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How to Profit From Your Passion
Tweet Share on Facebook October 13, 2009 Comment (51)Write a blog. Cultivate Facebook friends. Tweet. You know you have to do all this. But why?
The new tools of social media are mystifying to many—and enriching to a few. One of the new social-media impresarios is Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of WineLibraryTV. Vaynerchuk used the Web to turn a sleepy New Jersey liquor store into a $60 million business, and his consulting firm, Vayner Media, advises companies on how to harness the power of social media without the hard selling that turns off customers. Vaynerchuk's new book, Crush It: Why Now Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, explains how individuals can build a personal "brand" and build a following while doing what they love. I've spoken with Vaynerchuk a few times recently, including this interview on Hulu. Some excerpts from those conversations:
What's the brief history of how you got started selling wine? I was a child entrepreneur. I started by selling baseball cards. My dad had a liquor store, Shoppers Discount Liquors, in New Jersey. I came home from college every weekend to work at the store. I wanted to pump it up. I was selling baseball cards and other memorabilia, making so much money from that, I figured I could do the same with my dad's store.
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The Man Who Could Salvage Wall Street
Tweet Share on Facebook October 9, 2009 Comment (14)Are all bankers evil? Maybe not. Over the past year, it's become fashionable to trash Wall Street for unbridled greed and the rapacious use of billions in taxpayer bailout funds. Much of the outrage is justified, since Wall Street firms like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup stoked the flames that nearly torched the entire economy. But there's been rough justice for a few of those firms, now either defunct or de facto wards of the state.
[See 10 gaffes by doomed CEOs.]
Other firms have filled the void, becoming even more prominent. One of them is JPMorgan Chase, whose chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has largely escaped the pitchforks aimed at his fellow Wall Street CEOs. Over the course of the financial crisis, JPMorgan Chase remained profitable, a pillar of relative stability in the midst of an earthquake. The bank absorbed the failed Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, while accepting $25 billion in bailout money that it paid back with interest once the government allowed it to. Through it all, Dimon consulted frequently with officials in Washington, and news reports have even depicted him as President Barack Obama's favorite banker. A new biography of Dimon, Last Man Standing by Duff McDonald, describes Dimon as a diligent and trustworthy executive who has risen above the swill of Wall Street. I spoke recently with McDonald about the man some think will be the next treasury secretary. Excerpts:
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What GM’s Progress Report Doesn't Say
Tweet Share on Facebook October 8, 2009 Comment (22)General Motors has some genuine good news. The automaker's June 1 bankruptcy filing hasn't been nearly as ruinous as GM executives once feared. New vehicles like the Chevrolet Camaro, Cadillac SRX, and Buick LaCrosse are wowing reviewers and drawing buyers. The Chevy Volt, an electric plug-in that could help move the car industry away from gas-powered engines, remains on track for launch late in 2010. Fewer dealers and a streamlined workforce are finally bringing GM's size in line with its customer base.
[See what GM can learn from Toyota's humility.]
But unlike its rival Toyota, GM has a long history of exaggerating its virtues and denying its liabilities. Since GM is now a privately owned company, CEO Fritz Henderson's recent briefing on GM's progress offered useful insight into the company now 60 percent-owned by American taxpayers. But there's more to the story. Here are a few important things Henderson didn't mention:
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Corporate America’s Identity Crisis
Tweet Share on Facebook October 7, 2009 Comment (4)The Man is confused. So I guess it's OK if the rest of us are too.
We tend to think of corporate America as a monolithic bloc of mostly middle-aged men with a prescribed set of views. Politically, they're moderate to conservative (though not necessarily represented these days by the angry mob the Republican Party has become). They believe in low taxes, law and order, and whatever else is good for business. The less government the better.
[See 10 gaffes by doomed CEOs.]
But suddenly, it's not easy being corporate. The most prominent rupture in big business's united front is the exodus of firms from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a stalwart old-establishment trade group and one of the most powerful business lobbies in Washington. The chamber opposes legislation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and has even suggested that global warming, now regarded as a significant problem by most scientists who have studied it, doesn't exist. The chamber probably feels it is fulfilling its historic mission to keep government out of business's way, using whatever hardball tactics are necessary.
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10 Retailers Gaining Strength From the Recession
Tweet Share on Facebook October 5, 2009 Comment (37)A trip through the mall tells the story: The recession of the past two years has devastated the retail industry, as overspent consumers have put away their credit cards, started paying off years of debt, and put the kibosh on shopping.
[Slide Show: 10 Retailers Gaining Strength From the Recession.]
So far, the victims include bankrupt chains like Dial-a-Mattress, Filene's Basement, KB Toys, Circuit City, Mervyn's, Steve & Barry's, and Linens 'n Things, plus hundreds of smaller retail outlets. Vacancy rates at shopping malls have been shooting up, and 10 percent of malls might even close, by some estimates. The pain could continue for another year or longer, as unemployment keeps rising and shoppers scrimp.
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What GM Can Learn From Toyota's Humility
Tweet Share on Facebook October 2, 2009 Comment (19)Andy Grove, one of the founders of Intel, is famous for saying that "only the paranoid survive." The long-term success of his company suggests he's right.
These days, Toyota is looking like one of the most paranoid companies on the planet. It's the world's biggest carmaker but certainly isn't coasting. The global recession has hammered sales and profitability, with Toyota losing $8.4 billion in the fiscal year that ended in March. Sales are likely to be down 18 percent more this year, with a turnaround next year looking modest at best.
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5 Myths About the Economic 'Recovery'
Tweet Share on Facebook October 2, 2009 Comment (82)Surprise. That economic recovery we keep hearing about seems to be playing hide-and-seek.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and others have said that, technically speaking, the recession is over. The stock market has been charging forward, with a 58 percent gain between the lows of March and a September peak. But companies keep cutting jobs, with the unemployment rate creeping up to 9.8 percent in September. It would already have hit 10 percent if not for discouraged workers who lost their jobs months ago and have stopped looking for work. Meanwhile, a lot of things could still go wrong, even if we pretend otherwise. Here are some of the misconceptions about the economic recovery:
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6 New Rules of Retirement Planning
Tweet Share on Facebook October 2, 2009 CommentFox Business recently invited me on air to discuss my story on 6 ways the recession will change retirement. Here's the video:
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So Much For Thrift
Tweet Share on Facebook October 1, 2009 Comment (6)The A-list economic indicators are GDP growth and the unemployment rate, which tell us at a glance if the recession is over, and if it feels like it's over. (It is over, but it doesn't feel like it.) But I'm more interested in another monthly number: The personal savings rate. This is the figure that tells us if American consumers have changed their profligate ways, or if we're truly addicted to spending and debt.
At the moment, we seem to be in rehab, struggling mightily to break our spending habit. After drifting upward earlier this year, the personal savings rate has dipped from a high of 5.9 percent in May to 3 percent in August. History tells us that a healthy savings rate is somewhere between 6 and 10 percent of income, which is what it was for most of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. In 1985 the savings rate started a long drift downward, and in 2005 it actually became negative: As a nation, we literally spent more than we earned.
