One of the advantages of starting a home business is that it can be done alongside a traditional job. A side home business can help you fill the income-expense gap from your job, increase retirement savings and build a nest egg for emergencies. But as your business becomes successful, there comes a tipping point in which you can’t expand anymore without giving something up. If you enjoy your business, the next logical step is to quit your job and do your home business full-time.

However, because home business income is often inconsistent, you shouldn’t give your boss the heave-ho without careful planning and preparation. Here are tips to helping you decide if it’s time to quit your day job.

Here they are: the winners of the first-ever World Changing Ideas Awards. We sifted through more than 1,000 truly impressive entries to find the ones our panel of judges thought were the best combination of creative problem solving and potential to change our world for the better. We have crowned 12 winners–along with 192 finalists–which you can read more about below (make sure you also read our predictions for the world changing ideas of next year). Each of these projects represents the best of social entrepreneurship, where innovation and impact are intersecting.

Image: https://www.fastcompany.com

Every entrepreneur seeking funding loves the challenge of getting customers and investors excited, but dreads the thought of negotiating the terms of a deal with potential investors. They are naturally reluctant to step out of the friendly and familiar business territory into the unfamiliar battlefield of venture capitalists from which few escape unscathed.

http://blog.startupprofessionals.com via flickr

Over the years, Kansas City has found itself home to several business accelerator programs.

From BetaBlox to the Sprint Accelerator, these programs have increased the vibrancy of the area entrepreneurial community in many ways. But recently Kansas Citians had the chance to learn first hand just how much their local network of accelerators have helped grow the area economy.

Image: Yael Hochberg - http://www.startlandnews.com

There are a number of tech skills that used to be reserved for IT managers at companies’ headquarters, or for computer whizzes working out of their parents’ basements. But as digital changes sweep through every level of business, these “applied tech skills” are becoming baseline requirements to getting the job done–they aren’t just specialized knowledge anymore.

Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor of Chicago, wants to take maximum advantage of the present H-1B visa program while it lasts. This is a matter of concern as President Donald J. Trump has publicly stated his intention of slashing the visa program which is used by technology companies to hire engineers, scientists and technicians. All these professionals are not found aplenty among American citizens.

Another year, another report saying that the Nordic countries are the happiest in the world.

Every year the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network releases the World Happiness Report, backed by the Ernesto Illy Foundation, which lists the happiest countries in the world. This year the winner was Norway, which follows a trend of Scandinavian countries consistently winning the title of the most content places on earth — even though they have a long, cold and dark winter.

Receiving more applications this year from startups than ever before, the Entrepreneurship-Powered Innovation Center (EPIcenter) Logistics Innovation Accelerator sponsored by FedEx is already out recruiting potential customers for the companies.

Now in its third year, the EPIcenter Logistics Innovation Accelerator received 30-40 percent more applications than it did last year; it is currently narrowing down the applicants to six companies that will participate in the 15-week accelerator and receive $50,000 in initial seed capital.

Retail investors will from September be able to buy up to $10,000 of equity in their favourite business ideas, after crowd-sourced funding legislation passed the Senate.

The legislation will allow unlisted public companies with annual turnover or gross assets of up to $25 million to advertise their business plans on licensed crowdfunding portals, and raise up to $5 million a year to carry them out. Investors can put up to $10,000 a year each into an unlimited number of ideas.

Retailers have been advised to act like a start up and now the largest retailer in the world is doing more than that. Walmart has created an incubator to internally nurture startup businesses called Store No. 8.

The initiative was announced at the Shoptalk conference today in Las Vegas by Jet.com founder and CEO of Walmart's U.S. e-commerce business. Lore was a keynote speaker at Shoptalk's inaugural event last year and just a few month's later his company, Jet.com, was purchased by Walmart for more than $3 billion. 

The University of Maryland University College is tearing itself apart -- on purpose. The university, which gets nearly all of its funding from tuition revenue, has long relied on enrolling large numbers of students associated with the military for financial stability. After teaching students at military bases across Asia and Europe for decades, the university was quick to realize the potential of the internet and became a pioneer in the field of distance education.

Image: https://www.insidehighered.com

Unless the European Commission changes its attitude, the innovation gap between Europe and the US will likely increase, and it could be overtaken soon by China, with dire consequences for living standards, warns Philip Stevens.

Philip Stevens is director of Geneva Network, a UK-based research organisation focusing on innovation, trade and health policy.

The European Commission knows that innovation is a major driver of economic growth, responsible for around 50% of US annual GDP growth, for example.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts joins the elite club of US governors to claim a Site Selection Governor’s Cup, by virtue of his state winning the Cup for most capital investment projects per capita — 101 such projects for 2016. Which is not to say it’s Nebraska’s first Cup. It won the first Governor’s Cup for projects per capita, awarded in March 2014, for the Cornhusker State’s 2013 economic development success, which resulted in 109 projects that year. Kentucky won the Cup the next two years and places second in 2016, with 227 projects. That’s more than twice Nebraska’s number of projects, but it’s a per capita contest. Rounding out the top five are Ohio (515), Louisiana (169) and Illinois (434).

Image: http://siteselection.com

The Da Vinci Surgical System is a set of four robotic arms that are controlled by a surgeon, mimicking and miniaturizing their hand gestures. 

It allows for more precision and dexterity, while reducing blood loss and tissue damage. 

Image: http://mashable.com

Adelphi, Md. (March 16, 2017) -- To increase new company creation and commercialization of its leading-edge research, the University System of Maryland (USM) is launching a $25 million early-stage investment fund to be known as the Maryland Momentum Fund.

The money-raising process for start-up companies typically is an uneven one. Therefore, the Maryland Momentum Fund will concentrate on filling gaps in the funding pipeline to push USM's most innovative ideas into the marketplace.

With a $10 million commitment from the USM already in place, the system is collaborating with UM Ventures and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to reach out to area venture capitalists and angel investors for an additional $15 million. UM Ventures is a joint initiative of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) to commercialize technologies and expand industry collaboration.

Entrepreneurs who need support to get their healthcare innovations to market are urged to act fast, as many of the opportunities outlined in the EIT Health Accelerator Invitation for Programme Participation 2017 have application deadlines of 31 March.

You can learn more about the Accelerator on this newly updated page, or look for a summary of all the Accelerator Programmes here.

Amid the uncertainty surrounding immigration laws, five of the city's colleges are teaming up in an effort to help foreign student entrepreneurs stay in Chicago to build their startups.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to announce this afternoon that Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University Chicago and Northwestern University each will adopt global entrepreneur-in-residence programs.

Image: Dick Burke of Envoy - http://www.chicagobusiness.com

A growing tech industry is often considered the ultimate sign of a healthy local economy. By that measure, the Bay Area still stands at the top of the heap in the United States, but our survey of the metropolitan areas with the strongest tech job growth turns up some surprising places not usually thought of as tech meccas.

The Trump Administration’s skinny budget proposal released today calls itself, “A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.” From the information contained in the document, it is clear the Administration does not view science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship and the economic development efforts built around those activities as the path forward to making “America great again.” The program eliminations and drastic cuts are not the way to move the country forward economically. So what is behind this proposal? Two things: 1) a fight over the proper role of the federal government in the economy, and 2) a negotiating tactic to attempt to lull advocates into thinking program survival or lesser cuts are a victory. A full community response is needed and all of us must get off the sidelines and on to the playing field.

A new 40,000-square-foot accelerator space for Johns Hopkins is officially online in East Baltimore, and set to be home to nine startups by April.

FastForward is housed in the newest, $65 million building in the Hopkins biotech park, at 1812 Ashland Ave. It was designed to help young companies with all of their growing business needs, from conference rooms to office space to lab space. The new space replaces the former six-office hub near the Hopkins medical campus.