Jobs Plan Won’t Lead to Hiring
Published September 12, 2011 | 
The dismal state of the economy is the main reason many companies are reluctant to hire workers, and that sentiment is echoing across many industries by businesses both large and small, 
which greatly underscores the challenges that lay ahead for the declining economy ever hopeful for better days.
Many employers are dismissing the idea that any particular tax break or incentive would be persuasive, even slightly towards hiring. Rather, they tend to hire more workers or expand when the economy improves and consumer demand increases.
It’s a simple fact companies tend to focus on extremely stressed out consumer confidence, unstable markets, strongly perceived obstacles to business expansion like costly government regulation and, especially, fluctuating and inconsistent demand for their products and services.
There has to be the presence of a strong need for businesses to begin hiring in earnest. Tax credit employment incentives can offset costs of employee benefits, but business demand is what drives hiring. Certainly, industries hiring workers now including both technology and energy are those where business is strong and growing in contrast to the overall anemic economy.
The Jobs Plan includes incentives for companies to hire more workers, including payroll tax cuts for business and tax credits for hiring people who have been out of work for six months or more. But it’s a little like trying to get an entrepreneur to buy a horse to pull the business cart when there is no reason to pull the cart anywhere. It’s just not going to happen. These kinds of measures would only be used by business owners in industries that are most likely to hire anyway, exposing the fact that the “credit” does not, and will never drive hiring. The pure and simple “upshot” is increased “demand activity” within markets drives the hiring needs of businesses.
Some economists estimate the Jobs Plan, at a cost of an estimated $450 billion if it were ever to be fully implemented, could create jobs ranging anywhere from 500,000 to nearly two million, a wide range indicative of the guesswork from most economists, and the scope of the sizeable risk being proposed.
The economists continue the theory behind the plan by saying the majority of jobs would be added as workers begin spending additional take-home pay that results from the proposed payroll tax cut specifically for employees (a continuation of what is already in place, but due to expire in 2012). Of course, as consumers increase spending, more hiring by retailers occurs as a direct result, along with manufacturers, restaurants and across industries.
For other more pragmatic economists and experienced business owners, the practical math just doesn’t add up to covering the entire cost of hiring an employee including covering the benefits directly associated and part of the employment package, allowing for only marginal hiring at best, if any.
The Next Great Entrepreneurs – Business Goes Boomer
Published April 4, 2011 | 
A funny thing happened on the way to retirement. Gen Y is quickly being overtaken as the most powerful demographic by Baby Boomers.
Let’s take a look at what’s happening. The 76 million-strong age demographic has been making banner headlines for providing a lot of market opportunities including construction services that make homes more senior-friendly, supermarkets with senior-friendly lower shelves and wheelchair-compatible shopping carts, and growing sales and tech support by phone for seniors, provided by seniors.
In addition, would-be retirees forgot to retire and are taking over the workforce. Surprisingly to other age groups, almost two thirds of boomers still working expect to remain in the workforce for at least nine more years, and even more surprising by the beginning of the next decade, 80 percent of North American-born workers will be older than 50. Some experts are expecting an even bigger boom in entrepreneurship as healthcare reform begins taking effect in 2014.
Understand that what this evidence means is in the very near future, boomers will have a lot of power. I think it is safe to predict that as boomers continue to age on the road to retirement, employers will definitely have to contemplate creating optional work arrangement choices and other ways to oblige them. The fact of the eminent future boomer takeover is acknowledged by everyone planning for the near-future global markets.
On closer examination, the old stigmas attached to being old continue to lose their significance and doesn’t necessarily mean boomers lose “with it” points. Globally and in the U.S., universities are offering classes, course studies, and gathering important research on boomers and the future.
Here’s a few Interesting Boomer Facts
- Baby boomers are the 1st generation in American history in which the majority has obtained at least some form of higher education.
For Baby Boomers, health care is shifting from a medical topic to a blend of entertainment, fitness, beauty and spiritual well-being.- The top 6 concerns of Baby Boomers are: a) Having enough money to retire; b) Overall financial health; c) Having enough energy to do what they want; d) Having enough money for health care; e) Taking action to prevent disease; and f) Getting good advice from doctors.
- One in four boomers in the U.S. has a second home, and the typical vacation home buyer was 52 years old, earned $82,800 and purchased a property that is 197 miles (median) away from their primary residence. The largest concentration of vacation home buyers is in the Midwest.
- By 2020, healthy living will become a trillion dollar business.
- Gardening is the #1 hobby for adults over 50.
- The median consumer for a new Harley-Davidson cycle is a 46-year old male.
Understanding the Art of Generosity
Published June 15, 2010 | Let me start by making a statement about you and generosity, which is “the more you give, the more you get in return,” and being generous is something that you must develop, an art, and reach the understanding that when you are generous, you are making a difference,
and the more you practice your generosity the better you get at it, because you learn how to target being generous where it makes the biggest impact on people or projects that change them for the better, and many times, forever.
When you make a difference in someone’s life or even a group, you actually start to make lasting connections, and more importantly you interact with people that want to be interacted with because it is in human nature, our DNA, and many times the changes you make and the difference in lives will be respected by the people, the difference they actually yearn for.
Now more importantly, as you begin to make a 
difference, people will naturally start to gravitate towards you, they will want to engage with you and what you are doing, interact with you, and get you even more involved in by now what has become your Art of Generosity, and with time you will experience the exhilaration of getting more in return then you give, and by doing so you will reach a level of understanding achieved by very few.
The recession has taught us that when the economy begins to suffer our natural instincts of survival are activated to take care of ourselves and our families first, and many among us will focus only on what our instincts lead us to do, but a community that is connected and the connected economy doesn’t respect this natural instinct, although the instinct is well understood, and instead, everyone turns to those among us that are generous with who we are, and what we do, looking for the difference, the impact, and the empowerment that changes a life, changes lives, changes a village, and changes the worlds we are connected with.
Many Entrepreneurs share the art of being generous and are able to weave it into the fabric of their business, into what they do and who they are, and they understand completely that they get back much more in return through strong connections and relationships with their customers, employees and community, and the success that comes their way is in many ways a direct result of the Entrepreneur’s understanding of the Art of Generosity.
What are You the Most of?
Published April 9, 2010 | 
There is an old adage that’s as true today as it’s ever been, but is often overlooked or ignored as a valuable component of entrepreneurial strategies, and it says, “Be the First with the Most.” Try to think about all of the different type of businesses, organizations and the diversified fields of expertise present by everything all together, and endless number of brands, claims each one makes, and the general noise and group clutter generated by the collective market voices each day. Now you start to realize the size of the most important challenge of any organization or individual is about rising above the collective mass of voices in the fray, and the fact that it is no longer effective to be just okay or pretty good at everything you do, but you have to be the best or most of something you do, perhaps the most colorful, elegant in your presence and delivery, the most responsive in times of need, as well as the most accessible to the market niche you have targeted.
For years and years businesses, organizations and their leaders have become very comfortable with developing and maintaining strategies that didn’t rock the boat and kept themselves and what they represented in the 
“middle of the road” because that’s where they identified their customers being and their position gave them a strong feeling of safety and security, and they were right.
But now, with so much changing, and associated increases in uncertainty and the feeling of unsustainable practices and policies throughout the economy, and pressure to adapt to new ways of doing things, it is no longer wise or safe to be in the middle of the road, which has become a path to failure.
Being in Texas, I get to hear some of the greatest and most memorable statements in the world for describing positions, be it business or politics, and the best Texas saying about the middle of the road is “There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.”
The lesson is, in order to stand out from the fray and clutter of today’s overcrowded market you simply can’t play by the same old rules from the past and expect any measure of success in today’s highly competitive and volatile economy.
So, what are you the most of?
Strategies of Successful Entrepreneurs: Mastering the Markets
Published March 5, 2010 | Entrepreneurs who have owned and operated their business for very long have learned to appreciate the impact the global economy can have on their businesses, even at a local level that seems to be in relatively good shape in comparison to other niche m
arkets, and the ripple effect of negative market conditions tend to migrate both nationally and globally, sometimes very slowly, yet at times quickly depending on the initial market impact.
The track economies take always goes up in good times and then comes down in more challenging market conditions, and then back up, riding the optimism of good times followed by the pessimism of shrinking markets, and back up again, leaving the entrepreneur with greater challenges to successfully adjust operations during economic downturns, and the timing of the adjustments is critical to both lessen the effect of negative conditions, and take full advantage of positive market conditions in the most timely manner, and increase the positive effect on the bottom line profit.
The first thing global entrepreneurs need to do to master their markets is grow emotional skin thick enough to not only keep from feeling sorry when the economy slows, but also not to get too excited when the economies turn, start to grow, and begin performing at higher levels.
A realization and considerable understanding has to be developed and reached about the ebb and flow of economic conditions of the markets, as they are going to do what the markets are going to do normally in reaction to ever changing economic conditions both positive and negative, and of course there is very little that anyone can do to 
change the natural occurrence of economic events and cycles, although well-intentioned governments tend to always try and take actions to positively impact economic cycles, but too many times they only succeed in the exacerbation and extension of the negative portion of the cycles.
Once Entrepreneurs are able to gain greater control of their emotions it becomes easier to focus on the many processes of operating the business in the most efficient way in relation to economic conditions, with the goal of maximum efficiencies that directly translates to not only maximum profits, but maximized positive cash-flow as well. Also, when focused and clear thinking is developed, the easier it is to maintain greater focus and the more creative one becomes, the more success Entrepreneurs experience in making the correct, yet sometimes difficult strategic decisions at the right time, especially when there is some level of discomfort.
The focused mind set of the successful Entrepreneur always looks for ways they can use poorly performing economies to their advantage, making “lemonade out of the lemons” they have been handed, and they succeed through innovation, which is wh
at the true Entrepreneurs are best known for. Not only are customers, products and services viewed and thought of differently, but promotional strategies are viewed with an emphasis on regular adaptation and modification based on challenges of shifting and evolving market conditions, or “lemons” the economic world has thrown at the Entrepreneur.
It is critically important to keep in mind that when the local, national and global economies improve, the fruits of innovative mindset thinking remain in the form of new ideas and concepts within the business, and the Entrepreneur has developed and put together a bigger bag of new market strategies, systems and processes that ultimately pay great dividends during both growing economies and recessions.
Entrepreneurs collectively with the other millions of small business owners throughout the world are the global economy’s backbone and ultimate solution to moving it towards any economic turnaround, whether locally, nationally or globally. Together, the collective entrepreneurial mind set of Small Business moves from pessimism to optimism, and as people become more optimistic they in turn spend money, and jobs are created.
The greatest advice to remember is to “think globally and act locally”, take the “lemons and make lemonade”, and always be part of the solution as the markets grow and recede, and economic struggles are fought, won and lost, and people go back and forth between optimism and pessimism.
Unexpected events and tragedies will always have an effect on the economy, but how the Entrepreneur views their business and markets, reacts to challenges and quickly develops innovations, will determine their ultimate survival and the level of success achieved, which is why any of us make the choice to become Entrepreneurs in the first place.