Posts Tagged ‘U.S.’

Small Business Stats Across the U.S.

February 9th, 2011 by stevezog

Small businesses are making a comeback in some states and some industries…and not so much in others. Check out this data reported by intuit.com:

101109-Small-Businesses

On the whole, it looks like positive results should be headed to small businesses across the U.S.

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Looking Elsewhere for Market Predictors

November 4th, 2010 by stevezog
Maxi dresses were a huge trend in summer/fall 2007...right before the housing market crashed.

Maxi dresses were a huge trend in summer/fall 2007...right before the housing market crashed.

There are lots of correlations that usually don’t mean anything, but several economists swear they really can correlate certain trends with the financial market and can predict or move with the U.S. economic market.

BusinessWeek has reported a few of these superstitious predictors. Back in 2008, the magazine looked into more than 20 years of hair data (how this data was gathered and why it was even kept is something we don’t know) and how long Japanese women’s hair was, or what the hairstyle trend was, was in line with the market;

in 1990, 60% of the women surveyed kept their hair long or semi-long. But by 1997, when the economy was flagging, short or medium for the first time accounted for more than half of all haircuts. In 1998, Japan’s economy was savaged by major financial bankruptcies, including that of Yamaichi Securities, at the time the country’s fourth-biggest broker.

Today, with Japan enjoying its longest postwar stretch of uninterrupted economic growth, over 80% of the women have reverted to either long or semi-long lengths.

Skirt hemlines are said to be a common correlation with the market, as well. The stock market’s crash of 1929 was a defining moment for the economy and skirt heights; both  plummeted, with hemlines below mid-calf. A decade later, on the eve of the World War II, the U.S. economy entered an 80-month expansion which lasted through February 1945, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. During this time, knee-length skirts became ubiquitous, though the trend had more to do with conserving fabric for the war effort than with the economy. But by the ’60s, miniskirts were in full swing…and so was the economy.

Remember what women were wearing right before the housing market crash from fall 2007 to about 2009? Floor-length maxi dresses were the huge trend in dresses. Seriously…this market-predicting trend is uncanny.

However, hemline indicators are a bit hazy currently. At New York Fashion Week, hemlines were reportedly all over the place — miniskirts and shorts, knee-length, and long dresses were all shown.

Which might be accurate, actually, as the market is still a bit…well, all over the place.

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ActionCOACH’s 7-Point/17-Week Guarantee

October 1st, 2010 by stevezog
ActionCOACH launched a guarantee today - the first time a business coaching company has guaranteed results.

ActionCOACH launched a guarantee today - the first time a business coaching company has guaranteed results.

ActionCOACH is the number one business coaching company in the world…and now, it can guarantee it.

As of today, ActionCOACH will guarantee sevenl aspects of the coaching process – confidentiality, to always tell the client the truth, business re-education, and how to multiply profits – and with ActionCOACH’s coaching, the client can “find its fee” within 17 weeks. If the client is unsatisfied, ActionCOACH will coach them for free until they do find their fee.

We’ll be promoting this new guarantee, as well as ActionCOACH’s services and the positive difference our business coaches can make within a business, in Australia, UK, US, Canada and New Zealand.

So, if being the world’s number one in business coaching didn’t sell you before…hopefully the fact that we can guarantee we’ll deliver results will!

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Second Chance for Tony Hayward?

August 27th, 2010 by stevezog
Tony Hayward -- shipped off to Siberia?

Tony Hayward -- shipped off to Siberia?

BP is shipping Tony Hayward off to Siberia. While it sounds like a punishment, it might not be.

Hayward will step down from his CEO position in October, and Robert Dudley, an American, will take over. Dudley has been overseeing oil spill efforts, and he will likely continue with that in his new role as CEO.

Hayward isn’t leaving BP, however…he’ll reportedly be taking a post at TNK-BP, the company’s joint venture in Russia.

It’s not yet clear what Hayward’s role will be with TNK-BP, but the job suggests BP still holds more faith in Hayward than much of the U.S. public and political establishment do. Analysts consider the Russian venture one of BP’s crown jewels; it accounts for a quarter of the company’s production.

The general public all over the world might not be happy to hear this, but is it a good thing when companies give employees who screwed up — and in this case, big time — a second chance?

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Starting Up From Scratch

August 24th, 2010 by stevezog
Entering into a start-up can be scary and hard work...but also rewarding.

Entering into a start-up can be scary and hard work...but also rewarding.

Because of the slumping economy in the US, we’ve seen a growing number of prospective entrepreneurs looking to start-up their own businesses. Times may be tough but the “American Dream” is alive, as more Americans than ever are starting their own businesses, and often on a shoe-string budget.

More and more start-ups are beginning at home, but with the right planning they can yield massive rewards down the road. Generating a start-up business is not easy, especially in this day and age of economic uncertainty and tighter lending, but with the right plan and attitude it can be done.

Unfortunately, many Americans don’t feel starting their own business is realistic because they don’t have the money to invest. Sure, buying into a franchise or opening a clothing store can cost a pretty penny, but how much money does a person need to produce a product at home and find ways to market it?

It probably wouldn’t cost as much money as one might think. With a solid idea or product, the process should cost more in time than in money.

So what are entrepreneurs doing to get the start-ups off the ground without a large amount of capital?

First of all, they are willing to work hard and delay gratification. It may only cost $100 to get started, but it will also cost exponentially more in time and effort. A business, especially one in the beginning stages, is a full-time job with very few days off and it will usually take years to reap the rewards for this hard work (unless an ActionCOACH Business Coach is hired to help).

Secondly, be sure to use all of the free technology available to promote your business. Facebook, Twitter and other interactive databases offer literally millions of customers for any business. Starting accounts on those sites is free and can provide much of the marketing your business needs to generate a solid customer base.

In fact, the technology boom over the last decade or so has made it easier than ever for anybody to start their own business and grow it without having to spend a fortune, primarily thanks to these interactive databases.

What are some ways you generated capital for your start-up?

Find some great free business advice and tools, like eBooks or white papers, to help with any business, not just start-ups, or to see what an ActionCOACH Business Coach could do for your business, click here.

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Americans are Cutting Back…or Are They?

August 11th, 2010 by stevezog
Despite the high unemployment rate and unstable job security, many just can't give up daily costs, like Starbucks coffee.

Despite the high unemployment rate and unstable job security, many just can't give up daily costs, like Starbucks coffee.

Last week’s Bloomberg BusinessWeek published a very interesting cover story regarding the recession, Americans, and their spending habits.

BusinessWeek actually visited several big-name malls and stores across the country — Mall of America in Minneapolis, Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas, Woodfield Mall in suburban Chicago, Barneys in New York — to ask shoppers their thoughts about the economy and, since most of their thoughts were negative, why they were out shopping if they thought like that?

According to Consumer Reports, even though 51% of consumer say they’re trying to save, of those people, 17% are still spending outside their means, and 20% are buying on impulse,and still treat themselves to new, expensive purchases they might not have bought for themselves six months ago, like an iPhone4.

It’s interesting, reading about the irony of people juggling their iPhones in one hand, Starbucks coffees in the other, yet talking about switching to less expensive laundry detergent, soap and shampoo brands. But cutting costs is costs, and that’s how many shoppers justify buying Starbucks in the first place.

One woman confessed to “looking at price tags a bit more carefully” in the Fashion Show Mall in Vegas…yet she had splurged on the trip to Vegas itself. Even though she told BusinessWeek, “It’s really tough right now,” she also admitted to “pulling out all the stops” for Vegas and getting a room for the trip at the Bellagio.

Hypocrisy? Maybe, but what does it say about people and how they’re dealing with cutting costs in a recession?

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Social Media Beats Out Email

August 9th, 2010 by stevezog
Facebook outranks email as the No. 1 time-waster while online.

Facebook outranks email as the No. 1 time-waster while online.

…as the top activity spent online when it comes to goofing around.

An article in Information Week says that 40% of U.S. online time is spent on just three activities — social networking, playing games, and e-mailing.

According to a Nielsen study, which the article sites, U.S. Internet users spent 22.7% of their time on social networking sites — up 43% from the 15.8% they spent in 2009, the research firm found. By comparison, Americans are dedicating fewer hours to e-mail: In this year’s report, users spent 8.3% of their online time reading and sending missives, down almost 28% from last year’s 11.5%, Nielsen said in its Aug. 1 report, “What Americans Do Online.”

What might be most surprising, however, is that users of all ages are adopting to social networking. Double the number of Americans ages 50 and older are visiting more social networking sites than the under-18 age group. The report tracked 200,000 users in June 2010.

Facebook dominates its category, with 85% of social networking done on its site, the report found. On average, users spend six hours per month on the site. By comparison, users spend 5.6% of their social networking time on its closest competitor, MySpace. Twitter and Blogger each received only 1.1% of social networking use.

This leads to the question that if people are checking their social media sites so frequently anyways…should they start knocking out two birds with one stone and begin social media marketing?

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Will Financial Reforms Help or Hurt Small Businesses?

July 22nd, 2010 by stevezog
Think financial reform will help or hurt businesses, especially small ones?

Think financial reform will help or hurt businesses, especially small ones?

On July 21st, President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Bill into law. The Dodd-Frank bill will make some of the most sweeping changes to the US financial system since New Deal reforms in response to the Great Depression.

So will the new laws stimulate the economy or hamper growth? More importantly, how will it affect your small business?

For many entrepreneurs and small business owners, the most important aspects of the new law are how it relates to banking and credit cards.

Banking on the small business level shouldn’t change too much in the near future. The new law allows banks to delay the full impact of the law, in some cases for as much as a dozen years, for good reason.

The delay in getting to the banking standards was necessary because new rules dictating how much cash banks should have on hand could have made it more difficult for businesses to get loans.

Changes to credit card rules will probably have more impact on small businesses immediately.
Thanks to the new law, credit card companies will no longer be able to collect outrageous “swipe fees” every time a customer used a debit card.

For many small businesses, “swipe fees” are their second largest expense item, behind only labor costs, so for these businesses, the reform should help them save a lot of money.

It is important to remember the reforms in the new law are supposed to protect the United States’ economy from the mismanagement and corruption that made the 2008 meltdown so alarming. No longer will financial institutions be “too big to fail” and subject to bailouts from the American taxpayers.

Instead, regulatory commissions will monitor these massive institutions to ensure that they are working responsibly.

Since he took office, President Obama’s opponents have been claiming that his agenda is “anti-business”. What do you think of the new reform law? Is it good or bad for business?

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How NOT to Handle a Tough Situation: Learn from Tony Hayward

June 23rd, 2010 by stevezog
BP CEO Tony Hayward is getting serious flack for not handling BP's situation well.

BP CEO Tony Hayward is getting serious flack for not handling BP's situation well.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has devastated a region of the world still rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina just a few years earlier. Not only has the spill destroyed eco-systems and livelihoods, but for the supplier of the disaster, BP, it seems to be destroying their American marketplace while contributing to the continued economic debacle in Britain.

Everyone can agree, the spill is a monumental disaster, but the way BP has handled it has also been a disaster. If we look at some of the things BP has done wrong since the spill, we can see how small business owners should avoid acting when dealing with issues far more minor than an oil spill.

At the time of this writing, it has been 62 days since BP’s underwater well exploded, killing 11 and began gushing uncontrollably. Since then, BP, the biggest producer of oil and gas in the U.S., has lost 47 percent of its value or $1.4 billion. In Britain, where nearly 1/6 of all pensions are invested in BP stock, the affect can easily be seen, but even in America pensions are being drained by BP losses. Pensions throughout the country have lost value due to the disaster, and its disastrous aftermath, with the number approaching $1 billion.

Most of the blame for the terrible handling of the spill has to go to BP CEO Tony Hayward. He has seemed to be the classic “Ivory Tower” executive from the beginning of this crisis. From his statements about wanting “his life back” to refusing to take the blame for a spill that was clearly his company’s fault, Hayward has shown a lack of integrity and a complete misunderstanding of the seriousness of his problems. Most importantly, he has not been able to come up with a plan to stop the oil from gushing into the gulf. But he still finds time to go yachting.

For the small business owner, a major environmental problem is probably not something to worry about. But businesses have challenges they have to deal with everyday and BP has shown us exactly what not to do. Hayward’s lack of accountability and responsibility has directly led to his company’s bottom line debacle. Many Americans will never use a BP gas station again and the US government just forced BP to create a $20 billion escrow account to provide relief for the victims of the spill. If the aftermath of the spill had been handled correctly, there would have been losses, but they wouldn’t have been as devastating. After all, there have been other oil spills (Exxon Valdes) but never the extreme backlash like what we’ve seen against BP.

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