business intelligence Archives

Finding The Best Business Practices For A Hospitality Startup

Omar Al-Massalkhi, CEO of Talkin’ Tacos.

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Launching a hospitality startup is more complicated than leaders in most other industries understand. However, savvy hospitality leaders are adept at knowing their customers, keeping up with technology, staying on top of industry trends and even taking cues from other business sectors.

First of all, hospitality entrepreneurs must understand both their current business challenges and the broader business landscape. This has never been more obvious than in 2022. The sad fact is that 90,000 restaurant locations temporarily or permanently closed because of the pandemic.

Operating in the post-pandemic era, newly-minted restauranteurs can take their cues from older siblings in the hotel industry because they share a commitment to providing guests with exceptional experiences. For the hospitality giant Marriott, although Covid changed many things, what has stayed the same is that “at its core, our business is about giving guests a great experience, attracting great talent, and working really well with owners and franchisees. These are the principles that have guided us and will continue to guide us.”

To garner insight into specific best business practices to grow a hospitality startup, begin by exploring current industry statistics. Toast, Inc., a leading cloud-based restaurant management software company, offers a snapshot of the industry in its Restaurant Success Report. It cited the top three concerns of restaurant business owners: high operating and food costs, hiring and training staff and marketing to guests where they are.

Not surprisingly, these challenges are shared across the entire retail

GE says it plans to pare back its renewable energy business

General Electric Co. disclosed plans on Tuesday to restructure its energy businesses, known collectively as GE Vernova, as part of an effort to save $500 million a year as the company prepares to spin Vernova out as an independent operation in 2024.

The cuts, which will result in about $600 million in restructuring expenses, will take place primarily in GE’s renewable energy group. The cuts were disclosed as part of GE’s third-quarters earnings announcement Tuesday.

In particular, GE’s on-shore wind-energy business is taking a hit. The company said Tuesday that it has experienced significant inflation in materials and logistics costs, and the related price increases have hurt customer demand. Also, the company is looking to pare back the number of markets in which it operates and to simplify its product lineup. GE is also suffering from lower-than-expected volume in key markets, as are several of its on-shore wind rivals.

Overall revenue in GE’s renewable energy businesses dropped 17 percent in the first nine months of the year, to $9.6 billion in the first three quarters of 2023, from $11.5 billion last year.

It is unclear how many jobs will be cut in this restructuring, though GE recently decided to trim the workforce of its US on-shore wind business, by 20 percent, or hundreds of jobs. Similarly, Last week, GE proposed a similar 20 percent cut from its renewable energy business in Europe, 570 positions.

The restructuring efforts are not related to the company’s offshore wind business, where GE is expected

8 Steps To Dissolving Your Business By The End Of The Year

By Nellie Akalp

There’s more to closing a business than simply stopping selling products and services.

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Entrepreneurs have faced more than their fair share of challenges these past few years, and 2022 has been no exception with inflation up and consumer spending down. Sadly, some business owners have decided to close their companies due to economic difficulties. Others may want to cease operations for other reasons, like retirement. Regardless of why someone chooses to close their business, it’s important for them to realize there’s more to the process than simply stopping selling products and services. There are additional requirements to legally end a business’s existence.

What a business owner must do depends on the type of business structure (eg, sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company, C Corporation), where the company is located, whether it has employees, and other factors. As you can imagine, there are both legal and financial considerations to address, so guidance from a reputable and reliable attorney, accountant, and tax advisor can help ensure all goes smoothly and no critical tasks get missed.

To follow is an outline of the tasks that might be involved when closing a business. If aiming to wrap things up neat and tidy by the end of the calendar year, business owners will need to get their affairs in order sooner rather than later.

An 8-point checklist for dissolving a business

1. Check the entity’s governance documents for procedures to follow

Different business structures have different internal governance documents that contain