Does It Matter What You Name Your Business?

In the latest 21 Hats Podcast episode, our owners talk about why things don’t always go as planned.

Good morning!

Here are today’s highlights:

• Retail tech companies are taking advantage of the labor shortage.

• Digital nomads are destroying tropical paradises.

• Can McDonald’s change the fundamental meaning of working at McDonald’s?

THE 21 HATS PODCAST

Episode 68: Does It Matter What You Name Your Business? When Dana White chose a name for her business, she decided she wanted a name that had meaning—both for her and for the women she hoped to reach. When Laura Zander picked a name for her business, she thought she was going to be selling coffee. And when Jay Goltz chose a name for his business, he very strategically chose the perfect name to rank well in—wait for it—the Yellow Pages. This week, Dana, Laura, and Jay talk about what they consider the most important decisions they made in building their businesses—including why Dana closed her most profitable location, why it took Laura 15 years to find an operations person, and what Jay figured out about employees who struggle to grow with the business.

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PROFILE

Speaking of Dana White, CNN writes about her journey to become the first African American founder of a national salon franchise: “It's a revolution long in the making. As White described, women with thick and curly hair, who often are women of color, aren't the target demographic of existing blow dry bar franchises. ‘If you notice, all blow-dry bars, Great Clips, Supercuts, etc. market and have built their business model toward those with a finer texture of hair. These businesses don't carry the products or tools nor do they perform styles that cater to women with thick and curly hair,’ White said. ‘Unfortunately, hair salons are very segregated along the lines of race.’”

• “At many salons that do cater to textured hair, Gaines and White explained that the blow-dry process can take all day. White said she wants to take accessibility a step forward by attempting to ‘lean out’ the process by making it more efficient.”

• “‘For years, women with thick and curly hair had to make appointments and stay in the salon for hours. Then they were up-charged because they had a ton of hair,’ said White. ‘We need to reclaim our time.’"

• “Dana White is expecting to open 100 salons nationwide over the next five years, with the process of expansion beginning this fall.” READ MORE

HUMAN RESOURCES

McDonald’s is trying to lure workers with tuition and child care: “U.S. franchisees of the burger giant aim to boost hourly pay, give workers paid time off and help cover tuition costs to draw enough workers and improve the Golden Arches’ image as an employer. McDonald’s corporate parent said it is making a multimillion-dollar investment to back the franchisee efforts. Franchisees own 95 percent of the chain’s roughly 13,450 U.S. stores.”

• “McDonald’s in May said it would bump up starting pay in its corporate-owned restaurants to $11 to $17 an hour and said it would keep assessing wages to be competitive.”

• “McDonald’s owners said in an internal presentation reviewed by The Wall Street Journal that they needed to demonstrate their commitment to employees. The new employee program, the presentation said, aims to ‘fundamentally change what it means to work at a McDonald’s restaurant.’” READ MORE

Hoping to reach Gen Z, Chipotle is accepting TikTok videos as resumes: “TikTok on Wednesday began rolling out its resume site, tiktokresumes.com. LinkedIn has long allowed users to post video resumes. ‘Don't be afraid to let your personality shine through,’ TikTok said in its ‘do's and don'ts’ for the new site. A slate of retailers on Saturday morning had job openings posted on the new TikTok site. Among them were Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Forever 21. Chipotle built one of the most successful brand pages on TikTok, with more than 1.6 million followers. It's been busy posting guacamole making, Chipotle-bag dressmaking, and customers using extra-long forks.” READ MORE

Remote workers are destroying tropical paradises: “The trend, long popular among freelancers and independent contractors, has been supercharged by the pandemic, which sparked a revolution in remote work and freed millions of Americans from the confines of their offices. According to a research report by MBO Partners, the number of digital nomads — defined as professionals who moved three times of their own accord in the last year — jumped nearly 50 percent in 2020. About 11 million Americans now identify as digital nomads, and over half are traditional full-time employees who've decided to do their jobs from the road.”

• “Countries from Barbados and Aruba to Estonia and Georgia are offering special work visas that permit foreigners to stay for as long as six months, often with an option to renew.”

• “Selina, an international chain of nomad hotels, has 120 eco-chic properties in 20 countries from Argentina to Greece. ‘We're building the future home for digital nomads and remote workers,’ Rafi Museri, CEO and cofounder, tells me.”

• “Another startup, Outsite, promises co-living worktopias brimming with ‘spiritual energy, Caribbean beach life, and Instagram aesthetics all rolled into one.’”

• “But as more and more foreigners settle in for a year-round Burning Man, Tulum is starting to look more like the next Fyre Fest.” READ MORE

STARTUPS

Retail tech companies are taking advantage of the labor shortage: “Around 649,000 retail workers put in their notice in April alone. That's the largest monthly number since the Labor Department began tracking such data, according to the Washington Post. Now, in an effort to keep up with demand for everything from groceries to office wear, retailers are turning to the fast-growing retail technology sector, which has raised more than $3.2 billion since 2017, according to Crunchbase. ‘We have two things going on: Number one is the shortage of labor in the economy right now, but also the desire for companies not to see their labor costs spiral out of control,’ food retail analyst and R5 Capital CEO Scott Mushkin told Insider.”

• “Caper creates intelligent shopping carts that detect items and adds them to a digital tab, using computer vision-enabled cameras and sensors that track weight.”

• “Trigo is a Tel Aviv-based company that specializes in autonomous checkout with a focus on retrofitting the technology into existing grocery chains.”

• “Homebase is a hiring and recruitment app that helps connect employers with potential job candidates. The software features pre-written job descriptions that can be easily customized, as well as guidance for how to best attract talent. Once a job post is complete, Homebase shares it with major traditional employment boards and social media sites, including Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Google, Facebook, Trovit, and Glassdoor.” READ MORE

Pet startups continue to thrive: “It’s not just the growing number of pet owners that’s attractive to investors; it’s also the relationship those owners have to their pets. For many people, pets have become another member of the family. ‘It’s evolved more to this parental relationship,’ says Easterly. ‘Pet owners stress about finding the right training techniques, whether dog food with grain is good or bad. A lot of the stresses you see with parenting human children, you now see in the pet industry.’ Especially for first-time pet-owners, those stresses can be soothed with new products and services. The amount households spend on pet care has been steadily rising since well before the pandemic, according to Morgan Stanley.”

• .“Pet care was already a $100 billion industry in the U.S before the pandemic. A recent report from Morgan Stanley estimates that number could triple in the next decade, marking a sharp uptick in growth.”

• “‘There are more pets than there are kids in places like San Francisco,’ says David Cane, a VP at Wag, a dog-walking app.”

• “Small Door, a ‘OneMedical for pets,’ is among a number of startups capitalizing on boutique veterinary care.”

• “Connected collars, fancy food dispensers, and pet clothing have also caught investors’ attention, along with more outlandish ideas, like startups for extending dogs’ life spans.” READ MORE

REAL ESTATE

Another Miami condo is being evacuated: “On Friday, city inspectors visited the apartment building at 6881 Indian Creek Drive, which faces the Intracoastal Waterway in Miami Beach, and determined there wasn’t a need to immediately evacuate despite some concrete deterioration. The property manager was given three days to submit an additional engineering report. By Monday, residents were being told to leave their homes.”

• “The Miami Beach apartment is at least the second condo building to be evacuated as local officials work to prevent a repeat of the partial collapse that killed at least 90 people in Surfside on June 24.” READ MORE