Your Best Investment Your competition may be bigger with greater resources, but you can always be smarter than they are!   Many people are obsessed with tracking interest rates on mortgages, other types of loans, and rates of return on investments. Historically, these rates can fluctuate wildly. In 1981, mortgage rates were over 18%. In 2022 they were hovering around 3% or less.   In 1980, the yield on a 10-year treasury bond was a whopping 16%. Rates in 2023 are averaging under 4%. Over the last 50 years, the stock market has returned an average of 10% yearly. Of course, for many smaller investors,...

Regulating the Home Office?   The evolution of the workplace is continuing apace. The most recent changes are targeting work-from-home (WFH) employees, or to be precise, their employers. Up until now, the debate has centered around productivity, as well as supervision challenges and other issues that arise from the WFH phenomenon. The number of people working primarily from home increased from 5.7% to 17.95% of all workers in the United States, and from 14.6% to 24.4% in Europe.   Although most WFH employees enjoy the perks of the arrangement, companies are recognizing benefits as well. New data is showing that remote work could save...

Corporate Office Days   If you do a Google search for “the future of work,” you will get (approximately) 9,910,000,000 hits. If you search under “in office versus from home,” you will come up with 7,730,000,000 hits (more or less). Obviously, a LOT of people have a LOT to say on the subject.   Many employees want to work from home now. Many employers want them in the office. In addition to some self-serving motives, both groups have legitimate reasons for their positions.   Work From Home Productivity   A recent report from Owl Labs concludes: “Several studies over the past few months show productivity while working remotely from...

What to add a 1/2 $million to your bottom line? Sound good. How can I get that? The short answer? Communication. Effective, relevant, and timely communication.   A study conducted by SIS International, a global marketing research company revealed that 70% of small to mid-size companies consider ineffective communication to be their primary problem. SIS’s research further shows that a business with 100 employees will, on average, experience 17 hours a week clarifying, correcting, and other-wise managing mis-communication. This amounts to an annual cost to a business of $528,443.    Effective communication is hard. It seems that the more ways we have to communicate (in-person, email, text,...

The Increasing Value of Hands-On Workers   Manual Hands-On Labor is More Important Than Ever!   The industrial revolution started when businesses began using energy that wasn’t generated by people or animals. Although, historically, mankind has long used wind power (think windmills in Holland) as well as waterpower (the gristmill) for millennium, he mainly relied on human sweat to get things done.   With the advent of the steam engine, and soon after the discovery of electricity and its wide-spread use, the industrial revolution really took off. Automation was the catalyst. Electronics were the next major shift, followed swiftly by computing, robotics, and now, artificial intelligence...