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Life can be unpredictable, overwhelming, and just plain difficult. It’s often hard to find balance and easy to lose focus. Mindfulness meditation can help.
Anyone can practice mindfulness meditation — no app required. However, a quality meditation app can help people who are new to the practice reframe their mindset and build healthier habits. We talked to seven experts, researched 29 meditation apps, and tested 19 of them. We found that Insight Timer offers the best overall experience.
With its expansive free library, this easy-to-navigate app includes guided meditations, podcast episodes, yoga instruction, and music tracks. A welcoming beginners course helps newcomers get started.
7 tips for CPG brands to handle deductions and chargebacks
New Hope Network
Billing mistakes happen. CPG brands need a reliable system for quickly reviewing payments and identifying incorrect deductions. The best way to minimize issues is to be proactive by partnering with an accounting firm, using a dedicated software program or hiring a trade spend and deductions specialist.
Here’s how CPG founders are managing deductions and recovering chargebacks.
Minnesota is sometimes called “The Bold North,” a place of innovation, ingenuity and solidarity. It’s home to 10,000 lakes and a slew of corporate headquarters.
There’s a feeling, no matter, the industry or idea, there’s room for transformation and alteration. That’s created a pipeline for natural and organic CPG startups. Backed by funding and a collaborative start-up culture, it’s fueled research and innovation.
“Exploration and willingness to try new things is very high here,” said Allison Hohn, executive director of Naturally Minnesota. That’s helped brands like Seven Sundays, JonnyPops, So Good So You and Lovebird Cereal get started here.
How retailers can prepare for FDA’s Food Traceability Rule
NEW Hope Network
Like many retailers, Jacob Vincent, associate director of merchandising at Hanover Co-op Food Stores, is grappling with how section 204(d) of the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) will impact his company. “We are still learning a lot about this,” says Vincent. who purchases from over 300 different vendors for the New Hampshire retailer. “We've attended a couple of webinars. It is overwhelming to think about.”
Many in the industry feel the same way. With slightly more than year left until the Jan. 20, 2026, compliance deadline, time is running out for companies to figure things out.
Many in the industry feel the same way. With slightly more than year left until the Jan. 20, 2026, compliance deadline, time is running out for companies to figure things out
7 Ways to Compete With Private-Label Brands
New Hope Network
As more consumers and retailers shift their focus and shelf space, respectively, towards private-label products, plenty of small businesses have been left wondering how they can best compete and stay relevant.
Any new food or startup is already an inherently better product line than a private label because the founders are trying to solve a problem they usually inherently understand, says Rob Lowe, co-founder of Hungry Harry’s, a Chicago-based company makes allergen-friendly line of baking mixes.
“When a founder sells something it’s done with a passion that’s unmatched by larger companies so that’s something that puts you ahead of the game,” he says.
The New York Times
Hacked? Don’t just run around in a panic, consciously uncouple your email accounts.
How B Corps Can Address Racial Inequities in the Workplace
New Hope Network
Anthea Kelsick, Co-CEO of B Lab U.S. and Canada, knows how difficult it is to navigate workplaces where diversity isn’t valued or emphasized enough.
“As a Black woman it has not been easy to be in predominantly white spaces for the entirety of my career,” says Kelsick, who has a BA in psychology from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “When that occurs, you are inherently in environments that are not inclusive of your experience.”
3 Investment Strategies to Tackle Climate Change
U.S. News & World Report
Financial advisors say more investors want to make sustainable choices.
As coronavirus infections increase nationwide, many owners are still grappling with how to operate their businesses, keep their workers safe and comply with federal, state and local laws.
There’s a lot to navigate.
Eric Swan, an attorney with Lathrop GPM in Kansas City, Missouri, who handles civil litigation for personal injury defense claims for Fortune 500 companies, says businesses need to start preparing for more employee and third-party claims against their businesses.
“For the most part it’s a hodge-podge list of city, county or state ordinances telling employers what they should do, some of which are based on industry or type of business,” says David Barron, a Houston-based labor and employment attorney at Cozen O’Connor.
Industry Veterans Offer Up Words of Wisdom for Times of Crisis
NEw Hope Network
With the natural food industry grappling on how to manage their businesses in the middle of coronavirus, many industry leaders gathered for a town hall webinar to collaborate on potential solutions.
4 Ways to Become A Better Investor
U.S. News & World Report
No one becomes a savvy investor overnight. The best investors are always learning about investing. What's more, these investors recognize that every investment comes with a built-in trade-off.
What is a Registered Investment Advisor?
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
A financial advisor who isn't earning commissions can help develop a strong investing future.
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
How to Invest in the Internet of Things
U.S. News & World Report
How to Invest in Equity Crowdfunding
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
Options: most financial experts either love them or hate them.
"Many certified financial planners would not touch options with a 15-foot pole," says Barbara Kay, who coaches financial experts around the country via her certified woman business enterprise in Wheaton, Illinois.
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
8 Investing Lessons From NFL Players
U.S. News & World REport
8 Tips for Achieving Work-Life Balance
REjuvenate Magazine
FoodService Director Magazine
So You've Got a Great Business Idea
TIME OUT CHICAGO MAGAZINE
How to Keep Your Warehouse Clean and Operational During COVID-19
New Hope Network
Unlike many companies, Pure Synergy, a privately held, family-owned and operated organic supplement company headquartered in Moab, Utah, usually keeps a six-month supply of raw materials to fulfill orders.
That’s in addition to a six- to nine-month supply of finished inventory.
As a result, when COVID-19 hit, Pure Synergy was more prepared than most.
10 Budget-Friendly Recommendations for Strengthening a Chain
Restaurant Business
How to Plan a Convention in the Great Lakes Region
Connect Magazine
How Ripple Was Able to Get Into Big-Box Retailers Like Target
New Hope Network
When Adam Lowry initially launched Ripple Foods in Target and Whole Foods Market in 2016 the pea-protein dairy alternative company only had four SKUs for its 48-ounce Ripple Milks. In three years, Ripple has expanded into eight product lines and 26 individual SKUs—half of all SKUs were launched in 2019—as the company has scaled into a brand available in over 13,000 retailers in the U.S. and Canada.
How to Host a Live Cooking Demo at Your Event
Connect Magazine
Culture of Collaboration: Q&A with Jason Fried
Connect Magazine
Orange Magazine
CONNECT MAGAZINE
Although weak consumer spending and a slow economic recovery have hampered growth for many American businesses in recent years, the franchise sector is gradually growing.
How to Create a Cohesive Brand Experience
AMERICAN EXPRESS OPEN FORUM
CHICAGO MAGAZINE
Lost in front of the Web address bar? Search engines letting you down? We scoured the Web to find the sites that make the lives of Chicagoans better in the real world, winnowing the chaff from the wheat to give you the best real-estate search, the most active foodie forum, the top local news sources, and much, much more.
8 Ways to Network During the Holidays to Find a Job
AMERICAN EXPRESS OPEN FORUM
CHICAGO MAGAZINE
App Essentials: How a Traditional Publisher Built a No. 1 App
AMERICAN EXPRESS OPEN FORUM
Get the Job You Want When No One is Hiring
AMERICAN EXPRESS OPEN FORUM
Beckett Media
Chicago Apartment Market Gets Competitive
Time Out Chicago magazine
Who you show up as a person matters. Especially to Gary Vaynerchuk.
“So much of what's going to happen in your life is who you show up as a human,” Vaynerchuk said during his keynote to a packed audience at Natural Products Expo West 2026.
Just as important is anticipating gaps in the market to capitalize on them.
For Vaynerchuk, that began as a youngster working in his father’s liquor store. “It’s a classic entrepreneurial immigrant story,” he said. Born in the Soviet Union, he immigrated to the U.S. when he was 3. “By 7, I was incredibly entrepreneurial,” Vaynerchuk said. In the summer, instead of playing sports, Vaynerchuk rang doorbells asking to wash cars or ran lemonade stands. He took advantage of winter weather, as well. “If we got lucky enough to get a snow day, I was shoveling snow,” he said.
The U.S.’s First Organic Farm REIT is Based in Evanston
Crain’s Chicago Business
Access to capital is notoriously difficult for farmers. Growing and raising certified organic food is even more daunting. That's because the USDA requires organic farmers to work the soil for three years before allowing them to certify their crops as organic. What's more, yields are lower for a good five years after starting out while the soil becomes richer.
When she isn’t commuting from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to New York to work at New York University, Kaia Niambi Shivers loves working on the Black Farmers Index, a nonprofit she founded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I work a 9-to-5,” says Shivers, a clinical assistant professor in the Liberal Arts Department. “Black Farmers Index is my passion project, so when I say I’ve got a lot going on, I’ve got a lot going on.”
The NYU professor provides writing and journalism instruction and has been, as she puts it, “an active member of the faculty’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion development” who launched the first Black history initiative within its liberal studies program.
5 Factors to Consider Before Seeking VC Funding
New Hope Network
When it comes to seeking venture capital, Douglas Raggio, managing partner of Bias & Blind Spots, likes to decry its problems and pitfalls to founders.
Even though Raggio says an infusion of venture capital has gone up by a factor of 10 since he entered the healthy food and beverage industry as an investor more than a decade ago, he’s quick to point out very few successful independent businesses have staying power: About half of all U.S. small businesses survive the first five years, yet only one in three make it 10 or more years according to a Small Business Administration report released in 2018.
New Hope Network
When Samy Kobrosly, co-founder and “chief snack bagger” of Snacklins was trying to launch his Washington-based food startup in 2016, he needed someone to run his production line.
He hired Silvia Escoto, the sister of a line cook he worked with at a barbecue restaurant in Washington. Initially, he waited tables to pay her salary.
“The biggest challenge most businesses face is finding good production talent,” says Kobrosly, who has 21 employees and manufacturers out of a 5,000-square-foot Rockville, Maryland, warehouse.
The Future of Foodservice: Here’s What to Expect
New Hope Network
Think salad bars and hot delis are gone for good? Not so fast, says Corinne Shindelar, the founder and former CEO and president of Independent Natural Food Retailers Association.
“It’s all over the board, just like everything else,” Shindelar says. “But that is one part of the grocery experience that is going to totally remake itself.”
How to Find the Roth IRA Sweet Spot
U.S. News & World Report
Timing is everything, especially when it comes to making the proper tax conversions for a retirement savings account.
Knowing how and when to convert a 401(k) to a Roth 401(k) investments or transition a traditional individual retirement account – better known as an IRA – to a Roth IRA can have big tax implications.
Fred Neubauer, president and CEO of FDM Business Development, learned some key pieces of wisdom 20 years ago after his wife died of cancer.
Suddenly Neubauer had to figure out how to run a business while being a father to a two- and three-year-old. The experience taught him three lessons that he recommends business owners use today to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis.
“Stay in the moment,” says Neubauer, who who lives in Bayside, Wisconsin, and has a condo in Chicago where his company of 24 employees is headquartered. “Eliminate negative thinking, you just can’t let it in. Third, and most importantly, focus on what you can do.”
How Debt-Laden Millennials Can Invest
U.S. News & World Report
Time is an investor's most valuable asset, and that's one thing millennials have. By starting early, millennials can put their savings to work earning compounding interest.
Of course, that same principle of compounding interest works against you with debt, especially as interest rates climb and make revolving credit card balances, for example, even more costly.
3 Ways to Use Unique Sampling Methods
New Hope Network
When RollinGreens co-founders Lindsey and Ryan “Chef Ko” Cunningham wanted to launch their business they took out a $25,000 loan to customize a food truck. Less than two months later it was operational and on the road.
Power Women: Stacy’s Rise Project Class of 2020
New Hope Network
Juanita Flowers, the founder and CEO of Minneapolis-based Juanita’s Jar, was just starting to distribute her bite-sized, preservative-free cookies when COVID-19 hit.
Flowers, a mother of two teenagers and a survivor of domestic abuse, wasn’t sure what she was going to do. “When COVID hit, I instantly lost 75% of my revenue,” she says.
She applied for a job to bring in extra income, but didn’t get the position. In April, she sent an email to her customers on her distribution list asking them to buy more cookies. “I told them, ‘I need you guys to buy, we are in trouble and may have to close our doors,’” she says. “And my customers showed up.”
Less than six weeks later, on Monday, May 25, George Floyd was murdered across the street from Flowers’ production kitchen. “We couldn’t operate with the civil unrest,” she says. “So it was one thing after another.”
Spindrift: 3 Lessons Learned Along the Way
New Hope Network
On the white wall in the kitchen of Spindrift’s headquarters in Newton, Massachusetts, are six words painted in big block letters: ambition, respect, collaboration, agility, innovation and trust.
Like a guiding North Star, Bill Creelman, founder and CEO of Spindrift, says these words serve as a daily reminder.
“We all come from different backgrounds and experiences, but we must share these core values as a business,” says Creelman, who co-founded Stirrings which was sold to Diageo in 2009. “It’s made us open to change and not afraid to challenge ourselves.”
Here’s his entrepreneurial advice to other founders.
When it comes to natural body and skincare, the name Badger has become synonymous with being a socially and environmentally conscious company known for organic products like its infamous Badger Balm.
Sixteen years after the family-owned and -operated company began in Gilsum, New Hampshire, W.S. Badger Co. opted to become a Certified B Corporation in 2011. Since then, Badger’s B Impact Score has gradually risen to the top 10%, earning a score of 141.2 in 2018 with “Best For the World” and “Best for the Environment” recognitions out of more than 2,000 Certified B corps.
When Arno Hesse speaks, business leaders listen.
Hesse, a co-leader and investor with Slow Money Northern California, knows everyone is concerned about how COVID-19 will change communities nationwide.
Because it impacts everything else, Hesse argues that the most important question to answer right now is “How do we keep our local food sources alive and afloat over the next few weeks and months?”
5 Questions to Ask a Fiduciary
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
Understand how your advisor is being compensated to become a more informed investor....
There's a lot of confusion about who is and who isn't a fiduciary, and what the term really means for investors.
"I come across many advisors that use this term quite loosely," Stephen Rischall, a fiduciary financial adviser and co-founder at 1080 Financial Group in Sherman Oaks, California. "The only way you are going to know is by directly asking how an advisor is being compensated."
Almost half – 46 percent – of all Americans mistakenly believe that all financial advisors are already required to put their clients' interests first when it comes to retirement, according to a recent report by Financial Engines.
Connect magazine
How to Buy Security Technology Stocks
U.S. News & World Report
As cybersecurity evolves, here's what investors should consider.
From parking lot security cameras to a coffee pot in the breakroom or a printer that was recently upgraded with Wi-Fi capabilities, there are plenty of ways for hackers to infiltrate a digital network or remotely monitor activities within a business.
6 Tips to Invest Like a Venture Capitalist
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
What Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Investing in Startups
U.S. News & World Report
6 Facts to Know Before Investing in a Restaurant
U.S. News & World Report
How to Invest in Co-Working Spaces
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
13 Tips for Saving and Investing While Owning a Business
U.S. News & World Report
Chicago Magazine
FoodService Director Magazine
FoodService Director magazine
Michigan Avenue magazine
Michigan Avenue Magazine
7 Steps to Get Your Event Wi-Fi Ready
Connect Magazine
How to Break Up With A Business Partner
AMERICAN EXPRESS OPEN FORUM
Spotlight on Chicago's Tech Scene
Collaborate Magazine
Tips for Planning a Religious Convention in the Great Lakes Region
Rejuvenate Magazine
Iron Butterflies: How Remarkable Women Lead
AMERICAN EXPRESS OPEN FORUM
Entrepreneur Throws Hats in Ring
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
RESTAURANTS & INSTITUTIONS
Consulting-Specifying Engineer Magazine
App Essentials: What Every Business Needs to Know About Building A Killer App
AMERICAN EXPRESS OPEN FORUM
