Articles

Impact of Business on the Economy

photo-1511511450040-677116ff389e

Women in Construction: What Should I Wear Today?

This has become a “chick” question.

The female stereotype is that we obsess over this question every day and every time we need to change our outfit. But in reality, it is a question that we all ask ourselves every time we get ready to leave the house. Men tend to ask it subconsciously; women give it more conscious thought. Working in a male-dominated industry makes this question even more stressful!

As a minority, you are constantly under a microscope for things that are relevant and irreleva…

Read more…

The Attitude of Diversity

Three key elements in understanding how attitude affects your company are:
  1. Diversity is about things that you and your employees cannot leave at home: race, religion, sexual orientation, age, and looks. These traits affect the experiences people have in life.
  2. Differences between people can create barriers that affect a business’s bottom-line. When we are aware of the barriers and accepting others’ differences are encouraged in your company culture, people grow which means your company will gr…

Read more…

Blog-Legal

How to Navigate FTC Regulations: The Secrets to Effective Testimonials and Endorsements

For some, testimonials are what sell their business. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is finally catching up to the constantly evolving digital world. For the better part of a decade, the agency lagged a full Internet generation behind advertisers who saw online communications evolving faster than laws governing their fair use. Now the FTC is codifying and enforcing what were once only unwritten rules. As a result, companies caught crossing the bounds of appropriate online behavior now face ha…

Read more…

Steve Klein: Economic Update and Where His Company is Going

Steve Klein is a very good friend of mine and he is one of the three business owners that wrote the forward to my book, Contractors: Doing it Right Not Just Getting it Done. In our most recent check-in to touch base with each other he shared what is going on in his local economy and how it is affecting his business. Since it is such a great snapshot as to what is happening in the Victoria, Texas area I had asked if I could share it with you. So enjoy and if you are in Texas, say Hi to Steve for …

Read more…

Has Diversity Gone Too Far?

Like it or not, diversity in the business arena is here to stay. It is an up and coming trend and it is defining businesses that will success or fail tomorrow.

It’s interesting to see who is tackling this issue and who is afraid. What is also interesting is to see how people approach it. I have seen everything from “pity me, I’m a minority,” to “let’s just meet the numbers,” to “it’s just about the color of your skin,” to “this is an age old problem, so I am going to say it’s the result of divers…

Read more…

The New Kid on the Block: Meet the New B2Comm Business

For years there have been two primary types of businesses: B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer). With the launch and success of social media, a third primary has been created that very few people or businesses are recognizing: B2Comm or Business to Community.

In B2B, businesses focus on selling products and services to other businesses and have very little or no interaction with an individual consumer. In most cases, a consumer is almost an irrelevant concept to a B2B busines…

Read more…

Politics & Business: The Best of Friends, the Worst of Foes

At first glance, it would seem logical for business to be involved in politics. After all, laws and regulations can adversely affect operations and profits. It would be foolish not to at least try and be heard. However, there is a difference between being involved in politics and mixing politics and work.

For the longest time it was simply understood-work was work-you should leave your political beliefs at home. The first Obama presidential election changed that drastically. It may have been in t…

Read more…

The American Dream No More?

Some interesting trends are developing in the housing market. One particularly interesting and perhaps disturbing trend is the age of homebuyers. Currently, young adults are more hesitant to buy a home today than at any time in the past quarter century.

Moving forward, let’s say the next 2-20 years, instead of seeing the home buying market level out; I suspect drastic changes never before seen in the housing market will continue. Many kids and teens are seeing their parents with upside-down mortg…

Read more…

photo-1603793303277-ed67787545e5

Santa’s Secret Exposed: It is Possible to Fly Around the World and Support Local Economies

Child-Safe Spoiler Alert

Dear Kids,

Have you ever wondered how Santa is able to visit every child in the world and sit in the mall for the whole month of December? If you were like me when I was young, then you are sitting there nodding and thinking yes. I have to admit that I “figured out” the whole Santa thing at an age that most parents would say is unfair. But what I didn’t know is what really happened—that took much longer to figure out and was revealed to me at the most unsuspecting time, …

Read more…

Many Paths to Success-Jay-Z & Warren Buffett

In a recent meeting hosted by Forbes, Warren Buffett and Jay-Z shared stories of their mutual success despite drastic differences in achieving it. The full article is here and worth the read, but I wanted to share a few particular bits of advice that Warren Buffett gave.

Steve Forbes: Warren, what advice would you have for Jay-Z in the music business? You've seen business models change a bit in the newspaper business with the Washington Post and Buffalo News.

Warren Buffett: It happens. Street rai…

Read more…