Minimum Wage Increase: Perfect or Horrible?

I was listening to an interesting discussion today about the increase in the minimum wage. Is this the perfect timing for the increase, or is it the worst possible time they could have picked?

If you think about the fact that there are many people that will be getting $0.70 per hour more, that could mean millions of dollars being pumped into the economy. Might I also add that those millions wouldn't have to come from the government. I am sure that many families and individuals are glad for this wage hike since it may loosen up their budget.

On the other hand, there is an ugly side to the equation. How many businesses are on the brink of shutting down? How many of these will "kick the bucket" when they need to pay their employees more? When a business shuts down, jobs are lost, and the employees are in worse shape than they were before they got their "raise".

There's something else too. Take a pizza shop, for instance, that employs quite a few people at minimum wage. It could cost the owner around $15,000 per year more just because of this wage hike. I think we could all assume that pizza shop owners don't make enough money to just write off $15,000. So what happens? The owner jacks up the price of the pizza. People buy less pizza at his establishment. The owner doesn't have work for all his employees anymore. The employees get laid off. Back to square one.

So, while there are some pretty good arguments for the increase, I'm gonna say that they could have picked a better time to do it.

The Bizfisher

Mysteries of Marketing

I usually get a bit of a bang out of trying something that I'm not experienced at. Partly because I like to learn new things, and partly because I enjoy the challenge of blazing through new territory. Right now, marketing is one of those new territories. There's so many things to consider. With a very limited budget, what gets you the most traffic for your dollar? Which areas have more potential customers for your business? Is your business relevant to the interests of the residents in the area that you're targeting? Can you get more circulation for less money if you shop around a bit?

As I said, I really do enjoy the challenges that new experiences create, but sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed with all the options and all the loopholes that you need to be aware of. All this to say that I would definitely welcome any advice from all of you marketing gurus.

The Bizfisher