With so many calls and meetings taking place remotely these days, serious entrepreneurs and business leaders need reliable headphone options for blocking out distractions and zoning in on work. For those who are on the hunt for a highly capable piece of tech that’s also affordable, this deal is worth checking out.

For a limited time only, these new, open-box JBL Tune 510BT Wireless On-Ear Headphones are on sale for only $24.99 (reg. $49). An open-box deal typically means the product was excess inventory from store shelves, and it also means that these headphones have been inspected and verified to work like new.

So, with impressive savings on a fully capable pair of 2021 headphones, you can count on powerful and deep bass when listening to music. It also features quick switches to make switching from listening to a tune while you get through busy work to taking an unexpected and important call from a prospective client seamless.

These on-ear headphones also support Siri and Hey Google. With these tools, you can activate hands-free calling with a simple request and control sound settings and other functions with voice commands. They also offer a quick five-minute recharge feature that gives you two additional hours of music, which is great when you’re in a bind.

Busy entrepreneurs need the freedom to take calls while keeping their hands on their keyboards. Make your access to calls and meetings a lot better with these JBL Tune on-ear headphones.

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An annual financial plan can help you regulate cash flow, cut costs, manage taxes and generate growth. But no matter how thorough that plan is, it is important to set up regular checkpoints to review it throughout the year. By June, you should have a good idea of how your business is performing against your annual plan and what to expect for the remainder of the fiscal year. Now is a great time to take a deeper look, assess your business’ performance and adjust.

Here are five questions to ask at midyear to maintain a healthy financial plan:

1. Are you tracking on budget?

Review your income statement to see how you are performing against your forecasted budget. Are revenues, expenses and net profit or loss where you thought they would be? Why or why not?

If you don’t already have an operating system for budgeting and monthly reporting, or you’re falling behind, it may be time to seek external support.

Related: 6 Critical Questions Your Business Plan Must Answer

2. How’s your cash flow and runway?

Throughout the year, the flow and timing of cash in and out of the business is an important health indicator. At midyear, take a closer look at your cash flow statement to understand where money is coming from and where it is going. Review things like the cost of operations, working capital and incoming cash from current contracts so you can make changes if necessary. Here are a few questions to consider:

• Do you have outstanding bills that need attention now?
• Are you on track to meet your target income?
• What planned expenses are coming up that you’ll need to prepare for (for example, equipment purchases, headcount, conferences, training)?
• Do you need to increase your rates to better align with the market?

Related: 10 Expert Tips on Managing Cash Flow as a New Business

3. Do you want to make new investments next quarter?

It may be time to reinvest cash in the business if you have cash available. Do you want to make major purchases, increase hiring or invest in R&D before the end of the year? If so, the third quarter will be the best time for this because you have a better sense of how the year is going.

4. Are you paying the right amount in quarterly taxes?

Now that you have two-quarters of tax payments, you can see how these payments are tracked with actual tax obligations. Are you paying enough to cover your annual tax obligations, or must you adjust? Conversely, you may be paying too much or find that there are tax obligations that can be put off until next year. In this case, you could revise your quarterly tax payments and free up cash for business investments in the year’s second half.

Related: Must-Know Tips for Navigating Tax Season With a Side Hustle

5. Are you paying enough attention to tax laws?

Tax laws are always changing. Depending on your company structure and industry, you may be eligible for more benefits than last year or have to pay more for certain expenses. For example, in 2023, the rules around R&D costs changed for certain businesses. Tech companies are now being forced to capitalize on a larger percentage of these costs than ever before, and this can have drastic tax implications for venture-backed startups. They now need to plan to set aside 30 or 35% of their revenue for taxes, which takes away from what can be spent on the business.

To mitigate these issues, establish a good relationship with a tax expert. Schedule regular check-ins with your advisor so you can revise payments as needed, reallocate cash and monitor tax law changes as they occur.

It’s always hard to find the time for a financial health check in the middle of the year. But right now is the perfect time to review your budget, cash flow and tax planning to ensure you’re still tracking with the goals you set out in late 2023. Chances are good that you’ll uncover new insights about your business and be able to make critical adjustments to see you through the remainder of the year.

Ah, innovation! It is that flair in the entrepreneurs’ eyes, the burning desire in their belly, the wind that supports their startup’s takeoff. But here’s the kicker: Real innovation isn’t just about looking into the future; it is also about considering looking around. Envision a world where ideas are like bees, which fly from one field to another and exchange pollen as they go, giving the flowery landscape of interconnected innovations.

Let’s dive into the notion of cross-pollination for innovation, where the dissimilarities in the field aren’t just accepted; they are the preferred mode of operation.

So, before we get to the topic itself, I want to clarify things here. This isn’t your usual “go against the flow” sermon. Nope. We are going to get down to the nitty-gritty of walking-your-talk, boots-on-the-ground entrepreneurship to make innovation your business’s bread and butter — and not just any type of innovation, but the kind of innovation that can make one say: “Now, why didn’t I think of that?”

Now, with full faith, we’ll be setting off, my fellow groundbreakers of the future, on this voyage of exploration and discovery. The following list is what I call the ten commandments of cross-pollination that will spark innovation.

Related: How to Transform Your Workplace Culture with Cross-Pollination

1. Celebrate the renaissance spirit

Leonardo da Vinci, the one and only Renaissance man, was not merely engaged in art and science for the fun of it. He realized the world was all interconnected. Here, the most important thing is forming a Renaissance team. Invite team members to pursue their side hustles, hobbies and other interests. The coder, who also is a photographer, can bring a unique feel to UI design. DJ and marketing moonlighters could have a bird’s eye view of consumer behavior. Diversity of thought and experience is the soil for innovative ideas to grow.

2. Industry immersion sessions

One day each month, dive deep into an industry that is completely different from yours. If you are in tech, switch to hospitality. In finance? Look at what is happening in healthcare. Make a workshop where the team members will be able to share their ideas and together think of ways to apply them to your projects. Such sessions will be your innovation incubators.

3. “What if?” workshops

Wonder is the birth of invention, isn’t it? Conduct frequent “What if?” workshops, in which the only rule is that there are no wrong ideas. What if we copied the fast-food model into personal finance? What if the next time we designed software interfaces, we did it like a theme park map? This is where you encourage dreaming of flying in a blue sky and then work backward to find out if a practical application exists.

4. Cross-industry mentorship

Set up mentorship programs with professionals from other industries. These can be informal coffee talks or more structured mastermind sessions. The aim is to give a chance to discuss ideas, problems and solutions that can encourage innovation. A mentor from the fashion area could help a tech entrepreneur to realize that aesthetics are equally important as functionality.

5. The remix technique

“Nothing is ever original,” they say — and they are actually right. Innovation in this case means taking old ideas and recombining them. Tell your team to take two things that are seemingly unrelated and combine them. It’s like a food fusion of your business model (Thai tacos, anyone?).

Related: Great Minds Think Unalike — 3 Ways to Drive True Innovation Through Diversity

6. Fail forward

The fear of failure is innovation’s greatest enemy. Establish a culture where failure is seen as a stepping stone to success. Talk about failures and lessons learned. When your team doesn’t mind failing, they are more likely to take risks that will result in extraordinary advancements.

7. External idea incubators

You don’t need to be restricted to the premises of your office while thinking of ideas. Engage in hackathons, industry meetups and innovation centers. These are the places where you have the chance to observe people outside of your own circle and how they come up with ideas and solutions. Moreover, it is a wonderful way to find possible co-creators or even future teammates.

8. Customer collaboration

Your customers serve as a repository of fresh ideas. Such customer input can be harnessed through the creation of forums, surveys or innovation labs in which customers can contribute ideas or feedback on new products or services. The benefits are not limited to a simple analysis of what your market wants, rather, it nurtures a feeling of belonging and oneness.

9. The sabbatical scheme

Google’s “‘20% time” policy illustrates how much employees can benefit from having the freedom to develop their own projects. Give it a shot, regardless of how much time you can devote to it, be it a few hours per week or a year-long sabbatical every couple of years. Such intermittency from usual activities could sometimes become the source of the most innovative ideas of your company.

10. The global gaze

Innovation knows no boundaries, so who are you to stop it? Look globally for inspiration. How do other countries go about solving business problems? What is recently produced there that is trending overseas? You might have missed some solutions if you have not been taught to consider the world as a whole.

Related: 5 Key Ways to Create an Innovation Culture

Innovation is a team-based game, not a solo sport. The diversity of mankind is a colorful and turbulent dance of thoughts, sensations and points of view. Through this nurturing of cross-pollination, you’re not only sowing the seeds of innovation; you are kindling an entire habitat of creativity and advancement. So, join forces with the unfamiliar, and see how your enterprise will bloom into a genuinely game-changing entity. The world has opened up like an oyster, and the innovation pearl is the cross-pollination within. We are making it shine together.

Entrepreneurs who want their businesses to be in a constant state of growth often try to take the same approach to their personal lives. The more you learn and take in, the more knowledge you’ll have to expand your business and find new opportunities. At the same time, running and starting businesses is time-consuming, so reading can be tough to fit in.

During a special, limited-time sale, you can get this lifetime subscription to Headway Premium on sale for only $59.99 (reg. $299).

Headway is a mobile app that gives users like busy entrepreneurs easy access to fun summaries of non-fiction bestsellers. These approximately 15-minute reads are designed to help you glean key insights and ideas from what’s being summarized.

Busy entrepreneurs can use this tool to pick up bits of knowledge in between meetings and to figure out which books are most likely worth taking the time to read in full. The app also makes it fun with daily insights, motivational widgets, and earning streaks based on how much you’re reading.

It’s important to note that these summaries are not replacements for full reads, but they can get you started and help you make a lot of fun discoveries. Headway is rated 4.5/5 stars on the App Store and 4.4/5 stars on the Google Play Store. It’s also used by more than 12 million people, which suggests there’s a lot to be valued here.

If you’re a busy professional looking to increase your reading and learning, consider this deal.

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Whether it’s important PDFs, presentations that you made for ongoing clients, or important contracts that would be detrimental to ongoing relationships if ever lost — there’s a lot of data your business needs to protect. That’s why it’s simply common practice for modern companies to have a number of verified and reliable cloud storage solutions.

If your team is in need of some space, here’s a great deal worth checking out. For a limited time only, you can get a lifetime subscription to 1TB of Koofr Cloud Storage for $119.97 (reg. $810) with code KOOFR. This single-payment deal features helpful access to a lot of space. A terabyte can hold roughly a quarter-million photos, 500 hours of HD video, and more than 6 million smaller file types like PDFs.

You can count on top-notch security when using Koofr because of advanced file encryption practices, the company says. They also have a zero-tracking policy, so you can rest assured that sensitive documents saved on Koofr will still remain private to your team or whoever you want to provide access to.

Koofr’s also great for companies because it’s compatible with other popular cloud accounts like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, so adding it to the mix should be easy.

For those who want a little more reassurance, just take a look at Koofr’s scores among the most reputable tech review sites out there, including a 4.6/5-star average on G2, Capterra, and GetApp.

Make sure to do your business a favor and secure this lifetime subscription to 1TB of Koofr Cloud Storage for $119.97 (reg. $810) with code KOOFR.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Over the past several years, inflation has affected everything in American consumerism, from grocery store prices to restaurant closures to wages.

Now, a new study is showing that inflation has even affected prices at the Happiest Place on Earth.

New data from Finance Buzz shows that prices for concessions at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, have increased an average of 61% over the past 10 years — more than the average increase in a single park ticket, which has gone up 56% over the past decade.

Related: A Fifth Walt Disney World Theme Park Could Be Coming Soon — Here’s What We Know

Some notable fan favorites have risen in price by a brow-raising amount, like the Dole Whip dessert, which has gone up 58%, and the iconic Mickey Mouse-shaped ice cream bar, which has increased 63% in the past 10 years.

The highest single item increase on the list is the bread service at Animal Kingdom restaurant Sanaa, which has more than doubled in price from $9.99 to $22 since 2014.

“Prices for every single item have risen by at least $1.50, with most going up by at least $2 since 2014,” Finance Buzz wrote in its study. “But while food costs have skyrocketed, the base price for the most affordable Disney World tickets has remained remarkably stable, going up just $19 from 2014 to 2024.”

The financial research source collected its data by taking current food and beverage prices from the Walt Disney World website and comparing them to the old Disney website using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Earlier this month, Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) reached a unanimous agreement in a preliminary vote to approve a $17 billion expansion program for the Florida establishment, which could potentially include the development of a fifth Walt Disney World park.

Related: Peltz Sells Disney Stock After Board Fight, Makes $1 Billion

“We’re already hard at work at basically determining where we’re going to place our new investments and what they will be,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in February during a Q1 2024 earnings call. “You can pretty much conclude that they’ll be all over, meaning every single one of our locations will be the beneficiary of increased investment.”

The Walt Disney Co. was up over 8% year over year as of Friday afternoon.

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Too often, founders cite their shortened runway as a reason for not fully implementing the best strategic spending for their startups. This is becoming too common, especially as markets continue on a soft landing trajectory and interest rates remain high. The dilemma is simple — founders do not want to overspend, view their runway as too short, and feel they cannot build traction with VCs, crowdfunding campaigns or other capital raises. Founders know they must spend to gain the required traction, but it’s a volatile risk with unclear returns. As countless founders face this current dilemma, what are the best decisions to make next?

Related: 10 Growth Strategies Every Business Owner Should Know

Stop looking at the perceived length of the runway — start looking at strategy

The perceived runway is only what is currently in the bank and a projection, at best, of what financials will look like in the next few quarters. It does not factor in future growth, breakthroughs in funding, and, yes, even disruptions or setbacks.

With so many founders in angst about their perceived short runway, a step back is in order. First, review the MVP (minimum viable product). In its essential elements, is it genuinely viable? Is your startup a copy of others, or is it truly unique? Are the solutions or products offered going to solve problems, disrupt an industry or substantially help in ways not currently offered in the marketplace? If you’re not confident, stop and compass-check with outside resources.

What does the correct compass check look like for your startup? Start with a brand evaluation with a reputable brand strategist or innovator with noted industry experience. Why? Your problems with a short runway may simply be key messaging, a revised funnel strategy, or better personas of realistic investors or a customer base.

What are the best options for utilizing the right strategy?

Any startup that seeks investors, venture capital, crowdfunding or customers develops some business plans and strategies. When the runway is too short for any funding campaign, the natural tendency is to halt all marketing spending, go lean and create a dilemma of can’t spend to earn but can’t earn without spending. This is a false premise, yet it is too familiar.

How does a founder fix this with strategy, and what right spends are necessary on a perceived limited runway? First, start with the most critical elements in your ramp-up strategy:

• Plan out paths to become the best known — not just the best — at what you do.
• Ensure the funnel strategy works and correctly captures incoming inquiries quickly and efficiently.
• Ensure the customer journey process builds on itself to turn customers into advocates for your brand.

First, become the best known. This does not necessarily mean becoming the best. While it does not mean putting out an inferior product or service, too many get stuck trying to improve, not continuously promote, or promote correctly. With this, look internally. As the founder and your team, are you doing everything to utilize key messaging strategy? Does that strategy resonate with the right audience? This is so critical and so often missed. Too many spend too much and get this wrong or are too close to current messaging to see blinders.

Start here to fix the perceived short runway. If the key messaging will not reach the right audience, stop everything else, including current spending, and fix it immediately. Get outside help from the right strategist who can give expert and objective counsel to course-correct key messaging. Following this, use it to your advantage and lead with it. A better call-to-action strategy beats a new product almost every time.

Second, ensure the funnel strategy works. When you launch your new product or service as part of your startup, demonstrate to investors, VCs or your crowdfunding campaign how well the funnel works. If key messaging is right, but funnel strategy is what is causing angst with the perceived short runway, pause and evaluate. It is not enough to drive interest through messaging alone; the funnel must be as close to airtight as possible.

If a funnel strategy is already in place and key messaging is working, continuously analyze results. For product or service sales, implement surveys, get feedback, and respond to and act on reviews. Identify the rate of and reasons for customer churn and continuously improve. Ask customers for product or service feature requests and use this data to gauge and optimize feature affinity. Additionally, ensure that any changes to public-facing marketing assets, especially websites, social media, PR and email, align with the funnel strategy and do not pull your brand off course.

Third, ensure the customer journey process finds ways to build on itself, and finds ways to propel new and existing customers into advocates for your brand. This starts by making an almost seamless journey for customers coming through the funnel. From the basics of making the journey, value proposition, and process simplistic and straightforward, any brand needs to advocate for their customers before a customer advocates for the brand. It only takes one bad experience, or perceived lousy experience with no response, to push a customer and parts of an audience away.

Related: 5 Ways to Create Sustainable Funding and Get Your Business Out of the Hole

You took a risk with your startup; why give up on that risk now?

If the strategy is sound, trust it. Build on strategy. A perceived short runway partly represents disbelief in the strategy, execution, team, or product or service offered. With the proper steps of ensuring key messaging is correct and action-provoking, a funnel strategy that captures the right audience and moves that audience into decision-making, and the most straightforward customer journey, wins will build on themselves.

As an entrepreneur or a team leader, your Mac is the powerhouse of your business. To ensure your team’s optimal efficiency and productivity, consider a cleaning platform like BuhoCleaner. It’s designed to keep your team’s work computers running smoothly so you can focus on what really matters — your business.

For one week only, June 11 through 17, you can get this lifetime subscription to the BuhoCleaner for Mac Family Plan for just $11.97 (reg. $45). BuhoCleaner is a Mac cleanup software with a wide variety of cleaning and management features, including application removal tools, cache junk cleanups, duplicate file removals, and more.

With BuhoCleaner, users can visualize their desk spaces with an analysis tool that makes it easier to find and identify the files they don’t need. Buho is designed to be easy to use and simple for new users with all levels of technical knowledge, making it easy to deploy to fellow team members. It can help them clean junk files from their browsers and applications and offers the potential to free up a single user’s storage space four times with a single click.

To discover how BuhoCleaner earned a stellar 5/5 star rating on MacUpdate and Product Hunt, check it out while it’s on sale at a steep price reduction and see how it can help your business.

Don’t forget that during a special, limited-time price drop that runs through June 17 at 11:59 p.m. PT only, you can get this lifetime subscription to the BuhoCleaner for Mac Family Plan for $11.97 (reg. $45).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Multi-billion dollar AI community startup Hugging Face announced its fourth acquisition to date on Thursday, a $10 million buy of a small AI collaboration platform called Argilla.

Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue now says he’s getting acquisition requests from many more startups — at least 10 a week.

“This year, in particular, it has increased quite a lot,” he told Bloomberg.

^{Clément Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images}

Hugging Face lets developers openly share and test AI models that anyone can use, and has partnered with companies like Google and Microsoft. The company claims to have over a million AI models, datasets, and apps on its platform.

After a $235 million August funding round, with investments from Amazon, Nvidia, Intel, and other big tech names, Hugging Face is now valued at $4.5 billion.

Delangue’s remarks that he sees more AI startups looking to be acquired could signal that the AI industry is consolidating, or entering the stage when competitors begin merging, per Bloomberg.

Related: Unicorn Founders Launch AI Business Credit Score Startup

Huge tech companies have been quietly acquiring AI startups recently. According to a February report from portfolio management company Stocklytics, Apple has made the most AI startup acquisitions compared to its peers, buying 32 startups last year and at least one more this year.

Google bought 21 AI startups and Meta acquired 18, per the same report.

AI stood out last year as one of the best-performing industries for unicorn, or billion-dollar valuation business, growth.

A February Morningstar report found that more than four of every 10 startups that became a unicorn in 2023 focused on AI and machine learning.

Related: Want to Start a Billion-Dollar Business? Look to These Two Industries