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| Over the past 50 years, the once-booming city of Detroit has become associated with urban decline, loss of industry and general disrepair. However, in recent times, Detroit has begun to see results from its extensive revitalization efforts. Signs of this success can be seen in the birth and continued growth of many small businesses, such as Café Con Leche, a popular coffee shop that recently opened its second location in the city.
When it comes to starting a new business, opening a coffee shop is a smart choice: cafes have a 7% annual growth rate worldwide, making them part of one of the fastest growing industries around the globe. In 2008, spouses and business partners Melissa Fernandez and Jordi Carbonell decided to take advantage of this trend by opening Café Con Leche in Fernandez’s native Southwest Detroit. A Mexican-inspired coffee shop named after a popular beverage, the store was originally located at Bagley and 21st Street. However, after a year, they moved to a new shop at West Vernor Highway at Scotte, across from Clark Park. The couple describes their cafe as a “cozy living room for Southwest Detroit,” which residents say has added new life to the area. |
Category: Business
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Detroit Coffee Shop Becomes Sign of the City’s Recovery
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Work-Related Death Tally in Michigan Should Prompt Internal Safety Reviews, Expert Advises
Most businesses attempt to balance their own safety responsibilities with expectations that employees will look out for themselves. But business owners have many incentives to prioritize safety in the workplace.
“Naturally you expect your employees (and yourself) to follow good safety practices in the workplace. That’s a given,” John Hall wrote for the Examiner Dec. 23. “Sadly, not everyone takes the time to understand the consequences of poor safety habits. Every year in Michigan, dozens of people lose their lives and many hundreds more are injured while on the job.”
On-the-job injuries and fatalities are also rising many places as the economy recovers and people re-enter the workforce, sometimes in high-risk jobs.
The long lists of safety requirements enacted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are at times seen as onerous or overly picky. OSHA requires, for example, that battery rooms be ventilated in certain ways so as to prevent hazards.
But the costs of workplace accidents are undeniable, both in tragic personal loss and in business expenses.
According to OSHA’s Michigan branch, 73 workers died in work-related accidents in 2014 (as of Dec. 22). Violations can also result in hefty fines for employers.
Stronger Reporting Standards
Hall, a small business expert, recommends that all businesses in the state prioritize safety as the new year approaches. “In light of this information [about fatal accidents in Michigan], it might be a good idea to review your business’ safety program and look for areas to improve,” he advises. Particular attention should be paid, he says, to areas that are commonly cited by OSHA.Federally, the most-cited violations recorded by OSHA fell into these top 10 categories in 2014: ladders; electrical, wiring methods; machine guarding; electrical, general requirements; fall protection; hazard communication GHS (globally harmonized system); scaffolding; respiratory protection; powered industrial trucks; and lockout/tagout.
Business owners should also know that starting Dec. 1, new OSHA reporting rules will go into effect: “Although most workplaces are far safer today than in the past, terrible accidents do occur, and the agency is implementing some broader reporting requirements for employers,” The Detroit News reported Dec. 8.
The requirements expand the list of injuries that employers with 10 or more employees must report to federal regulators, and requires that reports be made within eight hours of the incident in question. Any work-related hospitalization, amputation or eye loss must be reported within 24 hours. Under the old rules, employers were only required to report hospitalizations of multiple employees due to the same workplace accident or illness.
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Michigan Companies Offering Assistance to Small Businesses in Hopes of Boosting Michigan Economy
In an effort to improve the state’s overall economy, many established Michigan companies are offering pro-bono services to startups and small businesses to help them stabilize.
“I love how much sense it makes,” said Antoine Dubeauclard, president of company Media Genesis. “We are getting Michigan companies to work with more Michigan companies and helping them become more competitive. There’s real value in it.”
When the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (a multibillion-dollar public-private partnership) launched the Pure Michigan Business Connect initiative in 2011, Media Genesis was one of the first participants. The PMBC program allows companies to pledge pro bono hours for businesses that are still growing.
Media Genesis was founded in 1996 as a web consulting firm, but now provides everything from digital marketing to print design — helpful services for small businesses, 76% of which say an ideal marketing campaign should have both web and print elements. The company has offered 50 Web Strategy Evaluation reports (covering mobile usability, search engine optimization and advertising) that smaller businesses can use to strengthen online marketing efforts.
Many of the companies who have pledged time are big players in their respective fields. Varnum, a statewide law firm, works with Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller clients.
The company, which has engaged widely in philanthropic efforts, jumped at the opportunity to help Michigan’s slowly recovering economy through the PMBC program.
“We looked internally at what Varnum could do to assist and change things up,” said Steve Buquicchio, a partner at the firm. “With a statewide imprint, we could do something for the entire state and translate that into providing a spark into the economy.”
Thus far, about 30 businesses — also including Google, Rehmann and Yeo & Yeo — have committed to more than 30,000 service hours in fields such as legal services, accounting, web strategy, human resources management and more.
“All sorts of entrepreneurs and small businesses can get involved through the MEDC,” Buquicchio concluded. “MEDC really put together a great program here to spark the economy.”
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Detroit Public Workers Sue Consultant Over Pension Problems
Detroit is probably the most obvious and unfortunate example of a once-great American city fallen to ruin — in many more ways than one. To add one more financial issue to the pile, city workers and retirees are now blaming what is perhaps an unlikely suspect.Many people don’t think about where city trustees get their financial advice, but there is usually an unseen entity calculating risk, weighing financial options, and advising trustees as to what will be the best course of action. These are called actuaries, and Detroit’s is the one catching the blow back for the city’s latest financial gaffe.
According to The New York Times, city workers and retirees blame Gabriel Roeder Smith and Company, an actuarial consultant that advises on public pensions for hundreds of clients across the country, for its financial woes. Detroit has worked with Gabriel Roeder since the city started offering pensions in 1923.
One of the effects of Detroit’s bankruptcy is that the pension fund is short and has led to cuts in pensions. In response, a few workers and retirees have taken steps to actually sue Gabriel Roeder. One of the estimated 35,000 workers, retiree Coletta Estes, claims that the consulting firm hid a growing problem with the pension fund and offered poor spending advisement to trustees, which led them to spend money that they didn’t have.
According to Estes, who worked for the city’s water department for 20 years, the firm knew about the issue “in concert with the plan of trustees to further their self-interest.”
Estes is not the only one who blames Gabriel Roeder for the shortfall; members of the city’s police and fire departments have also brought lawsuits against the firm.
Gabriel Roeder says that the lawsuits “are factually, legally and procedurally infirm and reflect a gross misunderstanding of the nature of actuarial services.”
This isn’t the first time that Detroit has been in hot water over their handling of public pensions. According to The New York Times, just last year it was uncovered that the city had overpaid billions of additional pension benefits, much more than the city could afford, and much more than was necessary. The pension problem in Detroit escalates the issue of already financially burdened Americans and retirees — about 25% of Americans believe that they will have to work until the age of 80 to be able to retire comfortably. Many retirees dependent on pensions to help them manage in retirement, which is problematic when the city slashes them.
What does this mean for the recipients of the overpayments? For Estes, at least, she must pay back $25,000 to the city when she reaches the age of retirement.
Detroit isn’t the only bankrupt city, but for others the financial fallout doesn’t always amount to a pension problem. According to The Los Angeles Times, Stockton, California, has filed for bankruptcy but has been able to formulate a way out of it — while keeping public pensions intact.
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GM Makes Unprecedented Genius Marketing Move in Wake of Chevy Guy’s World Series TV Disaster
It was Game Seven of the World Series, and General Motors had sent Chevrolet executive and lifelong baseball fan Rikk Wilde to present one lucky player with the World Series MVP award. Wilde, a Kansas City liaison for GM and an adamant fan of the Kansas City Royals, had hoped to present the award to a player on his home team.Instead, after the San Francisco Giants shut out the Royals for five innings and nabbed Game Seven, the MVP award went to Giants player Madison Bumgarner — definitely a bit of a letdown for Wilde, who would be presenting the keys to a new 2015 Chevy Colorado as part of the award.
When Fox Sports announcer Erin Andrews invited Wilde up to the podium, he was clearly quite flustered. Sweating profusely and desperately clutching a notepad for reference, he started stumbling over the marketing spiel that was supposed to convince a global audience that Chevy’s newest product is worth the hype. Instead, he came up with a bizarre combination of a pre-planned marketing tagline and an ad-libbed, casual conversation:
“It [the 2015 Colorado] combines class-winning and leading, you know… technology and stuff, with Wi-Fi powered by OnStar.”
Social media users grabbed onto Wilde’s trainwreck of a speech and ran with it. The hashtags #ChevyGuy and #TechnologyAndStuff were trending on Twitter within 24 hours. At first, the hashtags came with veiled insults about his personal appearance, likening him to the famous SNL comedian Chris Farley, who was equally as awkward in the spotlight, but who acted that way on purpose.
But the sentiment started to change after a few hours — probably after Twitter users had gotten the chance to watch replays of Wilde’s speech on YouTube — and people realized that they actually quite liked his awkwardness and blatant fail on live TV. Tweets like “We LOVE the #Chevyguy! Don’t change a bit #Wildeman!” started popping up on Twitter.
Recognizing that Wilde’s blunder wasn’t likely to disappear, considering that an estimated 70% of social media users are connected to local businesses and receive regular PR updates, GM’s marketing team did the only thing they could do: they made an unprecedented quick move, and publicly announced their support for Wilde. Advertisements for the 2015 Colorado were edited within 24 hours, and now proudly sell the truck using the catchphrase “You know you want a truck…and stuff,” and news outlets — from NBC’s Today show to The Washington Post — all picked up the story and added fuel to the fire.
GM spokesman Mike Albano took a moment to explain the company’s decision to support Wilde’s TV catastrophe: “He was on message. The truck has technology and stuff. We will use that term and stuff.”