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zattis · 11 months ago

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Sizable Security, Inc. (dp x dc thought)

With the ghost attacks at an all time low and the Infinite Realms blessedly calm, a twenty-something Danny Fenton decides to take care of his protection Obsession in a more mundane way: by becoming a bodyguard. A blessed late growth spurt meant that he inherited his father's height, though not his sheer bulk. Still, with an intimidating figure and his fighting knowledge, he figured that it wouldn't be an issue picking up a career as a "protection agent".

He hadn't expected all three (???) of his siblings to join him, starting a family business instead of joining a company that already existed.

Ellie had spent years on the road, traveling across the globe. It had fascinated her, of course, but she found herself missing her family. Going into security with him gave her the chance to go from place to place while being around someone she truly cared about.

Jazz ended up going along with it, rationalizing that keeping making clients feel secure was just as important as actually protecting them, and that she could still put her mind to good use. Not to mention her less chaotic demeanor meant she would usually be seen as the de facto leader of the group.

Then, somehow, Dan ended up joining them, turning their trio into a quartet. He said it was his parole opportunity to go along with them, and while he may relish in the chance to be aggressive, being around Jazz, Danny and Ellie kept him sane and opened him up to show genuine love, in his own way.

As it turns out, having four talented individuals on your payroll, all of whom have some degree of enhanced strength and senses, makes for an extremely valuable service. It also helps when no one in said group is shorter than six and a half feet tall.

Proud & Powerful Protection (the name was Ellie's idea) becomes an overnight sensation, developing a reputation for a 100% success rate and quickly getting booked by just about anyone who can afford them. As a matter of fact, two very wealthy, very public figures employ their services often, with both hoping to hire them full-time.

Lex Luthor sees the quartet as insurance for some of his most valuable employees and yet another one of his secret projects.

Bruce Wayne would rather they take care of his wards, since he's very tired of having to deal with kidnapping and extortion attempts.

Regardless, Jazz, Danny, Ellie and Dan look out for each other, and can pretty easily figure out when their employers aren't telling them everything.

#dp x dc #danny phantom #dc #danny fenton #tall jazz #jazz fenton #dani phantom #dan phantom #self indulgent #the fenton family genes go crazy

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mostlysignssomeportents · 9 months ago

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No, “convenience” isn’t the problem

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in CHICAGO (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Using Amazon, or Twitter, or Facebook, or Google, or Doordash, or Uber doesn't make you lazy. Platform capitalism isn't enshittifying because you made the wrong shopping choices.

Remember, the reason these corporations were able to capture such substantial market-share is that the capital markets saw them as a bet that they could lose money for years, drive out competition, capture their markets, and then raise prices and abuse their workers and suppliers without fear of reprisal. Investors were chasing monopoly power, that is, companies that are too big to fail, too big to jail, and too big to care:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

The tactics that let a few startups into Big Tech are illegal under existing antitrust laws. It's illegal for large corporations to buy up smaller ones before they can grow to challenge their dominance. It's illegal for dominant companies to merge with each other. "Predatory pricing" (selling goods or services below cost to prevent competitors from entering the market, or to drive out existing competitors) is also illegal. It's illegal for a big business to use its power to bargain for preferential discounts from its suppliers. Large companies aren't allowed to collude to fix prices or payments.

But under successive administrations, from Jimmy Carter through to Donald Trump, corporations routinely broke these laws. They explicitly and implicitly colluded to keep those laws from being enforced, driving smaller businesses into the ground. Now, sociopaths are just as capable of starting small companies as they are of running monopolies, but that one store that's run by a colossal asshole isn't the threat to your wellbeing that, say, Walmart or Amazon is.

All of this took place against a backdrop of stagnating wages and skyrocketing housing, health, and education costs. In other words, even as the cost of operating a small business was going up (when Amazon gets a preferential discount from a key supplier, that supplier needs to make up the difference by gouging smaller, weaker retailers), Americans' disposable income was falling.

So long as the capital markets were willing to continue funding loss-making future monopolists, your neighbors were going to make the choice to shop "the wrong way." As small, local businesses lost those customers, the costs they had to charge to make up the difference would go up, making it harder and harder for you to afford to shop "the right way."

In other words: by allowing corporations to flout antimonopoly laws, we set the stage for monopolies. The fault lay with regulators and the corporate leaders and finance barons who captured them – not with "consumers" who made the wrong choices. What's more, as the biggest businesses' monopoly power grew, your ability to choose grew ever narrower: once every mom-and-pop restaurant in your area fires their delivery drivers and switches to Doordash, your choice to order delivery from a place that payrolls its drivers goes away.

Monopolists don't just have the advantage of nearly unlimited access to the capital markets – they also enjoy the easy coordination that comes from participating in a cartel. It's easy for five giant corporations to form conspiracies because five CEOs can fit around a single table, which means that some day, they will:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/18/cursed-are-the-sausagemakers/#how-the-parties-get-to-yes

By contrast, "consumers" are atomized – there are millions of us, we don't know each other, and we struggle to agree on a course of action and stick to it. For "consumers" to make a difference, we have to form institutions, like co-ops or buying clubs, or embark on coordinated campaigns, like boycotts. Both of these tactics have their place, but they are weak when compared to monopoly power.

Luckily, we're not just "consumers." We're also citizens who can exercise political power. That's hard work – but so is organizing a co-op or a boycott. The difference is, when we dog enforcers who wield the power of the state, and line up behind them when they start to do their jobs, we can make deep structural differences that go far beyond anything we can make happen as consumers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

We're not just "consumers" or "citizens" – we're also workers, and when workers come together in unions, they, too, can concentrate the diffuse, atomized power of the individual into a single, powerful entity that can hold the forces of capital in check:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

And all of these things work together; when regulators do their jobs, they protect workers who are unionizing:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks/#if-blood-be-the-price-of-your-cursed-wealth

And strong labor power can force cartels to abandon their plans to rig the market so that every consumer choice makes them more powerful:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/

And when consumers can choose better, local, more ethical businesses at competitive rates, those choices can make a difference:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/10/view-a-sku/

Antimonopoly policy is the foundation for all forms of people-power. The very instant corporations become too big to fail, jail or care is the instant that "voting with your wallet" becomes a waste of time.

Sure, choose that small local grocery, but everything on their shelves is going to come from the consumer packaged-goods duopoly of Procter and Gamble and Unilever. Sure, hunt down that local brand of potato chips that you love instead of P&G or Unilever's brand, but if they become successful, either P&G or Unilever will buy them out, and issue a press release trumpeting the purchase, saying "We bought out this beloved independent brand and added it to our portfolio because we know that consumers value choice."

If you're going to devote yourself to solving the collective action problem to make people-power work against corporations, spend your precious time wisely. As Zephyr Teachout writes in Break 'Em Up, don't miss the protest march outside the Amazon warehouse because you spent two hours driving around looking for an independent stationery so you could buy the markers and cardboard to make your anti-Amazon sign without shopping on Amazon:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break-em-up

When blame corporate power on "laziness," we buy into the corporations' own story about how they came to dominate our lives: we just prefer them. This is how Google explains away its 90% market-share in search: we just chose Google. But we didn't, not really – Google spends tens of billions of dollars every single year buying up the search-box on every website, phone, and operating system:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Blaming "laziness" for corporate dominance also buys into the monopolists' claim that the only way to have convenient, easy-to-use services is to cede power to them. Facebook claims it's literally impossible for you to carry on social relations with the people that matter to you without also letting them spy on you. When we criticize people for wanting to hang out online with the people they love, we send the message that they need to choose loneliness and isolation, or they will be complicit in monopoly.

The problem with Google isn't that it lets you find things. The problem with Facebook isn't that it lets you talk to your friends. The problem with Uber isn't that it gets you from one place to another without having to stand on a corner waving your arm in the air. The problem with Amazon isn't that it makes it easy to locate a wide variety of products. We should stop telling people that they're wrong to want these things, because a) these things are good; and b) these things can be separated from the monopoly power of these corporate bullies:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/08/divisibility/#technognosticism

Remember the Napster Wars? The music labels had screwed over musicians and fans. 80 percent of all recorded music wasn't offered for sale, and the labels cooked the books to make it effectively impossible for musicians to earn out their advances. Napster didn't solve all of that (though they did offer $15/user/month to the labels for a license to their catalogs), but there were many ways in which it was vastly superior to the system it replaced.

The record labels responded by suing tens of thousands of people, mostly kids, but also dead people and babies and lots of other people. They demanded an end to online anonymity and a system of universal surveillance. They wanted every online space to algorithmically monitor everything a user posted and delete anything that might be a copyright infringement.

These were the problems with the music cartel: they suppressed the availability of music, screwed over musicians, carried on a campaign of indiscriminate legal terror, and lobbied effectively for a system of ubiquitous, far-reaching digital surveillance and control:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/02/nonbinary-families/#red-envelopes

You know what wasn't a problem with the record labels? The music. The music was fine. Great, even.

But some of the people who were outraged with the labels' outrageous actions decided the problem was the music. Their answer wasn't to merely demand better copyright laws or fairer treatment for musicians, but to demand that music fans stop listening to music from the labels. Somehow, they thought they could build a popular movement that you could only join by swearing off popular music.

That didn't work. It can't work. A popular movement that you can only join by boycotting popular music will always be unpopular. It's bad tactics.

When we blame "laziness" for tech monopolies, we send the message that our friends have to choose between life's joys and comforts, and a fair economic system that doesn't corrupt our politics, screw over workers, and destroy small, local businesses. This isn't true. It's a lie that monopolists tell to justify their abuse. When we repeat it, we do monopolists' work for them – and we chase away the people we need to recruit for the meaningful struggles to build worker power and political power.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/12/give-me-convenience/#or-give-me-death

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #enshittification #victim blaming #convenience #a la carte

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softerseasons · 2 months ago

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Juno, out of curiosity, what does an accountant DO? What does it mean to be one? Because I know there's math involved. I've heard it's very boring. But I don't know anything else and I'm curious because you're very good at putting things to words.

Okay first of all, I cannot express just how excited I got when I first saw this message. There is nothing I love more than talking about things I know about, and usually when my career is mentioned I don't get questions so much as immediate "Oh, bless you" and "I could never"s. Which- totally fair! For some people, accounting would be boring as all hell! But for a multitude of reasons, I adore it.

There are multiple types of accounting. The type most people tend to be more familiar with is that done by CPAs- CPAs, or Certified Public Accountants, are those that have done the lengthy and expensive process to be certified to handle other peoples' tax documents and submit taxes in their name, amongst other things. Yawn, taxes, right? Well, the thing with that is that there's a lot of little loopholes that tax accountants have to remain familiar with, because saving their clients a little more here or getting a little more back there can really add up, and can do a lot for people who, say, have enough money to afford to hire someone to do their taxes but not necessarily enough to be going hog wild with. Public accountants can work for large firms or by themselves, and also do things like preparing financial statements for businesses, auditing businesses to ensure all of their financial transactions are true and accurately reported to shareholders and clients, and consulting on how finances can be managed to maximize revenue (money in - money out = revenue, in very simple terms).

The type of accounting I do is private accounting! That basically just means that I work for a company in their in-house accounting/finance department. Private accounting tends to get split up into several different areas. My company has Payroll, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable.

Payroll handles everyone's paychecks, PTO, ensuring the correct amount of taxes are withheld from individuals per their desires, and so on. Accounts Receivable handles money flow into the company- so when our company sells the product/service, our Accounts Receivable people are the ones who review the work, create the invoices, send the invoices to the clients, remind clients about overdue invoices, receive incoming payments via ACH (Automatic Clearing House- direct bank-to-bank deposits), Wire (Usually used for international transactions), or Check, and prepare statements that show how much revenue we are expected to gain in a period of time, or have gained in a period of time. This requires a lot of interfacing with clients and project managers.

My department is Accounts Payable. Accounts Payable does basically the other side of the coin from what Accounts Receivable does. We work mostly with vendors and our purchasing/receiving departments. We receive invoices from people and companies that have sold us products/services we need in order to make our own products/perform our services, enter them into our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning, a system that integrates the departments in a company together- there are many different ERPs, and most people simply refer to their ERP as "the system" when talking internally to other employees of the same company that they work at, because saying the name of the system is redundant) using a set of codes that automatically places the costs into appropriate groups to be referenced for later financial reports, and run the payment processing to ensure that the vendors are being paid.

To break that down because I know that was a lot of words, here's some things I do in my day-to-day at work:

- Reconciliations, making sure two different statements match up: the most common one is Credit Card reconciliations, ensuring that there are appropriately coded entries in the system that match the payments made on our credit line in our bank.

- Invoice entry: this is basic data entry, for the most part. This can have two different forms, though

- Purchase Order Invoice entry: Invoices that are matched both to the service/product provided from the vendor and the purchase order created by our Purchasing/Receiving department. We ensure that the item, the quantity, and the price all match between our records, the purchase order, and the invoice, before we enter this.

- Hard Coded Invoice entry: Invoices that we enter manually due to there being no Purchase Order for them. This is often recurring services, like cleaning or repairs, that may happen too often or have prices vary too much for Purchase Orders to be practical.

- Cleaning up old purchase orders: sometimes Purchase Orders are put in the system and then never fulfilled. Because this shows on financial statements as being a long-standing open commitment, it looks bad, so we have to periodically research these and find out if the vendor simply didn't send us the invoice, if the order was cancelled, or if something else is going on.

- Forensics! This is my personal favorite part of the job, where someone has massively borked something that is affecting my work, and so I go dig into it, sometimes going back as four or five years in records to find the origin point of the first mistake, and untangling the threads of what happened following that mistake to get us to where we are today. There's an entire field called Forensic Accounting that is basically just doing This but for other companies (it's a subset of auditing, and often is done via the IRS) and that's my dream position to be totally honest. I loooove the dopamine hit i get with solving the mystery and getting praised for doing so faster than anyone else has even begun to realize the problem to start with.

- Balancing Credits/Debits: This is more of a Main Accountant role thing, but the long and short of it is that every business has Assets, Liabilities, and Equity. Liabilities and Equity are what we put into the company/what we owe, and assets are what we have received/what we are owed. Anything that increases Assets or lowers Liabilities or Equity is a Debit. Anything that decreases Assets or raises Liabilities or Equity is a Credit. Every monetary change we process has to include an equal Debit and Credit. This is its own whole lecture, so if you wanna know more about double-entry accounting, let me know, but it's yawnsville for most people.

- Actually cutting checks or initiating bank payments to vendors for amounts we owe them.

- Vendor communication: I'm on the phones and email a lot with vendors who are wondering where their payment is, or why something was short-paid, or if I can change some of their info in our system, and so on and so on. Every job is customer service, unfortunately. I don't love it, but I do a lot less of it in private accounting than I would have to do in public accounting.

- Spreadsheets: I make so many spreadsheets I am a goddamn Excel wizard. I love spreadsheets. This isn't necessarily accounting-specific though, most people in Finance jobs love spreadsheets, or at least use them to make their lives easier. I make them just for fun, because I'm a giant fucking nerd who finds that kind of thing enjoyable lol. So if you ever need a spreadsheet made for anything, hit me up.

As for math, that's a pretty common misconception. While there is math, it is very rarely more complicated than "I paid $3 of the $8 I owe, now I owe $5" for me. There are some formulas you learn in school (Business Administration with a focus in Accounting is what I studied), but they're also pretty standard and rarely include more than like... basic algebra. Which. Thanks @ god because I flunked so hard out of pre-calc in college. I could not have done accounting if it really were all that math heavy.

Aaaand yeah! That's all I've got off the top of my head- if you have any more questions about it, do let me know, I'm happy to ramble on for hours, but I'm cutting it here so I don't start meandering on without direction lol.

#juno's musings #velvetvexations #accounting

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robertreich · 1 year ago

Video

youtube

Why Does Flying Suck so Much?

You might not believe this, but I’m old enough to remember when flying was fun.

Now I'm sure you've got your own airline horror stories, which I hope you’ll share. But what happened to make flying such a nightmare?

The answer is simple: the same things happening across most industries. In fact, a close look at airlines reveals five of the biggest problems with our economy.

Number 1: Consolidation means fewer choices.

While there were once many more airlines, a series of mergers and acquisitions over the last three decades has left only four in control of about 80% of the market.

This kind of consolidation has been happening all over the economy. For example, four companies now control 80% of all beef production, and two control over 60% of all paper products. This lack of competition has led to:

Number 2: Companies Charging More for Less

Even before recent airfare spikes, air travel was getting more expensive because of new fees for things that used to be free, like in-flight meals, checked bags, or even carry-ons.

Spirit Airlines even charges $25 to print your boarding pass at a ticket counter! It’s just a piece of paper!

One of the ugliest ad-ons is the fee some airlines charge for families to sit together. That doesn’t even cost them anything!

Airlines are leading an economy-wide trend of adding often unexpected new charges to goods and services without adding value.

And you’re getting less in return. Airlines have cut an estimated 8 inches of legroom and two inches of seat width in the last two decades. Doesn’t bother me (I’m short), but many of you may feel the squeeze.

This parallels other industries where you’re paying more for less — just look at how cereal boxes, rolls of toilet paper, and candy bars are all shrinking.

Number 3: Exploiting Workers

While their jobs have become more difficult, many flight attendants haven’t had a raise in years.

And a lot of their hardest work is totally unpaid, because most flight attendants don’t get paid during the boarding process. They’re off the clock until the plane’s doors close.

And if the flight is delayed, those are often extra hours for no extra money.

Again, this mirrors trends in the overall economy, where too many workers are pushed into unpaid overtime or made to do work or be on call during their off hours.

Number 4: The Illusion of Scarcity

Airlines pretend they have no choice but to raise prices, cut services, and limit payroll. But their profits are in the stratosphere. In the five years before the pandemic, the top 5 airlines were flush enough to pay shareholders $45 billion, largely through stock buybacks.

During the pandemic, they got a $54 billion bailout from taxpayers (you’re welcome).

In the years since, they’ve resumed flying high, with nearly $10 billion in net profit expected across the industry in 2023. They can afford to take care of workers and customers.

Whether it’s multi-millionaire movie moguls pretending they can’t afford to pay writers or a grocery chain blaming “inflation” for high prices while raking in record profits, this illusion of scarcity is a sham.

Number 5: Misdirected Rage

Instead of being mad at the people at the top, we’ve been tricked into being mad at each other. Fights have broken out over whether it’s ok to recline a seat or who gets overhead bin space. But reclining’s only an issue because airlines intentionally put the seats too close together. And bin space is only running out because they’ve made it expensive to check bags — and also risky, with the rate of lost bags doubling over the last year.

Airlines are pitting us against each other the same way billionaires and their political lackeys pit groups against each other in society, hoping we’ll blame unions or immigrants or people of other races or religions or gender identities for why it’s so hard to get ahead, and that we won’t notice how much wealth and power is in the hands of so few.

So what do we do?

A lot of these problems could be solved with tougher antitrust enforcement — which we are starting to see. The Justice Dept is suing to block JetBlue from buying Spirit Airlines. We need that kind of anti-monopoly protection across the board.

Another part of the solution is unions. Airline workers are among the wave of American workers organizing to demand better pay and working conditions.

And then there’s your power as an informed consumer. Companies get away with bad behavior when we accept their excuses that there’s just no other way to run a business. They’re counting on us not knowing what’s really going on. So share this video, and share your airline stories in the comments.

Finally, try to be a little nicer to service workers and your fellow passengers — on planes and in life. After all, we’re all on this journey together.

#youtube #videos #video #airlines #flying #travel #economics #politics

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galaxygolfergirl · 8 months ago

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Watcher's Expenses

I didn't major in accounting: I took three classes and it grinded my brain to a fine powder. However, after graduating with a business admin degree, being a former eager fan of their videos, and from a cursory glance over their socials, there's a lot to consider in their spending behavior that really could start racking up costs. Some of these things we've already noticed, but there are other things I'd like to highlight, and I'll try to break it down into the different categories of accounting expenses (if I get something wrong, let me know. I was more concentrated in marketing 🤷‍♀️). I'm not going to hypothesize numbers either, as that would take out more time than I'm willing to afford-- you can assume how much everything costs. Anyways, here's my attempt at being a layman forensic accountant:

Note: All of this is assuming they're operating above board and not engaging in any illegal practices such as money laundering, tax evasion, not paying rent, etc.

Operating Expenses

Payroll: 25+ staff salaries and insurance

Overhead Expenses

CEO/founder salaries

Office space leasing or rent (In L.A, one of the most expensive cities in the US)

Utilities (water, electricity, heating, sanitation, etc.)

Insurance

Advertising Costs

Telephone & Internet service

Cloud Storage or mainframe

Office equipment (furniture, computers, printers, etc.)

Office supplies (paper, pens, printer ink, etc.)

Marketing costs (Social media marketing on Instagram, Youtube, SEO for search engines, Twitter, etc. Designing merchandise and posters, art, etc. )

Human Resources (not sure how equipped they are)

Accounting fees

Property taxes

Legal fees

Licensing fees

Website maintenance (For Watchertv.com, Watcherstuff.com, & Watcherentertainment.com)

Expenses regarding merchandising (whoever they contract or outsource for that)

Inventory costs

Potentially maintenance of company vehicles

Subsequent gas mileage for road trips

Depreciation (pertains to tangible assets like buildings and equipment)

Amortization (intangible assets such as patents and trademarks)

Overhead Travel and Entertainment Costs (I think one of the biggest culprits, evident in their videos and posts)

The travel expenses (flights, train trips, rental cars, etc. For main team and scouts)

Hotel expenses for 7-8 people at least, or potentially more

Breakfasts, lunches and dinners with the crew (whether that's fully on their dime or not, I don't know; Ryan stated they like to cover that for the most part)

Recreational activities (vacation destinations, amusement parks, sporting activities etc.)

The location fees

Extraneous Overhead costs (not sure exactly where these fall under, but another culprit, evident in videos and posts)

Paying for guest appearances

Expensive filming & recording equipment (Cameras, sound equipment, editing software subscriptions, etc.)

The overelaborate sets for Ghost files, Mystery Files, Puppet History, Podcasts etc. (Set dressing: Vintage memorabilia, antiquated tech, vintage furniture, props, etc.)

Kitchen & Cooking supplies/equipment

Office food supply; expensive food and drink purchases for videos

Novelty items or miscellaneous purchases (ex. Ghost hunting equipment, outfits, toys, etc.)

Non-Operating Expenses

These are those expenses that cannot be linked back to operating revenue. One of the most common examples of non-operating expenses is interest expense. This is because while interest is the cost of borrowing money from a creditor or a bank, they are not generating any operating income. This makes interest payments a part of non-operating expenses.

Financial Expenses

Potential loan payments, borrowing from creditors or lenders, bank loans, etc.

Variable Expenses

Hiring a large amount of freelancers, overtime expenditure, commissions, etc.

PR consultations (Not sure if they had this before the scandal)

Extraordinary Expenses

Expenses incurred outside your company’s regular business activities and during a large one-time event or transactions. For example, selling land, disposal of a significant asset, laying off of your employees, unexpected machine repairing or replacement, etc.

Accrued Expenses

When your business has incurred an expense but not yet paid for it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(If there's anything else I'm missing, please feel free to add or correct things)

To a novice or a young entrepreneur, this can be very intimidating if you don't have the education or the support to manage it properly. I know it intimidates the hell out of me and I'm still having to fill in the gaps (again, if I've mislabeled or gotten anything wrong here, please let me know). For the artistic or creative entrepreneur, it can be even harder to reconcile the extent of your creative passions with your ability to operate and scale your business at a sustainable rate. That can lead to irresponsible, selfish, and impulsive decisions that could irreparably harm your brand, which is a whole other beast of its own.

My guess at this point is that their overhead and operation expenses are woefully mismanaged; they've made way too many extraneous purchases, and that they had too much confidence in their audience of formerly 2.93 million to make up for the expenses they failed to cover.

It almost seems as if their internal logic was, "If we make more money, we can keep living the expensive lifestyle that we want and make whatever we want without anyone telling us we can't, and we want to do it NOW, sooner rather than later because we don't want wait and compromise our vision." But as you can see, the reality of fulfilling those ambitions is already compromised by the responsibility of running a business.

And I wrote this in another post here, but I'll state it again: Running a business means you need to be educated on how a business can successfully and efficiently operate. Accounting, marketing, social media marketing, public relations, production, etc; these resources and internet of things is available and at your disposal. If they had invested more time in educating themselves on those aspects and not made this decision based on artistic passion (and/or greed), they would have not gotten the response they got.

Being a graphic designer, I know the creative/passionate side of things but I also got a degree/got educated in business because I wanted to understand how to start a company and run it successfully. If they’re having trouble handling the responsibility of doing that, managing production costs, managing overhead expenses, and especially with compensating their 25+ employees, then they should hire professionals that are sympathetic to their creative interests, but have the education and experience to reign in bad decisions like these.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TedTalk. What a shitshow this has been.

#watcher #watcher entertainment #ryan bergara #shane madej #steven lim #watcher tv #watchergate #accounting

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andreilslovechild · 4 months ago

Note

Could you do The Second Butcher for wip Wednesday?

The Second Butcher Pt 2

Nathaniel had been bored lately. So very very bored. So the next time he sets out, he decides to get creative. He finds a deserving man, rigs him up, and takes his sweet sweet time. He carves pattern after intricate pattern, making sure to leave the skin attached to the muscle so it doesn't fall off, and he uses his blood to paint another mural behind him. He leaves him hung up and spread out in the center of his masterpiece. He usually likes to put his displays elsewhere but he could afford to lose one warehouse, and the police were mostly on his payroll anyway.

He's just getting ready to anonymously report it as he usually does when he hears a low whistle from behind him.

As he turns he sees a man just slightly shorter than himself, well-built, with blonde hair just long enough to begin curling, and piercings that pull at his lips as he gives a sardonic smile. He's all in black as if it's the fashion colour of the day. Nathaniel prefers red himself. He raises an eyebrow at the man, who finally speaks in a low husky timbre, a smoker then.

"Quite a piece of work here. How much time you spend on him?"

"A fair few hours"

The man nods and looks around. "I'm almost not sad I lost him to you. Been hunting him down for forever."

Nathaniel's eyebrow climbs higher. "Oh?"

The blonde smirks and seems to sink into his casual stance even more so. "Maryland Monster at your service"

The name peaks Nathaniel's interest. Hes heard it floating around here or there. Even admired a few crime scene photos. The Monster knew his fair share of crime scenes and often left convoluted threads of information at his own, which were supposed to lead authorities to the victims of his victims. It was all quite intriguing if Nathaniel was telling the truth. Not that the cops had figured it out. So he tries on his father's smile and responds.

"Butcher of Baltimore. Charmed."

#aftg #all for the game #alternate universe #andrew minyard #neil josten #wellspring wednesday ask #8/14/24 wellspring wednesday #may or may not have based andrew off of the orb weaver from butcher and blackbird #10/10 books btw #highly recommend #but yeah #their friends now #maybe fucking #havent decided yet #but andrew will absolutely live up to his name #alcs aus

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mytheetarecold · 11 months ago

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Quick chibi token to use on roll20 of my modded Calendula (Minotaur) frame, RESOLVER. Pilot Kirin Delastre, callsign PROMISE, the code monkey in our party.

Former counter-intelligence for the Second Committee, Kirin Delastre went into cold sleep to be shuttled in a long multi-transfer journey between workplaces. Unfortunately, when his pod arrived to one of the stations along the way, said station had just changed hands. With the shuffle of new administration, a few normally harmless logistic delays and changes in the paperwork pipeline combined with successive physical rearrangements and expansions to the station resulted in the perfect storm that kept the next leg of Kirin's journey pending indefinitely.

Hundreds of years later, civil war had seen to it that Sec Com was no more, and the galaxy was brought into a more peaceful era by the Third Committee. Looking for salvage for areas out of operation, workers at the station chanced on a forgotten section sealed from all sides, and found Kirin's pod with him still alive in it. To add to the horror story, his prolonged long sleep resulted in Post-Cryogenic Hypersensitivity Disorder, or PCHD; a rare health condition. Symptoms include hypersensitivity to most sensory input, resulting in over-stimulation. He has been working to build a new career as well as afford better treatment.

Recently, Kirin was chanced upon by members of the Mirror Smoke Mercenary Company. Poking around their dossiers for salary information to investigate employment prospects, he realized that one of them was a Union outlaw- and that in putting those feelers out on the Omninet, he may have alerted them to his current location and place of employment. Out of guilt for potential consequences, and also in the hopes of getting in on what turned out to be a great payroll, he's offered his services to the mercenaries for their upcoming mission.

#lancer #lancerrpg #calendula #mech #chibi #chibi mech #mecha #art #kirin #operation penumbra

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hireanydomain · 6 days ago

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Running a small business? Get tailored payroll services in India that are affordable, efficient, and scalable for your growth needs!

Visit: https://hireinanydomain.com/hire-payroll-experts/

#Payroll Processing Companies in India #Payroll Processing Outsourcing Firm in India #Payroll Processing Services India #Payroll Service Companies in India #Payroll Service Providers India #Payroll Services for Small Business India #Payroll Services Pricing India #Professional Payroll Outsourcing India #Affordable Payroll Services #Outsource Payroll India #Payroll Experts India #Business Payroll Solutions #Small Business Payroll India

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xettle-technologies · 15 days ago

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How Payout Solutions Drive Financial Inclusion Across Developing Economies ?

Financial inclusion is a critical driver of economic development, particularly in developing economies where access to traditional banking services remains a significant challenge. Payout solutions are emerging as transformative tools to bridge this gap, offering innovative ways to empower underserved populations and integrate them into the financial ecosystem. This article explores how payout solutions contribute to financial inclusion, their benefits, and the role of digital innovation in achieving these goals.

Understanding Payout Solutions

Payout solutions refer to systems and technologies designed to facilitate seamless, secure, and efficient payments to individuals or businesses. These solutions include a wide range of services, such as:

Payroll disbursements

Social benefit payments

Gig economy payouts

Cross-border remittances

By leveraging payout solutions, organizations can ensure timely and accurate disbursement of funds, even in areas with limited access to traditional banking infrastructure.

The Importance of Financial Inclusion in Developing Economies

Financial inclusion means providing individuals and businesses access to affordable and useful financial products and services, including payments, savings, credit, and insurance. It is vital for economic growth, as it:

Empowers Individuals: Access to financial services enables individuals to save, invest, and plan for the future.

Boosts Economic Participation: Financial inclusion integrates more people into the economy, fostering entrepreneurship and innovation.

Reduces Inequality: It narrows the gap between the privileged and underserved populations by offering equal opportunities for financial growth.

However, traditional banking systems often fall short in developing economies due to factors like limited infrastructure, high operating costs, and lack of financial literacy. Here, payout solutions offer a practical alternative.

How Payout Solutions Drive Financial Inclusion

Reaching Remote Areas Payout solutions utilize digital tools to overcome geographic barriers. Mobile-based applications and point-of-sale systems enable individuals in remote regions to access funds without needing a physical bank branch. For instance, farmers can receive subsidy payments directly into their mobile wallets, eliminating the need to travel long distances.

Enabling Faster Transactions Instant payout solutions are critical for individuals relying on timely income, such as gig workers or daily wage earners. These solutions use real-time digital solutions to ensure payments are processed instantly, helping users meet their immediate needs.

Reducing Costs Traditional banking often involves high transaction fees, making it inaccessible for low-income populations. Payout solutions streamline the process and reduce costs by leveraging digital infrastructure, making financial services more affordable.

Enhancing Security By employing secure technologies such as encryption and biometric authentication, payout solutions minimize fraud and ensure the safe transfer of funds. This builds trust among users, encouraging wider adoption.

Promoting Financial Literacy Many payout solutions integrate user-friendly platforms and educational tools to help individuals understand financial services better. This fosters confidence and encourages users to explore other financial products, such as savings accounts and microloans.

Digital Solutions Powering Payout Innovations

The role of digital solutions in advancing payout systems cannot be overstated. Technologies like mobile banking, blockchain, and artificial intelligence have revolutionized the way funds are distributed and accessed. For instance:

Mobile Wallets: These are at the forefront of digital payment solutions, enabling individuals without bank accounts to receive and spend money using their mobile devices.

Blockchain Technology: Secure and transparent, blockchain facilitates cross-border payouts with minimal fees, benefiting migrant workers sending money home.

AI and Data Analytics: These tools optimize payout processes by identifying patterns and reducing inefficiencies, ensuring smooth transactions.

Companies like Xettle Technologies are pioneering these digital innovations by providing custom payout solutions tailored to the unique needs of developing economies. Their platforms combine advanced security features with user-friendly interfaces, enabling a seamless experience for both individuals and businesses.

Case Studies: Payout Solutions in Action

Social Benefit Disbursements in India The Indian government’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme leverages payout solutions to deposit welfare payments directly into beneficiaries’ accounts. This has reduced leakages and ensured funds reach the intended recipients.

Gig Economy Payments in Africa In Africa, mobile payment systems like M-Pesa facilitate payouts for gig workers, enabling them to access their earnings instantly. This has been instrumental in empowering freelancers and small business owners.

Cross-Border Remittances in Southeast Asia Migrant workers in Southeast Asia rely on digital payout solutions to send money home. These solutions are faster and cheaper than traditional remittance methods, allowing families to access funds quickly.

Challenges and Opportunities

While payout solutions hold immense promise, certain challenges persist, such as:

Limited Digital Infrastructure: Many regions lack the internet connectivity needed to support digital solutions.

Regulatory Barriers: Complex regulations can hinder the deployment of payout systems.

Low Financial Literacy: Many individuals remain unaware of how to use payout solutions effectively.

Addressing these challenges requires collaboration between governments, financial institutions, and technology providers. By investing in infrastructure, streamlining regulations, and promoting financial education, stakeholders can unlock the full potential of payout solutions.

Conclusion

Payout solutions are a cornerstone of financial inclusion in developing economies, offering accessible, affordable, and secure ways to distribute funds. By leveraging digital solutions and collaborating with innovators like Xettle Technologies, organizations can create impactful systems that empower individuals and drive economic growth. As technology continues to advance, the role of payout solutions in fostering an inclusive financial ecosystem will only grow stronger.

#payment solutions #payment gateway #marketing

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