Photo credit: Camila Carvalho
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Natascha Turner, 47, who runs her own marketing agency. It has been edited for length and clarity.
It's funny how things work out β I never really wanted to start my own business.
The security of a regular paycheck was always the most important thing for me. It was instilled in me by my mom, who was a single parent, so financial security was always the top priority.
I was moving up the corporate ladder in the world of marketing and advertising, and after getting a few promotions, I realized I could probably actually do this working for myself. So in 2016, I started my own marketing agency.
My husband's career was going in the opposite direction; he'd joined a startup business that turned out to be on the brink of failure. Everyone he worked with was dodgy. He was chronically stressed because he wasn't making any money.
After two years of him working at the startup business, I put my foot down and said: that's it, no more of that. I've had enough of you going through this and not getting money in return for your skills. You're coming over to work with me. So, a year ago, that's what he did. I now employ four people, one of whom is my husband.
At work, I'm more alpha, and he's more passive, which is a reversal of how we typically are in our relationship. We've been together for 16 years and married for 11. Back then, nobody would've believed we'd ever work together. We're just so different. He's quiet, data-driven, and will go down into rabbit holes. I have to put my foot down and say, "This multi-layered spreadsheet isn't what the client needs. Stop wasting time, focus on their needs."
The hardest part is balancing my role as a leader with my role as a wife. Women don't often talk about how hard it is to lead with strength without feeling like we're losing a piece of our femininity.
But it's my job to make the big calls. He appreciates it because, he admits, it's not his strong point. If graphics came in and weren't right, he'd dance around it rather than just say, "This isn't right; you need to go back and fix it."
Working with your partner is no walk in the park. Sure, there's this glossy idea of "building a dream together," but the truth is, it's juggling spreadsheets with side-eye and trying not to kill each other over emails.
Those tough decisions can hit differently once we get home. Work conversations don't just end at the office; they follow us to the dinner table, the sofa, and even into the shower.
After a long day of meetings and calls, instead of decompressing, the same work chat sometimes bubbles up. "Why'd you veto that idea earlier?" or "You seemed sharp in that meeting β are you upset?"
The lines blur, the feelings flare, and suddenly it's not just a conversation β it's a thing. The number of times I've had to say, "Can we just not right now?" or "Do you want to keep talking about this or move on?" It's like being a referee, a therapist, and a CEO all rolled into one.
In June last year, we relocated from Perth, Australia, to Valencia, Spain, so we now schedule time together to make space for being a couple: holding hands, switching off, and exploring this new city. Here in Valencia, they have these big public baths full of jacuzzis so we'll go there twice a week, and they've become a space where we've agreed not to discuss work.
It's important to remember to just be silly as well β I do that by dancing to music around the house with him so things feel less serious, and we laugh together.
I still get it wrong sometimes. Last week, I snapped and shouted, "You've got to do it this way!" After a stressful moment like that, I make sure we sit down and discuss it, and I'll apologize for being dismissive. I think that's key, too β being self-aware enough to admit you're wrong. He gets it. He'll accept my apology, and we'll move on.
It's recognizing your flaws, too. I'm pretty quick to temper when it comes to deadlines; a bit of a control freak. That's what makes me really good at some things but I know when I've pushed too hard and need to back off. It took a lot of working on myself to get to this point, though.
I see things getting better and better now that we have systems and processes as a couple, not just as colleagues. It's taught us the art of boundaries, the value of switching off, and the importance of saying, " No more business talk tonight, OK?"
World Economic Forum / Mattias Nutt
The World Economic Forum has brought the rich and powerful together to discuss topics ranging from Donald Trump's impact on the economy to AI's impact on their industries.
This is what Business Insider is hearing and seeing on the ground.
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta makeover has had some advertisers concerned about what changes to content moderation might do for what people start seeing across Facebook and Instagram.
In a Davos roundtable discussion with BI, Nicola Mendelsohn, head of Meta's global business group, said the company had been speaking with advertisers in recent days and trying to reassure them that nothing will change. Mendelsohn said advertisers would still be able to stop ads appearing next to political content if they wish.
"What they've shared back actually is the reassurance that all the commitments that we have to brand safety, brand suitability on the platform, none of that changes," she said. β Hugh Langley
Consulting firms are ready for what is expected to be a big year for their business thanks to a flurry of potential changes on the horizon.
"There are several macro factors that have been in play for a while: AI certainly, but also strong economic indicators in the US, as well as the current pro-growth sentiment in the market as a result of the incoming administration. So, there might be an uptick in business activity," Sharon Marcil, BCG's North America chair and a managing director and senior partner, told me.
A massive ramp-up comes with issues, though, as was evident in 2021 when the surge in M&A activity led to employee burnout across financial services.
A complete repeat of 2021's record year seems unlikely, but there are still staffing considerations. It's a tricky balance. You need enough workers so resources aren't stretched too thin while avoiding a surplus where there is not enough work to go around.
An immediate fix also isn't easy, as bringing on new talent requires a necessary training period. And good luck telling clients to hold off on deals, especially after so many have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the market to open up.
"For us, periods of increased activity force us to predict staffing. And that can sometimes be hard. There is a sweet spot between being understaffed and overstaffed. If we find we haven't gone far enough, we try other approaches like off-cycle hiring. It's definitely a balancing act," Marcil said. β Dan DeFrancesco
Hugh Langley/Business Insider
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis had a busy Tuesday here with two near-back-to-back interviews at Google Haus. If there was one big takeaway, it was Hassabis saying we're not thinking enough about the AI bigger picture. "I think there's way too much hype in the short term," he said. "Actually it's underrated still, underappreciated, the amount of transformation that's going to happen in the medium to long term, so the five to 10 years," he added.
In response to a question from BI, Hassabis said he believed there were big questions around capitalism and society that need to be pondered. "One of the big things economists should be thinking about is what does that do to money, the capitalist system, even the notion of companies. I think all of that changes."
Hassbis said we need an institution that can "meet the moment" β a governing body that can ensure artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is managed in a way that benefits humankind.
"That would be where you put a wise council, an international council of very diverse and smart people from different backgrounds. Not just technologists. I'm talking about philosophers, social scientists, writers, et cetera. But who is building that institute, is what I would ask. And I think we really need that."
He also discussed his work on protein folding with AlphaFold, which recently earned him a Nobel Prize. And who better to discuss the science thanΒ Bill Nye, "the science guy," who took the mic for the second interview. β Hugh Langley
Dan DeFrancesco/Business Insider
We're three days in, and we've yet to touch one of the most interesting debates I've found at Davos: footwear. Being that we're in the mountains, the abundance of snow and ice means opting for typical business shoes or heels isn't necessarily your best bet.
Boots of varying degrees of heftiness and fashion sense are a popular choice. (They don't call it "suits and boots" for nothing.) Others wear spikes that can be taken on and off.
Personally, I've gone all in, opting for proper snow boots. Wearing them with my suit every day is a bit β¦ jarring. However, my daughter thinks I look like Kristoff from "Frozen," so that's a win.
Of course, some people throw caution to the wind and still opt for their dress shoes. Davos is a lot about status, and the luxury of wearing normal shoes since you're being chauffeured around speaks to that. β Dan DeFrancesco
Photo courtesy of Ritesh Verma
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ritesh Verma, 23, a software engineer in Jersey City. It's been edited for length and clarity.
After graduating from college in 2023, I was hired as a software engineer at Capital One with a $136,000 base salary, but it's not my largest source of income.
I've been building side hustles for years, and they now earn me almost $15,000 a month.
When I got hired at Capital One, I was worried about a full-time job disrupting my side hustles, but I've created a system that makes it manageable. Here's how I stay on top of my work and why I won't take my side hustles full-time β yet.
In late 2019, a friend of mine asked me to code a purchasing bot to help him buy and resell sneakers. I had no idea what bots, or AI agents, were, but I agreed and spent over six months teaching myself how to make software programs that perform tasks.
In 2022, I decided to post a YouTube tutorial on how to create a simple bot, and it got 200,000 views. A man saw my video and asked me to make him a purchasing agent for high-end golf clubs. I accepted the offer and made $600 every time I got him a golf club. Suddenly I was earning $1,800 a month.
Word spread, and I started getting more clients in the golf club collection space and other niche communities. I built purchasing bots for anything from hats to wine bottles to baby clothes.
I didn't want to be known as just the bot guy, so I started building services and tools as well. I built a scheduling bot that helps shift-based workers, such as servers, in the Nevada area snag competitive shifts.
Early last year, I watched a YouTube video where the creator described how he used Reddit to grow his startup. I decided to give it a try.
I made a Reddit post saying, "I suck at getting these shifts, and I need help. Does anyone else relate?" Then I DMed the roughly 20 commenters who sympathized and pitched them my tool. I got eight of my clients from Reddit and now make about $9,000 monthly from it.
I also trainedΒ AI assistantsΒ to make Reddit posts for me, advertising my services and sending potential clients my phone number.
Reddit takes my posts down because they're promotional, but within 30 minutes of them being up, I'll usually have several people in my DMs. I've been kicked off Reddit and had to make multiple accounts, but it's all part of the process, and I think it's worth it.
My secret to success is working on several projects at once. I can stay on top of so many because it's highly automated.
I might spend 20 hours building a new AI agent or project, but after that, my weekly commitment might only be two hours. I also might spend a few additional hours getting clients or troubleshooting, but the hard work is done.
My Capital One job is a hybrid 9-to-5 with two days in the office each week. After work, I eat and have a four-hour deep work session where I focus on my side hustles. I also work a few hours each day of the weekend.
It's a lot of work, but I find it fun. I also make sure to have time for myself. A few friends and I travel every three months. In 2024, I spent a total of a month overseas in places like Brazil, Japan, and Italy, doing no work. Those trips are a good sanity check and keep me looking forward to something.
A mentee asked me why I don't leave my full-time job, and I told him I don't feel like it's taking up space.
I've probably tried 15 projects recently, and most fail. I give every project a month or two of serious dedication before deciding if it's worth continuing. Sometimes, the project is just too hard, and growing it is a pain.
Other times, I just lose the spark of the idea. In those cases, I'll put it on a major backburner or ask a mentee if they'd like to take responsibility for equity in the product.
Plus, I'm following a rule that I won't leave my full-time job until I make three times my Capital One base salary from my side businesses. Once I achieve that, I'll drop it. That's the goal.
If you make six figures from a side hustle and would like to share your story, please email Manseen Logan at [email protected].
Joshua Bratt/Times Media Ltd via Baker Tilly
The Big Four professional services firms lead the accounting and advisory market globally. They have a combined 1.5 million employees, generate billions in annual revenue, and their easily recognizable names draw in scores of eager young graduates annually.
But for all their status, the Big Four have seen a marked drop in growth rate over recent years, and their consultants have been leaving.
Bucking that downward trend in the market is Baker Tilly, a midsize network of around 140 member firms.
Its offering of tax, advisory, and legal services generated global revenue of over $5 billion for the year ending December 2023, an 11% increase from the previous year and a record high for the firm. It's now one of the top 10 accounting firms in the world.
For Baker Tilly, though, the goal isn't growing to the point where the Big Four becomes the Big Five, its CEO Francesca Lagerberg told Business Insider.
"Am I ambitious? Yeah, very," she told BI. "But am I ambitious to be a lesser version of something else?"
"The Big Four Super Tank is an amazing organization, very successful and really good at what they do. We just operate in an environment where midsize firms excite us."
Lagerberg said Baker Tilly's success is due to its great proposition, strong member firms within the network, and the moves those firms have made into bigger markets.
"It's a very good time for us. We've been able to offer what the market needed. We've been in markets where growth has continued and the kind of work that we specialize in seems to have a bit more of an ongoing level."
"In the mid-tier, where we are strongest, firms are looking for that kind of input and advice. So we've been able to offer the services they want, and there hasn't been that drop-off."
Smaller-scale growth has also meant the firm didn't follow the overstaffing fallout that has afflicted bigger names.
On paper, all accounting firms like Baker Tilly appear to offer the same services, but Lagerberg, who's spent her career in professional services, says it's the culture that helps differentiate the firm. It's not just about the services you provide, but offering them in a way that clients would like to have them delivered, she said.
"It is fundamentally about the values and behaviors that we have. We have a very strong people-first approach, and we genuinely mean it," she said.
There are no strict work hours at Baker Tilly that other firms are renowned for. Instead, the company offers its employees unlimited holidays and flexible working. It's an organization whose staff actually get on with each other and that attracts like-minded clients, Lagerberg said.
Being people that others like to do business with is a "much-misunderstood part of how the world goes around," she added.
The mid-tier sector of professional services firms hasn't avoided the slowdown hitting the Big Four.
Together with economic pressures and high interest rates, the strain is helping drive a new wave of private capital investment in mid-tier accounting firms.
Firms have typically paid out profits to equity partners, who also get a vote on how the firms are run. External cash injections are divesting the control historically promised to partners and shaking up the culture at firms.
Mike Kemp/Getty
In the US and UK, firms like Grant Thornton, Cooper Parry, and EisnerAmper have gone down the private equity route. In 2024, Baker Tilly US did the same, selling a majority stake to private investment groups Hellman & Friedman and Valeas. It was the second-largest deal to be done in the sector.
PE has lots of advantages, but it isn't a golden bullet, Lagerberg told BI. One benefit is that it's providing an influx of capital that's necessary for firms as they evolve with technology and data.
"We used to be a really cap-light business. Now, we're a cap-heavy environment, so it's not surprising that PE is seeing growth," the Baker Tilly CEO said.
It's also bringing about a huge change in the culture that not all partners are happy about.
"A lot of partners they've operated in an environment that's been very similar all their careers, and suddenly in comes an external stakeholder," Lagerberg said. But they also bring a new rigor to firms.
"PE houses are very good at running organizations in an efficient way. I think you'll see an even stronger emphasis on the financials and looking for a return."
The reality for any business is that you can't be future-proof, Lagerberg said. In this era of instability, this is part of the reason companies keep turning to Baker Tilly.
"You will not make all the right decisions because no one quite knows where something is going to go. But you can be future fit. How can you get yourself to a position where you're going to ride out most of it? Some things are going to be amazing opportunities. Are you ready to take them?"
Do you work at a consulting or accounting firm? Contact this reporter in confidence at [email protected] to talk about your experience and the industry.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Clay Weis
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, the Pentagon's top research arm, wants to know if red blood cells can be modified in novel ways to protect troops and help them manage extreme battlefield environments.
The DARPA program, known as "Red Blood Cell Factory," is looking for researchers and is interested in inserting "biologically active components" or "cargoes" in red blood cells. The hope is that modified cells would bring with them special enhancements, "thus allowing recipients, such as warfighters, to operate more effectively in dangerous or extreme environments."
Red blood cells could act like a truck, carrying "cargo" or special protections, to all parts of the body, since they already circulate oxygen everywhere, Christopher Bettinger, a professor of biomedical engineering overseeing the program, told Business Insider.
"What if we could add in additional cargo β¦ inside of that disc," Bettinger said, referring to the shape of red blood cells, "that could then confer these interesting benefits β¦ protective capabilities that we're trying to sort of imbue to our warfighters?"
U.S. Army Sgt. Matthew Moeller, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
DARPA does not expect the researchers to experiment on people or animals, just on bags of blood. The research is foundational, Bettinger said, but could allow scientists to identify how red blood cell modification could evolve over time.
The research could impact the way troops battle diseases that reproduce in red blood cells such as malaria, for example, Bettinger hypothesized.
"Imagine an alternative world where we have a warfighter that has a red blood cell that's accessorized with a compound that can sort of defeat malaria," Bettinger said. In this scenario, a red blood cell could be "accessorized" with a countermeasure.
"It's kind of like an automatic drug delivery system," he said, "that could then protect the warfighter from the harmful effects of subsequent infection and sort of replication of the parasite."
It could also be possible to modify the red blood cells in ways that would allow medications to last longer without a service member having to ingest them daily β instead, relying on doses that protect a person for weeks or months instead of just 24 hours.
Another potential use of modified cells could be stopping a hemorrhage from trauma, including battlefield wounds.
"Trauma induces a kind of host of biological responses, one of which is rupturing of red blood cells," Bettinger said. DARPA's research efforts could ascertain from its blood research whether a catastrophic injury that would normally mean death from blood loss instead sees blood automatically coagulate.
Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Jason Morrison
"Each red blood cell stays in the blood for about four months, and it accesses pretty much every organ in the body," said Samir Mitragotri, a professor of bioengineering at Harvard. Their prevalence and relatively long lifetime are partly why red blood cells are such an attractive target for scientists.
Part of the challenge, Mitragotri said, is that the cells can't be so radically changed that the body no longer recognizes them as red blood cells, thus prompting quicker bodily digestion.
Such advances in bioengineering could be a game-changer in fields like infectious disease treatment and oncology, said Mitragotri, illnesses which require long periods of drug treatment. Though the science is still emerging, it's "a very promising area," he said.
The Department of Defense has long been interested in learning how biomedical engineering could benefit troops.
For years, the US military has been looking into the benefits of biofeedback technologies to better understand mental and physical health. And there's also been research into potential physical enhancements through various lines of effort.
In 2019, for instance, the Army released a "Cyborg Soldier 2050" report detailing how the military is thinking about a future where troops could benefit from things like neural and optical enhancements, though the report acknowledged ethical and legal concerns surrounding such possibilities.
US rivals like China are, as the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies noted in a new report, also exploring this space, but with less concern for ethical considerations.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army "has long recognized the strategic importance of biotechnology, engaging in extensive collaborations with Chinese biotechnology behemoths," the report said. "These and other partnerships have yielded research with potential military applications, including efforts to enhance Chinese soldiers' physical and cognitive abilities."
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