Archive for the ‘Spend Page’ Category

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‘The Official Preppy Handbook’ Updated For Today’s Prep

Monday, August 30th, 2010

“True Prep” is a lifestyle guide updated for the modern prepster.

  • The author of 1980′s shockingly successful “The Official Preppy Handbook” has just published a new edition for the next generation: “True Prep: It’s a Whole New Old World.”
  • This new take on the original talks issues like divorce, second marriages, and dealing with the fallout from youthful partying.
  • Lisa Birnbach, author of both editions, is not-quite-ironic in her assessment of what is and isn’t preppy. There’s a preppy hall of fame (starring Stephen Colbert, oddly), an assessment of the preppiest schools, and, apparently, a serious devotion to preppy shopping.

Facts & Figures

  • When it came out in 1980, “The Official Preppy Handbook” was on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year
  • Today the original edition can sell for $100 or even $1,000

Best Quote

“Every single one of us — no matter the age or the gender or sexual preference — owns a blue blazer.” – True Prep: It’s a Whole New Old World

Time to enter the real world? Blair Brandt will help you find a place.

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

blair-brandt.jpg Blair Brandt is the founder and CEO of The Next Step Realty. And at just 22, he’s responsible for managing all the different components of the business: he recruits and manages brokers and Next Step staff, develops relationships with clients, oversees PR and marketing, business operations, legal and financial matters, tax, web design and programming, investment and return on that investments for investors… pretty much everything. Blair spends most of his day meeting with people to seek collaboration, advice, cross-marketing opportunities, and so on. But he found the time to answer some of our questions, so check it out:

TILE: How did you come up with the idea for a service like this?
Blair: For the past four years, I worked as an assistant at a real estate firm while in Florida. There I noticed one crucial factor in the marketplace: the power of referrals and the importance of having good leads for a realtor.

Especially in bad times, having personal networks that could deliver you with quality clients was the way to continued success. SO, if we were going to set up a leads service, we needed to find a niche that we could specialize in and that could be ours.

We realized our niche when my friends from college started to call me asking if I knew brokers in the cities they were moving to for new jobs. So, while I was helping a few of my friends get matched up with the right brokers, my friend and future business partner Belton Baker picked up on what I was doing and said – listen, let’s market this to everyone we know, and everyone they know. We immediately saw the demand for an improved, streamlined housing transition from college to the real world.

TILE: What was your first apartment search like?
Blair: Our first apartment search actually went pretty well. We spent months recruiting the best real estate brokers for the job in major cities, and we really did some extensive interviewing and personal networking to make sure we were dealing with the right people. Once we started to get our clients, which happened more in a wave of hundreds than in any one single first search, the brokers were very well prepared to service the clients. Most of their clients were young professionals anyway and this is what they specialized in, but they hadn’t directly marketed their services to colleges – that became our business.

TILE: Why is your logo a giraffe? NextStep-logo-only.jpg
Blair: My philosophy from the time I started this company with Belton is that the transition from college to the real world is one of the most intense psychological and logistical bridges young people must cross. Of course, life offers countless challenges after graduation, but the change in lifestyle from student to adult is a rapid one for recent graduates. Graduates are often embarking on their first job and career, and in the meantime making all the other adjustments required in moving to a new city. We decided if we could help recent graduates by solving one of the problems – housing – we could develop our own niche market in the process. The giraffe  is symbolic and metaphorical because it represents the nature of our clients during this transition. Giraffes take some of the largest steps of any animal and they reach high. Our clients are similarly reaching high in their new beginning and taking a very large step into the real world and their first home.

TILE: What advice would you give your teenage self?
Blair: Dream big.

TILE: Can you tell us a secret about the real estate business?
Blair: It’s about specialized service, having an expertise in a particular process or niche, and building relationships with expanding networks of people. Most of what we do is personal networking. We started this business with a list of 500 students at college campuses to help spread the word, and the domino effect is beyond what we ever expected. First friends, then friends of friends, then friends of friends of friends, and before you know it, you are dealing directly with the public. If you can specialize in a certain real estate niche, associate yourself with that niche, and then use networks to create momentum, you can get something off the ground fast.

To see Blair talking in real life, check out his recent interview on Bloomberg TV: http://bit.ly/dlIxYM

>> TILE brings you exclusive opinions, explanations, and interviews from experts in every industry. To read more, click on Ask the Experts in the TILE Library.

Have a burning question or an expert you’d like to see interviewed? Just Ask TILE!

Fashion Week Shares A Stage With The Opera

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

On September 9, Fashion Week will get a new look…

  • The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week has grown too big for its former digs – this year it’s moving from Bryant Park to Damrosch Park and Lincoln Center.
  • The new hosts at Lincoln Center are using this move as an opportunity to expand the center’s reputation beyond just music, dance, and theater performance. They will complement the runway shows with a variety of fashion-related programming.
  • Designers who might have traditionally chosen to hold their shows off-site in the Bryant Park years have been encouraged to stage their events close to Lincoln Center. Some designers are showing in the promenades of Avery Fisher Hall and the David H. Koch Theater, or at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Best Quote

“I want to see fashion on par with all of the other cultural activities here—the ballet, the opera.” – Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Director of Fashion at Lincoln Center

Studying You Studying Art

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

In an attempt to improve their offerings, museums have begun a program of patron espionage…

  • Nowadays, museums are supposed to be interactive and engaging. So museums are following their visitors around, trying to figure out which exhibits they like, which placards are confusing, and how useful the museum maps really are.
  • Exhibit evaluation can also be tied to a museum’s public funding, a fact that may be contributing to the visitor observation trend sweeping the nation.
  • In the 1920s, during some of the first observation studies, researchers noted things like length of time spent at each exhibit and the direction they were most likely to turn in upon entering a gallery (right).

Facts & Figures

  • The Detroit Institute of Arts used covert observation (among other feedback collection techniques)  to redesign its galleries in 2007.
  • Museums can dedicate as much as 10% of a program’s budget to the evaluation of its success
  • The Science Museum of Minnesota spends $900,000 each year evaluating programs with its staff of 12.

Best Quote

“Whichever way you do it, a significant portion of your visitors find the map upside down.” – Judy Koke, Deputy Director of Education and Public Programming at the Art Gallery of Ontario, which is entered from the north side

Wall Street An Unlikely Aid To Homeowners

Friday, August 20th, 2010

Wall Street firms are stepping in to help some homeowners pay off their loans.

  • When Wall Street companies purchase loans, they have an advantage over banks and other lenders: because they don’t have to go through as much red tape, it’s often easier for them to reduce monthly payments and interest rates for homeowners.
  • These firms buy loans at a reduced price, so even if the homeowners pay a reduced sum, the firm still profits. The loans are also generally worth more if they get paid off than they are if the houses get foreclosed.
  • The only problem is that Wall Street is offering these services to a very small fraction of homeowners.

Facts & Figures

  • Approximately 90% of the loan reductions offered by Selene, one of these Wall Street companies, includes a reduction in the principal amount owed; less than 2% of the reductions offered by federal banks.
  • These firms have only covered an estimated 0.25% of outstanding US home loans.
  • Selene reports that 50% of the customers whose loans it buys are able to keep their homes. 20% are able to sell their homes in a short sale without a foreclosure, and the remaining 30% are foreclosed on.

Best Quote

“There are obvious inconsistencies in treatment [of borrowers] depending on who owns and services the loan. It’s the luck of the draw.” –Edward Delgado, Chief Executive, Five Star Institute

Hulu Prepares Public Option

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Hulu plans to introduce an initial public offering as early as this fall.

  • Although Hulu gets a lot of traffic, it has had difficulty turning its popularity into profit. It hopes to change things by making an initial public offering.
  • An IPO could have the additional benefits of increasing confidence in the company, possibly luring back content producers like Viacom, which recently removed popular shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from Hulu.
  • However, with many other companies poised to go public and a lack of confidence in IPOs in general, going public may not solve Hulu’s problems.

Facts & Figures

  • The planned IPO could value the company at more than $2 billion.
  • Hulu reported that it made $100 million last year, but it is also on track to make that amount again in the first half of this year.
  • Hulu produced more than $566 million ads this past June – more than double YouTube’s amount.

Improving The Quality Of Internet Service

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Satellite companies attempt to improve their technology in order to provide better internet service to consumers, especially those  for whom satellite connection is the only option.

  • Two satellite companies, WildBlue and HughesNet, have big plans for the future of satellite and internet service.
  • These companies claim that their new satellites will allow them to provide consumers with internet service that rivals the speed of their broadband competitors’ but costs far less.
  • Terrestrial internet providers argue that fiber-optics are expensive to install but much easier to update as technology improves, an advantage satellites lack.

Facts & Figures

  • An estimated 14-24 million Americans currently live without broadband internet service.
  • WildBlue argues that a $28 million grant aimed at extending fiber optics to 420 schools in North Carolina could instead have supplied 70,000 residents in that area with satellite service.
  • The average lifespan of a satellite is 15 years–a statistic that helps explain why the industry has advanced so slowly to date.

Best Quote

“One advantage satellite has is ubiquity. The cost of reaching you with a satellite dish is independent of where you are. Fiber or cable is labor-intensive and dependent on distance.” –Arunas G. Slekys, Vice President, Hughes Network Systems

Recession Benefits The Employed?

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Although the recession has produced a large number of the long-term unemployed, there are, ironically, some benefits for those who have been able to keep their jobs.

  • Though wages usually fall during economic downturns, this recession has seen a growth in salaries.
  • Some regions have been hit harder than others but areas in the central US are relatively unscathed.
  • Although blue collar jobs suffered most at the beginning of the recession, we’re currently seeing a downturn in white collar jobs instead.

Facts & Figures

  • Nearly 45% of unemployed workers today have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more.
  • Since the recession began, real average hourly wages have risen almost 5%.
  • The unemployment rate for college graduates is still only 4.5%, and the disparity between their pay and that of non-graduates has never been greater.

A Business From A Buck

Monday, August 16th, 2010

In an economy like this one, it seems unlikely that any bright business idea could be realized without a significant amount of startup cash. However, a few savvy entrepreneurs are making it work.

  • Small businesses are getting their start from very little money.
  • The Wall Street Journal found three booming businesses that were launched on only a couple of hundred dollars.
  • Technology plays a large part in helping new businesses because professional looking websites and automated phone systems are widely accessible.

Facts & Figures

  • About half of all start-ups close within five years, usually due to lack of capital.
  • Babson College estimates that it costs up to $65,000 to start a business.

Best Quote

“It’s gotten so much easier to reach mass markets and test out ideas. This is something that’s becoming accessible to anyone with an idea.” – Bo Fishback, Vice President of Entrepreneurship, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Affordable Vacation Homes For The Wealthy

Friday, August 13th, 2010

In this market the affluent still want an island getaway home – just for a lower price tag.

  • Real estate developers are marketing affordable vacation homes to wealthy clients in a tough market.
  • Developers are trying to avoid lowering the price on existing homes, and instead are advertising affordable second, third and even fourth homes that offer extra amenities like pools and beach access.
  • The goal is to play to value and convenience, while still including the perks of a vacation house.

Facts & Figures

  • At a sporting club in central Florida, members can buy 1,500 square foot cabins starting at $600,000.
  • On a private island in the Turks & Caicos clients are able to purchase small houses for as low as $1.4 million, which is 44% less than the $2.5 million required for the island’s least expensive property and home previously.

Best Quote

“We’re trying to get the point across that you can have a great place in a wonderful island for, quite frankly, a reasonable price.” – Steve Schram, Chairman, DPS Sporting Club Development Co.

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