Monthly Archives: October 2019

10/4/19

Big Red Car — Fast Site

About a month and a half ago, I got hacked. That made me focus on the Big Red Car website. It was very frustrating. Lots of time on the chat with support from a bunch of different places — talking to you, AWS.

I changed a lot of things — hosting, security, analytics, CDN, cache, backup, image optimization, fonts, SSL, subscription, SEO — had to. I had let the site get a little overgrown and spindly.

So, I have been doing some work on it. Have three or four more things left to do, but today, I got the speed where it needs to be.

The site is loading in less than a second. For a site this large, that is a superb speed.

I use GTMetrix to measure performance and keep my results. It has taken at least a month, but to see an A-96% on PageSpeed and an A-90% on YSlow with a 0.8 second load time, is pretty damn good.

The smartest thing I did was to turn loose WPSpeedGuru in the person of Alexei Kutsko.

I cannot believe how much better the site does on search rankings. I never really configure it for that, but the speed makes all the difference.

I hope you enjoy it.

If there is some change you’d like me to consider. Drop me a comment. It feels like you do when you finish tying a big, fat, beautiful Monkeys Paw.

 

 

 

10/4/19

Product Positioning — May I Please Have A Hard Seltzer?

Somewhere in the dark recesses of your mind is a thought trying to break its way into your consciousness — it is repeating a mantra: Product, Price, Placement, Promotion — maybe joined by: Positioning, People, Packaging. A lot of P’s.

Image it like a Gregorian Chant coming at you like a throbbing headache.

Do you recognize the basics of marketing? Yes you do.

Product

Packaging

Price

People

Placement

Positioning

Promotion

Could there be some overlap in these subjects? Sure, but work with me on this.

Today, we talk about the positioning of a relatively new product — hard seltzer.

Hard seltzer is an emerging product with $295MM in sales last year. It is not yet an important slice of the beer, wine, and spirits market, but it suggests, and illuminates an interesting phenomenon.

You have to position your product for the audience you want to attract and appeal to. Getting out in front of the competition in an emerging market is always a big of all right, no?

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10/4/19

The Wackiness of Politics in Minneapolis

You may have noticed that your Big Red Car has been steering clear of politics recently. No reason, but I have.

Today, I saw something so wacky that I started laughing. Laughter led to bemusement and who do I share my bemusement with? That would be you, dear reader.

So, the Trump campaign — Trump2020 — announces it is holding a campaign rally in Minneapolis in the same Congressional District as Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

Congresswoman Omar, the Assistant Squad Leader for The Squad, has been an ardent critic of President Trump, so somebody with a sense of humor over at Trump2020 said, “Hey, let’s go hold a Trump2020 rally in Congresswoman Omar’s District, say what?”

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10/3/19

Who Is Accountable For Bad Policy?

Comes now the issue of the $15 minimum wage, one of those issues championed by the left that was predicted to have catastrophic results if enacted.

Sticking their heads firmly in the sand, the liberal left in places like New York State refused to study, investigate, or reason with the voices who protested, recommended caution, or who suggested another way. Instead the hands on the whip enacted legislation to achieve their political ends back in 2016.

Now, those chickens have come home to roost.

In New York State, a law was enacted that increased the minimum wage as subdivided by the following entities:

New York City — big employers defined as 11 or more employees

New York City — small employers defined as 10 or fewer employees

Long Island, Westchester

The balance of New York State

For New York City, the minimum wage was raised to $15/hour on 31 December 2018.

Opponents of this new law had pleaded before its inception during the debate that they could not sustain that level of compensation and would ultimately go out of business.

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10/3/19

The Whistleblower — Exclusive Interview

The call came in yesterday. It was a little mysterious, so I was understandably cautious.

“Listen, Big Red Car, how would you like an exclusive interview with THE WHISTLEBLOWER?” the voice asked in a furtive whisper.

“You mean, THE whistleblower?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Sure, when?”

Today, I am sitting with The Whistleblower and we are going to chat about his complaint.

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10/2/19

Communist China At 70 — A Bill of Particulars

China celebrated the 70th anniversary of its iron clad Communist yoke on the neck of its people yesterday. It was a fitting tribute to tyranny, enslavement, murder, and military danger.

China celebrates the horrific nature of its Communist foundation every day. Yesterday was not a unique celebration, except that there was a parade in which the Chinese celebrated their expanding nuclear threat to the world by showcasing a nuclear strike weapon that can make it to the USA in about thirty minutes.

China wants to be seen as a credible leader of the emerging world and a trustworthy nation — nothing says “trustworthy” like a nuclear weapon that can arrive at your backyard BBQ in less than the time to light the grill and throw the various meats on board.

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10/2/19

We Work — What Did We Learn?

I have been a skeptical voice on We Work since the beginning — meaning since I read their S-1, understood their business model, and learned about Adam Neumann, who I accused of being a toxic force on the company as a leader and a manager.

This was long before the guy got fired. Never liked him. Thought he was a poseur. Real estate as a service, my ass.

What I am not skeptical about is the market for co-working spaces as a real estate product. I think they are good.

In my personal real estate career, we had some vacancy in a suburban mid-rise office building and converted it to what was then a co-working space. We used to use the term “office suites.” It turned out very well for us.

 1. We collected (earned) 2X the market rental after expensing all operating costs. Meaning when we added up the individual small office rentals, subtracted all the costs — we got twice the rent we would have gotten had we rented it to an arms length, independent third party.

 2. We sold the business, as an operating entity subject to a lease, to a third party, Regus.

 3. We got a solid tenant in Regus paying a slightly above market rent and did not have to spend a penny in tenant improvements.

This was back in the 1990s.

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