Major Clothes Retailer Proclaims the Return of the Luxury Shopper

Upscale clothing retailer Neiman Marcus recently enjoyed a new surge in profit, leading CEO Burt Tansky to postulate in a Tuesday, March 9 conference call that luxury shoppers are beginning to come out of hiding. “The aspirational customer is a little more comfortable than a year ago,” Tansky said. “That customer was hit hard a year ago and vacated our stores, and we’ve been working hard to bring them back.” The company showed a profit in its fiscal second quarter of $4 million, as compared to the losses of $509.2 million... 

Selling Your Business

SELLING YOUR business and getting a good price for it seems an overwhelming task for a business owner, especially in today’s economy. However, the California Association of Business Brokers (CABB), a non profit trade organization, says that selling a business, and getting a reasonable price for it, can happen. The devil is in the details. The key things a business owner should do to make the business attractive to buyers are as follows: increase sales, have all financial records in order, consider seller financing, and be able to show the... 

Business Weary of Health Insurers

A PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute study has found that businesses of all sizes have become dissatisfied with their health insurers. The report titled, “What Employers Want from Health Insurers in 2010,” finds that: Overall satisfaction with health insurers by large employers has decreased to 59 percent, from 64 percent in 2008. Small employers continue to be less satisfied with health insurers than large employers, with overall satisfaction remaining steady at 52 percent. But the gap between large and small employers... 

Reigniting Your Business Engine

Like many a small business, you may have been treading water in 2009 to stay afloat, but this year, business owners may well be early investors in the economic recovery, and lead the effort to reignite America’s small business growth. The entrepreneur will be an American hero in 2010. Why? Franchises and other small businesses have generated 64 percent of net new jobs in the last 15 years, and currently account for about half of all jobs, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Odd as it may seem, disruptive economic times are... 

Failure Can Breed Success

Entrepreneurs attribute their success to their experience, not to their university degrees, new research shows. The research was conducted by the Kauffman Foundation, based in New York City, the world’s largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurship. More than 540 company founders participated in the survey, “The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Making of a Successful Entrepreneur.” The sample of small business owners and entrepreneurs was specifically selected to represent high growth companies nationwide. What is important to entrepreneurial... 

Video Conferencing Tips

THERE IS NO QUESTION that video conferencing is one of the greenest technologies on the market. Here are 10 tips from Solutionz Conferencing, Inc. to achieve your business goals, while simultaneously reducing your environmental impact with tele-presence and video conferencing: Telecommuting. Enabling people to be fully engaged in the workplace while working from home, increases productivity and morale of employees by reducing hours spent in traffic, and saves on operational costs. Access to Remote Experts. Connecting employees and customers to... 

Web School For Retail

Aspiring retail industry professionals have the availability of a new applied certificate program, designed to advance their careers at Drexel University’s Goodwin College, in conjunction with Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design in Philadelphia. It is a six course, 18 to 20 credit program. The schedule is flexible, to enable the working professional to participate. The school’s new Certificate in Retail Leadership program may be taken on campus or online. The program effectively develops students’ skills in... 

10 Management Tips

Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain, offered ten management lessons, recently at the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Annual Conference in New York. They are: Find the truth. Don’t just rely on research or past experience. Find out where your company stands now by talking directly to the customer. They will be honest about what’s good and bad about your business. Set audacious goals. These can galvanize your organization. Tesco’s audacious goals included being the No. 1 retail choice... 

Compliance with ERISA

ACCORDING TO a recent study by ERISA Pros, LLC, the majority of U.S. employers with 100 or more employees do not comply with the ERISA requirement to file an annual Form 5500 for their health & welfare benefit plans. U.S. Census Bureau reports show that there are about 110,000 employers that employ 100 or more people. However, according to public records, some 60,000 of these employers have not filed a Form 5500 for a Welfare Benefit Plan; a 55 percent rate of noncompliance. ERISA is a federal law that regulates employer sponsored benefit plans,... 

Trends to Test CEOs

The second decade of the new century promises to be a turbulent one for corporate CEOs, according to Arlington, VA, management consultants, Healthy Companies International. “The challenges confronting top executives will only multiply and intensify,” says Stephen Parker, chief commercial officer of Healthy Companies, which for 20 years has maintained a continuing dialogue with 300 CEOs in 40 countries. “Our research indicates widespread uncertainty about the future. Many CEOs will be severely tested in the decade ahead.” Healthy... 

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