January 2025

For business leaders, professionals, and lifelong learners, the journey of staying ahead never truly ends. Whether you’re managing a team, scaling your startup, or pivoting careers, having the right skills makes all the difference. To that end, StackSkills EDU Unlimited is an online learning platform that offers lifetime access to more than 1,000 courses for just $19.97.

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To view our entire 2025 Franchise 500 list, including category rankings, click HERE

Navigating the insurance world can be complicated, but Estrella Insurance has turned it into an accessible and stress-free experience. Ranked #172 on Entrepreneur‘s 2025 Franchise 500 and the leader in the financial services category, Estrella specializes in providing affordable insurance solutions with a personal touch.

• Overall Franchise 500 rank: 172
• Number of units: 212
• Change in units: +21.1% over 3 years
• Initial investment: $12,000-$84,000

Related: Considering franchise ownership? Get started now to find your personalized list of franchises that match your lifestyle, interests and budget.

Founded in 1980, Estrella Insurance has built a reputation for offering a wide range of insurance products, from auto and home to business and health insurance. With more than 200 locations across the U.S., Estrella serves as a trusted resource for individuals and families seeking comprehensive coverage at competitive prices.

The insurance industry is valued at over $1.7 trillion, making it a lucrative market for franchises like Estrella Insurance. The brand’s focus on customer relationships and local expertise helps franchisees build lasting community connections. By acting as intermediaries between customers and major insurance carriers, Estrella agents simplify the process of finding and securing the right policies.

Related: Here’s how we determined our annual Franchise 500 ranking and what we learned from the data.

For franchisees, Estrella Insurance offers a turnkey business model with comprehensive training, ongoing support and marketing tools — meaning there is no insurance industry experience necessary. Entrepreneurs don’t need prior experience in insurance — Estrella’s proven system equips franchise owners with the knowledge and resources needed to succeed.

With its strong growth trajectory and commitment to community-oriented service, Estrella Insurance offers a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to invest in a stable and essential industry. Whether you’re new to franchising or a seasoned entrepreneur, Estrella’s blend of affordability, accessibility and support makes it a standout choice in financial services.

Related: See Which Brands Topped Entrepreneur‘s 46th Annual Franchise 500

For business owners, a lost wallet is more than an inconvenience. That could be where you keep your company identification, credit cards, and so many more things that are, at best, a headache to replace and, at worst, a security risk.

It’s a good thing you can reduce the risk by keeping a tracker in your wallet. The MagTag Ultra Slim Tracker Card works like an AirTag but looks like a credit card, so you can find your wallet, ID badge, or even tucked into the case of your company phone. It’s even less expensive than an AirTag, just $23.97 (reg. $42).

Find anything you lose

The MagTag integrates with Apple’s Find My app to provide real-time global tracking. It sends alerts if you leave something behind and has a loud beeping feature to help you locate items quickly. No more hunting down your badge before you head off to the office.

At just 1.5mm thick, this tracker doesn’t add bulk and can be used for more than just your wallet. The built-in keyring hole makes it easy to attach to keys, ID lanyards, or bags. Slide one into the pocket of your luggage next time you leave for a conference.

The tracker is waterproof, dustproof, and lasts up to five months on a single charge. When it needs recharging, it works with any Qi wireless charger. It’s a great set-it-and-forget-it solution to lost essentials

Don’t let a lost wallet compromise your company’s security.

There’s still time to get a MagTag Ultra Slim Tracker Card on sale for $23.97.

MagTag Ultra Slim Tracker Card – Works with Apple Find My App – $23.97

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StackSocial prices subject to change.

The global economy is undergoing a strategic shift towards a future built on clean energy. The U.K. has set 2030 as a milestone date for a full transition to clean power, and other countries have equally ambitious energy policies.

Humans have been burning wood and fossil fuels throughout history, and the goal of adopting green energy presents certain challenges. The conversion requires a rethink of energy infrastructures and sustained investment in renewable power sources. Clean energy advocates are driving a social shift for a new alternative energy mindset.

This bold approach to meeting future energy demands — an abundance of safe, sustainable and affordable power for industry and domestic consumers — is incentivizing the development of remarkable next-generation innovations in clean energy technologies.

Major companies like Tesla, ICL Group and First Solar (that are all publicly traded companies on U.S. markets) are shaping the future of clean energy with numerous scalable energy generation technologies, materials and new smart plants that run on hybrid clean energy microgrids. There is a huge (and rapidly expanding) global market for economically viable clean energy technologies. Current industry leaders are determined to capitalize on these new opportunities over the coming decade and in doing so deliver sustainable and environmentally friendly green energy.

Related: Is Renewable Energy Worth Your Investment?

Tesla, Inc.

Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar company Tesla is best known for developing commercially viable electric vehicles and bringing them into the automotive industry mainstream. Tesla certainly deserves its reputation as an EV pioneer, but the company is also responsible for other key innovations in clean energy technologies. Tesla examines the entire spectrum of clean energy technologies and looks for opportunities to apply its impressive R&D resources to clean energy challenges — often through strategic partnerships with other companies.

One of its flagship initiatives is the Tesla Solar Roof which uses energy-generating photovoltaic shingles instead of traditional roof tiles. Another exciting innovation is the Tesla Powerwall, a massive lithium-ion battery unit for domestic consumers who want to run their homes on solar energy. Tesla Electric is even enabling householders to sell surplus energy to commercial grids. The decision to invest in technologies that empower consumers with advanced energy storage systems (and the Megapack for grids and industry) has huge implications for the future of clean energy.

ICL Group

ICL Group is a leading global specialty minerals company and one of the largest fertilizer manufacturers in the world. The company has leveraged its minerals expertise and massive Dead Sea resources to become one of the world’s most important manufacturers of advanced battery materials. ICL Group is at the forefront of Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery production with the construction of a high-tech manufacturing plant in St. Louis, Missouri. The new $400 million plant is partly financed by the U.S. Department of Energy and will place ICL Group at the heart of the U.S. electric vehicle supply chain.

ICL is making a significant contribution to the future of clean energy with its groundbreaking research and development into smart LFP batteries that provide unparalleled storage capacity and new standards of safety and cost-effectiveness. The company is also pioneering the use of purpose-built hybrid microgrids.

ICL Group’s Green Sdom project in Israel’s barren Negev Desert is harnessing solar power to drive some of the company’s biggest plants. Apart from creating a viable and profitable circular economy, ICL Group’s goal is to offer a functional model that like-minded companies can replicate. The initiative is set to eliminate over 1 million tons of carbon dioxide annually through a self-sustaining microgrid that incorporates solar PV, battery storage, thermal storage and hydrogen.

First Solar, Inc.

First Solar, Inc. was founded almost 25 years ago as an early pioneer of solar energy technologies. The company constantly innovated to create commercially viable and scalable solar energy solutions and mastered the use of cadmium telluride (CdTe) as a semiconductor in its thin-film module solar panels. First Solar’s grasp of advanced technologies allowed them to lower their manufacturing cost to $1 per watt — an important developmental and commercial threshold.

First Solar’s ongoing research into solar technology, particularly their groundbreaking work on photovoltaic (PV) panels, is transforming solar cell efficiency. Even comparatively modest improvements in the amount of sunlight energy that PV panels convert into electricity can significantly improve their viability and utility. One strategic goal is to make solar energy accessible to consumers in less sunny regions. First Solar is a genuinely global corporation with energy-generating installations around the world amounting to over 17GW.

Maintaining the momentum of innovation in clean energy

The next five years are likely to see exponential progress in the implementation of clean energy policies and sustainable energy infrastructures. The concept of clean energy is integral to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs and central to many government energy policies.

The UN’s 2030 Agenda includes ambitious objectives like Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), and Climate Action (SDG 13). The fulfillment of these goals by 2030 depends on maintaining the momentum of research, development and innovation in the field of clean energy.

Industry leaders like Tesla, ICL Group and First Solar are setting the standard for clean energy innovations. They have the resources, experience and expertise to transform emerging technologies into new products, penetrate new markets and make sustained profits in an industrial and energy ecosystem that is evolving at an unprecedented pace.

It’s no secret that businesses large and small are under constant threat from cyberattacks. For business leaders, IT professionals, and aspiring developers, understanding cybersecurity is no longer optional—it’s essential. The Complete 2025 Cybersecurity Developer & IT Super Skills Bundle is your all-in-one toolkit to stay ahead of the curve and protect your business.

This bundle features 24 expertly crafted courses totaling 320+ hours of training, covering everything from ethical hacking to advanced network security principles. With lifetime access, you can master the skills you need at your own pace. Whether you’re tackling real-world vulnerabilities, preparing for certifications like CompTIA Security+, or learning to thwart social engineering tactics, this bundle has you covered.

Why businesses need cybersecurity expertise

Today’s businesses depend on strong cybersecurity strategies to safeguard customer data, financial assets, and proprietary information. This bundle equips you with the knowledge to lead your organization confidently through the evolving threat landscape. For instance, courses on incident response help you manage breaches, while modules on network security teach you to implement robust protection measures for your company’s systems.

For business leaders, knowing what ethical hackers do and how tools like Nmap and Wireshark work can improve decision-making when selecting cybersecurity teams or protocols. Plus, the CompTIA Security+ prep course ensures you’re up to date on the gold standard of cybersecurity certifications.

Real-world skills and applications

The best part? This bundle emphasizes practical, hands-on skills. You won’t just learn abstract concepts. You’ll also be taught how to apply them in real-life scenarios. For instance, ethical hacking techniques give you insight into how attackers think so you can better defend your systems. Social engineering modules prepare you to train employees to spot phishing attempts and other scams.

These are the exact skills businesses demand—and they’re all included for this one-time low price.

Get the Complete 2025 Cybersecurity Developer & IT Super Skills Bundle while it’s just $59.99 (reg. $936).

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StackSocial prices subject to change.

TikTok only went dark for half a day before returning for U.S. users after President Trump called for a 75-day suspension of the ban.

But while the company and its suitors (from Kevin O’Leary to Elon Musk to an AI company) try to work something out, in following the law, the short video social media platform is not yet back in app stores.

This means TikTokers, who either deleted the app beforehand or bought a new phone since then, are going cold turkey (or using the desktop version). And several forward-thinking entrepreneurs thought maybe they could make a buck.

The New York Times found some “unlocked with TikTok” listings for thousands—even tens of thousands on resale sites including Poshmark and eBay.

One eBay listing says “iPhone 14 Pro UNLOCKED! W/ TikTok” and is priced at $3,000. (Unlocked iPhone 14s are currently at Walmart and Best Buy for around $300 to $500.)

Poshmark, meanwhile, has an iPhone 13 Pro Max “with TikTok and Capcut” for $3,500.

Some listings are most likely a joke like this “cracked” iPhone on Facebook Marketplace with “TikTok never deleted” for $10,000 (down from its original $30,000).

Still, if anyone is buying the phones at these prices, they’re not admitting it—yet. If you’ve purchased one, please reach out. In the meantime, a new iPhone 16 (without TikTok) starts at $799.

Related: Is TikTok Considering Selling Its U.S. Business to Elon Musk? Here’s What TikTok Says.

Buried within your emails, documents, and data lies a goldmine of insights with the power to 10X your output and double your sales – but it’s fragmented and overwhelming. That’s all about to change. A revolutionary new category of AI tools is emerging, poised to transform how we work, and Google’s Agent Space is leading the charge.

In this video, I’ll demystify this groundbreaking technology, revealing how it acts as a central command center for your business, powered by a team of tireless AI assistants. I’ll also reveal a specific prompt that helped me double the sales in my own business using these very tools.

This is beyond basic automation, this is about creating a team of specialized AI agents that handle your most tedious tasks, from customer support to report generation, all while you focus on growing your business.

Download the free ‘AI Success Kit’ (limited time only). And you’ll also get a free chapter from Ben’s brand new book, ‘The Wolf is at The Door – How to Survive and Thrive in an AI-Driven World.’

If you went back in time and asked composer and musician Mark Mothersbaugh to predict what his biggest moneymaker would be in his nearly 50-year career, he would not have said “Uncontrollable Urge.”

The now 74-year-old musician has composed music for TV shows like “The Fairly OddParents” and “Rugrats” and movies like “Thor: Ragnarok” and “The Lego Movie,” but “Uncontrollable Urge,” a song he wrote in 1978 as a founding member of the band Devo, has turned into his biggest source of income over the past decade.

Mothersbaugh’s wife and manager Anita Greenspan told Rolling Stone earlier this month that the composer makes $1 million per year in royalties on just that one song.

The turning point for “Uncontrollable Urge” was when the MTV comedy clip show Ridiculousness first launched in 2011. The show, which spotlights and reacts to viral Internet comedy videos, features a cover of “Uncontrollable Urge” as its theme song.

Related: How the ‘Oh-Oh-Oh Ozempic’ Commercial Song Made a Musician $1 Million

After over 12 years running on MTV and over 1,500 episodes, Ridiculousness has catapulted “Uncontrollable Urge” to theme song fame. At one point in June 2020, Variety noticed that “Ridiculousness” aired for 113 hours out of MTV’s 168-hour week of programming.

Still, the song’s success came as a surprise to its writer.

“I’ve written so many other songs for films and television shows,” Mothersbaugh told Rolling Stone. “I would’ve been shocked [years ago] if you told me this is the one that would become this prime source of income.”^{Mark Mothersbaugh. Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for AFI}

Mothersbaugh wrote “Uncontrollable Urge” as the first track to Devo’s debut album, “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” The song was never released as a single and has only earned $150,000 across all time from Spotify streaming royalties. It never made it to the Billboard Hot 100, unlike the 1980s hit “Whip It” from Devo, which peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“This was the very first song off our first album,” Mothersbaugh told Rolling Stone. “But it’s a nice ironic twist because this was one of the songs we never even made a music video for. And now it’s maybe the most-played song ever on MTV.”

Theme songs are big earners

Mothersbaugh isn’t the only musician to cash in on a lucrative theme song.

Ed Robertson, who wrote the theme song for “The Big Bang Theory,” told Rolling Stone that he has made between seven to ten figures so far in total royalties for the one song from the time the show ran from 2007 to 2019 to its syndications on TBS today.

Related: How TikTok and YouTube Have Changed the Music Industry Forever

Marco Jacobo, who created the theme song for “Abbott Elementary,” told the publication that he had made six figures from the song since the show came out in 2021.

The late musician Allee Willis had a 15% cut of the “I’ll Be There for You” Friends theme song. That cut equals about $700,000 per year for Primary Wave Publishing, the company that now owns the rights to her work, per Rolling Stone.

One industry executive told the publication that network TV pays 15 times more per minute for music than a streaming service like Spotify.

It’s not just shows that pay well — TV advertisement theme songs are lucrative too. The New York Times reports that David Paton, one of the two men who wrote the Billboard Top 10 hit “Magic” in 1974, earns seven figures from the song used in a TV ad for Ozempic.

It’s a new year, and the merry-go-round has started. The strategy is off, the talent isn’t delivering, the pipeline is way off where it should be, and the technology is never delivering.

Sound familiar? Well, it should do. That’s about 80% of the global market right now. So, how do you go about changing that?

As a veteran of go-to-market strategy, I’ve come to understand that the most prolific pressure point in delivering results might be on the bottom line, but make no mistake, your hiring strategy or lack thereof creates it.

People have been the problem since the dawn of time, yet we allow ourselves to blame the tech and not the lack of adoption of the tech, the budget, the lack of business acumen required to deliver with the allocated budget and the pipeline, where we often know the people are underperforming but don’t invest in upskilling or allow the wrong people to remain in place for too long.

So you see, people are the crux of your success — not tech, not budgets, but people, and in 2025, as a founder or business unit lead, you have to be ruthless in hiring and firing decisions. But before you run out and wield the axe, let’s look at how you can track your people to ensure you are on top of how they feel in the workplace.

First, let’s set the metric you are gearing up for here: retention. Your goal is to establish who the best-fit talent for the journey is at this point and how you can further understand and support them. This goes well beyond the obligatory quarterly 1:2:1.

This requires some method of tracking sentiment. In my business, I use HubSpot’s Service Hub for customer success. I quickly learned I could use its Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) features to track employee engagement. Here’s how I did it.

Related: 3 Ways To Boost Retention Through a Positive Employee and Candidate Experience

Metrics to track employee engagement

1. Average length of employment in months per employee: The length of time talent remains gives insight into the culture. Good talent stays long, great. Bad talent stays long, and it’s not so good.

2. Employee onboarding score: All talent should have defined onboarding and a timeframe. Tracking how the employee concludes their onboarding with a HubSpot workflow/sequence gives a quality score at the company and contributor level.

3. The employee happiness score per month: Using a CSAT survey, you can repurpose this into a monthly happiness score to track the workforce sentiment month on month.

4. The number of HubSpot certifications per employee: As part of the onboarding, you can set tasks to complete relevant certifications and track them over time. Use this for upskilling and tech adoption.

5. Employee NPS (per employee and per team): Use the NPS survey to understand how individual employees feel about the workplace.

6. Total number of employees per month: Use HubSpot to track employee attendance to understand who and how often employees are present.

7. The number of training hours per employee: Track the number of employees’ training hours monthly/yearly from onboarding to continuous education and development.

8. The number of 1:1s completed per employee per quarter: To keep employee development on track, track your leaders by the number of 1:1s held per quarter.

9. The number of sick days per employee per quarter: Track employee sick days through HubSpot. Use a submission form for sick days and a calculation property to add the days and report on that.

10. Percentage of employees attaining personal development goals: Add new goals to employee onboarding workflows and track the number of completed tasks.

11. Average time to fill open positions: Track the time it takes to fill open positions, from posting a job on the company website to taking it down or tracking it as filled using a CRM “date from” and “date to” property.

12. The ratio of internal promotions to external hires: Track the number of employees promoted compared to those hired externally to assess how well the organization nurtures talent internally.

13. Number of employees in key roles: Track hiring for key roles and the length of time they remain unfilled and filled to see how talent in those roles consistently performs.

14. Average response time to employee queries or concerns: Using an internal ticketing pipeline, track employee responses to queries or concerns by open ticket time.

15. Internal job application rate: The rate of internal applicants for advertised roles is tracked by applications, contributors and the number of opportunities individuals apply for.

16. Employee peer recognition rates: Use a customized CSAT or NPS survey to allow employees to recognize and rate their peers.

17. Employee work-life balance score: Use an NPS to track quarterly work-life balance and score teams, business units and the broader organization.

18. Percentage of employees meeting strategic KPIs for organizational goals or business objectives: Use the “tasks” functionality in the Service Hub to track employees’ achievement of goals and objectives and report on the number and timeframe achieved.

19. Total number of customer interactions per employee: Track the monthly sales, marketing and customer service activities on a per-rep basis.

20. Number of vacation days taken per employee per month: Track the number of holidays taken per month and correlate that against the team’s performance.

Related: How to Support Employees and Improve Retention With a Strong Company Culture

There you have it. Using tools commonly adopted in the workplace, including your CRM, your marketing, sales and services tech, you can correlate company performance against your employee engagement and see how it affects your overall results.

In my opinion, a great working culture is critical to your long-term success, and people are the backbone of the results. Focus on how they feel and behave; your go-to-market strategy may just perform somersaults this year.

Walmart store managers can now earn up to $620,000 per year in total compensation, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Walmart is increasing the pay of market managers, or regional store managers in charge of about a dozen Walmart stores, to a total compensation of $420,000 to $620,000 this year. These managers earned $320,000 to $570,000 last year, resulting in a possible pay increase of up to $100,000.

A Walmart spokesperson specified to the Journal that the minimum base pay for market managers has increased from $130,000 to $160,000 a year, while the maximum has remained the same at $260,000 per year.

Related: ‘We Need Panic Buttons’: Some Walmart Employees Begin Wearing Body Cameras

The additional layers of compensation come from stock grants, which have increased to $100,000 a year from $75,000 last year, and potential annual bonuses, which are now up to 100% of base pay from 90% last year. Walmart began offering store managers stock grants last year.

In a video posted on Linkedin last year first announcing that store managers would receive annual stock grants, Walmart’s U.S. president and CEO John Furner emphasized the critical part Walmart store managers play at the company.

“A Walmart store manager is running a multimillion-dollar business and managing hundreds of people,” Furner said. “We ask our managers to own their roles and act like owners.”

Related: Walmart to Lay Off Hundreds of Employees, Relocate Remote Workers Back to the Office

Walmart Reduces Pay for Other Employees

Meanwhile, Walmart is reducing perks in other areas, including reducing overall pay for some staff and cutting back on remote work.

In September, the retailer gave thousands of office staff new titles and pay packages, reducing stock awards for 2,000 workers.

In May, Walmart announced that hundreds of remote workers would be mandated back to the office at the retailer’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, and other hubs around the country.

Walmart employees pushed back on the return-to-office plan, expressing concerns about childcare, life in another state, and their partner’s jobs also being affected. Some even chose to quit, with the most high-profile resignation being the chief technology officer of Sam’s Club.

Walmart had around 1.6 million U.S. employees at the end of fiscal year 2024.

Related: Sam’s Club Exec Would Rather Quit Than Move to Arkansas