RAVPower 20100 review: USB-C and QC 3.0 together

Priced the RAVPower USB C isn’t a bad deal. It has Quick Charge (QC) 3.0 tech inside, and a lone USB-C port can charge a phone or MacBook, or accept a charge itself.

There’s nothing fancy about the design of this particular RAVPower pack. In fact, if you’ve seen nearly any other RAVPower battery pack, you already know what this one looks like.

It’s a black brick, with four ports on the front: microUSB, USB-C, USB-A with iSmart technology, and USB-A with QC 3.0.

A power button and four blue indicator lights are found on the top of the pack.
With a total capacity of 20,100 mAh, or 74.3 Wh, there’s enough juice in the pack to charge your phone a few times over. Unfortunately, our testing reveled that the pack isn’t as efficient as the RAVPower 26800 we reviewed last year.

The 20100 came in at 72.79 percent efficiency, putting it slightly above the last-place Lumsing (72.71 percent). It’s not a deal breaker, but the 20100 performs below the average efficiency of 76.23 percent for the batteries we’ve tested thus far.

Recharge time depends on what you use to charge the pack. Standard microUSB wall adapter and cable will lead to longer charge times—8.5 hours approximately—while using USB-C and a wall adapter capable with Quick Charge built in is supposed to cut that time in half. Although, I couldn’t get the pack to charge at a faster rate than 5V/2A.

Included in the box is a cloth carrying case, two microUSB cables, and a microUSB-to-USB-C adapter. Notice, a wall adapter is not included with this pack, as it previously was.

How Much Should You Pay Yourself as a Business Owner?

It’s your business and your budget—which means the size of your paycheck is entirely up to you. But while the freedom of setting your own salary sounds great in theory, in practice, most business owners find it a tough call. Should you pay yourself what you need to cover expenses? What your business can afford? The salary you left behind to launch your business?

Your best bet is to factor in all three—and a whole lot more. Obviously, you want your business to succeed and may be willing to accept a temporary drop in income to make that happen. On the other hand, paying yourself far less than you’re worth, or nothing at all, paints an unrealistic picture of the viability of your business for both you and any investors you hope to appeal to now or in the future.

8 Ways to Prepare for the Many Startup Obstacles Ahead

Too many entrepreneurs tackle starting a business as a random walk into a business minefield, and they count on their street smarts, thick skin and pure determination to get them to their destinations alive. That does work once in a while, usually with some serious collateral damage, but a less painful approach is to prepare and plan for each step along the way.

One preparation example is the value of building a business plan before you start. A popular startup myth claims you don’t need one, since investors never read them. The reality is that if you are only doing a business plan for investors, you are already in trouble. You need the business plan for yourself, to force you to draw a detailed roadmap through the obstacles ahead, and be able to measure your progress along the way.
In my perspective as an advisor and mentor to many entrepreneurs, there are a set of basic strategies that can be applied to every startup to dramatically improve the odds of success, no matter what the business domain. These include the following:

5 Ways to Prepare for Disaster in a Startup

Startups are volatile. Prone to unexpected fluctuations in consumer interest, undocumented workflows, rising competitors and a myriad of financial complications, it’s no wonder why the majority of startups end up failing, even though so many start out with such promising ideas.

Disaster seems to lurk around every corner, and no matter how hard you try to prepare yourself, there’s seemingly always something waiting to take your company out.

Some people see entrepreneurs as visionaries, as directors or as charismatic leaders. While they certainly can be all those things, I tend to see them more as disaster preparedness experts. Entrepreneurs who prepare better and respond better to disasters have the greatest track record of nurturing their businesses to success -- regardless of those other roles.

If you want to protect your business as much as possible, use these five preparation strategies: