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Do you have a great business idea but feel stuck on where to start? Are you feeling stretched too thin, struggling to attract the right customers, and constantly worrying about cash flow while trying to scale your business?

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• The #1 reason entrepreneurs struggle to scale and how to break through

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Kim Perell is 9X founder, 2X best-selling author, investor in 100+ companies, acclaimed speaker and a proud mom of four. She started her first company from her kitchen table at 23 years old, became a multi-millionaire by the time she was 30, and sold her last company for $235 million. While simultaneously running multimillion dollar companies, Kim has dedicated her life to empowering the next generation of business leaders. She shines as a dynamic TV and media personality on Entrepreneur Magazine’s hit show Elevator Pitch. Kim regularly appears in media, including Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Drew Barrymore Show, CNBC, Fox, MSNBC, CNN Money, The New York Times, Forbes, Inc, and The Huffington Post. In her upcoming book, Mistakes That Made Me A Millionaire, Kim Perell shares the raw, unfiltered truth about the journey to success—proving that every mistake holds the potential for million-dollar lessons.

UnitedHealthcare is offering some of its employees a buyout, or a financial package in exchange for their resignation, if they agree to leave by March 3.

The buyout, called the Voluntary Resignation Separation Program, applies to employees in UnitedHealthcare’s benefits operations unit, sources told CNBC on Wednesday. They clarified that anyone who does not accept the offer will keep their current job for the time being or be moved to a comparable role.

The sources also told the outlet that if the company does not meet an unspecified resignation quota, it will lead to layoffs.

“This voluntary option is part of our ongoing efforts to ensure our team is best positioned to meet the evolving needs of the people and customers we are honored to serve,” a UnitedHealth spokesperson told CNBC in a statement.

UnitedHealthcare did not disclose how many employees received a buyout offer, but an internal memo sent to employees Monday and viewed by CNBC showed that the buyout applied to full-time and part-time workers in four subdivisions under the benefits operations unit: corporate, consumer operations, core services, and provider services.

Related: A Cyberattack on the Largest Health Insurer in the U.S. Could Put Your Prescriptions and Personal Data at Risk

Per the memo, employees who accept the buyout will leave by May 1 at the earliest and November 13 at the latest. They will receive resignation packages on their termination date, and the amount will vary depending on how many years they have been at the company.

UnitedHealthcare is the health insurance division of UnitedHealth Group, which has more than 440,000 total employees, including 160,000 clinical professionals, as of a December 31, 2023 filing. UnitedHealth Group is the largest healthcare company in the U.S. based on revenue — it brought in over $400 billion in 2024, its highest annual revenue yet. It is also the largest company based on market cap, which stands at about $465 billion at the time of writing.

The company faced a tumultuous end of 2024 after the killing of its CEO, Brian Thompson, in December. Thompson’s death has placed the U.S. healthcare system and its rising costs under scrutiny. UnitedHealthcare named a new CEO, Tim Noel, in January.

UnitedHealth Group also faced a cyberattack on its subsidiary Change Healthcare in February 2024 that forced it to pay over $3 billion to healthcare providers affected by the breach.

Related: Should Business Leaders Fear For Their Lives? What You’re Not Hearing About the UnitedHealthcare CEO Tragedy.

Apple has a new affordable iPhone option to replace its 2022 iPhone SE: the iPhone 16e.

Apple announced the new 6.1-inch phone on Wednesday in a press release, touting its upgraded features and compatibility with Apple Intelligence, Apple’s suite of AI features that enable users to do a host of tasks, including removing distracting objects from photos, cleaning up writing in emails, and generating custom emojis.

The iPhone 16e provides Apple Intelligence capabilities at the lowest price on the market. So far, only the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max and the iPhone 16 lineup have Apple Intelligence, but these phones range in price from $799 to $1,599, compared to the iPhone 16e’s starting price point of $599.

Related: Apple Is Adding ChatGPT to iPhones This Week. Here’s How It Works.

“We’re so excited for iPhone 16e to complete the [iPhone 16] lineup as a powerful, more affordable option to bring the iPhone experience to even more people,” Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing, stated in the press release.

^{Apple iPhone 16e. Credit: Apple}

The iPhone 16e also corrects one of the biggest weaknesses of the iPhone SE: poor battery life. Compared to the SE, the 16e has 12 more hours of battery life for a total of 26 hours of video playback. Apple says in the press release that the 16e has “the best battery life ever on a 6.1-inch iPhone,” lasting 6 hours longer than the iPhone 11.

The home button and touch ID on the iPhone SE are gone too — the 16e is a more modern-looking iPhone. It also has a bigger display at 6.1 inches, compared to the SE’s 4.7 inches, and comes with the latest A18 chip used by the iPhone 16 instead of the A15 chip used in the SE for faster processing.

Related: Apple Is Reportedly Creating New Foldable iPads and iPhones. Here Are the Details.

All of those upgrades come at a price. The iPhone 16e is still $170 more than the $429 iPhone SE, raising the bar of what it means for a phone to be called “affordable.” Budget AI phones from competitors are sold at lower price points. For example, an unlocked Google Pixel 8a with AI retails for $399.

Preorders for the iPhone 16e start at 5 a.m. PT on February 21. The phone will be generally available on February 28 and comes in black and white with storage options of 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB.

Apple CEO Tim Cook first teased the new iPhone on February 13, writing in a post on X, “Get ready to meet the newest member of the family. Wednesday, February 19.”

Apple discontinued the iPhone SE on Wednesday, as well as the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus.

Apple no longer sells any iPhones with home buttons.

Related: Is an Ultra-Thin iPhone 17 ‘Air’ on the Way? New Rumors Float About a Potential Fall Release.

Barbara Corcoran, known for her role on “Shark Tank” and her remarkable real estate success, has never been shy about breaking from tradition. One piece of conventional wisdom she challenges is the assumption that the wealthy need to fly first-class on commercial airlines. In the business world, many view first-class as the gold standard for business travel; Corcoran’s perspective, however, emphasizes a growing sentiment among corporate leaders: there is often a more strategic, convenient and cost-effective way to travel.

Her stance — eschewing first class in favor of private aviation — may seem counterintuitive at first. Yet, when you factor in time savings, productivity gains and certain cost comparisons, the argument that top executives could be better served on a private jet becomes more difficult to brush off.

The illusion of first-class comfort

Many executives who fly first-class feel like it’s a natural perk of the job. They enjoy spacious seats, streamlined boarding procedures, and a measure of “peace and calm” compared to economy. However, these comforts do not always translate into genuine productivity or control.

A first-class traveler is still bound by the airline’s schedule and faced with the possibility of cancellations, delays and the hustle of major airport terminals. There is also no guarantee of a discreet environment, which is crucial for executives who may need to discuss sensitive matters or review confidential documents. Even the best airline lounges cannot fully eliminate the distractions of a bustling airport.

The average cost of a domestic first-class round-trip ticket on major airlines ranges between $1,800 and $5,500 per person, and it often escalates for last-minute bookings or international routes. While this expense might be considered a necessary luxury for critical personnel, it does not address the fundamental issues of lost time and limited privacy.

Related: Use This 4-Step Framework to Find Leaders Who Truly Fit Your Company Culture

Productivity in the sky

The real value of private aviation becomes clear when you consider how executives can use their travel hours. Instead of lining up at security checkpoints or waiting in crowded airport lounges, executives who fly privately often drive straight onto the tarmac and bypass much of the typical pre-flight shenanigans. This streamlined process can save significant time — an estimated two to three hours per domestic round trip. Those hours are a powerful resource that can mean more meetings, extended negotiation time or focused preparation for major presentations.

A private jet also offers a secure, distraction-free environment. Teams can hold sensitive discussions without risking eavesdroppers, and the atmosphere can be customized for specific business needs. Instead of just enjoying a fancier seat, executives can treat the flight itself like a mobile conference room. This ability to transform flight time into productive work time may be the true hallmark of executive travel efficiency.

The cost conundrum and surprising comparisons

A common myth is that chartered jets are prohibitively expensive for most businesses and environmentally harmful. The image of celebrities or high-net-worth individuals jetting around the globe might make it easy to assume that private travel is out of reach. Yet, for larger executive teams, the math can tell a different story.

Private flights can indeed cost anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 for a mid-size jet on a domestic round trip, but that total cost can be split among several executives who might otherwise each be purchasing first-class tickets at prices nearing $3,000 — or, in some cases, even exceeding that amount if flights are booked last minute or during peak seasons. When eight to ten executives need to travel, the collective total of first-class tickets can quickly approach or surpass the cost of a private charter.

Beyond direct ticket prices, there is a host of hidden savings to consider. Private charters allow access to smaller airports that might be closer to meeting venues or company sites, which can reduce ground transportation time and costs. They also cut down on hotel stays that might be needed when commercial flight schedules do not align well with your executives’ commitments. Many charter jets are also flying green to ensure they positively contribute to addressing climate change. Some even have carbon matching programs that empower travelers to directly contribute to environmental restoration through tree planting initiatives.

Although it may seem extravagant at a glance, private aviation can represent an overall net gain once all variables — including boosted productivity and environmental impact — are taken into account.

Related: Barbara Corcoran Says You Have One Month Left to Buy a House

A strategic move for modern executives

Barbara Corcoran’s decision not to fly first class reflects a deeper question about how organizations allocate resources and manage high-level travel. In the ever-changing business landscape, time is often the most precious commodity.

There is also a cultural aspect worth considering. Just as ‘the Shark’ sets a tone for her brand by rejecting unnecessary frills, other companies may see a reputational boost when executives demonstrate that “luxury” can align with practicality. Choosing private charters is less about ostentation and more about strategic thinking. When the cost per person becomes comparable to or even cheaper than first-class options, and when the perks include greater control, confidentiality and the potential to work without interruption, it starts to look like a wise operational decision.

Flying private does not need to be a status symbol that invites public scrutiny. Instead, it can be a solution that helps executives guard their most vital resources: time, focus and the capacity to navigate business challenges with minimal friction. Barbara Corcoran may have caused a stir by sharing her preference for skipping first class, but in doing so, she highlights an approach that more business leaders should weigh carefully.

When first-class is viewed through the lens of convenience, productivity and overall expense, it may be a takeaway that a private charter might well be the more sensible choice for an executive team determined to optimize every aspect of their work — both in and out of the office.

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xAI, the startup led by Elon Musk that raised $6 billion in December, has a new AI model that it claims is better than AI created by DeepSeek and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

In a live-streamed event on X on Monday that has been viewed over six million times at the time of writing, Musk and three xAI engineers revealed Grok 3, the startup’s latest AI model. They claimed Grok 3 had higher scores on math, science, and coding benchmark tests than OpenAI’s GPT-4o, DeepSeek’s V3, and Google’s Gemini AI.

Related: Elon Musk’s xAI Is Reportedly Set to Hire Thousands of ‘AI Tutors’ With Pay Up to $65 an Hour

They also said Grok 3 was a step up in sheer power from xAI’s previous model Grok 2, released in August. The latest version has more than 10 times the computational power of Grok 2, greater accuracy, and a bigger capacity for large datasets.

“The word Grok [means] to fully and profoundly understand something,” Musk said on the livestream, noting that the word came from the 1961 novel “Stranger in a Strange Land” by American author Robert Heinlein. He added later in the livestream that “if you’re using Grok 3, you may notice improvements almost every day because we’re continuously improving the model.”

^{Animated 3D plot of a spacecraft launch from Earth to Mars and back. Credit: xAI}

xAI engineers demonstrated how Grok 3 could be used to create code for an animated 3D plot of a spacecraft launch that started on Earth, landed on Mars, and came back to Earth.

The engineers also asked Grok to combine two games, Tetris and Bejeweled, into one game. The result, which the engineers played on the livestream, was similar to Tetris with shapes inching down the screen but had the rules of Bejeweled with multicolored blocks that disappeared if there were three in a row.

Related: Google’s CEO Praised AI Rival DeepSeek This Week for Its ‘Very Good Work.’ Here’s Why.

Musk said that any AI could find examples of Tetris or Bejeweled online and duplicate them, but Grok 3 took it one step further.

“What’s interesting here is it [Grok 3] achieved a creative solution combining two games that actually works and is a good game,” Musk noted. “We’re seeing the beginnings of creativity.”

^{Tetris-Bejeweled mashup game in the background. Credit: xAI}

The researchers said they only trained Grok 3’s reasoning abilities on math problems and competitive coding problems, but they observed that Grok 3 could apply what it learned to a variety of use cases, including reasoning through making games.

xAI isn’t the only major AI startup to release advanced AI this year. Last month, OpenAI released the o3-mini, its most cost-effective yet powerful model yet, while DeepSeek came out with R1, a disruptive AI model with cutting-edge performance on a less than $6 million budget.

Grok 3 is currently available for Premium+ X subscribers paying $22 a month.

Watch the event, here:

https://t.co/hEfQ31gANQ

— xAI (@xai) February 18, 2025

In an era where most shopping happens with the click of a button, and retail has become increasingly impersonal, Polacheck’s Jewelers stands apart. The Calabasas luxury store is more than a store—it’s a weekend destination. Wealthy customers browse brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Cartier while enjoying food and refreshments and chatting with an expert staff.

“I’ve turned all my clients into friends,” says owner Brent Polacheck. “It’s important for me to know who’s spending money with me because we’re gonna spend hopefully 10, 20, 30 years together.”

The business began 101 years ago when Ben Tipp opened a small diamond store in Seattle. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1949, it became one of America’s premier luxury retailers. Polacheck is the fourth generation to run his family business.

With a bridal case displaying ten-carat diamonds and watches that can cost upwards of $2 million, Polacheck’s isn’t for everyone. But it understands the value of what matters most: building multi-generational relationships and providing a memorable experience. His approach offers valuable lessons for entrepreneurs in any industry.

In a recent appearance on the One Day with Jon Bier podcast, Polacheck shared insights on building a lasting luxury retail business in the age of Amazon.

Create an experience worth returning to

While many luxury retail chains feel identical and impersonal, Polacheck’s has become a community hub. Saturdays transform the store into a social destination, complete with drinks and sushi.

“If you’re gonna go spend your money somewhere, wouldn’t it be in a great environment?” Polacheck asks.

The key is making service personal and memorable – from ensuring staff are experts in their field to creating an atmosphere where customers and their families feel genuinely welcome, not just tolerated.

Build lasting relationships, not transactions

For Polacheck, business means taking lunch with clients, hosting watch collectors’ dinners, and even organizing trips to Geneva for auctions with his most dedicated customers. When a client calls about a gift, his team will text photos and handle gift wrapping, saving them a trip to the store. This personal approach extends beyond single purchases – he actively vets potential customers, focusing on those within a 15-20 mile radius who can become part of the store’s community rather than one-time buyers from out of state. The lesson? In luxury retail, building deep connections with the right customers matters more than maximizing individual sales.

Stay alert to changing markets

Success in luxury retail requires staying vigilant and seizing opportunities before competitors can act. When Polacheck learned another dealer was considering opening in the Topanga area, he moved quickly to secure the location himself. Now he’s building a 3,500-square-foot Rolex boutique there, one of only about 20 in the United States. At the same time, he’s renovating his flagship store and planning a new Patek Philippe location.

Choose your customers wisely

With thousands of orders and limited inventory, Polacheck carefully vets who gets each watch.

“Selling a unit just to sell a unit makes no sense nowadays,” he says.

His team focuses on customers within a 15-20 mile radius who will become long-term clients, rather than out-of-area buyers who might flip watches for quick profits. The approach means turning away some easy sales, particularly from resellers. But finding the right customer, not the right-now customer, is worth its weight in gold.

Today, Polacheck’s is expanding with new locations, including a standalone Rolex boutique opening soon in Topanga. As Polacheck prepares his own children to eventually take over the business – including his daughter who’s gaining experience at another jewelry store in Vermont – he’s seeing his customers’ children becoming the next generation of clients.

“A lot of my customers are having their kids come in—that means we’re doing something right.”

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Technology has had a significant impact on consumer behavior, especially post-pandemic, with the average share of digital customer interactions going from 25% to 65% in just three years (2017-2020). With most customers using several channels when they shop, an omnichannel approach is fast becoming the rule rather than a new approach.

Back-to-school shopping is a season once dominated by brick-and-mortar, but in 2024 ecommerce was expected to grow by 7.4% compared to just 1% growth for actual brick-and-mortar sales. This means if you’re not joining the thousands of businesses out there leaning into an omnichannel approach, you’re missing out. Implementing such a strategy can give your company a good shot at grabbing customers’ attention and keeping it through a sales funnel that can wind through multiple forms of technology.

Related: This Is the Simple Marketing Hack Your Business Needs to Drive Sales All Year Long

The benefits of omnichannel

This approach has proven results. A study done by the Harvard Business Review showed customers who engage through several channels spend more both at brick-and-mortar and online than single-channel customers. But using omnichannel has benefits that go beyond the bottom line.

• Present a cohesive brand identity: A seamless strategy across multiple channels lets you display your brand identity and messaging to customers regardless of how they choose to interact with you.
• Opportunities to increase revenue: A larger number of touchpoints means the ability to interact with more prospects, and consequently, more opportunities to turn them into customers. For example, as part of my marketing consulting with startups, I’ve helped make ad retargeting a part of their strategies. It reduced cart abandonment because it showed ads through a different channel after a user abandoned their shopping cart. Research has actually shown that 26% of users return to a website if retargeted.
• Data that drives decision-making: Instead of statistics from siloed, single-channel, one-off campaigns, omnichannel data helps you better target consumers on the platforms where they will both receive and respond to your messaging.

How omnichannel strategies improve lifetime value

The customer shopping experience is very different from back in the day. Today’s technology-driven consumer is researching products on their phone, reading about other customer experiences on social media and then either ordering online or visiting a store.

While print media, billboards, and commercial media buys are still part of the landscape, customers want to be reached on any and all digital platforms and want the option of using those platforms to make purchases. Let’s look at how omnichannel can help you create returning customers.

Personalized communications

Businesses can use data from across channels to create targeted communications based on customer preferences. Examples of this include loyalty programs that let customers get rewards across channels, such as Starbucks rewards. Other examples include in-store purchases that lead to online discounts or cross-channel communications where one channel leads to customer interaction somewhere else. Examples could be an email reminder about an abandoned shopping cart or a printed card handed out at an event with a QR code that leads to a website or social media page.

Cross-selling and upselling

A holistic view of your customers’ behavior across multiple channels creates opportunities to increase awareness about and sell both complementary and premium products.

Improved customer experience

Ever had a cashier order something for you online that wasn’t in the store right from their register or tablet? I had a customer service rep do that for me in a store recently. It’s a simple example of an omnichannel experience that solves a customer problem. Omnichannel can also help customers before they even enter the store using local inventory ads. Office Depot uses mobile ads to target customers with relevant products that the customer can be assured are in stock when they visit the store.

Related: How to Build a Go-to-Market Strategy That Prevents Risk

How to tell if omnichannel is working for you

Instead of siloed data, an omnichannel marketing strategy provides data from different channels that needs to be interpreted together in order to make meaningful decisions about the direction of your customer outreach. With that in mind, below are some key metrics you should be gathering from your marketing data.

• Conversion rate: Conversion rate is the ratio of total visitors or leads to those that engage in a desired action like completing a purchase, attending an event or filling out a form for a newsletter or savings program.
• Customer lifetime value: This is the total revenue for an individual customer for the entire length of their relationship with your business. It’s basically a ratio of time to revenue, so two customers who have been with your brand for a year could have different customer lifetime values based on how much they purchased.
• Retention rate: The percentage of customers who continue to make purchases over a specified time frame. While lifetime value and retention rate are both metrics of customer loyalty, retention rate measures the percentage of customers a company keeps rather than a calculation of revenue.
• Average order value: The average spend per transaction across various channels. This metric can be broken out by channel so that you can see which channels are generating the highest value orders.

Examples of effective omnichannel strategy

The following are examples of field-tested omnichannel strategies I’ve seen firsthand.

Amazon and Whole Foods

Amazon has combined with Whole Foods to create a seamless omnichannel retail experience. Amazon One is a biometric payment system that registers a customer’s palm print, allowing them to pay for groceries by showing their hand to a scanner. Dash Wand is an affordable device that combines Alexa with a barcode scanner that is small enough to carry, allowing customers to get product information while they shop. These combined with Amazon’s easy online grocery ordering and mobile app create a true omnichannel experience.

Pharmaceuticals

As a journalist covering Salesforce in the past, I learned about this omnichannel strategy. It involves marketing to healthcare providers by having physicians and nurses opt-in to communications at one of the many company-sponsored events they attend. The names, email addresses and phone numbers are then fed into Salesforce which has a campaign set up to send them targeted, personalized communication via email or text message which drives them to engage with the company website.

Further communications are based on whether doctors and nurses click the links in emails and text messages. If they click they get messages encouraging them to attend future events. If not, they might get communication that encourages them to engage via social media.

Related: Keep This Important Marketing Principle in Mind During Economic Volatility

Leave no channel unchecked

An omnichannel strategy lets your business engage with as many customers as possible while staying agile enough to adapt to their changing preferences. The seamless incorporation of multiple channels gives you an advantageous position in the shifting landscape that is digital commerce.