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  • How to Avoid the Perils of Short-Term Thinking For Long-Term Success

    How to Avoid the Perils of Short-Term Thinking For Long-Term Success


    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    At my company, Jotform, our intern program is serious business.

    When a new class of interns signs on to work with us, their first week is spent in training, getting them up to speed on who we are, what we do and how we do it. Then, we team them up with experienced staff and get them working on their own projects. By the time they depart our offices to return to the classroom, we’ve planted the seeds to make them successful employees.

    Working with interns is a time- and resource-consuming proposition. But it’s also an investment. Some of our best employees are former interns; standout workers who we knew had the potential to learn and grow into bigger roles.

    Sometimes, it might be easier to hire candidates with the experience we’re looking for. To me, that’s a prime example of short-term thinking, a mindset that can seriously harm your company in the long run. By nurturing young employees, we not only save money on recruiting a prestige hire that may or may not work out; we also develop the talents of someone we already know we want on our team.

    Too often, though, leaders go with the easier-sounding option; the one that sounds most appealing right now. Here’s why that’s a mistake.

    Related: Why Long-Term Strategic Planning is the Lifeline Your Business Needs Right Now

    Focus on sustainable growth

    If your company, like mine, is built around Software as a Service (SaaS), building a subscriber base requires a lot of time — and a lot of happy customers — to reach sustainability. This is one of the hazards of taking outside investment — it creates the illusion of success without actual organic growth.

    The cautionary tale that looms largest in my mind is that of Theranos, the doomed blood-testing startup that was valued at $9 billion. Theranos was subsumed by hype, but in the end, the technology the company was theoretically built around didn’t even exist. Eventually, Theranos evaporated into a giant cloud of fraud allegations and even a lengthy prison sentence for its founder, Elizabeth Holmes.

    Theranos is an extreme case of VC funding gone awry, but it does show what can happen to a founder under extraordinary pressure to produce results quickly, and the mirage of success that VC funding can create.

    Rather than taking outside funding, I advocate for bootstrapping. It’s less glamorous, sure, but it also fosters real, sustainable growth, enables innovation and builds resilience. Most importantly, you have the freedom to operate on your own timeline, gather user feedback and focus on developing a product that really works.

    Related: Focusing on Speed When Building Your Company is a Mistake. Here’s Why.

    Beware of the scarcity mindset

    Short-term thinking doesn’t just come from a desire for instant gratification. It can also come from fear.

    In particular, the scarcity mindset, an idea developed by Princeton University psychology and public affairs professor Eldar Shafir and Harvard University economist Sendhil Mullainathan, explains how having limited resources — be it time, capital, etc. — narrows our mental bandwidth, creating a tunneling effect that allows only the space to focus on short-term goals.

    “Every psychologist understands that we have very limited cognitive space and bandwidth,” Shafir explained. “When you focus heavily on one thing, there is just less mind to devote to other things.”

    Founders, especially in the early days of starting a business, are constantly at risk of developing a scarcity mindset. After all, who ever really feels like they have enough resources? But the consequences of caving to scarcity can be grave: Short-term thinking not only stifles creativity, it can lead to knee-jerk, ill-conceived decisions you wouldn’t have made if you were thinking clearly.

    Don’t let a scarcity mindset become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, practice cultivating an abundance mindset. A great place to start is by focusing not on what you don’t have, but on what you do. If you’re a bootstrapped founder, you have the greatest of all resources: Time. Give yourself the luxury of trying out different ideas, and not beating yourself up if they don’t work out the way you hoped. The best ideas come from experimentation.

    Remember also that change is incremental, so don’t assume you can overhaul your way of thinking in a single day. Pick one area in which you feel like a scarcity mindset is holding you back, and start there.

    Related: This Is How Thinking About Abundance Has Helped Me Build a Success Mindset

    Envision the future

    Short-term thinking is an easy trap when the future seems so theoretical. Maybe you love pizza — sure, you know it’s not great for your health. But when presented with the opportunity to enjoy eating it today, your future self has a way of dimming from view.

    Researchers have found that those with the ability to see and empathize with their future selves possess the quality of “self-continuity.” In other words, if you can see your future self as clearly as your present self, you’re more likely to make decisions that are beneficial in the long term.

    So how do you make the future seem less abstract? Try conducting a self-interview. You can do this by envisioning sitting down with your Future Self, and asking them where they would advise your Present Self to focus your time and attention. What do you want to accomplish in 10 years from now? In 20 years? In 50 years? By identifying these long-term goals, you can start to plan accordingly in the present.

    It’s easy to fall into the trap of short-term thinking. But by focusing on sustainable growth, practicing an abundance mindset and making the future as tangible as the present, you can make decisions that will serve you in the long run and keep your business growing for years to come.



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  • You and Your Kids Can Develop Future-Proof Tech Skills for Only $56

    You and Your Kids Can Develop Future-Proof Tech Skills for Only $56


    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    Data storytelling will account for 75% of all data consumed by 2025, according to research and advisory firm Gartner. This is the process of using narration and visualization to communicate insights your data provides. It’s gained popularity because it’s so effective for businesses that make data-driven decisions based on complex information.

    Still, approximately 75% of the data that companies collect remains unused because the technique isn’t widespread. Now, you can develop future-proof tech skills with the Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 + The Premium Learn to Code Certification Bundle while it’s on sale for just $55.97.

    Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 has a perfect 5 out of 5 stars rating on Microsoft Choice Software because you can type less while coding more with IntelliCode, enjoy the deep insights CodeLens provides from your code, use Live Share for seamless collaboration, and so much more.

    You don’t have to be intimidated because so many of these courses are designed for novices, such as Learn to Code with Python 3, C++ for Absolute Beginners, Java Programming for Complete Beginners,

    MySQL & SQL for Beginners and 2024 Complete Ruby on Rails 6 Bootcamp. You’ll also be very hands-on with The Complete Python Course: Learn Python by Doing and Computer Vision & Deep Learning with OpenCV and Python: Build 15 Projects.

    Get a handle on artificial intelligence with the CHATGPT Series: OPENAI Fundament, or dive into the Internet of Things with Google Assistant Automation IoT Development. Develop skills for major tech players in Salesforce in Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification Training and ChatGPT for Salesforce Development.

    Children love learning new things when the process is fun, and this bundle offers a chance to help your children develop high-demand skills for the future with The Game Development and Coding for Kids module. It’s designed to unleash your kid’s creativity and imagination, introducing them to real programming in a way that’s truly simple and genuinely fun. The course is presented by Zenva, a leading education platform offering world-class training in coding, AI skills, and game creation to over 1 million learners. It’s a huge favorite, rated 4.9 out of 5 stars by previous students.

    Get the Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 + The Premium Learn to Code Certification Bundle while the price has dropped to $55.97 from $64.99.

    StackSocial prices subject to change.



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  • 3vHabits That Made Me Sharper, Stronger and More Successful

    3vHabits That Made Me Sharper, Stronger and More Successful


    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    There was a time not too long ago when everything looked successful from the outside — company growth, media features, funding rounds. But underneath the wins, I was living a lifestyle that was quietly sabotaging my edge. I had gained weight. I wasn’t going to the gym. I drank wine almost every night. I ate whatever was convenient, often skipping meals or grabbing ultra-processed takeout.

    My body was running on junk fuel, and so was my mind. It showed up in the form of burnout, decision fatigue and emotional volatility — especially when dealing with tough negotiations, naysayers and setbacks.

    Everything began to change when I flipped the script and made three lifestyle behaviors non-negotiable. Not suggestions. Not goals. Non-negotiables.

    These three changes didn’t just improve my health — they sharpened my focus, made me a better leader and gave me the endurance to scale through chaos. Every entrepreneur, no matter their industry, age or stage, should treat these three areas like core business infrastructure. Because if you break down, so does the company.

    Related: 5 Health Habits These Successful Entrepreneurs Swear By

    1. Work out like it’s a board meeting

    Let’s be clear: Working out isn’t about looking good for Instagram. It’s about training your discipline, managing your stress and building stamina for mental warfare.

    Top entrepreneurs treat fitness as sacred. Jeff Bezos is known for his transformation post-Amazon CEO — trading in the skinny tech guy image for someone who clearly takes lifting seriously. Mark Wahlberg, an actor and entrepreneur, runs F45 gyms and often shares his grueling 4 a.m. workouts. Even Kevin Hart, who built an entertainment empire, ties his fitness routine directly to his mental sharpness and business resilience.

    For me, getting back into daily workouts was humbling at first. The strength wasn’t there, and the discipline had eroded. But within weeks of consistency — whether it was lifting, walking or high-intensity intervals — my clarity returned. I was sleeping better. My moods leveled out. I could deal with stressors head-on without needing a glass of cabernet to decompress.

    Science backs this up. A Harvard Medical School study found that regular aerobic exercise improves executive function, which includes decision-making, problem-solving and focus — exactly what we’re paid to be good at.

    Entrepreneurship is a sport. Start treating your body like an athlete does.

    2. Eat like your decisions depend on it — because they do

    The old saying goes, “If you don’t make time for your wellness, you’ll be forced to make time for your illness.” And that’s exactly where most entrepreneurs go wrong.

    The culture glorifies 18-hour workdays and fast food lunches as signs of hustle. But that mentality is broken. The truth? Your body is a processing machine, and what you put into it becomes your fuel for thinking, speaking and leading. If you feed it poorly, it breaks down. Fast.

    I changed my diet by adopting a flexitarian approach — leaning mostly on vegetables, grains, legumes, fish and occasionally red meat. I didn’t go extreme. I went intentional. That shift alone gave me more energy in the afternoons, less brain fog and zero crashes from sugar or processed carbs. I started reading labels. I stopped pretending “protein bars” were meals. I drank more water and fewer glasses of wine.

    Look at Tom Brady — still peak-performing into his 40s because of a clean, disciplined diet. Or Tim Ferriss, who famously follows strict dietary regimens to optimize performance. Even companies like Sweetgreen, Sakara Life and Athletic Greens have built empires catering to high-performers who don’t want to compromise clarity or energy for convenience.

    There’s nothing glamorous about burnout-induced hospital visits or running your team from a place of low energy. Entrepreneurs must start thinking of food as strategic fuel.

    Related: 12 Ways to Eat Healthy No Matter How Busy You Are

    3. Sleep like a pro, not a martyr

    One of the dumbest myths in the business world is the glorification of sleep deprivation. You hear it all the time: “I only sleep four hours.” “Sleep is for losers.” “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

    That kind of thinking will kill your performance — and possibly you, too.

    Neuroscience is unequivocal: Seven to eight hours of quality sleep each night is essential for memory consolidation, emotional regulation and cognitive performance. The CDC has declared sleep deprivation a public health epidemic, and for entrepreneurs, it’s even more dangerous.

    Research has revealed that during sleep, your brain flushes out toxins that build up during the day. Without adequate sleep, those toxins accumulate and impair function.

    Elon Musk famously tweeted about working 120-hour weeks and later admitted it nearly “cost him his mind.” Since then, even he has pulled back and begun advocating for better sleep. Arianna Huffington built an entire movement around sleep culture after collapsing from exhaustion and hitting her head on her desk.

    I learned to treat my sleep like my calendar — scheduled, protected and predictable. No screens late at night. No late-night wine. Same bedtime every day, including weekends. The result? Fewer irrational decisions, less emotional reactivity and more strategic thinking in the morning.

    Good sleep is a competitive advantage. Use it.

    Related: This Is the Sleep Routine That Keeps Top CEOs at Peak Performance

    Success isn’t just strategy. It’s physiology.

    Too often, we think we need better tactics, better funnels or better venture partners. But more often than not, what we really need is a better body to carry the weight of our ideas.

    Fitness. Diet. Sleep.

    Those three pillars, when treated with the same intensity and rigor as your next investor pitch or product launch, will give you a mental edge money can’t buy. They’ll make you more calm under pressure, more focused during chaos and more persuasive in every room you enter.

    Entrepreneurship is not for the weak. So, stop training your company harder than you train yourself. The ROI on your body will be the greatest investment you ever make.



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  • Your Clients Are Using AI to Replace You — Do These 3 Things Before They Do

    Your Clients Are Using AI to Replace You — Do These 3 Things Before They Do


    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    If you think using AI to save time is enough — you’re already at risk.

    Your clients aren’t just admiring your efficiency. They’re studying it to replace you. AI now delivers 80% of what most service providers offer — at a fraction of the cost. Freelancers, consultants and agencies are getting blindsided as their clients quietly build AI workflows that eliminate the need to rehire. In this video, I’ll show you how to flip the script and become irreplaceable.

    While most professionals are still stuck using AI for content drafts or task automation, the smartest entrepreneurs are repositioning themselves as designers of outcomes, not just doers of work.

    Inside, you’ll learn the three steps to audit, evolve, and future-proof your offer — before your clients replace it.

    • How to spot the hidden weakness in your offer before your clients do
      If you don’t audit your service, your clients will — and when they realize AI can do it faster and cheaper, it’s game over. I’ll show you the first move to make now.

    • Why “doing the work” is making you replaceable — and what to do instead
      Execution used to be enough. Not anymore. Discover how to shift into the only role AI can’t automate (and clients will actually pay a premium for).

    • The one thing AI can’t replicate — and why it’s now your greatest asset
      It’s not your skills. It’s not your speed. Learn how to turn your story and perspective into a positioning moat that makes you untouchable — even if AI clones your voice.

    Whether you’re a solo consultant or leading a lean team, this is your blueprint for staying one step ahead of AI — and 10 steps ahead of your competition.

    Download the free “AI Success Kit” (limited time only). And you’ll also get a free chapter from my brand new book, “The Wolf is at The Door – How to Survive and Thrive in an AI-Driven World.”



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  • The One Mistake Is Putting Your Brand Reputation at Risk — and Most Startups Still Make It

    The One Mistake Is Putting Your Brand Reputation at Risk — and Most Startups Still Make It


    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Most entrepreneurs and business owners understand they need a comprehensive communications strategy to reach their target customers. However, all too many think that only means branding, marketing and advertising and forget to include public relations (PR). In particular, many small businesses and startups neglect this part of the communications equation.

    This has always been a mistake, but that’s even more true today. Here, I explain how PR impacts brand credibility and customer trust, as well as how those seemingly ineffable factors connect to your hard revenue numbers.

    The problem with investing solely in marketing

    Investing only in marketing and ignoring PR is a problem because marketing drives awareness, but PR builds trust — and without trust, awareness doesn’t convert.

    One study has put the number of consumers who believe advertisers have integrity at 4%. Customers’ trust in conventional advertising is also plummeting, especially for members of the younger generations. As Wharton Magazine reports, 84% of millennials not only dislike traditional ads but also distrust them.

    Research also shows people don’t pay attention to ads and actively avoid them. According to consumer research firm Bulbshare, 63% of Gen Zers use ad blockers, meaning they don’t even see ads online. If they do come across one, 99% say they hit “skip” when given the choice.

    In short, today’s consumers are savvy. They know how to follow the money trail and identify conflicts of interest. Indeed, the Content Marketing Institute has found that 80% of corporate decision-makers prefer to glean information from articles that are more objective rather than ads, which are recognized as biased and self-interested.

    Meanwhile, today’s consumers increasingly prioritize ethics. B2B services company BusinessDasher explains that 84% of customers weigh companies’ ethics and values when considering a purchase, and 63% say they would like companies to adopt more ethical practices.

    For companies that would like to expand their market reach, these statistics send a clear signal. Investing only in advertising and marketing is unlikely to move the needle. To develop a good reputation for your brand, you need to do PR.

    Related: How to Make the Most of Your Public Relations

    PR: Ethical strategic communications

    PR differs from other communication strategies like branding and marketing because it specifically focuses on developing your organization’s positive reputation and earning consumers’ trust. While ads and marketing campaigns may attempt to tell people about the business’s great reputation, good PR shows them. It enables the business and its spokespeople to demonstrate ethical conduct rather than just making claims to this effect.

    For instance, while a top PR team will draft and release press releases and media advisories on a company’s behalf, they will also seek out opportunities for the company’s leadership to serve as expert sources in the media. When the public needs help understanding current events and a journalist turns to a company’s spokesperson for expert analysis, the viewers understand that this person and their company are trustworthy. In addition, they come to rely on and appreciate the spokesperson’s valuable advice.

    In the course of such an interview, the company’s representative may never even mention their product or service. By demonstrating their willingness to share important information, however, they signal their care for the greater good, their own sterling character and that of their company. This forms positive connotations in viewers’ minds. People come to associate the spokesperson and company with credibility and garner their trust.

    Behaving in an ethical manner and showing goodwill tends to be more convincing than merely claiming to be good. This is how strong connections with customers can still be forged despite today’s cynical environment.

    Related: How You Can Leverage These PR Strategies to Build Your Company’s Credibility and Trust — Even When Under Attack

    How PR contributes to revenue growth

    To be clear, PR is not a direct method of boosting sales or generating leads. Instead, it works in the background, burnishing your brand’s reputation and predisposing people to think highly of your company. This can pay off in the end, however.

    Take Sears, Roebuck and Co. as an example. When the brand partnered with The Oprah Winfrey Show to provide Christmas gifts for 100 foster children, the results were staggering. After the episode aired, customer surveys showed an 11% jump in positive sentiment toward the brand — and people said they planned to spend 39% more at Sears.

    The final impact? That single PR moment helped generate $13 million in new revenue.

    In addition, father-daughter co-authors Al and Laura Ries studied 91 launches of new products in their book “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR.” Those campaigns that incorporated PR were more successful than those that only deployed marketing approaches. Indeed, they conclude that PR is a better investment than advertising for most businesses.

    In my own experience leading a PR firm, I can attest that campaigns sometimes generate so much new business that clients can’t scale fast enough and have to pause our services while they catch up with demand.

    Enter the limelight with PR

    Hiring a PR firm, especially one that can show a track record of success in your particular industry, is indispensable to make your brand image shine. This strategic communications approach avoids the common missteps of advertising and marketing while aligning with today’s customers’ preferences for ethical business practices.

    For these reasons, more businesses should consider taking PR firms up on their offers of a free consultation call. There’s nothing to lose and the limelight to gain.



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  • 5 Key Data and AI Innovations to Keep an Eye on in 2025

    5 Key Data and AI Innovations to Keep an Eye on in 2025


    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    At the end of the first quarter in 2025, now is a good time to reflect upon the recent updates from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to their services that provide data and AI capabilities to end customers. At the end of 2024, AWS hosted 60,000+ practitioners at their annual conference, re:Invent, in Las Vegas.

    Hundreds of features and services were announced during the week; I’ve combined these with the announcements that have come since and curated five key data and AI innovations that you should take notice of. Let’s dive in.

    The next generation of Amazon SageMaker

    Amazon SageMaker has historically been seen as the center for everything AI in AWS. Services like Amazon Glue or Elastic MapReduce have taken care of data processing tasks, with Amazon Redshift picking up the task of SQL analytics. With an increasing number of organizations focusing efforts on data and AI, all-in-one platforms such as Databricks have understandably caught the eyes of those starting their journey.

    The next generation of Amazon SageMaker is AWS’s answer to these services. SageMaker Unified Studio brings together SQL analytics, data processing, AI model development and generative AI application development under one roof. This is all built on top of the foundations of another new service — SageMaker Lakehouse — with data and AI governance integrated through what previously existed standalone as Amazon DataZone.

    The promise of an AWS first-party solution for customers looking to get started with, increase the capability of, or gain better control of their data and AI workloads is exciting indeed.

    Amazon Bedrock Marketplace

    Sticking with the theme of AI workloads, I want to highlight Amazon Bedrock Marketplace. The world of generative AI is fast-moving, and new models are being developed all the time. Through Bedrock, customers can access the most popular models on a serverless basis — only paying for the input/output tokens that they use. To do this for every specialized industry model that customers may want to access is not scalable, however.

    Amazon Bedrock Marketplace is the answer to this. Previously, customers could use Amazon SageMaker JumpStart to deploy LLMs to your AWS account in a managed way; this excluded them from the Bedrock features that were being actively developed (Agents, Flows, Knowledge Bases etc.), though. With Bedrock Marketplace, customers can select from 100+ (and growing) specialized models, including those from HuggingFace and DeepSeek, deploy them to a managed endpoint and access them through the standard Bedrock APIs.

    This results in a more seamless experience and makes experimenting with different models significantly easier (including customers’ own fine-tuned models).

    Amazon Bedrock Data Automation

    Extracting insights from unstructured data (documents, audio, images, video) is something that LLMs have proven themselves to excel at. While the potential value borne from this is enormous, setting up performant, scalable, cost-effective and secure pipelines to extract this is something that can be complicated, and customers have historically struggled with it.

    In recent days — at time of writing — Amazon Bedrock Data Automation reached General Availability (GA). This service sets out to solve the exact problem I’ve just described. Let’s focus on the document use case.

    Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) isn’t a new use case for AI — it existed long before GenAI was all the rage. IDP can unlock huge efficiencies for organizations that deal in paper-based forms when augmenting or replacing the manual processes that are performed by humans.

    With Bedrock Data Automation, the heavy-lifting of building IDP pipelines is abstracted away from customers and provided as a managed service that’s easy to consume and subsequently integrate into legacy processes and systems.

    Amazon Aurora DSQL

    Databases are an example of a tool where the level of complexity exposed to those leveraging it is not necessarily correlated with how complex it is behind the scenes. Often, it’s an inverse relationship where the simpler and more “magic” a database is to use, the more complex it is in the areas that are unseen.

    Amazon Aurora DSQL is a great example of such a tool where it’s as straightforward to use as AWS’s other managed database services, but the level of engineering complexity to make its feature set possible is huge. Speaking of its feature set, let’s look at that.

    Aurora DSQL sets out to be the service of choice for workloads that need durable, strongly consistent, active-active databases across multiple regions or availability zones. Multi-region, or multi-AZ databases, are already well established in active-passive configurations (i.e., one writer and many read-replicas); active-active is a problem that’s much harder to solve while still being performant and retaining strong consistency.

    If you’re interested in reading the deep technical details of challenges that were overcome in the building of this service, I’d recommend reading Marc Brooker’s (Distinguished Engineer at AWS) series of blog posts on the topic.

    When announcing the service, AWS described it as providing “virtually unlimited horizontal scaling with the flexibility to independently scale reads, writes, compute, and storage. It automatically scales to meet any workload demand without database sharding or instance upgrades. Its active-active distributed architecture is designed for 99.99% single-Region and 99.999% multi-Region availability with no single point of failure, and automated failure recovery.”

    For organizations where global scale is an aspiration or requirement, building on top of a foundation of Aurora DSQL sets them up very nicely.

    Expansion of zero-ETL features

    AWS has been pushing the “zero-ETL” vision for a couple of years now, with the aspiration being to make moving data between purpose-built services as easy as possible. An example would be moving transactional data from a PostgreSQL database running on Amazon Aurora to a database designed for large-scale analytics like Amazon Redshift.

    While there has been a relatively continuous flow of new announcements in this area, the end of 2024 and start of 2025 saw a flurry that accompanied the new AWS services released at re:Invent.

    There are far too many to talk about here in any level of detail that’d provide value; to find out more about all of the available zero-ETL integrations between AWS services, please visit AWS’s dedicated zero-ETL page.

    Wrapping this up, we’ve covered five areas relating to data and AI that AWS is innovating in to make building, growing and streamlining organizations easier. All of these areas are relevant to small and growing startups, as well as billion-dollar enterprises. AWS and other cloud service providers are there to abstract away the complexity and heavy lifting, leaving you to focus on building your business logic.



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  • These Cities Have the Most Affordable Rent in the US: Report

    These Cities Have the Most Affordable Rent in the US: Report


    As the cost of rent has increased by more than 50% over the last decade, some popular cities like Miami are becoming less and less affordable.

    To find the most affordable cities for renting in the U.S., financial site WalletHub compared the median annual gross rent to the median household income in 182 cities, ranking them from most to least affordable.

    Related: Here’s How Much a Family of 4 Needs to Live ‘Comfortably’ in Every U.S. State, According to a New Report

    The most affordable city was Bismarck, North Dakota, where the median annual gross rent is around 15.3% of the median annual income. The average salary in Bismarck is $69,989 per year, according to ZipRecruiter. The average rent, meanwhile, is $1,023 per month, per Apartments.com.

    The second most affordable city was Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The mean annual gross rent there costs around 16% of the median income. Cheyenne, Wyoming, came in at a close No. 3 — residents spend 16.1% of their earnings on rent in the city.

    Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Fargo, North Dakota, rounded out the top five most affordable.

    The bottom of the list featured Glendale, California (No. 178), followed by Detroit, Michigan; New Haven, Connecticut; Newark, New Jersey; and finally, in the last spot (No. 182), Miami, Florida, where residents spend 33.48% of their income on rent.

    In Miami, the average salary, according to ZipRecruiter, is $55,183. The average rent is $2,950, per Zillow.

    “In the most affordable cities for renters, the median cost of rent is as low as 15% of the median income, compared to more than 33% in the most expensive cities,” said WalletHub Analyst Chip Lupo. “This gives people in the least expensive cities a clear financial advantage; the money they save on rent could go toward their emergency fund or savings for future home ownership.”

    View the full list of all 182 cities, here.

    Related: Here Are the Best and Worst States for Retirement in 2025, According to a New Report



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  • Here’s What Being an Entrepreneur Is Really Like — From Someone Who Did It

    Here’s What Being an Entrepreneur Is Really Like — From Someone Who Did It


    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Becoming an entrepreneur is one of the most exciting decisions you can make. But is it hard? Well, yes. It’s not a stroll in the park, but it’s also not impossible and can be incredibly amazing. Starting your own business is rewarding, challenging and everything in between. Here’s the honest scoop on what it’s like, from someone who’s been there over and over again.

    1. You’ll wear many hats

    When you’re just starting out and unless you have a huge budget, you are the CEO, the marketing team, the accountant and the janitor. Balancing all these responsibilities can be overwhelming, but it’s also an incredible opportunity to learn. It forces you out of your comfort zone and gives you the chance to truly understand the inner workings of a business. Look at it as an accelerated MBA, except the stakes are higher (and there’s no graduation ceremony).

    2. Time management will be your new best friend

    When you’re working for yourself, the lines between work and personal life blur, big time. Suddenly, you’re answering emails at 10 PM and brainstorming ideas while cooking dinner. The key is to prioritize and set boundaries. Learn to schedule your day like your life depends on it. Trust me, a little structure goes a long way in keeping the chaos manageable. I finally have learned how to manage my time, especially if you have multiple businesses. This is crucial to become successful.

    3. You’ll face rejection

    Here’s the thing about entrepreneurship — not everyone is going to believe in your vision. Investors may say no. Customers might not immediately flock to your product. This stings, but it’s also a chance to develop some thick skin. Each no you hear is one step closer to a yes. Use rejection as fuel to refine your offering and improve your pitch.

    Related: You Will Get Rejected — How You Handle It Will Make You Successful. Here Are 3 Ways to Turn It Into Power.

    4. Your passion will be tested

    Loving what you do is important, but passion is not the whole story. There will be moments when the going gets tough and motivation wanes. What keeps most entrepreneurs moving is their why — the deeper reason they started their business. Stay connected to that purpose, and you’ll push through even the toughest days.

    5. You’ll have to network (a lot)

    Networking is crucial to success in any industry, but it’s especially important for entrepreneurs. Knowing the right people can open doors and provide valuable insights and advice. Attend networking events, join online communities and don’t be afraid to reach out to successful business owners for mentorship. Building a strong network can make all the difference in your entrepreneurial journey.

    6. Failure is part of the process

    As an entrepreneur, you will inevitably experience failure. But here’s the thing — it’s not the end of the world. In fact, it’s often just a stepping stone on the path to success. Embrace failure as an opportunity to learn.

    7. Money management is crucial

    Starting a business often means living on a tight budget. Maybe you’ll have to skip some dinners out or hold off on that big vacation — and that’s fine. Being mindful of where every dollar goes is essential, especially in the early stages. If you can master your finances now, you’re setting the stage for long-term success.

    8. Success doesn’t happen overnight

    Don’t believe the hype of overnight success. Those stories usually leave out years of hard work, failures and pivots. Building a business is a marathon, not a sprint. Celebrate the small wins along the way, because they’re what keep you going. Each step forward is progress, even if it’s not as glamorous as viral internet fame.

    9. It’s the hardest job you’ll ever love

    Here’s the truth. Starting your own business is hard. It’s exhausting. Sometimes, it’s lonely. But it’s also thrilling. Few things compare to the sense of accomplishment you feel when you see your idea come to life and know you’re building something that’s entirely your own. The hard work and sacrifices will be worth it when you’re doing what you love every day. So keep pushing, stay focused and never lose sight of why you started this journey in the first place. Your passion will see you through the toughest of times and lead you to success. Let rejection only fuel your determination to refine your offering and improve your pitch. The road to success is not easy, but it’s worth it in the end.

    10. You must keep learning and evolving to succeed

    Finally, remember that starting a business is an ongoing process. You’ll never stop learning and growing as an entrepreneur. Stay open to new ideas and opportunities, continuously seek out knowledge and resources to improve your skills, and be willing to adapt and evolve with the ever-changing market and industry. Embracing growth and constantly striving for improvement will help you stay ahead of the game and ensure long-term success for your business.

    Related: 10 Ways Continuous Learning Can Take You From a Good Leader to a Great One

    Final thoughts

    I have even thought about giving up at times, but I somehow still keep going, and I am so happy that I’ve stuck with it. If you’re up for the challenge, becoming an entrepreneur can be the most rewarding thing you’ll ever do. It’s not always easy, but the sense of accomplishment, independence and possibility makes it worthwhile. Are you ready to take the leap? Because, trust me, there’s nothing quite like it.



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  • Is Zoom Down? Tens of Thousands of Users Report Outage

    Is Zoom Down? Tens of Thousands of Users Report Outage


    Zoom is down for tens of thousands of people, according to Downdetector. Users have been reporting outages since 2:38 p.m. ET.

    More than 60,000 Zoom customers had logged issues with the video conferencing service by 3:08 p.m. ET. Nearly half of users reporting problems (46%) experienced issues with the website, while 38% encountered problems with the app.

    Zoom’s status page also appears to be down at the time of writing. The company previously indicated through the page that it was aware of the outage for Zoom meetings and was working to resolve it.

    Zoom’s investors page also appears to be down at press time.

    Related: Amazon Is Replacing Chime, Its Proprietary Video Conferencing Software, With… Zoom

    Zoom has 300 million daily active users and 192,600 business customers as of the fourth quarter of 2024. Companies like Capital One, Glassdoor, and Dropbox all use the company’s videoconferencing service.

    With Zoom down, users turned to social media. Some X users asked if Zoom was down for anyone else. Others expressed joy, frustration, and panic through GIFs.





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  • Universal Epic Studios Orlando Opening in May 2025: Photos

    Universal Epic Studios Orlando Opening in May 2025: Photos


    Universal is opening its long-awaited Epic Universe theme park to the public on May 22 in Orlando, Florida. The park was first announced in 2019 and cost around $7 billion to create, per CNBC.

    Casandra Matej, CEO of Visit Orlando, told CNBC the new park is “the first major, entirely new theme park in the U.S. in 25 years.” Research seen by the outlet from Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting, found that within one year of opening, the new park could generate around $2 billion for Florida and create more than 17,500 new jobs across the country.

    At 750 acres, it’s the largest of all of Universal’s properties and features five themed worlds: Celestial Park, Dark Universe, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, Super Nintendo World, and How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk.

    But don’t worry, Harry Potter fans: This is the third Harry Potter-related theme park Universal has in the area. Nearby, Explore Hogsmeade is still open at Universal Islands of Adventure, and Diagon Alley is also open at Universal Studios Florida.

    Related: Disney World Is Adding New Attractions and Themed Lands in a Massive Expansion — Here’s What to Expect

    In Super Nintendo World, guests with Power-Up Bands can hit the familiar question-mark boxes of the Mario universe, track their Mario Kart score and play drums like Donkey Kong to unveil hidden effects and Easter eggs. (Adrian Ruhi/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

    Although Epic Universe is less than 10 miles down the road from Walt Disney World, industry experts expect the new park to lift up the entire area, from hotels to restaurants to even more attendance at Disney-branded parks.

    “It’s a rising tide that lifts all boats,” Matej said.

    There are multiple roller coasters, restaurants, and three new hotels. There are also several boat rides.

    Guests ride Stardust Racers, a new dueling roller coaster ride in Celestial Park, during a preview day for Universal Epic Universe on April 5, 2025, in Orlando, Florida. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

    The How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk area, at the Epic Universe theme park in Orlando, Florida, US, on Saturday, April 5, 2025. Photographer: Thomas Simonetti/Bloomberg via Getty Images

    Atlantic is a waterside, seafood-centric restaurant with a mostly glass exterior meant to resemble a giant aquarium. (Adrian Ruhi/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)





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