Those college bowl games are more expensive than you thought

This year's college bowl game season was the most expensive ever.

Even if you didn't attend a single college bowl game this year - or the couple that remain to be played - you and I paid quite a bit just to sit home and watch on TV.

Did you know that you (all of us) have been sponsoring some of games and we have nothing to show for it?

No one knows our name, no traffic was driven to our website, and we will no business as a result. However, we paid to sponsor some of these games.

Don’t believe me? How about the Motor City Bowl sponsored by Ford? Or the Citi Rose Bowl? How about the GMAC Bowl coming up Tuesday?

If companies don’t have enough money to stay in business, and they are getting truckloads of cash from us, why do they have to sponsor a bowl game? Did we get a vote?

I suppose you could make the argument that need to increase sales and improve their businesses in order to regain solvency – and that advertising and marketing are a part of that.

But is that really the best use of their our money?

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, sales tips, insights, or strategies, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my other blog homesalesinsights.com. © Steve Hoffacker, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

16 comments • Steve Hoffacker - Real Estate Sales & Marketing Consulting and Strategies • January 03 2009 12:06PM

The new economic law - mega businesses cannot fail

Mega business is not allowed to fail. Maybe at one time it was, but not anymore.

There are 4 classes of business in America - this is not official, just the Steve Hoffacker classification. There's the small business like us - the entrepreneurs and even those that grow their business into several employees but run it as a small business. Then there's regular business which is larger than a small business but not as large as big business. Big businesses are Microsoft, the airlines, oil companies, health care organizations, and similar national and international concerns. Finally there is mega business. Theses are the largest of the large - the institutions. They can't fail, they're too important.

Just today, Nancy Pelosi said that "bankruptcy is not an option" when referring to the plight of the automakers and suggesting that some sort of financial package would have to be offered to them. They are just too important to fail.

However, they're not so important that they need to be run correctly or managed in a fiscally sound way, that they offer a product line that is in step with the consumers, that they don't over-produce for the sake of keeping the workers in the factories busy, or that their products are competitive with similar products in the marketplace.

No they're not that important. Just too important to fail, and that has the Washington bureaucrats scrambling to oblige.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, sales tips, insights, or strategies, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my other blog homesalesinsights.com. © Steve Hoffacker, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

8 comments • Steve Hoffacker - Real Estate Sales & Marketing Consulting and Strategies • December 15 2008 06:12PM

Stockholders unite!

Attention stockholders (that's now all of us). Since we all have become defacto unwilling stockholders of AIG, Citigroup, Freddie, Fannie and others, it's time we had our say.

Unfortunately I'm not sure what that is. We can demand satisfaction, but that may be about as far as it goes.

Do you realize that the major execs at AIG intend to collect substantial Christmas bonuses? Why are they still employed? Show them the door or the mail room.

Other key executives have received signing or exit bonuses. How can we continue to allow this?

It's obvious that we can't rely on Congressional oversight - Congress is what created the problem. The American electorate had a chance a few weeks ago to replace the people who were exacerbating the problem, but they didn't come through. Now it'll be a couple more years of business as usual in Congress.

Government ownership or financing of business - we certainly are moving away from free enterprise.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, sales tips, insights, or strategies, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my other blog homesalesinsights.com. © Steve Hoffacker, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

18 comments • Steve Hoffacker - Real Estate Sales & Marketing Consulting and Strategies • December 09 2008 06:14PM

Just say 'No'

In the words made famous by sitting First Lady Nancy Reagan, I would reiterate, "Just say 'No'." Of course then we were talking about drugs and their destructive effect on society. Come to think of it, we still are - only this time the drugs are bailouts.

Apparently unions want the bailouts. That's not surprising. I still vote no.

Businesses don't need bailouts - ever. Still voting no.

Think free enterprise. It doesn't include bailouts.

Imagine this, the top U.S. automakers - once the envy of the entire world for industrial know-how, ingenuity, and muscle, now hardly have a pulse. Once a safe bet for stock market investors and part of many stock portfolios. Now, the chief executives and the union brazenly waltz into to Washington for a taxpayer bailout, but only because they are lousy managers who have allowed their companies to teeter on failure. They have disregarded their stockholders and the balance of the American economy in the process. They really don't deserve to remain in business if the only way that can happen is with government assistance. I can't imagine how any of them have kept their jobs. They all need to be fired and replaced - yesterday.

If Congress caves in on this one, who is next in line? Homebuilders? Airlines? Local governments? I know, the government could own all of the jobs.

Just say "no." It's a great feeling. So liberating. I hope it's not too late.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, sales tips, insights, or strategies, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my other blog homesalesinsights.com. © Steve Hoffacker, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

27 comments • Steve Hoffacker - Real Estate Sales & Marketing Consulting and Strategies • December 08 2008 01:31PM