more gameplay options would cater to different types of players and refined our product to meet more user needs.
Related: The Ten Commandments Of Business Innovation
With every test comes more data to refine further, each iteration bringing that initial idea closer to a bankroll-worthy product. Observe and identify key metrics that would indicate the product’s success. Then, ask questions: How do we drive those metrics? Who are the right partners? What is the smallest version we can use to test? Start as broad as possible and then refine with each of many iterations.
For us, push message acceptance directly impacted user engagement, so we observed and asked questions: Did the players engage with the game as expected? Did they accept more push notifications? What did the data tell us about their preferences? We brought in an experienced game development firm, conducted surveys, and analyzed player behavior, engagement and push message acceptance both before and after launching the game. Our hypothesis was on the right track, but by analyzing the data and honing in on this metric, we revealed what was working alongside targeted areas for improvement.
After multiple rounds of testing and refining, we can draw conclusions about the best product to launch that will most likely yield million-dollar success. For our game, we concluded that competitive gameplay and personalized options would drive long-term engagement and push notification acceptance. So, we launched our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to a larger audience, evaluating new data and uncovering more problems. Again, we turned to the scientific method to observe, question, hypothesize, test and refine our biggest opportunities for improvement.
Early feedback gave us confidence, but we didn’t stop there. To truly measure retention and engagement is a long-funnel event. The MVP phase taught us the impact of scale in real-time, but the product is still in the very early stages even after launching to tens of thousands of players. Much like our flagship app, which took years of testing and optimization to scale past a hundred million in revenue, we will continue to gather data and refine with further improvements to ensure our game stays engaging and relevant.
The principles of the scientific method serve as a timeless guide to solving problems and innovating ideas. This iterative process takes ideas through discovery and improvement and turns them into sustained growth and success. Whether developing a new app, launching a product or improving an existing service, the scientific method offers a structured process anyone can apply to navigate innovation with greater confidence.
Use This Scientific Approach to Transform Your Idea Into Success Read More »
An 80-hour workweek means working from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. six days a week — not the norm for most Americans, who log an average of 34 hours per week.
But for some junior bankers on Wall Street, an 80-hour week maximum workweek will be a relief.
JPMorgan Chase is now instituting a limit to working hours after new investigations showed that junior investment bankers are putting in more than 100 hours per week.
Bank of America is also trying to enforce an 80-hours per week cap with a new time reporting tool, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources. The tool will reportedly roll out next week and ask junior bankers to log daily hours instead of weekly hours. It also asks for more detail about what the bankers are working on and which senior employees are managing them on each assignment.
The changes come after the death of 35-year-old Bank of America junior banker Leo Lukenas III earlier this year. Lukenas joined Bank of America in 2023 as an associate and passed away in May 2024 from a blood clot in his heart. Though the coroner’s report didn’t link the death to overwork, Lukenas had reportedly been working 110-hour weeks on a $2 billion acquisition for the bank and indicated before his death that he wanted to leave because of the long hours.
Related: JPMorgan Says Its AI Cash Flow Software Cut Human Work By Almost 90%
A WSJ investigation in August reported that Bank of America bosses routinely pressured junior bankers to lie about the number of hours they worked, circumventing policies implemented a decade ago after the death of an investment banking intern in Bank of America’s London office.
The 21-year-old intern, Moritz Erhardt, had epilepsy and died from an epileptic seizure. He had been working until 6 a.m. for three days in a row. Bank of America subsequently asked junior bankers to take at least four weekend days off per month and to take their yearly vacation time.
After the investigation, Bank of America asked junior bankers to go to higher-ups or human resources if managers overworked them. The new time reporting tool is also intended to make it harder for junior bankers to downplay how many hours they spend in the office and keep managers more accountable to the bank’s limits.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley still have no policy limits on how many hours analysts and associates can work, but Goldman has a “protected Saturday” policy that blocks out Friday from 9 p.m. to Sunday at 9 a.m. as time off.
JPMorgan, Bank of America Set 80 Hour Week Limit: Overwork Read More »
A new study shows that AI jobs are concentrated in companies you’d least expect.
Computing solutions specialist Getac analyzed LinkedIn and Glassdoor job listings for companies with the most AI-related postings and looked for jobs like Senior Director of Analytics & AI, AI Technical Writer, AI Application Engineer, and AI Solution Sales Specialist.
Microsoft topped the list, beating out Meta, which came in second.
The report found that, while the usual Big Tech AI players dominated the list, other companies made surprise appearances, too, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Mount Sinai Health System, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Here are the companies that currently have the most AI-related job postings listed.
Number of postings: 1,335
Number of postings: 1,232
Number of postings: 461
Related: Worried About AI Stealing Your Job? A New Report Calls These 10 Careers ‘AI-Proof’
Number of postings: 417
Number of postings: 363
Number of postings: 355
Number of postings: 338
Number of postings: 293
Number of postings: 279
Number of postings: 249
Companies Hiring AI Jobs: Technical Writer, Engineer, Sales Read More »
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Habit stacking is a powerful tool, especially for busy entrepreneurs who need to maximize their time and efficiency. While the topic has been discussed in depth and well documented by James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, the idea of habit stacking is to stack up a new habit on top of a current habit.
So, for example, Clear references a meditation habit: “After I brew my morning coffee, I will meditate for one minute.” Or a gratitude habit: “Before I eat my first bite of dinner, I will say one thing I am grateful for that day.”
I confess that I am a multitasker unless I’m working on a deep project or having conversations with friends and family. Below are some of the go-to habit stacks I practice regularly.
I like to exercise first thing in the morning, and during my workouts, I do not use my phone. I am focused on my workout, my music and making sure I get the most out of my time in the gym, which I thoroughly enjoy.
It’s also wonderful to kick off the morning off my phone, not scrolling and keeping my mind clear, energized and my overall self in a healthy flow state. Morning routines are critical for productivity and positivity.
Related: How to Master Your Morning Routine
I speak with many parents who drive their kids to school and talk about how their children are glued to their phones. While I do take business and personal calls while I drive solo, I have always prioritized conversations with my two boys and husband when we are in the car together.
Most of us have chaotic days, and the time in the car together is a nice time to catch up, talk about the day and listen to music together. Instead of asking your kids, “How was school?” try something more like, “Who made you laugh today?” Or “What was the coolest class today?”
I prioritize nutrition and am not one to skip meals. Lately, my breakfast is a skillet-sized chocolate protein pancake with no sugar and about 50g of protein. It’s basically raw cacao powder, protein powder and egg whites or eggs.
While I make this, I usually take calls, usually internal or more casual calls that do not require me to be in front of a screen. I also catch up on learning via podcasts. Most importantly, you should kick off your day with protein as it is the best fuel for your brain and body and will help prevent poor eating habits.
I like to combine walking with brainstorming and thinking, and although it can be difficult, I schedule a few short walks where I don’t make a call, listen to a podcast or play music. Instead, I think. This ‘phone completely off’ habit stack ensures healthy physical activity and beneficial sunlight (when the sun is out!) and usually leads to creative ideas or problem-solving.
This habit is also an effective exercise to do with a work colleague. I’ve come up with multiple new ideas or solved problems while on a walk or hike. The endorphins and movement are proven to support this. If you really want to maximize this habit stack, plan this no-phone walk immediately after a meal, as this will help prevent the post-lunch energy slump.
I’m not one to take a Zoom call while I eat my meals. I know enough about digestion and my own gut health that I feel best when I eat slowly, put my fork down in between bites, and genuinely enjoy the food in front of me. You will, too, alongside making better food choices and here’s why. As days are packed, it’s tough to find time just to eat and do nothing, so I choose to read through longer reports, documents and even emails while I eat.
Related: 5 Eating Habits That Rewire Your Brain for Success
When I review my schedule for the weeks ahead, I look to plan for a couple of days per week where I stack my video calls and meetings and in the morning when I can. Those are the days I am a little more camera-ready with hair and makeup for prospect client pitching, presentations, webinars and client update calls.
While I have no issue throwing back my hair after a workout and hopping on a Zoom call, I feel more professional and confident when I’ve cleaned up with my hair and a little makeup. Getting dressed and camera-ready requires an extra 20-minute block of time for me that, on a non-video call day, can be a 20-minute block of time to take a yoga or stretch break, go for a walk or spend a little extra time with family. Stacking video calls also makes for better time management and efficiency, as you are not distracted shifting from deep work to a call and then back to deep work.
Who has 5-20 minutes to do mobility and mindfulness in the middle of the day? Track our scrolling habits, and you’ll quickly learn that almost all of us do! I prioritize mobility to keep injury-free from my workouts and especially how much I sit or stand every day in front of my screen. I take deep breaths while stretching and express gratitude for my body’s ability to move and be healthy.
Heidi Zak, Founder and CEO of Third Love, a leading women’s intimate apparel company focused on body positivity, inclusivity, comfort and fit, listens to podcasts post-workout while she stretches. Her latest workout and energy hack during the day is to do ten air squats every hour. Who would like to join her?
Related: 3 Ways Mindfulness Can Make You a Better Entrepreneur
Red light therapy has been proven to support circulation, blood flow, reduce inflammation and improve mood. From mats to devices, there are many red light therapy devices out there across different price points.
I tend to use my red light therapy mat, made by HigherDOSE, in the evenings for 10-15 minutes (even in between kid drop-offs) or while dinner bakes in the oven. I meditate or stretch on it or sometimes put my legs up the wall, which is excellent for circulation and health.
After I drop kids off at school or while headed to pick them up at practice, I look to call a total of three people per day to check in on them, tell them I’m thinking about them or offer support. It’s rare for people to call each other the way we used to, and you’d be surprised at how many will say, “This is so thoughtful,” or “It’s so good to hear from you,” or “You made my day by calling.”
Thoughtfulness and kindness go a long way. Remember that family, strong friendships and camaraderie among team members make for happier and more productive human beings. Let your friends, colleagues and past clients know you are thinking about them. You may surprise yourself with how good “spreading sunshine” can make you feel, along with new potential business opportunities that could emerge from reconnecting with others. Next time you think about someone, send them a text or call them and let them know!
I encourage you to try one of these habit stacks or create one of your own. Do you want to read more? Put a book on your pillow and plan to go to bed 15 minutes earlier. Do you want a less chaotic morning? Pack lunches the night before or have overnight oats or hard-boiled eggs on hand in the fridge.
Be specific and set a specific cue for how you’ll stack a habit. Start small. For example, a 10-minute walk after lunch does wonders for your digestion and metabolism. Enlist a friend for accountability and give yourself a timeline, such as 30 days. If you consistently start a new habit stack that benefits your overall health and productivity, reward yourself. You may also find the reward to be fulfillment, satisfaction and how much better you feel with your new habit stack.
9 Habit Stacking Routines to Boost Your Productivity Read More »
3 Benefits of owning a Destination Athlete franchise:
Destination Athlete is a franchise that provides comprehensive resources for youth and school athletic teams, specializing in equipment, apparel, fundraising, and performance solutions. Established in 2008, the company offers entrepreneurs a low-cost, home-based opportunity to support athletes and sports teams with a one-stop resource that aims to fulfill all their needs. Click Here to learn more about Destination Athlete.
Key Facts:
Destination Athlete is a Low Cost and Home Based Franchise Read More »
Alli Webb spent her twenties working in hair salons. When she moved to Los Angeles and became a stay-at-home mom, she started a mobile blowout side hustle — so she would go to a client’s home, blow-dry their hair, and style it for $40. No haircuts or hair color.
“I got tons of clients,” Webb told entrepreneur Jeff Berman on the Masters of Scale podcast earlier this month. Her first pitch was to other moms on a Yahoo group. It read: “I’m a stay-at-home mom and a longtime hairstylist. I’ll come over and blow out your hair for only $40 while your babies are sleeping.”
Webb’s pitch was successful and she soon couldn’t keep up with demand. She started thinking about opening a brick-and-mortar location so her clients could come to her, instead of her going to them.
Her brother, former Yahoo marketing director Michael Landau, was willing to help financially back the business, though he did have some questions at first.
“He was a little perplexed, ‘Like, why can’t women blow out their own hair?'” Webb said. “And I was like, you did grow up with me.” In previous interviews, Webb shared that she had frizzy hair growing up and was “obsessed with her hair.”
Landau was finally convinced by the success that Webb saw in her side hustle. He invested $250,000 while Webb and her then-husband Cameron Webb put in their savings of about $50,000. In 2010, the founding team opened the first Drybar salon in Brentwood, California. It famously offers no cuts and no color.
Alli Webb. Photo Credit: Brian Stukes/Getty Images
Though Drybar’s salons offered a limited range of hair services — just the wash, blowout, and style — Webb says that she wasn’t concerned about the business model. What she wanted was volume: 30 to 40 blowouts per day to break even.
Demand ended up doubling expectations — to 60 to 80 blowouts per day.
“We realized very quickly, like within the first few days, [that] we had captured lightning in a bottle,” Webb said. “Women were coming in and quite literally droves. I mean, we were turning people away left and right.”
Drybar grew to over 150 salons across the country within a decade. Webb ended up selling Drybar’s product line to leading consumer products company Helen of Troy for $255 million in cash in 2020. WellBiz Brands acquired the franchise rights to Drybar salons in 2021 for an undisclosed sum.
Webb couldn’t have imagined what Drybar would become. When she opened her first shop, she just wanted it to be a place where she could do what she loved.
“I was really excited about it and not thinking I was going to turn it into this massive multi-million-dollar blowout empire,” she said.
How Drybar Went from Side Hustle to $255 Million Business Read More »
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As the founder of a leading global personal branding agency for CEOs, I am always on the lookout for lessons we can learn from people in the public eye. Even when they are not entrepreneurs or business owners themselves, their experiences frequently offer takeaways we can apply to our leadership journeys.
As a Ukrainian-Canadian, I have no political affiliation in the case of American politics. Yet, I watched the recent presidential debate through the lens of personal branding with fascination — and in this article, I’ll share my observations.
U.S. debates take place on what can arguably be considered the world’s biggest stage with the highest of stakes. Although we may all be far removed from the world of politics, as leaders who are working on building our own leadership brands, we can learn some incredible lessons as we observe the presidential candidates.
Clarity is one of the foundational elements of building a brand. Before we put ourselves in the public eye, we need to be clear on the WHY behind our brand building (i.e., our goals), clear on our unique strengths, clear on the audience we want to be addressing and clear on the messaging we want to be delivering to that audience. We also need to be prepared both with intentionality before any public appearance and for the criticism our visibility may attract.
Let’s unpack this further.
As you begin to build your personal brand as a leader of your organization, you need to:
Related: How to Build a Personal Brand in 5 Steps
Why are you on stage (virtual or physical)? Why are you writing an article? Why are you agreeing to a podcast interview?
Harris’ goals were clear. She came to dispel the image of being ineloquent, uncomfortable on stage and laughing out of place. To dispel the image, she most evidently prepared extensively. She clearly rehearsed not only her talking points but also her body language (from her physical positioning during Trump’s remarks to the smiling to the “not true at all” mouthing). How do we know that she was intentional and rehearsed? Due to the sheer volume of repetition that we all observed.
Lesson for you: Don’t just “go with the flow.” When you are building your personal brand as a leader, do it with intention and clear goals in mind.
This is when we feel that someone is “on brand” or isn’t. What does being “on brand” look and feel like for you? This will apply to all scenarios: from the morning huddle to the leadership strategy retreat to the industry conference you may be speaking at.
Trump’s undeniable strength is in his off-the-cuff quips. The very few viral highlights of the debate are a testament to that. Harris, on the other hand, stumbles and stutters off-script, and we saw it a couple of times when she fell for Trump’s bait.
Lesson for you: Don’t observe someone else’s style and attempt to emulate it. Instead, get very clear on your strengths and over-index them, even if your style garners criticism.
We live in an era where, for better or for worse, words now matter more than actions. Many people were asking on X yesterday why the candidates were not being fact-checked. Although to an extent they were and continue to be post-debate, the truth remains: If someone says something, then it is often believed to be so.
Harris seems to have come into the debate with a goal of painting the narrative of Trump as erratic, dangerous and out of control. She focused a lot of her storytelling on that specific narrative and baited Trump strategically to ensure that his rhetoric matched her narrative. In many ways, this turns what should be a fact-based debate into a he said/she said game of verbal ping pong, but there is a lesson for us here, nonetheless.
Lesson for you: If you are going to build a personal brand as a leader, you need to become a strong storyteller. Stories are memorable, they create emotion, and they build affinity.
Related: The 3 Biggest Mistakes CEOs Make With Their Personal Brand (and How to Turn Those Mistakes Around)
Your audience will be closely tied to your goals, so lesson number one remains a crucial one. If your goal as a leader is to attract higher caliber talent to the organization, then this is a very different audience than that of a leader who wants to secure more board work, for example.
Once again, Harris came to the debate with more clarity and intent. She was evidently casting a wide net and made it clear by continuously referencing middle-class Americans as “all Americans.” Trump failed to address the audience, and it remained unclear whether his goal was to focus on his existing follower base or to address a wider audience hoping to sway swing voters.
Lesson for you: Clarity of audience leads to clarity of key talking points. Define yours before you begin creating any content, be it a LinkedIn post or a talk on a big stage.
The bigger your visibility gets, the more backlash you can expect to receive. It truly is not a question of “if,” but rather a question of “how much.” We are all subject to keyboard warriors’ boundless desire to criticize and virtue-signal, but how we react is what affects how others perceive us.
Trump made a crucial mistake last night. He fell for Harris’ baiting over and over again. Instead of having clarity of goals and building out his own narrative, he began to reply about crowd sizes at his rallies, world leaders mocking him and other disconnected jabs. Rather than remaining cool, calm and collected, he began to babble incessantly. You might relate: So many of us have fallen for baiters at least once or twice on social media. What begins as an unpleasant remark from a stranger can quickly lead to us losing face and not putting our best foot forward.
Lesson for you: Prepare for criticism. Have a go-to way of replying, and stick to it no matter how hard someone tries to knock you off course.
Related: 5 Secrets People With Popular Personal Brands Never Told You
Ultimately, the key lesson for all of us is that intention matters. I have seen many leaders go with the flow when building their leadership brand and then be disappointed with the lack of results or not getting the results they were hoping for. This is where strategy rooted in clarity makes a key difference. Clarity first, execution second, and consistency for the win!
5 Key Personal Branding Lessons From the Harris-Trump Debate Read More »
