Lisbeth Calandrino::

What we're seeing in advertising these days is an eye opener for most of us. The bad news is that according to the Kelsey Group and BIA Advisory Services, there will be a smaller local advertising market in 2013 than there was in 2008. 

Okay, I don’t want to review the rants that are out there regarding AIG, I’m not the news reporter, but I do want to review good/bad business principles. 

Maybe like me, you’ve had enough of excuses and incompetent people running things. Corporate jets for companies that are in the poor house and salaries so high I can’t even count. AIG United Guaranty posted an operating loss of $485 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. For all of 2008, losses at the private mortgage insurer totaled $2.48 billion. Wow.

Me, I always thought that businesses should be run like businesses — and this includes government. I always wondered why New York state could never pass a state budget on time, which cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, maybe more. I wondered why we pay these people or don’t penalize them for “over runs” or not meeting completion schedules. It was even brought to my attention recently that our governor just bought a $200 toaster. He must make alot of toast! In addition, the governor has also just replaced the historic carpet in the Mansion. Really? Now?

Can we reduce the bonuses, please? The general public just seems to be generous benefactors to the high-end welfare cheats. I like that  Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating those getting the bonuses. It might be a little late to back track but we will all take heed.

We all know in business what happens when you have one big customer and they dump you. What about when you have one big customer and they don’t perform? Do you pay them for work not done or shoddy work?

Do you follow up on your contracts, or read the fine print? I remember an associate who didn’t count the number of items in an order one day. He signed the bill and then found himself short. Luckily the manufacturer realized that they had unintentionally shorted the customer.

Who reads your contracts and do they know what they are doing? Wasn’t it the federal government’s responsibility to read the contract and be clear of the terms before advancing the money to the big companies? Now I’m wondering about our responsibilities. Should I have read the fine print or insisted that the federal government conduct due diligence? Isn’t that why we elected them? Whose job is it to see that everyone does their job?

What's Google and the social networking sites saying about your new contractors and business partners? Would you pay commission if you found out that the people you hired to do the work were partially responsible for the downfall of your company? I don’t care what the contract stated; wouldn’t you examine what you had done?
Now let’s get to the part where if you had “earned” the commissions, and I use that word loosely, would you give it back? I wonder how long these people have been paid for non-production.

Now let’s talk about “talent.” I’m listening to NPR and there is someone defending what they call "talent.” That is: those who are getting the bonuses, the ones who if they're not paid will put the final nail in the company's coffin. Hm, ok, so maybe the talent quits. Where would they go? Would they make the same income? Me, I would overhaul my human resources department and look at their hiring practices. Next I would head to the training department and take a look at their "talent." They must not be getting paid on output.

If they’re incompetent, let’s hope they go to your competitors and maybe you can start all over with some new talent.

There is plenty of blame to go around; it certainly is a lesson in accountability.
Resources:

• Financials Watch: AIG Brouhaha Distracts from Other Improprieties – Mar 18, 2009
• AIG Furor Turns Attention to Retention Bonuses

I didn’t used to like Suze Orman. When she spoke of having an unhealthy relationship with your money I wondered if she was speaking directly to me. Then I read You’ve Earned It, Don’t Lose It and The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom and the more I read the more I knew she was speaking to me.

How many of us have grown up knowing exactly what to do with our money? Maybe we get an allowance and maybe it’s connected to work. In fact, some kids get allowances for no good reason (I think that’s the stimulus package in disguise).

I remember asking my dad, how much money do I need to rent an apartment? He sat down with me and went through common costs of living: electric, phone (there was only one at the time), food, transportation (I didn’t have a car at the time), clothing, savings and the costs of rent in Washington D.C., where I was just finishing school at American University.  It became very clear how much money I could spend and how much would be left. The formula seemed simple. And then of course things happened, I wanted to go on vacation and I wanted a new so-and-so and so on.

Lately I have been thinking about how many people have an unhealthy relationship with their business and their lives. By unhealthy I mean a refusal to really look at their business or personal lives, fooling themselves by pretending to understand the difference between cash flow and profit or refusing to work out a commission structure for their salespeople because "it's too hard." How many salespeople talk about not wanting to work on commission as if it were a bad thing?

So with everything being cheap these days, should you fill up your closet, buy a new car or get a new house? This weekend they were having a liquidation sale at a nearby Holiday Inn: belts for $5 or $10 — surely I could use five more belts — and a bunch of other things. Congratulate me, I didn’t go even though it was very appealing.

Sure everyone is saying we should spend our way out of this, but didn’t we spend our way into this? People bought houses they couldn’t afford and are blaming it on “the deal.” The thought of not having a place to live should be more frightening than having the right place to live.

Maybe since I have lived alone for so long, and having had several businesses, and knowing that things “happen,” makes me more cautious of spending. You just know that things happen and you need a good back up plan called “cash.” Or maybe having been born after the depression my head is filled with the "you must take care of yourself because no one else will" mentality.

So hang on to your butts and invest in things that will provide a return.  Should you buy a house? If you can buy one that lessens your monthly payments and it's a steal then buy it. But if it’s the vacation house that you’re buying and now you’re taking on another mortgage and who knows about anyone’s job, I say think twice. But I come from the mentality of the 40’s — at least my parents were from there — and they said pay your bills and don’t spend more than you make. They sure knew how to take the fun out of livin'!

Should you buy a car with some “two-fers” out there. I have heard of the buy one and get one free; is it really what you need or would you be better happily driving your eight-year-old paid-for auto than picking up another payment?

I read that they are lowering the financing scores necessary for us to buy cars so that if you don’t quite meet the financing scores, you can over extend yourself there. Doesn’t this sound like the housing thing again? Someone needs to come up with some new plans. Did they forget that the old ones got us into trouble. Hyundai is saying if you lose your job and can’t make your car payments then you can return the car. Note, I don’t think they are giving back your down payment if you default because you lost your job.

The real question is, how do you take care of yourself with the economy the way it is, and what do you do with your money if you have any? Despite what the President says — spend, spend, spend — there are things that are worth it and things that are not.

For all you women out there, shoes are not considered an investment unless you are the Batas family and you happen to own a shoe museum in Toronto.  (Yes, there is a shoe museum in Toronto which houses 1000s of pairs of shoes depicting the history of shoes since the 1940s.)

But back to Suze. When it comes to money her suggestion is that if you have plenty of time to wait, such as five years or more, then there are plenty of deals in the stock market. If you don’t have time then the stock market is a bad place to be. I don’t think hiding your money at UBS is such a good idea; I used to hear about people having their money in Swiss banks, but now they will have to give up the names of their depositors that have been avoiding the IRS auditors.

Jobless rates may hit 8.8 % in 2009.  Ben Bernanke says that Walt Disney is giving buyouts. Does that mean that Mickey and Minnie will be out looking for jobs? Mickey and Minnie have pretty specialized skills, maybe they should think about expanding their skill level to UBS?

Things to think about:

• Investments should provide a return. Very few personal goods do, like clothes, but I found a new consignment shop down the street that is pretty hot and they offered to take my “disco” stuff that I've been holding for the next wave of Saturday Night Fever.
• Offer to trade some things. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
• How about a “gold show” in your store? A retailer told me they had an appraiser come in and buy gold on the spot. The retailer said it was a grand night.
•  Clean out your old storage bin. I have so many friends with stuff they’re holding on to “for when they move the next time.” Furniture doesn’t spoil but it gets moldy and out of date unless it’s period pieces. And if they are, what are they doing in your storage bin getting warped?
• How about having a “bring it in for trade” at your store, or a “cleaning out the storage/warehouse/garage/trunk sale at your store?
• Old tools, books, purses: put them on eBay or have an estate sale; everything is an estate. Mix your estate with the next door neighbor’s estate.
• Really need to buy furniture and accessories? Check out the local hotels that are refurbishing and you might be able to pay pennies for pictures and accessories. You might be able to resell them.
• I have friends that go to the "nearly-new" shops and buy clothes that have been donated by TJ Maxx or Marshalls and resell them.

Have any other suggestions? Let me know in the comments!

Photo credits: Turkish Stilts courtesy of Bata Shoe Museum

Last month I was listening to NPR and they were talking about the Northeast Green Building Conference, which was scheduled in Albany, NY on February 12 & 13, 2009. Not only did I not know there was a conference, but I had no idea there was even a Green Building chapter where I live.

There’s no escaping it now. Green is all around and here to stay. I often hear retailers say customers don’t ask for green products, therefore they must not be interested. I decided to be interested and went to Google and did a search for “green building magazines” and it brought up 22,500,000 citations. I think it said it did it in 9 seconds! Remember when you had to go to the library and look something up? My hunch is if there are that many citations then someone is interested.

By the way, my favorite magazine that I subscribe to is Natural Home, which also publishes a free resource guide called Mother Earth News. Although the green timeline goes way back, I thought the year 1993 stood out as a huge step forward in conservation efforts, when the following happened:

Greening of the White House: President Clinton announced plans to make the Presidential mansion “a model for efficiency and waste reduction.” This encouraged participants to green other properties: the Pentagon, the Presidio, and the US Department of Energy Headquarters, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Alaska’s Denali National Park.

US Green Building Council Founded: USGBC is a non-profit organization committed to expanding sustainable building practices. USGBC is composed of more than 15,000 organizations from across the building industry that are working to advance structures that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work.

Since I need to know as much about this as you, I went to Google to search for the chapter map, found the New York Upstate Chapter, signed up and contacted Traci Hall, the upstate representative.

Traci told me about the new certifications and sent me an event schedule for the conference. My opinion? You have to do this stuff; if you don’t your competitor will and will get a foothold in whatever business is out there. Even if the business isn’t there yet it will be soon so put yourself in a position to know what’s going on.

More than ever, you will have to go out after business and of course you want to be on the cutting edge of your industry. Frankly, You don’t have much of a choice, especially if you plan on being in business for the next few years. This is where the world is going and this is what you need to know.

The commercial market is still pretty strong and manufacturers are talking more about their green  products and their recycling efforts. Your manufacturers are global and have to keep up with the rest of the world. Even if business isn’t good, they have to be aware of the trends and position themselves to do business and be leaders in their fields.

Maybe you’re not comfortable yet with "green," but how many of us are? It’s a new field and has its own language, but consumers expect us to know. Being an expert for your customers is one way to build trust.

Business is about networking. The first order of networking is making friends, getting to know people and building trust, and then, hopefully, selling them products or advice. Green initiatives are another place for you to go look for business.

If you’re in my neck of the woods, I hope I see you at the next conference.

Sir Edmund Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. On May 29, 1953, at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. As part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition he reached the South Pole overland in 1958. He would later also travel to the North Pole.

It is interesting to note that in light of this ascent, all the photos that existed of the mountaineers on the top showed only Tenzing. When asked why there were no photos featuring Hillary, Sir Edmund replied, "Tenzing did not know how to operate the camera and the top of Everest was no place to start teaching him how to use it." Hillary and Tenzing remained friends throughout their lives. It’s a good thing Sir Edmund did not have to prove he was on the top of the mountain.

In 1998, on July 20th, I was heading for Anchorage to do some training and was quite surprised when the flight attendant said we had a celebrity on board who was having a birthday. Of course I looked around for Madonna and then a tall elderly slender man stood up and was announced as Sir Edmund Hillary. I lined up to shake hands with him, which I did, but of course I didn’t  have my camera. How could I have known?

Which leads me to why I wrote this. Why do people climb mountains or do anything like that?

Why excel? Why not just be comfortable and let others break their necks?

Why? Because life comes just once, just this time (or so we think), and I know you know that but how much time do you spend thinking about things and not doing them?

I had a call from a friend of mine, asking if I thought she should go out with so-and-so and what would people think and should she share that with so-and-so? She has known the man for about 40 years. I think that passes the statue of limitations, doesn’t it? All names have been hidden to protect the innocent if there are any. So I suggested she get on the plane, meet him in Paris and have a great time and don’t share it with anyone. I mean, who really cares?

We make everyone else in charge of our happiness except ourselves. That’s why I wrote my little book, "Even Goldfish Get Measles," which talks about how we focus so much on our unhappiness. It will soon be available on this site for you to read. Just know: I’m no different than anyone. I worry plenty about what I think others are thinking. The thing is, most of us are way too self-absorbed to worry about anyone other than ourselves.

The Beatles wrote a song called "Happiness is a Warm Gun."  Of course this is open to all kinds of interpretation. Maybe a gun is warm after it is fired–happiness (release) is achieved when you escape misery. Or perhaps the song describes a state of grief in which one is willing to take drastic measures in order to alleviate the condition. But why be miserable  even if you have a good reason?

So what is happiness? Does it mean getting ahead of the Jones or being the Jones? Some of the research on happiness has shown that though more money above a certain level does not correlate much with more happiness, having more money than your neighbor does. After the “R” thing is over, we might not have many rich people. They are saying that happiness will look very different.

Pam Danziger, from Unity Marketing,  predicts that even when the recession is ended and the luxury market comes back, it won't be the same as it was before this crisis. Changes are taking place among luxury consumers that will require new strategies and new approaches for luxury marketers post-recession. She says, "The luxury consumer market is shifting away from conspicuous consumption where 'he who dies with the most toys wins' to a new enlightened mindset of caring and sharing and where enhancing the quality of life is the goal. After 10-20 years of an extended spending spree, the luxury consumers have discovered that the pursuit of material wealth isn't the answer." A new and different kind of happiness!


If you envy your neighbor, you will begin to hate him — but who will shovel your walk when it gets really snowy around here or pick up your newspaper and throw it on your porch before it gets rained on? Your neigbor might start curbing his dog on your flower bed; happens a lot where I live!

If you feel envy, it sort of implies you can’t get out of your own way and get what you want. Bad excuse for not living  up to your own potential. Being envious separates you from yourself and whatever life force you might have. It also means the rest of the world (here it comes again) is in charge of your life.


Okay so we are all human and sometimes we have strong feelings about what we don’t have. How about some strong feelings about what you do have. There are lots of people who have lost lots; if that’s not you, rejoice. 


When I start getting into negative mentality I think of those sherpas who help others achieve their dreams, never requesting acknowledgment or glory in return, but without whom most people would probably fail on their journey. I think of those sherpas in my life, helping me move along and not asking for anything in return. How about you? Are there any sherpas in your life?