Years ago, I invested in a flower shop. It wasn’t your typical corner flower shop filled with red carnations and yellow roses. In fact, we didn’t even have a shop. All we had was a van for deliveries. I researched the flower industry and found that flower shops have very high margins, but very small profits. The main reason for this is the overhead cost and the fact that … [Read more...]
What are they doing on those phones?
Everywhere you look these days, people are on their smart phones. They are on them while they’re waiting for their flight at the airport, while waiting for their food at a restaurant, and even while waiting for the movie to start or the light at the intersection to change. They are either checking e-mails, sending text messages, watching movies, playing games, taking … [Read more...]
Times are a changing…
As a small business owner, I remember the days when deposits had to be made at my bank by 2:00 PM. The mailman would sometimes be late coming by my office, so I would always stress out over covering the checks I needed to pay or had already written. I even kept a map of all the bank branches so that if a client called to pick up a check, I knew where I could make the deposit … [Read more...]
Bye, Bye Banks
Let’s all say goodbye to banking as we know it. The writing is on the wall. Or, should we say, the writing is in the new Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. For many years, community banks have handled the financial needs of local towns and communities. These banks took in deposits, made loans, and earned a small margin in between. Then someone in our government decided … [Read more...]
Bananas, Baking Soda and Bank Marketing
What do bananas and baking soda have to do with bank marketing? I thought you would never ask. Let’s start with the bananas… If I were to hold up a bunch of bananas and asked an audience what they were, most would probably agree they were bananas. But if I held up a green banana and asked the same audience how many would buy this particular banana, less than half would raise … [Read more...]