Do Your Employees Have Telephonophobia?
You can pay a consultant $3,000 for a half day of training designed to help employees get past their fear of taking a call.
Good Morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
Ami Kassar explains why SBA lending is getting even more bureaucratic.
Gene Marks writes about the entrepreneurial resources available to military veterans.
More retail workers are wearing body cameras.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Would someone please answer the phone? “Your co-workers Zoom, Slack, email, and text with ease—but good luck getting many of them to make or answer an old-fashioned phone call. Phone avoidance is so pervasive it has a clinical name: telephonophobia. A lot of bosses just call it aggravating. Phone use, or disuse, is an intensifying battle in the Hybrid Work War. On one side are people with sore thumbs and Zoom fatigue who are trying to resurrect voice calls, arguing they occupy an important middle ground in business. Sometimes a video meeting is overkill, they contend, and a typed-out message isn’t enough.”
“Being put on the spot by a ringing phone makes some squirm, especially people under 40 who grew up texting and instant messaging with a moment to collect their thoughts. They say video calls are less anxiety-provoking because they’re usually scheduled and often involve groups of people. Calling without an appointment, or at least a text in advance, isn’t merely inconvenient but downright rude, to some.”
“Scott Eastin runs a small staffing agency that places independent tech workers, many of whom ignore his phone calls about contract opportunities. It’s gotten so bad that in recent months he’s started using Loom, an app for taping video messages, to contact candidates on LinkedIn. The response rate is about 40 percent, much higher than with voicemail.”
“I cold-called a consultant who calls herself The Phone Lady (real name: Mary Jane Copps) to ask about her business. Naturally, she answered. Companies hire her to help employees overcome their phone fears. She used to charge $1,800 for full-day workshops, but demand is so great she now bills $3,000 for half-day trainings or $195 an hour for individual coaching.” READ MORE
FINANCE
Ami Kassar writes about the unintended consequences of a recent SBA rule change: “The SBA is no longer allowing Preferred SBA Lenders to make loan-eligibility decisions. Instead, they must submit loan applications to a brand new ‘risk-mitigation platform.’ This is odd, given that both the 7(a) and 504 loan programs have experienced negligible amounts of fraudulent activity over the years. But preventing fraud in future SBA loans is really just a guise for the agency’s true motive, which is to target fraud in the Covid-era Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan lending.”
“Unfortunately, it’s created a bottleneck that is restricting the flow of capital to small businesses. We’ve had quite a few clients affected by the new rules, and it’s clear that the application process has become slower and more cumbersome.”
“Even more frustrating, lenders can be in receipt of all the proper documentation and have confirmation from an SBA agent that the borrower has satisfied the responsibility of proof, but if the error code has yet to be cleared, the lender’s hands are tied.”
“A client of ours, for example, had an outstanding PPP loan, but her lender wrote the loan off and told her to stop making payments. However, the SBA still had the loan on file, and it was flagged as being in poor standing.”
“When our client decided to call her bank to pay off the loan to clear her record, she found there was no record of the loan for her to pay off. She has since asked the bank’s service department to reinstate the loan so that she can pay it off and be in good standing with the SBA, but in the meantime she’s been cut off from any SBA funds that would otherwise be available.” READ MORE
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
There are a lot of options for military veterans looking for help starting a business: “The Department of Labor recently reported that 17.9 million men and women are veterans of the U.S. military, with approximately 200,000 entering the workforce each year. Many of these individuals search for jobs. But many others want to be their own bosses and look to start businesses. According to the Small Business Administration, veterans own more than 1.9 million businesses and employ almost 5.5 million Americans. ‘There’s a lot of statistical data that suggests that veterans miss the sense of mission and purpose that military service gave them,’ says Hank Gillen, an Army veteran and director at the Office of Veterans Services at Saint Joseph’s University. ‘This is why many are drawn to business ownership.’”
“The SBA has a special low-interest Military Reservist Loan program to help cover a company’s operating costs when essential employees (including the owner) who are military reservists are called to active duty. Eligible veteran-owned businesses can also participate in the Veterans Advantage Program, which offers lower rates and fees on SBA-backed business loans, among other training, counseling, and support services.”
“The SBA’s network of Small Business Development Centers provides advisory and training to veteran-owned businesses. The federal government also funds a number of Veterans Business Outreach Centers, which are designed to provide entrepreneurial development services such as business training, counseling, and resource partner referrals to service members, veterans, National Guard and Reserve members, military spouses, and family members interested in starting or growing a small business.”
“All of these organizations — and agencies like APEX Accelerators — also help veteran-owned businesses obtain government contracts. According to Fleming, 23 percent of all government contracts must be awarded to small businesses, and within that group, 5 percent must go to veterans and 3 percent to service-disabled veterans.” READ MORE
RETAIL
Hourly workers at big retailers are starting to wear security cameras: “Hourly retail security workers are now wearing police-like body cameras at major stores. Retail giant TJX, the parent of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, said it’s equipping some store employees with body cameras to thwart shoplifting and keep customers and employees safe. TJX finance chief John Klinger disclosed the body-camera initiative on an earnings call last month. ‘It’s almost like a de-escalation, where people are less likely to do something when they’re being videotaped,’ he said.”
“TJX isn’t alone. In a survey of major chains by the National Retail Federation last year, 35 percent of U.S. retailers said they were researching body cameras for employees. The manufacturer of Taser devices and other security companies are now designing and marketing body cameras specifically for retail workers.”
“One TJ Maxx retail worker in Florida said the body cameras were ‘just for show’ and their presence did not make employees feel any safer. The job of these security workers ‘was to just stand there with the tactical vest labeled ‘security,’ and the camera mounted on the vest,’ said the employee, who spoke under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.” READ MORE
TECHNOLOGY
Electric-car batteries could create a huge, new energy system (and save consumers money): “A large flat screen on the wall of the Munich offices of the Mobility House, a firm whose investors include Mercedes-Benz and Renault, illustrates one way that carmakers could profit while helping to stabilize the grid. The graphs and numbers on the screen provide a real-time picture of a European energy market where investors and utilities buy and sell electricity. The price changes from minute to minute as supply and demand surge or ebb. The Mobility House buys power when solar and wind power is abundant and cheap, storing it in electric vehicles that are part of its system and plugged in around Europe. When demand and prices climb, the company resells the electricity. It’s a classic play: Buy low, sell high.”
“Electric cars are more expensive than gasoline models largely because batteries cost so much. But new technology could turn those pricey devices into an asset, giving owners benefits like reduced utility bills, lower lease payments, or free parking.”
“Ford Motor, General Motors, BMW and other automakers are exploring how electric-car batteries could be used to store excess renewable energy to help utilities deal with fluctuations in supply and demand for power. Automakers would make money by serving as intermediaries between car owners and power suppliers.”
“Millions of cars could be thought of as a huge energy system that, for the first time, will be connected to another enormous energy system, the electrical grid, said Matthias Preindl, an associate professor of power electronic systems at Columbia University.” READ MORE
STARTUPS
An app that creates a marketplace for surplus food is expanding across the U.S.: “Founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2016, Too Good To Go enables businesses to sell surplus food to consumers who can buy meals and grocery items for about half the retail cost. By preventing discarded food, the company behind the app aims to lower environmental challenges such as greenhouse gas emissions. ‘Rather than having that food go into a landfill, which has huge contributions to CO2, some people make some money, some people get some great food at discount and everyone is doing their part for the environment,’ said Sarah Soteroff, a spokesperson at Too Good To Go.”
“The app has three steps. Individuals first search for available stores and restaurants near their area. They would then order and pay for their food of choice through the app. Lastly, customers would go pick up their order from a participating restaurant.”
“The surplus food comes in a surprise bag stitched with Too Good To Go branding. That offering ‘reflects the unpredictable nature of food waste,’ the marketplace said. Consumers can purchase bags from categories such as baked goods, prepared meals and grocery items, among others.”
“Too Good To Go takes a flat fee of $1.79 from every transaction, the local business partner earns the full remaining amount. The business also sets the price of the bag based on the original retail value. Too Good To Go recommends between $3.99 to $9.99 when priced on the app for a total original retail value of between $12 to $30.” READ MORE
THE 21 HATS PODCAST
The Year So Far? It’s Difficult Out There: This week, in episode 198, we get updates from Laura Zander, Sarah Segal, and Jay Goltz. Laura wonders whether the time she’s put into integrating her latest acquisition might have been better spent focusing on her core businesses. Sarah, who has shifted to pursuing smaller clients, asks Laura and Jay to articulate the PR pitch that would interest them. But how do you evaluate the effectiveness of a PR campaign? Does it have to generate sales? Plus: Jay explains why he views confronting his current business challenges as a matter of triage. He also says that if he could write a check for $200,000 and solve his technology problems, he would do it in a heartbeat. Any takers out there?
You can subscribe to the 21 Hats Podcast wherever you get podcasts.
Thanks for reading, everyone. — Loren