Date: 2025-06-23 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00019640
Media / News Headlines
Morning Report
Morning Report morningreport@businessadvantagetv.com ... October 7th 2020
Peter Burgess
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Date: 2025-06-23 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00019640 | |||||||||
Media / News Headlines | |||||||||
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Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | |||||||||
| ‘The Urgency Is Getting Greater’ Morning Report morningreport@businessadvantagetv.com via infusionmail.com 9:36 AM (5 hours ago) to me image Hotels Are Trying to Get Creative. Debt Collectors Are Having a Very Good Year. And How to Price a Subscription Plan image PRICING Here are some best practices for creating a subscription pricing plan: “I’ve heard many CFOs brag about increasing customer lifetime value by adding complexity to the cancel sequence. By making it harder for customers to cancel their subscription, requiring a phone call to cancel, for example, or not letting subscribers keep their data, companies can indeed enjoy additional short-term revenue. However, hiding the cancel button reduces trust, causes customers to share their horror stories with friends and on social media, and makes it much less likely that a lapsed subscriber will ever return.” “Netflix, one of the most successful of all subscription businesses, has gone in the opposite direction. It not only encourages subscribers to ‘cancel anytime’ but also doesn’t offer annual subscriptions, because that would be too binding.” “The company recently introduced a new policy of automatically canceling any subscription that hadn’t been accessed in a year or more — that is, if someone wasn’t getting value from their subscription for 12 months, Netflix doesn’t want to keep taking their money.” READ MORE THE COVID ECONOMY The chairman of the Federal Reserve warns of tragic economic consequences if the government doesn’t provide relief: “Mr. Powell, who is generally well regarded by lawmakers in both parties, has continually urged Congress to approve additional spending measures since April. ‘He’s become a broken record,’ said Diane Swonk, chief economist at accounting firm Grant Thornton. ‘There is nothing all that new in the message, but the urgency is getting greater.’ The Fed chairman’s remarks followed signs the economic recovery has lost steam in recent weeks. Monthly job gains and job postings have cooled. Household income fell at the end of summer, and consumer spending is also growing more slowly.” “By contrast, the risks of providing too generous relief are smaller, he said. ‘Even if policy actions ultimately prove to be greater than needed, they will not go to waste,’ he said.” READ MORE Hotel owners are trying to get creative with their space: “Across the country, as the hospitality industry grapples with a severe downturn, hotels have been trying to reinvent themselves — as schools, emergency housing, wedding halls or homeless shelters — even as the new uses may come up short on revenue. There are signs of financial distress. In New York, 44 hotel loans backed by bonds totaling $1.2 billion are delinquent, according to September data from Trepp, an analytics firm. In second place was Houston, with 39 delinquent loans at $682 million, followed by Chicago with 29 at $990 million.” “Hotels are rethinking common areas, too. Last month, five families rented a conference room at a Courtyard by Marriott in suburban Elmhurst, Ill., so their first-grade students could comfortably engage in remote learning. Gym class was in the hotel’s pool.” “But turning over hotels to other uses, especially as homeless shelters, can hurt properties in the short run, Mr. Davis said. ‘You may be getting a good bang for your buck for your rooms, but the wear and tear in your hotel is something to be reckoned with.’” READ MORE The New York Times’ Daily podcast chronicles one Oakland bar’s fight to survive: “The Hatch grew into a community hub. The narrow two-story bar, jacketed in reclaimed fence boards and local art, became a hangout for the city’s artists, musicians and writers, as well as waiters, bartenders and baristas. Upstairs were free comedy and rap shows, and Mr. Kachingwe hung a bedsheet to project obscure movies. The success helped drive sales from about $250,000 in its first year to more than $700,000 in 2019. Now — on March 17, a Tuesday — Mr. Kachingwe and Ms. Easterbrook were packing up the booze and boarding up the windows. On top of the $8,800 in rent, an advertising contract with Yelp was $1,000 a month. The point-of-sale system was $284. Cable and internet, $180. The alarm system, $165. Ms. Easterbrook poured a beer and then remembered that the six tapped kegs would also soon go flat — another $1,200.” “Within days, he had a creative plan for survival: Use the Hatch’s tiny kitchen to cater meals for a government operations hub a few miles away. He had already met with city officials.” READ MORE OPPORTUNITIES Debt collectors are having a very good year: “In August, Encore Capital, the largest debt buyer in the country, announced that it had doubled its previous record for earnings in a quarter. It primarily had the CARES Act to thank: The bill delivered hundreds of billions of dollars worth of stimulus checks and bulked-up unemployment benefits to Americans, while easing pressures on them by halting foreclosures, evictions and student loan payments. There was no ban on collections of old credit card bills, Encore’s specialty. At the same time, the pandemic compelled households to cut spending. Finding themselves with enough money to settle old debts, people responded to collectors’ calls and letters.” “Debt-buying executives couldn’t help marveling at their good fortune.” “All this created ‘a perfect storm from a cash perspective,’ the CEO of Portfolio Recovery Associates, Encore’s main competitor, told Wall Street analysts.” READ MORE For a Baltimore-based restaurant equipment business, it’s pivot or perish: “Within a few days, the custom-order company was repurposing its 50,000-square-foot factory to serve a new kind of customer, including two of the premiere dining and event venues in Los Angeles. Sofi Stadium, the recently christened $5 billion home of the 2022 Super Bowl, needed hundreds of covered serving dishes and heated food carts it could stock in owners’ suites. The Waldorf Astoria hotel in Beverly Hills asked for enough plexi-glass coverings to shield bartenders mixing drinks at its rooftop bar and a custom-built greeting station to protect its hosts and hostesses at an outpost of the famed restaurant, Jean-Georges.” “‘You have to pivot or perish, and not be scared to take chances,’ the 42-year-old CEO says of his flashy new California clients. ‘We did a lot of acrylic out there. California has been a big market. We have acquired a whole new customer base that we've always wanted to crack into.’” “The company is now mostly selling indoor dining-room and bar furniture repurposed for the pandemic, including making plexiglass dividers for publicly traded pub chain Clyde’s and grocery stores.” READ MORE HUMAN RESOURCES Businesses are objecting to the White House order opposing diversity training: “Some U.S. business groups are pushing back against a White House directive to limit racial-sensitivity training, which has caused confusion for some private businesses with federal contracts. Trade groups representing pharmaceutical makers, technology giants and advertising agencies have issued statements protesting President Trump’s executive order. They say the order attacks free speech and undermines workplace equity. As they seek to understand the directive, some companies are putting diversity training on pause, while several federal agencies have canceled scheduled events.” READ MORE The Trump administration announces an overhaul of the H-1B visa program: “The changes, introduced by the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security on Tuesday, will likely make it tougher to qualify for one of the coveted visas. Ken Cuccinelli, the No. 2 official at DHS, said on a news conference call Tuesday that he expects about one-third of H-1B visa applications would be rejected under the new set of rules. Mr. Cuccinelli and Patrick Pizzella, the deputy secretary of labor, said the changes were necessary to protect American workers, whom the administration believes are being undercut by foreign workers on H-1B visas who are paid lower wages to perform similar jobs.” “The changes target information-technology companies that rely on H-1B workers, mostly from India, whom they outsource to companies to work as on-site IT staff.” “Critics of the H-1B program take issue with these deals, pointing to companies that lay off internal IT staffs in favor of cheaper outside workers.” READ MORE INTERNATIONAL Now, Covid cases are surging in Sweden: “Sweden, almost alone in Europe in rejecting a broad lockdown this spring, has introduced new guidelines to curb a surge in coronavirus infections but is sticking to its largely voluntary approach. The Nordic country, which only had minor restrictions throughout its epidemic, had until recently been spared by the second wave of Covid-19 cases currently sweeping Europe. Authorities’ hopes that this was the result of collective immunity built as the disease spread rapidly through communities earlier in the year were dashed in recent days when a surge in new cases put Stockholm on track to reach last spring’s infection record.” “The new measures, in force for less than a week, recommend that all members of a household should isolate for a week if one of them becomes infected. Those unable to work from home will be eligible for sick pay.” “An analysis of Stockholm’s wastewater suggested this week that the rate of coronavirus infections in the capital had doubled in September compared with the previous month and was on track to reach the level of this spring.” READ MORE THE 21 HATS PODCAST Episode 35: I Would Be Scared, Frankly: In this week’s episode, the tables are turned. This week, it’s host Loren Feldman who fields questions and takes advice after he explains why the BusinessAdvantage TV Podcast will once again be The 21 Hats Podcast. “The bottom line is: I am now the proud owner of a pre-revenue startup that has a daily email newsletter that we've been giving away for free, plus this weekly podcast that we've been giving away for free, and the designs for an unbuilt website that we had hoped to one day charge subscription fees for. Any thoughts?” You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you get podcasts. You can also LISTEN HERE image Follow on Twitter Friend on Facebook Forward to Friend Click Here To Manage Your Email Preferences Unsubscribe Magnetic Marketing, LLC & Business Advantage TV 18 Broad Street Suite 300 Charleston, South Carolina 29401 United States (800) 871-0147 | |||||||||