Real estate crowdfunding projects are expensive, to say the least, and hence many people resist their temptation to invest in this field because of a lack of resources. The concept of crowdfunding has given hope to large numbers of individuals aspiring to become successful real estate investors. However, there are still many people who are either unaware of or do not know about the various methods of crowdfunding to take a plunge into real estate investing. This article aims to be a perfect guide for such people as it contains crowdfunding tips that are easy, practical, and worth trying to […]

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Ahead of her retirement in November 2021, Normajean Mehrman met with Lightspeed to discuss her experience with instructional audio during her time as a speech-language pathologist at Hampton Bays Public Schools.

I am traveling for the last time this year and when I am on the road I get to reflect a lot on what is actually going on within supply chains and what we can expect into the future.  Here are some things I have reflected on and believe for 2022:

Disruption is not Going Away:

Short of a major economic turndown, the container issues, ship issues, port issues, driver and transportation issues all will continue through 2022 and into 2023.  There is no evidence that until significant ship and container capacity comes on line (2023) there will be much improvement.  As we have learned this last few weeks, the “appearance” of improvement has been somewhat of a mirage.  Ships are slowing down and they are at anchor just further out at sea.  

COVID Is Moving from a Pandemic to an Endemic:

The definition of an endemic is something that is around us and never going away.  Covid will be around us, at a baseline level for the foreseeable future.  The next time you hear someone say to you, “When this is over… “ , remind them we are going into our 3d year. This is the “way it is” and masks, vaccines and therapeutics will be needed likely for the remainder of my life.  Supply chains cannot “wait until this is over “  to implement change and execute process improvements.  We have to learn to work within it. 

Shippers Will Continue To Take More Control of The Assets:

We all have seen the stories of big companies leasing ships but who would have thought a large furniture company would buy a large trucking company?  This is a perfect example where shippers will be adjusting their supply chains to deal with the massive margin inflation in purchasing of supply chain services.  It takes a while but supply chains will adjust.  Product will be on-shored, assets will be insourced, and networks will be redesigned to adjust and mitigate the inflation.  

This was started by Amazon when they bought Kiva Robots and they have progressively taken control of their own destiny.  Amazon will surpass UPS and FEDEX as the largest package shipper (on their own assets) sometime next year.  The massive margin inflation passed to shippers this year is not sustainable and it will end. 

We Will See 3 Interest Rate Hikes in 2022:

This is breaking news as it was today the Fed had their press conference after the December FOMC meeting.  You decide what this means for your business but suffice to say the “punch bowl” is going to be removed from this economy.  I personally believe this will mean a number of “zombie” companies will struggle to survive.  The easy money will be gone and companies which generate no profit will not continue to be valued at such high levels as they are today.  

A Few Charts:

Those who know me know I track the FRED Inventory to Sales ratios as an indicator telling us what stage the restocking and the “normalization” of supply chain is in.  The news is that we are still dramatically lower than we need to be and this means restocking will continue for the foreseeable future (See Disruption is Not Going Away above):

Getting your pricing right is hugely important for the health of your SaaS company, both short- and long-term. To help you make smart pricing choices, today I’m answering one of the biggest pricing questions we get asked: is a freemium or premium pricing model best for your SaaS company?

The UK has introduced a new tax on plastic packaging that will come into effect on April 1, 2022. Known as the UK Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT), this will affect businesses that manufacture or import plastic packaging, including packaging that already contains goods (such as plastic bottles containing beverages). The tax aims to encourage the use of recycled rather than virgin plastic in packaging (when permitted) and stimulate the increase of recycling and collection of plastic waste.

We’re finally well into the time of the year that we have all been looking forward to - Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Remote-managed IT services are becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. The reason is that the competition in the industry has gone up in recent years due to the increase in warehouses leveraging technology in their operations. However, the technology needs to be managed in an effective and cost-efficient way. This is where remote-managed IT service come in. This service can help you handle and utilize technology effectively to build a scalable business and eventually cater to a significant market portion.

Negative monthly revenue churn. 

The pinnacle in any subscription/retainer business, whether you're a PR agency selling service retainers, or a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company selling cloud software into the enterprise. 

What is negative churn? It's simple, it's when your upsells and cross sells exceed the value of your lost customers each month. Negative churn means that your company will continue growing, even if it doesn't bring in new customers.

In today's post I give two examples of negative monthly revenue churn, and explain how to get there.

Experts warn the pandemic’s interruption to in-person classroom learning – spanning 18 months in some communities – had serious consequences for students. 

Virtual platforms proved a poor substitute for in-person education, particularly for the social-emotional learning (SEL) crucial to keeping students engaged and motivated. Without in-person connections with teachers and other students, many students lagged projected academic gains, and in some cases, ceased participating altogether.