Month: April 2020

The First Question to Ask Yourself If You Want to Be an Entrepreneur but Don’t Know Where to Start

wayne April 30, 2020


7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


In 1994, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was working in a lucrative career on Wall Street. But since he was young, he dreamed of being an entrepreneur. After graduating from Princeton University, Bezos worked for a technology startup. When the company failed, he went to work in the banking industry. With the advent of the internet, Bezos saw his entrepreneurial opportunity: Books! The rest is history. In reflecting back on that moment in time, Bezos said in the biography The Everything Store, “I knew when I was 80 that I would never, for example, think about why I walked away from my 1994 Wall Street bonus right in the middle of the year at the worst possible time. I knew that I might sincerely regret not having participated in this thing called the internet that I thought was going to be a revolutionizing event.” 

One of the most common reasons that most people dream about starting a company is because they are unsatisfied with their current work situation. For Bezos, a cushy corporate job on Wall Street offered many benefits; however, deep down, it wasn’t who

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The U.S. has a new plan to fast-track a COVID-19 vaccine: ‘Operation Warp Speed’

wayne April 30, 2020

The Trump administration is organizing a Manhattan Project-style effort to drastically cut the time needed to develop a coronavirus vaccine, with a goal of making enough doses for most Americans by year’s end.

Called “Operation Warp Speed,” the program will pull together private pharmaceutical companies, government agencies and the military to try to cut the development time for a vaccine by as much as eight months, according to two people familiar with the matter.

As part of the arrangement, taxpayers will shoulder much of the financial risk that vaccine candidates may fail, instead of drug companies.

The project’s goal is to have 300 million doses of vaccine available by January, according to one administration official. There is no precedent for such rapid development of a vaccine.

President Donald Trump’s top medical advisers, led by the infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, have repeatedly said that a coronavirus vaccine won’t be ready for 12 to 18 months at best. Until then, White House guidelines envision some economically damaging social-distancing practices maintained even as the U.S. begins to resume a more normal social and business life.

Last month, Trump directed Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to speed development of a vaccine, …

Buccaneers of the basin: The fall of fracking—and the future of oil

wayne April 30, 2020

Families aren’t driving, planes aren’t flying, and plastics plants are shuttered. The coronavirus-driven collapse in the world’s consumption of oil has sent the price of West Texas Intermediate Crude (WTI) from $63 at the start of 2020 to $14 on April 29, hitting lows not seen since 1998. The devastating hit to the U.S. shale industry and its aftershocks will decisively reshape the market and guide the course of future prices. Indeed for the past several years, it was the rise of America’s frackers that broke OPEC’s chokehold, catapulted the U.S. above the Russians and the Saudis to become the top producer in the world, and held prices at around halftheir level of the previous decade. 

The destruction in demand has caused the swiftest, sharpest collapse in U.S. oil output in history. It is also likely to accelerate a structural decline that was already in the cards, but might have taken 10 years or more to play out. By 2025, predicts one veteran analyst, the industry will be 10% smaller and show minimal growth. In that tumultuous five-year window, a wave of bankruptcies and distress sales will push the number of players from around 60 publicly-traded producers to between …

How to Recruit Employees With Equity

wayne April 29, 2020


6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


It was well past midnight, and I was on the phone with my co-founder and a potential “company-making” hire who we wanted to join our team. Very badly. An acclaimed systems engineer, this individual would enable us to take our business to the next level. 

“If you look at the pay today, yes, it’s low, but we know that you will make up more than your fair share of return with the sizable ownership and equity package we are giving you,” said my co-founder to the potential hire. 

The potential hire immediately responded back, “Yes, I get that. But I also like cash in my pocket now, and I am getting offers from other firms that, while not as generous on ownership, give me more of a sense of security today.” 

I immediately chimed in: “Totally get you on that, but you also have to look at the downside risk. You can always, given your talents, go work for a larger company. This is the time where you have the opportunity to take a big swing at it and not be a corporate drone.”

After some

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New college grad job outlook is more competition and lower pay

wayne April 29, 2020

Those armed with a newly minted diploma are facing the worst hiring season for new college graduates since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Just last year, improved job opportunities and better pay were common across most industries. Now, college seniors are adopting a “take what you can get” approach to employment, according to a new report from iCIMS, a talent acquisition software company.

Soon-to-be-graduates intend to apply for 20 jobs, on average, as of late March, up from 10 in the first half of the month, iCIMS found.

“Candidates are hedging their bets,” said Irene DeNigris, chief people officer at iCIMS. That means there are more applicants per opening and new grads are also competing for positions with more experienced workers who are now out of a job, DeNigris  said.  

In the last five weeks, the number of Americans who have filed for unemployment jumped to 26.45 million, wiping out more than a decade’s worth of gains.

As the coronavirus crisis brings the economy to its knees, increased competition puts downward pressure on salaries and benefits. Starting salaries now average $54,585, down from last year’s $59,765 for entry-level offerings, iCIMS found.

More from Personal Finance:
Those

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Unemployment claims are taking some states weeks to process. Here’s what to know if you are stuck waiting for approval

wayne April 29, 2020

Already 26.5 million initial unemployment insurance claims have been processed. But millions of claims are still waiting approval as states struggle with a massive backlog.

The backlog is so large that Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear says his state should finish reviewing unemployment insurance claims submitted in March this week—almost a full month after those applicants applied. “We are seeing jobless numbers like never before … but only a small percentage are getting processed right away,” says Dan White, head of fiscal policy research at Moody’s Analytics.

As unemployment insurance (UI) applicants wait for their claims to be approved, here’s what to keep in mind.

My unemployment claim is delayed. Will I get back-paid?

Many jobless Americans are waiting weeks to get approval for their unemployment benefits. But once they’re approved, their regular unemployment benefits as well as their additional $600 federal benefit (see below) are retroactive to when their initial claim is eligible—not when it is approved. That means some out-of-work Americans could be in line for some significant retroactive checks.

Can states run out of unemployment funds?

During the good economic times, states are suppose to build up their unemployment trust reserves. But before this massive wave of jobless claims, …