I literally get this email or tweet or facebook message daily. I suppose that’s what I get for teaching at conferences and offering whatever possibly wisdom that I can share publicly. For a long time, I considered just making a form letter, but then thought that would also be very impersonal…so those emails and messages were placed in a folder awaiting a time I could give my personal input.

So here you are. You’ve chosen one of the most challenging and highly competitive careers in the marketplace today. Are you crazy? Ah, that’s ok if you are because it is also supremely rewarding if you find your own success with it (I wrote an old blog post on my personal take on life as a workoholic photographer). Although, be prepared. It is HARD work. Most photographers statistically make poverty income if you consider the high expense of gear, insurance, and personal marketing.

Not all of you will succeed as shooters in the end… and that’s ok because you are going to give it your best and if it's not for you, there are a bunch of other related jobs you can do with your photography knowledge (retouchers, producers, agents, creative directors, photo editors, etc). In the end, the odds are against you, but if you are willing to work, plan, be strategic, and be true to yourself creatively…you may have a fighting chance to really make it! (Source: fstoppers.com)

I literally get this email or tweet or facebook message daily. I suppose that’s what I get for teaching at conferences and offering whatever possibly wisdom that I can share publicly. For a long time, I considered just making a form letter, but then thought that would also be very impersonal…so those emails and messages were placed in a folder awaiting a time I could give my personal input.

So here you are. You’ve chosen one of the most challenging and highly competitive careers in the marketplace today. Are you crazy? Ah, that’s ok if you are because it is also supremely rewarding if you find your own success with it (I wrote an old blog post on my personal take on life as a workoholic photographer). Although, be prepared. It is HARD work. Most photographers statistically make poverty income if you consider the high expense of gear, insurance, and personal marketing.

Not all of you will succeed as shooters in the end… and that’s ok because you are going to give it your best and if it's not for you, there are a bunch of other related jobs you can do with your photography knowledge (retouchers, producers, agents, creative directors, photo editors, etc). In the end, the odds are against you, but if you are willing to work, plan, be strategic, and be true to yourself creatively…you may have a fighting chance to really make it! (Source: fstoppers.com)

I literally get this email or tweet or facebook message daily. I suppose that’s what I get for teaching at conferences and offering whatever possibly wisdom that I can share publicly. For a long time, I considered just making a form letter, but then thought that would also be very impersonal…so those emails and messages were placed in a folder awaiting a time I could give my personal input.

So here you are. You’ve chosen one of the most challenging and highly competitive careers in the marketplace today. Are you crazy? Ah, that’s ok if you are because it is also supremely rewarding if you find your own success with it (I wrote an old blog post on my personal take on life as a workoholic photographer). Although, be prepared. It is HARD work. Most photographers statistically make poverty income if you consider the high expense of gear, insurance, and personal marketing.

Not all of you will succeed as shooters in the end… and that’s ok because you are going to give it your best and if it's not for you, there are a bunch of other related jobs you can do with your photography knowledge (retouchers, producers, agents, creative directors, photo editors, etc). In the end, the odds are against you, but if you are willing to work, plan, be strategic, and be true to yourself creatively…you may have a fighting chance to really make it! (Source: fstoppers.com)

I literally get this email or tweet or facebook message daily. I suppose that’s what I get for teaching at conferences and offering whatever possibly wisdom that I can share publicly. For a long time, I considered just making a form letter, but then thought that would also be very impersonal…so those emails and messages were placed in a folder awaiting a time I could give my personal input.

So here you are. You’ve chosen one of the most challenging and highly competitive careers in the marketplace today. Are you crazy? Ah, that’s ok if you are because it is also supremely rewarding if you find your own success with it (I wrote an old blog post on my personal take on life as a workoholic photographer). Although, be prepared. It is HARD work. Most photographers statistically make poverty income if you consider the high expense of gear, insurance, and personal marketing.

Not all of you will succeed as shooters in the end… and that’s ok because you are going to give it your best and if it's not for you, there are a bunch of other related jobs you can do with your photography knowledge (retouchers, producers, agents, creative directors, photo editors, etc). In the end, the odds are against you, but if you are willing to work, plan, be strategic, and be true to yourself creatively…you may have a fighting chance to really make it! (Source: fstoppers.com)

Low Profits
Even if the sales are pretty high at your restaurant, and you are still not making a decent profit, it is time to review your reports. This time, however, look at the sales reports of the high-profit items. Chances are, the menu items that have a high-profit margin are not being sold enough. It means that the menu design has not been well thought of in terms of placing the items. Neither the soft-spots in your menu nor your decoys or highlights have been effectively used. All this makes visual aid through pictures or graphics (if present in a menu) redundant.
This is a tell-tale sign that you should repurpose your restaurant menu design. It is especially true when your restaurant is always full but still fails to generate enough revenue.

The unpopularity of Some Items
Contrary to the point mentioned above a sign that you need to change your menu design is also linked to the popularity of some specific items. While you may think there is no harm in having certain items in the menu that are not sold enough, over time it can potentially damage the business. For one, if certain menu items are not ordered, their ingredients may expire and you’d have to re-stock the ingredients only to have them wasted again. Also, you’d be losing out on the sale that a different menu item could be bringing in. You should always be on the lookout for new food trends and introduce innovations in your menu to attract customers.
If some items of your menu are unpopular to the limit that they are not ordered at all, you need to do some serious thinking about the way you have engineered your menu.

Poor Customer Feedback
Even if you have scrutinized your reports carefully, you still may not reach the conclusion why certain menu items are not selling enough. To gain this understanding, you should take your customers’ feedback. The best way to do this is through a digital feedback form that asks specific questions about the dishes that have been ordered by the customer. For instance, someone who ordered a pizza is prompted to review the pizza. The digitized feedback form documents the response, and over a period of time, if you get consistent poor ratings of the particular item, you can either look into the preparation method or consider taking it off the menu completely.

Wait-Staff Having to Play Interpreter
Your wait staff is what holds your restaurant’s performance together. If they are not as efficient because they have been spending more time at customer tables solving their orders, they are basically doing the menu’s job and this situation is nothing less than a time bomb waiting to explode. If your customers cannot decide what to order from the menu itself it means that the menu is not explanatory enough. It could be due to the fact that your menu lacks basic food descriptions, it is carelessly set and is chaotic and crumpled in the very least. A vast and complicated menu can also be a turnoff for customers making them choose the least priced items, or constantly asking the wait staff for recommendations.

High Food Costs
If your food costs are alarmingly high then it is time that you consider changing your restaurant menu. It is not just the high input cost that leads to escalating food costs. If a lot of food wastage is happening at your restaurant then you should cut down or replace certain items in your menu. It is always better to have menu items that have common ingredients that can be sourced locally and easily. Also, if the food cost is still high and the item is not selling that much, it is better to either change the placement of the item in the menu or remove it completely.
The purpose of a menu is to make sure that your customers can decide what they want and guiding them to the best dishes that you have got. If your menu is failing at this, these are the sure signs that you will most likely see. Our suggestion is, if 3 out of these 5 signs are a regular feature in your restaurant, it is time that you up your menu game!
(Source: www.posist.com)

Frozen Rose
Rose is still the reigning queen of all the summer wines, but this year the drink gets even more summery in frozen form. Like a sophisticated slushie, frozen rose, or frose is the perfect way to cool down with class this summer.
It’s a little work-intensive to make at home, but, luckily, this trend has spread far and wide, and you should be able to find it at one of your local restaurants.

Cloud Eggs
If you plan on a summer of endless brunches, consider digging into a beautiful dish of cloud eggs. Based on a centuries-old recipe, this fluffy food fad has emerged anew and is taking over breakfast. Making it at home is easy, and the recipe takes a little more work than your basic sunny-side-up. There are also plenty of restaurants serving different variations if you don’t feel like making it yourself, such as AlMar in Brooklyn, which calls its version “Eggs in a Cloud.”

Savory Ice Cream
It’s not summer unless there’s ice cream. But this year, skip the chocolate and vanilla and go for something a little more adventurous. In ice cream shops around the country, patrons are cleansing their palates with flavors like avocado, blue cheese, rosemary, basil, and garlic. You’ll find savory ice cream varieties ranging from pizza-flavored ice cream at Little Baby’s in Philadelphia to the foie gras specialty ice cream at Odd Fellows in New York City.

Buddha Bowls
Like acai bowls, Buddha bowls are a healthy alternative to the heavy and high-carb food that usually saturates the summer food scene. Buddha bowls are popular vegetarian dishes, usually involving some kind of combination of veggies, fruits, grains, and proteins like tofu or chickpeas. It’s a little bit of everything, thrown together and arranged so artfully that just looking at a photo of one might make you feel a little bit healthier. There are many different Buddha bowl recipes you can try at home, as well as numerous restaurants serving up these light, nutritious meals.

Sour Beer
In the ever-changing scene that is the craft beer world, summer shandies are out and sour beers are in. These highly acidic brews are tart but often fruity, which makes them a perfect refresher on a hot summer day. So next time you find yourself at the bar, ask if it has any sour beers on tap.

Source: www.smartertravel.com

To increase your intake:

- Add antioxidant-rich berries to your favorite breakfast cereal
- Eat a medley of sweet fruit—oranges, mangos, pineapple, grapes—for dessert
- Swap your usual rice or pasta side dish for a colorful salad
- Instead of eating processed snack foods, snack on vegetables such as carrots, snow peas, or cherry tomatoes along with a spicy hummus dip or peanut butter

How to make vegetables tasty

While plain salads and steamed veggies can quickly become bland, there are plenty of ways to add taste to your vegetable dishes.

Add color. Not only do brighter, deeper colored vegetables contain higher concentrations of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, but they can vary the flavor and make meals more visually appealing. Add color using fresh or sundried tomatoes, glazed carrots or beets, roasted red cabbage wedges, yellow squash, or sweet, colorful peppers.

Liven up salad greens. Branch out beyond lettuce. Kale, arugula, spinach, mustard greens, broccoli, and Chinese cabbage are all packed with nutrients. To add flavor to your salad greens, try drizzling with olive oil, adding a spicy dressing, or sprinkling with almond slices, chickpeas, a little bacon, parmesan, or goat cheese.

Satisfy your sweet tooth. Naturally sweet vegetables—such as carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, yams, onions, bell peppers, and squash—add sweetness to your meals and reduce your cravings for added sugar. Add them to soups, stews, or pasta sauces for a satisfying sweet kick.

Cook green beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and asparagus in new ways. Instead of boiling or steaming

Even so, many would find the prospect of living offline worrisome, or simply impossible. That’s why we undertook a small study with 50 people who may seem nothing less than social outcasts in today’s screen saturated environment. None of our participants used social media or had a mobile phone, and most even refused to email.

We wanted to understand why these people had decided to switch off, and how they managed it. But rather than seeking quick fixes for overuse, we explored the principles and values that drove our participants to live the way they do. Much has already been written about how we can switch off – but that won’t achieve much, unless we really feel the benefits.

Part of the problem with social networking platforms is that we don’t just use them for communicating – they also promote a particular way of being connected to and supportive of those around us. These interactions are channelled through the platform to create data, which is ultimately fed back to data brokers and marketers. (Source: thenextweb.com)

At its most powerful, the headphones can attenuate sound up to 40 dB. Turn the dial all the way around, and they actually provide a slight boost to ambient sound to better hear your environment – say, if you want to listen to music and still be aware of your surroundings.

Another four beam-forming microphones handle your voice during calls – Cortana is on board as well – while a dial on the opposite earcup controls volume. The cups are also touch sensitive for playback control. As for battery, the headphones are rated for 15 hours with Bluetooth and noise cancelling on. There’s a USB-C port for charging and a 3.5mm jack should the battery run out.

Hopefully all these fancy features translate to sound worth their price tag. Microsoft is using 40mm drivers ‘Free Edge’ drivers – relatively rare in the headphone world – but I’m concerned with the lack of any audiophile-oriented Bluetooth codecs. There’s no AptX, AAC, or LDAC, at least one of which I expect standard on $349 headphones. (Source: thenextweb.com)