Business

Is your relationship with your advertising agency over, and you're never, ever getting back together? Are you looking to spark a connection with a new one? Or, are you generally satisfied but just want to check out the playing field and sample the merchandise? Well, you're in luck. There's now an app for that. A newly released Tinder-like "dating" app allows clients to peruse profiles of the some of best advertising agencies in Amsterdam. The app, Pitcher, is available for both iOS and Android phones. Similar to dating apps, clients have the ability to specify criteria such as brand category and campaign type. From there, clients can browse through a selection of Amsterdam's crème de la crème of advertising agencies. Each profile provides a company overview and portfolio of their latest ...

Toyota, which was the first manufacturer to mainstream hybrids with the introduction with its Prius, has consistently backed hydrogen over lithium ion batteries. Now, it seems, the fight is getting dirty. “Closely monitor charge status," a new Lexus commercial's mock instructions proclaim. "Turn off A/C and radio to conserve power. Get lost searching for charger. Plug in and wait four hours. Repeat.” The ad is just the latest in Lexus' campaign deriding electric vehicles to promote its own hybrid vehicles. In a previous ad, Lexus claimed that public charging outlets took four hours to bring a car from an empty charge to full. EV advocacy group Plug In America called Lexus out for using outdated data on charging times and charging station infrastructure. Electric car owners also pointed ...

On Tuesday, August 12, a supplier of Swedish car maker and Saab owner National Electric Vehicle of Sweden (Nevs) filed a petition in bankruptcy court that would declare it bankrupt. According to an August 12 ABC News article, the news comes after Nevs bought Saab amid its own financial hardships and lifted the automaker out of bankruptcy last year. ABC News reported that Labor Test, one of Nevs' suppliers for testing equipment, alleged that Nevs has not paid its bills amounting to 150,000 kronor, or $22,000, since February. A The Local article reports that Nevs' bankruptcy proceedings will likely begin September 18. Saab had originally filed for bankruptcy in December 2011, The Local reports -- and Nevs was created by Chinese backers in mid-2012 to buy the struggling car brand....

In the U.S. schooling system, shop classes often have a reputation for being the "slacker classes" -- the easy A's that students take to fill up space, rather than for the purpose of truly learning a skill. That perception, though, might not be based in reality as the market for auto mechanics heats up throughout the U.S.Evan Fischbach is one example of a success story. Two years out of high school, he is already making $40,000 a year -- with expected earnings of $60,000 once he gains more industry experience. Fischbach took an automotive class during his junior year of high school, and right away realized he wanted to work on cars.His parents, both college-educated, weren't sure about his career options. But before he even graduated, a local auto dealer with too few mechanics on hand offe...

Dutch Glow is the newest "As Seen on TV" hit, offering what promoters call "a pure and simple furniture polish from a pure and simple people." But does this miracle "Amish Wood Milk" really perform as advertised? The infomercials are tantalizing, showing intrepid cleaners spritzing Dutch Glow on wooden furniture and removing years of wax buildup and residue with one swipe of a soft cloth. And the results really do glow on TV, especially when you consider that the product is priced at about $10. Woods look brighter, warmer, and cleaner in seconds.But does Dutch Glow really bring your furniture back to life? And what exactly is "Amish Wood Milk?"No one seems to know. Ingredients aren't listed on the website, and through promoters shill a "100 year formula," there's no definitive connection t...

In New York City, members of the construction industry are petitioning the city to loosen safety regulations they claim have halted hundreds of jobs. Currently, construction sites are required to pass a safety inspection that ensures that the safety equipment they use is up to standards. However, shortages of trained safety inspectors are reportedly causing jobs to be put on hold for months as they wait for a requisite inspection. According to the Department of Buildings, there are only about 500 active inspectors working in the city. This is especially problematic as construction in the city has entered a boom cycle, putting a number of multi-million dollar projects on hold as inspectors work through several months worth of examinations. This has had a number of consequences for the co...

House flipping might be risky, but it can also be highly profitable. According to a new report by CNBC, however, house flippers need to get smarter -- the margins for flippers are smaller, and it's led to a much larger group of high-end house flippers, at least for now. "Flippers no longer have the luxury of 20 to 30% annual price gains to pad their profits," explains Daren Blomquist, the VP of RealtyTrac, a real estate information website. "As the market softens, successful flippers will need to focus on finding properties that they can buy at a discount and efficiently add value to." Consequently, many home-flippers have been looking toward high-end neighborhoods. Not only do these homes have greater potential for adding value, but they are also being bought by less penny-pinching ...

Recent studies have discovered something surprising about the use of closed captioning for video content created for search engine optimization (SEO): it's surprisingly effective. According to a July 29 Business2Community article, adding closed captioning and transcripts to a video can increase "traffic, page views, search rank, and engagement." In a Discovery Digital Networks study that measured the impact of captioning on web videos, videos with closed captioning saw a 13.48% growth in views and a lifetime increase of views by 7.32%, according to Business2Community. In addition to causing an increase in the number of views a video gets, closed captioning can also help a video move up the ranks in search engine results faster, which is what every SEO strategy tries to attain. ...

Job seekers and current employees alike are usually pretty familiar with random drug testing, and the majority of people have either had to take a random drug test for a job or expect to do so in the near future. Jobs that directly affect the health and safety of others -- and especially those jobs which have the potential to be very high-profile, such as police work and firefighting -- are nearly expected to mandate drug tests for employees. But one group of workers have remained untouched by random drug tests, despite being directly responsible for the health of others: doctors. But if the state of California has anything to say about it, this may change soon. This coming November, a mandate, called Proposition 46, requiring that all doctors be subject to random drug and alcohol tests...

California is still caught in the grips of a severe drought that has everyone worried about what the future holds for residents, farms, and rivers alike. According to the latest released records, the state's reservoirs are still "dangerously low."The drought has caused a series of repercussions that there is no quick relief from anytime soon. Residents have been asked to drastically cut back on their water intake. Consequently, the sale of pools has fallen dramatically in a state often known for its excessive homes and gardens. Landscaping has had an impact, as many residents choose to stop watering their lawns every day. Almond farmers are battling local tribes, who rely on salmon in the Klamath River, for reservoir water.In San Diego, Bruce Henderson was worried about his lemon groves, w...