National Small Business Week

Employment,

April 29-May 5 is National Small Business Week 2018. But it actually started earlier.  One event was held on August 27 – #SmallBusinessWeek Hackathon at the Ronald Reagan Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.  Those in attendance received assistance from third party companies and the federal government.

The idea behind National Small Business Week is to “encourage all New Yorkers to support local small businesses.”  There are 530,000+ small business owners around New York, comprising 98 percent of all businesses, employing over 3 million individuals – 40 percent of New York’s private sector workforce.

According to Roberta Reardon, State Labor Commissioner:

“Small businesses are vital to the economic tapestry of our great state, and the Department of Labor is proud to support them through the many services we offer to help them with everything from finding employees to applying for tax credits and incentives.”

Yesterday the Microsoft Store hosted a series of workshops for small business owners including: Networking events, ChangeMakers: Modernize Your Small Business in the Cloud for Medical Professionals; Modernize Your Small Business in the Cloud for Realtors; NYC Speaker Series; Fuel Your Business with LinkedIn; LinkedIn Lunch and Learn; Modernize Your Small Business in the Cloud for Accountants; Microsoft 365 Business Mondays and more.

NYC’s Digitalized Evolution

Infrastructure

A century ago, one of the things New York City had a good reputation for was its infrastructure.  Just looking at its water tunneling and reservoir systems, one could immediately tell that there was good, solid work done on the city’s infrastructure. At the time, that was very important to quality of life and popularity of such a large, cosmopolitan city.

But the 21st century changed the way we look at infrastructure and it is unclear as to how much NYC changed with it.  Due to digitalization of the economy, building infrastructure is not the big name, but rather data infrastructure is.  And it appears that NYC is not keeping up with its Silicon Valley counterparts.

When it comes to business and corporations, New York has it all.  It gets mentioned in Fortune 500 and Forbes articles and is a hub for business development.  But when you look at the start-up industry it seems like it is just not “all that” and when comparing it to Silicon Valley it has almost been an embarrassment.

It is not all doom and gloom though.  Things do seem to be changing with their up-and-coming firms which are taking quite a chunk of the market share.  In addition there is an increasing number of startups with core technological aspects which are focused on the creation and development of enterprise infrastructure and apps that have traditionally been lacking so much in the area. And thus authors of this article believe that there is now a “changing exit environment for startups in NYC, the rise of a set of mafias which are incubating startups, and the changing culture of customers and how that is assisting NYC startups with their competition out west.”

WeWork is Working!

Economy, ,

WeWork in Manhattan is today, Manhattan’s “second-biggest private office tenant.” This comes less than a decade after opening its first co-working space in NYC (in the SoHo region).

According to data from Cushman & Wakefield,  today WeWork boasts almost 50 locations in NYC, opening 10 new locations last year.  This spans 2.9 million square feet in the region. A further five are set to open in 2018. The company has received much support, in particular, from SoftBank’s Vision Fund ($4.4 billion). SoHo has five WeWorks.

Each of these WeWorks features: beer and microbrew coffee on tap; large open common spaces and more.  some have special things like photo studios/indoor garden/workout equipment.

https://www.recode.net/2018/3/22/17119012/wework-massive-growth-second-biggest-office-tenant-new-york-city-manhattan-cowork-space-real-estate

New York Arts and Culture

Art, , , , ,

The spring is here and it’s a great time for the blossoming of New York arts and culture scene.  Herewith a few examples of what is going on.

First, we have – from April 5th to 8th – the yearly show held by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers.  Taking place at Piers 92/94, this is one of the world’s “biggest fine-art photography shows.”  It features images from the 1800s until today and there is a specially-curated exhibition by Elton John called “A Time for Reflection,” which takes a nostalgic trip to the time of the Black Panther movement and Joe Baio collection.

And then at The Met Fifth Avenue at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, Huma Bhabha (a Pakistani artist) is depicting her work.  This is quite unique in that she creates images of haunting humankind by using old, discarded materials she finds in her everyday life.  This begins April 17th.

NY Utility Companies

Infrastructure,

An investigation is being undertaken into how New York’s major utility companies have responded to the loss of power to close to 600,000 homes/businesses in the northeast earlier this month. Also being considered is the groundwork that was embarked upon prior to the events.

Seven utility companies are being inspected. They have all been notified by the Public Service Commission of this. there were two utilities that received the bulk of the criticism due to the amount of time it took to restore power following the snow storms of March 2nd and March 7th with some people being without power for up to 10 days.

Cuomo said he was “not satisfied,” calling the situation “wholly unacceptable. These storms have now become the rule rather the exception. They have to have the capacity to quickly restore power.”

NY: New Business

Employment, ,

Rather than moving away from New York to beat high overheads and rentals, it looks like some companies are moving in.  A whole slew of IT jobs with Estée Lauder Companies Inc. are being moved from Melville to new offices in Long Island City, Queens. The company’s “new technology hub” is set to open in July 2018 at 1 Queens Plaza North and will open in July.

In more good news for those in Queens, some believe that the Tax Cuts and Job Act will be beneficial for them…and not just the large corporations.  One native, Tom Clarke, a franchisee of Arby’s and Burger Kings, called the new law a “phenomenal thing,” resulting in his workers getting an additional $40-50 increase in their biweekly paychecks.  That’s really money in the pocket which, until the law would go directly to “government coffers.”

Where is Great to Work? NYC

Employment, , ,

A recent study has shown that New York offers employees many advantages as compared to other states nationwide.  According to a list put out recently by Fortune Magazine, out of 100 best companies, 9 of them are in New York.  Categories in the study included:  perks, compensation, paid vacation, and more.  Companies included had at least a thousand workers.  Wegmans was considered the best place to work in New York (and was ranked Number 2 in the nationwide list).

New York is also good for workers who want to be parents and get good parental rights. One example is 34-year old father of two Rob Bralow who took paid paternity leave. The co-owner of BLVD Wine Bar is reported to feel “incredibly privileged to be able to take the time away to be with my newest family members.”

And why did he get this privilege?  At the beginning of 2018, New York was one of just a handful of states that put into law paid family leave for anyone who works for a private employer, giving “paid time off to bond with a newly born, adopted or fostered child; to care for a close relative with a serious health condition; or to assist when a military family member is deployed abroad.”

NYC is not just about the nightlife…the job culture there is pretty inviting too.

Do We No Longer ‘Love New York’?

Infrastructure, ,

The NY Federal Government requested Cuomo’s administration to remove the ‘I Love NY’ road signs which threatened to cost taxpayers a $14 million penalty.  Now that it has been decided the campaign has finally “run its useful course,” a new tourism initiative will replace this one in time for summer.

According to a joint statement put out by Acting Transportation Commissioner Paul Karas and Thruway Authority Director Matthew Driscoll:

“Since the Governor initiated this branding effort, the number of tourists to New York State has increased by 18 percent and the direct economic impact of tourism on the State has skyrocketed by more than 20%.”

In addition, according to NYC & Co Spokesman Chris Heywood there was an increase in arrivals to NYC from the 2016 number of 60.5 million to 61.8 million in 2017.  This increase was put down to being driven “primarily by domestic U.S. tourism” (which could be put down to the I ❤️ NY signs?).

A bit further afield state officials are looking toward North County to get a tourism grant.  $13 million in capital funding has been earmarked by Cuomo to build new lodging properties in northern New York and last year a task force was set up to organize a model for successful lodging development in an effort to bolster tourism.  The money will be targeted specifically to the Thousand Islands and Adirondack regions.