Business

Anything from starting a business to working in a corporate environment.

I've noticed declining quality in service from the Apple store.

Ted from Ann Arbor, MI

Episode 888

This is in response to a New York Times piece about how Apple Retail doesn’t pay well and employee morale is severely soured. Leo says the Times article is a hit piece, and that Apple pay is standard for retail. There's a long line of people that would take those jobs. Apple has done plenty to warrant criticism, but the employee experience is no different than working for the Gap or Walmart.

Is there any business opportunities in computer repair anymore?

Randy from San Fernando, CA

Episode 884

Leo says that more and more devices, such as the new Macbook Pro with Retina display, are becoming unfixable. They only could be repaired by the manufacturer. Leo does think we need more support though, someone to assist in setup and configuration of computers, devices, and networks. The best business is really in business IT support, not so much consumer support. Randy will have to be really good at this, and will have to know his stuff.

If I add my personal email account to my company iPhone, can they see those emails?

Barry from Omaha, Nebraska

Episode 881

The law says they can look into his personal email if it's on their phone. From a technical point of view, in order to see everything that's on his iPhone, they would need software to monitor it which Leo doesn't believe exists. They would have to ask for his iPhone, which they could do, and look at it that way, but Leo doesn't think they could spy on it remotely. They can do this on the desktop though, and even if he's using company Wi-Fi on his phone, they could.

Would starting my own CRM software company be a good idea?

Episode 878

Dan from Orange, CO

Dan is a financial guy and he’s looking to start his own enterprise CRM software company. Leo says that creating software to compete with the already established Salesforce and Microsoft software would be difficult. But helping and training companies to use them is an interesting and useful niche to exploit.

(CRM is "Customer Relationship Management").

Should I be concerned about the change in Google's Terms of Service?

Episode 873

Louis from Hollywood, CA

No, Leo doesn't feel this is something to be concerned about. Google recently updated their Terms of Service when they introduced Google Drive. This quickly became controversial because the way the Terms of Service were written was disconcerting. This is the part that concerned Louis (and many others) the most:

How does the Apple App Store pricing work if I develop an app?

Episode 874

Martin from Lower Lake, CA

Martin would set the price for his app. Then Apple would get 30% of the sales revenue, and he would get 70%. If the app is free, then Martin wouldn't get anything because as Leo said, 70% of nothing is still nothing. It does mean, however, that Apple also gets nothing despite the services they are providing such as bandwidth and promotion of the app. Both Martin and Apple have a vested interest in a rich app environment and free apps are part of that.