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☆ While TikTok's future is unknown, micro-business owners continue to rely on it — including one founder who shared 3 tips for marketing and going viral
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-21 | by ( Bella Sayegh | Leila Jordan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

When Lauren Nelda Pascal sewed her first silk bonnet, she wasn't thinking about building a viral TikTok business. Now Pascal's TikTok business account has over 107,000 followers and 2.6 million likes, and Lizzo and other celebrities have featured her products on their pages. But she said the discussion forced business owners to consider how they might pivot their social-media strategy if needed. Unlike on TikTok, businesses using Instagram Reels, Instagram's short-form-video feature, should be more cautious with trending audio. I have a product that I believe in, and so I try to let that bleed through my content," Pascal said.

Persons: Lauren Nelda Pascal, Lolo's, Pascal, —, TikTok, I'm, KXAN Austin, Giselle Ugarte, Ugarte, KXAN, Karen North, It's, wasn't, doesn't Organizations: Service, Facebook, Business, Oxford Economics, USC Annenberg Locations: Jacksonville , Florida, TikTok

☆ YouTube Music team laid off by Google while workers testified to Austin City Council about working conditions
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-02 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The entire YouTube Music team is out of a job after going on strike last year. AdvertisementThe entire YouTube Music team is out of a job as tensions rise at Google parent company, Alphabet. The Alphabet Workers Union, which represents workers at Google's parent company, Alphabet, said Google laid off the YouTube Music team on Friday. "We just got laid off, our jobs are ending today, effective immediately," one worker tells the city council in video of the meeting. The YouTube Music team previously went on strike in February 2023 over Google's crackdown on remote work.

Persons: —, Cognizant, Sundar Pichai, Pichai Organizations: YouTube, Austin City, Google, Service, Alphabet Workers Union, Twitter, YouTube Music Locations: Texas, Austin

☆ Austin experimented with giving people $1,000 a month. They spent the no-strings-attached cash mostly on housing, a study found.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A guaranteed basic income program in Austin gave people $1,000 a month for a year. AdvertisementA guaranteed basic income plan in one of Texas's largest cities reduced rates of housing insecurity. Austin was the first city in Texas to launch a tax-payer-funded basic income program when the Austin Guaranteed Income Pilot kicked off in May 2022. On average, program participants spent more than half of the cash they received on housing, the report's authors wrote. Harris County, which includes Houston, earlier this month launched a guaranteed basic income program that gives low-income residents up to $500 a month.

Persons: —, Austin, Taniquewa Brewster, KXAN, it's, Sen, Paul Bettencourt, Bettencourt, Tonaeya Moore Organizations: Service, Austin, Urban Institute, Washington DC, NBC, Houston Chronicle, Baltimore Young Locations: Austin, Texas, City, Washington, Houston, Harris County, United States, Baltimore

☆ Austin experimented with giving people $1,000 a month. They said they spent the no-strings-attached cash mostly on housing.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewPeople who received guaranteed basic income in one of Texas' largest cities reported reduced rates of housing insecurity. Austin was the first city in Texas to launch a taxpayer-funded guaranteed-income program when the Austin Guaranteed Income Pilot kicked off in May 2022. On average, program participants said they spent more than half of the cash they received on housing. While Austin was the first city in Texas to test a guaranteed-income program, it's now not the only one. AdvertisementAnd in Denver, a basic-income program that gives some people up to $1,000 a month was recently extended after participants reported increased housing security .

Persons: —, Austin, Taniquewa Brewster, KXAN, it's, Sen, Paul Bettencourt, Bettencourt, Tonaeya Moore Organizations: Service, Business, Austin, Urban Institute, NBC, Houston Chronicle, Baltimore Young Locations: Texas, City of Austin, Washington, DC, Houston, Harris County, United States, Baltimore, Maryland, Denver

☆ People are leaving Texas over rising costs, partisan politics, and a sense of disenchantment
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-26 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Business Insider wants to hear from you. Over 494,000 people left Texas between 2021 and 2022 (though the state gained a net population of 174,261.) "The property tax percentage rate is higher," Marie Bailey, a Texas-based realtor who moved from El Segundo, California, to Prosper, Texas, in 2017, previously told Business Insider. AdvertisementFor Texans, "the Midwest has emerged as popular recently because it is just by and large the most affordable region," Hannah Jones, Realtor.com's economic research analyst, told Business Insider in October. Burse told Business Insider in September that it played a crucial role in her decision to relocate to Texas in 2021.

Persons: —, I'm, I've, we've, Marie Bailey, Hannah Jones, they've, Jackie Burse, Burse, Bob McCranie, McCranie, Texas hasn't, Nick Thomas, he's, Thomas, Jules Rogers, hadn't, Rogers Organizations: Texas, Business, Service, Lone Star, Lone, Lone Star State, KXAN News, Austin Locations: Texas, Knoxville, Realtor.com, El Segundo , California, Prosper , Texas, Marie Bailey As Texas, California, Dallas, New York, Florida, Florida and Texas, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland , Oregon, Houston, Pacific, Portland

A tech entrepreneur in Texas wasn’t given ample time to drop a rifle he was carrying on his own front porch before he was fatally shot by police last month, his devastated family told NBC News. The caller said the police were on scene and the man fired again, police said. Police identified the officer who fired at Moonesinghe as Daniel Sanchez, who is now on administrative leave. Immediately after telling Mr. Moonesinghe to drop the gun, Officer Sanchez fired his Department approved firearm at Mr. Moonesinghe. … It looks like he’s pointing the rifle at the interior of his home.”The caller then alerts the dispatcher that the man fired the rifle.

☆ Housing affordability is so bad that it's the only thing liberal and conservative voters can agree on
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

On Tuesday, millions of voters nationwide casted ballots in favor of affordable housing measures. "It's especially heartening to see many ballot measures that support affordable housing pass this year with a clear majority of votes." Austinites aren't the only voters desperate for affordable housing. Kansas City voters gave the green light to a $50 million affordable housing bond that will create 2,000 units in the city. This year, lawmakers brought forward proposed affordable housing bonds via Measure U in Oakland, Measure L in Berkeley and Measure ULA in Los Angeles.

☆ Austin, Texas locals have been priced out by wealthy out-of-state tech workers. Now the government is stepping in.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A new $350 million housing bond is intended to help Austinites struggling with the high cost of living. The tax-supported housing bond, named Proposition A — which will cost the typical homeowner an additional $45 a year in property taxes — is the city's largest housing bond to date. According to Austin eligibility guidelines, families earning 80% or less of the area median income are considered low-income. However, in 2023 most of the fund has nearly dried up — at a time in which the city's cost of living has risen to astronomical levels. "This is the third housing bond that this city has passed in the last eight years, 10 years," Adler told KXAN News.

☆ Home Depot's famous giant skeletons keep getting stolen from front yards
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Mary Meisenzahl | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A skeleton Halloween decoration was reported stolen from a Chicago front lawn on October 13, The Chicago Tribune reported, amounting to $600 in losses. Home Depot's skeletons have been popular since they first launched, leading to record Halloween sales for the home improvement chain in 2020. The $300 skeletons sold out by the end of September, ahead of Halloween. In October of 2022, the skeletons remain sold out at Home Depot and getting one isn't easy. "We encourage all our customers that experience this to reach out to local law enforcement," Home Depot told Insider in a statement.

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