Ask Carrie: Credit and Debt: Ten Questions Everyone Should Answer

Dear Readers,

October is a great month for festivals--harvest fairs, traditional Oktoberfests and Halloween activities. But there's one event you may not be aware of that I think is well worth noting: the annual Get Smart About Credit Day sponsored by the American Bankers Association® (ABA) Community Engagement Foundation.

Officially celebrated on October 20th and now in its 14th year, this national program helps bankers in local communities offer events and classes to teach high school students and young adults about the importance of using credit wisely.

To me, this is something everyone should focus on--no matter your age--because many Americans are awash in debt. According to the Federal Reserve, as of July 2016 revolving debt for American households totaled $969 billion; student debt was up to $1.4 trillion. Those are pretty eye-popping numbers!

While your own debt may not be in the stratosphere, I think it's important for everyone to periodically test their knowledge of how to control credit and debt. So here are ten questions to ask yourself to make sure you've got a handle on your own debt situation.

1.Do you know the difference between good and bad debt? Not all debt is equal; some can work for you, some against you. To work for you, debt should ideally be low cost and have potential tax advantages. That's good debt. Think home mortgages and equity lines of credit, even student debt, which has the added benefit of enhancing career opportunities and earning potential. On the other hand, credit card balances and auto loans are definitely in the bad debt category because they usually carry the highest interest rates and aren't tax deductible.

2.When was the last time you checked your credit score? Your credit score (or FICO score) plays a big part in your ability to get loans--mortgages, car loans, new credit cards, even your ability to rent an apartment. It can range from 250 to 900. With a low score, you'll likely pay a higher interest rate, if you can get credit at all. A score of 760-800 or higher will generally get you the best deals. You can get a free credit report annually by going to annualcreditreport.com and, while the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion) charge for providing your credit score, most credit card issuers offer your credit score for free.

3.Have you taken steps to raise your credit score? There are five simple ways to lift your credit score: pay your bills on time; keep your credit card balances low; establish a long credit history; minimize new credit requests; use different types of credit.

4.What's your debt to credit ratio? Also known as your credit utilization ratio, your debt to credit ratio represents the amount of credit you use relative to the amount of credit available to you, for instance, through your credit cards or other credit lines. To get your ratio, divide your total credit balance by your total available credit. A high ratio can negatively impact your credit score--and your ability to get new credit. The ideal credit usage is between 20 and 30 percent.

5.Do you pay your bills on time? Paying your bills on time accounts for about 35 percent of your credit score. But credit score aside, late payments can also mean added fees and interest. Even if you can't make the full payment, make a partial payment.

6.How much is your debt costing you? If you don't pay your credit card balance every month, interest can get out of hand. Consider this example: Paying only $100 a month on a $3,000 credit card balance at 14 percent would cost you over $700 in interest. Plus it would take you approximately 38 months to pay it off! Use an online calculator to do your own math.

7.Do you have the right credit cards for you? Credit cards come with all kinds of perks and incentives. Don't be taken in. Choose the perks that work for you-- whether points, cash back or travel rewards--and ideally stick to one or two cards because carrying balances on too many cards at the same time can also ding your credit score. Most importantly, look for a low interest rate and no annual fee.

8.Is a HELOC right for you? If you have enough equity in your home, a home equity line of credit (HELOC) can be a smart tool for accessing extra cash or consolidating debt. Plus, you can deduct the interest on up to $100,000 of home equity debt secured by your home, whether in the form of a regular loan or a revolving line of credit.

9.What's your debt payment plan? If you're carrying a monthly credit card balance, focus on paying it down. If you have multiple cards, start with the highest interest card while making minimum payments on the others. Work down your list. Keep on top of other debts with on-time payments. Make it easier on yourself by putting as much as possible on auto pay.

10.Should you go on a cash-only diet? If you want to break yourself of the credit card habit, try using cash only for 30 days, especially for nonessential expenses. It's an eye-opening exercise that may help you think differently about how you spend your money.

Credit is a powerful and convenient tool when used with care. Check your own credit smarts--and pass on what you've learned to the young people in your life. Happy October!

For more updates, follow Carrie on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Looking for answers to your retirement questions? Check out Carrie's book, "The Charles Schwab Guide to Finances After Fifty: Answers to Your Most Important Money Questions."

This article originally appeared on Schwab.com. You can e-mail Carrie at askcarrie@schwab.com, or click here for additional Ask Carrie columns. This column is no substitute for an individualized recommendation, tax, legal or personalized investment advice. Asset allocation and diversification cannot ensure a profit or eliminate the risk of investment losses. Where specific advice is necessary or appropriate, consult with a qualified tax advisor, CPA, financial planner or investment manager. Diversification cannot ensure a profit or eliminate the risk of investment losses.

The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax, legal or investment planning advice. Where specific advice is necessary or appropriate, consult with a qualified tax advisor, CPA, financial planner or investment manager.

COPYRIGHT 2016 CHARLES SCHWAB & CO., INC. (MEMBER SIPC.) (#1016-3504)

Snapchat Is Reportedly Planning A $25 Billion IPO

Snapchat’s video messages may be ephemeral, but its staying power as a startup in a hotly competitive field may be anything but.

The company last month renamed itself Snap Inc. to mark the launch of a line of sunglasses with built-in cameras, its second product after its popular social network. Now the Los Angeles-based firm is working on an initial public offering that could value the company at $25 billion or more, according to a report on Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.

The move, expected by late March, would be the most closely watched stock market debut in years.

Snap’s prominence has soared over the last five years, and with it, its value.

In May, the company’s worth surged to nearly $18 billion, placing it firmly in the top five most valuable “unicorns,” a term used for privately held startups worth more than $1 billion. 

By June, Snapchat had surpassed Twitter in users, with 150 million people using its service each day, a 36 percent increase from last December. Ten-year-old Twitter, by contrast, had just 140 million daily active users.

Ironically, Snap arguably would be the highest-profile tech IPO since Twitter made its disastrous debut three years ago, which sent its value up to $24 billion. The company, symbolized by its little blue bird, has struggled to attract new users and the advertising dollars that come with them. Twitter reportedly is seeking a buyer before its Oct. 27 earnings call, but the only suitor considering a bid may be cloud-computing giant Salesforce, Recode reported on Thursday. 

Snap may be better positioned. For starters, the company makes money, even if it has yet to turn a profit.

Last year, Snap, tapping its popularity with the coveted teenage demographic, started charging advertisers $750,000 a day for TV-style ads. Earlier this year, the company dropped its ad prices. A “Live Story” ― compilations of users’ videos or photos from a specific event or location ― costs about $250,000, CNBC reported in February. Taking over a “Discover” channel ― branded sections in which publishers such as Mashable, CNN or Comedy Central post daily magazine-like features ― goes for about $50,000.

A Snap spokesman declined to comment on ad prices. 

Snap told investors earlier this year it expected to earn between $250 million and $350 million in revenue this year and as much as $1 billion next year, according to the Wall Street Journal report.

OLIVIER DOULIERY via Getty Images

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel with his fiancée, Australian model Miranda Kerr. 

Ads aren’t Snap’s only business anymore. The company is selling Spectacles, its first-ever hardware, for $129.99. Given that Snap describes itself as “a camera company” on its website, Spectacles may not be its last foray into selling actual things. 

That revenue could help stave off intrusive new advertising features that have historically frustrated longtime users of ad-supported social networks.

Soon after Facebook went public in 2012 ― the biggest tech IPO in history, at about $104 billion ― users began complaining about ads appearing in their timelines. But Facebook, almost entirely reliant on advertising at that point, needed the money. 

Last month, CEO Evan Spiegel said changing the firm’s official name to Snap Inc. served as a way of separating the products from the parent company. 

“Changing our name also has another benefit: when you search for our products it will be easier to find relevant product information rather than boring company information or financial analysis,” he wrote in a blog post. “You can search Snapchat or Spectacles for the fun stuff and leave Snap Inc. for the Wall Street crowd :)”

The Snap spokesman declined to comment “on rumors or speculation about any financing plans.” 

But, given Spiegel’s explicit nod to Wall Street, perhaps he should have ended his paragraph with ;) instead. 

Dear Female Founder - An Open Letter to Inspire future Women Entrepreneurs

This letter was first published in "Dear Female Founder" edited by Lu Li.

I am delighted to be one of 66 Female Founders sharing our entrepreneurial wisdom to inspire other women entrepreneurs. Together we have raised over $85 million in investment, generated over $1 billion in revenue and created over 2000 jobs. I think it's important to amplify our voices, as change-makers and creators of economic and social value.

Anne Ravanona, Founder & CEO, Global Invest Her

These are my personal messages to inspire other girls and women to become Women Entrepreneurs and share some of the key things I have learned on my journey so far. I have a 15 year old daughter and 12 year old son, and acutely feel the need to speed up gender equality. You have to be what you can see! Some day soon, I look forward to reading your letter here too!

Dear Female Founder,

"Here's the thing - a secret you know deep down inside of you: you already have everything you need inside you to succeed and be a fantastic entrepreneur!"

From one global woman entrepreneur to another, I have 5 key messages to help you on your unique journey.

1. Be Yourself

My mother would often write those wise words to me, when I was younger. As Oscar Wilde put it "Be yourself - everyone else is already taken". As an entrepreneur, you really have the opportunity and owe it to yourself to truly be yourself. The more authentic you are, showing the real you (yes, 'warts and all') the better you will resonate with customers, your team, your investors, other stakeholders and most of all, yourself. Being an entrepreneur, a changemaker, someone who sees a problem they passionately want to fix and does everything in their power to fix it, takes a huge amount of energy.

You will have many decisions to make every day, you can't waste energy trying to be someone else, or hide behind a mask.

"Your team will follow you and go the extra mile for you and your customers, your investors will invest in you because of what makes you unique - your special mix of character, values, personality, experience, talents and passion. Your family and friends will enjoy your quality time with them, because you are the real you, at home and at work."

I wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was 17. At 21, I opened up a Sales office for an Irish company in France, straight out of college, in an industry I knew nothing about. I changed sectors, roles, professions every 3-4 years, honed 5 languages as the voracious, curious learner that I am. Then I decided to be true to myself and my passion: help women leaders in business reach their full potential and create more gender equality - my deepest value. I founded Global Invest Her, to help Women Entrepreneurs get funded faster through demystifying funding. Every day we change hearts, minds, systems. We will not wait 80 years for gender equality - we are doing our part now.

2. Be Brave

Starting and running your own company is hard, and so worth it! You have to be brave enough to say no to a steady salary, clear career path and more stability than on the entrepreneurial roller coaster. You may create new markets, new products, new services or ways of thinking, so be brave and stand by the decisions you make. Expect and embrace all the 'no's' on the journey to yes. Embrace your mistakes, be brave enough to own them, fix them and move on. Don't beat yourself/your team members up about them. You have chosen the path of the pioneer, an unchartered course, uncertainty. When doubt rears it's ugly head (it will) and that little voice makes you lose confidence...(it may)... it's time to..

3. Believe in Yourself

Easier said than done, I know, and if you don't believe in yourself, your products/cause/team /company you are building, why should anyone else? Trust your intuition and your inner voice. It is a powerful guide, ignore it at your peril. Dramatic as that sounds, it's true that when I listen to my inner voice and fully believe in myself, magic happens and I increase my impact on the outside world. When I don't listen to my intuition, I always regret it later.

You have more power than you can even imagine, so it's time to unleash it - 'feel the fear and do it anyway'. Doing a TEDx talk, being a keynote speaker at conferences and contributing to the Huffington Post shining the light on other amazing Trailblazing women are things I strived for and made happen. 'What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve', says Napoleon Hill, and my mind is burning with ideas to amplify women's voices and gender equality so that we have the same opportunities our male counterparts already enjoy. Follow your passion, believe in yourself.

4. Think Big

If you are going to build a company, you may as well go big! Whatever you are thinking, think bigger, and you'll be amazed at what you will achieve! If you were thinking of selling in one country, think several. One product line? Imagine another 2-3 in your pipeline. Dreaming of big partnerships, key corporates, many users - multiply that 10x. That's how guys think, and guess what, they do it! We need more women-led businesses with $10-100 million revenues, we need more women-led unicorns. We (women) are the biggest market in the world (bigger than India and China together) and we control more than 80% of purchase decisions and will control most wealth in the coming years. It's time to show our true worth to the world. Everyone will benefit, because we tend to build companies that impact our families, communities, countries on a wider scale. Let's amplify that. Join the club!

5. Ask for More Money!

Last but not least, ask for more money! Especially when you are looking for funding, be sure to ask for at least 40-50% more. Investors tell me they usually have to reduce male entrepreneurs projections' by half and multiply women entrepreneurs projections by many multiples. If you don't ask, and back up with facts, you will not get.

"I watch women entrepreneurs pitch all over the world and they tend to gravitate to a magic number of 500K (regardless of currency) when the guys ask for over 1 million. And guess what? It's just as hard to raise $500K as $1 million so you may as well go for the bigger number, and not have to raise another round 12 months later."

If you are reading this, you have made the decision to change the world for the better. Now be yourself, be brave, believe in yourself, think big and ask for more money. I can't wait to see what you achieve!

Warmest wishes,

Anne Ravanona
Founder & CEO, Global Invest Her

If you enjoyed this letter, then check out the other 65 inspirational letters from successful women entrepreneurs in "Dear Female Founder"

Photo credit: Maria Mikulas
----------------

Watch Anne Ravanona's TEDx talk on Investing in Women Entrepreneurs.

See more Trailblazing Women role models from this Huffpost series

Learn more about Global Invest Her www.globalinvesther.com @GlobalInvestHer

Behind the Listing: the Struggles of an Amazon Based Startup

"Such a great razor! My boyfriend bought one of these and I ended up using it so much that I had to buy one for myself. Definitely recommended - great close shave."
-Amazon Customer

When my Evahs razor arrived in the mail, I was instantly impressed by the packaging--a matte textured black surface with a glossy "Evahs" debossed across the top. I carefully opened the package like a perfectly wrapped Christmas present. Inside the box, the razor was well-secured in a specially designed tray. Integrated into the tray was a small compartment labeled "blades" in crisp font. The thoughtfulness of design extends beyond just the packaging. Meticulously crafted out of solid copper and chrome-plated to achieve a well-balanced weight and finish, this double edge safety razor boasts of precision.

The Evahs razor arrives in a carefully crafted package.

According to co-founders Arash Malek and Max Swift, "The Evahs razor is meant to be an heirloom piece--something that is known for its quality for generations." I sat down with both of them to talk about what it's like to be one of the many startups utilizing Amazon as a platform to sell products.

Evahs co-founders Maxwell Swift and Arash Malek.

Frustration, Meet Inspiration

The idea for the Evahs razor was born during a road trip through the Pacific Northwest. While driving through the Columbia River Gorge, Arash and Max, started listening to the Amazing Seller, a podcast by Scott Voelker that discusses successful entrepreneurship by way of Amazon. Instantly inspired, the two decided to pursue an e-commerce venture together. Previously frustrated by the lack of quality, fair-priced safety razors, they decided to take the matter into their own hands. By the time they returned home from their trip, they had already chosen the name Evahs, the word "shave" spelled backwards.

Thinking Inside the Box

"Constraint inspires creativity. It's one of my favorite sayings," Arash tells me during the interview. Working inside a framework forces you to eliminate the excess, leaving behind only what's necessary. Minimalism has inspired some of Arash's past work, like the well-known and successfully funded Kickstarter project the X-pen.

Despite their passion for working within constraints, Arash and Max have found Amazon's limitations to be quite challenging.

Max and Arash confront the the challenge of working inside the box by getting creative.

Max explains, "It's particularly hard as a new startup to stand out on Amazon with their limitations. But that doesn't mean we're not up for the challenge." He grins as he says this.

Crowned as the largest online retailer in the US, Amazon draws thousands of emerging small businesses looking to capitalize on the breadth of audience. Despite their limitations, Amazon has brought Evahs more business than they could've done on their own, and for that, the two tell me, they are extremely grateful.

While Amazon's sales process is pretty straightforward--"list, sell, ship"-- the accomplishment of the sale can be more complicated. On a site that's built on social proof, it can be difficult to gain the credibility that leads to orders and, in turn, more reviews. Amazon sellers need reviews to get more orders, but at the same time they need orders to get more reviews. Without the brand name recognition of say, Gillette, Evahs could easily get lost in the more than 55 pages of Amazon's safety razor category.

In order to overcome this problem, Max personally reached out to numerous top 500 Amazon reviewers. He sent them emails asking them if they would be willing to try out their razor for free, and in return, they would leave an unbiased review on their Amazon listing. To his surprise, nearly half of them replied and eventually wrote reviews after receiving their razors. Creative solutions like this have helped Evahs climb the ranks of the Amazon listings. They recently ranked on pages one and two for safety razors.

Avoiding the Void

Aside from getting more reviews, what else would help an emerging startup get noticed among the thousands of razors on Amazon? Customization--something that Amazon forbids unless you're a large company like Gillette or Schick.

An example of Amazon's uniform listing: the Evahs product set against a white background with limited text or distraction.

Amazon utilizes a standard template in order to make each listing as uniform as possible. The main image can only include the product that is being sold, set against a pure white background. Additionally, the ratio of the product image to the background white space has to be within a certain range, so that it looks the same as all other listings. Amazon also limits the amount of images posted per product and the amount of text allowed for the title and the description. In theory, this model allows sellers an equal chance of being noticed. On the flip side, companies struggle to make their products stand out due to indistinguishability.

"From the beginning, we chose to differentiate ourselves on Amazon by not compromising our quality," Max says proudly. The problem they faced: how to convey that quality within the constraints of Amazon. Their solution: turning to additional platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and shaving blogs.

Evahs leverages Instagram and other platforms to build their brand.

Out of the (Amazon) Box

Pushing past Amazon's rigid image and text style parameters, Evahs has been able to show off the true standard of their product on social media. With almost 15,000 Instagram followers, their feed features nature-inspired images that speak to Arash's preferred minimalist aesthetic. The two hope that the Instagram platform will allow them to convey that shaving is more than just a step in the grooming process; it's a morning ritual that should be savored, just how I savored opening the Evahs package.

Savings For The Future: The Private Sector Fighting Poverty

My work in empowering youth began when I was working with street children in Mumbai. I noticed many of them were creative and entrepreneurial in their means for survival, but none had a place they could save. These children weren’t offered a space in formal financial systems, which made the prospect of learning how to handle financial matters much more difficult and lessened their chances of becoming capable and confident adults later in life.

This realisation is what fuelled my drive to make sure young people worldwide can be financially and socially equipped to build bright futures for themselves. Access to financial and social assets is a key contributing factor to help youth make their own economic decisions and escape poverty. Yet, despite this, a 2013 report estimated that less than 5% of youth have a savings account, as they face barriers to access financial services (UN). The global youth population continues to grow, with many struggling to make ends meet or living one paycheck away from poverty.

Now, more than ever, there is an imperative need for developing technology skills and financial acumen amongst the world’s most vulnerable.

Collaboration creates change

Although it is widely recognized that financial education and financial literacy are essential life skills for poverty reduction, youth are still being shortchanged when it comes to accessing the financial services they need to build assets, create sustainable livelihoods or become entrepreneurs. Progress has been made through initiatives to support youth access to finance, such as UNCDF-YouthStart and the YouthSave consortium working in countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, but largely financial service providers have neglected youth and their needs.

At Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI), we’re working with over 13000 organizations in 132 countries to ensure there is cross-sector collaboration in providing young people with the services and support they need to become confident, capable adults. Adopting a cooperative approach to tackling poverty-related issues facing children and youth, CYFI works with a global network – ranging from government bodies to corporate companies, groups of active youth to financial institutions – to offer young people opportunities and options for their financial futures.

As part of our mission to transform the experiences of young people, CYFI are currently part of a leading working group dedicated to making money simple, safe and secure for young people everywhere. CYFI have collaborated with leading financial service providers, including Mastercard, ParentPay/Nimbl, Osper, and Mirador Digital to produce a set of child and youth-friendly product guidelines for the private sector.

Building on the OECD/INFE Guidelines for Private and Not-for-Profit Stakeholders in Financial Education and UNICEF, the UN Global Compact and Save the Children’s, “Children’s Rights and Business Principles”, the guidelines provide a framework for businesses and financial service providers to ‘understand and improve the impact and diversity that they have on children and youth’s rights and well-being’. The guidelines introduce financial service providers to some important aspects to building secure, thoughtful child and youth friendly products.

Innovation for inclusion

In supporting the development of products for youth, the working group also explores the power of innovation and financial technology as an up-and-coming driver of financial inclusion. Cell phone ownership has grown exponentially in recent years, and mobile banking offers a convenient way to be included in financial systems. Worldwide, young people are more tech-savvy and digitally included than ever before, yet many lack the much needed financial know-how to make wise decisions about money later in life. The fast-growing world of financial technology offers many opportunities; building the tools needed to successfully include children and youth in banking services, the chance to gain expertise from the private sector, and the impetus to create regulations around the financial needs of youth.

An example of this is in Uganda, where the Private Education Development Network (PEDN) have collaborated with Oratec Ltd a software development company to create an automated school deposit and withdrawal management information system (e-banking) to promote savings amongst school students. Offering the opportunity for kids to understand how e-banking works by opening and managing their own account, the system also enables financial service providers to equip students with banking skills and fund financial inclusion through mobile money initiatives

Fintech provides unprecedented opportunities for ensuring financial inclusion for youth and minority communities – making products and services more accessible, functional and affordable than ever, it’s no surprise mobile banking is creating such a buzz in the world of finance.

Investing in the future

In addition to the desire to economically empower children and youth to create positive social impact, there is a significant business case for financial service providers and private sector stakeholders to make financial products inclusive of youngsters.

CYFI’s sister organization, Aflatoun, offers social and financial programmes to help young people learn to save for the future. In 2014, they supported over 2.6 million children and youth in saving a reported average of €2.23 per month. If it is assumed that over 90% of youth remain unbanked worldwide, this could represent around €2 billion per month in uncaptured savings and illustrates the potential value of youth as a client base.

With young people representing a large, untapped market, companies and financial service providers can endeavor to create products which financially include them from an early age, potentially secure their loyalty for later in life, and create cross-selling to their families and communities.

By financially including children and youth, service providers can ensure they are reaching the next generation of customers and consumers. If all unbanked youth worldwide had access to quality financial services and economic education, those living in emerging and developing economies would be provided with the financial acumen to build a better life for themselves.

The creation of partnerships and working groups around the financial inclusion of youth provides both philanthropic and profitable incentives for those involved. The creation of child and youth-friendly products, services and protocol serves a positive social impact for young people (particularly those from low-income or minority communities) but also enables private sector representatives and financial service providers to contribute to poverty eradication without sacrificing growth.

These collaborations highlight the opportunity for investing in sustainable development as a result of joint actions and expertise. By working together we can make sure that today’s children and youth are equipped with the tools and knowledge they need to become the next generation of empowered, capable citizens.

Access Your Potential is a new blog series focused on exploring the importance of developing technology skills and financial acumen in minority communities. Join the conversation by emailing PurposePlusProfit@huffingtonpost.com or by tweeting with #AccessYourPotential.

How to Harness Minority Tech Talent

Recent technological advances have changed the way we live. Across the world, millions of people are harnessing the power of technology to better not only their lives but those in their surrounding communities. Increased connectivity has resulted in greater access to information, and the ability of individuals and communities to use the power of technology to bring about greater economic empowerment.

In the United States, young and old alike, have embraced the power of new technologies to create new concepts and businesses with life changing implications. From social media to the sharing economy, and across all industries including finance, health, and education, individuals are innovating in previously unthinkable ways. We are in an era in which long-held business and societal norms can effectively be tested, disrupted and improved upon by anyone with a vision and ability to execute. It is a very exciting time.

Yet, despite the growing influence of the tech sector as a key driver of U.S. innovation, many Americans, particularly minorities and women remain on the outside looking in. Disappointingly, in 2015, less than five percent of the total tech workforce was African-American or Latino. While overall, minorities own 15% of small businesses in the U.S. less than 10 percent of tech pitches are presented by minority or women entrepreneurs. Of those making investment decisions, only 22 percent of senior investment professionals are minorities, with women representing just 8 percent of such professionals.

Fortunately, the lack of minority participation in the tech sector has not gone unnoticed. From Chicago based incubator Blue 1647, to NYC based Cofound Harlem, efforts are underway to train, educate, and propel a new generation of minorities and women to the forefront of the continuing tech revolution. By providing coding workshops and boot camps, professional development courses, and the ability to interact with tech leaders within and outside their communities, such programs are expanding opportunities for countless individuals. It is only a matter of time until such efforts begin to manifest themselves in the hallways of tech companies all over the country.

Beyond helping minority communities acquire the necessary skills to succeed in tech, the other side of the equation must include a proactive and concerted effort to create networks and organizations focused on financing and funding minority startups. Institutional initiatives such as Intel Capital’s $125 million Diversity Fund, focused on funding minority and other underrepresented tech entrepreneurship will not only spur greater innovation but also drive other major institutions to follow suit. On the individual level, networks of minority and angel investors focused on funding early-stage ventures led by minorities can go a long way in bridging the access to capital gap. Currently, less than one percent of Minority Business Enterprises report having received angel capital.

Undoubtedly, an increase in the number of minority students pursuing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) will serve to increase the participation of minorities in tech. Educators and parents alike must prepare young students for a future in which technological skills will not only be desired, but a requisite; and means must be marshalled to ensure school districts serving underrepresented minorities possess the adequate resources to train students for 21st century jobs.

While the current state of minority and women participation in tech leaves much to be desired, current efforts signal positive changes. Greater minority tech participation will not only improve the socio-economic standing of individuals and communities, but will also bring about an infinite amount of bright, fresh ideas to the forefront.

Minority talent represents a largely untapped resource, one that can prove to be an effective driver of not only tech sector growth, but of positive social and community change. It is a very exciting time, indeed!

Access Your Potential is a new blog series focused on exploring the importance of developing technology skills and financial acumen in minority communities. Join the conversation by emailing PurposePlusProfit@huffingtonpost.com or by tweeting with #AccessYourPotential.

9 Tips For Turning Side Projects Into Legit Businesses

There are numerous reasons why people start a side project. Maybe you just want the extra cash or want to finally work on a job that you love. Regardless of the reason, there's been a long history of side projects, like Gmail and Twitter, that have become successful businesses on their own.

But, how can you become one of these success stories?

Start by following these 9 steps and begin turning your side project into a legit business.

1. Find a problem and solve it.

I'm not saying that you have to re-invent the wheel here. However, you do have to identify a problem and come up with a solution. Otherwise, this whole venture is pointless.

For example, Joel Gascoigne started Buffer a side project because he wanted to be able to easily and conveniently schedule tweets multiple times a day.

Photographer Benji Wagner noticed that there weren't outdoor products for the young generation of surfers, snowboarders, skaters, and couch surfers that were also affordable. So he launched Poler Stuff.

Both Buffer and Poler Stuff realized that there was a true need for their products and services, along with having a target audience. Their ideas were simple to implement as well, which meant they didn't have to spend a lot of time perfecting their ideas.

2. Test the water.

The best thing about a side gig is that it gives you the chance to validate your ideas and market. For example, if you were to start a landscaping business, you could mow lawns on the weekends when you have off from your 9-to-5 job. If you have enough customers, you may be on your way to starting a full-time landscaping business.

If you only have one of two yards to do, then you may have to think of a different business and keep mowing lawns as a way to pick-up some extra cash in the meantime.

3. Start marketing your business.

In a perfect world, customers would just come knocking on your door. Unfortunately, we don't live in such a world. You're going to have to market your business so that you can find your audience - or at least make it easier for them to find you.

Old school tactics like yard signs, flyers, or ads in local papers worked if you're a local business like that landscaping example. However, we live in the world of digital marketing, so that's where you should focus your efforts.

The first place to start is to obtain a blog and website. The best way to go about this is picking a domain, purchasing it on a site like GoDaddy, and set-up WordPress. Today, though, the process is a bit simpler with companies like Weebly.

Whatever path you chose, the idea here is that you start blogging so that you can demonstrate your knowledge and provide value to your audience. You can also use your site as a portfolio to showcase your work whether you're a web designer or landscaper.

Here's some other basics for marketing your business online;

• Write guest articles on leading industry publications or websites.
• Host a podcast or webinar.
• Publish an eBook or Whitepaper.
• Create infographics or instructional videos.
• Be active on social media.
• Get listed on leading online review sites.

The best part apart online marketing is that not only can you connect your with audience, you can also do so on a shoestring budget.

4. Pickup clients as a freelancer or presell products and services.

Before committing yourself full-time, start out as a freelancer or preselling your goods or services. For example, if you're an accountant, then start acquiring clients on the side by joining freelance marketplaces. This allows you to slowly build a roster of clients that you can manage while still keeping your day job. It also helps you gain experience and build a portfolio.

If you're tinkering around with creating a product or service, then start preselling these items on your website or through crowdfunding. Not only will this validate that there's a market, it gives you a chance to earn money that you'll invest back into the company so that you can launch.

5. Define your idea of success.

If things are starting to get busier, you need to sit down and determine how much money you need each month to quit your current job. If you're getting close to that dollar amount with your side project alone, then that's a pretty good sign that it can become a successful business.

To accurately define this, make sure that you create and track financial landmarks, as well as a monthly budget.

6. Cross your t's and dot your i's.

If you really want to make your side project legit then you're going to have to consider legal and tax essentials like;

• Choosing an available business name.
• Applying for an official business structure like a sole proprietorship or LLC.
• Registering your business name in your state.
• Applying for any applicable permits.
• Obtaining a Tax ID number.
• Knowing what taxes you'll have to pay.

Since this is an important area that shouldn't be overlooked, unless you're looking for trouble with Uncle Sammy, then use resources like SBA.gov to assist you in figuring out all of these legal and tax issues.

7. Scale correctly.

It's awfully tempting to go on a spending spree when you have excess money in the bank in order to grow your business. The problem with this method is that this is a surefire way to fail. In fact, premature scaling is one of the main culprits in startup death.

Grow slowly and gradually, but steadily. This business model is a tactic that has worked for numerous companies that began as side projects. Take Craigslist, for example. Craig Newmark started it as a side gig in 1995 and didn't turn it into a real company until 1999.

8. Avoid burnout.

Between your full-time gig and getting this new business venture off the ground, you're going to be putting in a lot of hours working. And, that means you're going to get exhausted and ultimately burnout.

To avoid burnout, try techniques like;

• Establishing boundaries like the hours that you work and the hours you don't
• Asking others for help.
• Establishing goals and priorities.
• Building long-term relationships.
• Using productivity tools.
• Exercising and eating healthy.

9. Don't burn bridges.

If the time has officially come to leave your 9-to-5, make sure that you don't burn any bridges by leaving like a jerk. Give your employer plenty of notice in advance, complete your projects, and remain productive until your final day.

Why? Because what are you going to do if your side project doesn't pan out as a full-time gig? You don't want to have any bad blood with a former employer in case you have to ask for your old position back or ask for a reference in your new job search.

9 Tips For Turning Side Projects Into Legit Businesses was originally published on Due Cash blog by John Rampton.

Three Ways to Transform A Brand Through Social Media

Alec McNayr, Co-Founder and Head, McBeard

With so many distractions in the advertising business––trying to win awards, new business, and creative street cred––it’s sometimes easy to forget what’s at the heart of this endeavor: bringing people together. Try watching the latest Apple spot without feeling the urge to call Facetime your family. You can’t, because that commercial wasn’t just a commercial––it was advertising elevated to a poignant emotional connection.

That feeling is why we marketers do what we do. But so much can get in the way and keep us from that purity of purpose. Technical complexity distracts us. Rapid, unpredictable shifts in media consumption stymies us. Internal and client politics can take us down the wrong path. We fight an agency arms race to chase down every hot micro-trend and in doing so, squash it.

And in doing so, we turn moments ripe for real, human connection into a dirty word: an ad.

Is it any surprise, then, that when people discover that they have the ability to stop seeing ads, they do so immediately? But even as they dodge, duck, dip, dive, and every ad they can, they expect brands to cater to them--even entertain them!-- in the exact way they want, on the platform of their choice, when they want it.

In a post-website centric marketing landscape, it’s unlikely for fans to find you unless you’re hanging out where they live everyday--on social platforms.

I will posit to you that creative campaigns led by traditional, mass media strategy are too cumbersome to meet the multi-platform demands of today’s audience.

I fully believe that now, with all the tools and strategy we have available in 2016, you can re-engineer your advertising strategy to put social first, instead of being an afterthought. Instead of just “slapping the TV spot on the Facebook,” you can test and learn and listen on social platforms first to better inform your traditional tactics. Social first.

Lean into this new mode of multi-platform, video-centric community building, supported with an intelligent paid media strategy, to achieve an advertising trifecta: precision, feedback and connection.

Precision

It wasn’t too long ago that the term “social media marketing” was a proxy for simply being on Facebook––the only social destination that mattered. Now, there are several platforms for audiences to spend their time, which means more places your brand needs to create an engaging presence that speak to the “why” behind audience behavior. With a cross-platform approach, it’s possible to reach the same person on multiple channels with completely different messaging and visuals. This is doable because every platform allows audiences the opportunity to express themselves differently depending on why they’re using the digital space, whether it be creation, collection, sharing or listening.

Understanding why and how your audience is using a social platform is critical to creating content that makes real connections and builds relationships. And, when you pair those deep audience insights and honest human psychology with the razor sharp targeting tools available across major social networks, you can create a very effective and precise paid media approach.

Feedback

In order to keep your approach nimble, it’s important to consider two types of feedback from your social media consumers. The first is aggregate, which includes data science, mass listening, and reporting. When employed properly, it can build your case to building a master strategy based on real learnings. But it only tells half the story; the rest of which address the second type of feedback: human conversation. While less scalable, being able to act, sound, and feel like another human actually receives the best response. It adds “delight” into the otherwise cold, analytical conversation.

Brands that utilize both types of feedback have the best chance at fully understanding fans enough to inform an entire campaign, from KPIs to creative to budget. This is especially pertinent with social media because it’s the only marketing platform that encompasses both the dissemination of content and the ability to immediately share it. For that reason, it’s the best channel to receive a steady feedback loop, where creative generates a response and that response informs creative.

Considering the power this type of data provides, brands have an opportunity that really didn’t exist before this year––to use social media as a vehicle to drive larger investments in more traditional channels. Brands and marketers are now able to use social campaign insights and creative to inform out of home, print, and TV--all more efficiently than before.

Connection

The result of this precision targeting and feedback leads to real connection with individuals; a relationship with fans that lasts longer than 30 seconds. Social media is inherently designed to accommodate thousands of touch points, instead of just a few. And, with social, brands have the chance to humanize engagement with fans in a way that just isn’t feasible on other less malleable channels.

At the end of the day, the precision, feedback, and connection aren’t nearly as dynamic without great content. What is great content? It’s finding that sweet spot between what the brand desires and an audience loves. Once you discover what that is, you can go love (and measure) it together.

For more discussion around creative, data-driven content strategy, social platforms, engagement, video optimization, monetization and the ever-changing digital landscape, join me and a panel of guests (Freeform, Mattel, Mary Kay) for a conversation around successful brand transformations at AdWeek, Thursday, September 29 at 10:30am.

When Commuting Is A Way Of Life, A Train Tragedy Hits Home

Once again, tragedy grips my brave yet battered stretch of New Jersey corridor. This has not been an easy two weeks for New Jersey Transit or the millions of citizens who can call its trains and tracks and parking lots and platforms their second home. On the heels of a bombing incident at Elizabeth station and the subsequent capture of the bomber in Linden just a few miles down the track, a horrific accident at the Hoboken station left one dead and over 100 injured yesterday morning.

As part of the proud and populous cross section of society known as The Commuters, I live my life with the thought of trains somewhere in the front, back or constantly calculating corners of my mind. Each day, there is a voice inside that doubles as an inspiring life coach and ruthless timekeeper, asking: how long do I have to get ready before I have to get to the station? What train do I need to take to get to work on time? Which train will I make tonight? What time will that make dinner be? Which train am I missing because this meeting just won’t wrap? Can I make the train in time to pick up the dog from daycare? Can I make it home in time to take a quick bike ride before sundown? And so on.

As commuters, we spend a shocking amount of our days contemplating trains, and they are (both literally and metaphorically) the engines that make our lives go, go, go. But if trains are such an integral part of our everyday routines, the people we share them with must be as well... and that’s another fact I am just coming around to noticing.

A tragedy like Hoboken makes me realize that, like the trains themselves, we really don’t grasp how much the fellow citizens who ride the lines with us are part of our lives. If you ride the same trains at the same times every day, you are sure to see the same people again and again. The same cheerful (or, yes, maybe not-so-cheerful) engineers collecting tickets… the same harried businessman checking stocks on his i-Phone… the same industrious young woman touching up her makeup while taking a conference call… the same loving couple swapping pages of the New York Times… the same ear-budded upstart scrolling through his music folder. To them all, I’m surely “the same middle-aged neurotic guy audibly sighing and talking back to his inbox.”

As commuters, we spend a shocking amount of our days contemplating trains, and they are (both literally and metaphorically) the engines that make our lives go, go, go.

They’re with us every day, these familiar strangers. It’s both a habit and a comfort to see them in the same place at the same time, although nary a word is spoken or sentiment expressed. We don’t know their names or their occupations or their life stories, although we probably know exactly what they eat, drink and read every morning, which stop they get off at or which way they turn when they reach the top of the escalators at Penn Station.

When yesterday’s tragedy struck, I hadn’t begun my morning commute. Hearing the news, my first thought was for friends and colleagues living in Hoboken (all of whom are thankfully safe) along with those nameless yet familiar faces I ride the trains with every morning – and every single community of commuters just like us. Even though our particular train line doesn’t pass through Hoboken, the worry gripped me nonetheless – are they okay? In a horror that hits so close to home, they were the piece of “home” I longed to hear from, connect with. But in a tale all too familiar in modern day living, I don’t actually know them ― we merely co-exist in a choreographed dance known as the urban/suburban commuter grind.

First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go out to all those injured and affected in the Hoboken tragedy. And beyond that, another sentiment grips me as never before. To all those friendly strangers who I walk by and wait with and ride next to every day ― as well as the heroic, hard-working conductors and transit staff who make it their life’s calling to take those journeys with us ― you are a part of my life and I am so glad to “know” you. And I’ll see you soon.

You Might Want To Check Your Washing Machine. It Could Explode.

First it was your cell phone battery, now your washing machine could be in danger of exploding. 

The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning this week to owners of certain top-loading Samsung washing machines, saying the appliances may pose safety issues.

The warning comes on the heels of a class-action lawsuit customers have filed against the company claiming that their washing machines exploded during use, according to CNN.

Samsung said in response to the CPSC warning on its website that it was in active discussions with the agency about safety issues affecting some top-loading washing machines made from March 2011 to April 2016. The website also includes a way for customers to check if their machine is one of the affected products.

“In rare cases, affected units may experience abnormal vibrations that could pose a risk of personal injury or property damage when washing bedding, bulky or water-resistant items,” the company wrote.  

Do not buy or use #Samsung top-load washer. They might explode like ours did this morning. No joke. @Samsungtweets pic.twitter.com/WpifAgrgAl

— Chris Potts (@ctpotts) July 10, 2015

The company recommends consumers with affected models use the lower speed delicate cycle while washing bulky materials, saying that no “abnormal vibrations” slash explosions have been reported when customers use this cycle.

On Wednesday, Consumer Reports suspended its recommended status for any Samsung top-loading washing machine that earned that designation. The publication did note that none of the Samsung top-loaders experienced this issue during its washing machine tests, though researchers did not wash bedding or bulky items.

Carolyn Forte, director of Home Appliances and Cleaning Products Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute, pointed out that today’s washers have super-fast spin cycles compared to machines in decades past. While she couldn’t speak about the Samsung cases in particular, she did note that high-spin speeds might cause a machine to go “off balance or become unevenly distributed possibly causing the machine to vibrate even more than normal.”

Head over to Samsung’s website to check if your machine is affected.

GM Wants To Fill The Gap Volkswagen's Dieselgate Scandal Left

In June 2014, General Motors CEO Mary Barra stood stern-faced in front of her employees and a battalion of cameras and said: “I never want to put this behind us.”

The Detroit auto giant had admitted to selling cars with faulty ignition switches that caused the vehicles to turn off without warning in the middle of driving. At least 124 people died in accidents caused by the defect.

Since then, the company has taken pains to refurbish its image. GM invested $500 million in the ride-hailing startup Lyft ― the “nice guy” runner-up to industry goliath Uber ― and vowed to help it build a fleet of self-driving taxis. It committed last week to running 100 percent of its operations with renewable energy by 2050. It poured money into electric vehicles, enough to beat Tesla Motors at its own game, bringing the first affordable, mass-appeal all-electric car to market. 

Now, GM plans to tap a market left wide open after the biggest auto industry scandal since its own infamous ignition switch failure. Last week, the automaker announced plans to offer a diesel option with the 2018 model Chevrolet Equinox, its best-selling small sport utility vehicle. The move comes a year after Volkswagen, the world’s largest automaker by sales, admitted to cheating on U.S. regulatory tests for its diesel cars, which spewed 40 times the legal limit of smog-causing emissions into the air.

The German auto giant agreed to pay a record $14.7 billion to settle with the U.S. government. Last month, the Department of Justice announced a plea deal with an engineer who designed the engine workaround. Unlike any executives involved in GM’s scandal two years ago, he may now face jail time.

Both incidents implicate companies that took fatal risks by sending to market products that weren’t quite ready. Volkswagen failed to design a diesel engine that could meet U.S. standards, so it cheated, causing, according one study, up to 60 premature deaths. GM, fearing an expensive recall, continued to sell faulty cars for nearly a decade after discovering the flaw. 

Popular in Europe, diesel ― which is roughly 30 percent more efficient than gasoline ― has struggled to catch on in the United States. Diesel-powered vehicles made up just 3 percent of total U.S. sales in 2014. Volkswagen made up about half of them, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

As The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday:

GM hopes to fill a niche in the U.S. vacated by its German rival’s pullback. And Chevrolet last year added a diesel-engine option to its Colorado midsize pickup that has drawn favorable reviews from car critics, emboldening GM to expand its diesel offerings.

“It’s only been since the VW challenges that people have been sort of scratching their heads a little bit” about diesels, GM North America President Alan Batey said in an interview. “But we’ve been absolutely thrilled with how they’ve taken off for us.”

If GM can popularize diesel vehicles, the company can help reduce the overall carbon footprint of its fleet, which it’s aggressively pushing to modernize with electric, self-driving alternatives. Slashing, and ultimately finding ways to eliminate, carbon emissions from vehicles is critical to meeting goals set in last December’s historic 180-nation Paris climate agreement.

“We continue to have a positive outlook for diesel technology as it remains the most efficient internal combustion engine option,” Tom Read, a spokesman for GM, told The Huffington Post in an email on Monday. “There are no plans to phase out diesel technology as it will continue to be an important solution to achieving fuel economy and CO2 goals in a global economy.”

Last year, Barra, announcing the company’s better-than-expected third-quarter earnings, declared that GM was “a vastly different company today than just five years ago.”

Whether GM can succeed where Volkswagen failed may be the clearest test of that yet. 

This story has been updated with a statement from GM.

The Future of TV is Digital Influencers

The digital age is transforming the very nature of advertising and the playing field of how brands and influencers can and should work together. Influencers from YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and other digital platforms are no longer being used to just fill leftover year-end advertising budgets or to create hasty one-off projects. This creates a market where a brand can truly benefit from these influencers as long as they are willing to invest to have a competitive impact. The name of the game is scale and to access the gates of scalability, brands must partner with influencers with the intent to empower and not disturb the content in a compelling manner while still delivering brand messaging.

The advertising model is changing to include these digital platforms from the very beginning to make a substantial impact particularly among Millenials. Brands have to be aware of how they work with influencers in order to build strong working relationships with them starting with clear KPI’s and an infrastructure to ensure success. In a day and age where impressions can be bought, it’s important that we think beyond viewership, and think about the journey after the impression.

With the huge influx of brand sponsorship demands, influencers have become more selective with what brands they choose to work with. They want to work with brands that fit their content and audiences well and brands that help them make great content. Developing a strong relationship with these digital influencers assures that brands will be able to reach the coveted Millennial audience with powerful content that both reaches and causes audiences to act.

This year at Ad Week NY, the Branded Entertainment Network (BEN), a Bill Gates Company, was invited to speak in a 30 minute presentation titled, “The Future of TV is Digital Influencers” featuring Ricky Ray Butler, SVP of Digital at BEN and Zach King, acclaimed Filmmaker & Instagram/YouTube personality.

Zach King is by no means new to the advertising industry. He is a filmmaker, Instagrammer, YouTuber and overall social media sensation.  He has been featured many times in articles across publications such as Ad Age regarding his memorable and viral work (you can find examples here).  Fans across the world have enjoyed his imaginative and magical video creations. Known for his “mini-masterpieces,” Zach King has earned the name of FinalCutKing.  This is a well-deserved title for his captivating videos that he produces online in partnership with brands. Zach's creativity, passion for people, and dedication has led him to create a successful brand as well as paved the way in 2015 to begin a multimedia production company. Together, Zach and his team create content for millions of fans as well as companies such as Walt Disney Pictures, Crayola, Nike, Coca-Cola, and many more. His work has landed him features on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, Adweek & People Magazine, and recently he was a contender on the hit CBS show The Amazing Race. All eyes are waiting to see what he’s going to do next, including his 25 million followers that he has generated to date.

Ricky Ray Butler serves as the Senior Vice President of Digital at BEN, a Bill Gates Company and has been a leader in the influencer space representing global brands and helping them work with influencers that have relevant audiences. Ricky’s work with BEN focuses on brand integration to increase awareness, establish product credibility and build an active community of brand advocates.  He is a pioneer in the digital video space and is an incredibly powerful speaker who has been featured at Vidcon, Playlist Live, and Ad Week Asia. Ricky has worked with thousands of influencers and top clients which include Ubisoft, Disney, Turkish Airlines, Dyson, Estée Lauder, 2K, and more.

It is a thrilling opportunity to have both Zach and Ricky Ray discuss how brands can partner together with influential creators to reach their audiences. The basis of their discussion lies in the dramatic decreases in traditional television viewing and how brands have an opportunity to connect with their audience in a genuine fashion across a community of viewers. Millennials and other viewers must be reached where they live and consume content - in the recesses of the internet and on the viewing platform of their choice.

To explore this conversation further, attend “The Future of TV is Digital Influencers”. The presentation will be held on September 29, 2016 from 4:15-4:45pm at the ADARA stage at Time Center Hall.

Advertising Week returns to NYC September 26 - 30, 2016! Our Huffington Post readers enjoy a 20% discount on Delegate and Super Delegate passes by clicking here.

The FDA Thinks A Chemical Too Dangerous For Floor Cleaners Is Fine In Your Mouth

By Jonathan Levine DMD

I, along with many of my colleagues, gave a sigh of fatigue and frustration when we read on Tuesday that the FDA banned a chemical called Triclosan from just about everything from floor cleaners to furniture polish, but failed yet again to remove it from toothpaste. I have been calling for a ban on Triclosan in toothpaste for years - its presence in toothpaste represents the regulatory entropy that occurs when the general public isn’t outraged enough. There is only one toothpaste left on the market containing Triclosan, and it’s Colgate Total. Colgate Total happens to be a market leader and one of the most popular brands in the country.

Everyone I know in the dental profession shares my concern for the risks of this ingredient. The FDA is worried enough to make sure it doesn’t seep into groundwater. The European Union has made sure to ban it, not just in toothpaste but in soaps, floor cleaners and detergents as well, as part of their effort to protect their citizens. And perhaps the greatest irony of all – Colgate-Palmolive is concerned enough about Triclosan that they quickly removed it from their cleaners and soaps when the European Union banned it in 2015. Somehow, they reasoned to keep it in Colgate Total toothpaste, a product that flows over consumers’ sensitive gum tissue, perhaps even being swallowed in saliva. The health risk that lead to action in Europe a year ago and in America last week is that Triclosan causes cancer, is a possible cause of antibiotic resistance, and can be an “endocrine disruptor” (a class of toxins that cause hormone production to go haywire and may be connected to everything from early puberty to diabetes to obesity).

This loophole in public safety is an easy fix, and the lack of action should upset everyone. Let’s look at the facts:

Triclosan was historically a chemical in surgical sanitation that “weaponized” soaps and therefore theoretically reduced infection. It did not appear in toothpaste until Colgate added it to “Colgate Total” in 1997. To be fair, the Colgate-Palmolive company submitted extensive safety studies as part of the FDA approval process and the FDA felt that the science showed the benefits outweighed the risks. Due diligence was performed by both parties - no argument there. Secondary research showed that over a three-year period of use, Colgate Total was more effective in battling plaque and gingivitis - I have no argument with its efficacy.

That research also showed that in the three-year period there were no adverse health effects observed. It’s important to note that much of the scientific literature that showed the efficacy of Colgate Total was research that was funded by Colgate-Palmolive. This is routine in the FDA review process, that the research evaluated by regulatory agencies is often funded by the manufacturing pharmaceutical or consumer products company. What’s routine isn’t necessarily best however, and while we should expect the corporations who want to bring a product to market to bear the cost of the safety research, we must always remember that it allows motives to get muddy. Without independent oversight, no amount of “research” should be taken at face value when funded by the manufacturer. Colgate-Palmolive here is a case in point: perhaps there were no adverse health effects observed in the three-year window, but with the class of toxins called endocrine disruptors, long-term effects are more peripheral, difficult to pinpoint, and would likely not be seen until many years later.

It’s a philosophical and ethical argument that speaks to the very essence of how we regulate public health: Do we need to prove something is safe before we allow people to use it every day inside their mouths, or do we let the public use a questionable product until someone can prove it’s harmful? And, are we letting a huge multi-national cooperation be the schoolyard bully and keep market share at the expense of public safety?

Putting a possible carcinogen in your mouth every morning isn’t an existential or abstract concept; it’s a simple choice that for now rests with each person until our oversight agencies start putting consumers’ health first. There are two aggravating factors which are inescapable: 1) The “benefit” that the FDA points to is presumably Triclosan’s efficacy in reducing periodontal disease. But 50 percent of the population still has periodontal disease and gingivitis so something clearly isn’t working and the “benefit” argument breaks down - but more importantly 2) There is substantial global concern and regulation about Triclosan as a carcinogen in other products, so much so that the FDA felt the risk was too great to even wash your hands with the chemical!

Surely the scientific rationale that applies to hand washing must also apply to whatever you put inside your mouth, no? And don’t we have a moral imperative to err on the side of safety rather than wait years for people’s deteriorating health to prove that Colgate-Palmolive was just throwing their weight around?

The FDA has been concerned about Triclosan for years. Triclosan is found in about 40 percent of liquid soaps, usually ones that are labeled as “anti-bacterial”. After washing your hands and face the rinsing puts the soaps into the water table after it goes down your sink drain, into the sewer and then to whatever body of water is fortunate enough to receive the sewage run off. Ralph Haden, a scientist at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University who has been tracking the Triclosan risk for years was quoted in the New York Times saying, “It has boggled my mind why we were clinging to these compounds, and now that they are gone I feel liberated. They had absolutely no benefit but we kept them buzzing around us everywhere. They are in breast milk, in urine, in blood, in babies just born, in dust, in water.”

There is some good news in that there is a large selection of toothpastes on the shelf without Triclosan, even several made by our very same Colgate-Palmolive! A simple conversation with patients by dentists can raise awareness and stimulate healthy choices. Conventional media attention can also educate consumers and drive better toothpaste selections. The most powerful vote of all is with the pocketbook - the huge companies who manufacture and sell toothpaste will respond to consumer demand. It’s just as easy for mega-manufacturers to change their dental hygiene lines as well—both Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble immediately responded by proposing re-formulations of their soaps covered in the FDA action. They had a head start when the European Union acted last summer and even Colgate Palmolive removed it from its soaps. (Yes you read that correctly!)

Why wait for the day when regulatory lethargy and big corporate cronyism subsides before you reduce your risk? Be an informed person as you brush your teeth every morning and make the decision that oversight agencies won’t by selecting smart, non-toxic toothpaste. There are far better ways to control plaque in the mouth than putting your health at risk by using a questionable chemical linked to hormonal and carcinogenic risks.

Lyft, Budweiser Announce New Program To Give Drinkers Free, Safe Rides Home

If you lift too many beers to your mouth, Lyft and a beer company might soon pay for you to get home safely.

Beginning Friday, the ride-hailing service in partnership with Budweiser will offer free (or at least substantially discounted) late-night rides to revelers in four states, distributing 5,000 $10 coupons every weekend for rides taken between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

The anti-drunk driving campaign will run through the end of the year in Colorado, Florida, Illinois and New York, all of which are both key markets for Lyft and Budweiser, a Lyft spokesperson told The Huffington Post, and among the top states for drunk driving-related deaths.

Lyft and Budweiser will give the ride credits to customers of legal drinking age via the companies’ Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Despite the apparent shift in tactics to a more hands-on approach, Budweiser says their responsibility to curb drunk-driving remains unchanged.

“While the approaches have evolved, the mission remains the same,” Katja Zastrow, Anheuser-Busch vice president of corporate social responsibility, told HuffPost in an email. “This ongoing Lyft partnership is the next step in spreading Budweiser’s ‘Give a damn. Don’t drive drunk.’ message.”

Zastrow said Budweiser teamed up with Lyft after success with similar pilot programs at music festivals earlier this year.

It’s interesting timing for the campaign.

Earlier this summer, a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found, counterintuitively, that Uber, a competing ride-hailing service, had very little impact on drunk driving rates.

A possible explanation: Those who drink responsibly were already finding safe ways to get home before ride-hailing apps exploded on the scene, either in a traditional cab or via public transportation. Meanwhile, people who decide to drive drunk ― already susceptible to making bad decisions due to their impaired judgment ― opt to endanger others rather than pay for a ride.

If that too-cheap-to-pay-for-a-ride theory holds water, we may see a drastic reduction in drunk driving rates in the four states targeted by Budweiser and Lyft.

“There have been conflicting reports on the impact that ride-sharing has had on drunk driving,” a Lyft spokesperson told HuffPost, “but we’re focused on our primary goal of this partnership, which is to reduce the 10,000 drunk driving-related deaths per year.

“Lyft can be a solution to the problem,” the spokesperson added, “and we are committed to making rides as accessible as possible to everyone who needs them.”

How To Win Friends And Influence People In The 21st Century

Do you want to win favor?

• Do not flatter with insincerity.
• Do not ask for a favor immediately.
• Do not approach every relationship with a sense of entitlement.

Every day, many busy people have dozens of unread emails, LinkedIn requests, and Facebook messages.

In this era, many employees and entrepreneurs have decided to reach more people through social media.

Liking a social media update, posting a comment, or sharing an article is fine. Although, it should not be done to yield a favor. Please do not approach business relationships as you do with dating.

If you take a girl out to a dinner and movie, you might feel that she owes you something.

Conversely, if you spend an hour trying to put on a "diva" look, you might feel that he needs to show you his appreciation with his wallet.

Abandon the "What Can You Do For Me?" mentality!

There has to be at least an equal exchange of value.

It does not matter what you deem to be equal. The person who is granting the favor has to find it to be equal. Otherwise, it is not a good use of their time.

I did not build my success on begging or equal exchanges of value. I built my success on delaying gratification, offering immense value, and then accepting offers from people who wanted to help me.

Did you know some people will go great lengths to give you almost anything? You can only win such favor when you become immensely helpful by delaying your self-interest for a while.

You may wonder how you could help someone who has more connections and resources than yourself.

"What could I really do to help that person?"

Unfortunately, that is the wrong question. The right question starts by discovering the causes that are important to them.

For example, take a look at their philanthropic efforts or intentions. Perhaps, you may be connected to that cause in some way. If so, now you can be helpful to that person.

Choose to be selfless. Do not ask the person to donate to your charity or buy things from you. Success is not for beggars.

Instead, offer a selfless proposition.

This is the first step to win friends and influence people in the 21st century.

You can choose to invest time in building relationships that will blossom organically. Alternatively, you can choose to go on a cold pitching marathon.

However, people are more likely to work with people that they like, know, or trust. This is only possible when you invest the time to build these relationships.

Fast Company Magazine discovered a study that showed sending 700 cold emails will only yield 12 replies. Do you still want to go on that cold pitching marathon?

If you ask me, I would focus on serving three to five people with the hopes that two or three of those relationships will blossom organically.

Remember, if you can be immensely helpful by delaying your self-interest for a while, people will go great lengths to do almost anything for you.

This is an abbreviated version of the article. You can read the full version at Reaching The Finish Line.

Wells Fargo Faces Proposed Class Action Lawsuit Over Bogus Account Scandal

Wells Fargo & Co, embroiled in a scandal over the opening of sham accounts, was sued on Friday by customers who accused the bank of fraud and recklessness for its behavior.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Utah, and seeks class-action status on behalf of hundreds of thousands of customers nationwide.

Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Last week, the San Francisco-based lender agreed to pay $190 million to settle regulatory charges that employees opened some 2 million accounts without customers’ knowledge, in order to meet sales targets.

Wells Fargo, the country’s third-largest bank by assets, has said it has fired 5,300 people over the matter and would eliminate sales goals in its retail banking on Jan. 1, 2017.

Federal prosecutors have begun examining Wells Fargo’s practices, and the bank’s Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf is scheduled to testify before Congress next week.

In the complaint, three plaintiffs said customers were hurt by “abusive and fraudulent tactics” used by employees who felt they had to “do whatever it takes,” including selling products they did not need or want, to meet sales quotas.

It was not immediately clear how the three named plaintiffs were specifically harmed by the bank’s alleged wrongdoing.

The case is Mitchell et al v. Wells Fargo Bank NA et al, U.S. District Court, District of Utah, No. 16-00966.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Wells Fargo CEO Blames Multimillion-Dollar Fraud On The Lowest-Level Employees

Less than a week after Wells Fargo was slapped with a historic $185 million fine to settle customer fraud allegations, CEO John Stumpf is starting to open up about the scandal.

But instead of taking responsibility for what’s been described as a “pressure-cooker sales culture,” Stumpf seems to be blaming low-level Wells Fargo employees for opening up millions of fake bank and credit card accounts and billing customers for services and products they didn’t request.

Richard Drew/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wells Fargo chairman and CEO John Stumpf, seen here in 2015, is putting most of the blame for his company's recent customer fraud scandal on some of its low-level employees.

In a Tuesday interview with The Wall Street Journal, Stumpf refused to say who was responsible for the corporate culture that regulators say led to the creation of more than 2 million deposit and credit card accounts that customers didn’t necessarily authorize.

Stumpf insisted there was nothing in Wells Fargo’s atmosphere that encouraged these practices. “There was no incentive to do bad things,” he told the Journal. 

Instead, he appeared to lay blame at the feet of what he characterized as a minority of bad employees who didn’t “honor” the bank’s culture. Wells Fargo has said that at least 5,300 employees were fired over a five-year period for “inappropriate sales conduct.”

Not everyone in the financial industry accepts Stumpf’s assertion that Wells management knew nothing of the shady practices. 

“Stumpf has clearly forgotten Harry Truman’s maxim that ‘the buck stops here.’ He’s responsible for how the org runs,” said Helaine Olen, a financial columnist at Slate and the author of the personal finance industry exposé Pound Foolish.

“It takes a particular level of what my grandmother called ‘chutzpah’ to ― when you are earning millions of dollars annually ― to turn and dump the blame on what are fairly low-paid employees,” Olen told The Huffington Post.  

Shifting the blame to employees is “an astonishing indictment of how people in power think,” she said.

“Come on...this went on for years and they didn’t smell anything in the air about fake accounts?”Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is set to grill Stumpf next week when the Senate Banking Committee holds a hearing on Wells Fargo’s fake customer accounts, has been equally dubious that the company’s higher-ups were in the dark about the sales practices. 

“Come on...this went on for years and they didn’t smell anything in the air about fake accounts?” Warren told CNN last week.

In a later appearance on CNBC’s “Mad Money,” Stumpf modified his stance somewhat, telling host Jim Cramer that “the buck stops with all of us” and “especially me.” 

Stumpf also pushed back on the idea that he should resign in the wake of the scandal, telling Cramer the best thing he can do right now is to lead the company. 

Olen and Cramer both pointed to E. Scott Reckard’s bombshell 2013 story in the Los Angeles Times that exposed the very culture Stumpf denied knowing about ― even as the practices raised in the report prompted employee dismissals. 

“From that day forward, Wells had to know it had a problem,” Olen said. “But the settlement last week did not take on any of the higher-ups, and that is concerning.”

Olen said Stumpf’s denials “could come back to bite him” if the Securities and Exchange Commission decides to investigate Wells Fargo and finds evidence that contradicts his claims.

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors said they plan to investigate the bank. No civil or criminal charges against anyone with Wells Fargo have been announced, but prosecutors have issued a subpoena for documents.

A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo declined to comment to HuffPost.

“We’ve seen that very few in the financial services sector are held to account for anything right now,” Olen said. “I find it hard to believe that if there’s already this [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] settlement, when there’s a fairly decent body of evidence saying Wells had to know about this. It defies reason that they were unaware of this.”

Ford Foundation's remarkable mea culpa will provide greater opportunities for people with disabilities

For 80 years, the Ford Foundation has sought to reduce poverty and injustice, strengthen democratic values, promote international cooperation and advance human achievement. Now stewards of a $12 billion endowment, when this remarkable organization's leader speaks, people listen. So it may well reverberate throughout the nonprofit world - and far beyond - now that Ford Foundation President Darren Walker has used the occasion of his annual letter to his constituents admitting that a new effort by the Ford Foundation to disrupt inequality had neglected people with disabilities.

Walker, who is African-American and gay said, "In the same way that I have asked my white friends to step outside their own privileged experience to consider the inequalities endured by people of color, I was being held accountable to do the same thing for a group of people I had not fully considered," Walker wrote. "Moreover, by recognizing my individual privilege and ignorance, I began to more clearly perceive the Ford Foundation's institutional privilege and ignorance, as well. It is clear to me now that this was a manifestation of the very inequality we were seeking to dismantle, and I am deeply embarrassed by it."

I have known Darren Walker for years and consider myself honored that he sought counsel from my organization and others in the disability community on this issue. He is an extraordinary man who has been a leader in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors for two decades. When TIME magazine names someone to its annual list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" one could be expected to let that get to his head. Not Darren. His remarkable admission about the Ford Foundation's past ignorance and indifference to people with disabilities only underscores his humility and grace. He also knows when he's made a mistake and owns it.

The sad reality is people with disabilities have been marginalized for centuries. Even in this age of prosperity, people with disabilities remain underemployed and their skills underappreciated. Twenty-six years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, its full promise has yet to be fulfilled, as millions of Americans with disabilities still struggle to attain a quality of life equal to our non-disabled neighbors.

Personally, I have felt a special connection to the Ford Foundation since my longtime mentor, Mike Sviridoff, went to work for the Foundation in the 1970's under its legendary leader McGeorge "Mac" Bundy. Together, Mike and Mac worked tirelessly to nurture a variety of programs to address the problems of our cities, most notably poverty. Two years before President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the war on poverty, Mike led an antipoverty program in New Haven that was set up with a Ford Foundation grant. In its first 30 months, the program found employment for 1,500 people and became a national model.

Fast-forward half a century, the Ford Foundation continues to deliver proven results for poor and excluded communities around the world. But even more importantly, Darren Walker takes the unusual next step of putting Ford's own practices under a microscope, and leading by example. In his letter, Darren notes that "those who courageously--and correctly--raised this complicated set of issues pointed out that the Ford Foundation does not have a person with visible disabilities on our leadership team, takes no affirmative effort to hire people with disabilities, does not consider them in our strategy, or even provide those with physical disabilities with adequate access to our website, events, social media, or building. It should go without saying: All of this is at odds with our mission."

In a country where most foundations don't consider disability among their focus areas, for the leader of the nation's second-largest philanthropy to acknowledge this gross oversight and to appreciate the need to be inclusive of people with disabilities, is a game-changing move for the people my organization represents and for our nation as a whole. I hope his actions will spur other foundations, large and small alike, to examine if they, too, have ignored people with disabilities in their programs and employment. He concludes his letter with a hopeful tone:

"For my part, I am hopeful," he writes. "By demanding and expecting more of ourselves and our institutions, we can deliver more for others. In listening to each other, we will continue to learn. By listening more to each other, we can continue to forge a more just way forward, together."

Darren knows we'll all be watching. And we know he'll deliver. He always has.

Teen Cries Foul After Bakery Refuses To Make 'Trump 2016' Birthday Cake

Make America cake again!

McKenzie Gill was hoping to celebrate her 18th birthday ― and the fact that she would be eligible to vote ― with a cake that said “TRUMP 2016” on it. But the bakery department at Albertsons supermarket in Bossier City, Louisiana, denied the teen’s request.

“The woman behind the cake counter just refused to make me a birthday cake because I wanted ‘Trump 2016’ on it,” Gill wrote on Facebook. “Did that really just happen?”

Right-wing media attempted to draw parallels to Sweet Cakes by Melissa, the Oregon bakery fined $135,000 for refusing service to a same-sex couple in a 2013 incident that made national news. In addition, the supermarket chain received a flood of angry comments on its Facebook page, and some Twitter users called for a boycott.

However, in this case, Albertsons said no one was trying to deny Gill. Connie Yeates, a spokesperson for Albertsons, told local CBS station KSLA: 

“Our Bakery staff member misunderstood the training provided regarding copyrighted phrases, and incorrectly informed the customer we could not fulfill her request. We would be happy to provide the cake as the customer requested.”

The teen bought her cake elsewhere. 

 

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

Apple's iPhone 7 Is Officially Ditching The Headphone Jack

Bye-bye, headphone jack. 

Apple on Wednesday announced it has ditched the headphone jack in the latest iPhone model, the iPhone 7 ― a move tech industry watchers had widely predicted.

The iPhone updates, along with a new Apple Watch and new App Store games, were among the big reveals at the company’s Wednesday press event in San Francisco.

The controversial move to eliminate the 3.5 mm headphone jack is aimed at speeding the adoption of high-end Bluetooth technology but could instead turn off many existing or potential Apple customers. 

iPhone 7 phones will be connectible to either Bluetooth headphones or wired headphones that fit Apple’s proprietary Lightning port (the latter will come packaged with the new phones).

Apple announced that a Lighting jack to traditional 3.5mm adapter would be included with every new iPhone 7. The company also announced AirPods, a wireless version of its popular white ear buds, that connect via Apple’s new W1 chip, a proprietary wireless technology, rather than Bluetooth. 

During the Wednesday announcement, Apple CEO Tim Cook described iPhone 7 as “the best iPhone we’ve ever created,” in what has become customary language for every new iPhone iteration. 

While explaining the wireless enhancements to the iPhone 7, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller chalked up the elimination of the approximately 138-year-old technology to “courage.” 

Consumers and tech reporters quickly noted that Apple’s “courage” doubles as a selling point for the company’s proprietary AirPods ― which are priced at $159 a pair and do not come standard with the new phone. 

Apple was somewhat inadvertently scooped on its big design change just hours before announcing it. 

Shortly before the event started at 10 a.m. Pacific time, an Amazon landing page for iPhone 7-compatible accessories revealed some of the gadget’s specifications. The products listed indicated that the new phone would have a dual camera and included only wireless headphone options for sale. Amazon quickly deactivated links to iPhone 7 cases, which would have revealed more details of the new design.

As iPhones have become some of the most popular cameras in the world, Apple devoted a considerable amount of time to the new dual camera, more powerful lenses, photo filters and software on the iPhone 7.  

Apple hasn’t launched a significant new product since the debut of the Apple Watch in 2015 ― and with a high price tag and slow adoption, it has yet to become a blockbuster item like the iPod or iPhone. 

The newest edition of the watch, called Apple Watch Series 2, features a waterproof design with built-in GPS and improved fitness tracking and navigation capabilities. 

Mobile games, which in December 2015 alone netted $1 billion for the company, are likely to attract even more players: Apple announced a new Nintendo game, Super Mario Run, which can be played one-handed. Pokemon Go creator Niantic announced an Apple Watch-compatible version of the game. 

The major updates from the Apple event include: 

• No more 3.5mm headphone jack
• Stereo sound speakers for iPhone 
• Two new colors for iPhone 7: “glossy black” and “black” 
• More powerful iPhone camera lenses, dual lens camera on back
• Longer battery life than any previous iPhone 
• iPhone 7 is dust- and water-resistant
• The new Apple Watch Series 2 (now waterproof and with built-in GPS)
• New App store games with Nintendo and Niantic 

CORRECTION: This article previously said the iPhone 7 has surround sound speakers; in fact, it has stereo speakers.