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Esther: Welcome to a spooky edition of the BusinessMakers Overtime Show. We are your hosts, Esther Steinfeld.
Katie: And Katie Laird.
Esther: And folks we are in for a real trick or treat.
Katie: Oh ha ha. Good joke.
Esther: It is time to put on your costumes and scare the heck out of some kids. No, I'm just kidding. But actually this week on the Overtime Show we have a got a very special and not at all spooky guest by the name of Jason Kintzler. He is the founder and CEO of Pitch Engine. It's pretty cool. This is a totally awesome tool that will totally help you grow your business like you would not believe.
Katie: And after we hear from Jason we'll give you a run down on the spookiest businesses around and how you can mark a living ghost to your advantage. Who would have thought it? We'll also tell you about what we're going to be for Halloween. So prepare yourselves. As always we're going to start you off with the business sustenance, the overtime business week in review. Honestly Esther, some of this is pretty scary news.
Esther: It is. Some of it is actually scary and some of it is economically scary.
Katie: Yeah; all different levels.
Esther: If you will. So apparently Halloween is going to take in like $4 billion this year, isn't that right?
Katie: It is. I think $4.75 billion –
Esther: Unbelievable.
Katie: According to the National Retail Federation and here's what's crazy. I guess I've been blind to this Halloween business for all my life. This is down from last year's $5.77 billion in 2008.
Esther: Unbelievable.
Katie: That is so much money.
Esther: It's so ridiculous and this decrease, it could be in big part to all the sales that are going on because we know that coupon use has gone way, way up.
Katie: It has.
Esther: That industry is completely booming and actually in this article from Forbes.com that I read, one costume shop owner said that people come in to scout out what they want and then they go online and they buy it for a whole hell of a lot cheaper.
Katie: Yes. Or with the crafty DIY movement I've been hearing a lot of people going to try on costumes and then they'll take a picture of themselves in it and then they'll make it or they'll be like, 'Hey mom, guess what I wanna be this year. Like I may be in my 30s but you can help me out.'
Esther: But that makes a lot of sense. If you don't have a lot of money to spend on Halloween this year, make do with what you got.
Katie: Exactly. Go for the bargains or the homemade stuff.
Esther: And actually a lot of retailers are focused on SEO, Halloween retailers. This is interesting.
Katie: Ahh.
Esther: Just like the rest of the retail world. So according to Brad Butler, he's the spokesman for Halloween Express.
Katie: Ooh.
Esther: He said the difference between number one and number two in the natural ranking of a search engine is almost 20 percent difference in sales.
Katie: Oh wow. Gees. That is hefty.
Esther: Can you believe that? So if you're number one you're going to get 20 percent more business than the guy right below you at number two. It's unbelievable.
Katie: Good-ness.
Esther: I know SEO makes a big difference and obviously you want to be ranked really high in natural search, but 20 percent. That is –
Katie: I had no, absolutely no idea.
Esther: That is way higher. Yeah. And also the big Halloween spenders, the 18 to 24 group, they're the group that have been hardest or one of the hardest groups by the recession.
Katie: Ohh.
Esther: So when this group isn't spending money on costumes and on parties and on booze.
Katie: Things drop.
Esther: Yeah.
Katie: It makes a big impact. For sure.
Esther: And mommy and daddy certainly can't help them this year 'cause they're also struggling in the economy. So they're scaling back big time.
Katie: Exactly. I know I read in another article that they were talking about a lot of people that were surveyed by the National Retail Federation were saying that they're either going to be buying way, way less candy this year or I think almost seven percent said they were just going to turn their lights and like hide in the kitchen.
Esther: No.
Katie: So the lesson here is that if you are a child or an adult going trick or treating, go early. Stake out the good houses. Put it out on Twitter where to go, where not to go.
Esther: Wow. What is Twitter going to do for trick or treating this year?
Katie: I don't even know.
Esther: It's going to change the way.
Katie: Yeah; we'll miss all the houses with canned goods and get the good candy corn.
Esther: I think we're too old. I got a toothbrush one year.
Katie: Oh man.
Esther: Isn't that sad?
Katie: What a downer. Yeah.
Esther: Ugh. That was depressing. Why do you think that people are so obsessed with Halloween?
Katie: Because it's a chance for people to be something other than themselves. Like they get to live out some – I'm not going to say weird fantasy like in a crazy, kinky way, but like it's a time when you get to just act out. You get to dress up and we did that all the time when we were kids.
Esther: Absolutely. And it's definitely escape.
Katie: It is totally.
Esther: You've got to escape from thinking about your 401(k) somehow.
Katie: Exactly. What better than going to a monster mash?
Esther: Dressing up like a pumpkin.
Katie: That's right.
Esther: Screw you 401(k). On another scary note, let's give Google more power shall we?
Katie: Oh boy. They really need it. They've just been waning so much.
Esther: I mean they're really struggling here. So some unidentified source said –
Katie: Don't you love those?
Esther: Undisclosed, said that Google is partnering with Lala, Imime and this division of MySpace called iLike to provide 30 second or even full clips of music right from your search engine. So you can search the song that you want and it's going to list the clip right there in your results.
Katie: So what kind of rich media is there at this point that Google does not have their hands wrapped around? I mean this is it. They've got video, photo and certainly all the text information you can possibly think of.
Esther: Right.
Katie: And now they're going into music.
Esther: Unbelievable.
Katie: That is crazy.
Esther: It scares me a bit. It's getting a little out of hand.
Katie: So Google of course isn't actually hosting the music and they're not doing any sort of hard core relationships with major music labels, but even with these great deals with these streaming music services that you'd mentioned, does this mean that they're going to be going towards, actually becoming – surely they're going to be purchasing them and surely in five years they're going to have –
Esther: When does the anti-trust legislation kick in?
Katie: Like an online label. I don't know. It's insane.
Esther: And another thing that's happening is Facebook is also getting involved.
Katie: They are. In a little bit of a different way.
Esther: In a very different way.
Katie: Yeah. I know that this is actually something that annoys the pants off of me. That doesn't even make sense, but it does. Whenever people and I know that it's all with good intentions, but they'll buy those little 10 cent, 'Here's a birthday lollipop with glitter.' Then they put it on your page and it's like oh, thank you so much. I'm happy to be alive –
Esther: I don't want this lollipop.
Katie: So using that model are people using their credit card or buying these little things online, on Facebook. Now they're going to be able to actually buy music.
Esther: And post it to profile.
Katie: And post it to profiles or they're also looking at a business model where maybe they could pay a little bit more and then actually download the song and put it on their iPod. So there's two kind of levels, but again, this is big. Looking at everything else Facebook has, just like Google. Major photo albums. Embedding video is no problem. Now crazy music. It's just going to blow up. But now keep in mind there's going to be so many people buying music versus those annoying teddy bears on Facebook –
Esther: Right; that makes a lot more sense.
Katie: This means that Facebook is really going to have to beef up their credit card processing system, which is totally the plan anyway. I can totally see Facebook being a place where people are organizing major events and accepting registration fees. This is the beginning of a new era for Facebook.
Esther: Absolutely.
Katie: Seemingly innocuous. It's like yay, put a 50 cents –
Esther: And the death of MySpace.
Katie: -- song – exactly. Young artists are going to be coming more to Facebook. This is big news. It could be potentially spooky news.
Esther: Definitely.
Katie: So moving onto a similarly, actually probably way more scary news topic, let's talk about a new set of stats from the Labor Department where we're hearing that new jobless claims have risen increasingly, actually surprising Wall Street economists. So they're expecting a slight increase, but we're looking at almost 11,000. Like quite a few more people that are just putting in these new claims for unemployment.
Esther: It's higher than they thought it would be.
Katie: It's much higher and what's really scary is that in order to be at like in a 'healthy economy' we're still looking at about 200,000 less new claims of people without jobs. So even though we all keep saying yay, things are getting better, things are getting better, in some areas they are, but oh boy. Like we've got a long way. There's a lot of people going into this holiday season without jobs. Very freaky.
Esther: And ya' know what? The truth is a lot of companies have realized I think much to the chagrin of people who don't have jobs, that they can operate without so many people.
Katie: At least they're hanging in until things look even better.
Esther: Exactly. So I've heard a lot of executives and a lot of CEOs say, 'Look, even if the recession goes away tomorrow we're not going to do things differently. We're going to keep doing it how we're doing it and be more careful and be more conservative about how we spend our money and how many people we hire.' That's unfortunate for people who don't have jobs, but as far as efficiency goes, company efficiency, it's almost like what they have to do right now in order to survive.
Katie: Do you think that some of the CEOS and C level executives that are making these undoubtedly tough decisions 'cause of course you want to stimulate the economy and give people jobs. Maybe this is kind of them seeing how awful it was to have to lay off slews of people and now they're like alright, we're not going to bring people back until we're sure that this is not going to happen. They're looking for that extra cushion. So in a way I feel like maybe they're doing the right thing 'cause we don't know what's going to happen next month or in the next six months.
Esther: We don't.
Katie: Or in the next six months.
Esther: We're still very much in this turmoil period.
Katie: Yeah.
Esther: It's too bad.
Katie: It is, but luckily the overtime girls who are always at your beckon call.
Esther: Course. Here to serve you.
Katie: Actually have a couple of great links specifically around finding jobs in this very unstable and difficult economy.
Esther: Absolutely. We know it's scary and it's not just because there's going to be a bunch of people running aruond with Bernie Madoff masks this year.
Katie: Or houses running out of candy, God forbid, right.
Esther: It's scary because a lot of people don't have jobs.
Katie: Yes.
Esther: And they're not sure when they're going to get jobs. So the important thing is to just be sure that when opportunity knocks you're ready. So our links of the week are going to help you be a better job seeker and a more efficient job seeker.
Katie: Yay. All courtesy of the internet.
Esther: Absolutely. So Katie, what's your link of the week?
Katie: So my link of the week is a special job hunting site called Cachinko, which actually sounds like money falling into your pocket. So I kind of like it. So it's C-A-C-H-I-N-K-O.com and what Cachinko is is sure, it's your typical job board. You sign up. You have your login, post resumes, but it's very, very heavy on the social networking aspect, especially because even if you're out of a job right now and you don't get a position from this web site for a couple of months say, you still have major money making opportunities by different contact referrals through the program. So just like a lot of companies have these employee job referral programs, Cachinko kind of gives that to you even though you don't have a company you're working for. So for instance, if you were refer three friends for a position that you think would be a good fit for them, maybe you went for it, it didn't work out. You know someone that really could shine in it and they all get accepted just for an interview, you make money.
Esther: Oh.
Katie: If they get the job, one of them gets a position, you make even more money.
Esther: Wow.
Katie: So it's a great way to not only know what's going on in the job hunting world, find those positions and also get your name out there and make sure all your friends are taken care of, but you can make money while you're doing it.
Esther: Unbelievable.
Katie: It's actually pretty substantial cash, depending on what companies you're looking at. They have all sorts of different programs with major, major corporations. You could be talking about thousands of dollars, which when you're struggling to find a job no doubt would be a lifesaver for sure.
Esther: Absolutely. That's a great one.
Katie: Yeah; so Cachinko.com. Highly recommended.
Esther: Awesome.
Katie: Alright. Let's hear yours. Fess up. What do you think?
Esther: Well, my link of the week is Razume.com
Katie: Razume.
Esther: It's R-A-Z-U-M-E.com.
Katie: Razume. Where do they come up with these names?
Esther: I know. Razume. Cachinko. I'm not sure.
Katie: But I won't forget them.
Esther: I know. Exactly. So Razume.com is a community for job seekers. It is a social community.
Katie: Ahh.
Esther: What you do is you post your resume and then you get feedback from the community from other members and they tell you how to package yourself better. They tell you how to update your resume better to be more marketable.
Katie: Wow.
Esther: And then you get access to this job finder that Razume.com has and your resume is shiny and polished, ready to go and you're ready to send it out there and apply. So it's very, very cool –
Katie: Very cool.
Esther: -- to get instant feedback from this very proactive community.
Katie: I love it.
Esther: Get your resume all razzy as we said.
Katie: Exact – and the fact that it's not just the job board component, you're going to be walking out of that site and can go to any – Monster.com, CareerBuilder, Cachinko –
Esther: And you'll have such a leg up.
Katie: Exactly. You're going to have that honest, candid feedback and chances are you send your resume to friends and the family and sometimes they're a little gentle. Sometimes you have that crazy uncle that's like uh uh. Like here's what we're going to do and that's awesome, but having that third party –
Esther: Oh no, you can't say that.
Katie: -- who can help you through it, that is very, very powerful.
Esther: Absolutely.
Katie: Well cool. I love it. So you've been listening to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show with your favorite overtime goblins Esther and Katie. We're closing up segment one, but we'll see you back in segment two where Esther has a great interview with a guy named Jason Kintzler, the founder and CEO of Pitch Engine. See you soon.