If you’re running a retail-based business right now, you’re probably feeling it from all sides. Tariffs and inflation are squeezing your costs. Consumers are tightening their spending. And what used to work, from bulk ordering to blanket discounts, isn’t cutting it anymore.So, where do you turn when both your margins and your customers are under pressure?One part of your business you’ve likely overlooked is returned product. Historically, most companies have treated returns as a sunk cost rather than a strategic opportunity. But in today’s climate, returns represent a valuable revenue channel. Returns now account for $890 billion annually, or 16.9%…
What is happiness, really? Positive psychology pioneer Martin Seligman asked this very question and discovered that lasting wellbeing isn’t about chasing fleeting pleasures. It’s about building a life that feels whole and deeply lived. So, he developed the PERMA Model — a framework that offers a grounded, research-backed path to…
This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Charles Eide, 40, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based founder and CEO of corporate events company EideCom. As a teenager, Eide side-hustled as a DJ, then began to produce major events at the University of St. Thomas. Read more about his journey here. Responses have been edited…
Brand collaborations are everywhere today, but unless they actually improve the product experience, they can easily become misguided. And most fail quietly, because partnerships built on visibility alone collapse under the weight of delivery.The branded residences sector, which has grown 180% globally with hotspots in Dubai, Miami and Asia-Pacific, offers…
Retirement used to be seen as the end of the hustle, a time to slow down and relax. However, retirees are abandoning that old playbook. Most retirees want to have the time to do the extra things they could not in their lifelong careers.Due to better health, economic uncertainty and…
A recent, hours-long fire at a data center used by Elon Musk’s X may have begun after an electrical or mechanical issue in a power system, according to an official fire investigation.WIRED was the first to report on the blaze, which occurred on May 22 in Hillsboro, Oregon. Data center…
Tim Berg is a simple guy. He likes eating fresh foods and spending time outdoors. Ice Cream for Bears is Berg’s experiment to prove that nature’s bare gifts are beyond plentiful to satisfy our cravings. After two years in the wilderness, Ice Cream for Bears is entering thousands of stores,…
We all know how social media provides an endless stream of opinions, confident recommendations and even downright wrong information. Long before we were exposed to social media, we got all of that same type of chatter from an even more familiar source — our own brains. It comes in the…
Barbie just had a billion-dollar year. DeLorean is back in production — but in truth, it never really left, with decades of cultural presence, strong collectible car sales and ongoing IP licensing deals. Vintage Levi’s now sell for more than new pairs. Yet, nearly 88% of Fortune 500 companies from…
When I first started my business, I approached budgeting with the optimism of someone who hadn’t yet been burned. I treated it like a tidy math problem: Plug in a few cost estimates, apply a sensible cushion, and the numbers would hold. At least, they did in the spreadsheet.What I…
For crypto firms, the vibe shift is a blessing. Although they have comparatively few problems accessing overseas bank accounts—often in the Cayman Islands or Switzerland—in lieu of a US bank account, they are often unable to earn yield on deposits or transact seamlessly with US-based counterparties, and sometimes they incur…
As artificial intelligence accelerates across every industry, the next generation of successful AI-native companies won’t be defined by cutting-edge models alone. Instead, they’ll be defined by how well their business models align with how AI works in the wild. In 2025, it’s no longer enough to be AI-powered—companies must be…
Growing up in Toronto, Canada, Tanya Taylor, now founder of her namesake womenswear brand and a second eveningwear brand, Delphine, didn’t really know she could build a career in fashion, she says. However, as someone from a “very entrepreneurial” family, she’d always dreamed of running her own business.Image Credit: Courtesy…
Dropbox was born because Drew Houston was sick of emailing himself files. ConvertKit came from a blogger who was tired of clunky email automations. Notion grew out of the chaos of managing scattered notes and documents.These weren’t random startup ideas pulled from a pitch deck. They were solutions to personal…
On November 2, 2022, I attended a Google AI event in New York City. One of the themes was responsible AI. As I listened to executives talk about how they aligned their technology with human values, I realized that the malleability of AI models was a double-edged sword. Models could…
Spotlight
“Competition will be fierce,” says Christian Catalini, founder at MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab…
ToplineNASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has captured the moon eclipsing the sun in…
If a customer stopped paying you, what would you do?Here’s what Nancy…
Amy Beckley, a Ph.D scientist, faced fertility and miscarriage problems due to…
