Last month, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released their quarterly report on Household Debt and Credit for the fourth quarter of 2020.
Although the ravages of the pandemic are still massive and widespread, there were some glimmers of a silver lining. Some takeaways being:
The coronavirus pandemic changed the way U.S. consumers use credit, as lower interest rates spurred a boom in home buying and refinancing and virus-related shutdowns led to a drop in credit card use and an increase in paying off debt, according to a report released on Wednesday by the New York Federal Reserve.
Home buying and refinancing took off last year after the Federal Reserve slashed its key overnight interest rate to near zero to fight the economic fallout from the pandemic, leading to lower mortgage rates. A massive shift to working and learning from home also bolstered the housing market, as some families searched for properties with more living space.
Credit card balances increased by $12 billion in the fourth quarter but balances were still $108 billion lower from a year earlier – the largest yearly decline since the report was launched in 1999.
In total, all household debt not related to housing – including credit card debt, auto loans, student loans, and other debts – increased by $37 billion during the fourth quarter but was still below pre-pandemic levels seen at the end of 2019.
The economics of Valentine’s Day is significant. In 2021, about half of U.S. adults plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day and spend a total of $21.8 billion, down from $27.4 billion in 2020, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).23 But 2020 was a record year, and the 2021 anticipated spend is still the second highest since the NRF first published its annual Valentine’s Day spending survey in 2009.
Read more about the economics of Valentine’s Day here.
After the murder of his father, Genghis Khan went into poverty, even being enslaved at one point is an interesting fact. It wasn’t until he was in his 50’s did he rise to power and become the Khan of Mongolia.
Your Startup Guru created a grant proposal and informational deck for educational non-profit Tutor At Desk. The grant funds will be used to help raise additional capital for its operations.
Grant proposals and informational decks for grant applications for non-profits are similar to regular business proposals (and plans) and pitch decks. One of the main difference is grant-makers are interested in how their mission is furthered by the applicant instead of what the investor’s ROI will be.
About Tutor At Desk
Tutor At Desk is a promising nonprofit that provides free computer programming classes and loaner laptops to anyone that wants to take one (or more) of their many courses including HTML5, JavaScript, Python, app development, and more
Launch and Grow Your Non-Profit
Let us help you launch your non-profit. Contact us and let’s get to work on your grant proposal!
The health of small and medium businesses is a major factor of the economy. The SBA considers companies with less than 500 employees to be “small businesses,” which encompasses 99.7% of all businesses.
2020 has been devastating for businesses throughout the Nation. More than ever, Shop Small Saturday is vitally important.
Your Startup Guru client Corrio is applying to present by panel discussion at SXSW PanelPicker Online 2021. Your Startup Guru created a pitch deck for Corrio which allowed them to fundraise as well as enter into a private group of international members comprising an angel investor networks.
Corrio was accepted last year but with the pandemic, plans had to change.
Skincare company OSYS®Naturals came to Your Startup Guru in need of a business plan. Through our business plan and fundraising services, OSYS was able to secure the capital necessary to grow their company.
OSYS Naturals offers a fantastic line of skin care solutions for razor burn, razor bumps, ingrown hair, and skin irritations. The unique natural ingredients in OSYS Naturals were specifically chosen and formulated for their healing, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-infectious, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiseptic, antiviral, astringent, analgesic, and tissue regenerative properties.
Media streaming service Quibi shut down six months after launching. Their closure is not surprising because Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former Disney studio head and DreamWorks co-founder, missed one important lesson when selling something new: make it familiar.
Katzenberg missed one important lessons when selling something new: make it familiar. People were not going to shell out $5 per month to watch something they’ve never heard of with commercials.
In a previous post, we discussed how industrial designer and marketer Raymond Loewy created the concept of MAYA — Most Advanced Yet Acceptable. His firm designed mid-century icons like the Exxon logo, the Lucky Strike pack, the Greyhound bus, as well as Frigidaire ovens and Singer vacuum cleaners. Even the blue nose on Air Force One was his idea. Loewy had an uncanny sense of how to make things fashionable. He believed that a balance must be struck between two concepts: the curiosity about new things and a fear of anything too new. He said to sell something surprising, make it familiar; and to sell something novel, make it novel.
What is Quibi?
Quibi is a media streaming service that promised to reinvent television by streaming high-quality content in ten-minute-or-less episodes to “the TV in your pocket.” Quibi, is short for “quick bites.” Katzenberg believed enough mobile-phone users would use their spare minutes of downtime — while waiting in line for coffee, riding the bus or subway — to watch bite-sized episodes of premium, Hollywood-quality video.
The concept itself is great except all of their content was new and it cost $4.99 (with ads) or $7.99 (without ads) per month. People were not going to shell out $5 per month to watch something they’ve never heard of with commercials. Also, the short episodes might not be long enough to engage the audience. Ultimately, their revenue model did not match their pricing strategy (1, 2).
What Should Quibi Have Done?
Using Loewy’s lessons, to make the shows on Quibi familiar and its short format, they should have gone with the freemium model by giving one month free with an additional month if they get someone to join. This will give time for people to bond with the shows before introducing the paid no-commercial version. Hulu used this same pricing strategy and it worked out well for them.
Quibi was to launch in the spring of 2020 with 50 original shows, and another 125 were to be rolled out by the end of the first year. Recognizing the risk of making something for an unproven platform, Katzenberg typically offered to pay producers’ costs plus 20 percent. “People on Quibi have $100,000 a minute to make content,” Katzenberg tells me. “That doesn’t exist on other platforms.”
This production pace and cash burn are difficult to sustain, and now, in a fire sale, they are giving out free 6-month trial memberships in an attempt to gain viewership, but it was too little too late.
Contact us today to help launch and grow your business.
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