Job creation has been one of the strongest indicators of the health of an economy. But numbers tell only part of the story, as the technological, global and demographic forces wreak changes on the business employment environment. According to November’s federal jobs report, 271,000 new jobs were created nationwide in October, with 4,700 of those jobs added in Arizona. Since … [More]
Business Strategies
Businesses create revenue and income relative to how they utilize assets. When a business owner goes into the marketplace to try to raise money, the bigger the business’s asset base, the better its position to do so — whether it needs to buy things to sell or make things to sell, says Michael Denning, Ph.D., professor of practice, marketing, at the W. P. Carey School of … [More]
Workplace Healthy: Making ‘Employee Experience’ Impact Your Business
Employees do their best for employers who do their best for their workforce. An environment that fosters a healthy attitude results in stronger employee engagement and, ultimately, productivity. And this healthy work environment encompasses employee benefits, company culture and physical space in addition to wellness programs. For those who wonder what motivates and entices … [More]
Doing Good by Business
Philanthropy wasn’t just an element added to the business when Robert Thornton launched Paper Clouds Apparel eight years ago; it was the foundation on which his business model was built. Captivated by the drawings of a special needs child, he conceived the idea of developing a line of T-shirts featuring designs by special needs children and donating half of the company’s … [More]
Back to Basics 2.0
No one is good at everything. So, with the many hats a business owner must wear, some will be in the comfort zone and some in an area of actual expertise. All, however, require attention. Whether a business founder continues to actively handle all responsibilities personally or is able to delegate certain roles in the company’s organization, it remains important in any … [More]
Tech Sectors: The Technology Advantage, Sustaining Arizona’s Economy
Jobs in the technology sector are among the best-paying, and therefore help to raise the economy generally. There is also a multiplier effect, as each single technology-sector job creates more than four jobs in the broader community. Creating the jobs and the work force to fill them, then, has become an important focus of economic development from the local to the statewide … [More]
Office, Retail, Industrial & Multifamily: A Look at Commercial Real Estate as an Economic Measure
As an economic indicator, commercial real estate touches those big indicators — money and employment. As the industry continues its comeback from the down days of the Great Recession, commercial real estate developers point to many positive factors supporting the current healthy slate of new projects. Metro Phoenix is seeing some product types coming back more than others, … [More]
The Cure for the Healthcare Headache
Coverage As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act continues to roll out, employers this year face a new accounting requirement in preparation for reports documenting their compliance that they will need to file starting in 2016. Everyone must have healthcare coverage, and responsibility for compliance rests on both the individual and the employer. Key terms are … [More]
Incubating Business: Are Startups Accelerating Our Economy?
Apple and Intel may capture the headlines, but entrepreneurs are the drivers of the economy. A focused effort to foster an entrepreneurial culture in Arizona, which has generated a tremendous number of business incubators and accelerators, has been building in just the past several years. “State development folks realized we were overly dependent on defense, construction and … [More]
Top 5 Marketing Strategies for Success
Marketing options are wide and varied, offering more opportunities than ever before for companies to connect with their customers. Everything is on the Internet, and this has dramatically changed the landscape for business. Even small companies in Arizona are selling internationally, observes Matt Silverman, vice president and managing director of R&R Partners’ Phoenix … [More]
Regulation: Is Government Building Business or Breaking It Down?
Government regulations can be a double-edged sword — either they cut off business from a lucrative market or they slice through red tape, enhancing the bottom line. Either way, the purported goal is to protect the public from less-than-honest merchants, but overzealous regulators can take a well-intentioned rule and use it to cause private-sector headaches. As we explore in … [More]
Regulation: Q&A with Glenn Hamer and Farrell Quinlan
Glenn Hamer, president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Farrell Quinlan, Arizona state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, were interviewed regarding the state of government regulations in general and specifically in Arizona. Here are their responses to a series of questions. How do government regulations help economic … [More]
The Immigration Effect: Boom or Bust for Business
Immigration is often discussed in moral terms of right and wrong. Is it right to exclude children born and raised in the U.S. from an opportunity to live legally in America because their parents entered illegally? Isn’t it wrong to give people who broke the law by smuggling themselves into our country a path to legal work status and even citizenship? These may be points for … [More]
Top 10 Best Strategies for Business Success
Among the “top 10 best strategies for business success” a business owner can follow is surrounding oneself with the right people to get the job done. But to do that requires, first, determining what those jobs are. We at In Business Magazine have identified the following 10 areas of action that are equally critical to the success of a commercial enterprise. No ranking of … [More]
Financial Health: Planning the Way to Success
Making a profit is the common goal for business owners. Determining how best to spend it is also a challenge. According to Bill Owens, principal of accounting firm Owens & Bondell, there are five main categories that business owners struggle with: funding their retirement plan, buying new assets for the business, paying down debt, paying taxes and personal spending. “The … [More]
Are We Winning the Economic Development Game?
“The state that made the most aggressive, best moves competitively is Arizona,” states Barry Broome, CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, singling out the tax and economic policies of the past five years. In his view, they comprise the single most positive impactful decisions the state has made in 30 years “because they were governed by what will grow the economy around … [More]
Seeking Opportunity in Our Multicultural Market
The multicultural marketplace in the Phoenix area is a rapidly growing one. Where once corporations focused almost entirely on connecting and serving the mainstream Anglo culture, and could afford only limited outreach to minorities, now dynamic organizations are finding they can’t afford not to engage effectively with minority communities. This is because minorities now … [More]
Staying Alive: What It Takes to Be a Thriving Neighborhood Business
“There’s almost nothing like the moment you’re able to take home your first paycheck from the store,” Amy Wulfert reminisces. She’s talking at the front desk in Hair of the Dog, a dog-grooming parlor in Scottsdale. “It took me about three years to get to that point. Three years of hard work, being there every day, and working with a good staff.” The neighborhood shopping … [More]
