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I am going to say something mainstream or even old-school, but people in the business world consider portfolio stability the most important factor in investing. Is that the right move? If you are a rational investor with a long-term vision, the answer is most likely yes.

But let’s be honest: does it really matter how diversified your portfolio is if you can’t handle your emotions when the market starts crashing and your assets are losing value? Financial success is hard to achieve without emotional resilience (there are exceptions, sure). While diversification is a key tool for managing risk, an investor’s ability to stay emotionally steady is just equally important.

Staying calm is not only about keeping it together when things get rough; it is also about making thoughtful decisions when everything feels like it’s going off the rails. From my professional and personal experience, I have learned that mental resilience is a must. In many ways, it is what actually makes big money things work.

Related: How to Calm Financial Panic During Inflation Surges

Portfolio diversification does not guarantee peace of mind

Perfect diversification has been considered the platinum standard in investing practice. The simple magic behind this statement is that distributing assets across stocks, bonds, real estate or startups helps reduce risk.

When one little (or a big) part loses value, others remain stable or even gain, minimizing overall losses. And we — investors — love when potential risks are going down. This strategy is how business-related people deal with crises, political instability, and other uncertainties.

But here’s the catch: no amount of diversification will shield you from market turbulence. It is just not possible, period. During difficult economic uncertainty, even the most diversified portfolios face massive pressure.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 is an example, as it hit multiple sectors at once. Even those who followed every diversification rule felt the pain. Some assets have recovered since then, while others are still struggling, but at the moment, everyone suffered.

That’s where emotional discipline should be highlighted. Investors who can’t control their emotions often damage their portfolios more than the market itself. Panic selling during a crash or overly optimistic buying at the peak are common mistakes that lead to avoidable losses. Diversification is worthless if you can’t use its advantages with a clear, steady mindset. That makes sense, right?

Related: How to Embrace Life’s Changes and Evolve Your Sense of Purpose

Emotional resilience is a soft skill we all need — but investors more than others

We’re all familiar with soft skills, right? Adaptability, communication and stress management — have become essential for success in business. But what if I told you that investing has its own set of soft skills? Yes, that would not be a surprise. However, one of the most critical is emotional resilience, a skill that plays a key role in decision-making.

Emotional resilience helps investors stay clear-headed, even during market turmoil. When markets are volatile, or a startup faces unexpected challenges, this skill allows you to maintain strategic focus and avoid panic. A calm mind leads to rational decisions — this is what seems logical to me.

Rather than reacting impulsively, an experienced investor uses this skill to analyze the situation and assess its impact on long-term goals. In theory, this approach prevents rash decisions and helps uncover opportunities where others see only risks. Surprisingly, when it comes to real practice, it works exactly the same.

The financial market is all about change — that’s an unshakable fact. Markets rise and fall, startups succeed or shut down, and even the most skillful players can be thrown off by chaotic headlines. In these moments, emotional control becomes the defining skill that separates successful investors from those who succumb to panic.

How do you develop this soft skill?

Emotional resilience is a soft skill, and that means it can and should be trained and cultivated. Here are a few simple methods I use to strengthen this soft skill every day:

• Create a clear plan. A detailed, well-thought-out strategy reduces uncertainty. When you and your team have a plan, you know what to do in any situation, making it easier to stick to your course. Make sure to have a plan B. C and D, as well.
• Learn to accept volatility as normal. Markets will always fluctuate — it’s just part of the game that we can’t change. Breathe! Accepting this as inevitable helps prevent emotions from controlling your decisions.
• Trust in diversification. If you’ve distributed your assets wisely, you already have built-in protection against significant losses. When markets get turbulent, remind yourself of this.
• Surround yourself with professionals. Working with financial advisors or experienced partners can help lighten the load. External advice often provides a more objective view of the situation.

Emotional resilience and diversification are complementary, traveling different paths toward the same goal. While diversification protects your portfolio from market risks, emotional resilience protects you from yourself. An investor’s health — both financial and psychological — is the foundation for long-term success.

In the end, investing is about staying confident in your decisions, even when everything around you suggests otherwise. Strengthening emotional resilience might just be the best investment you can make in yourself!

Federal Reserve officials cut the federal funds rate, or the borrowing rate that banks charge each other, by 25 basis points or 0.25% on Wednesday.

The central bank’s rate-setting committee, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), announced Wednesday that the target range for the federal funds rate was now 4.25% to 4.5%.

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference following the decision that the move to cut rates this month was a “closer call” than previous cuts but ultimately the “right call.” He said the FOMC was balancing between two risks: undermining economic activity in the labor market and undercutting progress on inflation.

Related: Here’s What the CPI Report Means for Your Wallet, According to JPMorgan and EY Experts

The rate cut follows two preceding cuts, one of 50 basis points in September and another of 25 basis points in November. The September adjustment was the first time the FOMC lowered rates in four years.

^{Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Going forward, rate cuts aren’t certain. “In considering the extent and timing of additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks,” the FOMC wrote in a statement.

Dana Menard, CFP, founder and lead financial planner at Twin Cities Wealth Strategies told CNET that these cuts will affect shorter-term CDs and savings accounts, which “will likely fall by the same amount as the cut, with longer-term CDs and rates also being reduced.”

Will a rate cut affect mortgage rates?

A lower federal funds rate ripples out to lower borrowing costs for consumer-facing loans, like credit cards and personal loans. The purpose of adjusting the rate is to keep prices stable and respond to the labor market.

The 0.25% rate cut “will not have any impact on mortgage rates,” says Melissa Cohn, regional vice president of William Raveis Mortgage and a 40-year veteran of the mortgage industry. Rates as of Wednesday were 7.13% for a 30-year fixed mortgage.

Cohn told Entrepreneur in an emailed statement that “mortgage rates are data-driven, and if you look at the data, it doesn’t support much lower interest rates.”

Rates hovering around 7% is “sort of a new normal,” she said.

Related: Barbara Corcoran Says This Is the Interest Rate Magic Number That Will Make the Market ‘Go Ballistic’

Calixto Garcia-Velez, president and CEO at BanescoUSA in Miami told Bankrate that the 30-year mortgage rates are tied to the 10-year Treasury bonds, “and long-term Treasury bonds have been increasing,” which is why “residential loan rates haven’t been falling as much as people have expected.”

OpenAI has arranged a private stock sale for its staff with SoftBank Group that allows current and former employees to sell their stock to SoftBank at $210 per share, a source told Fortune on Tuesday.

The tender offer, or bid to purchase stock in a company, allows OpenAI employees who were issued stock more than two years ago (OpenAI was valued at nearly $20 billion) to cash in on the ChatGPT-maker’s enormous growth. After a $6.6 billion fundraising round this past October, the company’s new valuation stands at $157 billion, a nearly eightfold increase.

According to Fortune, SoftBank plans to buy up to $1.6 billion in stock from eligible shareholders. The tender offer’s $210 per share price reflects OpenAI’s $157 billion valuation.

Current OpenAI employees will be allowed to sell as much as $10 million worth of shares. If the deal is oversubscribed with more people participating than the $1.6 billion limit allows, current OpenAI employees will take preference over former staff members.

Related: Is ChatGPT Search Better Than Google? I Tried the New Search Engine to Find Out.

This means that former OpenAI employees may not be able to sell the full $10 million worth of stock under this tender offer. However, all current and former staff are guaranteed the ability to cash out at least $2 million worth of stock if they choose, under OpenAI’s rules.

The shareholders have until December 24 to decide if they want to sell their shares, and how many.

SoftBank first invested about $500 million into OpenAI in October.

OpenAI has over 2,000 employees, per Fortune. Data acquired by BI last week shows that salaries for 86 employees at the company under specialty visas ranged from $145,000 to $530,000.

Related: ‘Pressure Cooker’: Why Millionaire Nvidia Employees Are Still Working Until 2 A.M.

If spreadsheets feel like a necessary evil, this bundle is about to change your entire workflow. The Complete Excel, VBA, and Data Science course Bundle includes 13 courses that are designed to take you from basic Excel functions to advanced data analysis and even machine learning — all at your own pace for a one-time payment of $44.97.

Start with beginner-friendly courses like Introduction to Excel and Excel Functions Mastery, where you’ll learn essential tools and tricks to organize data like a pro. Ready to level up? Advanced courses like Intermediate Excel VBA and Data Science with Stocks, Excel & Machine Learning show you how to automate processes, create complex models, and integrate Python to handle large datasets.

This isn’t just about Excel. Courses like Automate Excel Files with Python OpenPyXL and Web Automation with Selenium Python teach you how to streamline repetitive tasks and focus on high-impact projects. Plus, you’ll learn to turn raw data into meaningful visuals with the Excel Charts & Visualization course.

Whether you’re analyzing financial statements, tracking KPIs, or diving into machine learning for the first time, this bundle gives you the tools and confidence to tackle any project.

With lifetime access to over 400 lectures and dozens of hands-on projects, you can revisit the material whenever you need to.

If you’re ready to supercharge your productivity and data skills, this Excel, VBA, and Data Science Certification training bundle for $44.97 is the perfect place to start.

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3 Benefits of Owning a UPS Store Franchise:

1. Established brand with 40+ years of franchising experience and nationwide recognition.
2. Access to award-winning training programs and national advertising for franchise support.
3. Diverse service offering satisfying a wide range of customer needs and business solutions.

The UPS Store franchise is a comprehensive postal and business services center, offering shipping, packing, mailboxes, printing, faxing, shredding, and notary services. Continuously ranked #1 in the business services industry, The UPS Store operates over 5,200 locations and has a strong franchise system dating back to 1980. Click Here to connect me with The UPS Store.

Key Facts:

• Minimum Initial Investment: $100,890
• Initial Franchise Fee: $9,950 – $29,950
• Liquid Capital Required: $75,000
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Written by Amanda Eiden

My New Year’s resolution is to take my small business more seriously. Right now, I sell stickers of my art as a “side hustle,” but it’s my dream to take the gig full-time. Taking things to the next level means putting together a portfolio to showcase my best work and getting my paperwork in order. Here’s how I’m going to do it on the cheap.

I know Adobe’s Creative Cloud has some of the greatest document and design apps out there, but I can’t afford—and simply don’t need—all that. I’m going to use UPDF to create a portfolio and manage my contracts, invoices, and order forms since it’s only $47.99 for life with code HOLIDAY20 at checkout (reg. $59.99).

This is more than a PDF editor

When I first decided I wanted to create a design portfolio, I thought I could just use Office apps and save as a PDF…I was quickly mistaken. The design tools just aren’t made for that, and I quickly got frustrated.

With UPDF, I’m starting a new PDF file and laying out my best sticker designs. I can add images, text boxes, and annotations, and nothing moves when I don’t want it to. This is going to be an amazing asset to send to new clients.

Having a go-to document tool will be nice as well

I cannot count the number of times I’ve been sent a contract or form to sign or fill out, just to realize I have no way to do that. I usually scour the web for some “free” tool, but they always ask for credit card numbers—so I do a free trial to get out of it.

Now, I’m finally going to have a PDF editor for my business needs. And UPDF works on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, so I could finally take care of a signature without having to boot up my laptop.

If you’re looking to save money on business tools in the new year, get a UPDF lifetime subscription for $47.99 with code HOLIDAY20 at checkout (reg. $59.99).

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Ambitious goals have always been every entrepreneur’s driving force. They push you to dip your toes into unfamiliar waters before achieving serious growth. But even the boldest soldier won’t win a war without concrete plans, clarity and focus.

For over twenty years, I have been helping countless CEOs bring their big visions to life by combining personalized strategies with the right tools and resources. With the new year just around the corner, this challenge will only grow in importance.

Here’s how you can turn 2025 into a year of transformative progress.

Related: Every Entrepreneur Fails, But That’s a Good Thing. Here’s Why.

Breaking goals into milestones that matter

If you step back and look at the big picture, you’ll drown and start doubting. Break down your goals into smaller chunks. The ‘SCALEit Method’ is a great framework that has helped our clients turn their visions into actionable, more achievable plans. Here’s how it works:

Start with a clear vision. Be specific about where you want your business to be by the end of 2025. Your vision should inspire not only you but your entire team.

Next, align your goals with the five key pillars of growth: strategic vision, cash flow, team alignment, leadership and execution. Assess your progress in these areas every quarter. Identify the gaps and focus on the initiatives that will make the biggest impact.

But the magic happens when you break these goals into smaller pieces, and I’d like to call them the mile steps and the mini feats.

• Mile Steps: These are your major projects — the big moves that drive momentum.
• Mini Feats: These are the smaller actions that build up to those larger milestones.

This layered approach makes even the most ambitious goals feel manageable. And don’t forget to revisit your plan regularly. Quarterly check-ins keep you on track and provide an overview of what needs adjustment ahead of time. A great plan is never static. It’s a living, breathing guide that evolves with your business.

Why businesses stumble: The pitfalls to avoid

One of the biggest challenges in bringing your vision to life is diluted focus. While it’s natural for entrepreneurs to want to tackle everything at once, scattered attention just slows the overall progress. Choose a few high-impact priorities each quarter instead, and commit to seeing them through.

Another mistake I see is micromanaging. Often, business leaders see themselves as indispensable in every aspect of the business to ensure success. However, this just stifles your team’s creativity and significantly slows your business’s growth. Put the experts on your team into these initiatives, who have been doing it for the longest time. Empower them by providing resources so they can take ownership of their roles. Trust them to lead. You’ll be surprised by their capability and ingenuity.

And let’s not forget overcomplicating the plan. Some entrepreneurs associate complexity with security. It is not. You need to simplify your goals and make sure everyone on your team understands the “why” behind them. Make it clear and actionable, and avoid any extraneous details.

Related: Every Entrepreneur Fails, But That’s a Good Thing. Here’s Why.

What 2025 will demand from your business

Markets constantly evolve as demands continue to shift. I see 2025 as a bowl of exciting opportunities and challenges. They will put your leadership skills to the test. To stay ahead of the game, you’ll want to factor these trends into your new-year planning:

1. AI Is the new standard

The smartest businesses out there leverage AI as their secret weapon. It has helped business owners optimize their day-to-day operations and create more personalized experiences for clients. Don’t worry if you haven’t adopted AI yet. There’s still plenty of time to jump on the train.

2. Personalization builds loyalty

Customers’ expectations evolve with time. They expect great products and want experiences that feel tailored to them. They always look forward to personalized service, thoughtful touches, or meaningful interactions and businesses that prioritize human connection will see stronger retention and loyalty.

3. In-person experiences matter

Even in a digital world, nothing will ever replace the energy of face-to-face connection. High-impact events and community-building efforts will help businesses skyrocket in 2025.

4. Agility in supply chain management

Supply chain issues will never disappear. If anything, they will get more challenging as long as businesses exist. Agility is key here. You have to proactively diversify your business sourcing strategies to be better equipped to navigate disruptions.

5. Opportunities for acquisitions

2025 will be a strong year for acquisitions and public offerings. Now is the time to begin preparations if growth through acquisition is a part of your strategy.

Related: Goal-Setting Strategies and Actions to Take to Achieve Any Goal

Turn your vision into action

Every ambitious goal doesn’t come to life through one person alone — a strong team fulfils it through the right tools with exceptional strategies. Recognize and credit those who have supported you along the process — it takes a village to bring a vision to life. While leaders boldly take the first step, an empowered team ensures the momentum continues.

2025 is all about the businesses that are ready to shake things up. Whether you’re diving into AI or building stronger connections with your teams and customers, the future is bright for those who embrace change. This year is bursting with opportunities, but remember, success isn’t going to just come to your lap. Take on those wonderful opportunities and make sure your business is in sync with the future of the market.

Success isn’t just about what you achieve — 90% of it is your journey to achieving it. As you prepare for 2025, think big and act with intention. You’ve got everything you need to build a big future for your business; the only question is, “What will you create next?”

Most of us in business know enough about building SEO to get by or at least not embarrass ourselves when the marketing team starts throwing acronyms around the conference room. For most, it’s simply keeping up with keywords, tagging social media and website pages with query terms, paying for some rankings, earning more organically and monitoring search engine results pages to see how close you are to the top and your competitors.

But do you know about the dark and rapidly growing side of SEO?

Despite over 20 years as a marketing executive embracing new technologies as a practitioner and thought leader, I was unprepared for how quickly the marketing tech (MarTech) we use for good became the catalyst for so much bad.

Recently, I was involved in pitching marketing services to an investment fund that wanted to accelerate revenue quickly for acquisitions. As I always do, I looked under the hood to understand the businesses so I could craft highly relevant recommendations for lead generation and sales. Something odd popped up as quickly as popping the hood on my SUV. Every company in this portfolio had the same name and a very similar URL as an established competitor offering the same products to the same verticals, sending me a trigger alert for potential trademark and SEO infringement, both of which can build brands quickly and cheaply stealing hard-earned and costly marketing returns from other companies. While aware of black hat SEO and identity theft aligned with phishing scams, I was not aware of how common dark marketing tactics have become.

Unfortunately, in a world where good technology quickly enables bad deeds, monitoring your brand identity and SEO safety needs to be as common as monitoring traffic, leads and conversions from your marketing programs. Here are just a few actions to take to protect your brand.

Related: ‘We Pulled Off An SEO Heist’: This Entrepreneur Stole 3.6 Million Pageviews From Competitors — And Your Business Could Be Next.

Brandjacking

Brandjacking is more than setting up a fake site for a big brand like Norton or Netflix and then telling customers to update their payment information, which is then stolen by thieves behind the fake sites. It is also about branding a business with a similar identity and URL to another business to confuse customers about who is who with the intent to direct consumers looking for competitors’ websites to your site. Many consumers and algorithms don’t know the difference between URLs that are nearly identical. When this happens, money and effort spent managing keywords, tagging sites, crafting content, paying for Google Ads and more can actually benefit a dark competitor who does nothing but divert others’ heard-earned web traffic to their sites.

You can often detect potential brandjacking when a competitor pops up with a name and URL that are very similar to yours. Compare ABCtechnologies.com vs. ABCtechnologies1.com. Algorithms may miss tiny differences and serve up imposter URLs to your target customers regardless of how much you spend on SEO.

What you need to do to protect yourself

1. Continuously monitor URLs in your space and note any highly similar ones. You can do this by frequently checking SERPs for your brand and logging into hosting companies’ pages to see what similar URLs are taken. If you find similar URLs, try to identify company executives to whom you can reach out regarding your trademark rights. If there is malicious intent, you likely won’t find the names of executives on the site or social media.
2. Pay attention to branding that reflects yours. There can be more than one company named ABC Technologies, LLC, and that does not necessarily indicate intent to commit wrongdoing. If there is overlap in products and industries served and signs of brand confusion, there are several sites you can use to see where they are registered and who the agents are.
3. If you suspect you are a victim of intentional trademark and/or SEO infringement, you can take legal action against that brand to ensure they do not confuse your target customers and poach your sales in addition to your identity.

Is your SEO at risk of being stolen?

You may have read the story here on Entrepreneur.com last June about the great “SEO Heist” of 2023 and how the agency behind it bragged about stealing more than 3.6 million traffic hits from a competitor over a matter of months. There’s been quite a flurry of reaction to this announcement, some unscrupulously wanting to do it themselves and others disgusted that AI, automation and other tools are being used for outright theft. I will always stand with the latter. SEO heists often involve scraping your website’s site menu and links, duplicating URLs for blogs and landing pages, engaging AI to write keyword-laden articles that support your stolen content, and more. Consumers do not always know the difference and may think they purchased from you when they instead purchased from a hijacker they should not trust.

Thankfully, these threats are being exposed, but that does not mean business managers are prepared to protect their branding and SEO efforts against internet pirates. Here are three ways to determine if your SEO is at risk of being stolen.

1. Monitor your website traffic continuously. If you see unexplained dips despite no change in behavior on your part, you could be the victim of a heist.
2. Go to the content pages of brands with names and URLs similar to yours and see how closely their content, third-party links, and landing page URLs mimic yours. Take note. Report any suspicions to Google, which is committed to identifying black hatters using its platform and shutting down algorithms accordingly.
3. Check with Google to see if they detect any abnormalities in your web traffic and redirections for your backlinks. Report any suspected issues to Google. Here’s a summary of some actions Google takes to ensure a fair and safe SEO environment.

Related: 9 SEO Tips to Help You Rank No. 1 on Google in 2024

Marketing technology makes whitehat, ethical and earned paid and organic SEO easier to achieve, execute and monitor than ever. There are many ways to keep tabs on the impact of your keywords and those used by your competitors in a fair, ethical and legal way. You can read about these affordable tactics in Entrepreneur’s new book, Market Your Business – Your Guide to DIY Marketing, available on amazon.com, bn.com and more. There is never a reason to resort to black hat SEO. In fact, the campaign mentioned in the “SEO Heist” article referenced above crashed — and crashed hard. According to this article on LinkedIn and others, the long-term damage was greater than the gain.

AI provides many powerful tools to make marketing and growth initiatives work better and faster. But it’s also a great example of a failure of success. The failure is that this technology can be used for nefarious activities, and there are many out there who will do so. By following the steps in this article, you can set yourself up to recognize issues and correct them.

Recurring subscription fees might work for your streaming habits, but when it comes to productivity tools, wouldn’t you rather own your software outright? With Microsoft Office 2019 for either Mac or Windows — priced at $39.99 and $32.97, respectively — you can skip the subscription and enjoy a lifetime license tailored to your operating system.

For Mac users, Microsoft Office Home & Business 2019 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Teams Classic. It’s designed to fit seamlessly into your macOS environment while providing offline functionality for ultimate control over your software and data. Perfect for small businesses and personal use, this version keeps things straightforward with features built for efficiency.

Windows users can tap into the power of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019, which includes the same core applications without Teams Classic, but adds Access and Publisher, giving you additional tools for database management and design projects. It’s an excellent choice for professionals who need comprehensive capabilities beyond the basics.

Both versions prioritize privacy and security, offering peace of mind for those concerned about cloud-based solutions. With your data stored locally and offline, you retain full control without relying on cloud storage. Whether you’re working on sensitive business projects or personal files, you can trust your software to stay secure.

The one-time cost of these licenses eliminates the potential for unexpected price hikes or renewal fees, making them budget-friendly for individuals and businesses alike. Owning your software outright gives you long-term stability — no subscriptions, no surprises.

Time to say goodbye to subscriptions and hello to software that works for you. Take advantage of these lifetime deals on Microsoft Office 2019:

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DataStax CEO Chet Kapoor was once an intern for the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

He worked for Jobs from 1989 to 1993 as a campus consultant intern at a computer company Jobs founded, NeXT, and says that if Jobs were alive today, he would be thinking about AI.

“If he was around for the last 10 years, I guarantee you it [AI] would’ve been top of mind for him,” Kapoor told Quartz reporter Rocio Fabbro on Thursday. “He was always somebody in my mind, his biggest gift to us was bringing liberal arts and computer science together to give us the products he gave us.”

^{Steve Jobs in 2010. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images}

Apple, meanwhile, has been gradually exploring AI for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Earlier this week, Apple released a new software update that brings ChatGPT to its products. Now, iPhone users can direct questions to ChatGPT through Siri and generate images with ChatGPT to accompany text.

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

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with Wired last week that AI ushers in a new era for all Apple products.

“I think it changes the way you interface with the product,” Cook said.

Cook mentioned Jobs as well in the interview, stating that Apple’s headquarters at Apple Park reminded him of Jobs.

“There’s a connection here to Steve that is incredible and very deep,” Cook said. “We have the theater named after him and think about him all the time, but I can feel him in other spaces too.”

Related: 4 Things Steve Jobs Taught Me About Succeeding as an Entrepreneur