Archive for June 9th, 2004
Bagels and the Economics of Honesty
NY Times: Driving around the office parks that encircle Washington, he solicited customers with a simple pitch: early in the morning, he would deliver some bagels and a cash basket to a company’s snack room; he would return before lunch to pick up the money and the leftovers. It was an honor-system commerce scheme, and [...]
Kiplinger Letter (requires subscription): Small proprietorships are the most likely to hear from the IRS. Questionable deductions by many firms with gross receipts under $25,000 hike their audit rate to 3%, triple the rate for all firms. Self-employeds also get examined more often than most taxpayers. Their 1.9% audit rate is three times the rate [...]
Church of the Customer: Maytag is taking a page from the Apple marketing book by opening stores so buyers can try a Maytag appliance. According to a USA Today article, the 6,000-square-feet stores display the merchandise in “vignettes” of home kitchens and laundry rooms. Future customers can do a load of laundry in the washer/dryer [...]
Sweat Equity is the Best Equity
Mark Cuban: “The best businesses in recent entrepreneurial history are those that have been started with little or no money. Dell Computer, MicroSoft, Apple, HP and tens of thousands of others started in dorm rooms, tiny offices or garages. There weren’t 100 page long business plans. In all of my businesses, I started by putting [...]
Economist: “Our indicators, based on data from estate agents, lenders and official sources, show that house prices are slowing in several economies that had been looking frothy. In America average house prices rose by only 1% in the first quarter of this year, the smallest quarterly increase for six years. Prices fell in 39 of [...]
Jeff Cornwall: “President Reagan was once asked the difference between a big business and a small business. He said that a big business is what a small business wants to become if the government would just get out of the way.” Know any more?
Foreign Policy: “When a retail chain in Mexico started selling chicken parts instead of whole chickens in its outlets a few years ago, sales quadrupled. Smaller unit packages—enough for a single, immediate use—enable poor consumers to buy a product that they otherwise could not afford, thus unlocking their purchasing power. The same principle applies to [...]
Letting the Market Pick the Speed Limit
Cafe Hayek: “The real law on U.S. highways is something like the following: if weather conditions are decent and if traffic is not too heavy, then you can drive between five and ten miles per hour over the posted speed limit. No one legislated this rule; it’s not written down in any official statute book; [...]
