According to Wallethub, six out of the ten top US cities to start a small business are situated in Utah. The financial review and advice website looked at over 1,300 small American cities to see which of them create an excellent environment for small business growth and success. The website looked at 20 parameters to determine overall scores: accessible financing, human-resource availability, workforce education levels, office space costs, labor costs and others.
Here is the list of the ten top cities, and guess what? None of them are on the East or West coast.
St. George, Utah
Cedar City, Utah
Williston, North Dakota
Washington, Utah
Logan, Utah
Aberdeen, South Dakota
Midvale, Utah
Fort Meyers, Florida
Clearfield, Utah
Bozeman, Montana
We will not list the ten worst cities, but it is enough to say that five of the ten are in New Jersey, and the other five are not all that far away in Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts.
Forrest Fenn, the mastermind behind the famous hunt for hidden treasure somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of the American West, died on September 7 at the age of 90.
Fenn was an antiquities dealer and writer who lived and worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2010 he published an autobiography that contained a poem with clues to the location of a chest filled with gold, jewels, and other valuable items that he had hidden. He told me he hid the treasure in order to inspire people to explore the wilderness and the beauty of the West and to experience some personal adventures.
At the height of the search, people quit their jobs, used their life savings, and even risked- or in some cases, lost their lives to find the hidden chest. They were tempted by the knowledge that within that chest were hidden hundreds of rare gold coins, gold nuggets, pre-Columbian animal figures, prehistoric “mirrors” of hammered gold, ancient Chinese faces in jade, antique jewelry adorned with emeralds and rubies. Law enforcement agents tried to persuade Fenn to call off the hunt, saying it was endangering people’s lives. Fenn always said it would not be fair to halt the hunt to the people that already spent so much time trying to locate the treasure.
As the hunt dragged on Fenn narrowed the scope, saying that the 18-kilo chest was not in a dangerous place or in one where an old man couldn’t drag it safely by himself.
In the past few months before he died Fenn announced that the treasure had been found, somewhere in Wyoming, but did not mention the name of the lucky winner.
Fenn grew up in Temple, Texas, and spent his summers in Yellowstone National Park. He was in the Air Force for over twenty years. After his service, he moved to Santa Fe, where he became one of that city’s most successful art gallery owners.
A recent wealth management podcast interviewed Source Financial CEO, Michelle Smith. Smith’s unique experience as a long-time financial advisor, premier money manager, divorcee, and co-parent of a child with special needs is insightful and informative. Of the many lessons learned from this interview, perhaps the most pertinent are those that relate to our current Covid-19 reality as well.
Surround Yourself With Positivity
According to Smith, any big crisis brings out the best and worst in us and those around us. When her son was born and she received his Down syndrome diagnosis, she channeled all her energy toward doing what needs to get done. Her husband at the time, however, didn’t make that switch. As she helps many separated couples navigate the corona emergency, she sees those who are rallying and figuring out how to co-parent during a lockdown, and others who are fighting more and harping on old grudges. When she was a new mom, Smith says she used her own positive nature to propel herself forward. She also made sure to leave no room for negativity in her life and surrounded herself with those who shared her optimism. She extends this advice now too: the familial and financial realities of this crisis are not easy, but if you remain positive and focus on action, things don’t have to be catastrophic.
Ask for Help
Divorce is not something anyone should do alone. Individuals going through a divorce must surround themselves with capable legal and economic professionals to ensure their best interests are fairly represented. Encouragement and love from family and friends provide guidance and support. Smith has dedicated her career to helping women build a financially stable and sustainable life after their marriage. The same is true for co-parenting a child with special needs: it takes a village. Now, more than ever, we are seeing the value of community. We all need to get comfortable asking for help and letting our virtual, and literal, villages be there for us when we need them. The key, according to Smith, is to be specific with our requests.
Focus on Shared Goals
Even as a marriage crumbles, it is important to focus on the values and objectives that once brought you together. Remember the respect you have for one another and direct that toward the settlement. Your ex-spouse is not someone you will ever be “rid” of, especially if you share children, so keep things cordial and constructive. Now is an opportunity to rethink the tactics of decoupling: nobody wants to prolong the process of divorce or excessively litigate matters. Mediation, with the right professionals and the proper mindset, can yield fair, equitable, and civil outcomes for all involved. As more families (married, divorced, or otherwise) spend increased amounts of time together during this crisis, concentrating on shared goals – like cohesion, health, monetary sense—can be empowering.
Entitled “How to Build a Responsible Fashion Business,” Business of Fashion (BoF) held a professional summit broadcast live on June 17, 2020. On the agenda were such pressing subjects as racial equality, workers’ rights, and climate change.
The impetus for the summit was, as a huge industry, the fashion community has a moral obligation to take a good hard look at how it contributes to the crisis wreaking havoc in the world today and can be a force for change towards better practices and improvement.
The summit considered all aspects of the industry: from the expectations of shareholders to employees, garment workers, the greater society, and finally the entire world.
During 2019 the global fashion industry created 114 billion clothing pieces. Most of those were cheap, disposable garments, made in huge numbers, using a seemingly endless amount of natural resources. Add to this excessive use of resources also the burden on workers who toil under poor, and worse conditions at a gigantic social and environmental cost.
In addition to this challenge is that of racism found within the fashion industry. Although the industry has been making money off black culture, the power structure of the industry is overwhelmingly white. The only two black creative directors of major global brands are Olivier Rousteing and Virgil Abloh. There is an equal lack of black representation among CEOs as well.
The BoF Professional Summit was a half-day of conversations, workshops, keynote addresses, and panels all to address the profound issues affecting the industry and the world.
The US News and World Report released their 2018 ranking for America’s best cities to retire. The list’s order is based on data on happiness, housing prices, healthcare benefits, tax rates, jobs, and the demand for the area.
Surveys were done with two cohorts: pre-retirement folks aged 40-59, and retirement age people 60 and over. Numbers came from The US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, and the hospital rankings that US News compiled on their own.
The states with the most desirable locales were mostly in Texas, Florida and Pensylvania.
