Written for the leaders, owners and professionals of the 11 million businesses with between $50,000 and $50 million in revenue.

Does your commute to the office tend to ruin your entire morning? Can you just sense that your first meeting of the day will be a disaster?

According to a new survey from Talker Research, the average person knows by 8:36 a.m. they’ll have a bad day. The top reasons are waking up sick, poor sleep, headache, losing keys, and forgetting a phone at home — but “traffic” and simply “waking up on the ‘wrong side of the bed’” make the top 20. These have led half of respondents to call out of work or cancel plans.

While illness is certainly a valid reason for staying home, “the wrong side of the bed” might be a stretch. If your day is already doomed, check out our guide to The Best and Worst Excuses for Getting Out of Work.

Women’s sports: They’re big, and so are the bets

Thai Food Near Me: How restaurant won Google Maps

Jack’s Candy: 50,000 sq. feet of sugar in Los Angeles

(Source: Shutterstock)

Serena Williams might be enjoying retirement, but women’s sports are the play in advertising. In 2024, WPP, the world’s biggest ad agency, committed to doubling the amount it spent on the category, while Deloitte predicted global revenues of women’s sports will reach $1.28 billion by year’s end.

Last spring’s NCAA women’s basketball championship game had 19 million viewers, more than ever before, according to Nielsen. TV viewership of WNBA has tripled since last year. Companies across the sports sector are seeing the potential for profitability.

Some are calling this “the Caitlin Clark effect,” after the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer raked in endorsements from Nike, State Farm, and Gatorade. In tennis, Emma Raducanu — who went from unknown to instant stardom at the 2021 U.S. Open — has deals with Nike, Dior, Tiffany & Co, and Porsche. (The trend seems to be: A new star emerges and draws audiences never imagined before.)

The Paris Olympics, too, sent ad spend soaring, with several women giving dizzying performances to record viewership:

• For Team USA, Katie Ledecky became the most-decorated female Olympian — and the face of Athleta over the next five years.
• Simone Biles broke 13 world records, taking home four golds and a silver. During commercial breaks, she could be seen in a Visa ad.
• Sha’Carri Richardson came away with silver in the 100m — and a spot from Nike.

This all coincides with the boom of another player in the sports world: gambling.

Since the 2018 Supreme Court decision that allowed states to legalize sports gambling, the industry has enjoyed rapid growth. Last year, it brought in $11 billion, a 44.5% YoY increase. And it’s getting plenty of assists from the Caitlin Clark effect: Bets on the WNBA’s opening night were up fivefold in 2024 over the previous season — when Clark was still playing in college. 

“You saw people … giving out their women’s college basketball bracket, which is something that was totally new,” says Sean Green, CEO of the Sports Gambling Podcast Network. “Her game was so exciting; draining super deep threes made it a fun share on social media.” 

Like traditional advertisers, sports gambling companies are putting significant ad dollars behind the WNBA.

“If you open up your sports betting or fantasy app these days, it’s not uncommon to see a Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese betting promo … I never saw a WNBA player featured in a promo until this year,” Green says. “Sports gambling companies live off of first-time depositors, aka new customers, and Caitlin Clark gets people who may not normally bet interested.” 

Research even suggests women sports gamblers outperform men. That may be up for debate, but women’s sports will continue to explode in popularity. You can bet on it.

When it comes to taking care of your employees, you should be doing it with gusto.

And thanks to Gusto’s HR software, you can! It centralizes helpful features, allowing you to manage your payroll and administer employee benefits in one place, as well as track professional development progress and extend your employees the growth opportunities they want. Look to the future, too, with hiring and onboarding tools that make it easy to select the right candidate and grow your team with purpose.

See the difference that a comprehensive HR management software can make in your business, when you sign up for Gusto today.

Today’s podcast conversation is with Joe Chura, president and founder of Go Brewing, who discusses the rise of the nonalcoholic beer market, the branding strategies that set Go Brewing apart, and the importance of building a passionate audience. Watch the episode on YouTube or listen on your favorite audio platform.

(Source: Thai Food Near Me)

You need to create an effective name for your business. Just take it from Robert Sampson, co-owner of Thai Food Near Me in New York City. The restaurant opened in April 2023 to instant viral fame for its SEO strategy: When hungry New Yorkers search for Thai restaurants in their general vicinity, there it is.

“That’s what I would type into Google, and it’s nice when you can listen to yourself,” Sampson tells b. “You put yourself in the shoes of the customer and try to give them what they’re asking for.”

A year and a half later, Thai Food Near Me’s sales are still growing, Sampson says. But this might be a testament to the restaurant’s quality, location (drawing nurses, doctors, and technicians from nearby hospitals) and relationships with delivery services like Uber Eats and Grubhub. In other words, not just its name. A Google Search spokesperson told The Verge that positive customer reviews and ratings would likely help more than clever branding.

Either way, Sampson recounts how his own yoga instructor recently mentioned hearing of Thai Food Near Me on NPR — so, the name sticks.

“The city can raise you up or it can take you down,” he says. “People need to be able to find you.”

(Source: Jack’s Candy/Facebook)

Even though health-obsessed Los Angeles might seem like an unlikely place for an industrial warehouse full of ultra-processed carbs, Jack’s Candy has been defying that expectation for quite some time.

The 50,000 square-foot store resembles a Costco with its long and tall aisles, except it stocks over triple the items. And instead of paper towels and mouthwash, shoppers can fill their carts with any sweet treat under the sun: chocolate bars, bubble gum, lollipops, throwbacks like Pop Rocks and Warheads, rarer finds like sushi gummies, and an impressive selection of Mexican imports. Need a 25 lb. bag of Reese’s Pieces? Jack’s is the place.

The company was founded way back in 1930 by Jack Levy, who’d previously pushed a candy cart through local produce markets. It has since changed hands, moving to its current location in 2014. Modern shoppers range from businesses with corporate candy needs to individuals stocking up for parties.

No word yet on how many dentists out of 10 disapprove of the store.

Written by Lauren Vino, Elizabeth Barton, and Tess Barker.