Even now when it feels like we are in a normal holiday season, things may still not be completely understandable and the world remains difficult to completely figure out. In this year when the financial world feels a little unsettled, Black Friday and Cyber Monday still did pretty well for business on the whole. Giving Tuesday, however, did not fare so well.

I came across this information in a CNN article, where the first number given is that $3.1 billion was donated on Giving Tuesday, a 0.6% gain over 2022, which seemed okay by me. There was a 10% decline in the number of Americans who participated, though, and that was more concerning.

And that feeling only continued throughout the article as it mentioned a report from Giving USA released this past June that reported Americans are giving the lowest percentage of their disposable income since 1995.

I think it is easy to explain some of this from a year-to-year perspective as inflation certainly must have had an impact on this number over the past few years – and it is easy to see it taking another year or two for that to catch up to itself. And then through the pandemic, even if there were some obvious places where money could be given to help the many in need, there were enough people struggling financially that overall numbers could be affected.

But to have a low point since 1995? I mean, that’s even before people could read blogs like this. Heck, it was before the word blog existed.

This oh-so-modern blog entry is now a small plea to help offset this if you can. I am fully aware that not everyone has the means to give, and when that is the case, it is much more important to take care of yourself first.  And giving doesn’t have to mean an all-out George Costanza Human Fund level of donations in lieu of Christmas presents. (a reference that may feel incredibly dated but is from a TV episode that also did not exist as of 1995). So, if you have the ability to do something, even a small thing, it will not only do good but it will feel good.

​Too often in our work world here, donations are only discussed as tax deductions. This is a good time of year, however, to realize they are so much more. In a world that can often feel very confusing, let’s be good to each other when we can.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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We are now just emerging from the post-Thanksgiving stretch when we give in to being even bigger consumers than usual. Personally, my shopping was not anything to speak of, but I can’t deny that I felt my eyes and ears going on the lookout in case anything came up that would just be too good to pass up.

And maybe that is part of the appeal – the idea that there could be something out there that is not only a good purchase but is so good that you would be foolish not to purchase it. After all, even if some consumers start to think they don’t need to shop on Black Friday, there still exists the idea that they are going to remain astute enough to grab even better can’t-miss deals at another time.

It is also kind of amazing to think that the dawn-hour opening times so associated with the day are a relatively recent phenomenon. Something about getting those deals has just built up so large in our mind in no time, though (and if you’re curious about the history of the day, read here.)

So maybe that is another part of the appeal, the idea that you are engaging in something special on a larger level – be it Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, or Giving Tuesday.

And hey, has no one laid claim to Sunday yet? There must be something in there someone can do along the lines of “While everyone else finishes sleeping off their Thanksgiving meals (leftovers included) on the couch while watching football before dragging themselves to back to work tomorrow, come buy a TV” that could late on.  Though maybe someone needs to work on the wording a little bit.

Overall, there is no single piece of magic that one can point to behind these days. It is a time of year when people have to shop, and merchants are trying to find ways to get a bigger piece of that spend. At its core this is not different than any time of year, there is just more money up for grabs. So, businesses try what they can, embrace what works, evolve to try to be even better, and ideally reap bigger rewards. It just seems bigger on these specific days because, well, what they do works.

Maybe there is really a business lesson then – embrace the things that take off and give in to them. 

And I’m telling you, that Sunday idea is bound to, feel free to use it.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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It is one of those weeks when everyone in the country pretty much feels the same. We all want to only do the work that we must to get through the first couple days of the week before moving on and starting the holiday season. And no matter what combination of excitement and dread you have as you look toward that holiday time, it at least must be better than working.

And hopefully it is good enough that you can spend some time in the spirit of the season and be thankful for the slight break and the good things in your life. Of course, we all must battle through difficult stretches of life, as well, so here is an extra wish for those currently going through one that you find some peace at this time.

In that spirit, let me also offer a warm thank you to everyone reading this. I know that many of the things I discuss in this space aren’t the most exciting and some of them only come up when situations are bad. This then isn’t always a fun and joyous spot but it means a lot to us that we have the trust of our clients to help guide them through such potentially trying situations.  And we hope to be able to continue to build that warmth and comfort as we move forward.

But that’s not until next week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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The internet has steadily moved into so many pieces of our lives over the past couple decades that it can be difficult to really appreciate because of its ubiquity. But it is so prevalent that a recent report says going without the internet for the day would come at a worldwide cost of $43 billion.

First, I have to admit that I don’t really buy this number. I am sure it was arrived at in a reasonable manner – something along the lines of adding up purchases made online with hours of work done that also required internet access – but seeing as it was done by a VPN company, it also had interest in this number being as big as it could be. And yes, losing the internet would be a huge disruptor, but if we are talking about losses in a day, well, once Amazon comes back up tomorrow, you can still make your purchases. And some of that work that you couldn’t completely log in and record for the day, well some things still could get done, and you can save them to the servers when the internet comes back up.

But after pushing through the slight disbelief, I started to think about just how much of a change this really highlights for it is undeniable how many aspects of our lives have been changed by it. No matter how stubborn a business is about adapting new technologies, if you did not jump on this one, chances are you perished (Blockbuster, Kodak) or are still hanging on by flimsy strings – before I started doing my current job, I worked for a newspaper, remember those?

And the smaller a business is, the easier it can be to find an individual niche and work from it even if ignoring larger trends, but that was not an option for those giant companies. Once they didn’t make the shift, they were left behind.

So this is a bit of a warning about trying to hold out against all advances. This does not mean everyone should be an early adopter, for there are plenty of new hot things that are dropped into the nostalgia bin just as quickly as they popped up. But everyone needs to have a tipping point where they acknowledge a change will be long-lasting. There are certain things that are going to be worth being stubborn on when it comes to the character of your business, but one also cannot be stubborn enough to endanger their business’s overall existence.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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About a month ago, I wrote about the wide reach of scams and how there are unsavory characters pressuring people into art donation schemes that benefit their tax returns. So often we think of scam victims as those without the knowledge and/or know-how to combat someone who confronts them with either a desperate situation or a quick grab for cash. The wealthy somehow seem above this in our minds. But now that we can add last week’s guilty verdict in the Sam Bankman-Fried case, we need to keep adjusting the view on who could be a victim, for it really is everyone.

After all, Bankman-Fried’s fraud crimes covered somewhere in the range of $10 billion, so we aren’t talking anything near a pittance here. But with former scandals like the work of Bernie Madoff and the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, we have seen how things can grow and cover more than one poor victim.

But maybe there is some logic in there. If we think of a scam that affects one person, we can envision how that person feels. And even if they only end up losing somewhere in the range of $500, it is easy to think of the bills that could have been paid with that money and how the victim may have to scramble to cover it. That number is small in the grand scheme, but also small enough that we can appreciate it.

It is must more difficult to appreciate just what $10 billion is.

Beyond that, Bankman-Fried worked in the cryptocurrency world, which holds some mystery of its own. I mean, I have no problem admitting that my understanding of the crypto world is rather amateur, but Bankman-Fried’s looks like it may not have been much better. He was able to sell enough people into believing that he knew something, though, and that his products and ideas may have held the key to great returns – but it turned into a great mess.

And his rise and fall did not take a long period of time, somewhere around a year in total. So this isn’t saying one can just lie their way through a grand life, but you can apparently go really big for a really short period of time.

It’s difficult to imagine that people making such big deals did not spend some time looking into the situation, too. There had to be more than dreams behind these deals. Those big hopes, though, also undeniably played a part. So maybe at the end we are in a space where we can say be careful but also maybe we can only do so much, and we all remain susceptible.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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