Who needs the "Yellow Pages"?

Publishers say yellow pages still relevant

Excerpt:

Industry leaders assert that consumers use yellow pages at a higher rate than newspapers and radio for local business information. Shoppers who open yellow books intend to spend cash, they say, and businesses advertising in the national print yellow pages can expect a return of about 13-to-1, according to statistics from the nonprofit trade group Yellow Pages Association.

Yet even with some numbers in their favor, publishers acknowledge that often perception clouds reality, and many believe yellow books are going the way of newspapers. Their mission, publishers say, is to change that point of view.

Comment: I literally never use the yellow pages. I wish they would not deliver them to my door. I don't think I have used the yellow (or white) pages (printed editions) in 4-5 years. If you can't Google it, it ain't worth finding!

Dyslexics & compensatory skills

Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia

Excerpts:

It has long been known that dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesses, where they can get around their weaknesses in reading and writing and play on their strengths. But a new study of entrepreneurs in the United States suggests that dyslexia is much more common among small-business owners than even the experts had thought.

The report, compiled by Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Cass Business School in London, found that more than a third of the entrepreneurs she had surveyed — 35 percent — identified themselves as dyslexic. The study also concluded that dyslexics were more likely than nondyslexics to delegate authority, to excel in oral communication and problem solving and were twice as likely to own two or more businesses.

...

One reason that dyslexics are drawn to entrepreneurship, Professor Logan said, is that strategies they have used since childhood to offset their weaknesses in written communication and organizational ability — identifying trustworthy people and handing over major responsibilities to them — can be applied to businesses.

“The willingness to delegate authority gives them a significant advantage over nondyslexic entrepreneurs, who tend to view their business as their baby and like to be in total control,” she said.

Comment: Effective delegation is a key to organizational success, whether it be business, government or church! See Jethro’s advice to Moses in Exodus 18: "select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens" (vs 21)

Saving the General Store

Struggling to Save a Main Street Mainstay

Small Business
Struggling to Save a Main Street Mainstay
By STACEY STOWE
Published: September 9, 2007
Sounds romantic, but running a general store is anything but.

Excerpt:

THE newspapers for sale in the window were 10 days old, and the shelves were largely bare but for a few boxes of cake mix and saltines. Established in 1812, the Colebrook Store is the oldest continuously operated general store in the state. But since mid-July this nostalgia-soaked spot across from town hall, where the coffee is hot and the gossip lukewarm, has been closed for vacation.

To the dismay of many of its neighbors, it is on the market and may be closed for good.

“It is the center of town, as far as I’m concerned,” said Jerry Rathbun, the first selectman in this postcard-perfect town of 1,500 in the state’s northwest corner. “Without it, the whole place kind of dies.”

General stores are gradually vanishing, victims of changing economics and consumer habits. In Connecticut only a handful remain, leaving many towns with fluorescent-lighted gas-station quick marts instead.

In Colebrook, signs in the window of the general store said: “Closed for Vacation. Be back July 17.” Two days later, the door was still closed. Joan M. Durant, the town assessor’s clerk, said: “I don’t think it has ever been closed for vacation. Now everyone is waiting to see if it will reopen.”

Dennis Spector, a college professor who lives in town, was standing outside wondering where to get his coffee. “There’s no Starbucks,” he said.

When reached later that day, the owner, Lora C. Murphy, 53, said that, as a mother of two, including a daughter with special needs, she could not afford to continue running the store at a loss. Ms. Murphy has owned the place for about two years. Customers may rave about the éclairs and like the idea of running into neighbors when they buy the newspaper, she said, but that’s not enough. “It’s really hard because the local community sees it as a novelty.”

Comment: I'm not sure they are worth saving! One of my favorite childhood memories was the general store in Alto Michigan. Alto main drag is virtually a ghost town now. The hardware store is gone (that was a cool place, you could just walk in and buy BB's!). The bank is gone. So are most of the stores. I think there is still a bar there. Not news ... but people want quality at a reasonable price. In my teen years (perhaps my last visit to Alto's general store), the goods were dusty and the whole place had a certain dank spell about it.

17 day Hwy repair - $ 5 Mil bonus

A Miracle-Worker Highway Man Rides the Bonus Train

National
A Miracle-Worker Highway Man Rides the Bonus Train
By CAROL POGASH
Published: June 2, 2007
A company that fixed a mangled freeway worked so fast that some residents have recalibrated their respect for the California Department of Transportation.

Excerpt:

The state estimated that repairs to the 165-foot-long ramp between Interstates 80 and 580 would take 50 days and cost $5.2 million. For every day short of the June 26 deadline, it promised a $200,000 bonus, not to exceed a total of $5 million. The highest bid came in at $6.4 million. Mr. Myers’s company, C. C. Myers Inc., won with the lowest bid — $867,075 — and completed the project in 17 days, winning the full $5 million.

Shop drawings were approved in hours, not months, and state inspectors were flown to Stinger Welding to oversee quality control. Mr. Douglas, who kept his shop running 20 hours a day, put two drivers in each truck so one could sleep while the other drove the steel girders to California. Rather than wait until all 12 girders arrived, Mr. Myers’s crews formed the deck in parts, pouring the concrete soon after the last girders were delivered. From the start, Mr. Myers said, his crews worked 12-hour shifts around the clock.

Comment: Excellent article about entrepreneurial business experience and rewarding employees.

Too Cheap for Its Own Good?

Is Wal-Mart Too Cheap for Its Own Good?

Comment: A good business marketing article. I'm not the shopper in our family so I am neutral on the issue. I can tell you that I would not buy clothing at Wal-Mart. I'm not sure "why" ... but that's how I feel.

Excerpt:

A confidential report prepared for senior executives at Wal-Mart Stores concludes, in stark terms, that the chain’s traditional strengths — its reputation for discounts, its all-in-one shopping format and its enormous selection — “work against us” as it tries to move upscale.

As a result, the report says, the chain “is not seen as a smart choice” for clothing, home décor, electronics, prescriptions and groceries, categories the retailer has identified as priorities as it tries to turn around its slipping store sales, a decline likely to be emphasized Friday during Wal-Mart’s shareholder meeting.

“The Wal-Mart brand,” the report says, “was not built to inspire people while they shop, hold their hand while they make a high-risk decision or show them how to pull things together.”

What kind of plane is this?

I first read about it today: here and here.

Ask Dr. Z

Chrysler Sale Unavoidable, Zetsche Says

Excerpt:

But by last fall, when Chrysler’s sales deteriorated and the carmaker tumbled into losses, he said it was starting to become clear that there was no longer a case for keeping Daimler and Chrysler together. The American auto market was simply too volatile, and the scope for synergies between the Mercedes division of Daimler and Chrysler, which Mr. Zetsche had made an urgent priority when he took the helm of DaimlerChrysler in January 2006, were proving to be disappointing.

Comments: I was skeptical in '98 about this acquisition. In summary: "[the] synergies ... prov[ed] ... disappointing". Chrysler dragged Daimler down and Daimler couldn't lift Chrysler up. For the sake of the workers, retirees, the suppliers, and the customers, I hope Chrysler survives. It's doubtful in my view!

Daimler dumps Chrysler

Chrysler Group to Be Sold for $7.4 Billion

Facts:

1. DaimlerChrysler paid $37 billion for Chrysler nine years ago
   
2. Daimler pays $650 million to unload Chrysler (German automaker will end up actually paying $650 million to unload Chrysler to end its exposure to billions in ongoing losses, health care costs)
   

Excerpt (from CNN article): DaimlerChrysler moved to undo the most expensive and one of the least successful mergers in auto industry history Monday as it agreed to essentially pay to dump the money-losing Chrysler unit, which it paid $37 billion for nine years ago.

---

1. The roofing work commenced today. Now at 6, they are still at work.
   
2. We had the day off: drove Mom to the airport, visited with Kathee's Brother, Dave; errands
   
3. Rachel leaves on her Europe trip tomorrow.
   

Have Newspapers 'shot themselves in the foot'?

How to Sink a Newspaper - Free news for online customers is a disastrous business plan

Excerpt:

Collectively, the American newspaper industry spends $7 billion on news and editorial operations. This includes everything from copy editor salaries to sports travel expenses. In addition, the Associated Press spent about $600 million world-wide in editing and creating news. By offering this news for free, and selling it to aggregators like Google, Yahoo and MSN for a small fraction of what it costs to create it, newspaper readership and circulation have declined.

These declines are accelerating. In 2004 and prior years, industry circulation declines were usually less than 1%. Since March 2005, these declines have been 2%-3% per year. With declining readership comes declining ad revenues, which are followed by layoffs.

The newsroom layoffs are most troubling, as less news with less quality, context and details results in more declines in readership and later, declines in advertising. If the $7 billion spent covering news becomes $6 billion, and later $5 billion, it is not just the newspaper industry that gets hurt. Journalism will be diminished in America with less investigative and enterprise reporting; indeed, less reporting of state houses, city halls, school boards, business and sports. Clearly a lot is at stake.

It is time for newspapers to reconsider the ultimate costs and consequences of free news.

Comment: We have the USA Today and the Star Tribune delivered. I find the Sunday Star Tribune a complete waste of time and never read it (but Kathee and Roger do).

Tidbits from the Fortune 500 list

Tales of the Fortune 500: The latest version of the legendary list has plenty of eye-openers

Excerpts:

Not only do we get the granddaddy of all listings of America's biggest companies, measured by revenues, but we also get them sliced and diced in all manner of ways. To name a few: There are also the broader lists of the most profitable corporations, the additions to and subtractions from the 500 in the past year and the richest money makers as well as the biggest losers.

The list that I find the most fascinating is the 500 ranked within states. Did you know that 52 of the 500 biggest companies in the land are based in California?

When it comes to rank by city, the concentration of the largest corporations is far greater. Chamber of Commerce boosters outside of Gotham will be disappointed to learn that a dominant 45 of the 500 corporations are headquartered in the Very Big Apple. In second place is Houston, way down there with 22, followed by Atlanta with 12, Chicago and Dallas with 11 each, Minneapolis and Philadelphia with eight each, and Charlotte, N.C., Pittsburgh and St. Louis all with seven each. Los Angeles and San Francisco have a surprisingly slender five each.

Quiz: Which Fortune 500 companies are HQ'd in Minneapolis?

Think about it first ... Fortune 500 List in Minnesota

Will the DOW crack 13,000?

Live Link

Comment: I graduated from college in 1971 with a degree in Business (University of Cincinnati). At that time, the DOW had not yet passed 1,000.

More on the DOW

Two tax articles

Democrats and the AMT

Excerpt:

This year more than three million taxpayers will be hit by the Alternative Minimum Tax on their 2006 income. But next year that number could rise to 23 million unless Democrats in Congress come up with a way to halt the juggernaut that is the AMT. The fixes that have been put in place the past few years have expired, and if nothing is done nearly one in five filers will be caught short by a tax that was created in 1969 to target 21--yes, 21--millionaires who had managed to avoid paying any taxes at all.

Comment: A tax designed to close the loophole on just 21 tax payers ... now set to catch 23 million! For a good read: The Fair Tax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS


Case Closed - Tax cuts mean growth

Excerpt:

The richest 1% of Americans now pays 35% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay more taxes than the bottom 60%.

Now, as before, politicians are itching to fund their pet projects with the short-term revenue increases that come from tax hikes, ignoring the long-term pain they always cause. Unfortunately, the tax cuts that have produced our record-breaking government revenues and personal incomes will expire soon. Because Congress has failed to make them permanent, we are facing the worst tax hike in our history. Already, worried investors are trying to figure out what the financial landscape will look like in 2011 and beyond.

Comment: I've made peace with my taxes. I just pay them and don't complain. But it's a fact that this country needs tax reform! I'm not optimistic! Check out Fairtax.org and select "compare the fair tax to income tax".

Minnesota's subprime past

Minnesota's subprime past includes booms and busts

Excerpt: Minnesota has had its share of subprime lenders go from boom to bust.

The story of

1. GREEN TREE FINANCIAL
   
2. OLYMPIC FINANCIAL
   
3. METRIS COMPANIES
   

Snagged on the bottom

Excerpt:

The subprime allure has been at work inside Wells Fargo since 1982. What was then Norwest bought Des Moines-based Dial Finance Corp., one of the first major banks to wade into subprime lending. At the time, most lenders who took on risky borrowers were small, family-owned operations that could service only a limited number of applicants. With $1.1 billion in assets, Dial was one of the country's largest consumer-finance companies to specialize in subprime loans.

"Dial had an incredible reputation," Campbell recalled. The company "knew how to underwrite and manage that segment of the credit market."

Dial later became Norwest Financial and now Wells Fargo Financial. It also became a profit machine for Norwest at a time when the bank was struggling to overcome bad commercial real estate loans in the 1980s.

http://www.prosper.com/ is the ultimate subprime!

Prosper: The eBay of Loans?

Electronic Giving Options

Plastic and the pulpit

Lead:

A change in the way churches collect money is on its way. Dropping money into the collection basket on Sunday may be giving way to automatic deductions from bank accounts or paying by credit card.

Comment: I do not advocate giving by credit card because it costs the receiving organization a fee. But ACH would easily pay for itself in saved labor. We give to our church through online bill pay.


Christianity Today article: Is EFT Right for Me?

A sample product: Electronic Giving Solutions

Last Saturn Ion

First Saturn plant to stop making the cars

We bought a '96 Saturn SW from this plant and our daughter's Ion was produced here.




I understand that the Opel Astra will be the Ion replacement.

Understanding Stock Buybacks

Shrink! The Latest Buyback Announcements

Excerpt:

Stock buybacks are seen as a bullish sign that management thinks its stock is cheap. Not only can they get a better return by investing in their company, but it's also a way for companies to return capital to shareholders, just like dividends.

A quick take on buybacks: Done right, repurchasing shares increases earnings per share, assuming that profits at least maintain their present level. A company with $1 million in earnings and 1 million shares outstanding will have EPS of $1.00. Buying back 250,000 shares so that only 750,000 shares remain outstanding -- and total profits are still $1 million -- means EPS will increase 33% to $1.33 (1 million divided by 750,000 is 1.33).

Wells Fargo approves buyback of 75 million shares

Excerpt:

The buyback accounts for about 2.2 percent of the company's 3.4 billion shares outstanding

Comment: A confusing topic ... the "Motley Fool" article explains clearly!

CEO Profile: Dick Kovacevich

CEO Profile: Wells Fargo's Kovacevich banks on success as a one-stop shop

Excerpt:

In an interview at his office here, Kovacevich says the secret to Wells Fargo's success is that the bank does a better job selling multiple product lines to its existing customer base than any other financial institution.

Comment: Kathee and I literally bumped into Dick on the street in Minneapolis about 8 years ago. I'm sure he remembers me! Dick Kovacevich's leadership style filters down through the ranks. We all know what "going for the Great Eight" means and that we are responsible for customer service!

Subprime Shakeout in Shaker Heights

Foreclosures Force Suburbs to Fight Blight

Excerpt:

Cuyahoga County, including Cleveland and 58 suburbs, has one of the country’s highest foreclosure rates, and officials say the worst is yet to come. In 1995, the county had 2,500 foreclosures; last year there were 15,000. Officials blame the weak economy and housing market and a rash of subprime loans for the high numbers, and the unusual prevalence of vacant houses.

Foreclosures in Cleveland’s inner ring of suburbs, while still low compared with those in Cleveland itself, have climbed sharply, especially in lower-income neighborhoods that border the city. Hundreds of houses are vacant because they are caught in legal limbo, have been abandoned by distant banks or the owners cannot find buyers.

Comment: In my childhood in Cincinnati OH, Shaker Heights was the epitome of the upper class!

Automated underwriting software

Automated underwriting software AKA The Subprime Loan Machine

Business
The Subprime Loan Machine
By LYNNLEY BROWNING
Published: March 23, 2007
A little-noticed tool of automated underwriting software helped fuel the recent subprime mortgage boom.

Comment: Interesting read and explains how automated risk scoring systems enabled the subprime business to boom. (Perhaps there was an over reliance on these systems!)

MN study of Drug company payments makes NYTimes!

Doctors’ Ties to Drug Makers Are Put on Close View

Excerpt:

Dr. Allan Collins may be the most influential kidney specialist in the country. He is president of the National Kidney Foundation and director of a government-financed research center on kidney disease.

In 2004, the year he was chosen as president-elect of the kidney foundation, the pharmaceutical company Amgen, which makes the most expensive drugs used in the treatment of kidney disease, underwrote more than $1.9 million worth of research and education programs led by Dr. Collins, according to records examined by The New York Times. In 2005, Amgen paid Dr. Collins at least $25,800, mostly in consulting and speaking fees, the records show.

The payments to Dr. Collins and the research center appear in an unusual set of records. They come from Minnesota, the first of a handful of states to pass a law requiring drug makers to disclose payments to doctors. The Minnesota records are a window on the widespread financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and the doctors who prescribe and recommend their products. Patient advocacy groups and many doctors themselves have long complained that drug companies exert undue influence on doctors, but the extent of such payments has been hard to quantify.

From the Star Tribune:

How much do drug companies pay doctors?

Excerpt:

Today, the group is reporting that at least 14 percent of Minnesota doctors received $100 or more from drug companies between 2002 and 2004, including many who got tens of thousands of dollars, and one who reportedly topped $1 million. "I suspect the number is considerably higher, but I can't tell you what it is," Dr. Peter Lurie said in today's report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Comment: Looks like better reporting is needed!