Tag Archives: Business and Economy

April 19, 2019 · 1:44 pm

The Buffet Bill

Happy Foodie Friday and a Happy Easter and a Zissen Pesach to those of you who celebrate one or the other (or both!). I spent much of this week in Las Vegas, one of this country’s great food cities. I know – how can I say that about a town that’s built pretty much just to separate you from your money? Well, you gotta eat in between all of that spending and it seems as if every big name chef has a place in Vegas. There is also an awful lot of great local places too.

While the food is very good at most places in town, it’s pretty expensive. Obviously, the high-end, big-name chef places are pricey but even some of the small local joints I patronized ended up costing quite a bit of change. While I realize that the prices I pay in my little North Carolina town aren’t “big city”, I’m quite used to NYC pricing since that’s what I paid my entire life. The prices in Vegas are beyond that when you total up all of the ala carte items you order.

One thing that’s a real tradition is the Vegas buffet. Every hotel has one and there are many stand-alone buffets in town as well. They’re not inexpensive either. The one at my hotel was $31 including the tip. Yes, even bottomless mimosas! As I was running through the massive food service area (for the third time), I realized that I’m very much a buffet guy and I think most consumers are too.

What I mean by that is that we seem to be living in an age where everything is ala carte. Your airline ticket may be your protein, but you might want some veggies (an assigned seat), a salad (a checked bag), and a starch (fuel surcharges, booking fees, etc.) which will make up the real cost of your meal.  Sure, your hotel room is $139/night, but the “resort fees” and fees for things like having a safe in your room or built-in tips for the housekeeper can inflate your bill quite a bit.

Everyone complains about what most ticket services tack on to the base price of a concert ticket. Look at your cable or telephone bill and I’m sure you can find quite a bit of dough you’re being charged that takes your monthly tab beyond the advertised price that drew you in as a customer in the first place. I’m a buffet-pricing guy. Tell me the entire price upfront and let me decide. Sure, the lower price might get me in the door once, but the anger I feel when I see the final bill will assure that I won’t be back.

You might be fine with ala carte pricing. In theory, I am too because why pay for something you won’t use? The problem is that you really don’t have the option. When an airline charges you for carry-on bags or for checked bags, there is no “option” unless it’s a day trip without luggage. You’re paying the fee. why not include it in the price?

Enjoy your buffet this weekend!

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April 15, 2019 · 9:30 am

Great Skills

I spent some time last week speaking with a fellow who is trying to change his life. I meet a lot of those folks in my franchise consulting role. They’re tired of working for someone else and want to invest what they’ve saved in creating a new, better life for themselves and their families.

One thing we talk about early on in the process is the skill set the candidate is bringing with them. Have they managed people? Do they like selling? Do they know about technology? It’s not that any skill set is better or worse. It’s simply about identifying what they bring beyond financial resources as we examine the hundreds of possibilities out there.

The fellow I spoke with last week works in auto repair. He’s a “body man.” Unfortunately, many of the auto body repair franchises are well beyond his financial abilities so we talked about some others. I also brought up a franchise that’s involved in drywall repair. He said he didn’t know anything about drywall and he didn’t have those skills. I reminded him that this, like most other franchises, offers a lot of training but putting that aside, I asked why repairing drywall is that much different from repairing sheet metal. He’s now considering the franchise but it raised a good point that we all need to remember.

Many of us focus on the trees and not on the forest. We think about learning a skill in a vacuum instead of the broader application that learning may have. Learning to code, for example, can teach project management, since you can’t perform either one well without a great plan and a flow chart of sorts.  It’s also a good reminder that learning the “broad” skills of communication, problem-solving, and teamwork have application across the board. That’s why so many of the business opportunities I deal with emphasize they want candidates with those skills and will train them on the specific skills needed to be successful.

Unlike Napoleon Dynamite, we all DO have skills and most of us have more of them than we think. What are yours?

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April 12, 2019 · 12:45 pm

Fast Food Solutions

It’s Foodie Friday! Today I’d like us to contemplate the foods that make us hungry. No, I don’t mean the ones for which we have cravings. I mean food that can actually increase your hunger when you eat them.avoid fast food solutions

Have you ever wondered why bars put out salty snacks like popcorn or peanuts or pretzels? As it turns out, salt makes you thirsty and what better place to be when you’re thirsty than your favorite watering hole? Salt, according to some studies, is addictive, as is sugar and fat. The food industry has become very good at layering those things together to create products (I’m deliberately not saying “foods”) that play to our addictions, light up our dopamine centers, and cause us to engage in self-destructive behaviors. When you hear the old Lay’s slogan about “bet you can’t just eat just one,” you might try to think about what the drug pusher says as they give away their free samples to people: “don’t worry – you’ll be back.”

The screed today isn’t meant to be a lecture on improving our eating habits. Instead, there is a business point here. We don’t eat salty snacks or sugary foods or processed foods or even foods sweetened with artificial sweeteners (they made you hungry too) to get fat. We eat them to solve an immediate need – hunger. But there is any number of other options that can fill that need without triggering the problems that come from really unhealthy foods.

It’s the same in business. We often take the easiest or most available or cheapest solution to solve an immediate need. Unfortunately, those “fast food” solutions only solve the problem in the near term and can often cause long-term damage. Just as with food, we need to be aware of our cravings and think before we eat. We need to consider all of the options, not just the “fast food” ways out. We need to choose more wisely, not just more expeditiously.

Make sense?

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