We Aim To Serve

WOB wire reported the results of a survey of women owned businesses and 60% said they would categorize their business as service-oriented.

While, I think it's great that women own their own businesses - I kinda wished the number for service wasn't so high. I think its incredibly hard to be self-employed, which is why I have always worked for a company. Is it because a service is easier to sell as opposed to a gadget?

At the same time I saw that Sony was offering scholarships to women for game design. It turns out women a big gamers, but very few go into game design. I commend Sony for trying to change that.

Then - bear with me - I saw that the SBA is offering a special program for women owned businesses that started this February, http://archive.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/onlinewbc/index.html.

Ok, so you see already there are plenty of women starting businesses, there are opportunities for women to go into businesses they normally don't go in and then finally there is help.

I may not have the guts to be self-employed but as I see these things, I will post them on this blog and spread the message.

 

Things My Boss Said to Me

"How does this day care thing work?"

This was when my son was young. I never knew anyone who didn't know how day care "worked." But this came from a white Irish male who's wife was a SAHM and didn't really (in his heart) believe moms should work. I guess he never had a working mom report to him?

So, I explained the drop off process. The critical pick up time. If you are even 5 minutes late you are charged extra. Sometimes this is a problem if you ride the trains home and a train runs late while you are on it. This only happens when your phone has no battery life.  I explained that if your child suddenly runs a 99.1 temperature - they will call you immediately to come get said child. NOW. That is why sometimes I - your employee - would have to make a sudden chaotic departure. And on and on.

But the main thing is that if a boss has no clue what it is to be a working mom - the cards can be stacked against it. It may be time to find a different boss you can report to or change departments or something. This same boss in reviews would drop hints about the "choice" I made. He just really didn't think moms should work.

Instead of moving on, I was determined to work even harder and prove that I could do it all. But I should have seen that no matter how hard I worked, this guys was never going to see it. I was working instead of being home with my kid and that was all he ever saw.

Recession Proof Beauty

Even when times are tough, gals can't let go of their favorite brands. They want them so bad they'll even steal them.

According to a survey from the Food Marketing Institute, cosmetics top the list of shoplifted goods. The hottest sticky finger item? Oil of Olay skin cream. It tops the most stolen cosmetics list. A Brand Keys report said that even in a bad economy, consumers stick with their expensive favorites over cheaper alternatives (I guess the ones that pay for them). Customers have forged an emotional connection to the brand and linked with their self-image.

Even at the worst of the recession, Ibis World Reports noted that the U.S. cosmetics and toiletries sector generated more than $10 billion in revenue. And those metrosexual men? Men's cosmetics is the fastest growing segment in skin care. It has grown from $40.9 million in 1997 to $217 million in 2009.


And girls are spending money on cosmetics at an even younger age. In 2005, the average age was 17 when a girl started buying products, today it is 13.7. Experian Market Research shows that 43% of six- to nine-year-olds are already using lipstick or lip gloss, 38% use hairstyling products and 12% use other cosmetics

So the question is "did the stocks follow these reports and surveys?" Luxury stocks did. I compared the returns of Estee Lauder (EL) and Elizabeth Arden (RDEN) versus Avon (AVP) and Revlon (RE). Estee Lauder went up 61% over the last year and E. Arden went up 67%. While cheaper brand Avon actually went down 5.6% and Revlon returned a 7% gain. That is a huge difference between luxury and common brands. Ulta Salon and Cosmetics (ULTA) chain delivered a whopping 124% increase over the past year.

You would think that if women were struggling with job losses or reduced salaries that would trade down with cosmetics, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Analysts seem to be mixed as to whether the group can go any higher. But if women kept buying when things were tough, won't they keep buying as the economy improves? I think the analysts are being too cautious on this group. I can't say whether I think the stocks will keep climbing, but I bet the sales will.

Things My Boss Said To Me

"They normally hire people younger than you for those jobs."

Oh snap.

This came from the head of the the last department I worked in at Bear Stearns. He was an academic wonk from the SEC and was socially awkward. Everyone dreaded having to interact with him. I got stuck waiting for an elevator alone with him. Now, anyone that knows me - knows I can talk to a cardboard box. But this guy was a challenge even to me.

So, after some awkward silence, I started chatting about returning to school to get my Masters degree. Thinking - academic - good topic. He asks what I'll do with a Masters in business reporting. I answer: not sure where it will take me. Who knows - maybe I'll be on TV talking about the market. That's when he zinged me. I stammered something about ..that may be...but I can try...some other weak response. Thinking is this the longest elevator wait in history?

Now, I'm no spring chicken and I agree that many women on TV are young. But really? You say that directly to someone? To their face? Someone who is enthusiastically waxing about school?

Thankfully I dismissed his rude, mean, biting remark. I proved that jerk wrong.

And now - knowing what I know about the SEC - I'm not so impressed with his credentials.

These are the kinds of things that in a weak moment  could have sent me to the bathroom crying. He's right - what am I thinking? I'm too old for this. Too old to go back to school. Too old to be on camera. But I didn't.
Instead I said to myself  - what an idiot.

Yeah, they normally hire women younger than me, but they didn't.

Are Bonuses Buying Boobs?

Plastic surgery is up 5% over last year. But Park Ave. based Long Island Plastic Surgery Group is up 30%. They are the oldest practice in NYC and have 6 locations in the tri-state area.

“This dramatic return cosmetic plastic surgery reflects the rise in consumer confidence that we’ve seen throughout most of 2010,” said Dr. Kaveh Alizadeh, a noted plastic surgeon and president of LIPSG.  “Botox and other injectables, for example, are up 12%.  Feeling good – and looking good – is in style once again.”

The #1 surgical procedure is boob jobs. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons released data showing that surgical procedures increased 2% over last year. I don't think that was Heidi Montag alone.

Breast augmentation (296,000)
Nose reshaping (252,000)
Eyelid surgery (209,000)
Liposuction (203,000)
Tummy tuck (116,000)

Is it coincidence that bankers began paying bonuses again and all the gals on Wall Street went and had some work done? Jus' askin?

Arianna Rules

Well she rules a publishing empire now. Most people saw that AOL is buying Huffington Post for over $300 million. Not bad for a six year old business. I was watching these pundits on TV that were implying she wasn't up to the task. I mean really - run the publishing site for AOL???

The woman started a website in 2005 and is selling it for $315 million. How many of those nay saying pundits can say the same thing. None. You don't do that by accident. It isn't that she just got lucky. She built a business that someone was willing to pay big money for.

It's also interesting that AOL, the cutting edge internet brand - first to the dial up internet is now the old established media company. Stephanie Sandberg, CMO of SSA & CO. said, "Huffington Post is the AOL of the Time Warner deal with AOL from 2000...because as Shira Ovide points out in WSJ, Arianna's taking over the content, which means she's basically in charge."

However, that deal didn't work out so well. Time Warner lost millions and had to spin AOL back off because the company was failing. Now AOL is desperate and spends 40% of its cash on HuffPo. Only time will tell if it will work.

But the internet battle for the "go to website" is heating up with AOL/HuffPo, Apple's The Daily, Google and Yahoo's continuation of its content expansion. I'm starting to think it comes down to pepsi and coke.

HuffPo and ......

Things My Boss Said To Me

"What are you? A Nazi soldier that just does what he's told and doesn't think?"

Ah yes, this is a classic story. This statement was made after a very bad day in the foreign exchange dept. at Bear Stearns. Here's what happened.....

A trader did a peso option, which wasn't traded in pesos but in US dollars. This was such a weird product that it didn't even appear on the computers and a confirmation of the trade had to manually created. Unfortunately, neither the trader or back office guys did it. So, the next day the customer asks, "where's my confirm?" pretty angry too. So panic began and they hustled around to get the confirm written. My boss asks me if I know the client, yes I did. Did I know the fax number ( faxes - chuckle)? Yes I did. Could I please as quickly as possible fax this piece of paper to the client?

So, not questioning my boss who made it clear this needed to be done right away. IMMEDIATELY. I faxed the paper to the client. However.....

the piece of paper had both sides of the trade. Which meant the customer saw how much money was made on the trade, which was roughly $100,000. DOH! Not good. Very bad. Currency trades were not electronic yet - so it was feasible - on occasion to make big money on an FX trade.

They had to back out the trade to make the client happy. Big mess. My boss blamed me. The trader stood up for me and blamed my boss, saying he was the one at error. Debra was just trying to help - had no involvement whatsoever in the trade resolution was just walking by and agreed to send a fax.

But, the head of the dept saw it differently. He agreed it was my fault. Calls me into his office with my boss and the guy who wrote the confirm and says the infamous Nazi comment.

Now - here's the context. He's Jewish. I have a very German last name. This was completely and totally over the line. I call HR and say - really - I have to put up with this? I come to work and get called a Nazi. For real. Not kidding. They couldn't believe it. But upon calling him - he admits it.

Fours weeks later I transferred to another department.

There Is No Fat Pill

The FDA rejected Orexigen's (ticker: OREX) diet drug Contrave today - due to heart attack concerns. The company had all its hopes riding on this drug and predictably the stock got spanked. Ok more like destroyed on the news. Lots of investors buy these drug companies that look to have "promising" obesity drugs. The company that hits this home run is expected to make BILLIONs of dollars. Abbot Labs had Meridia, but it pulled the drug after it too had heart attack issues.

"I can accept a little heart attack if I can fit into my skinny jeans"

The rejection was a surprise because the FDA's outside advisory panel voted 13-7 in favor of it. That positive sign got shareholders excited. The FDA said it wants another study. Orexigen says it doesn't have the money to do the study the FDA wants.

Here's the thing - there is no such thing as a fat pill. The only thing that gets rid of fat is a low calorie diet and exercise. There are no fat pills on the Biggest Loser, just hours and hours of brutal exercise. But that doesn't stop the drug companies from trying to sell these pills. Vivus and and Arena Pharmaceuticals both plan to reintroduce their fat pills to the FDA after being rejected last year.

Once again - there is no such thing as a fat pill to get rid of obesity. If you hear about a drug company selling such a thing - snicker. Pat yourself  on the back for knowing better and click the buy order for a different stock.