
Difficult Employees with Good Intentions
Don’t give up on a great worker who can’t communicate
You might experience a scenario like this at the office: A colleague, boss or employee is incredibly gifted; they are technically skilled, knowledgeable, strategic and very smart. But a frustrating paradox is that they are terrible communicators: unable to take on other’s perspectives, constantly interrupting and long-winded, putting themselves ahead of others, defensive, inflexible, emotional — you get the drift.

Avoid the Event-Planning Headache
How to create a template for your business events
It’s event season and whether you’re throwing a simple holiday party at the office or gearing up for your spring conference, there are some simple systems that can keep stress at bay.

Better Crowdfunding Means Better Business
Small businesses keep California humming. They make up an impressive 99.2 percent of California’s employers and employ more than 6 million Californians. But small businesses can’t thrive and grow – or even get off the ground – if they can’t access loans or credit.

Untouched Heart
Cardiologists at UC Davis Medical Center are treating heart disease with a remotely operated magnet-guided catheter system.
Arrhythmias (irregular or erratic heart rhythms) can lead to heart failure, stroke or cardiac arrest. That’s why cardiologists at UC Davis Medical Center aim to treat it efficiently and completely with a remotely operated magnet-guided catheter system — the first of its kind to be used in the Sacramento area.

6 Tips for Avoiding an Office Party Nightmare
It’s not just about avoiding intoxication, but that’s on here too
Mention “office party,” and someone is going to have a juicy story, usually involving alcohol-impaired behavior. But according to local experts, your company’s holiday party doesn’t have to be a date that lives in infamy.

Branding vs Marketing: What’s the Difference
Succeeding on both fronts starts with differentiating between the two
The words “brand” and “branding” are so often used interchangeably with “marketing” and “logo” that it’s easy to feel befuddled by the difference. So, what’s the actual difference between your brand, your marketing and your logo?

The Marvelous Mentor
Chris Johnson’s massive success affords next-gen business leaders the opportunity to grow
In the coming months, Chris Johnson will ask a lot of his employees, whose average age is just 24 years old. He expects to do $30 million in retail sales this third year of manufacturing, recently signed a powerful licensing deal with Disney’s Marvel, and plans to expand from the four products currently on shelves to more than 100 next year. But Johnson’s hiring strategy emphasizes passion over experience, something he says his team has in spades.

Welcome to the Neighborhood
Cask & Barrel brings approachable dining to Del Paso Boulevard
At Cask & Barrel in north Sacramento, there are no entrees. The restaurant has a small kitchen staff and high-end food at low prices. Chef Gabriel Glasier and his pastry chef, business partner and fiancée, Kristel Flores, are bringing something different to a corner of Del Paso Boulevard that’s proved to be enigmatic, to say the least, for two decades.

Send in the Crowd
Equity crowdfunding offers small investors a slice of the pie, but will they take a giant hit?
Pauline Marx, 63, had been a pretty conventional investor in stocks and bonds until April 2014. But to her, the rock-bottom interest rates on fixed-income tools like Treasury bills and CDs felt like stuffing money under the mattress.Then a friend told her about Fundrise, a website that lets investors buy small shares of real estate ventures around the country.