Today is Halloween and some people celebrate it more than others. Generally the author is in the second category, but there have days when it has be celebrated. One Halloween it was noticed the homes with lights on, there were a lot more than normal which meant the streets were lighted up and seemingly safer. There were more people than normal on the streets which made the street seemingly safer. The notion of giving candy away, is still lost on me, although my cynical side says the candy companies somehow enhanced this tradition which should be an expected boost to their revenues. When they report their October financials Halloween should give a bump in their sales.

This is one method which as a consumer in your everyday life you can gain insights into how the company is doing. There are a number of companies that do better during the national celebrations and the holidays. Do you see evidence that people are buying stuff to enhance their celebrations? In the US, the federal reserve is trying not to stimulate the economy because things are getting better. Holidays or celebrations are a great time to see if things are getting better or how much better they are getting. Are people spending little amounts or larger amounts to celebrate? We all collect evidence of how things are going? what should be and can be and the next step is look towards possible opportunities with that knowledge. Included in the step is to narrow your focus and do your homework to verify what you see is seen by the financials to determine if you do something or nothing.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as the dividends continue to flow you can celebrate on a regular basis. The economy or the economy of the stocks you have picked is doing well, the management is doing its job and from a financial point of view things are going good. With dividend paying stocks, if the dividend comes under pressure, it is time to look at other alternatives. One of the hardest thing for most investors is when to sell, with dividend paying stocks, since you expect to hold for a period of time, the thing to focus on is the dividend payment. If it continues to grow every year, it is keeper. If it begins to fall, there are other alternatives in the marketplace.  If you celebrate Halloween have fun.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

Everyone in the world has done some event planning, as soon as you get more than two people together you are event planning. Most of the world does plan million dollar events, but something less. Often one of the biggest events is a wedding, but birthday parties or neighbourhood parties all go through the same checklist. The book event planning by Judy Allen, John Wiley and Sons, Toronto, 2000 is a great guide as the price of the event rises. For most of us, except for the Wedding or Anniversary party, we do a lot of stuff in our heads because the budget is relatively low. For example in the coming week is Halloween – you may go out for trick or treating or stay home and have the kids come over. It is not a great decision to do it at the last moment, otherwise you will be running around for all the little things you forgot. The book event planning features gala events and conferences but the same process goes for any size event.

In Ms Allen’s book there are a variety of chapters after you have picked your event and have a budget to pay for it. Next comes the organization of the event. Being organized and paying close attention to detail are two of the most important elements of running a successful event. You will need to constant check to ensure the guidelines and dates things that are needed are finished. For example when you do a mailing send it to your home address, that way you will know it has arrived in time for decisions to be made. If the event is a hotel or restaurant, if you keep them updated as numbers change, they can often accommodate it, otherwise it will be more costly. The other key element of organization is time and date of the event. There is always something going on in people’s lives, pick a date that fits into the purpose of the event and if necessary tie it into major events.

The next step is location, location, location – where is the event to be held? Before the event ensure you have gone there and visualized your event on what is to happen and you are comfortable it will work. If the event is to raise money, ensure the costs allow that to happen. Ms. Allen’s book looks at things to consider about hotels, restaurants, theatres and tents.

Transportation to the event. How do people get to the venue(s)? Limousines, Buses, Cars – parking? valet parking?

If the event is over more than one day? what to do with the guests?

Thinking about the purpose of the event what should the room look like? What audio visual or staging is required? how is the room organized? is there security needed? if there is a dance afterwards is there a good floor for dancing?

Linking to dividend paying stocks with most things in life once you have answer one question there are more. If you are event hosting, there are the easy parts and parts  that will ask more questions. As you do more than one, the decisions become easier but the basic reason or purpose remains. Why are we doing this? what is the expected outcome? If you expected outcome is to make money, then buying profitable stocks which pay a dividend is a good thing to do. Dividends just mean the company has enough profits to both reinvest in the business as well to give money back to the shareholders. Every company has a balance act which is best to do – take advantage of greater opportunities or give money to the owners or both? This blog likes the both part and if the company is consistently raising the dividend over the years so much the better.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

Everyone in the world has done some event planning, as soon as you get more than two people together you are event planning. Most of the world does plan million dollar events, but something less. Often one of the biggest events is a wedding, but birthday parties or neighbourhood parties all go through the same checklist. The book event planning by Judy Allen, John Wiley and Sons, Toronto, 2000 is a great guide as the price of the event rises. For most of us, except for the Wedding or Anniversary party, we do a lot of stuff in our heads because the budget is relatively low. For example in the coming week is Halloween – you may go out for trick or treating or stay home and have the kids come over. It is not a great decision to do it at the last moment, otherwise you will be running around for all the little things you forgot. The book event planning features gala events and conferences but the same process goes for any size event.

After you have decided to do an event, the next step is planning and budgeting. Remember once the event starts, there is no rewind and there is a rule which you need to prepare for and hopefully not experience too often – Murphy’s Law of whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. If you manage people in your job, event planning is an extension of the skill set. Remember all events cost some money and even if you buy at the dollar store, there are expenses. The organizers need to write a cheque and as a planner you need to try to stay within the budget, knowing the tighter it is the more alternatives you will need to go through. If the budget is okay, continue.  The next element of thinking is the purpose of the event – why is the event being held and all the rest of the planning should feed into the why.

As the event planning begins to unfold, there are more elements which need to be settled including time requirements? when does the event take place? always work backyards from the date of the event which enables the checklist to be ticked off when they are done. The more checkmarks there are before the event, the better the event. As the event is to occur – try to visualize it. Walk yourself through arrivals, to doing the event and ensuring the purpose of the event is fulfilled. Why would the event be a success? is there a wow moment? what perception did you leave?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are many methods to picking stocks – there are textbooks with great and no so great ideas, one easy method to start with profitable companies that pay a dividend. There can be wide opinions on each stock, but we know that profitable companies stock performs better than non profitable stocks, those that can afford to pay a dividend means you can worry about other things. A successful event will leave a good feeling about the company or the people you have meant, a profitable company with a dividend will continue to enhance your pocket book.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

Chances are if you have travelled you have seen or maybe even stayed at a Hilton hotel.The Hiltons owned the chain of the hotels which was founded by Conrad Hilton and among the books which document the success of the family is The Hiltons – The True Story of an American Dynasty by J Randy Taraborrelli published by Grand Central Publishing, NY, 2014. The book describes the family from the early days in Texas to one of the better from Conrad to Baron and Nicky to their sons to Paris Hilton. The chain was eventually sold and the family runs a large foundation.

While most of the book is about the personal lives of the family, there is an interesting story and lesson concerning Hilton Hotels. As hotels were built by the airports there was a natural inclination to team up with an airline to make the steps of airline booking and hotel reservation seamless. Conrad Hilton decided to team up with TWA on its international side, there were a variety of really good reasons. TWA was one of the biggest airlines in the US that flew many flights outside the US borders. The competition in those days was Pan-Am. The money received from TWA would allow the company to increase its presence in the domestic market. The consequences which were rejected by Conrad Hilton was TWA had competition, lots of it. Once Hilton formally joined with TWA, the other airlines made it harder to book a HIlton hotel on their system. Not everyone that flew TWA stayed at HIlton International, so growth was slowed. In addition, in Japan Hilton had a joint venture with a hotel company which was eventually connected to Japan Airlines or the competition. The joint venture was wound down and Hilton was left with no hotels in Japan and had to rebuild. The worse part of the TWA venture was the airline was at its peak when the Hilton contract was signed, in a few years TWA shares had gone from $60 to under $ 5 or it was not the best partner for Hilton.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the eyes of Conrad Hilton linking to an airline made good sense, the consequences of tying Hilton to TWA turned out to be a bad decision for Hilton. Every decision has positive and negative attributes which can be seen looking back, but not so clear looking forward. The lesson to learn is when a company joins another as a partner, it may not control the partner and the reasons why the company was a good partner changes. It is important to have influence on the partner or be able to get out of the partnership if the reasons for the joint venture changes.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

Chances are if you have travelled you have seen or maybe even stayed at a Hilton hotel.The Hiltons owned the chain of the hotels which was founded by Conrad Hilton and among the books which document the success of the family is The Hiltons – The True Story of an American Dynasty by J Randy Taraborrelli published by Grand Central Publishing, NY, 2014. The book describes the family from the early days in Texas to one of the better from Conrad to Baron and Nicky to their sons to Paris Hilton. The chain was eventually sold and the family runs a large foundation.

After world war 2, the United States emerged as the most important country in the world and with a growing middle income group who wanted to travel.Conrad Hilton and his team began to build hotels beside airports for travellers convenience and they were generally profitable operations. Another area of growth was international – in the 1950’s the State Department and Department of Commerce encouraged hoteliers including Hilton to open a hotel in Purerto Rico. The government of the country would build the hotel, then lease it to an American business who would use American knowhow and technology to run it. This was hoped to cause tourism to increase. Hilton won the contract and tourism did increase, because the expectation all the conveniences expected in America would found in the Hilton. The Hilton followed the trends in the hotel industry with hotels in Las Vegas (for a while they were the most profitable ones as they are connected to a casino). Buying older hotels that had been and could be prime hotels again meant real estate values increased. As well as every business knows keeping costs down and trying to make it easier for a hotel user to transition to other add on such as credit cards, to airlines, were part of the Hilton legacy.

Linking to dividend paying stocks similar to 1950’s government can help, in Hilton’s case the Department of Commerce played a role. Now days it will be the city or state level which will help bring a hotel to the city. For once a hotel opens it can be considered a small or medium sized business (depending on the size of the hotel). Each hotel typically has a market it is segmenting – the airport traveller, the downtown business person, banquets, conferences. ideally somebody who does repeat business. Repeat business is similar to receiving a dividend payment on a stock – as long as the company is doing well and staying profitable it can pay a dividend. There are always many variables in the marketplace which makes staying profitable over a long period of time a great achievement, and as an investor you can share in the good management by receiving a dividend.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

Chances are if you have travelled you have seen or maybe even stayed at a Hilton hotel.The Hiltons owned the chain of the hotels which was founded by Conrad Hilton and among the books which document the success of the family is The Hiltons – The True Story of an American Dynasty by J Randy Taraborrelli published by Grand Central Publishing, NY, 2014. The book describes the family from the early days in Texas to one of the better known names in the hotel business. One of the keys in surviving the depression because Mr. Hilton managed to pay enough to keep the creditors away and when the depression ended as occupancy rates rose, the same bankers offered credit to the company and Hilton expanded. Similar to many luxury hotels, to stay at the top of the market, it helped Mr. Hilton enjoyed the parties and galas at the hotels. In every industry, people admire various assets or wished they could own. To a hotelier there are wonderful, large hotels in every city and some were built by people who eventually had to sell. If the company is profitable or has assess to credit, trophy properties can be acquired for less than the cost to build. The owner then has to do a renovation to regain the lustre in the limelight or to be considered as the meeting place in the city.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, similar to Mr. Hilton as he slowly acquired properties to fix them up and gain higher occupancies, the key is slowly acquired. The chain did not start with the best properties, it took time to build and time to acquire. If you have patience investing, while gaining a return (dividend) can be very rewarding. Mr. Hilton’s chain took time, he expanded as opportunities arose and soon the company was the biggest hotel chain in the world as well as a profitable concern.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

The Four Seasons is a hotel chain catering to luxury stays in medium sized hotels. It is one of the best hotel chain in the world and even if have never stayed there, you should check out the hotel and how it has retained its reputation as one of the best hotels in the world. The chain was started by Isadore Sharp who wrote a book called Four Seasons – the story of a Business Philosophy, Penguin Group, Toronto, 2009. Mr. Sharp outlines the maturing of the nature of the hotel business and how his and chains values and principles became the correct business model for the Four Seasons.

For all companies it is easier to manage when the company profits are growing, but the real question is how does it manage when there is a downturn and seeming stable jobs are threatened by slimming the organization – what happens to the people first values. Mr. Sharp acknowledges there were times when the economy went down, but the company was fortunate it had choices. The fist thing the company did was reaffirm product quality. If you are going to be a world leader, you have to keep quality high in good times as well as bad. Since the hotel business was down, it is a great time to renovate and refurbish the hotels and that was done. An add bonus is in a downturn prices tend to fall and you can still keep your suppliers working.  Another area was marketing, even though they are soft dollars, studies show companies which had not cut back their marketing expanded their market share when the economy picked up.

The company went through its operations and determined different method to simplifying reporting methods and access to the files. The recession is a good time to look at or prospective for new developments as land prices have fallen. The reality is sellers will out number buyers and if you can be a buyer, many opportunities are to be found, including those which you never thought you could afford or new partnerships with some creative thinking can be formed.

Four Seasons went through other downturns and putting people first policy meant communication and more communication comes first, because every employee in the business has a reasonable idea of how the business is doing. Four Seasons moved to a 4 day work week and pooling of jobs – which meant in a hotel there is always many things to do, it means the person may not be in the same department, but there is work to be done. If you believe that service is your industry, the element of trust has to be play a significant role – and as everyone in the world knows trust is easily broken or it takes a great deal of effort to maintain and grow it.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every organization in the world in good times says they are like the Four Seasons, in bad times they are not. If your stocks have been paying a dividend for many years, you know either they are similar to Four Seasons or they have a monopoly or monopoly like conditions which it matters less. If those conditions are maintained, those working for the company will be relatively loyal because it is profitable company. When economies go through downturns it tests the way companies are run because it often times means job cuts. In a service economy the big expense is employees; what does a company do or not do? Ideally it can still pay the bills and look for opportunities because if they do not get them in the downturn they may never get them. If you buy dividend paying stocks that have paid and even raised their dividends over the years, the income will allow you options in the downturn and the up turns in the economy.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

The Four Seasons is a hotel chain catering to luxury stays in medium sized hotels. It is one of the best hotel chain in the world and even if have never stayed there, you should check out the hotel to see how it has retained its reputation as one of the best hotels in the world. The chain was started by Isadore Sharp who wrote a book called Four Seasons – the story of a Business Philosophy, Penguin Group, Toronto, 2009. Mr. Sharp outlines the maturing of the nature of the hotel business and how his and chains values and principles became the correct business model for the Four Seasons. People travel a great deal more than ever in the past, and there is a wide number of hotels to suit their needs. In the larger cities in the world, the premium market is dominated by Four Season, the Ritz Carlton and a few others. The Four Seasons business model evolved into a builder of hotels (there is great risk and great reward if it is a success) to a management company (running the hotel for a fee). The company takes other investors to own the hotel, puts up some equity putting up no more than hotel fees would pay over the first 5 years, an amount that could be used to borrow from the bank. The model the company went with was to specialize – midsized hotels on exceptional quality, hotels recognized as the best.

Having the model to be the best and actually achieving it would mean greater refinement of the business model. The trick was to give customers want they value the most to meet and surpass their expectations. We are only what we do, not what we say we are. The goal was to have everyone in the company who think for themselves and act on it, who can remedy service failures on the spot. We are asking them to see the company’s interest as their own and to voluntarily take responsibility. Those words are easily said that done because the method of managing people needed to be changed, for does management see lower employees as a cost or an asset? Remember most people are natural boss-watchers – it is not what someone else says or does it is what their immediate boss says and does.

When Four Seasons started down the road, all the systems had to changed so everyone would act that way. It took time, personnel changed and how people were hired was changed. The result has been rates of retention and productivity increased. Besides the internal change, communication needed to be opened up.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies have to go through the process the Four Seasons did with defining who they are and equally who they are not. As long as they execute on who they are, as they expand to other avenues, that has to remain a constant. When companies expand as opportunities arise, who and what they are tend to get blurred and less money is earned. It is difficult to stay in the space because there is a tendency to look around and say if we allocated our people and resources to that problem we could solve it and make money. The Four Seasons changed their way they operate the company from the insides, it took time but they are still one of the best at what they do. The companies shares that you own, are they the best? have they been consistently good? or is a different management moving them in different directions? Learn the process from the Four Seasons, they have been very consistent and profitable to.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

If you watch TV, you may have come across a show called Shark Tank, on the show people pitch their ideas of how to expand their business to 4 investors who listen to them, to see if they would invest in the business. One of the investors is Lori Greiner who specializes in products that have a mass appeal and help people’s lives, much of what is changing the attitude from why would I want it to I can not live without it. The process to have an idea and go all the way to selling it is what the book Invent It, Sell It, Bank It! by Lori Greiner, Random House, NY, 2014.

In the old days, of not so long ago marketing meant radio, TV and newspapers and all still have a very valid aspect for companies. With the advent of social media and people using it, there are other options to use or in combination with TV, radio and newspapers. Remember try for consistency on all channels. Your company has to go where the people are and social member is expected. Whether it is Facebook, twitter, or many other names. You need to figure out for your product which is the best one. The key is to update the sites once they have are up and running in order to attract even more readers. It is great if you can find a celebrity to endorse your product, and it should be a celebrity which will help sales of your product; not a celebrity whom you happen to like.

Your product is selling, your great idea has become a successful product and you have learned many new things. This is really just the beginning, you need to come up with more products and some will be natural add-ons or extension of the product. You had one idea of what your product will be used for, consumers often have a different idea. Your contact through social media will tell you what uses your customers use the product for. Remember all products go through the same process, it should be easier for you the second and third and fourth and fifth time around. Use common sense to create add-ons and extensions because there is a need and you are supply a solution to it. You should feel good about going from idea to production to sales.

Linking to dividend paying stocks,it is possible to learn how to do the whole process by doing it and growing a business. It is much easier to concentrate on one part of the business and invest in companies who have good people doing the whole process. The elements of business do not change – there still needs a product or service that is valued by customers, who are willing to pay at margins to be profitable. When the context of business there are many ways to have an edge over your competition, the greater the edge the more the profit, the more profit the more willing investors who will be patient to accept their dividends and capital gains. Use Ms. Grenier’s book as a helpful tool to understand, because the more knowledge you have the less you should lose.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions