With many people out of work right now, and with the new tax incentive that has been passed, there has never been a better time to hire.
The recently passed Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act gives a payroll tax holiday and up-to-$1,000 tax credit for employers who hire unemployed workers. The tax benefit is immediate, because the tax is simply never collected in the first place. The tax benefit generally applies only to private-sector employment. There is no minimum weekly number of hours that the new employee must work for the employer to be eligible, and there is no limit on the dollar amount of payroll taxes per employer that may be forgiven. For workers that would otherwise be eligible for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, the employer must select one benefit or the other for 2010. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, employers will need to fill out a W-11 with the IRS.
Bonus: check out this blog in the Harvard Business Review about good hiring practices.
Jay Boehmer of Business Travel News Online writes in the article “Business Travel Cuts Bottoming,”
“Many companies expect to increase travel spending next year from what is expected to remain a craterous 2009, but some industry players are convinced it will be a matter of years before they resume pre-recession levels, according to speakers at last month’s National Business Travel Association International Convention in San Diego, conversations with industry buyers and suppliers and recent surveys of corporate travel managers.”
So hold on providers, because we may have finally reached rock bottom and it is time to begin the climb again. And what have we learned from the recession? As Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
Business Travel News Online recently reported that in an economy that has seen a drop in business travel by almost 10% in the past year (source: NBTA), extended stay hotels are aggressively constructing new hotels. Richard Flores, marketing director for Larkspur Hotels and Restaurants, was quoted as saying , “In 2006 and 2007, you could get away with having one major account, and you were running 80% occupancy with a good rate. You can’t count on Google to fill them up anymore.”
This brings up a number of interesting points. One is that internet referrals, when gleaned from a single source, will fail us in this economy. What is needed is a more innovative way of bringing in internet referrals, and that’s where Shop Corporate Housing comes in. The website allows all providers to compete for a single lead, which in the end means that the prospect is more likely to find the niche provider who is best able to serve their needs.
The other quote from the article that caught my eye was this: “Robert Radomski, vice president of brand management for InterContinental Hotel Group’s extended stay brands, said the down economy also has increased certain types of business travel to extended stay properties. ‘We are seeing growth in liquidations, and those liquidation teams are the sort of thing that brings more extended stay business,’ he said.” Liquidation teams are teams of consultants who are asked to manage the liquidation of large inventories, such as when Circuit City liquidated its inventory across the country earlier this year. What this means to me: now is a time to pursue new markets, and to open up sales into a new clientele. Liquidation teams could be one of them.
Joe Girard is in the Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1, 425 cars in 1973 alone. In his book, How to Sell Anything to Anybody, he describes what he calls “birddogs” as a simple referral process between himself and people to whom he has sold cars. He offers a small reward in exchange for a referral to his office. (more…)
The BBC recently reported that home construction is on the rise in the United States. This means that a powerful segment of your sales–the group of people who use corporate housing while their home is being constructed– will once again begin to flourish. As the housing market loosens up again and people regain their faith in the economy, the relocation segment of your sales will also begin to see improvements. The end of the recession may finally be near.
