We’re fresh into the new year but we’re already daydreaming about our next vacation.
A number of apps are more than capable of helping you plan your next trip. Use them to save a bundle on flights, hotels, and car rentals — then use them again to find fun stuff to do once you’ve arrived at your destination.
Public relations is a skill that applies not only to the media; it also applies to social situations, especially networking events where your image is everything.
I recently attended a local Chamber of Commerce networking event, and like every other entrepreneur, I went there to mix, mingle, find leads, make sales, and create new money. It’s the driving force behind every successful entrepreneur or business owner. The quicker you master these skills, the faster your business grows.
Roughly 150 people were at this NYC event. I’ve been to hundreds of journalism and PR mixers, but this business crowd was different. Unlike journalism conventions, where reporters sit back and observe, this Chamber of Commerce mixer was packed with type-A personalities. Every man and woman was focused and self-aware. No one waited for the right moment. Everyone seized even the smallest of openings.
The longer I mingled with New York City’s entrepreneurs, the more I realized how image matters in business—and not just on TV or in the papers.
As a former executive producer with WNBC and senior producer with CBS, I have more than a decade of experience working with publicists from all over the country. But you don’t need a lofty title to understand that some publicists get it and others ought to find a new career. Every journalist will tell you that a good publicist makes the job easy and a bad publicist turns it into a laborious task.
It was no different at this Chamber of Commerce networking event. The best entrepreneurs made the art of networking seem easy. The more awkward leaders made the event painful.
It got me to thinking: Public relations skills also apply to networking events. You might pay for salesforce or oprius, but if your networking skills are off, you might be doing just as much damage at these mixers as a hit job in the National Enquirer.
Here’s a quick rundown on how to apply your public relations skills to any networking event.
The best publicists listen and interact. The worst publicists talk to you and ask few questions. The best publicists know how to drive conversations. The worst publicists can drive a train into a house, and they won’t even see it coming. They aren’t in control of themselves or their ideas. When you’re networking, be conscious of your words and how you use them. Drive the conversation with open-ended questions that lead to your intended destination. Learn how to grab information by guiding conversations, as opposed to talking to others.
Make eye contact. This is a common-sense rule, but many people at this networking event failed to make consistent eye contact. It was as though they were afraid of emotionally connecting to me, or perhaps they were hiding something. If you have difficulty making eye contact with others, practice in the mirror. A sociology professor from college demonstrated this to my class, and it works. I do believe the eyes lead to the soul, so don’t be afraid to reveal a part of yourself at these social events. You’ll survive.
Dress the part. The best female publicists know how and when to reveal a bra strap. The best male publicists know when a touch on the elbow is appropriate and how long to hold on during a handshake. It doesn’t mean you need to express your sexuality like a porn star, but it does mean you need to be aware that connections are made through the sensory of skin. Use it to your advantage, but make sure you study this sociology before you start showing off lace or feeling up elbows. Be conscious of what you choose to wear that morning. I met some business professionals who looked like they stepped out of a 1970s Kmart catalog. I don’t want them advising me on creativity. If you’re expressive or creative, you will likely express it in your clothes. I’m sure it sounds shallow, but the reality is when you’re networking at these events, we base our perception on reality—and your reality is what you’re wearing at any given moment.
It’s not about me. It’s about you. In publicity, I tell clients we need to think of what the media needs—not what you need. It’s no different at networking events. When you learn that you are talking to a commercial real estate designer (as I discovered at this mixer), you need to learn more about what his/her needs are before you can determine whether or not you can work together. This takes us back to point No. 1. Listen and interact. The best publicists are authentic, and you can feel it when you first meet. That’s because these publicists understand that it is really about us—and not just you. Now that I think of it, this was a skill my teacher taught us all in kindergarten.
A taxi company is innovating – and that could be the key to avoiding an all-out regulatory war.
Bell Cab Co., which runs about 300 cabs in the greater Los Angeles area, is using software from San Francisco’s Flywheel Software Inc. to allow passengers to get and pay for cabs through their smartphones.
It is more than just a small deal between a local taxi company and a software startup. In fact, it is a big deal if you worry about the effects of regulation on a business.
L.A. has been the Gettysburg of a regulatory civil war, a bruising, bloody battleground where businesses are using every means available to wipe out competition. On one side are the innovators, namely ride-sharing companies like Uber, Sidecar and Lyft that entered the LA market earlier this year with technology-rich alternatives to the age-old problem of hailing a cab. On the other side, are the old-school taxi companies that have been loathe to innovate because they benefit from what is essentially government control of their industry through a web of rules and regulations.
The fight has been costly for both sides. Taxi drivers have taken to the streets and slowed traffic to protest what they say is the unfair advantage these new companies have. New companies have faced the specter of being shuttered. In the end, it is still no easier to get around in the city.
The culprit is regulation itself. The taxi business is heavily regulated in L.A. The city’s Department of Transportation inspects cabs, certifies drivers and regulates fares. For the cab companies, this is added expense they pass along to customers or eat themselves, to the tune of tight margins. At the same time, since the regulations provided high barriers for entry for competing cab operators, none of the existing companies ever felt the need to innovate. Regulation caused burden, but also a measure of protection.
Cab companies saw the dangers ride-sharing presented to their businesses and went to the government for help. In economics, such an approach is called “rent-seeking.” Rather than let market forces and good old-fashioned competition win the field, rent seekers look for a state-sponsored solution. Large multinationals engage in rent-seeking when they push for tariffs on foreign imports. Companies that spend heavily on lobbying are classic rent-seekers since they look to influence policy in their favor.
But the rent-seeking of the cab companies in the City of Angels was the most devilish. Here, companies were looking for the government to put the competition out of business. They were almost successful: The Department of Transportation issued cease-and-desist letters to Lyft, Sidecar and Uber, threatening them with arrest and fines if they continued to operate.
Those threats were never enforced, mostly because the new services were popular with customers (who vote, after all). It helped that new L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti also backed the new companies.
There was also no way for the cab companies to argue that consumers were being harmed by the upstarts. As the Los Angeles Times put it, “the main danger the companies pose at this point is to cabbies’ hold on what used to be a captive market.”
It’s not that Sidecar and the ride-sharing companies don’t face government oversight. They are regulated on the state level, and will face more under new regulations from the California Public Utilities Commission, which claimed jurisdiction a few years ago because these companies don’t offer rides, but rather serve as a clearinghouse between drivers and passengers.
So cab companies were thwarted in getting their regulatory allies to help settle their competitive scores, so it was refreshing for free-market proponents to see Bell – one of L.A.’s biggest cab companies – decide to try to make technological improvements. Using Flywheel, passengers should be able to summon a cab in five to seven minutes, and, assuming the price is right, that should be competitive with the services from ride-sharing companies.
“There’s not as much of a cab culture in Los Angeles,” Flywheel CEO Steve Humphreys told the L.A. Times. “We think there’s an opportunity to get more people to ride them by being able to just load an app to find them.”
If that’s the case, innovating around ride-sharing may beat rent-seeking after all. Bell’s decision to use the Flywheel software sends a big message, one increasingly less heard nowadays: Companies like Sidecar and Lyft may be run out of town, but it will be companies like Bell, rather than the strong arm of the government, that does it.
Editor’s Note: In “Tough Love Tuesday,” we connect side-hustling entrepreneurs with support, resources and advice from top experts. Sign up to our email newsletter to be notified about our Tuesday Facebook Lives and check back to our “Side Hustle” topic page for more helpful tips.
It seems like everyone has a side hustle. Indeed, 1 in 4 millennials have a side hustle, part of the 54 million Americans making money outside of their paycheck.
But are you ready to get your hustle on?
According to Susie Moore, a life coach and the founder of Side Hustle Made Simple, you are always ready to begin a side hustle. You just need to know where to begin.
Moore has helped thousands of people take the leap from concept to creation in making their entrepreneurial dreams a living, breathing reality by launching a risk-free side hustle. She left her $500,000 job after her own side hustle took off within just 18 months. She’s also the author of What if it DOES Work Out? How a Side Hustle Can Change Your Life released this fall, speaker and adviser to startups. Her work has been featured on the Today Show, Marie Claire and more.
To help aspiring entrepreneurs understand what it takes to be a side hustler, Moore is joining us for this week’s episode of Tough Love Tuesday, our Facebook Live series that connects experts with side hustlers for real-time advice and support.
Specifically, she’ll share:
Need some extra cash? Try pursuing a side gig. Side businesses are not only great for the extra income, but they can also be a way to pursue your passions or share your expertise. Of course, figuring out which type of side business to pursue can be a challenge.
For starters, brainstorm all of your hobbies and passions and figure out if there’s a way to make some money off them. Do you like to make crafts? Try selling them on Etsy. If you’re into photography, try selling your images on Shutterstock. If you’re not sure that your passion can bring you some extra dough, think about your skills. If you have expertise on a certain subject, you can become a freelancer and accept projects on a case-by-case basis.
If you have a lot of time to dedicate to a side hustle, think about joining the gig economy and taking up a job such as driving for Uber or Lyft or walking dogs in your neighborhood. From renting out your room on Airbnb to doing others’ errands through TaskRabbit, there are endless options for side hustles you can try.
To learn more, check out QuidCorner’s infographic below.
How do you define an old town? For purposes of this post, I define an old town as a separate, distinct part of a modern city that is historical, beautiful, protected from further development, and often holding UNESCO World Heritage designation.
London and Paris don’t have old towns, for instance, while Venice and Valletta are nothing but old town. Many old towns in Europe were destroyed during the World Wars (and some, like Warsaw, were painstakingly reconstructed); other old towns, like Vilnius and Belgrade, have their old and new towns overlap so much that it’s hard to tell which part starts and ends where.
I’ve visited dozens upon dozens of old towns across every country in Europe except Cyprus. (Man, I really need to get to Cyprus next year so my statements land with more punch!) Nearly every country has a special old town.
Riga, Latvia, has a funky and colorful old town featuring Art Nouveau architecture.
Bergen, Norway, has an old town capped by a centuries-old wooden wharf, the Bryggen.
The colorful, flower-filled, half-timbered old town of Colmar, France, could stand in for Beauty and the Beast.
Granada, Spain, has a luscious and unusual old town with Moorish architecture, capped of course by the Alhambra.
But as beautiful as these old towns are, I wouldn’t rank them as the absolute best. There are eight old towns that I think stand heads and shoulders above the rest. Here they are, and I hope you enjoy my incredibly subjective list.
When I think of exceptional old towns in Europe, Kraków comes to mind immediately. It’s got the most glorious architecture, it’s rich in history, and I swear the light hits the city more beautifully than almost anywhere else. Best of all: the entire old town is encircled by a park. It took me a while to get to Kraków, but once I did, I fell in love hard and fast.
My Favorite Things to Do in Kraków:
Where to Stay in Krakow: Check out the best hotel deals in Krakow here.
Edinburgh is home to two distinctive towns: the Old Town and the New Town. The Old Town includes the Royal Mile and one of my favorite streets in the world: the hilly, colorful, shop-filled Victoria Street. And from almost everywhere in town, you can see Edinburgh Castle perched on a giant rock, glowering over the city. I first visited Edinburgh in 2011 and have returned seven times since. Scotland is the kind of destination I can’t stop visiting, but Edinburgh truly holds my heart!
My Favorite Things to Do in Edinburgh:
Where to Stay in Edinburgh: Check out the best hotel deals in Edinburgh here.
Tallinn is the newest arrival on my list, having made my first visit in September. But within minutes of arriving I knew it was one of the best I had seen. Tallinn is a walled city and reminded me a lot of Prague. Pastel buildings, church steeples poking out everywhere, cobblestone streets. It’s everything you want in a European old town — and it has the bonus of being one of the cheapest options on this list.
My Favorite Things to Do in Tallinn:
Where to Stay in Tallinn: Check out the best hotel deals in Tallinn here.
There’s nothing like driving along the ocean from the Montenegrin coast, suddenly seeing Dubrovnik’s old city appear before you, a terra-cotta circle on the edge of the blue Adriatic. George Bernard Shaw called it “The Pearl of the Adriatic” and the name stuck. Dubrovnik is phenomenally beautiful, but that beauty comes at a price: it can be very busy and devoid of locals, especially during cruise season. If you’re going, I wrote a guide on how to avoid the worst crowds and make the most out of your time in Dubrovnik.
My Favorite Things to Do in Dubrovnik:
Where to Stay in Dubrovnik: Check out the best hotel deals in Dubrovnik here.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Prague — since my semester abroad in 2004. When I first arrived, I remember being struck by the “candy houses” of the old town and hearing that over history, Prague locals preferred to let invaders march in rather than fight them and have their city destroyed in the process. As a result, Prague today is nothing short of magical. It’s one of the most famous old towns in Europe and one of the prettiest.
My Favorite Things to Do in Prague:
Where to Stay in Prague: Check out the best hotel deals in Prague here.
(My original photos from Prague are terrible. These ones are Creative Commons photos by Roman Boed, Miguel Virkkunen Carvalho, Pedro Szekely, and Thomas Depenbusch.)
When I visited Stockholm in 2012, I was struck by two things: how incredibly beautiful the old town (Gamla Stan) was and how incredibly expensive it was. Since then, I’ve visited places more expensive than Stockholm and I now realize that it’s not so bad, especially considering what you get in return. Stockholm’s Gamla Stan is so beautiful, I almost expected to see Cinderella around every corner.
My Favorite Things to Do in Stockholm:
Where to Stay in Stockholm: Check out the best hotel deals in Stockholm here.
(My original photos from Stockholm are terrible. These ones are Creative Commons photos by Eugenijus Radlinskas, Trausti Evans, Pedro Szekely and Michael Caven.)
The city where I studied abroad in 2004 is home to, in my opinion, the best old town in Italy. They call it the Centro Storico. Right before I got on the group flight to Florence, one of my professors told me that roughly 50% of the world’s artistic treasures are in Italy and of those in Italy, roughly 50% are in Florence. I couldn’t verify that statistic anywhere, but I will say this: Florence is the kind of city where art seems to spring up from the pavement. It’s around every corner. Some statues that would be considered exceptional anywhere else are considered “bad art” in Florence simply by comparison (looking at you, Neptune). And that’s what makes the Centro Storico so special: rich warm colors, world-class museums, tons of churches, and all kinds of art.
My Favorite Things to Do in Florence:
Where to Stay in Florence: Check out the best hotel deals in Florence here.
(My original photos from Florence are terrible. These ones are Creative Commons photos by samueleagrimi_, Lex Kravetski, Chris Wee, and Bob Hall.)
With a population of 5,000, Kotor is more of a small town than a large city. That being said, it belongs on this list because its old town is one of the most distinctive of all of Europe. Old Kotor is a walled city perched on the Bay of Kotor; being inside feels like you’re in the middle of a fairy tale. And on the outside, it has perhaps the most spectacular natural setting, surrounded by gray-green mountains and still blue waters.
My Favorite Things to Do in Kotor:
Where to Stay in Kotor: Check out the best hotel deals in Kotor here.
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