Browsing Tag
paul w. smith
63 posts
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Detroit Startup Week feat. Monica Wheat (Episode 77)
On this morning’s WJR Business Beat, Jeff highlights Detroit Startup Week, a week-long virtual conference that kicks off today! He's joined by Monica Wheat, founder and partner at Venture Catalysts and Detroit Startup Week event lead. Listen to this morning’s segment below: StartupNation · WJR Business Beat - June 22, 2020 StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Venture Capital Investment Goes Virtual (Episode 76)
On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff shares the new normal in venture capital: investing in a startup without ever meeting its founders in person. Version One Ventures, led by Boris Wertz and Angela Tran, just invested a $2 million seed round, and the entire transaction was executed online from start to finish without a single in-person...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Viamedia Small Business Optimism Survey (Episode 75)
On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff shares uplifting news that, despite all the challenges of the COVID crisis, there still seems to be a sense of optimism among small business owners. A new study conducted by Viamedia shows that 83 percent of businesses indicate that their marketing strategies have been forced to change in the...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Jason Bierkle of DivDat (Episode 73)
On today's WJR Business Beat segment, Jeff shares a recent StartupNation Radio interview he conducted with Jason Bierkle, president and CEO of DivDat, a billing and payment solutions provider. Jason has proven his business model in the southeast Michigan area and is now poised for a national roll out. Tune in to this morning's show to...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Oakland County Debuts Small Business ReOpen Kits (Episode 72)
On today's WJR Business Beat, Jeff shares news of Oakland County's program to distribute 10,000 COVID-19 ReOpen Kits to local business owners. They will include face masks, no touch thermometers, gloves and sanitizer in order to give small businesses the essential materials they need to foster their reopening plans and to give customers the confidence...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Media Frenzy Study on Communication During COVID (Episode 71)
On today's WJR Business Beat segment, Jeff offers insights into a new study released by Media Frenzy Global, in partnership with Arlington Research, which underscores just how critical it is in the time of this pandemic to be communicating more than ever. In the study of over 13,000 consumers, 45 percent of those surveyed agree they...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: 5G Technology (Episode 70)
On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff talks about 5G, or 5G wireless networking, and how it will provide for better consumer experiences, while also swinging open doors for more enterprise activity. The network will roll out over the next several years and will generate a variety of new applications, uses and certainly business models and...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Verizon Small Business Optimism Study (Episode 69)
On this morning’s WJR Business Beat, Jeff shares optimistic results from a recent Verizon survey, which polled 500 small and medium sized businesses currently opening or planning to reopen soon. According to the study, 68 percent of small retailers believe that they’ll be able to recoup the financial loss brought on by COVID-19 and related mandatory shutdowns...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Where Do Great Business Ideas Come From? (Episode 68)
Have you ever marveled at an entrepreneur pursuing a business idea and wondered, where did that idea come from? How did that business happen? On this morning’s WJR Business Beat, Jeff chats with Annemarie Cronin, a local entrepreneur who has built a really successful boutique marketing business for physicians and medical practices. When it occurred to Annemarie...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Marketing Tactics for Customer Engagement (Episode 66)
On this episode of StartupNation Radio, Jeff dives further into customer engagement. Today, following up on yesterday's feature, we're focused on a new study by Manifest that shares which marketing tactics small business owners are using most today to try to reach and engage their customers. Listen in to today's segment to learn the results of...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Customer Engagement is the Top Challenge During Crisis (Episode 65)
On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff discusses one area of business that has been impacted hard by the COVID-19 crisis: new data reveals customer engagement to be the biggest struggle faced by one in three businesses during the COVID-19 crisis, with the retail sector being hit the hardest. Esendex, a leading telecommunications provider, carried out...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Manufacturing Sector Faces Rapid Decline (Episode 59)
New data released by the Federal Reserve makes clear just how dramatic the impact of the COVID-19 crisis has been on the manufacturing sector in the U.S. Industrial production in the U.S. suffered historic falloff in May, according to the study. Manufacturing output was hit particularly hard, dropping more than 13 percent over March, the steepest...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Small Business Owners Face Permanent Closures Due to COVID-19 (Episode 58)
A recent survey from Expertise.com, a top resource for finding leading local experts, shows that two out of three business owners worry about permanent closure following the COVID-19 crisis. The study also revealed that one out of four businesses only have enough cash to keep them afloat for one to three more months. David Franklin...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Tricia Ruby (Episode 57)
On the WJR Business Beat this morning, we're featuring the story of Tricia Ruby, a great entrepreneur right here in the metro Detroit region. Tricia is the CEO of a structural engineering company known as Ruby+Associates, started by her father, David Ruby. The company engineers the buildings, bridges and venues that construction companies in our region...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Online Education and Training (Episode 56)
On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff discusses the new land of opportunity found in online education. One of the new areas of opportunity emerging that entrepreneurs should look to is creating a business that's in the area of online education. Online education and training makes so much sense due to its efficiency and convenience...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: IPO Marketing Slowing (Episode 53)
We've highlighted on previous Business Beat segments how early stage funding from angels and venture capitalists, for example, is slowing amid the COVID-19 crisis. But now we've got news that the Initial Public Offering marketplace is beginning to show signs of slowing, as well. On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff breaks down some recent statistics...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Entrepreneurial Principles in Big Business (Episode 52)
Since Ryan Maibach, president and CEO of Barton Malow, assumed the leadership role of his family's $2 billion construction company in 2011, he's grown the company significantly. This is something that's not often easy for big companies to do, as they often have trouble incorporating innovative and creative thinking. However, Ryan is taking a very...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: The Impact of COVID-19 on Mobile Apps (Episode 51)
The COVID-19 crisis has made our dependency on mobile apps even greater, particularly for business, entertainment and social connectivity purposes. On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff talks about the impact of coronavirus on the mobile economy. A study just released from App Annie indicates the adoption of mobile apps in Q1 was record breaking. Global...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Big Tech Showing Positive Revenue Growth Amid COVID-19 (Episode 49)
The big tech companies, including Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft, have proven their staying power through the COVID-19 crisis. All five have seen positive revenue growth over the same quarter in 2019. On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff dives into the Statista study results further, including the following growth over Q1 2019: Amazon up...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Bookshop.org (Episode 48)
On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff discusses Bookshop.org, a new online bookstore launched in January with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. While Amazon poses an incredible threat to local, independent bookstores, Bookshop.org, created by Andy Hunter, serves as a co-op of local bookstores selling online, all in a central portal. In the...