Financial literacy on the TechCrunch 50 Stage
Shane Kempton had just the right look for Oklahoma City-based Shryk LLC as it stated its case for investors and media at the TechCrunch 50 conference this week in San Francisco.Kempton flawlessly demonstrated Shryk’s online banking software for children and young adults, showing how it helped young “Lacy” determine wants from needs and how it taught 17-year-old “Jay” about doing a business start-up.Jim Rogers, enterprise director for i2E, reported that a prominent angel investor said that he would invest in iThryv before taking a flyer on another start-up that was pitched by Demi Moore’s latest (or is it “ex”) flame Austin Kutcher.Maybe it was the confidence or even the youth that Kempton showed in the presentation. You can watch it via the link above. Shryk was co-founded by long-time financial services software veteran Gary Nelson, who declared himself too old to pitch the company from a San Francisco stage.“Everybody out there presenting looks to be young hip guys,” Nelson said. “They have the look. You have a 50-year-old dinosaur like me up there it probably wouldn’t go as well.”Shryk is up for a $50,000 prize if judges at the event like Kempton’s presentation better than his rivals. Read the story about Shryk’s presentation and its innovative software in Wednesday’s Oklahoman Business News section.Jim StaffordBusiness Reporter
Money to burn
We’ve begun to publish a series of stories on the impact of inflation on Oklahomans. Burning currency, we thought, would nicely illustrate the concept of how rising prices are eroding our buying power. Of course, we could have used the magic of Photoshop to create a burning bill, but the question was raised: can we just torch a twenty?
Nope. Can’t do it — not legally anyway.
If you feel the need to light up some currency, here’s a video that claims to show a non-destructive way to do it. I can’t vouch for this, so I would probably experiment with something smaller than a $50 bill.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
The delight
I regularly eat in a Thai restaurant run by an individual who cares little about how quickly the food is served, but how good it tastes when it arrives. He grouses about large groups that show up on a busy Saturday night and expect their orders to come rushing out of the kitchen.
But I also notice that he greets his regular customers by name, and rarely makes them wait any longer than necessary. He understands that repeat business is the most important kind. In fact, he generally rounds my check down to a round figure. I have begun rounding them up, and adding a healthy tip, to boot. I’m more than happy to pay for that kind of service — and that quality of food.
Seth Godin on his blog looks at the business/customer relationship from another angle, noting that businesses should waive added costs or hassle because it is a way to delight customers. A delighted customer is a customer that comes back.
Here’s my advice: have all the add ons you want. But waive them early and often. Waive the charges for great customers or for customers that make a face or just because it’s Tuesday. “Well, the to go charge is usually a dollar, but since you come here a lot, no charge for you.”
It’s not about charging less. It’s about delight.
In a world of poor, surly and inattentive service, delight can be hard to find.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Bank on it
Several recent bank failures have made many consumers nervous about their own banks. For the vast majority of depositors, there is little to fear.
FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair recently issued a good reminder of our protections for cash deposited in institutions covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
FDIC’s Depositor’s Bill of Rights
1. You have the right to automatic deposit insurance coverage when you open a deposit account at an FDIC-insured bank, with no additional cost or action on your part.
2. You have the right to separate FDIC insurance coverage for deposits held at different FDIC-insured banks.
3. You have the right to confirm that a bank is insured by using the FDIC’s Bank Find service (www2.fdic.gov/IDASP/main_bankfind.asp) or by calling the FDIC toll-free at 877-275-3342.
4. You have the right to deposit insurance coverage of $100,000 for your deposits at an FDIC-insured bank – up to $250,000 for your IRA deposits.
5. You have the right to deposit insurance coverage of more than $100,000 at a single bank when deposits are held in different “ownership categories,” such as a single, joint and trust accounts.
6. You have the right to confirm that your deposits are within the insurance limits by using the FDIC’s Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator and other online resources at www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits or by calling the FDIC at 877-275-3342.
7. You have the right to be informed when a financial product offered by your bank is not covered by FDIC insurance.
8. You have a right, if your bank fails, to prompt access to your insured deposits.
9. You have the right, if you are an uninsured depositor, to receive distributions from the receivership as the sale of assets permits.
10. You have the right to sleep well, knowing that since the creation of the FDIC 75 years ago, no depositor has ever lost one penny of insured deposits.
Oklahoma Banking Commissioner Mick Thompson this month issued a statement assuring state consumers that our banking system is not experiencing the ills of those in other regions.
“Oklahoma has not experienced a bank failure in 16 years and the industry in Oklahoma is well-capitalized and strong,” Thompson said.
If that doesn’t make you feel any better, here’s a list of “talking points” created by the Oklahoma Bankers Association for its members.
Finally, here’s Roger Beverage, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Bankers Association, producing some of those talking points on camera.
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Business Writer
Plastic panic
Americans are more likely to discuss their sex lives, their salary, weight, religious views and even the death of a loved one before they are willing to talk about their credit card debt.
Those are the findings of a poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media for CreditCards.com. More than eight out of 10 respondents said they are reluctant to talk about their credit card debts with someone they just met.
Here, in order, are the topics respondents said they would be somewhat or highly unlikely to discuss with a new acquaintance:
- Amount of credit card debt
- Your love life
- Your salary
- Your mortgage, rent payment
- Your health
- The death of a loved one
- Your weight
- Your religious views
- Your political views
- Your age
- Gas prices
- The weather
Nearly one-third of respondents said they carry a balance on their credit card, the survey showed.
These numbers aren’t all that surprising, but it’s unfortunate that many consumers have trouble controlling their credit card debt, which may be the most insidious form on consumer debt. If you have some extra money, such as that government stimulus check, use it to pay down your credit card debt. It’s the best return on your money available. Don’t be shopping for a stock or mutual fund if you’ve got credit card debt. Pay it off.
My question is: where the heck are these people who are reluctant to discuss gasoline prices and the weather? They seem to be clustered around these parts.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Oklahoma is Wally World
If you don’t like the weather in Oklahoma, wait a few minutes and Wal-Mart will build a store nearby and you can go inside. Well, that’s not exactly how the saying goes, but there’s a kernel of truth in it.
If it seems like we’ve got a lot of Wal-Marts in Oklahoma, it’s because we do. After the company was founded in Arkansas, Oklahoma was one of the first states it built in. Now data analyst Nathan Yau has produced a fascinating look at the explosive growth of the world’s largest retailer.
Like Kudzu, the growth is concentrated in the South.
Other than its native Arkansas, Wal-Mart may be most closely aligned with Oklahoma.
Wal-Mart built its first Sam’s Club in Midwest City. The company employs more than 33,000 Oklahomans as associates. The average wage for Wal-Mart’s regular, full-time hourly associates in the Sooner state is $10.31. The company operates 71 Supercenters; 14 discount stores; 16 neighborhood markets, eight Sam’s Clubs and two distribution centers in Oklahoma.
In it’s most recent fiscal year, Wal-Mart spent more than $655 million on merchandise and services with Oklahoma suppliers. In that same period, the company collected more than $483 million in sales taxes in Oklahoma, and paid more than $23.1 million in state and local taxes in Oklahoma.
I would add that despite the thousands of Oklahoma associates, only about 5 percent of the cash registers seem to be in operation at any Wal-Mart I visit even during the busiest shopping times.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
A billion here, a billion there
Forbes magazine covers the billionaire beat like a blanket. Who are the billionaires? Where are the billionaires? What do the billionaires drive? Forbes can answer those questions and more.
This week, Forbes.com offered a story on blue-collar billionaires. The photograph above of Enid’s Harold Hamm hunting with his trusty dog was featured prominently in the report. Hamm, the youngest of 13 children, was reared in a one-bedroom house. After taking his oil company public last May, Hamm’s fortune crossed that magic billion-dollar threshold.
A couple of little corrections for our Forbes friends. Hamm lives in Enid, not Oklahoma City. And his net worth now is a bit more than $4.4 billion. Just his stock holdings in Continental Resources are worth more than $9.4 billion.
The increase in the value of Hamm’s holdings combined with the recent slip in price of BOK Financial Corp.’s stock may have allowed the Enid oilman to surpass BOK Chairman and oilman George Kaiser as Oklahoma’s wealthiest citizen.
I’m sure Forbes will keep us apprised.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Oh, it’s a profit deal
I love me some bargains. When you clothe four kids, shopping can be more of a mission than a chore. So the first time my wife and I wandered into Steve & Barry’s at Crossroads Mall, we felt like we had found the Holy Grail of back-to-school savings.
Three T-shirts for $15? Sure, they were a bit thin, but the kids loved the graphics and snarky catch phrases.
A winter coat for $12? It only has to last until she outgrows it because there are no other girls to accept pink hand-me-downs.
$15 for sneakers? I think I welled up a bit when I first saw the Starburys.
But Steve & Barry’s has filed for bankruptcy, and although the company plans to reorganize, the Wall Street Journal reports that finances may force a liquidation.
The newspaper also explains how the company may have been able to sell its apparel so cheaply — they didn’t make any profit on their sales. Steve & Barry’s produced much of its revenue from incentives paid by mall owners seeking anchor clients.
For the 2003 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31, 2004, when Steve & Barry’s had 31 stores, tenant-improvement payments totaled $17.5 million, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The payments jumped to $58.6 million the next year, the documents say. The peak came in the 2006 fiscal year, when the company received $122.3 million in payments, but spent only about $59 million to build out new stores, leaving about $63 million in unused cash, the documents indicate. From fiscal years 2004 to 2007, the company received $380 million of payments.
The company says it will keep its stores open for now, honor all its gift cards and continue selling the same merchandise. But if I had a Steve & Barry’s gift card, I might redeem sooner rather than later. Holy cow, the Starbury’s are marked down to $9!
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
No dummies here
The Wall Street Journal grants front-page territory today to a story about the resurgence of ventriloquism, led in part by Terry Fator’s victory in the NBC television show “America’s Got Talent.”
I recently interviewed Oklahoma City ventriloquist Gary Owen, who remarked on the recently growing popularity of ventriloquism. After our interview, Owen told me he drove to Ponca City to see Fator performed and was wowed by the show. Owen wondered why Fator, who recently signed a $100 million contract to headline in Las Vegas, was playing such a modest venue. Turns out Fator’s agent had some trouble with maps. He thought Ponca City was very near Branson, Missouri, and booked his client there during an off day.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Eight bits for a dollar
The U.S. Mint last year launched the presidential $1 coin program in yet another attempt to get Americans to use dollar coins. As part of its campaign to get the coins in circulation, the Mint is selling small bulk orders and shipping them free (currently shipping are the John Quincy Adams model).
What that means is you can get $250 or $500 worth of the coins in your hands for exactly face value. I suppose a clever marketer could devise some way to use a bunch of $1 coins as part of a contest, sweepstakes or special offer. However, in my long-ago experience in retail, many customers were angered if I tried to give them $1 coins as change.
Ultimately, I don’t think Richard Nixon will succeed where Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea have failed.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
