Let’s All Go On Each Other’s Podcasts!
It may seem as if there are already more than enough podcasts, but some business owners say starting a new one is still a good way to market your business.
Good Morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
Just because you haven’t heard from the SBA doesn’t mean your EIDL payments aren’t due.
Some influencers are making plans for a post-TikTok world.
The four-day work week seems to be working for Lowe’s.
The price of real estate has absolutely cratered (in the metaverse).
FINANCE
Here’s one way to pay off a pandemic disaster loan: “Consider how much cash you’ll need in the coming years, especially if the economy goes into recession. ‘In this environment, perhaps it might be better to keep cash balances on the books,’ says [Brian Hughes of River City Wealth Management]. He suggests that if you have funds to partially or fully pay back the loan, put that money in a separate account with an interest rate of at least 4 percent, and set up automatic monthly debits for the loan payments. ‘That keeps cash available to use if you need it,’ he says.”
“You can also toss in an additional annual payment, which can help you pay off the loan a few years early. If you go this route, set yourself an annual reminder to make sure your bank account’s interest rate hasn’t fallen below the 3.75 percent rate on your loan.”
“How old will you be in 2050? Do you want to be dragging a loan along until then? ‘Some people hate having debt and would rather pay it down than have money in the bank,’ says Dana Levit, principal adviser of Paragon Financial Advisors in Newton, Massachusetts.”
“If the monthly loan payments will tip your books sideways, be aware of the Hardship Accommodation Plan available through the SBA. It offers a temporary reprieve of six months of reduced payments while interest continues to accrue.”
“Some loan holders say they haven’t heard a peep from the SBA in a while. This doesn’t mean the payments aren’t due. Log into the SBA loan repayment portal to check the date of your first one.” READ MORE
MARKETING
Influencers are thinking about what happens if TikTok is banned: “The potential for a ban has also prompted questions over whether any current short-form video platform could replace TikTok — or whether a brand-new app would emerge to take its place. Creators are skeptical. ‘There are no apps that come to mind for me right now that are like TikTok in that way,’ said Patrick Kelly, a D.C. work culture influencer with about 63,000 followers. ‘I think TikTok is extremely innovative in the way that their algorithm is formulated and the way that it allows people to connect on such a broad and large scale.’ Influencers said they're able to go viral on TikTok in ways they can't on other platforms.”
“Platforms like Instagram have tried incorporating TikTok's signature ‘reel,’ or short-form video, into their services, but no app has yet to outperform TikTok's metrics. Data obtained by The Wall Street Journal found that people on Instagram spend about 17.6 million hours per day watching reels, compared to more than 197 million hours on TikTok.”
“Still, TikTok lags behind other social media apps in terms of ad revenue. Data obtained by Insider found that Instagram brought in over $43 billion globally via ads in 2022, compared to an estimated $11 billion on TikTok (ByteDance does not disclose this data; this figure was calculated by economists studying the app).”
“‘I do have to look at what's happening and make a plan because, you know, if TikTok does get banned, I don't want to be left with my hands empty and no plan on how to pivot,’ said Hannah Williams, who has 1.2 million TikTok followers on her page Salary Transparency Street.” READ MORE
I know! Let’s all go on each other’s podcasts! “In November, Olivia Dreizen Howell and Jenny Dreizen were looking for investors for their growing company, Fresh Starts Registry, a platform built to support people going through major life changes. Around the same time, they launched their brand podcast, ‘A Fresh Story,’ with each episode featuring a guest sharing their story of starting a new life chapter. Dreizen and Dreizen Howell said the podcast earned them so much exposure that they stepped back from pursuing investors to focus on organic growth through this channel. The website Listen Notes has ranked the podcast in the top 3 percent of podcasts globally.”
“‘I don't understand why more brands don't have podcasts — it is a tool that gets you in front of people in a way that you never would have believed,’ Dreizen Howell told Insider.”
“Sally Zimney, the founder of the speaking-coaching company BeMoved, said her business grew as a direct result of her podcast, where she interviews some of the top communicators. She told Insider that within six months of launching the podcast in 2014, she had enough speaking and coaching work coming in to pursue the business full time.”
“Interview podcasts in particular can help establish relationships with other leaders in a certain field and get in front of their audiences — without paying hefty fees. Zimney described asking someone to be on her podcast as ‘one of the easiest asks and easiest yeses.’ She said it sets up a collaboration that naturally leads to partnerships and opportunities.” READ MORE
ECOMMERCE
Online shoppers really don’t like to pay for delivery: “Forty-one percent of surveyed consumers say cost of delivery is the most important factor when buying online, up from 33 percent in 2022, according to ‘Protect Your Growth Strategy: the 2023 Consumer and Merchant Benchmark Report,’ a global consumer and retailer survey conducted by Auctane, parent of ShipStation. Six in 10 surveyed consumers say that they’re less likely to shop with a brand if shipping costs are high. On average, 34 percent of surveyed U.S. consumers expect packages to arrive in three to four days. Only 6 percent expect overnight delivery as the standard. Meanwhile, 72 percent of surveyed U.S. retailers are looking to cut shipping costs in order to grow in 2023.” READ MORE
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The U.S. patent office says it will speed up patent processing for small businesses: “The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, through its Council for Inclusive Innovation, recently announced a First-Time Filer Explicated Examination Pilot Program, for both individual entrepreneurs and the smallest businesses — so-called ‘micro entities.’ ‘By accelerating the examination process, it is our hope that expedited feedback from the agency’s initial review of the application will allow them to make key business decisions at an earlier stage as we work together to bring more innovation to impact,’ said Kathi Vidal, undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the USPTO.”
“The PTO gets about 40,000 patent applications per year with at least one first-time filer. The pilot program will be open to the first 1,000 petitions for expedited patent processing, the agency said.”
“It now takes an average of 16.2 months for a patent application to get examined by a patent attorney for the first time. Often, that attorney has suggestions, corrections, and edits to applications, which means it's just the start of a process that, on average, takes about 26 months, according to PTO data.”
“‘What they are concerned about is if you are a startup or a first-time filer, probably you are out looking for funding to get your business going. And if you have a pending patent application, that can help,’ Campbell said.” READ MORE
HUMAN RESOURCES
Lowe’s staffing levels have improved since it started offering four-day work weeks: “Last summer, after hearing complaints from workers about its ‘chaotic’ scheduling system, Lowe's decided to give employees more flexibility, allowing them to work four 10-hour days versus five 8-hour days. ‘So far, I am loving it,’ [Jaden] Walker told Insider. ‘The days are long, and on slower days it can be a bit of a slog to get through, but having an extra day off a week makes it worth it.’ The best part for Walker is having more consistent breaks in his weeks. According to him, he never works more than three days in a row, making it ‘easier to have a work-life balance.’”
“Insider spoke with seven current and former Lowe's employees about their experiences with the four-day work week at Lowe's. While most said they appreciated the move, some said scheduling complications have made it difficult to take advantage of the option, and at least one opted out of the four-day work week after giving it a try.
“On an earnings call in March, Lowe's executive vice president Joe McFarland said the company has had ‘the best staffing levels that we've had in three years.’” READ MORE
OFFICE SPACE
Defaults and vacancies are on the rise even in high-end offices: “For much of the pandemic, buildings in central locations that feature modern amenities fared better than their less-pricey peers. Some even were able to increase rents while older, cheaper buildings saw surging vacancy rates and plummeting values. Now, these so-called class-A properties, whose rents generally fall into a city’s top quartile, are increasingly coming under pressure. The amount of U.S. class-A office space in central business districts that is leased fell in the fourth quarter of last year for the first time since 2021, according to Moody’s Analytics. The owners of a number of high-end properties recently defaulted on their mortgages, highlighting the financial strain from rising interest rates and vacancies.”
“Rising interest rates have hit the entire commercial real-estate sector hard. Higher mortgage costs eat into landlords’ earnings and make it harder to refinance expiring loans. Rising yields on bonds and other securities also make real estate look less profitable in comparison, making buyers more reluctant to pay high prices and pushing down property values.”
“Not all commercial property sectors are suffering equally. While the values of hotels and rental-apartment buildings have fallen, these properties are also benefiting from inflation, which is pushing up room rates and apartment rents. Office buildings have seen a steeper drop in values partly because they are also grappling with weak demand from tenants who are cutting back on workspace.”
“‘Any property owner that says ‘Oh we’re fine’ is a little bit fooling themselves,’ said Thomas LaSalvia, director of economic research at Moody’s Analytics.” READ MORE
BUSINESS MODELS
Before the pandemic, a slew of pharmacy startups raised venture capital, but the margins just aren’t there: “Alto, Capsule, Truepill, Medly, and NowRx all got their start between 2015 and 2017, a period when investors were clamoring to back startups that promised to remake U.S. healthcare. They picked up steam during the pandemic, riding digital health's funding tsunami by delivering medications to people at home and offering a more personalized experience than they might get at big-pharmacy chains. But in the past year, the pharmacy startups have begun to crumble. Medly and NowRx each ran out of money and shut down for good. Truepill conducted four rounds of layoffs as it faced investor demands to cut its cash burn and has reined in its ambitions. Alto and Capsule have also conducted multiple rounds of layoffs, including cuts this year that haven't previously been reported.”
“Dispensing prescriptions is a low-margin business that giants like CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens dominate. Industry experts told Insider that the startups had always faced an uphill battle — for years, investor cash kept them afloat, but as funding dried up, the problems with their businesses became apparent.”
“‘This is a low-margin business, and VC firms have growth expectations that, in almost every case, exceed the types of margins available in retail pharmacies,’ Douglas Hoey, a pharmacist and the CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association, said. ‘They just don't jive.’”
“Still, investors poured money into the companies. Alto, Capsule, Truepill, and Medly collectively raised around $2 billion in venture capital and debt, including $1.4 billion since the start of the pandemic, according to PitchBook.” READ MORE
METAVERSE
It’s probably okay that you never quite figured out your metaverse strategy: “Walt Disney has shut down the division that was developing its metaverse strategies, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Microsoft recently shut down a social virtual-reality platform it acquired in 2017. And Mark Zuckerberg, who renamed Facebook as Meta Platforms to signal his seriousness about the metaverse, focused more on artificial intelligence on an earnings call last month. Meanwhile, the price for virtual real estate in some online worlds, where users can hang out as avatars, has cratered. The median sale price for land in Decentraland has declined almost 90 percent from a year ago, according to WeMeta, a site that tracks land sales in the metaverse.”
“Meta’s name change in October 2021 spurred excitement about metaverse experiences, products and platforms. But slow user adoption, driven in part by expensive hardware requirements and glitchy tech, and deteriorating economic conditions have put a damper on expectations the metaverse will drive meaningful revenue anytime soon.”
“Smaller companies such as Decentraland and the Sandbox where users have been able to buy virtual land and build their own worlds have seen some of the most success so far. But even so, land sales are down. The median price per square meter in Decentraland has dropped from about $45 a year ago to $5, according to data from WeMeta, the firm that tracks the sales.” READ MORE
21 HATS PODCAST
I Just Cut My Pay: This week, Paul Downs tells Shawn Busse and Jay Goltz that his year has not gotten off to a great start. This was supposed to be the year that Paul unleashed a bold, new marketing campaign that would put his business on an entirely new trajectory—and perhaps it still will be. But for the moment, his revenue has fallen considerably short of his expectations, which has presented him with an unwelcome choice: Should he hold-off on the marketing campaign? Or should he cut his own salary? Along with discussing Paul’s decision, we also talk about the process of rethinking a website, how best to make use of LinkedIn, and why Paul and Shawn continue to perform their own HR chores.
You can subscribe to the 21 Hats Podcast wherever you get podcasts.
Thanks for reading, everyone. — Loren