Category: Business News

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The US economy saw strong jobs growth in July, helped by a wave of hiring in the hospitality industry.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said 209,000 jobs were created in July, which was more had been expected.

The unemployment rate edged lower to 4.3%, matching May’s figure which was the lowest since 2001.

Employment in food services and drinking places rose 53,000 – that sector has now added 313,000 jobs so far this year.

Employment in health care and professional and business services also saw strong growth.

President Donald Trump welcomed the report. In a tweet he said: “Excellent jobs numbers just released – and I have only just begun.”

The dollar gained ground after the report came out. It added a third of a cent to trade at $1.1843 against the euro.

Wage growth continued to be sluggish in July, remaining unchanged at a 2.5% annual growth rate.

“The mystery continues to be with the labour market this tight, and the level of improvement we continue to see, that wages stubbornly stay at 2% year-over-year wage growth. To me that continues to be the mystery of the jobs report,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors.

Wage growth is a key consideration for policy makers at the US Federal Reserve when considering whether to raise interest rates.

“This [jobs report] should keep the chances of a December rate rise alive. The next rate rise really boils down to whether inflation picks up and this requires stronger wage growth,” said Luke Bartholomew, a strategist at Aberdeen Asset Management.

“While far from spectacular, especially given the further fall in unemployment, today’s wage numbers are just about enough for now.”

Getting higher quality sleep will significantly affect your productivity throughout the next day. Many people don’t get the full recommended eight hours of sleep every night because they’re hustling to build their business. Yet they’re still able to have high productivity levels.

The key is that they maximize the benefits from the few hours of sleep they do get. You can get the same results by applying the tips below. 

Related: 18 Science-Backed Sleep Tips to Make You More Productive (Infographic) 

Use bedtime affirmations.

This is a secret weapon that most people don’t know about. I learned about this tip from Hal Elrod in The Miracle Morning book. You can use the power of affirmation to set your mind up for the best sleep, even if it’s just for a few hours.

For example, you could say, “I’m going to wake up at (insert whatever time you’re going to wake up), and that will be more than enough sleep to get me up and running.” Priming your subconscious mind to get the most out of the time available to sleep is a great way to wake up happy and productive.

Nap the right way or don’t do it at all.

Napping is great to help you get past the 3 p.m. slump and be productive for the rest of the day. The problem is, most people do it wrong. First of all, nap for less than 30 minutes or take an hour and half. Second, try to take your nap, especially if it’s a short one, between 1-3 p.m. This way you will get better REM sleep.

If you take it after 4 p.m., your body will go into a long cycle, and you won’t be able to wake up. You’ll be like a zombie. That’s why if you can’t do it the right way, don’t do it at all.

Related: Will You Actually Be More Productive If You Take a Nap Every Day?

Exercise is your best ally.

Another great way to set yourself up for higher quality sleep is to do some intense exercises a few hours before sleeping. The ideal time to exercise is about 6 p.m. When you’re exhausted, your mind will go into deep cycles fast, giving you more time in the deep cycle, thus giving you higher quality sleep.

I have been exercising for a few months, mainly to avoid depression through the secretion of endorphins. But a side benefit is that I am getting much better sleep quality at night, and I am waking up feeling productive. I even have the opportunity — and energy — to work on my side business for a few hours before going to college.

Sleep alone when you can.

There’s nothing worse than being disturbed in the middle of your sleep, especially when you’re in the deep part of the cycle. Studies have shown people who sleep in the same bed with someone else suffer 50 percent more harmful sleep disturbances. Why decrease your sleep quality if you can sleep alone?

A hot bath before sleep.

This is something I learned from Arianna Huffington. She says that a hot bath is a very important part of her before-bed routine. I tested it out myself, and I can’t go back. It is scientifically proven that it primes you to get into sleep faster. Having a hot bath after going to the gym is an important key to get better sleep, too.

Wake at the right moment.

Our sleep consists of cycles, which usually repeat every 90 minutes. Wake up in the middle of it, and you will feel groggy for the rest of the day. Wake up at the end of the cycle — before a new cycle begins — and you will feel refreshed. Be intentional about how much you sleep so that you get complete cycles. Use Sleepyti.me to help you calculate when to sleep.

Another great tip to prevent waking up in the middle of the cycle is to use an app like Smart Sleep to analyze your sleep, and when you start to get deep into the cycle, it wakes you up, even if it is 10 minutes earlier than your scheduled alarm. Those 10 minutes are the difference between feeling unrested and having a highly productive day.

Related: Want a Jumpstart? Get 30 Minutes More Sleep, Says a New Study.

Sleep is important.

I’m sure you know by now that sleep is really important. While these hacks will help you sleep less, don’t take it too far by reducing your sleep too much. 

Motivation is a daily struggle for entrepreneurs, so I’ve put together these motivation-boosting tips from 10 of today’s successful entrepreneurs.

1. Fear of failure.

In an article that he wrote for Bloomberg, Mark Cuban stated that he uses the fear of failure for self-motivation.

“No matter what business you’re in, you’re always at risk — particularly in technology, where it changes so rapidly you’ve got to put in the effort to keep up,” writes the Shark Tank panel member. “There’s always the opportunity for some 18-year-old to come out of nowhere and crush you—that motivates the hell out of me.”

“Every one of my companies, whether something I started or something I invested in, is a scoreboard. How am I doing? A lot of investors or advisers play it as a numbers game.”

“If they invest in 20 companies, as long as one success covers 19 losses, they did OK. I look at every loss as a huge failure. I had an investment go bad recently. I lost $1.5 million on it. It pisses me off to no end.”

Failed at something? Ask these Mark Cuban questions.

“You can also use it as motivation. What did I do wrong? Who did I trust that I shouldn’t trust? What can I learn from this situation so I can avoid it next time?”

Related: 5 Habits of Successful People

2. Do what you’re passionate for.

This is the key. However, as Chalmers Brown, co-founder and CTO of Due writes, “We want to not only make a lot of money but enjoy what we do as well. We are willing to take on the risk of unstable pay in exchange for following our dreams.”

“Unfortunately, your dream job may not always be the best decision financially. Sometimes your hobbies are best kept as projects in your spare time for fun (which is great!). If you do want to try to turn your passion into a full-time job, these tips can help you get started the right way.”

Brown gives the tips below:

• Improve something that you’re already doing.
• Figuring out where market.
• Sharing your passion with others.
• Stay happy and motivated by assigning tasks that you’re not a fan of to someone else.

Related: 12 Millionaire Habits to Start Making Serious Money Soon and Build Wealth in a Hurry

3. Keep affirmations where you can see them.

“It’s so easy as an entrepreneur to get sucked into feeling exhausted or frustrated, and often the blame is yours alone,” writes Murray Newlands, founder of online invoicing company Sighted. “But a negative mindset sucks up mental bandwidth and energy that you need to stay focused and successful.

“It is crucial to maintain an optimistic attitude in the face of setbacks. Whenever you see a quote or a picture that helps you stay positive, place it front and center so you can remember what this journey is all about.”

Related: Why Affirmations Have Failed You and 4 Steps to Change That

4. Leverage the power of rejection.

“On June 26, 2008, our friend Michael Seibel introduced us to seven prominent investors in Silicon Valley. We were attempting to raise $150,000 at a $1.5M valuation. That means for $150,000 you could have bought 10 percent of Airbnb.”

“Below you will see five rejections. The other two did not reply,” writes Airbnb Co-Founder Brian Chesky on Medium. “The investors that rejected us were smart people, and I am sure we didn’t look very impressive at the time.”

Today Airbnb is valued at just under $30 billion.

Related: Airbnb Pilot Connects Refugees and Evacuees With Housing

5. Surround yourself with highly successful and motivated people.

“No one does it alone,” said Mark Zuckerberg during a Q&A in 2016. “When you look at most big things that get done in the world, they’re not done by one person, so you’re going to need to build a team.”

When building your All-Star team, seek out people who excel in the areas where you’re not strong or have less experience. “You’re going to need people that have complementary skills,” Zuckerberg emphasized. “No matter how talented you are, there are just going to be things that you don’t bring to the table.”

Related: 20 Weird Things You Didn’t Know About Mark Zuckerberg

6. Never feel sorry yourself.

“All of my best successes came on the heels of a failure, so I’ve learned to look at each belly flop as the beginning of something good,” said Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group and Shark on Shark Tank.

“If you just hang in there, you’ll find that something is right around the corner. It’s that belief that keeps me motivated. I’ve learned not to feel sorry for myself, ever. Just five minutes of feeling sorry for yourself takes your power away and makes you unable to see the next opportunity.”

Related: Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran: ‘All the Best Things Happened to Me on the Heels of Rejection’

7. Look for inspiration.

Inspiration is a driving force that you can use to motivate you. Lyft Co-Founder Jordan Zimmerman said that, “Right now, my daughter is a huge inspiration. Thinking about the future of our cities, the world and what environment she’s going to grow up in.”

“Also, the driver and passenger stories we hear every day. In a past team meeting, we had a mother come in and tell the story herself. She is a Lyft driver living in New York and her daughter is in Los Angeles.

“The daughter was going through a rough living situation with a roommate and had to leave and move into a new place. The mother called a Lyft for her daughter, had a quick conversation with the driver and the driver took care of her daughter in this tough situation.”

“These stories inspire us to think how we can make things more efficient and create a platform for two people to have a really positive interaction?”

Related: Lyft Co-Founder John Zimmer: ‘You Should Never Veer Off the Path of Your Own Values’

8. Don’t obsess over your vision.

Yes. Think about your vision. But don’t spend too much time over it or it will bog you down. Elon Musk, for example, only spends around 30 minutes a week on his vision of SpaceX colonizing Mars. Besides those 30 minutes, Musk spends a majority of his time focused on the milestones that are the most immediate and critical.

Related: SpaceX Pushes Back Mars Mission Timeline

9. Be grateful.

“Most of the time when people ask me about motivation, 80 percent of the time I attribute it to gratitude. If you want real fuel to win, be grateful,” writes Gary Vaynerchuk.

“Gratitude is what has gotten me through my toughest moments in business. Whenever I have lost a deal to a competitor, or an incredible employee, or millions of dollars in revenue, I default to gratitude. It’s impossible not to stay motivated or get too down when you’re feeling grateful.”

Related: Gary Vaynerchuk Says the Key to Lasting Success Is Practice. Period.

10. Forget about motivation.

“So many people wait to feel ‘motivated’ before they do anything. Here’s a newsflash: happy productive people do not wait for motivation, they just get on with it,” said Marie Forleo. I suggest that you watch the entire video where Marie shares her tips for motivation. It’s spot-on.

Microsoft conducted a widely publicized study a few years ago that concluded the average American’s attention span is only 8 seconds — less than a goldfish.

This idea that no one can focus anymore has made its way into all areas of business and life, from 140 character tweets to the idea that no one will read long-copy sales letters or watch a video on their computer longer than five minutes.

I call BS on all of it. The problem isn’t attention span; the problem is we have an infinite number of options to choose from.

Back when TV first came out, people had just a handful of channels to watch. If you didn’t like what was on, you had two additional choices. Now, you have 200 choices, plus whatever is on DVR, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube or elsewhere.

If I have options and you bore me, it is easy to simply change the channel. Odds are I can find something that will amuse me, which means you have a very short period of time to entertain me or I’m off to the next option.

Related: The Secret to a Strong Branding Message? Focus.

Because of infinite channels, marketing has changed as well. 15 years ago, if you didn’t get a good response with your first marketing pieces, any additional follow-up was unlikely to yield any additional results. Today, because it is so difficult to grab someone’s attention, you may not get any response unless you follow up. It requires a much larger and more complicated campaign to break through the noise.

For example, I developed a five-step direct mail campaign designed to get new patients for dental offices. Since the campaign started six years ago, steps four and five combined have gotten a greater number of new patients than steps one, two and three combined. All the steps have similar copy, and although I think the last two steps look cooler, there isn’t an increase in the offer or some other huge reason they should get such a drastic increase in response. They just do.

My best guess is the increase in steps four and five happen in part because of procrastination caused by infinite channels on the dial. When the prospect gets the fourth letter, they realize it is the fourth time they’ve meant to call and make an appointment. So they finally actually call.

Related: How to Stay Focused: Train Your Brain

How to capture a person’s attention

Let’s start with this: If you start talking about the latest whiz-bang scientific report, you’re done. Boring never works.

A combination of offline and online marketing works the best. If we generate a lead online, we want to bring them offline ASAP. If that lead is generated offline, we want to connect and bring them online immediately. We want the prospect to get our message across platforms.

An associate of mine, Perry Belcher, once said that today we live in the single most difficult time to get someone to make a first-time purchase from you. That’s the bad news. The good news is we live in the single easiest time to get someone to make their second purchase with you. 

Getting someone to buy from you the first time is one of the single most expensive things any business does. But once someone decides to trust you — once they determine that if they give you their hard-earned money, you will not rip them off — it is so much easier to get them to simply continue to shop with you over and over again. All you have to do is do what you say you’re going to do and remind them who you are, what you do and that you’re still in business.

Related: 3 Tips for Branding Your Growing Business

Costco is the perfect example of this. It was not easy to convince me that I should pay them to shop in their stores, but they got me to join with good pricing, exclusive deals, a nearly unlimited return policy and a risk-free guarantee on the membership. Now, I get a magazine from them once per month (in the mail) with articles and items I may want to buy. This magazine serves to entertain, educate, and sell me on new products or services they offer.

The more time a person gives you, your media and your products or services, the greater influence you have with them. If you want to sell more tomorrow, remember that consumers have an infinite number of channels to choose from. It is your job to entertain them, educate them and capture their attention long enough to sell to them.

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Pearson plans to cut 3,000 jobs following a record loss last year for the seller of academic books and online teaching services.

The cuts, which represent 9% of the firm’s global workforce, will affect back office operations including human resources, technology and finance.

The job losses are part of £300m cost cutting plan announced in May.

In January, Pearson reported a slump in sales at its main business – selling books to US college students.

That contributed to a loss of £2.5bn in 2016, the biggest loss in the company’s history.

Pearson has been hit as students have been switching from text books, which have high profit margins, to cheaper online alternatives.

Adding to that problem, the number of students enrolling at US colleges has been slowing.

Pearson has been trying to build a business in online educational products, but has been struggling to generate profits.

‘Strains’ on business

Analysts are not convinced that Pearson’s fortunes will recover anytime soon.

“We continue to believe that another poor year in US higher education publishing will put strains on the business,” analysts at Liberum said in a research note.

“We are sceptical of the view that digital will rise to the rescue with several problems here,” they said.

Earlier this month, Pearson sold a 22% stake in Penguin Random House to Germany’s Bertelsmann for $1bn (£776m).

The deal left Pearson with a 25% stake in the book publisher.

In 2015, Pearson sold the Financial Times to Japan’s Nikkei for £844m.

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The market for new cars in the UK has declined for the fourth month in a row.

New car registrations fell by 9.3% in July compared with the same month last year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Just under 162,000 vehicles were sold last month. So far this year, 1.56 million cars have been sold, down 2.2% from a year earlier.

The SMMT said the market was falling amid “growing uncertainty” over the plans for Brexit.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: “The fall in consumer and business confidence is having a knock on effect on demand in the new car market and government must act quickly to provide concrete plans regarding Brexit.

“While it’s encouraging to see record achievements for alternatively fuelled vehicles, consumers considering other fuel types will have undoubtedly been affected by the uncertainty surrounding the government’s clean air plans.”

The government announced in July it is to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide threaten public health.

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UK interest rates may have to go up by more than the market expects in the future, the Bank of England’s deputy governor, Ben Broadbent, has told the BBC.

He said the drop in sterling following the Brexit vote had fuelled inflation.

Mr Broadbent said there was a “trade off between stabilising inflation and keeping the economy going”.

But he said the UK was “a little bit” better placed to cope with an interest rate rise.

Mr Broadbent said the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) believed there would need to be more rate rises than those expected by the financial markets in future.

“The MPC said given the other assumptions in its forecast it thought probably there would need to be rate rises, and indeed more rate rises than those priced into the interest rate curve in future than the financial markets expect and its expects very few only two over the next three years.

“Yes I do think the time is likely to come when rates will go up generally.”

On Thursday, the Bank kept interest rates unchanged and cut its economic growth forecasts.

The Bank voted 6-2 to keep interest rates on hold at 0.25%, a level they have been at since August last year.

Pockets of debt

Mr Broadbent said he understood the difficulties of ordinary consumers, who are being squeezed by a combination of rising inflation and wages which were failing to keep pace with price increases.

“We think the economy will continue to grow. We think that wage growth will pick up,” he added.

The Bank expects the rate of inflation to peak at about 3% in October, and “wage growth, over the next three years.”

He said there should not be undue concern following a rate raise.

“One shouldn’t overdo this. If and when it happens there will be a lot of talk about the first rate rise since ‘x’. But it’s just a rate rise and we got perfectly used to rate rises of this size in the past.”

He said the objective of the MPC was not “the path of interest rates but the stability of inflation in the medium term and subject to that the stability of the economy”.

The Bank is concerned that uncertainties about Brexit appear to be putting companies off new investment, despite an increase in profits for exporters following the fall in the value of the pound since last year’s referendum.

He also said the Bank’s monetary policy makers were not too concerned about the debts of British households because consumer credit, relative to incomes, remained much lower than its level before the financial crisis.

The deputy governor said there are some areas of household debt that have been growing quite a lot, namely borrowing on credit cards and the buying of cars through Personal Contract Purchases.

But he says that “the level of consumer credit is less compared to incomes than it was during the (financial) crisis”. He also points out that interest rates are lower now than they were then.

“It is absolutely right that the prudential side of the Bank … should be concerned about pockets of debt that are growing very, very quickly.

“The MPC does not think this is a first-order macro issue for the economy.”

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RBS has returned to profit in the first-half of the year, despite a big one-off charge due to a US legal case.

It made a profit of £939m in the first six months of the year, a big turnaround from the £2bn loss in the same period of 2016.

The bank incurred legal costs of £396m, largely related to a settlement over mis-sold US mortgage products.

RBS also said it was talking to Dutch authorities about locating its European headquarters in Amsterdam after Brexit.

The operation would require about 150 staff, with some relocated from London and others hired locally.

Chief executive Ross McEwan described the results as “encouraging” and told the BBC that “the government is getting a much better bank. The core of the bank is delivering”.

The government still holds a 73% stake in RBS.

Last month, RBS agreed to a £3.65bn settlement for its role in the sale of risky mortgage products in the US before the financial crisis.

The settlement was with the US Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the secondary mortgage market. Part of the cost of that settlement is reflected in the latest results.

A separate deal with the Department of Justice is expected later this year.

Business leaders once routinely boasted of their abilities to perform without sleep and push their employees to do the same. But that’s changed — dramatically.

Related: These Astronauts Explain Why You Should Get Enough Sleep

Today, contemporary leaders — Arianna Huffington being a prime example — are championing the cause of healthy sleep habits for all professionals. Huffington, who suffered an injury in 2007 when she fell while exhausted, has dedicated space in her books, Thrive and The Sleep Revolution, to encourage CEOs to promote healthy sleeping habits throughout their organizations.

Here are some tips for putting her principles into action for your own company.

Respect your employees’ personal time.

Few things will cause employees to burn out faster than when they feel their work dictates all hours of their day. So, how does a company end up with a culture where this is commonplace? As with most things, it starts at the top. If you, as a leader, expect your direct reports to pull all-nighters and answer emails at 3:00 a.m. then they’ll begin to expect the same of their subordinates, and so on.

This doesn’t mean that working overtime should be strictly prohibited — that expectation is unreasonable in the current business environment. But, a significant gap exists between that reality and business cultures where people talk about how little sleep they get as a badge of honor.

Let your team members know through the model you set that you value their time away from work, including time for sleeping and engaging with their friends and family members.

At work, many things can wait until “tomorrow morning.” Therefore, encourage your colleagues to prioritize a better work-life balance, because it’s healthier for them, you and your company in the long run.

Related: Arianna Huffington Is Serious About a Good Night’s Sleep

Educate your team about the science behind sleep.

Even once you build a company culture that encourages healthy sleep habits, you’ll probably still have some employees who routinely work late evenings, sacrificing sleep. Whether they think they function better with less rest or are hoping to prove themselves to their superiors hardly matters; the science behind sleep deprivation is indisputable.

One valuable service to provide employees is educating them about the harmful effects sleep deprivation has on human health and their performance. Prepare presentations that detail these effects and incentivize your team members to attend. Distribute materials that outline the main facts. Let them know that sleep deprivation puts people at greater risk for certain illnesses.

Inform employees that getting only five to six hours of sleep per night has roughly the same effect on a person’s ability to process information as having a few drinks. This can greatly impair their ability to think strategically.

On the other hand, people who regularly get good sleep are more likely to find it easy to get motivated at work, be satisfied with their job and be satisfied with their work performance.

Intersperse sprints with more relaxed work periods.

In every company, especially startups and growing organizations, there are going to be periods where everyone on the team will have to work unusually hard to complete a big project before an important deadline. As a leader, it’s up to you to pay close attention to the frequency of these “sprints” and to encourage employees to stay healthy both while they’re happening and afterward.

Most of us can sustain the rigors of a sprint for short periods of time, but there’s a reason why we don’t see marathon runners going at the same pace as Usain Bolt. Trying to maintain that non-stop level of activity over longer intervals is dangerous and ultimately counterproductive.

When you know your team members have pushed themselves harder than usual, make sure to balance these periods with interim spans where everyone works at a more moderate pace, allowing them to recharge.

Nurture a culture that is supportive of breaks and activity.

Before the rise of modern office culture, when most people were working manually, break time was a valuable currency. Employees knew they needed to maximize their breaks to rest and prepare themselves for the remainder of the shift, and they took full advantage of the opportunities they were given.

Fast-forward to the modern world, where employees can spend an entire day at their desk without getting up. An important danger here is that being too sedentary during waking hours can increase the risk of sleep apnea and other sleep disorders, thereby disrupting employees’ ability to maintain their health and to function at work.

To combat this issue, encourage your workers to take regular breaks and use these down times for more than just sitting at their desks and browsing social media on their phones.

Create a sleep-friendly work space.

Company leaders are paying more attention to the effect their physical workspace has on their employees, and this includes sleep habits.

One component here is the need for natural light. Studies have shown that regular exposure to natural light is vital to the establishment of healthy sleep rhythms. So, work with engineers and health experts to configure your spaces so team members have access to as much natural light as possible.

Related: 12 Habits to Dramatically Improve Your Sleep

Nap rooms and other designated sleeping areas in offices are also becoming more commonplace. At Amerisleep, we have napping areas that allow staff to recharge mid-day. Even though some employees don’t take advantage of these spaces, our intention is to send a clear signal to the team that their employer values sleep and its positive impact on employee health.