Parents of Teenage Drivers, Take Note
Limousines from Las Vegas Transportation are now equipped with the latest video technology from DriveCam Video Systems. DriveCam is a palm-sized video recorder mounted behind a vehicle’s rearview mirror that records what a driver sees and hears during unusual driving incidents. The device monitors driving activity by continuously recording video, audio and four directions of G-forces into a digital looping memory. G-forces, caused by activities such as hard braking, acceleration, harsh cornering or collisions, trigger DriveCam to save the event for later viewing. Within days of installing DriveCam in its fleet, Las Vegas Transportation was able to use a recording from the camera to prove its driver was not at fault in an accident on the Strip. In the absence of a police report, the recording convinced the insurance company to pay for damages to the limousine.
Brace Yourself for Even More E-Mails
The number of worldwide e-mail mailboxes is expected to increase from 505 million in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2005, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Along with the growth in the number of e-mail mailboxes comes a staggering prediction about the increase in e-mail usage. According to IDC, the number of person-to-person e-mails sent on an average day is expected to exceed 36 billion worldwide in 2005. A survey of Internet users by the Gallup Organization found that e-mail remains the number one activity for people online, with more than half saying it is their most common online activity. Ninety percent of e-mail users said they use it at home, and more than 80 percent use it at work. A majority of those who use e-mail at work (51 percent) check it at least once an hour, including 32 percent who said they check it “continuously.”
“So, What Can You Tell Me About Our Firm?”
The Internet has made it easier than ever for job seekers to learn about prospective employers. It may come as a surprise, then, that 44 percent of executives recently surveyed said the most common interview pitfall for today’s candidates in insufficient company research. The survey was developed by Accountemps, a temporary staffing service for accounting professionals. Executives were asked: “Which do you think is the most common mistake candidates make during job interviews?”
Little or no knowledge of the company 44%
Unprepared to discuss career plans or goals 23%
Limited enthusiasm 16%
Lack of eye contact 5%
Unprepared to discuss skills and experience 3%
Late arrival 2%
Other 4%
Don’t know/no answer 3%
Total 100%
Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps, suggests prospective employees should be able to answer the following key questions:
What business is the company in?
What products and services does it sell?
Who are its primary competitors?
What are the company’s mission, vision and values?
Family Companies with Staying Power
America’s oldest existing family-owned company is neither a farm nor an inn, but a cymbal maker: the Zildjian Cymbal Co. of Norwell, Mass., founded in Turkey in 1623 and now in its 14th generation of management by the Zildjian family, according to a survey published by Family Business magazine. The spring 2001 issue of the magazine listed 102 U.S. companies that have survived in the same family for at least 125 years. Many are older than the states or the nation in which they operate. They range in size from mom-and-pop farms to publicly-traded companies to the world’s largest private company, Cargill Inc. of Minnesota. Cargill, which began in 1865 as a small grain elevator in Iowa, has grown into a $47 billion company that merchandises, processes and distributes agricultural and other commodities throughout the world. Also on the list are Antoine’s Restaurant, New Orleans (1840), A.T. Cross Co., manufacturers of Cross pens (1846), Levi Strauss & Co. (1853) and Anheuser-Busch Brewers (1860). These companies are definitely defying statistics, which show only 30 percent of family companies survive to the second generation, and just 10 percent make it to the third.
Information on Nevada Small Businesses Available
Each year the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration publishes Small Business Profiles for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. These Small Business State Profiles provide an overview of the important role small businesses play in each state. They include baseline statistics, such as number of firms, small business income, industrial composition, job growth and data on minority and women-owned businesses. The 2001 edition of these free profiles may be downloaded from the following Web site: sba.gov/advo/stats/profiles. Some stats from Nevada’s fact sheet:
In 2000, the number of Nevada businesses with employees increased by 4.2 percent and the number of self-employed individuals decreased by 17.1 percent.
Business bankruptcies showed an increase of 7.4 percent from 1999 to 2000.
Nevada’s 36,111 small businesses represented 44.6 percent of the state’s total employment in 1998.
