Here’s the good news: Airfares are down. According to fare-prediction app Hopper, rates in September dropped a substantial 18 percent from the previous year. And all signs point to a bottoming-out this month, at an average domestic round-trip price of $204. Now, the bad: Airline consolidation and the continued softening of the European economy, among other concerns, have some analysts nervous about the future of flying. But don’t panic just yet. Although the following warning signs seem to indicate that things could get worse for fliers, there may be ways to ease at least some of the pain.
Author: knjohn
Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC
v.19 n. 52 – Released December 29, 2015
This Week’s Headlines:
- November State and Local Employment Report
- California Home Sales and Median Prices in November
- Personal Income Growth Strengthens in November
- Headline Inflation Unchanged in November
- Industrial Production
- California State Tax Revenues Rise by 4.1% in 3Q15
- U.S. Travel and Tourism Continues to Grow
- Events of Interest
- February 17, 2016: LAEDC February Economic Outlook
Top 10 Differences between Entrepreneurs and Wantrepreneurs | Getentrepreneurial
There are important differences between entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs that explain why some business people succeed against all odds, while most fail. It isn’t always easy to predict who will come out on top in the competitive world of business. Lenders, investors and prospective business associates considering a relationship with an entrepreneur should carefully evaluate possible liaisons based on the list below. The question to answer is whether the business owner is a committed and focused entrepreneur or a wantrepreneur destined to fail.
Entrepreneurs are passionate about their business and are willing to make it the top priority in their life, in sharp contrast to wantrepreneurs who may talk about their dream but are unable to focus on the business and give it the necessary attention required to succeed.
Scrum and Lean for Beginners: All You Need to Know about the World’s Best Management Systems | Page19
At some point in your life, you’ve probably had a stroke of genius, a brand-new, revolutionary idea for a company or product. Maybe it was an idea for a new micro-learning app, a navigate-your-city jacket, maybe it was an idea to colonize Mars, or to capture cow farts in methane backpacks?
But as any science fiction show knows, conceptualization is not the same as creation. So how to make your idea a reality?
And indeed, it’s a good question: inevitably there’s an unexpected thing or two (or two thousand) to take into account as you pursue your idea. As your business begins to take shape, these challenges will only grow. Because how to manage this project in the first place? How to manage time? Your team?
This is where scrum and lean come into the picture.
Business Scan | LAEDC
Kyser Center for Economic Research is pleased to provide the December 2015 issue of Business Scan, a compilation of Los Angeles County economic indicators and business trends, including employment, trade, housing, tourism and entertainment.
What Just Happened to Solar and Wind is a Really Big Deal | Bloomberg Business
The clean-energy boom is about to be transformed. In a surprise move, U.S. lawmakers agreed to extend tax credits for solar and wind for another five years.
This will give an unprecedented boost to the industry and change the course of deployment in the U.S. The extension will add an extra 20 gigawatts of solar power—more than every panel ever installed in the U.S. prior to 2015, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The U.S. was already one of the world’s biggest clean-energy investors. This deal is like adding another America of solar power into the mix.
The wind credit will contribute another 19 gigawatts over five years. Combined, the extensions will spur more than $73 billion of investment and supply enough electricity to power 8 million U.S. homes, according to BNEF.
“This is massive,” said Ethan Zindler, head of U.S. policy analysis at BNEF. In the short term, the deal will speed up the shift from fossil fuels more than the global climate deal struck this month in Paris and more than Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan that regulates coal plants, Zindler said.
4 Mistakes That Ruin Business Meetings | Business News Daily
Business meetings have a longstanding reputation for being unexciting. Sitcoms, films and even stock photo collections are filled with scenes of employees looking at the clock, rolling their eyes and falling asleep while the presenter seems to drone on interminably.
Though these staged “boring meetings” may be slightly exaggerated on camera, they’re not too far from the truth: A recent survey by enterprise intranet company Igloo Software found that about half of all employees find meetings to be unproductive. The most common meeting pet peeves reflect this sentiment, with unnecessary meetings (76 percent), meetings going off-topic (59 percent) and people repeating one another (58 percent) topping the list.
British man attempts to avoid parking ticket by leaving cheekiest note | Mashable
LONDON — Getting angry with traffic wardens might not always be the best approach — sometimes, it pays to charm them instead.
One chancer in Liverpool recently went for this approach when he was unable to move his car in time due to having had “a Christmas pint with the lads.”
Operator! Operator! The UberRush Logistics Layer Has Arrived | TechCrunch
The real goldmine for Uber is in becoming the transportation backend for tons of other services, not just its own apps. Now this logistics layer strategy is coming to fruition through a partnership with Operator, the chat-based shopping assistant backed by Uber co-founder Garret Camp.
Together, Uber and Operator they could compete with Amazon’s massive warehouses by aggregating inventory for instant delivery from local shops that are closer nearby.
Today, UberRush begins powering 1-hour delivery for Operator in San Francisco. At first, over 100 of the most popular gifts from the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall and Saks Fifth Avenue will be available for immediate arrival.
3 Ways to Use CRM to Ramp Up Your Sales | All Business
As a female entrepreneur, I, like so many others, have to juggle my time carefully. I’m always looking for strategies to use one thing in many ways. One tool I’ve discovered that can do more than meets the eye is customer relationship management software (or CRM).
A lot of people mistakenly think CRM is only something marketers use, or it’s just a place to throw all your contact information. That’s simply not the case; it’s also a fantastic tool to increase sales for your business. And hey, I’m all about using it for as much as I can, especially if it helps me grow my business!
Today’s CRM solutions are much more sophisticated—not to mention more useful—than their predecessors. Here are three effective ways to use CRM as a sales tool:
Dispatches From The Front 