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The consulting industry is a $39-billion-dollar-a-year opportunity for entrepreneurs but it’s pretty untapped. All over the world there are companies willing to pay you for sharing the knowledge you have acquired building your business but there isn’t much information available online about booking paid gigs — especially international consulting gigs.

If you’ve experienced difficulty building up a consulting business, you aren’t alone. The number of consultants in the United States has grown every year since 2012, reaching more than 637,000 in 2016. So, it’s unlikely that every one of these people will achieve succcess.

The best results are produced through collaboration, a fundamental requirement for alignment. Collaboration needs to take place both within and outside teams, throughout the organization. In particular, the action planning process requires collaboration.

How do you improve collaboration? Here are two approaches: Abide by the five principles of collaboration discussed below, and use the team reviews to erode the silos that might exist in your organization.

One of the lesser known challenges of running an ecommerce store is preventing fraud chargebacks. When a consumer doesn’t recognize a charge on their credit card statement they will dispute the charge with their credit card company, which will result in a fraud chargeback to the ecommerce store owner. The full transaction amount is deducted from their merchant account as well as a chargeback fee typically between $15 and $25.

When it comes to the speaking industry, entrepreneurs tend to focus on speaking at events and conferences. It’s the traditional path that is known and understood. Being a paid consultant to companies is something that intrigues entrepreneurs but there’s no clear path. The lack of clarity and not enough “how-to” information keeps entrepreneurs from incorporating consulting into the services they offer.

Last month Cisco announced two new room video systems called the Spark Room Kit and Spark Room Kit Plus. Behind these dull names are some impressive technologies never before seen in videoconferencing.

The room kits are nearly complete videoconferencing systems, but they don’t include the displays. Each system is a single all-in-one device with camera(s), microphones and speakers. The primary difference between the two models is that the Room Kit has a single fixed-camera and the Room Kit Plus has four fixed-cameras that can cover a larger room.

EU executive vice-president Frans Timmermans presented the discussion on Hungary that took place earlier on Wednesday at the college go the Commissioners’ weekly meet-up.

“At Jean-Claude Juncker’s initiative – and I very much welcome that – the College also discussed today a wide range of legal issues relating to Hungary,” said Timmermans.

Amajority of Germans have for the first time said the country cannot take in any more refugees, according to a recent survey.

A study by the Bertelsmann Foundation found that a vast majority of Germans still say immigrants and refugees are “very welcoming, or quite welcoming.”

But the number of people who felt Germany had reached the point where it could no longer take in refugees had risen to 54 per cent, up from just 40 per cent in 2015.

The EU has outlined its Brexit strategy, suggesting trade talks could begin after “sufficient progress” on a separation settlement with the UK.

The draft guidelines, announced by European Council President Donald Tusk in Malta, advocate a “phased approach”.They will be sent to the 27 member states for approval and will set the tone for two years of negotiations.

In Brussels, the EU’s foreign policy chief suggested the EU could manage without the UK in defence matters.

The UK formally triggered the Brexit process on Wednesday after calling for simultaneous talks on exit terms and future trade ties.