Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:

• First Quarter GDP: Moderate Growth
• California Housing Market: Inventory Dips Below 3-Month Supply
• Global Economy
• Events of Interest
  • May 15, 2013: LAEDC International Trade Outlook

Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

THIS WEEk:

California’s Budget Position in March

HEADLINES:

• Retail Sales Weaken in March
• Wholesale Prices Retreat by 0.6% in March
• Events of Interest
  • April 23, 2013: Economic Outlook for the San Gabriel Valley
  • May 15, 2013: LAEDC International Trade Outlook

What the Rolling Stones Can Teach You About Business | Inc.com

In December, my wife, Elaine, and I attended a 50th-anniversary concert of the Rolling Stones at Brooklyn, New York’s new Barclays Center. They’re often referred to as the Strolling Bones these days, and with good reason. They’re old. You can’t help noticing how weathered their faces look. So it’s all the more amazing to watch Mick Jagger, at 69, strutting around the stage just like he did half a century ago. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He and I are about the same age. “Why is he doing this?” I asked myself. “He doesn’t need the money. What is it?”

Then it hit me. I dropped down into my seat and started to laugh. “Why are you laughing?” Elaine shouted over the din. “I just figured out what’s been driving me all these years,” I shouted back.

As I told her later, I’d had an epiphany. I’d suddenly understood the meaning of the word passion. Mick Jagger, I realized, keeps doing what he does for the same reason that I keep doing what I do: because he has to. Performing defines him. He has to do it in order to feel alive–which is also why I start and build businesses.

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The Next Step After a Mistake | The Simple Dollar

I’ve messed up many, many times along my financial journey. I’m willing to bet you’ve messed up a time or two as well.

I’ll spend too much. I’ll forget a bill and have to face the consequences of the lateness. I’ll try to adopt a new positive habit and then find myself slipping in my diligence with that habit.

Whenever I find myself making a big financial mistake, I feel a ton of regret. I’ll usually find myself wondering whether or not I’m a failure and whether or not I’m actually going to be able to continue on a better path.

Can I do this? Can I really do this?

This is a thought process that I’m far from alone in going through. Almost everyone I’ve ever talked to who has challenged themselves to make a life change has made mistakes along the way, mistakes that left them second-guessing the whole process. They’re left with guilt and doubt and a sense that this whole thing might just be a failure.

It’s not a failure.

Mistakes are a normal part of anything new that we take on. We are not perfect. We make mistakes because we’re trying something different than what we’re used to.

The real challenge is to learn how to handle those mistakes and turn them from being setbacks into being tools for success.

For me, there are three powerful tactics for moving on from a mistake.

Read More.

10 Perks Your Small Business Can Afford | Inc.com

Perks that make your employees happy don’t have to cost an arm and a leg– really.

A happy, engaged workforce is a high performing workforce. When you hear of companies like SAP that offers onsite putting greens or Google, which offers onsite everything, you probably think, “We have 25 employees and cannot compete on that level. And where would we put a putting green anyway?”

Read More.

Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:

• Fourth Quarter 2012 GDP Revision
• Personal Income Slumps in January
• December S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
• U.S. Light Vehicle Sales in January
• Events of Interest
  • March 13, 2013: UCLA Anderson Forecast Presents – Quarterly Forecast Conference

The Marketing Mix and 4 Ps – MindTools.com

What is marketing? The definition that many marketers learn as they start out in the industry is:

Putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.

Its simple! You just need to create a product that a particular group of people want, put it on sale some place that those same people visit regularly, and price it at a level which matches the value they feel they get out of it; and do all that at a time they want to buy. Then you’ve got it made!

There’s a lot of truth in this idea. However, a lot of hard work needs to go into finding out what customers want, and identifying where they do their shopping. Then you need to figure out how to produce the item at a price that represents value to them, and get it all to come together at the critical time.

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Million-Dollar Startup Secrets | AllBusiness.com

Most small businesses never reach $1 million in annual sales. Instead, they struggle just to survive. Of businesses started in 2004, barely more than half — 56 percent — were still around in 2009, a study from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found.

In fact, cracking the $1 million barrier at any point in a company’s lifetime is a major achievement. U.S. Census data from 2007 shows that more than three-quarters of the country’s 6 million firms with employees made less than $1 million in revenue. And most solopreneur businesses don’t earn anywhere near that much: According to IRS data for 2008, the average solo business brought in less than $60,000.

Continue Reading.

Weekly Financial Update | LAEDC

THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:

• Fourth Quarter GDP: Not as Bad as it Sounds
• Job Growth in January: The Story Was in the Revisions
• Personal Income Soars in December
• November S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
• Events of Interest
  • February 20, 2013: 2013-2014 LAEDC Economic Forecast and Industry Outlook

5 Things Every Small Business Should Know About Branding | AllBusiness.com

The whole concept of branding is foreign to many small businesses. They view it as something that only matters in the ivory towers of global corporations.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Branding is all about making your business memorable, and it’s the small business rather than the big one that’s likely to get lost in the shuffle. Here are five core concepts that small business owners should know about branding.

1. Repetition and consistency are paramount. Any parent knows that when you say something once it seldom sinks in. And, parents who send mixed messages confuse the child … and perhaps themselves! The same dynamics apply to branding: the market needs to see the same imagery and the same message again and again and again.

Read More.

How to Start a Business Without Debt | BusinessNewsDaily.com

Entrepreneurs often talk about how they started their businesses with loans from family and friends, seed money from investors and even by maxing out their credit cards. But, for every one of these feel-good success stories, there are more than a few with unhappy endings.

Noelle Federico, the business manager and chief financial officer of Dreamstime.com, a stock photo service, said that while it is not easy to start and grow a business without incurring debt, it is possible.

“We’ve proven that it can be done,” she said. “Myself and the leadership team at Dreamstime.com have never taken loans, used credit cards or tapped angel investors to grow our business.”

Read More.

Workplace Distractions: Here’s Why You Won’t Finish This Article – WSJ.com

Office workers are interrupted—or self-interrupt—roughly every three minutes, academic studies have found, with numerous distractions coming in both digital and human forms. Once thrown off track, it can take some 23 minutes for a worker to return to the original task, says Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, who studies digital distraction.

Read Article.

Five Signs You Need to Hire an Assistant | AllBusiness.com

Many small business owners and entrepreneurs pride themselves on being able to wear several different hats and juggle many different balls at the same time. But is this really something to brag about?

Identifying the Signs

As the leader of your organization, it may not be wise to spend your time micromanaging all the details that go into running your business. Your time could likely be better spent on big-picture strategy such as casting vision and direction for the company. Here are five signs that you need to hire an assistant so you can spend more time on tasks that add value to your business:

Read the Signs.

Five Trends Driving Traditional Retail Towards Extinction | Forbes

The e-commerce behemoth is coming, but that’s no longer news. Amazon is nearly 20 years old now, eBay just a year younger.

What is news? The behemoth is arming itself. New tactics, new friends and a hefty war chest mean that the old defenses insulating traditional retailers are no longer enough. Venture funds dished out $242 million to online retail startups in the last quarter alone, more than any other period since 2000. E-commerce, meanwhile, is now a $200 billion-plus industry in the U.S., set to ratchet up 15% a year as consumers realize there’s no reason to trek out to the local strip mall anymore.

In the retail arms race, e-commerce is winning. Here are five trends driving traditional retail towards the grave:

Read the Trends.

Small Business Saturday – Shop Small | americanexpress.com

What is Small Business Saturday®?

Small Business Saturday is a day for everyone — from the business owners who create jobs to the customers who buy locally — to support small businesses that invigorate the economy and keep communities thriving.

It began in 2010 when American Express founded Small Business Saturday to help small businesses get more exposure during one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. Last year, over 100 million people came out to shop at independently-owned small businesses on the day. Now, in its third year, Small Business Saturday will be even bigger.

Find Out More.