Dashboard: Gene Marks Would Rather Not Employ Gen Z

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard I'm Lauren Feldman as usual I'm here with Gan marks to talk about the stories and issues we think business owners should be following this week great to have you here Jean glad to talk with you Lauren as always always a pleasure let's dig in Jean uh you wrote another installment last week in your kind of ongoing series about why you hate employees at least that's what I call it uh no not true it's a little true this time you took your shot at gen Z please tell us why well I wrote a piece in the hill because I'm I'm I'm very tired very tired about hearing about gen Z it's like everywhere you go in the media it there's something more about gen Z you know what I tell you you know what really triggered this this one column Lauren is that there was a study from Microsoft that just came out like in this past week and it was it was all about um it was a new report that said they're making their Mark as entrepreneurs you know what gen Z and what what gen Z entrepreneurs you know 56% of them are concerned about inflation you know and I was like what the hell j z entrepreneurs I mean the definition of gen Z is this generation was born after 1995 they're like in their mid 20s you know like the the average age of the US small business owner is 55 like how many genz entrepreneurs are are out there other than a couple of youtubeers had experience with inflation or have experience I'm like what the and I know what it is it's because Microsoft is trying to jump on the Gen Z train because all the other media is trying to get clicks because you know you talk about gen Z and I get why they talk about gen Z because these are people in their 20s and everybody loves people in their 20s through throughout all societies you know because they're young and they're sexy and they're everything that we're not so any excuse to talk about that generation is you know is going to get you clicks anyway I'm sick of it and I don't really care about gen Z maybe if my company sold products wait you're you're talking in very general terms in the piece you wrote you you wrote as a business owner I would prefer not to employ gen zers I don't have the time to deal with them because my resources are limited what were you referring to oh I'll tell you I'll tell you specifically only because I I actually have employed a couple of geners this past year um on a part-time basis and ain't great so far they're they're young again these These are kids the both that I employed are actually like they are both like college seniors just to give you an example you know the I don't have the time to to to babysit these people um you know maybe bigger companies do but small businesses like me I mean we don't have the resources to to deal with people that have never been in a workplace before that have inflated attitudes because of social media um and and have a long way to go before they know how to to read a p&l have been disappointed by customers and colleagues um have been through and gotten some experience I like Millennials I I I I hire Millen because Millennials now when you look at their demographic these people are now in their 30s and even in their 40s now they've been out in the work world for 10 15 years at this point the millennial generation I mean I know people love to make fun of those guys but they're now like managers they're like in in you know positions of more influence making buying decisions that impact me and as employees these are people that have been in the workplace and have gotten some experience and and just have more gravitas and and knowledge than the Gen z type so the only difference just that they're older uh and have more experience that is the difference they are older and they have more experience and I I know the Gen Z people are children right now they're kids and no later than in their mid 20s I don't care there there are these Serv how old are your kids Jean in their mid 20s right I mean so I know and by the way putting aside my kids which to be honest are are they're really they all have three good jobs and they're all three like hardworking kids but I know they friends who are their ages and they're also hardworking as well I mean the the jensy is a good generation don't get me wrong but like I really don't care if a survey comes out that says that they desire more meaningful work or another survey that says that what's wrong with wanting more meaningful work because they don't know what they want Lauren they're 20 years old you know I mean if a if a millennial is saying that that somebody in their 30s and has been out in the Work World for for 10 years I'm paying that more attention than some kid that just graduated college because they don't know what they want they they you know they they talk about oh I want more open I want to work for a company with more diversity I think like you're you're you're a child coming to work you you don't know you have no experience no knowledge no nothing you know that's that's meaningless to me just come to work put in your time get your education and your knowledge give me 10 years of your life and then I'll start listening to your opinions about the workplace and what you think is important about my business or not and right now the media spends too much time focusing on the opinions of Jen zers and I just you know to me it's that's not the J zier's fault no it's not the Gen zier's fault but it's certainly just like I said you know in my article you know the media has a hype about gen Z and I'm not paying attention to them I don't really care about gen Z so there well I was I have to say I admire the fact that actually this includes my kids um a lot of these people I think are much more aware of the impact that they have on the world than I was at that age and um I can understand you're not wanting to be lectured by them that's an entirely different thing but um but I admire the fact that they're aware that their presence does have an impact on the world and they want to have a positive impact and I think that's a good thing I hear you I think it's an inflated impact I really do I think you say like they're aware of the impact they have on the world but I you know it's so I think a lot of them you know because of the media um think that they're that that they're impacting the world more than they really are impacting the world Jean you are the media you write for every publication known to America we're we're I I I'm taking responsibility for that you're absolutely right all right well I'm glad to see that it's not all employees it's gen Z and you you know among a lot of people Millennials get a bad rap um I'm glad to hear that you see something positive there because I agree yeah I I think the millennial generation is you know they got a bad rap do you know why they got a bad rap over the past 10 years because they were they were like the jenz ear but now they're older and they're more mature and more responsible and they have mortgages and they have car payments and they have families and kids and insurance and suddenly they start understanding why business owners have to make the decisions that they do to make profit so that these people continue to have jobs like they start something clicks you know their minds are more fully formed when they're when they're older in the business world that is the way it's supposed to happen we should we should all get smarter as we get older doesn't always happen all right next topic this also has a little bit to do with young people uh especially Young urbanites Who Derek Thompson of the Atlantic thinks are going to have to confront reality now and start paying a legitimate price for the goods and services they've been using his point is that uh easy money made it possible for a a whole slew of startups like uber and Lyft to charge ridiculously low prices in attemp an attempt to win market share but the easy money is gone those days are over is and and everybody's prices are going up it's not just inflation it's because the business model is changing is that a good thing or a bad thing Jan I mean it's a bad thing in that yeah for so many years you know we as consumers both you and me regardless of generations have been enjoying certain Services I think at at and his point is well taken at a very discounted price I mean how many years is Uber and lift been losing money um you know funding you know their their ability to gain more market share um and grow so you know I I I think you know the the the back the the the back off in Tech funding um is going to turn around and result in more companies having to charge a higher price and us having to make some hard decisions about what services and things that we want to be you know to be using and I got news for you that's that's a big reason Lauren why there's a uh you know the concern about the recession coming um which I don't think it's going to be a deep recession but certainly a downturn is is on the horizon is that as these prices go up and you use you use you talk about Uber as an example people are going to stop spending when things get to a certain price point um and that Tipping Point is coming pretty soon and when people stop spending then companies obviously stop making money off of that and they're going to have to lay people off and there's going to be some cutbacks in services and increase in prices and um all of that I think is coming it's sort of like an adjustment to reality don't you think I agree I I do think there's a little bit of a positive side to it which is I I like the idea of businesses having to be run like businesses and actually make a profit and you know some of those businesses did real damage I mean the obvious example is uh you know thank God we didn't own we didn't invest in uh taxi medallions in New York City before Uber came along um I think you know this has been an artificial uh situation and now they're going to have to operate in the real world and that's not all bad yeah I I I do agree with you and and I I you having said that I don't know how many examples there are of this in the world in the sense that uh we all know about Uber Amazon has been work for years was losing money while they were gaining market share and and investing in their infrastructure and that did a lot of damage too to you know shoe stores in Chicago yep you're you're right and and yet you know Amazon now is turn you know is is a profitable company Uber um you know ever since Travis cnck I think it's I don't even try yeah ever since he you know left the company and and there's been New Management they they've been driving the company towards a more profitable uh you know model and I think that they're they're close to achieving that gain and Uber prices by the way have already been going up um and continue to go up over the past couple of years but you know I mean Uber was a brilliant idea there's no question about it um how bad would it have been if they had charged a real price I don't know if they would have gotten the market share that they got and they wouldn't have had the acceptance I don't know it was it was just such a convenient service I think they might have done okay you know and again you know you say that it's it's about Uber like you know Lauren if I came to you like 15 years ago and said hey I'd like you to invest in my company I'm going to have a bunch of people in their cars picking up strangers and driving them to places and it's just going to be using an app like you don't mind if your daughter gets picked up by some strange guy and driven somewhere right in you know in my service you would have been like I'm not investing in that that sounds out you're out of your mind you know what so I I think because they kept prices so artificially low I think I would have gone for it I'm I'm not saying I would have smart to invest in Uber but I will say this I I lived uh where you live in Philadelphia for quite a few years without a car um and you know I I took taxis I rented cars when I needed one but I was very happy not to have to worry about the upkeep or parking or or anything like that and if there had been uh Uber at that time I certainly would have all been all over it as a customer and you know who knows interesting that's very interesting yeah it's it'll be an interesting thing to see um you know if if these predictions come true and prices themselves are going to be rebounding in the tech industry I think it's just the smaller Tech startups that God they had so many years they had such a run of easy money and cash falling from the sky on them and now you know reality is sunk back in but they'll be back it doesn't you know we'll be back to another tech industry web 3 will take care of that when that metaverse starts going all right we talked about that last week yeah you watch out all right next topic this one's uh about chewy um um which is the online pet food business and chewy is another one of these Venture back companies that has chosen to lose a lot of money on things like free shipping but uh they recently did something or they have been doing something that I think is uh you know a smart lesson in customer service and and social media as well um last week a tweet went viral when a woman posted that her dog Gus had passed away um she tweeted that she contacted chewy to see if she could return an unopened bag of dog food and she was very impressed when they uh one gave her a full refund two told her to donate the food to a shelter and three uh had flowers delivered to her uh the next day uh that just exploded and all kinds of Goodwill for chewy what do you think of that situation you have a dog right I do have a dog and it is extremely sweet and nice and a good thing for them to do um there are books that you know on customer service Twins and stories of of big companies going out of their way to serve their customers in extraordinary ways um and and I think nowadays with social media being the way it is that if you do something special like that it really can you know get noticed you know for you and it's funny you know that chewy didn't they did that they didn't they this wasn't their promotion or their marketing campaign exactly it went just viral because a customer reported it you know exactly and you you think to yourself if you're running a business saying like you know if we picked like six you know six customers a month to do something really crazy like that like something really like above and beyond you know what I mean um maybe that's our marketing campaign for the year we do it and we don't ask for anything in return and we keep our fingers crossed that one of those customers in a month might post something about it on their Facebook page or you or tweet it out or something like that and it could go semi viral or get some attention for us do you know what I mean y it's not a bad marketing campaign to just do that well well the other thing I would point out and I don't mean to take away from what they've done which I do think is smart and and I have no reason to doubt their sincerity but you know the the the the cost of having a customer return an unopened bag of dog food has to be significant and there's probably nothing in it for them to get that dog food back and they took a very smart approach of saying something that people you know perceive warmly telling them to give it to a shelter everybody feels good about that uh and you know comes out ahead that's that's a very smart approach I actually think it was the gift that they sent you know was it flowers or something flowers and and you know a lot of people came forward and tweeted that uh in other situations uh I guess when for some reason and chewy had a photograph of the pet that died they sent a handp painted portrait of the pet to uh the owner I mean come on Lauren that's I that's above and beyond I mean just telling people yes it is telling somebody to keep the product is you're right it's just it's it it's cost effective just just keep it it's it's going to cost us more for you to send it back to us telling them to give it to a a charity you know or whatever that's also fine but to I me to send like a hand painted you know picture of the product or or to send like a that's got to be that that's an expense you know yeah that's an expense and it's not just like the cost of like doing that but it's also the cost of like some employee dealing with you know you know ordering it and getting it done and then making sure it gets out there and following up with the customer I guess my point being like that's you know that's extra work to be done by an employee who's probably busy doing a lot of other stuff and the company authorizing that to be done that I mean I think that's a really great step and I don't want to turn this into like some everything is all about making more money but you know to me great customer service Serv is the best marketing you can do you know and you know if you do something over and above over and above like something crazy like that and you say you know what for this year we're not going to be spending we're going to cut our marketing budgets and you know and online ads and whatever we're spending on it instead you know we're going to pick out a few customers a month and do something really over the top with the hopes that maybe they'll do the online marketing for us um and even if they don't we've made the customers really happy and we did a nice thing I think that's exactly the right point and and I think you know it's really key that it it's not that they put out a post saying hey look at what we did for Gus's owner uh it wasn't that at all and that you know that authenticity made a huge difference it's pretty cool it's a nice story and like I said there is uh there are plenty of other great customer service you know stories that are that you could follow uh if you just Google customer service stories uh you'll hear all sorts of things a big company do big companies doing really neat things all right I guess this is kind of becoming a regular feature but lastly this week um I feel like this is recession watch every week I ask you if you You' seen anything new um we just got information this this past week that uh a conference board survey found that 60% of CEOs expect a recession in the next 12 to 18 months my in my informal Network just asking around I am not hearing a lot of people saying that they are seeing a soft ing in their business yet but I know you have talking to to your clients yeah I am and and we both you and I both have our Network so it's it it really does depend I think on the industry like that's the other thing about just you know when you talk to your network I talked to my network people ask me like what's going on with small B there's like 30 million small businesses in this country so you know even with the pandemic I mean some businesses crushed it during the pandemic While others really suffered so it it really you can't just say across the board but I can say across the board that um you know you know it it is very likely from the data that I'm seeing that we're going to be seeing a downturn um in the economy sometime you know you know before the end of the year and and I just you know a lot of the data just not only is inflation at some point is going to have its effect Lauren you know I mean you know it's it's not the Consumer Price Index but it's the producer price index which came in at 11% um this past month close to it and I'm looking at Key you know core prices uh of manufacturing items chemicals and Lumber and packaging and Plastics and shipping they're all way more than 11% which leads me to believe that the producer price index is going to be staying up which means you know inflation's going to stay up you explained to us last week that the producer price index is about the future whereas the consumer uh index is about the past um this indicates that inflation is here to stay for a while yeah for a while and and and and it's some point that hits a Tipping Point because you know wages are not going to keep up with that and because of that people are are going to start tightening their belt they're already tightening their belts you know they're starting to make decisions about what they're buying um you're seeing it all over the place and in the end that that starts reverberating through the economy people buy less companies produce less and therefore their profits go down and people will get laid off because of it I don't think it's 2009 situation you know I I just you we keep telling we talked about this last week I'm not telling people to panic about it but if you're running a business you should be prepared for a Slowdown um in you know you towards the end of the year and into the next year you the only thing that just concerns me Lauren is that the FED is going to be raising interest rate you know they rais interest rate 75 basis points this week that's not going to do it they're going to have to raise it more and I'm not hearing a lot of prog growth policies you know coming out um although in Philly I don't know if you know this or not but just today it was announced that um Philadelphia city council was reducing reducing Philly income taxes and business tax taxes a small amount but they're reducing it like that's like a progrowth thing to do in my opinion and it came from Philly of all places so I I I'm kind of hoping that some of our political leaders are realizing that they need to be a little bit more business friendly if they're going to encourage businesses to make more Investments and take some more risks well Dean you you also told us here about the state small business credit initiative which is10 billion1 billion that's available for businesses AC across the country that's PR growth it is it is it is financing that's out there that people can use you know to grow their you're right you know and that is and that but that was part of one of the stimulus bills but it's just coming out now right they're just getting their act together and it's coming out now but I guess it just you know they're in the business Community you know they look at you know right now the leadership in Washington which is you know we want to tax the wealthy and we want to uh you know you know it's the oil companies and their excessive profits that's causing all these problems and those things just have like a psychological impact on business overall that like these people don't like us and and you know they it's very pro-worker anti- unless that rhetoric shifts a little bit I just think that over the next couple years businesses are not really going to be well inclined to make the Investments or take the risk that they want you know want to be doing um so we'll have to see listen I mean if the if the GOP takes control of Congress there'll be a relative stalemate in Washington and that might be the best thing that you and I could ever want for our companies you know all right well this is as close to a uh political conversation as I want to get um let me just ask you this do do you have any stories you're working on right now coming up this week that you could give us a heads up on anything uh interesting for us to watch out for I do so yeah so it's funny that yeah so on Monday I'm going to be writing uh today actually which will be coming out sometime this week for the inquire um about um a recent business bankruptcy law that was just changed back in 2019 Congress passed um the small business reorganization act which made it easier for small businesses to apply for chapter 11 and uh it's called sub chapter 5 it like reduced the requirements and you know made it special for small business there's another legislation I just interviewed uh Senator Grassley about this who's one of the sponsors of the bill that it is going to make it's extending this small business reorganization act the limits it can be any business with up to $7.5 million in liabilities which you know includes you know a good amount of businesses that can be eligible for this program and the reason why um I think it's important is because I spoke to a couple of bankruptcy attorneys they say not a lot of businesses have been declaring bankruptcy you know over the past couple of years even with the pandemic but with you and I were talking about the downturn um there is you know there's this expectation that more businesses are going to be looking for potential bankruptcy protection if they can't get themselves back back on their feet and um this new law might be a really key thing to saving them um and keeping them in business while they reorganize particularly if it's a very small business so that's something that um I do plan on on writing about this week among some other things cool we'll keep an eye out for that uh as you can tell Gan marks is a CPA who writes on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia choir the Washington Times Forbes and entrepreneur you can also hear them on ABC radio's on the world with John Bachelor and Jean hosts two small business podcasts with payex Corporation and the Hartford thank you Jean thank you Lauren we will talk to you next week have a great week everyone [Music]