Category Archives: News

NYC Businesses: Getting Ahead

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loanHow do small businesses start and thrive in NYC?  Bureaucracy and taxes can put quite a strain on even the most established businesses, so what about those that are just starting out?  What makes the people behind them even try because a lot of them do, given that they account for 48 percent of the private workforce, along with, 74% of new private-sector jobs since 2008, and 99.7% of all U.S. businesses.

Some of the issues they have to confront include: challenges getting finance; limited access to credit and bureaucratic time-consuming hurdles.  One idea (posed by an Op-Ed in Crain’s New York Business by Carolyn B. Maloney) is to acquiesce additional funding for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI), an oft-overlooked federal program that help finance businesses in underserved communities.

This now could become very helpful.  Just three weeks ago, the CDFI committed to giving a large amount of tax credits (known as New Markets Tax Credits – NMTC), to investors that focused on job creation and other economic boosters in regions most susceptible to poverty. The total of this amounted to $7 billion; more than half of that is being earmarked for urban areas.

Furthermore, at the end of last month the United States Department of Treasury CDFI Fund awarded the CDFI $65 million in NMTC which will be used for the financing of a variety of assistances including small business  loans throughout the nation.

New York Festivals

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coffeeWe’ve heard of fashion week and film festival, but here’s one that’s relatively new to the range of New York festivals – the New York Coffee Festival.  Now in its second consecutive year, the festival – held at 69th Regiment Armory between September 16th and 18th – is designed to bring together coffee, food, music, art and charity. Sponsors include: la Marzocco, Pentair, Baileys, Detpak, Barista Series, Sanremo and more.  Events include: Latte Art Live, Coffee Masters NYC, The Lab, Competition, Coffee Music Project, The True Artisan Café, Street Food Market, The Village, Party with the Masters, The Sidewalk Café, Hydration Station, Test Your Senses, Get Your Brew On, Espresso Martini Bar, Coffee Art Project, Shop the Part, Perfect Your Pour, Sanremo Revolution, Steampunk Brew Bar and Water for Coffee Lovers.

According to the festival website the focus is to “ply local aficionados with espresso martinis and entertainment, from live music to the annual tournament.”

New York Fashion Week: Business and Technology

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fashion-weekNew York Fashion Week (this year, 7-15 September), has evolved a lot in the 7+ decades it has been in operation.   In a recent article in BizJournals, Teresa Novellino presents 7 ways it has evolved due to technology.

Anyone Can Go:

In the past it was mainly attended by buyers, celebrities and fashion editors.  Now, shoppers are in attendance.

Buy Today

Thanks to social media channels, today people can buy the stuff they see at the Fashion Week much earlier.  It used to be that event photos were only published months thereafter due to the delay of print publications.  But now that is not the case and consumers can look at articles of clothing they can buy almost immediately.

Private Shows

Fewer private showings, since they are being traded in for private appointments with small groups of corporate buyers and editors.

Virtual Reality Shows

There is now a way to be at the Fashion show, without actually being there. Watch the show from the comfort of your own home and actually feel like you are present during Fashion Week thanks to live broadcast.

SnapChat Fashion

Snapchat all the way. With the launch of Vogue’s Snapchat Discover Channel, the LA Times reported on new content twice a week with a feature which included: “15 Reasons to be Excited for New York Fashion Week.”

Music Industry

Fashion and music go together thanks to Tidal which live-streams events, drawing additional subscribers.

Google

Google has just started “experimenting with search carousels that are created and curated by catwalk brands.” What this means for the brands is that they will be able to manage what pops up when a designer’s name is put into the search engine.  Ultimately this will help Google engage in competition with Instagram, etc. to get traffic from fans of Fashion Week.

Going “Meatless” in New York

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burgerVegetarianism has been around for years and going meatless is nothing new.  But going meatless with meat is something new and it’s happening in New York thanks to “Impossible Foods.”  The brains behind the company that “discovered that heme is the ‘magic ingredient’ that makes meat look, cook, and taste gloriously meaty,” is a team of scientists led by Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D.

And it is New York that is going to be the first beneficiary of this delicious, healthy, ecological-friendly flavor.  At Momfuku Nishi, the Impossible Burger will be on the menu attracting both meat- and vegetarian-lovers alike.

Brown began his mission due to a desire to “reduce the environmental impact from eating meat.”  Developing a composition including water, heme protein (found in animals and less so in plants), coconut oil, natural flavors and textured wheat protein, the “meat” flavor emerged.  While all ingredients are crucial to the ultimate flavor, it is the iron-containing molecule heme that is the true gem of the burger, giving it its authentic blood red color and iron-y meat-like flavor.

If it really succeeds (and at this point there’s no reason why it shouldn’t), the health results could be phenomenal.  According to the WHO, “every 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by about 18 percent.”  Not to mention the issues caused from killing cattle required to make the typical juicy blood burger.

And economically it’s already enjoying success.  At a Colorado Whole Foods market it was reported that a competitor’s burger was sold out in an hour, with, according to Evelyn M. Rusli, a taste of “somewhere between beef and turkey,” clearly indicating its popularity and hope for the future. And with the use of 95% less land, 74% less water, 87% less greenhouse gas emissions and completely zero hormones/antibiotics, everyone is a winner.

New York: A Boost in Employment Opportunities?

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jobsNew York is encountering a hiring blitz.  Right now, there is a big retail opening from The World Trade Center resulting in around 10,000 new jobs. Over 50 eateries, retailers and vendors are opening their doors in the middle of next month which is leading to more work at the WTC Oculus space and Fulton subway hub.

Indeed, at the end of last month, owner of the Westfield mall hosted a job fair at the Conrad New York Hotel.  Hiring Our Heroes also organized a programs for National Guard, Reserve members and their spouses, along with veterans.

As well, the New York State Department of Labor has a website – Job Express – offering job vacancies throughout the 10 regions of New York, organized by careers and industries. Also on the site is a list of short videos giving information and tips to job seekers such a resume writing and interview handling.  Employers can also post potential jobs.

Jobs in New York

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constructionFor job seekers in New York, where is the best place to go?  New City Patch can help New Yorkers find work in the following fields: Health Information Management, Hospitality Management and Information Technology.

A recent report written by the New Skills at Work-Lower Hudson Valley Stakeholder Collaborative in conjunction with the Westchester Community College put forward their research on the evolving nature of the regional economy with recommendations for businesses, government and teachers to facilitate the support of education and training required to “empower the local workforce.”

What was found was that businesses in major US industries have a hard time finding “sufficiently trained workers to fill middle skill jobs” (that being defined as people with more than a high school diploma but less than a four-year college degree).  Furthermore, research predicted that by the year 2011-22, almost half of job vacancies (46 %) will be for middle-skilled individuals. So appropriate education and training that is in line with what employers need, has to be given.

for those thinking about relocating to the Big Apple and hoping to find work, the editors of WetFeet assembled some interesting tips a few years ago.

New York’s Economy: Optimistic Stats

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dollarAccording to a recent report from WalletHub entitled 2016’s States with the Best & Worst Economies, New York is the 8th best state to be in when it comes to the economy.   To measure economic success the report investigated a variety of indicators spanning three main categories: economic activity, economic health and innovation potential.  While New York did great in economic activity and innovation potential, what pushed it to 8th place was its lacking in the innovation potential it facilitates for its inhabitants.

Regarding GDP New York slipped down the list too. It came in 13th for its growth in this area but 6th for its state government surplus/deficit per capita.  Also it’s unemployment is pretty bad as it came in 27th and then 28th for the percentage of jobs it has in high tech industries.

So while a lot of this data is good, the fact that unemployment is so high is a real problem and spreads into the matter of homelessness. One solution to that was with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s endeavors to build affordable housing.  But the issue was not resolved since as Mitchell Neburn recently pointed out, “many if not most homeless individuals and families can’t afford to pay rent, no matter how low it is.”  He further explained that: “those New Yorkers need the city to sponsor more programs that provide employment training and placement in jobs that have low barriers to entry but ample opportunity for career advancement.”

So some serious initiatives need to be taken to solve this. one example is Project Renewal which has the following programs: Next Step Employment Program, Culinary Arts Training Program, Veterans Employment & Training and more.

The government has initiatives too but still more needs to be done to put New York in the respected ranking a large city should be.

New York’s Top Female Entrepreneurs

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business-womanTen female entrepreneurs will be receiving a $10,000 business grant.  They received the highest amount of the 40,000 online votes and were chosen from a pool of over 500 women.  These individuals will also get the opportunity to compete for receiving a $100,000 investment.  Judges will include: Tory Burch, Anne Fulenwider, Sallie Krawcheck and others. These 10 women will also become ambassadors for female entrepreneurs nationwide.

The women, in alphabetical order are:

  • Nicole Baldwin of BIAO Skincare
  • Allison DeVane of Teapressa
  • Alexa Fleischman of Savvy Society
  • Kate Glantz of Heartful.ly
  • Ericka Lassair of Diva Dawg
  • Katie McAleer of Bixby & Co .
  • Emellie O’Brien of Earth Angel Sustainable Production Services
  • Kimarie Santiago of Saltopia Artisan Infused Salts
  • Amy Swift of Building Hugger
  • Caren Ulrich Stacy of Diversity Lab

Given this news, it is thus quite disconcerting to learn that in some business sectors, it is very much felt that it is “still a man’s world.” In a recent New York Times article written by Sydney Ember, accusations brought at the J. Walter Thompson agency lawsuit regarding racist and sexist behavior from the firm’s CEO “brought to the surface what women in the industry had talked about for years: that more than half a century after the “Mad Men” era, gender bias, while often unspoken or acknowledged, continues to affect how they are treated at work, whom they interact with and what positions they hold.”

This issue seems to be particularly true in the advertising sector despite the fact that half of advertising employees are female.  Women in the industry feel it is still very much a “white male world” and that they will get passed up or dismissed at work.

Still, John Aidan Bryne wrote in the New York Post that “New York City metro area has an estimated 876,300 women-owned firms, employing 657,600 workers (excluding owners), with estimated sales this year of $140 billion.”  And numbers in American Express’s sixth yearly State of Women-Owned Businesses Report showed that New York has the highest amount of women-owned firms.

So things are changing for women in business in America…especially it seems in the New York region.

“Perfect” Beauty

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make-upDo you dream about looking perfect 24/7? That is the goal of ArcSoft’s Perfect365 app which just made its debut appearance at New York Fashion Week FW16. Working with designers Laurel Dewitt, Leanne Marshall and Dorin Negaru, the Perfect365 featured four new makeup looks at this year’s Fashion Week. Described by Wikipedia as “[one of the four] most prominent fashion weeks of the world,” makeup looks inspired by these designers were developed for the experiential enjoyment of beauty enthusiasts there. In addition, last week, in recognition of ‘Valentine’s Day Week,’ Perfect365 offered coffee to over 1,000 people outside Fashion Week venues in New York, to say ‘thank you’ to its loyal customers.

This app currently has over 80 million global users and gives style lovers “unprecedented control over their smartphone selfies.” It features over 200 Hotstyle one-tap makeovers, 20+ customizable make-up and tweaking tools, Style it! clothing and accessory tips and step-by-step guides on how to do make-up related things.

As to the success of the app, designer Leanne Marshall explained the phenomenon quite simply: “Nothing beats the power of the feel-good factor. With Leanne Marshall and Perfect365, fashion and beauty collide in the most exciting way. I love that the app allows you to find your look for every day.”

Perfect365 was also found to be offering free coffee at Moynihan Station, at the shows and backstage at 550 Washington Street, Pier 59 and 10ak, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Lady Gaga, Vanessa Hudgens, Khloe Kardashian, Alicia Keys, Milla Jovovich, Cyndi Lauper, Kelly Rowland and Nicki Minaj.

Pepsi: Eat, Drink and Be Merry

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PepsiPepsi has always been known for its beverages. But sometime soon it might start getting a reputation for food as well. Why not? Historically it has been drink and food that makes one merry, and so maybe this is the case for business as well…least for the business of Pepsi.

Kola House will soon take residence in Chelsea (right by Milk Studios) in what has become known as the “ultra-hip meatpacking district.” It is hoped that it will grow into a “social hub and testing ground for new products [offering customers] a premium experience.”

That’s what it will be. What it won’t be is a marketing ploy for Pepsi, for example, the beverage’s logo won’t be plastered around the venue. Indeed, what will be pushed is the kola nut – a “bitter fruit that contains caffeine and gives cola beverages their name.” So the ultimate aim is for Pepsi to “market its product without marketing its product.”