Business

Business

U.S. Business Schools: MBA Program Applications Are Up Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

By Gertrude Aziz 10 hours ago

Huntsman Hall, the Wharton School’s main building at the University of Pennsylvania.

Top U.S. business schools enjoyed a double-digit surge in applications this year—after a spate of declines—as people facing a pandemic-stricken job market sought to boost their prospects, and admissions departments opened their doors a little wider.

With the longer trend going the other way, the question any first-year business student would ask is: Can it last?

The number of applications to full-time MBA programs at the country’s top 20 schools, as ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek, rose 13% from last year, when bids declined by 8.7% from 2018. The spike, according to the magazine’s Best B-Schools analysis of admissions data and figures from the Graduate Management Admission Council, reverses a five-year downturn.

That long slide involved a decline in applications among 53% of programs surveyed in 2016. The percentage grew steadily to 73% of programs in 2019, according

Business

The New Normal? Five Questions That Will Reinvent Business Decision Making After COVID-19

By Gertrude Aziz 23 hours ago

“Business decision-making has changed more in the past six months than in the previous sixty years,” said Eugene Roytburg, Ph.D., decision science expert and Managing Director at Fractal Analytics, in our recent conversation. “The COVID-19 crisis forced every executive to make rapid decisions with previously unimaginable impacts, while everyone switched to online remote work at the same time. It’s astonishing.”

The new normal. — We can take the best from this crisis and create a new normal for decision-making.

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Recent statistics support his insight. A McKinsey study found that 82 percent of executives said they make decisions faster now, and half say much faster. Simultaneously, the number of meetings required to make decisions plummeted — major business decisions are now half as likely to need six or more meetings. And all this is happening with almost all collaboration now mediated by technology.

But Dr. Roytburg’s more significant insight is about what’s missing from

Business

Kickstart Your Business With This $30 Shopify Training Bundle

By Gertrude Aziz 1 day ago

If there were ever a time to start a side hustle (or full-time gig) in e-commerce, this is it. For many, the job market remains uncertain, but online shopping is a relative constant.

There are plenty of ways to enter the digital retail business, and Shopify has emerged as one of the best—especially for first-time e-tailers. It has a solid customer base, is easy to search, and proves just as friendly to private label sellers as drop shippers. So how do you get started?

One great jumping-off point is an online learning series like the Complete Shopify Bootcamp Bundle. As the name implies, this resource gives sellers all they need to build a great online brand, from first log-in to a full marketing plan. The courses walk you through everything from setting up a Shopify account and marketing tips and tricks for making products appealing to the back-end tagging necessary

Business

Make It Wild: an eco-focused business

By Gertrude Aziz 1 day ago

What started as a nature reserve near York is now a business selling wellness retreats and carbon-offsetting opportunities – along with bamboo toothbrushes and beeswax food wraps

Planting thousands of trees is not only excellent news for the environment; it also makes perfect business sense for Yorkshire-based family enterprise Make It Wild.

The company was founded in 2011 by Helen and Christopher Neave, who have turned their passion for protecting nature into a thriving commercial venture. After creating the Sylvan Nature Reserve on rough pasture on the banks of the River Nidd near York as a family project, the Neaves have gone on to develop a business offering tree-planting carbon-offsetting opportunities and wellness retreats. There is also a retail arm selling an eco-friendly range of products including bamboo spoons and toothbrushes, vegan shampoo and beeswax food wraps.

The commercial model is based on acquiring low-productivity agricultural land and

Business

U.S. Business Schools: Foreign Student Enrollment Down Amid Covid, Visa Rules

By Gertrude Aziz 1 day ago

Stanford University on March 9.

Photographer: Philip Pacheco/Getty Images

The number of foreign students entering America’s top business schools is down sharply amid the Covid-19 pandemic and tight visa rules, even as overall enrollments and applications are up—a bad sign for U.S. programs that depend on international MBA candidates for diversity and full tuition.

International students in the entering class of the top 20 U.S. MBA programs, as ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek, declined 14% from last year. That followed a 1.2% decrease from 2018, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek Best B-Schools analysis of admissions data. If all the elite programs were jammed together, foreign students would make up 29.5% of the class that began at most schools in August or September, down from 34.9% two years ago.

The decline comes as dimmer prospects for networking—and earning—take some of the shine off the American MBA.

Foreign

Business

Saratoga County business community aims to ‘save our locals’

By Gertrude Aziz 2 days ago

“My business has always been founded on trying to provide service and comfort for our community.”

However, the pandemic is making it harder and harder.

With business off 60% this year, Hotaling has pivoted to make takeout easier and more convenient for customers, and she’s getting her homemade jams, jellies and candles into more retail outlets.

However, she and hundreds of other local businesses need some help.

“Winter’s coming, COVID-19’s still with us, we’ve got to do everything we can as a local community to save our locals, make sure that at the end of winter that they’re still here,” said Todd Shimkus, president of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber, Discover Saratoga and others are pushing a new campaign called “Save Our Locals” — signs, online posts, a helpline with counseling for businesses who need advice.

And pumpkins.

The chamber is working with Saratoga Custom Engraving to

Business

Application process for CARES Act small business grant programs begins Monday

By Gertrude Aziz 2 days ago

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCBD) – South Carolina has launched a minority small business grant program aimed at providing relief to local businesses during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In an announcement on Friday, Gov. McMaster said “small businesses are the lifeblood of South Carolina’s economy, and many small businesses have been financially devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.” He said these grants, through the CARES Act, will provide financial reimbursement to the state’s small businesses and nonprofits for coronavirus-related financial or operational impacts.

The online application process for both grants opened on Monday.

Owner of the Turning Page Book Shop in Goose Creek is among some of the local businesses who will be apply for the grant funding.

“We are the best book shop in the state of South Carolina,” said Valinda Miller of her business.

Miller opened job in

Business

Consumer Alert: Better Business Bureau warns consumers about Cash App scams

By Gertrude Aziz 2 days ago

HONOLULU (KHON2) – Using Cash App can be a convenient way to send and receive money with your phone. However, the Better Business Bureau says it’s becoming an easy way for con artists to cash out on victim’s savings.

[Hawaii’s Breaking News–Download the FREE KHON2 app for iOS or Android]

One victim told the BBB that a scammer posed as a Cash App tech support employee and was tricked into sending money for fake software.

“They are pretending to be this company and they’re not,” said Roseann Freitas, Hawaii Better Business Bureau Marketplace Manager. “So you’re getting these messages about this and now you’re going into your account, you’re giving them that information on how to access your account. Now they can take all of your money that you have there.”

Cash App says they will never ask for user’s pin numbers or sign-in codes. The app will also never

Business

What You Can Do With a Business Management Degree | Best Colleges

By Gertrude Aziz 2 days ago

Someone who is determined to cultivate their leadership skills and who dreams of becoming a business executive should consider obtaining a degree in business management. There are undergraduate and graduate business schools, and many offer majors, specializations or concentrations in management while others simply provide a general management education.

3 ways to make more money in your business

By Gertrude Aziz 2 days ago

Christy Wright, Columnist
Published 5:40 a.m. ET Oct. 19, 2020

Christy Wright is the creator of Business Boutique and a Certified Business Coach. (Photo: Submitted)

If this year has taught us anything, it’s how to be resourceful in both life and business. So many people have had to learn new skills and really dig in to how they can keep their businesses up and running (and the doors open). But what happens when you’re at the end of your creative rope, and you don’t know how to increase that bottom line?

You’ve probably heard the old saying: You have to spend money to make money. Who hasn’t? But what I want you to know is that it’s not true. Friend, you don’t actually have to spend money to make money. All you need to do is maximize what you already have.

Here are three ways to make more money