Tag: Business Operations

Chart of the Price Change Between Years for Hotels and Casino Hotels During August 2015 to August 2020

The chart shows producer price index (PPI) data that measure price changes. Percent changes in prices from a year ago are shown for both stand-alone hotels (the gold bar) and hotels attached to casinos (the red bar). Prices began dropping for hotels in February 2020 and the price reductions continue to persist, but hotels attached…
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How to Hold a Productive Meeting

We have all attended a meeting, whether it be an Executive Staff meeting or an important business  meeting, where you have sat in the chair for hours and leave the meeting feeling like it was a colossal  waste of your time.   What makes you leave those types of meetings feeling as if you would…
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Chart of Federal Reserve Total Assets Held from December 18, 2002 to September 2, 2020

The total assets held by the Federal Reserve include Treasury securities, Mortgage Backed Securities, and Repurchase agreements, in addition to other assets. As of September 2, 2020, the Federal Reserve had total assets of $7,017,492 (in millions of dollars) and as of September 4, 2019, the Federal Reserve had total assets of $3,761,508 (in millions…
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A Strategic Plan is About Communication

A Strategic Plan is about communicating financial and operational objectives by taking numbers and converting them to words. The reason for Strategic Planning is to implement a plan of action that will make the business’s Vision/Strategic Plan a reality.  Strategic Planning is the actual process of implementing a Strategic Plan that has set obtainable and…
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Evaluating and Operationalizing Short-Term Decisions Made in a Crisis that Have Long Term Benefits

In the past six months, businesses have been making numerous short-term decisions that can have long term operational benefits.  The key is to evaluate and operationalize these short-term decisions to provide long term benefits to the business operations. The fact is that almost all businesses during the past six months have been forced to do…
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Strategies for Budgeting and Forecasting Due to Extraordinary Events

At any point in time during a year a business may need to revise their annual budget or forecasting models and processes. The Differences Between Budgeting and Forecasting Budgeting is a planning process that is done on an annual basis to help the executive management team define what they want the business to achieve during…
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How Quickly Can You Deleverage the Business

The economy is in flux, interest rates have increased over the past year and lenders are starting to be less flexible on their loan covenants.  Business executives need to be completely aware of their business’s financial condition, especially how leveraged the balance sheet is and loan covenants that relate to the debt on the balance…
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Chart of Federal Minimum Wage Rate Compared to the State Minimum Wage Rate

The first minimum wage rate was established in the United States with The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the initial minimum wage was $0.25 cents per hour.  This chart shows Federal minimum wage from 1968, which was $1.60 per hour, to January 1, 2019 where the Federal minimum wage is now $7.25 per…
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Five Ratios that Business Executives Need to Understand

Executives need to understand that ratios are derived from the key components of a business’s financial statements and those ratios need to be viewed as a system that interrelates a business’s financial statements and operations. Ratio 1 – Gross Margin Percent:  All businesses have different expenses that total up to cost of goods sold (COGS),…
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Chart of Effective Federal Funds Rate compared to Bank Prime Loan Rate

The Federal Fund Rate is the interest rate that banks and credit unions borrow money from the Federal Reserve.  (The blue line on the chart.) The Prime Rate is the interest rate that banks and credit unions lend money to their best customers.  The Prime Rate is generally 3 percentage points above the Federal Fund…
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