Brian Will is a serial entrepreneur, business management consultant and best-selling author. He can be reached at www.brianwillmedia.com . getty According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 5.4 million new businesses started in 2021. That is over 450,000 new businesses every month. According to The Chamber of Commerce , around half of all businesses fail within the first five years, and only 35% of businesses will make it 10 years or more. These numbers represent a lot of time, effort and energy on the part of millions of people. If you are reading this and wondering why so many of these businesses fail, I can tell you. I find that new businesses generally do not fail for mechanical or technical reasons. And they do not fail because the owners lack specific knowledge on how to perform the needed tasks on a day-to-day basis. Company Management To use an example scenario: Joe, the plumber, decides to quit his job and start his own plumbing business. Joe knows how to be a plumber. If Joe’s new business fails, it won’t be because Joe didn’t understand plumbing. Joe will likely fail because he doesn’t know how to run the business side of Joe’s […]

Click here to view original web page at www.forbes.com

Jenn Flynn leads Capital One Small Business Bank and is a highly respected corporate finance executive with 20+ years of experience. getty Another year brought another complex series of challenges for business owners to navigate. Fortunately, neither record-breaking inflation nor ongoing supply chain issues were a match for the resilient, entrepreneurial spirit of the small-business community. It’s encouraging to see that commitment reflected in the number of new business applications in the last quarter of 2022, which has held steady at around 400,000 applications per month for the past two years. Reasons for this sustained growth in new businesses vary. A recent survey from Capital One Business found that business owners who started their business during or after March 2020 were motivated to do so because their free time had increased, they were laid off from their job or they were able to scale their side hustle into a business, among other factors. These business owners share that they feel rewarded for taking the leap into entrepreneurship with a more flexible schedule, and by having the ability to spend more time with their families. I love hearing from business owners about how empowered they feel since starting a business, […]

Click here to view original web page at www.forbes.com

Founder Of International Agency Believe Advertising & PR | Best-Selling Author| Helping Entrepreneurs Gain Global Media Coverage. getty Are you thinking of hiring a PR agency but are unsure what it can do for your business? A PR agency is more than just a marketing tool; it’s an investment in your business’s success. With the right strategy and guidance, a good PR agency can help you reach your goals faster and with greater impact. Below, I’ll dive into what a PR agency is, how it can benefit your business and how to find the right firm for you. What Is A PR Agency? A PR agency is a company that provides public relations services to clients. These services can include a range of things, which I’ll discuss further below. But essentially, a PR agency can help a business by raising awareness of its products or services, generating positive media coverage and helping to improve its reputation. What Services Do PR Agencies Typically Offer? There are a variety of services that PR agencies typically offer. Some common services include media relations, crisis management and event planning. Media relations is the act of building relationships with members of the media. This […]

Click here to view original web page at www.forbes.com

Getty Each year, the IRS issues annual updates that impact the 401(k) and retirement planning arenas. Whether an increase in COLA (cost of living adjustment) limits or compensation limits for highly paid employees, these updates have an impact on both working-age and retired individuals. 2022 saw some of the most impactful legislative changes on record with the passing of the SECURE Act 2.0. Once signed into law, SECURE Act 2.0 drastically altered, among other factors, RMD (required minimum distributions) requirements, 401(k) enrollment processes, matching contributions on student loans and provisions that allow older workers to “turbo-charge” their retirement. RMDs typically account for about 4% of an individual’s tax-deferred retirement account on an annual basis. For an individual with $1,000,000 in an IRA, RMDs could be somewhere in the range of $40,000 per year. And failure to take an RMD could have severe consequences. Prior to the passing of SECURE Act 2.0, these penalties totaled 50% of the total RMD amount. Fast forward to SECURE Act 2.0 becoming law, and the age to start taking RMDs increased to 73, and the penalty for failing to take RMDs in a timely manner decreased to 25% of the total amount. Why it […]

Click here to view original web page at www.forbes.com

Source: ©NICOELNINO – STOCK.ADOBE.COM This is the second of three articles covering a sustainability panel from the 2023 Pet Food Conference . Get the full story — read the first article here , and the third article here . ATLANTA — Pet food manufacturers and suppliers alike are being held to increasingly high sustainability standards, driven by consumers, investors and other industry stakeholders. Not only is this a moral issue — it’s also becoming a regulatory issue. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon begin requiring public companies to disclose their Scope 1, 2 and 3 sustainability targets, and common export markets for US manufacturers are already employing this level of regulatory accountability. This last portion, Scope 3 emissions, refers to indirect emissions produced throughout a company’s value chain, and necessitates collaboration among raw material suppliers, ingredient manufacturers, and pet food and treat producers to tackle. This spirit of collaborative problem solving was demonstrated in a panel presented during the American Feed Industry Association’s (AFIA) 2023 Pet Food Conference , held Jan. 24 in conjunction with International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta. The panel, moderated by Lara Moody, executive director of the Institute for Feed […]

Click here to view original web page at www.petfoodprocessing.net

Photo: Kellogg Co. BATTLE CREEK, MICH. — There has been a slight change of plans in the Kellogg Co.’s breakup scheme. The company is keeping its plant-based meat alternative business Morningstar Farms rather than spin it off or sell it. Timing, as they say, is everything and the slump overshadowing the entire meat alternative category played a role. “When we began this process, valuation for peer companies were stratospheric compared to where they are today,” said Steven A. Cahillane, chairman, president and chief executive officer, during a Feb. 9 conference call to discuss fiscal 2022 results. “They’ve come down quite substantially. So, the thesis when we started the process was to truly unlock shareholder value. If we could attract the same types of multiples in the public market, we should pursue that. The environment has clearly changed.” Looking to the future of the category, Mr. Cahillane added that Kellogg sees an “imminent shakeout coming.” “It’s happening already,” he said. “And there’ll be a couple of players left standing, and Morningstar Farms still has some of the highest household penetration, highest name recognition, fantastic foods, strong in the freezer space where the consumer is migrating back to, and profitable, unlike […]

Click here to view original web page at www.foodbusinessnews.net

One would expect that leaders and experts would become humbler about predicting the future. But … [+] Shutterstock 2023 could once again be a testing time for management teams. Unexpected and extreme developments are spilling over from 2022. The volatility of energy prices, supply chains, interest rates, health uncertainties, heightening East-West tensions and the war in Europe are already plaguing the prognostics of the most confident decision makers. In mid-January, the fraught nature of the markets convinced the consulting behemoth McKinsey & Company to turn the oft-cited quote by late F1 champion Ayrton Senna on its head: “You cannot overtake 15 cars in sunny weather,” Senna once said, “but you can when it’s raining.” That was over 30 years ago, and the deluge of seachanges in the geopolitical and macroeconomic worlds has convinced McKinsey that this might not be the time to overtake: “We’re living in a world where new shocks have been layered onto earlier shocks that in turn were layered onto, and dramatically accelerated, longstanding trends such as digitization and sustainability.” However, the need to foresee the future, and the limited ability to predict unexpected and extreme challenges is hardly a new phenomenon. The study of uncertainty […]

Click here to view original web page at www.forbes.com

Photo: ©MASHKA – STOCK.ADOBE.COM PURCHASE, NY. — After managing inflation in fiscal year 2022, PepsiCo, Inc. will prepare for a similar scenario this year, albeit with plans for a possible recession in the second half of 2023. Net income attributable to Purchase-based PepsiCo was $8.91 billion, or $6.4 per share on the common stock, in the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2022, which was up 17% from $7.62 billion, or $5.49 per share, in the previous fiscal year. Revenue increased 9% to $86.39 billion from $79.47 billion. Organic revenue growth was 14%. Modernizing and harmonizing the company’s IT systems across certain businesses and countries and expanding the global business services initiatives helped PepsiCo deliver more than $1 billion in productivity savings in 2022. Company executives expect inflationary pressures to persist in 2023 and forecast 6% organic revenue growth for the year. “The way we feel about the consumer is based on employment data and wage growth around the world (that) is positive,” said Ramon L. Laguarta, chief executive officer, in a Feb. 9 earnings call. “In our assumption for the year, we’re thinking elasticities might get worse going into the second half of the year based on multiple scenarios […]

Click here to view original web page at www.foodbusinessnews.net

A once-thriving Milwaukee Asian market was left in dire shape by a company that operated it for less than three years before the former owner recently took back control. Now, Phongsavan Asian Market owner Pai Yang has won a court order that could help her eventually collect what she says are hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. 5xen Inc. operated the market, 6300 N. 76th St., from April 2020 until Jan. 7. That’s when control of the property was turned back over to Yang, who launched Phongsavan in 2009 and completed a major expansion in 2016. Pai Yang sold the business to 5xen nearly three years ago through a land contract. She remained liable for the property’s mortgage debt even though 5xen agreed to take over making payments to the bank. When 5xen stopped making mortgage payments, Chicago-based Byline Bank in 2022 filed a foreclosure suit and obtained a judgment. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Thomas McAdams in January ordered 5xen to turn the property over to Yang after 5xen failed to make a $3.6 million payment to her. Yang has since sued 5xen, saying it ruined the property and committed theft by removing commercial kitchen equipment, chairs, tables, […]

Click here to view original web page at www.jsonline.com

Startups usually run at a deficit while designing and building the product. But companies are designed to make money, and over time, as unit economics and customer acquisition costs improve, you’ll probably tip into the blue. Maybe. Hopefully. At the very least, that’s what your investors will be betting on. So that means your business model slide needs to paint a picture that shows where you’re at now and how the business can grow over time. This was the example business model slide I used for my book “Pitch Perfect.” You can see the full template here. Image Credits: Haje Kamps In theory, your “business model” could include every aspect of the business; the Business Model Canvas is one way to explore that, and you could easily spend an hour just talking about the whole end-to-end business model. For the purposes of a funding pitch, however, it’s likely you only need a few crucial elements: COGS, or cost of goods sold, is the incremental cost for each unit you deliver. For software, this typically rounds to zero, but for hardware products or more service-driven businesses, the unit cost can be substantial. CAC, or customer acquisition cost, is the cost […]

Click here to view original web page at techcrunch.com