If you own an Apple TV, chances are you’ve grown tired and frustrated with the remote. Customers have lamented over the years that the Siri voice command remote can be distracting and downright diffuclt to use.

If this sounds like you then the Function101 Button Remote for Apple TV could be a quiet alternative that’s also on sale for Memorial Day. Instead of paying $29, you can get this button remote for Apple TV and Apple TV 4K for $23.97.

Make your Apple TV easier to use.

The Function101 Button Remote makes it easier to navigate your Apple TV. This simple remote features a traditional button layout, with options for controlling volume, navigating the menu, or standard media controls. That familiar design is an approachable alternative to voice commands that your customers and clients may appreciate.

Don’t worry about connecting to your TV. This remote uses Infrared (IR) technology to make connecting to your screen fast and easy. It also has a range up to 12 meters, so restaurant owners could control a TV without crossing the dining area. A quick start guide is included with your purchase along with a manufacturer’s one-year warranty.

Save on a new remote for your Apple TV.

Don’t miss your chance to replace your Siri remote with something a little more traditional.

You have until May 31 at 11:59 p.m. PT to get the Function101 Button Remote for Apple TV and Apple TV 4K. No coupon needed.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Erika Kullberg, an attorney with more than 21 million followers on social media, wants everyone to know how much social media sites really pay.

Kullberg regularly creates personal finance content for YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok and helps get people what they’re owed, like $1,000 if they’re bumped from a flight. One of Kullberg’s videos addresses how she paid off more than $225,000 in student loans in less than two years. Another is about her decision to quit a $250,000 job in corporate law.

“YouTube is by far the highest paying social media platform for me,” Kullberg told Entrepreneur.

In a video posted to her accounts on Thursday, and earlier on her website, Kullberg disclosed that she has two million subscribers on YouTube and her videos on the platform have received around 273 million views.

^{Erika Kullberg}

A 48-second YouTube video Kullberg uploaded in December 2022 that received 4.1 million views made her $106.85. A longer 12-minute YouTube video with fewer views (3.8 million) posted three years ago gave her a more substantial payout of $45,000 — for just one video.

Most of the money — $44,900 out of $45,000 — came from watch page ads.

Kullberg’s total earnings from YouTube for the last five years (before taxes and not including brand sponsorships) was more than $353,000.

@erikakullberg How much I get paid from social media ? The amounts are just what platforms pay and don’t include sponsorships, which is another way creators get paid! @Creators Agency ♬ original sound – Money Lawyer Erika

Other platforms pay less. The bulk of Kullberg’s following comes from TikTok, where she has 9.2 million followers and 542 million views. There, she has made $5,756 since she began posting two years ago.

Facebook has paid Kullberg nearly four times as much in the same time frame. She has a following of 4.5 million on the platform and made $20,251 over about two years.

“It’s actually not much extra work to monetize on different platforms,” Kullberg told Entrepreneur. “I’m using the same short videos and posting them across TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and Facebook.”

Related: More People Are Exploring Entrepreneurship Because of This Unexpected Reason

Kullberg has 5.3 million followers on Instagram but makes $0 from the platform because Instagram doesn’t pay creators directly anymore.

Though Kullberg has now amassed a following, she shared that it took her about three months of posting one YouTube video per week to get monetized. Being a social media influencer is the dream job for Gen Z, with 57% stating in a recent report that they would be an influencer if given the chance.

Other generations want the fame and fortune that social media fame can bring, too — 41% of adults across all age groups said they wanted to be an “influencer” in the same report.

Related: Gen Z’s Main Career Aspiration Is to Be an Influencer, According to a New Report

A HypeAuditor income survey found that the average annual income for an influencer was $35,640.

Did OpenAI steal Scarlett Johansson’s voice? OpenAI has since paused the “Sky” voice feature, but Johansson argues that this is no coincidence. In response, Johansson delivers a masterclass for entrepreneurs on navigating the AI era successfully.

In today’s discussion, we delve into what this controversy means for business owners, highlighting five critical AI strategies they must deploy. We also explore essential methods to protect your intellectual property and leverage AI for a competitive edge—insights vital for keeping your venture ahead in the AI revolution to remain your competitive advantage.

Take the AI skills quiz here (available for a limited time) and equip yourself with practical knowledge by grabbing a copy of my new book, ‘The Wolf is at the Door – How to Survive and Thrive in an AI-Driven World.’

Summer is fast approaching. For some, summer provides the perfect excuse break routines and take a step back. Longer days and warmer weather can provide an all-too-convenient distraction from the things that matter most. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Adopting the following six healthy habits is a surefire way to guarantee your summer will be both productive and fun.

1. Make and keep commitments

For many, summer means that backyard barbeques, other celebrations and family travel are on the brain. It’s easy to get swept up in all the little joys that summer offers. Some of that is good, but if you don’t want to show up on Labor Day with nothing to show for your time, it’s important to be proactive and intentional with how you spend your time.

An adorable viral video of a baby saying they want to go to the Four Seasons Resort in Orlando, Florida, has won the internet’s heart this week — and even prompted a response from the business itself.

In the original clip, Stefanie O’Brien asks her two children and husband, “Who wants to go to the Four Seasons Orlando?” The baby, hand raised, then exclaims, “Me!”

@sobrizzle If the @Four Seasons Hotels ♬ original sound – Stefanie O’Brien

The video has amassed over 45.4 million views and is now the source of many memes online.

Related: 5 Customer Service Secrets You Can Learn From Five-Star Hotels

The TikTok, of course, made its way to the team at the Four Seasons Orlando, which is at Walt Disney World, who said that it’s been an “exciting, exciting week,” thanks to the viral sensation.

“Our team sprung into action…to partner with the family and see how we could further this and see what we could do with it moving forward,” Tyson Nales, assistant director of rooms at the Four Seasons Orlando told FOX 35. “There’s something here for all ages.”

The hotel cheekily made its own TikTok in response, announcing that the baby is now the official ambassador for the Four Seasons Orlando.

@fourseasons #Stitch with @Stefanie O’Brien Let the adventure begin @Stefanie O’Brien fam ?✨@FourSeasonsOrlando #LuxuryTravel #FamilyTravel #LoveFourSeasons ♬ original sound – Four Seasons Hotels

“I literally just booked you for my trip later this year because of this baby,” one user wrote.

“Give the baby the entire hotel,” another joked.

Related: 5 Ways to Travel the World and Work Remotely From 5-Star Hotels

Looks like this boss baby has a lifetime of luxury vacation stays ahead.

More people are starting businesses now than ever before — and the reason could be that the opportunity cost, or what they have to give up in exchange for entrepreneurship, is lower than ever.

Data that the U.S. Census Bureau released earlier this month shows that the total number of applications to start businesses hit a record 5.5 million last year.

That’s half a million more applications than what was filed in 2022.

Related: Here’s What Millions of Small Businesses Have in Common, According to a New Survey

Census Bureau data from the first four months of this year show that the startup boom is still going strong, too — from January through April, the number of new business applications totaled over 1.7 million.

Why are more people filing to start new businesses?

Columbia Business School professor Angela Lee told Entrepreneur that the reason could be the “unprecedented number of layoffs from big tech companies in the last several years, resulting in a large pool of talent freed up to pursue entrepreneurship.”

^{Columbia Business School professor Angela Lee (left) and Co-Founder of Plum Alley Investments Andrea Turner Moffitt (right). Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)}

Lee, the director of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center, also noted that “entrepreneurship has historically been counter-cyclical because the opportunity cost to start a company goes down during a recession.”

Related: Want to Start a Billion-Dollar Business? Look to These Two Industries, Which Have the Most Unicorn Growth

Big tech companies have been laying off employees in record numbers in recent years.

Tech layoffs last year affected 263,180 employees globally according to tracker Layoffs.fyi.

Amazon laid off the most people (27,410) last year, but Meta (21,000), Google (12,115) and Microsoft (11,158) also contributed to record numbers.

The unemployment rate has remained stable, in the 3.7% to 3.9% range in the U.S. over the past nine months, according to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report.

Related: ‘The Employment Situation’ Report for April Shows Employers Are Taking Hiring Down a Notch, Employee Wage Growth Slowing

Like every entrepreneur, you likely aspire to drive profits in your service-based company. But how do you achieve this goal? The answer lies in scaling. It’s imperative to grasp the difference between growing and scaling your operations. While growing entails taking on more projects to increase revenue, scaling focuses on improving profits without a significant surge in resources. Essentially, scaling means working smarter, not just harder.

You’ve got to grab every chance to make more profit without burning yourself out. So, here are five practical strategies that many service providers miss out on when they’re trying to make their businesses bigger and better.

Related: I Exited My Company in Just 7 Years — Here’s 3 Things You Need to Do to Have a Successful Exit

1. Find your room to grow

To scale effectively, start by identifying areas within your business with untapped potential. Take a close look at what you’re already doing – your processes, the services you offer, and the audience you’re reaching. Look for niches where demand is high but competition is low, or explore opportunities to diversify your service offerings. For example, a digital marketing agency might expand into photography or influencer marketing to cater to evolving client needs.

Market research is key here. Talk to your clients to understand what they’re looking for. Check out what your competitors are doing and monitor what’s happening in the market. Once you’ve figured out where the opportunities are, you can start making changes to scale your business smartly.

Related: Key Financial Metrics Every Founder Should Know About

2. Listen to customer feedback

Listening to what your customers say can steer your business toward success. Make it a habit to ask for client feedback through surveys, online reviews, or direct conversations. Then, take the time to dive into that feedback to understand what your customers love, what they don’t, and what new trends are emerging.

Let’s look at an example: you run a software development company. You might discover a growing demand for mobile app development services by listening closely to your clients. With this knowledge, you can tailor your services to meet this demand, positioning yourself as a go-to provider in the industry.

Collecting customer feedback can also increase upselling and cross-selling success rates by 15% to 20%. Always make it a priority to listen to your customers—they just might hold the key to your business’s success.

3. Simplify your business with tech & automation

Using tech and automation can make your business smoother and save time. Surprisingly, over 90% of surveyed employees reported that automation solutions actually boosted their productivity, while 85% noted significant improvements in team collaboration. Moreover, nearly 90% expressed trust in automation tools to minimize errors and speed up decision-making processes.

First, figure out which tasks you’re repeating or where things get stuck. Then, explore project management tools like Monday.com or Asana. Investing in a CRM system such as Salesforce or HubSpot can centralize customer data, improve communication, and improve client relationships.

Modern payment platforms can do billing and invoicing automatically, so you don’t have to. By cutting down on these routine tasks, you’ll have more time to focus on improving your business.

Related: Busywork Sucks — How Automation Can Eliminate Boring Tasks for Entrepreneurs

4. Build strong networks and partnerships

In the service industry, teaming up with others can fuel your growth. Build relationships with businesses that complement yours, connect with peers in your industry, and seek out strategic partners. Attend networking events like Small Business Expo or IT industry events, join industry groups, and engage with online communities to expand your circle and discover collaboration opportunities.

If you’re running a web design company, you can team up with a digital marketing agency to give clients a full package of services, using each other’s strengths to get great results. By making friends and partnerships, you’ll open up new opportunities and make your business even better.

Related: Turn Your Startup into a Powerhouse With These 6 Financial Growth Hacks

5. Upgrade your marketing and branding

To really stand out from the crowd, it’s not enough just to have a good marketing plan—you need to keep tweaking and improving it all the time. One way to strengthen it is through SEO and content marketing; don’t only focus on paid ads.

Did you know that nearly half of all clicks on search engines come from organic searches? That means people are more likely to trust the results they find naturally rather than those paid for. So, if you use SEO effectively, you can get more visitors to your website.

Crucially, your strategy must be rooted in data. By meticulously analyzing metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and customer engagement, you can glean invaluable insights into what initiatives are giving results and where improvements are needed.

Equally significant is the need to refresh your messaging and brand identity. As people’s preferences change and the market moves around, you must ensure your brand still fits in with what your customers like. Talk to your customers, see what they think, and keep an eye on what’s going on in your industry. By giving your brand a fresh look and message, you can keep customers interested and stand out from the crowd of competitors.

Hyperconnectivity and social media have forever changed the reach and impact of company leadership. These days, chief executives are expected to be the face of their companies, not only in the boardroom, across annual reports or at shareholder meetings, but across the entire and endless digital expanse.

The supercharged visibility of CEOs and other C-suite executives online plays a pivotal, if not essential, role in shaping brand perception and, by extension, brand perception and reputation. This transformation not only forced corporate PR teams to shift focus toward heavily digital branding strategies; it’s also prompted many leaders to rethink their entire approach to image management and public engagement.

Related: How to Skyrocket Your Business to the Top With Thought Leadership and Visibility

The digital persona: More than just a role

The internet (particularly social platforms) has democratized information in incredible ways, giving consumers unprecedented access to the people behind the brands their favorite brands. This shift has made your CEO’s digital persona an integral part of your company’s image.

When your CEO actively engages with audiences online, whether that’s through social media, blogging, webinars or workplace videos, they essentially humanize your brand, lending a powerful human element that can lead to stronger connections with both current and potential customers. A proactive and carefully managed online presence can boost such intangibles as trust and transparency. When your CEO is visible and interacting in ways that align with company values, they can help create a sense of openness that builds trust and connection with your business.

Such a presence can also elevate your thought leadership efforts. By sharing industry insights and forecasts, your CEO (and other executive leaders) can establish themselves and your brand as experts in your space, strengthening a critical perception that nudges customers closer to the finish line.

Impact of CEO visibility on brand perception

How your CEO crafts their image and engages with folks online can have a meaningful, sometimes even lasting, impact on your brand’s relevance and relatability. For example, a CEO who makes themselves approachable and (perhaps most importantly) relatable on social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and even TikTok can deliver real-time dividends for brand loyalty, driving trust and consumer interactions in the right direction.

In contrast, as a leader of an organization, a CEO who often seems aloof, distant or disconnected — especially from the values they preach or relevant societal issues and events — can inadvertently drain their company’s reputation, creating an association that can be hard to pull away from.

Successful CEO visibility efforts

Consider Tim Cook of Apple or Satya Nadella of Microsoft. Through both brand PR and adept personal efforts, both leaders have crafted online personas that align closely with the innovative and forward-thinking ethos of their companies. Cook and Nadella are not only effective, often persuasive advocates for their products, but also for broader issues like border societal concerns like privacy, security and corporate responsibility, often mirroring sentiment among their customer base.

Related: In a Downturn, It’s Not Enough to Have Good Financials — Brand Visibility Is the New Currency.

Potential risks of higher visibility

Of course, while there are clear benefits to having a highly visible CEO, there are also risks, including:

• Inconsistency. Any discrepancy between your CEO’s online persona and your company’s actions can lead to public relations issues. Consistency and brand-leadership alignment are key.
• Overexposure. Too much visibility can backfire over time, especially if it shifts focus away from your company and onto your CEO’s personal views or actions. Again, coordination and careful management of each strategy is essential.

Harnessing social media for CEO influence

Social media can be a double-edged sword. While it does offer a host of valuable platforms for leaders to engage audiences, it also poses considerable risks, especially if not managed carefully.

Here’s how savvy CEOs use social media to their advantage:

Regular updates: Skilled leaders understand how to leverage social channels to keep followers informed about company news and industry trends.

Engagement: While often challenging, CEOs who respond to comments and participate in discussions (measuredly, of course) help build a community around the brand.

Crisis management: Executives who address issues head-on can turn potential negatives into positive press. This also helps demonstrate leadership and accountability, essential to building positive sentiment and trust among consumers.

The SEO advantage of CEO visibility

While sometimes overlooked, CEO visibility can have a sizable impact on your brand’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. For instance, regularly updated blog posts and articles from your CEO can provide an incredible opportunity to drive organic traffic to your website, in turn improving its search engine ranking. Additionally, positive mentions of the CEO in the media can help generate positive headlines in Google, boosting your company’s larger online footprint.

Elements like consistent content creation — high-quality, optimized content — and link-building (leveraging and promoting CEO-authored articles and posts) can heighten your CEO’s online visibility and, by extension, elevate your brand across critical search results pages.

Related: This CEO Shares 4 Highly Effective Ways to Promote and Scale Your Small to Medium-Sized Business

Stepping into the spotlight with integrity

Visibility is powerful, but it must be handled with integrity to really benefit your company’s reputation. Your CEO’s online actions and communications should be thoughtful, authentic and aligned with the company’s values. Whether it’s participating in online discussions, writing insightful articles or engaging with followers on social, every activity contributes to the tapestry of the company’s online presence.

A CEO’s digital visibility is a formidable tool that can profoundly shape your company’s reputation. By embracing the spotlight with sincerity and strategy, your CEO not only bolsters your company’s image but also sets a benchmark for future leaders.

In this rapidly evolving digital landscape, those at the helm who can navigate with visibility and integrity are the ones who will steer their companies to new heights of success and influence.

Eightball was meant to be an AI tool that turned coursework into study aids, like flashcards and practice tests. Its creators, Emory University undergrads, won Emory’s pitch competition last year, earning a $10,000 grand prize and promotion from the university on its own social media channels.

Though Emory seemed to endorse Eightball at first, the university recently decided to suspend the students who created it.

Benjamin Craver, one of the suspended student founders behind Eightball, filed a lawsuit against Emory University on Monday detailing how Eightball went from a lauded, public AI tool that Emory helped fund and promote to one that the school demanded he shut down.

Craver says the suspension, which he appealed and the school reduced to a semester, affects his ability to graduate with his class, write an honor’s thesis, and apply to law school.

Craver, who took care of the marketing side of Eightball, could have been suspended for a year, and his developer co-founder, who remained unnamed in the 27-page lawsuit, could have been expelled over the school’s concern that Eightball “may” have been used to cheat — though Craver claims there’s no evidence of it.

^{Emory University campus (Photo by Davis Turner/Getty Images)}

Per the lawsuit, Emory told Craver in November that Eightball “may be used by students to complete assignments in violation of the Undergraduate Academic Honor Code,” which prevents students from “intentionally” helping other students cheat, plagiarize, or violate the honor code.

The Emory Honor Council conducted an investigation and held a hearing in January about Eightball.

The council heard from two Emory employees as witnesses, who pointed out that Eightball’s integration with Canvas, an online platform containing course materials, was a “major concern.”

Craver claimed that he and his co-founder told the university about the possible Canvas link at the pitch competition they won in the spring of 2023. Only a handful of students actually linked to their Canvas accounts, per the filing.

After the hearing, the Honor Council stated that “Eightball is based on a blueprint which incorporates the ability to cheat” meaning that Craver and his co-founder knew that it could be used that way “and built it with intent.”

Craver’s filing noted that he was not asked about his intentions and that “none of the witnesses at any point described how Eightball could be used to cheat or presented any evidence that anyone had in fact used Eightball to cheat.”

The council recommended a year-long suspension for Craver and expulsion for his co-founder. The school has since reduced the discipline to a semester suspension for each of them. Craver is suing to not be suspended at all.

The case ties into a broader question of how to keep AI safe and accountable as more people use it. ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, one of the biggest AI companies in the world, has recently seen two AI safety research leads resign, including Jan Leike, who said he left because he felt OpenAI did not prioritize AI safety.

Related: Now that OpenAI’s Superalignment Team Has Been Disbanded, Who’s Preventing AI from Going Rogue?

Emory University did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur’s request for comment.