Day: July 16, 2020

Transitioning Older Workers Into New Opportunities Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

wayne July 16, 2020


7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


Rick Terrien is the author of Ageless Startup: Start a Business at Any Age, via  Entrepreneur Press. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound.

Organizations and the people who work for them, especially their older workers, are heading into a time of significant economic disruption. As health and economic crises mount, significant new challenges will confront the economy.

The Chinese word for crisis includes characters representing both danger and opportunity. How do older workers and the organizations they work with turn this crisis into an opportunity?

We need new maps to navigate this transition. Entrepreneurship offers a strong direction. We can create policies and options that allow older workers to transition from full-time employee to people who are able to create smart new business, while continuing their service to organizations, markets and communities they care about.

There is a significant need for smart, agile new startups launched by older entrepreneurs. For more than 20 years, the majority of startups in the U.S. have been launched by people 45 and older.  As businesses cut back on expenses and,

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Homebuilder sentiment jumps back to pre-coronavirus pandemic high

wayne July 16, 2020

An aerial view of a construction worker roofing an apartment home on May 27, 2020 in Uniondale, New York.

Al Bello | Getty Images

To find a V-shaped recovery from the economic wreckage of the coronavirus pandemic, look to the nation’s single-family homebuilders.

Homebuilder sentiment jumped 14 points to 72 in July, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). That is exactly where it was in March, before the pandemic hit the U.S. economy. Anything above 50 is considered positive sentiment. The index plummeted to 30 in April.

“Builders are seeing strong traffic and lots of interest in new construction as existing home inventory remains lean,” said NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke, a builder from Tampa, Florida. “Moreover, builders in the Northeast and the Midwest are benefiting from demand that was sidelined during lockdowns in the spring. Low interest rates are also fueling demand, and we expect housing to lead an overall economic recovery.”

Mortgage rates have been setting new record lows almost weekly, and it is unlikely they will turn higher any time soon. That has given buyers more purchasing power, especially for newly built homes, which come at a price premium. Mortgage applications

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How can firms keep sick people out of the office? Many are turning to app-based access systems like Openpath

wayne July 16, 2020

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The pandemic has changed office life in many ways—including how workers can enter the office in the first place. This is reflected in the growing popularity of a startup called Openpath, which offers an app-based entry system for companies and apartments.

Founded in 2016, LA-based Openpath initially pitched its service as a convenient alternative to fobs or swipe cards. Today, many of its customers—which include the likes of Dominos, the LA Clippers and large real estate companies—view Openpath, which announced a $36 million fundraising round, as a critical safety tool.

In recent months, Openpath has built APIs that integrate with temperature sensors. In practice, this means an employee arriving at the office must take their temperature at a kiosk and, if they show signs of fever, Openpath will deny them entry.

Companies can also use Openpath to require visitors to sign a digital attestation they are not sick. If they refuse to do so, the door won’t open.

For employees and others who are permitted to enter, they can do so in a no-touch fashion by simply …

The Best Workplaces in New York rise to the challenges of Covid-19 and beyond

wayne July 16, 2020

New York is famous for its creativity, its moxie, its larger-than-life-ness.

Those traits have been in full effect at the Best Workplaces in New York state and the tri-state area during the past few challenging months—a period when the New York region was an epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fortune and Great Place to Work just named the Best Workplaces in New York. The 70 organizations on this list earned their spots based on data collected prior to the health crisis. But leaders and employees at the Best Workplaces in New York have stood out for their resilience, generosity and imaginative responses to the pandemic, resulting economic downturn and more recent racial justice protests.

Here are a few of the striking ways these organizations have cared for employees, for customers, and for the community amid turbulent times.

Blanket forts at LaBella Associates

Rochester, N.Y.-based engineering firm LaBella Associates is one of many Best Workplaces in New York that has taken its social responsibility seriously during coronavirus crisis. Employees donated more than $15,000 to its national United Way campaign—a record amount for the company.

But the organization also tapped into its playful side to help employees stay loose amid stressful …

The roller coaster ride may not be over

wayne July 16, 2020

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Good morning.

I caught up yesterday with Jim Loree, CEO of Stanley Black & Decker, who has been on a roller coaster ride recently that makes Cedar Point seem tame. The $24 billion market cap company saw sales nosedive after the pandemic hit, and its stock followed suit, losing more than half its value. “We were at the edge of the abyss,” he says.

But then in late April, the company started to see U.S. tool sales by way of Home Depot, Lowes and Amazon shoot up, with growth numbers “we’ve never seen in our lifetime.” What happened? “There’s been a reimagination or a reconnection with the home,” he says. “That works extremely well for our tool business.  It also works well for the outdoor business.” He expects much of that to continue. “I think this reconnection with the home is going to be a semi-permanent sort of change.”

Loree added a note of caution that I’m hearing increasingly from U.S.-based CEOs. “I have an ominous sense about what is happening in the U.S., in terms of a second wave, …