The changes mean small business owners borrowing $150,000 will no longer have to come up with $2,550 in upfront fees at the time the loan closes.
Category: News and Views
Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:
- U.S. County Employment and Wages
- American Household Wealth Hits New Record
- Global Economy
- Events of Interest
- October 24, 2013: 25th Annual Visitor Industry Outlook Conference
- October 30, 2013: Opportunities for Trade and Investment in Southeast Asia
- November 13, 2013: Real Estate Voices: The Past, Present and Future of the Real Estate Industry
- November 14, 2013: LAEDC 18th Annual Eddy Awards
How to Start a Killer Restaurant: 6 Tips | Inc.com
Nearly half of all adults have worked in the restaurant industry at some point, and 46 percent of restaurant employees say they would like to own a restaurant someday.
Clearly many people dream of owning a restaurant. No one dreams of owning a failed restaurant, though.
That’s why I asked Tyson Cole, one of the Food &Wine magazine’s 2005 Best New Chefs, 2011 James Beard Foundation Best Chef Southwest, and co-owner of the Japanese restaurants Uchi and Uchiko in Austin, Texas, for tips for would-be restaurateurs.
Just keep in mind Cole’s background is varied, extensive–and unusual.He quit one job after he was told he couldn’t make sushi because he was white; he was rehired two days later but told he had to work in the back where guests couldn’t see him. He was also fired for giving a guest a free dessert; he was rehired when the manager found out the guest was Denzel Washington.
Heres what he says, in his own words, about how to start a successful restaurant:
Leveraging the Razorblade Business Model | getentrepreneurial.com
Gillette sits as #18 on Forbes’ Most Powerful Brands list. How does a company that sells disposable razorblades for mere pennies on the dollar have a value of $16.8 billion dollars?
It’s because they leveraged what we now know as the razorblade model of business.
The business came about due to the creation of a disposable safety razor which coincidentally required the use of the blades made by whom? Gillette.
The basic principle of the razorblade model is to leverage a lower priced item (often labeled as a loss leader) in hopes that the customer comes back to your business which offers a premium component to said item. The lower-tiered item should, in theory, be valuable in its own sense but having access to the premium product increases its value and longevity, for the consumer.
These types of businesses have become commonplace.
Take a look at the printing industry which has a stronghold on printing supplies. Keurig, too, has a dominant share on the single cup brewing industry thanks to the inexpensive machine but premium priced K-cups.
The truth is that every business has an opportunity to uncover and leverage the razorblade model.
The following will provide a few tips (and examples) to do so.
New York Set to Reach Climate Point-of-No-Return in 2047 | Bloomberg
Temperatures in New York are increasing, and after 2047 they won’t return to the historical average of the past one and half centuries, according to a study today in the journal Nature.
“Climate departure,” when the average temperature for each year is expected to exceed historical averages from 1860 through 2005, will occur in Jakarta and Lagos in 2029, Beijing in 2046 and London in 2056, according to the study. New York will match the global departure 34 years from now and tropical areas will get there sooner.
The research highlights the urgency of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions because the warming climate may drive some species to extinction, threaten food supplies and spread disease, according to the study. By 2050, 5 billion people may face extreme climates, and migration and heightened competition for natural resources may trigger violence and instability.
“The results shocked us: regardless of the scenario, changes will be coming soon,” Camilo Mora, a geographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “Within my generation, whatever climate we were used to will be a thing of the past.”
Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:
- Southern California Home Prices Still Climbing
- California’s Budget Position in August
- U.S. Retail Sales Lose Momentum in August
- Consumer Debt Continues Upward Climb in July
- Events of Interest
- October 24, 2013: 25th Annual Visitor Industry Outlook Conference
- November 14, 2013: LAEDC 18th Annual Eddy Awards
Confession | because I said I would.
The video speaks for itself. I found it while scanning CNN online. Mathew Cordle confessed to the drunk driving death of Vincent Canzani in Ohio last June. Watch it and draw your own conclusions.
What is more amazing is the good that will come of this. The site it is posted on, because I said I would. is a social change site that encourages people to keep their promises by writing and exchanging promise cards. An idea that I would have thought was a nice piece of piffle, until I saw this video.
What Matthew Cordle did was horrible; what he did about it is amazing. because I said I would was the vehicle for it.
Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:
- Japan in Focus
- July Personal Income and Consumption
- June S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices
- Events of Interest
- October 24, 2013: 25th Annual Visitor Industry Outlook Conference
- November 14, 2013: LAEDC 18th Annual Eddy Awards
Facebook is Getting More Two-Faced By the Day | Jay Baer
Within 96 hours, Facebook made two pronouncements (I like to imagine them being made via scrolls read in a town square, preceded by trumpeter fanfare, but in reality they were simple blog posts). The first change handed down from Mount Hoodie is that Facebook will now use “content quality” as a factor in the algorithm that determines when and how much your Facebook posts are seen by your fans and beyond.
Martin Diedrich: Human, being | Peter Mehit
“Think about this: People get out of bed and spend their entire day on a man made surface, never touching anything natural with their bare feet. People drive in climate controlled cars so they don’t have to worry about global warming. Cars are sold for the entertainments they possess. We’re zipping down the road at death defying speeds in total isolation. We go to jobs where we sit in cubicles all day long. People feel isolated and disconnected.” Martin Diedrich’s Kean Coffee is an antidote to this isolation and disconnectedness, a chance to reconnect and reenergize. His goal is to be the new town square.
We met with him at his coffeehouse in Newport Beach. It was a hive of activity. “You’re established in this business when the guests know each other,” he says looking at the knots of people coming and going from the space. His goal is to create an ‘urban refuge’ a place where people connect over coffee and leave the hubbub of the day behind. To that end, there is no free wifi. Unlike most coffeehouses, people are talking to each other, not staring at screens. On this day, every seat was full and the space was loud with conversation.
“You can make this anywhere; people are people, “he says pausing to sip his coffee, “People are social creatures. They love to gather together, and hang out with one another. The sad thing is (society has) departed from that in a major way. I think today people yearn for opportunities to get together. ”
Continue reading “Martin Diedrich: Human, being | Peter Mehit”
Dispatches From The Front 