Richard

Last week, Apple posted about a new security research challenge for hackers to try and test the security of the company’s servers that host its just-launched Apple Intelligence features.

If you’re successful, you could earn up to $1 million.

Related: Hackers Targeted a $12 Billion Cybersecurity Company With a Deepfake of Its CEO. This 1 Small Detail Made It Unsuccessful.

Apple is trying to protect its Private Cloud Compute (PCC) servers, which will process some Apple Intelligence requests, from bad actors and cyberattacks, ZDNet reports.

The company is looking to identify vulnerability in three main areas: accidental data disclosures, external compromises from user requests, and physical or internal access, according to the outlet.

Apple’s guide, Private Cloud Compute Security Guide, explains the ins and outs of how PCC works for anyone who thinks they can hack into the system. ZDNet notes that Apple tested the system with internal experts and other researchers in the lead-up to Apple Intelligence’s launch on Monday.

If you think you have what it takes, here is how much Apple is paying and why:

Remote attack on request data:

• Arbitrary code execution with arbitrary entitlements – $1,000,000
• Access to a user’s request data or sensitive information about the user’s requests outside the trust boundary – $250,000

Attack on request data from a privileged network position:

• Access to a user’s request data or other sensitive information about the user outside the trust boundary – $150,000
• Ability to execute unattested code – $100,000
• Accidental or unexpected data disclosure due to deployment or configuration issue – $50,000

For more information on the challenge, click here.

This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Aaron Luo, co-founder with Carmen Chen Wu of Caraa, a New York City-based handbag and accessory company founded in 2015 that’s seen more than $50 million in total sales, and Mercado Famous, an artisanal Spanish charcuterie business founded in 2022, which surpassed $1 million in sales in its first year. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Mercado Famous}

How did the two of you connect as co-founders, and what inspired you to team up for your first venture, Caraa?
How Carmen and I met is a story of fate, chance and a little bit of fairy dust.

I am Chinese. I grew up in Madrid, Spain, and was educated in the U.S. Coming from a long line of textile entrepreneurs — my great-grandfather founded the largest thread company in China, Flying Wheel, in 1929 — I always knew I wanted to get back into the fashion and textile industry after spending a decade in corporate finance.

Carmen is also Chinese, born and raised in Valencia, Spain. Coming from a family of third-generation artists, she attended school at Central Saint Martins in London and Parsons in New York City. She is a CFDA-awarded fashion designer, spending most of her time in luxury fashion design since her early design career.

Related: She Used $10,000 in Savings to Turn Her Side Hustle Into an 8-Figure Brand You’ve Probably Seen

We first met in the early 2000s, and after a quick exchange of family history, we found out that our grandparents were actually business partners in Spain. My grandfather founded the first Chinese law firm and helped many Chinese entrepreneurs flourish in Spain, including Carmen’s grandmother. At that time, we both had dreams and aspirations of creating a luxury handbag brand rooted in simple, elegant designs and functionalities for the modern woman. This is where Car + aa (Carmen + Aaron) was born.

Having spent decades in the fashion industry, we always felt that many inspiring designer handbag brands were beautifully designed and crafted but lacked innovative features such as organization, light weight, smart straps, etc. We were eager to disrupt the handbag category with a brand that not only cared about innovative designs but also provided a product that could withstand the daily usage of the busy modern woman, still using the same materials as some of the world’s best luxury brands and crafted at the same workshops and factory.

The chances of two Chinese-Spanish entrepreneurs with grandparents who did business together meeting in New York City and wanting to start a luxury fashion brand together is probably one in a million, and we always felt that fate brought us together to create Caraa.

How did both of your professional backgrounds help inform how you built Caraa?
I have always admired Western corporations and am mesmerized by how they function and their ability to scale globally. My 10-plus years spent working at a conglomerate like General Electric, managing businesses across 12 countries and seven industries, including retail finance, oil and gas, healthcare, appliances, television and media, wind energy and professional services, allowed me to start, grow and scale Caraa with its foundation in operations, finance and global supply chain.

Carmen spent her early days working for luxury fashion brands across both the UK and the U.S. Not only did she work closely with head designers from the many luxury brands she helped grow, but she also spent several years working at a premier handbag craftsman shop in New York City, working exclusively with a handful of luxury brands to sample and fabricate unique designs. This gave Carmen an extensive understanding of the essence of handbag design, including concept, material sourcing, construction and the engineering mechanics required to create innovative designs.

While running Caraa, you started Mercado Famous as a side hustle. What inspired it, and what were the first steps to get the idea off the ground?
Mercado Famous came out of desperation, from our love for Spain and Spanish food. Growing up in Spain, charcuterie was part of our daily diet, something that we often consumed with friends and family. It is a staple of our Spanish cuisine. However, having lived in the U.S. for over 20 years, we always struggled to find premium Spanish charcuterie at honest retail prices. The options were extremely limited. Either we found charcuterie that was good but overpriced or mediocre products at still elevated prices. We were determined to change that.

After spending over two years looking for the perfect Spanish farm with the right farming practices, we found a third-generation family farm with a century-old recipe and the scale to bring what we believe to be the best Spanish charcuterie to American consumers at honest retail prices. The goal for Mercado Famous is never to sell more charcuterie but to bring our memories from Spain to the U.S. and share this wonderful cuisine and culture with the diverse U.S. market.

Related: In Her Late 30s, She Pursued Another Creative Side Hustle — Then Turned It Into a Multimillion-Dollar Business

How did you balance working on Caraa and Mercado Famous in those early days?
It was not easy, and honestly, we are still trying to figure this one out. Both brands are on a high growth trajectory and require a lot of tender, loving care both Carmen and me.

There are many synergies between the two brands, and 90% of our teams work on both brands daily. Functions such as ecommerce, content creation, social media and graphic design are designed to support the needs of both brands.

For us, it came down to prioritizing the right areas of focus: people and process. On a daily, weekly and monthly basis, we ask questions: Do we have the right set of people helping to run the brands, and do we have standard measurable processes that help us scale the brands? Anything that doesn’t help us answer “yes” to these two questions gets deprioritized. So far, this has been the right formula and the north star that has guided us through the rise of both brands. As we grow, the balance of priorities will change, which we constantly calibrate to ensure our tefocussing on the right areas for both brands.

How did you leverage your experience growing Caraa to help expand the side hustle?
Caraa is a decade-old brand. It is part of the first wave of native digital brands that leverage digital platforms to tell the brand story and discover new customers.

We learned many lessons along the way, and our goal was to take all of the lessons learned from Caraa across content creation, social media, technology, branding, growth marketing, CRM and logistics and give them all to Mercado Famous. There was certainly some fine-tuning when translating our strategy from Caraa to Mercado Famous — after all, one is a fashion brand, and the other is a premium consumer packaged goods brand.

However, the soul of the two brands is the same: to create world-class products at the core and identify the right customer base to tell the brand story. From Caraa, we quickly learned that the age of mediocre products with fancy marketing is long dead and that product innovation will always prevail over marketing.

Related: Her Side Hustle Landed in Costco and Made $3 Million Last Year Even Though She ‘Didn’t Know Anything About Running a Business’

When did it become clear that the side hustle had the potential to be a full-time business, and what were the next steps to help make that happen?
I often read business stories where other entrepreneurs are asked this type of question. Their answers are often related to sales and growth. “When we made our first million” or “when we landed that one account X” or “when we hit our first 5,000 customers” is when we knew we had a business. And although none of these are wrong, that moment came when a group of Spaniards wrote to our customer services and said: “Thank you for creating Mercado Famous. I am a Spaniard living in Iowa, and after discovering your products, we no longer need to smuggle Spanish jamon when returning from Spain. Keep up the good work!” This was when we knew we found our base and that there was longevity in our brand.

The next step is to scale the brand. Our goal now is to find the right channel to tell our brand story and get the product to as many people as we can. From our initial testing phase, we believe that American consumers already love our products; they just don’t know it yet. Take our Italian counterparts, for example; Italian charcuteries have widely penetrated the American diet. When you look at the taste profiles, they are extremely similar to our Spanish charcuterie products. Our goal is to offer the Spanish charcuterie as an alternative for those who already love the Italian charcuterie.

Related: This 32-Year-Old Started a Side Hustle With $3,000 — Now It Makes Over $100,000 a Month: ‘I Can’t Get Enough’

What are some of the challenges unique to running a food business, and how did you navigate those?
Navigating and understanding food safety was extremely important to us from day one. The USDA heavily regulates the charcuterie space, which we believe is great for our industry. Because of this, we had to partner with several agencies and our selected farm to ensure that it followed all of the proper food safety processes, and we obtained the correct certifications to bring this marvelous product into the U.S.

What does your involvement with both businesses look like now?
This changes weekly, but on average, I divide my time 60-40 between the two businesses, where 60% of my time is spent running Caraa, and 40% is spent nurturing Mercado Famous. Even though Mercado Famous is still significantly smaller than Caraa, it is a brand in its infancy and needs a lot of attention from us, an investment we are happy to make.

What have the growth/revenue trajectories been for both Caraa and Mercado Famous?
Although we don’t publicly disclose revenue numbers, Caraa is on track to be under $20 million in revenue this year, and Mercado Famous is on track for under $5 million in revenue.

Caraa has seen more than $50 million in total sales, and Mercado Famous exceeded $1 million in sales in its first year.

Related: He Took His Side Hustle Full-Time After Being Laid Off From Meta in 2023 — Now He Earns About $200,000 a Year: ‘Sweet, Sweet Irony’

What’s your best advice for people who want to start side hustles or full-time businesses of their own?
Do it out of passion, and never let financials drive your decision to start a side hustle. The path to entrepreneurship is long, dark and never straight. You will find challenging moments that will test your limits, especially when you have more than one business or job. This is where the passion will kick in and help you push forward even when you can’t see financial gains at the end of the road.

Liz Dee, co-president of American candy company Smarties with her sister Jessica Dee Sawyer and cousin Sarah Dee, didn’t always know she wanted to join the family business, which was founded by her grandfather Edward Dee in Bloomfield, New Jersey in 1949.

However, Dee continued “responding to the call,” working on copy for Smarties’ first website when she was in middle school and helping launch and maintain its social media accounts in college and graduate school. She took on her current leadership role in 2008.

Smarties, which just celebrated its 75th anniversary, is still based in New Jersey, where Edward Dee immigrated with his family from England the same year he started the company. Since its founding, and even over the course of Dee’s own tenure as co-president, the marketing landscape has changed significantly.

“It is an uphill battle to maintain relevance and shelf space,” Dee says. “Even if people love your product and love your brand, [you have] maybe a few facings on the shelf when some of the other companies out there have, say, 25% of shelf space, and that’s a limited resource.”

Related: People Underestimated Her ‘Sweet’ Idea, and She Took Advantage of It — All the Way to $125 Million in Annual Sales and a $360 Million Exit

Halloween is approaching, and Smarties attributes more than 25% of its annual sales to the holiday. This year, Smarties saw the earliest demand for Halloween ever in Dee’s time with the company, with requests to ship for the holiday beginning in June.

Smarties rolls out inventive giveaway campaigns, including one for Halloween: Sweet Switch, which allows people with food allergies or sensitivities to swap candy that’s unsafe for them for Smarties.

“You don’t actually need to send your candy back to us,” Dee explains. “Someone can just upload a photo of that to us, and we will go ahead and send them the Smarties. This is a nice way for us to both highlight the fact that we are top allergen-free [and] be there for people who are going to be receiving a lot of candy but may feel a little bit left out.”

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Smarties}

During her time as Smarties’ co-president, Dee has led with an important goal: the company’s commitment to remaining family-owned while maintaining its relevance and authenticity in the crowded candy space.

Related: The Best Leadership Advice Isn’t Fancy. But It Will Get You the Greatest ROI.

Dee shares with Entrepreneur the leadership lessons that help Smarties meet those objectives — including the piece of advice she chose to ignore.

“No job is too small.”

Fittingly, Dee’s grandfather, Edward Dee, who was just inducted into the Candy Hall of Fame last weekend, gave her some leadership advice that’s served her well during her time at Smarties.

“My grandfather attributed this quote to Thomas Edison, but he would say, ‘Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work,'” Dee says. “And that really speaks to the way we manage, which is, no job is too small.”

Related: Passion, Grit, Resilience: The Formula for Success

At Smarties, Dee strives to lead with a certain “scrappiness” and “grit.” The factory floor is just on the other side of her office wall, and she’s no stranger to rolling up her sleeves for an up-close look at the production process, she says.

“I am able to be there supporting team members and also seeing what’s happening where the candy is being made,” Dee explains. “If people climb further and further up ladders, they may just get further and further distance from the production of the products that allow them to even have the lights on in their offices.”

“You bring people up with you.”

On the topic of ladders, Dee mentions another leadership tip she strongly believes in: You don’t climb a ladder and bring it up with you.

“You bring people up with you,” Dee says. “[I’ve always] believed it’s very important to continue to support, empower and lift up team members, and we look for opportunities to do that where we can. It definitely speaks to a sense of the connection and gratitude that I feel for how I’m here and why I’m here — because we are supporting one another, working together to achieve shared, company-wide goals.”

Related: How ‘Elevator’ Leaders Lift Everyone to Higher Achievement

“We’re not going to hide who we are.”

Additionally, early on in Dee’s career, when she transitioned to leadership in the candy industry, she received a “bad” piece of leadership advice she disagreed with — and opted not to take.

The suggestion came from a 60-something man, Dee recalls, who told her that she and her co-presidents should hide the fact that Smarties is a women-run business. He didn’t think it would be good for the company — a belief that spoke more to his perspective than any real consumer analysis on the subject, Dee says.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Smarties. Sarah Dee, left; Jessica Dee Sawyer, center; and Liz Dee, right.}

“We’re not going to hide who we are, regardless,” Dee says. “It’s really important, particularly as women in leadership, to tell our stories [and] not be ashamed or afraid to be authentically ourselves. We’re a women-run business. We’re a majority women-owned business. And we have a triumvirate leadership, which is an unusual leadership structure, but it works for us.”

Related: This Math Major Recruited by Goldman Sachs Got Well-Acquainted With Corporate America and the ‘Problematic’ Phrase That Undermines Women Leaders — Now She’s Fighting Back

“People love Smarties.”

Now, as Dee looks to Smarties’ next 75 years and beyond, she’s excited to push forward its legacy, one rooted in a family history that’s already laid the foundation for a successful future.

“People love Smarties,” Dee says. “[They] tell me about it. It brings them joy, and they share that joy, and I want for that to continue. I know we can continue it by walking our path, maintaining our family legacy and doing what we do, which is keeping our people first [and] making sure that we continue to offer the same consistent, high-quality products that people know and love us for.”

Americans are more likely to regret the things they didn’t do than the things they have done.

That’s according to a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults split evenly by generation, which found that only 11% of Americans don’t have regrets.

Between not speaking up (40%), not visiting family or friends enough (36%) and not pursuing their dreams (35%), those missed opportunities add up.

Related: Always Waiting for the Best Option Is Holding You Back. Here’s Why.

In their lifetime, Americans average three missed chances to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip, four lost opportunities to ask their crush out and six instances of not having the perfect comeback in an argument.

On the flip side, the top actions Americans regret include spending money or purchasing something (49%), fighting with friends or family (43%) and making an unnecessary comment (36%).

Over the years, Americans also regret an average of five angry text messages and two break-ups.

In fact, nearly one-third (32%) of baby boomers have a regret that spans three decades and still crosses their minds an average of three times per month.

While millennials’ oldest regret is only about 11 years old, they average fretting about it almost once per week, more than any other generation.

Related: The Top 5 Regrets of Mid-Career Professionals

Conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Mucinex, results revealed that Americans are almost twice as likely to make bad decisions at night (41%) than in the morning (22%).

Moreover, Americans also tend to regret something more at night (43%). Nighttime decisions such as not going to bed at a decent time (47%), eating too many snacks or too much food (36%) and arguing with a loved one (35%) are the most likely to negatively impact Americans the next morning.

For Gen Zers, failing to do their nighttime routine (29%) or forgetting to turn on their alarm (22%) will almost always ensure morning distress.

These poor choices not only cause regret but also put Americans in a bad mood (39%), leave them unable to tackle the day (29%) or even inhibit them from fulfilling the day’s responsibilities (20%).

Related: 10 Horrible Habits You’re Doing Right Now That Are Draining Your Energy

But what factors are contributing to these bad decisions? According to the results, being tired (40%), sick and desperate for relief (20%) or after a long night out (15%) are the most likely culprits.

“We don’t make the best decisions when we’re sick or tired, especially at night,” says Albert So, marketing director of upper respiratory at Reckitt. “And while no one is going to get it right every single time, it’s important to have products you can rely on to help you make better decisions so you don’t wake up with regrets.”

For all the bad decisions made and opportunities missed, 48% of Americans still agree with the common saying, “Never regret anything because, at one moment, it was exactly what you wanted.”

This may be because almost two-thirds (64%) believe that their decision-making has gotten better as they’ve gotten older.

Results also revealed that some “bad” decisions don’t always result in feelings of regret. Staying up late with friends (24%), quitting a job (23%), taking a chance on a new food (20%), moving somewhere new (17%) and going to a concert on a weeknight (10%) are all choices Americans consider to have been “worth it.”

“Few things are worse than starting your day regretting a choice you made the night before, especially when you’re suffering from cold and flu symptoms and have a busy day ahead,” So says. “Feeling better starts with getting a good night’s sleep and making smart decisions before bed so you wake up feeling ready to go with no regrets.”

Related: 10 Regrets Most Entrepreneurs Eventually Face

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI introduced Whisper two years ago as an AI tool that transcribes speech to text. Now, the tool is used by AI healthcare company Nabla and its 45,000 clinicians to help transcribe medical conversations across over 85 organizations, like the University of Iowa Health Care.

However, new research shows that Whisper has been “hallucinating,” or adding statements that no one has said, into transcripts of conversations, raising the question of how quickly medical facilities should adopt AI if it yields errors.

According to the Associated Press, a University of Michigan researcher found hallucinations in 80% of Whisper transcriptions. An unnamed developer found hallucinations in half of more than 100 hours of transcriptions. Another engineer found inaccuracies in almost all of the 26,000 transcripts they generated with Whisper.

Faulty transcriptions of conversations between doctors and patients could have “really grave consequences,” Alondra Nelson, professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, told AP.

“Nobody wants a misdiagnosis,” Nelson stated.

Related: AI Isn’t ‘Revolutionary Change,’ and Its Benefits Are ‘Exaggerated,’ Says MIT Economist

Earlier this year, researchers at Cornell University, New York University, the University of Washington, and the University of Virginia published a study that tracked how many times OpenAI’s Whisper speech-to-text service hallucinated when it had to transcribe 13,140 audio segments with an average length of 10 seconds. The audio was sourced from TalkBank’s AphasiaBank, a database featuring the voices of people with aphasia, a language disorder that makes it difficult to communicate.

The researchers found 312 instances of “entire hallucinated phrases or sentences, which did not exist in any form in the underlying audio” when they ran the experiment in the spring of 2023.

Related: Google’s New AI Search Results Are Already Hallucinating — Telling Users to Eat Rocks and Make Pizza Sauce With Glue

Among the hallucinated transcripts, 38% contained harmful language, like violence or stereotypes, that did not match the context of the conversation.

“Our work demonstrates that there are serious concerns regarding Whisper’s inaccuracy due to unpredictable hallucinations,” the researchers wrote.

The researchers say that the study could also mean a hallucination bias in Whisper, or a tendency for it to insert inaccuracies more often for a particular group — and not just for people with aphasia.

“Based on our findings, we suggest that this kind of hallucination bias could also arise for any demographic group with speech impairments yielding more disfluencies (such as speakers with other speech impairments like dysphonia [disorders of the voice], the very elderly, or non-native language speakers),” the researchers stated.

Related: OpenAI Reportedly Used More Than a Million Hours of YouTube Videos to Train Its Latest AI Model

Whisper has transcribed seven million medical conversations through Nabla, per The Verge.

Being productive is often presented as a lifestyle — wake up early, learn to time block, practice a healthy lifestyle, use the right tools — you name it. The promise is that if you take full control over your time and work environment, you will perform at your best.

While there’s certainly some truth to that, there’s one little thing that we all take for granted that can undermine the majority of your productivity gains — notifications.

These days, as an entrepreneur or manager, your attention is constantly being pulled every which way. Urgent requests, project updates, general communication, team member questions, sales pitches, impromptu meetings… and that’s just work. There’s also life — social media, personal messages and calls, news, package deliveries.

Each interruption comes with a notification — a ping, a pop-up, a vibration, a call — all designed to grab your attention immediately. This releases dopamine, making you feel good, and a dollop of cortisol, making you feel a sense of urgency.

It’s killing your productivity and that of your team, too.

Here’s how and what to do about it.

A note on productivity

The holy grail of productivity is reaching a state of flow. In our day-to-day, we typically call it being in the zone or riding a wave, or being locked in. In simple terms, it’s that moment when you’re working and you’re fully focused on the task, effortlessly making headway as time seems to disappear.

When you’re in a state of flow, your personal productivity is at its peak.

Most productivity techniques are just different methods intended to assist with reaching this state:

• Pomodoro timers? Give yourself a runway for uninterrupted work
• Time blocking? Get rid of distractions for an extended amount of time
• Eating the frog? Do the big thing first so it doesn’t weigh on your mind and distract you the rest of the day

Productivity is principally about maximizing focus and minimizing distractions. And there’s science behind it. Studies suggest that, after a distraction, it takes up to 23 minutes to refocus on the task you were engaged in fully.

The reason is twofold.

For one, humans are absolutely terrible at multitasking. It’s been proven time and time again that we’re at our peak when deep-diving into a single task. While it’s certainly possible to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously — we all do it all the time — your attention is a finite resource that drops the more it’s divided.

Second, we cannot go from 0 to 100 instantly when it comes to work. Getting into the flow of things requires momentum — to acclimatize and reorient yourself within the context, purpose, workflow and progress of a particular task. Once momentum is lost, it must be rebuilt, and that takes time, energy, and willpower.

Related: Become More Productive With This Easy Hack

Notifications – the productivity vampire

You probably already see where I’m going with this. Notifications are the number one biggest threat to your productivity because they:

• Fracture your focus and derail your train of thought
• Increase stress levels by creating a constant sense of urgency
• Foster a culture of immediate response, leading to shallow work
• Contribute to decision fatigue, depleting your willpower throughout the day

For some, the negative effects can extend beyond that. As mentioned, notifications create a dopamine-driven feedback loop that can be addictive. Each ping or vibration triggers a small dopamine release, making us feel momentarily good and important. This constant stream of small rewards can lead to a compulsive need to check our devices, even when there are no notifications.

Over time, this behavior can rewire our brains, making concentrating on deep, meaningful work harder. We become accustomed to constant stimulation, making it challenging to engage in the type of focused, uninterrupted work that drives real productivity and innovation.

Related: Sometimes Honesty Isn’t Always the Best Policy. Here Are 9 Scenarios Where It Actually May Be Better to Lie.

The 5-minute fix

Turn off your notifications and, if possible, let your team do the same. You can do it right now in just a few moments – take your work devices, go into Settings > Notifications, and either turn them off or delay them.

• Too drastic?
• Mute individual apps.
• Are you worried about being unreachable?
• Leave open an emergency contact channel.
• Got some other reason?

Consider implementing a notification schedule. Set specific times during the day to check and respond to messages. This allows you to stay connected without constant interruptions. You can also use “Do Not Disturb” modes on most devices, which can be customized to allow calls from specific contacts or repeated calls in case of emergencies. Remember, it’s about finding a balance that works – one that allows for focused work time while still maintaining necessary communication.

Related: I’m a Small Business Owner. How Should I Vote?

It’s not just about you

As a leader, you explicitly and implicitly dictate how the people you manage work. If you’re “always on,” your team will feel the pressure to do the same. There are also strong power dynamics at play — who would dare ignore a message from the CEO, even if it’s just for a couple of hours? This creates a culture of interruption that can significantly hinder overall productivity.

If you notice the deleterious effects of notifications, lead by example and release your team from them, too. Establish clear communication guidelines that respect focused work time and encourage your team to block out periods for deep work.

Related: 9 Habit Stacking Routines to Boost Your Productivity

Listen, I’m a CEO and father of two – I fully understand that we live in an age of immediacy, of constant communication, and of incredibly accelerated workflows. Not everyone can switch off for prolonged periods of time, even if it’s just an hour or two.

Just keep in mind that notifications can undermine any other productivity efforts on your part – and blocking them is the easiest place to start to improve your output capacity.

I was fortunate to be exposed to the importance of the entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. Though I had no idea what an entrepreneur was or what they did, I was influenced by my schoolteacher parents, who involved my brother and me in our family’s side hustle: renovating homes.

My parents came from humble backgrounds. My mother was homeless for part of her childhood, and my father was an immigrant who came from few resources. When they were married, a home represented much more than a place to live. It was safety and security.

Almost every summer growing up, we would move into a new home that met the threshold of being the worst house on a nice street, with the goal of renovating and updating it before the start of the school year.

To my brother and I, it seemed like a great adventure to move into a new home every summer and help our parents scrape paint, sand floors and hang wallpaper. We didn’t realize at the time that our parents were helping the family live more comfortably and teaching us about the importance of hard work and channeling our entrepreneurial drive.

Today, as a parent of three young boys, I’m also trying to foster an early understanding of financial literacy, business concepts and entrepreneurism in my kids. Not just because I want my children to be financially secure as adults but also because I know having that entrepreneurial drive is a great foundation for whatever they pursue as they get older.

My oldest is a budding chicken farmer at the age of seven. My family lives in the country, and he wanted to try raising chickens and selling their eggs to our neighbors.

As basic as it sounds, it’s become a fun way for him to learn responsibilities like feeding the chickens and cleaning their coop while being exposed to the concepts of buying and selling products. It’s fun for him, but it’s also helping to ingrain a level of financial literacy, just as reading to him as a baby and toddler contributed to his traditional literacy.

While some effort has been made in recent years to integrate financial literacy into elementary and high school curriculums, there remains a significant gap in educating children and youth about personal finances, business principles and entrepreneurship.

According to a 2024 report by The National Financial Educators Council, not one American state meets even the basic standards for educating students in financial literacy, stating: “While standards for K-12 education have been reformed, no state applies those same standards for rigor, instruction time, or teacher preparation to its financial literacy requirements. Not a single state prioritizes financial education as a core subject area.”

The report also notes that this failure to address a critical aspect of basic education has consequences: “Only 57% of Americans are financially literate, ranking the country 14th in the world on that metric; and four out of five U.S. adults say they were never given an opportunity to learn about personal finance.”

Those numbers can lead to extremely poor financial decisions like taking on too much debt, entering into high-interest loans that can never be paid off, and, in the most extreme cases, bankruptcies, which rose 16% in June 2024 compared to 2023.

Just because schools aren’t measuring up on teaching financial literacy, there are steps parents can take to help educate the entrepreneurs of the future.

Related: How to Raise Entrepreneurial Minded Kids

1. Give your own lessons on financial literacy at home

From the old-fashioned piggy bank to a basic savings account to creating a budget to buy a prized toy with a weekly allowance, there are lots of ways to get kids thinking about how money works.

Parents often shy away from discussing finances with their kids, which can do them a disservice. You don’t need to discuss your 401k, but even just getting them to find the cheaper peanut butter at the grocery store or showing them how your car payment works can go a long way toward establishing a foundation for understanding finances.

2. Encourage entrepreneurial reading

There are dozens of great books you can give or read to your child to help teach basicfinancial literacy lessonsy. One of my sons’ favorites is the Lawn Boy series by Gary Paulsen, about a 12-year-old who uses his grandfather’s riding mower to create a neighborhood lawn care empire one summer. Other great options include Investing for Kids: From Piggy Banks to Portfolios, Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells, or The Berenstain Bears’ Dollars and Sense.

Related: These Are the 3 Things That Make Daymond John Want to Give You Money

3. Help your child start a small business

Most of us remember trying to sell lemonade from a table on the front lawn at some point during our childhood, or we had enterprising friends who tried it. While people may be less inclined to buy food or drink from strangers these days, kids can offer to mow neighbors’ lawns, rake leaves, shovel snow – or yes, even start a chicken coop.

Making signs and flyers to promote their business is a great way to teach kids about marketing, setting prices in line with demand, interacting with “customers,” and exchanging services for cash.

Related: 4 Pillars for Raising Entrepreneurial Children

While some parents feel finances and business are not a subject for kids, I believe offering basic, age-appropriate lessons to kids can have a huge impact as they grow up.

Just like exposing them to a second language from a young age can create language pathways that make learning languages easier later in life, the same philosophy holds true for educating children on the basics of economics and business.

For business owners, losing important items like access cards, company phones or personal wallets can be more than just an inconvenience—it can disrupt workflows and even jeopardize sensitive information. With 41% of data breaches traced back to lost or stolen devices, according to LocknCharge, misplaced items pose a serious risk.

Having an efficient way to track and recover essential items is crucial. The KeySmart SmartCard offers a practical solution by integrating with Apple’s Find My app so you can track any item the SmartCard is attached to, whether it’s in your wallet or tucked in your phone case. Normally, one of these razor-thin trackers would be $39, but you can go directly to checkout and pick one up now for $34.99.

Find your lost items in moments

Any time you leave behind an item holding a KeySmart® SmartCard, the Apple Find My app sends notifications directly to your iPhone, CarPlay or AirPods, allowing you to act before it becomes a bigger issue. For cards that go missing altogether, Lost Mode pinpoints the last known location and displays a message with your contact information, making it easier for whoever finds the card to return it.

Designed for business professionals who value efficiency, the SmartCard is ultra-slim—thinner than two credit cards—and fits effortlessly into a wallet or lanyard slot for security badges or office passes. This minimizes the risk of HR visits for lost access cards and ensures you’re always prepared.

It’s even built to handle the unexpected with an IPX8 waterproof rating that keeps it safe even in harsh conditions like spilled coffee at the office or rain on your commute.

Charging the SmartCard is as easy as placing it on a Qi-compatible wireless charger, eliminating the need for proprietary cables. Plus, the battery lasts up to five months on a single charge, so you can tuck it somewhere safe and forget about it.

For business owners balancing multiple tasks and tight schedules, this reliable tracking solution offers a smart way to stay organized and reduce the risks of lost items.

Don’t worry about lost devices, wallets, or even your company badge.

Time is limited. Skip straight to checkout and get a KeySmart® SmartCard on sale for $34.99.

KeySmart® SmartCard – Thinnest Card Tracker & Works with Apple Find My – $34.99

See Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Software subscription fees can quickly add up, and for small-business owners, entrepreneurs, or freelancers, these costs can eat into profits. Businesses spend approximately 29% of their IT budgets on software, according to a 2023 survey by Gartner.

For business professionals who are looking to streamline workflow without paying steep subscription fees, the Ultimate 2019 Microsoft Bundle might be the perfect solution. For just $71.94 (regularly $927), this comprehensive four-part bundle offers Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019, Windows 11 Pro, Project 2019, and Visio 2019.

While it’s not the newest version of Microsoft’s software, it can deliver tremendous value for anyone seeking tools to manage their business, boost productivity, and work efficiently. The bundle offers a lifetime license, meaning you’ll get all the functionality you need without the recurring costs associated with subscription services like Microsoft 365.

However, it does come with Windows 11 Pro, which includes the recent AI updates. Windows 11 Pro delivers a modern, intuitive interface with enhanced security features such as biometric login and Smart App Control, making it ideal for professionals who prioritize privacy and usability. It’s also equipped with tools that support multitasking, such as Snap Layouts and Virtual Desktops.

For companies looking to reduce overhead without compromising essential functionality, making a one-time purchase of slightly older software is a smart financial move. This includes Office’s most popular productivity tools, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Project 2019 is a must-have for anyone who is managing large or small projects. It helps track tasks, timelines, and resources, making it easier to stay on top of deadlines and ensure your team moves in the right direction. Project 2019 gives you the tools to streamline processes and manage tasks efficiently.

Visio 2019 is ideal for creating professional diagrams, flowcharts, and organizational charts. It’s particularly valuable for visualizing complex data or workflows, which is essential for business owners looking to improve operational efficiency.

If you need a productivity boost without eating into savings, take a closer look at this bundle.

Get the Ultimate 2019 Microsoft Bundle with Office, Project, Visio, and Windows 11 Pro for $71.94 (regularly $927).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

If your business relies on secure data storage but you’re tired of monthly subscriptions eating into your budget, Koofr Cloud Storage can be the solution. With a one-time payment, you gain lifetime access to 1TB of cloud storage — enough to handle your most critical business documents, presentations, and media files without the need for recurring fees.

Say goodbye to constant subscription costs and hello to a storage solution that fits your long-term business needs with lifetime access for $119.97 using promo code KOOFR40. This deal is only discounted through October 27 — so if you’re ready to purchase now, head straight to checkout.

Koofr doesn’t track user activity, giving your business the privacy it deserves, the company says. In a world where data security is non-negotiable, Koofr ensures your sensitive information remains confidential while still providing the tools you need to get work done.

1TB of storage can hold up to about 250,000 photos, 500 hours of HD video, or millions of documents. This gives you more than enough space to store client contracts, business presentations, and video assets — all organized in a single, secure location. Plus, Koofr’s advanced file management tools help you streamline your data. With a built-in duplicate finder, you can easily clear out redundant files and keep your storage efficient and clutter-free.

Koofr also makes it easy to integrate existing cloud accounts like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, allowing you to centralize your business data in one place for faster access and smoother operations.

If your business needs reliable storage, enhanced privacy, and a one-time payment solution, Koofr is designed to simplify your workflow while keeping your data secure.

Hurry and go right to checkout to take advantage of this deal ending on October 27 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific for 1TB of Koofr Cloud Storage available for $119.97 with coupon code KOOFR40.

StackSocial prices subject to change.