Juliana Ashley on Bauer Business Focus, December 6, 2013

Posted December 2nd, 2013 - No Comments

On Bauer Business Focus — A conversation on landing a job with Andrew Schneider, business reporter for KUHF 88.7 FM.

Most job seekers think of the holiday season as their time off from the job hunt, but while there are countless retail hiring positions, this is also the time to network for the new year, according to Life Coach and Job Search 101 Coordinator Juliana Ashley.

Ashley stopped by Bauer Business Focus recently to give some advice to job seekers about networking during the holiday season and discuss the holiday job market.

“January is actually the biggest month for hiring. A lot of [employers] are doing interviews now so they can fill those positions, so that when they start the new year, they have a full slate of employees,” Ashley said.

Job Search 101 offers a variety of classes to job-seeking Houstonians. Currently, there are a few seasonal classes that emphasize the importance of networking at upcoming holiday parties, a skill that is a large part of every class offered.

“We encourage people to get out and start talking to people. If that means just taking a Job Search 101 class, going to a job ministry, going to something at your church, then start there, but you’ve got to get out and start talking to people because that’s how most people find jobs,” Ashley said. “Most people are going to find a job, no matter what the economy is like, through someone they know, and it could be anyone.”

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Steve Koch on Bauer Business Focus, November 29, 2013

Posted November 25th, 2013 - No Comments

On Bauer Business Focus — A conversation on this year’s holiday shopping season with Andrew Schneider, business reporter for KUHF 88.7 FM.

As Black Friday draws closer, the National Retail Federation expects retail business to be a few percentage points up form last year, with a few factors keeping it flat.

Steve Koch, executive professor of Marketing at the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, stopped by Bauer Business Focus recently to discuss what to expect from holiday shoppers this season.

“We’ve got a consumer confidence index right now that dropped significantly in October form September, which is of course concerning,” Koch said. “We’ve also got a challenge in that we have six less days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.”

Holiday shopping is already in full swing. With that in mind, Black Friday is set to begin even earlier this year, although Nielson has reported that a significant portion of shoppers will not shop on Black Friday in comparison to previous years.

“Black Friday has historically obviously been a very strong day,” Koch said. “I think we’re seeing a little bit of a decline in its influence and significance in the holiday season shopping.”

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John Beddow on Bauer Business Focus, November 22, 2013

Posted November 19th, 2013 - No Comments

On Bauer Business Focus — A conversation on the state of print media with Andrew Schneider, business reporter for KUHF 88.7 FM.

As ever-more attention and resources shift to new online and mobile business models, the question remains: Can print media succeed or even survive anymore?

John Beddow, publisher of the Houston Business Journal, recently stopped by Bauer Business Focus to discuss how the weekly publication has made its way online. He stressed the importance of finding a compatible route for integrating the two platforms.

“The outlook for print media depends on how well they can integrate their print product with the digital world,” Beddow said. “I’d say the reason why I think a lot of the daily newspapers, for example, have been having trouble is because they buy a lot of their content from the New York Times News Service or the Associated Press. Before the internet, people had to wait for their morning newspaper to drop on their driveway, so that was an adequate content decision.”

Beddow credits the Journal’s successful integration to a print and online publication to a consultant the Journal hired early into the integration process.

“We realized early on that it was going to be a digital world, and we looked at that as an opportunity to grow our audience,” Beddow added. “As a result, it’s been kind of a year-long process where we really concentrated on how can we put the whole package together that makes the print relevant with the online.”

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J. Wayne Ballew on Bauer Business Focus, November 15, 2013

Posted November 14th, 2013 - No Comments

On Bauer Business Focus — A conversation about oil in Venezuela with Andrew Schneider, business reporter for KUHF 88.7 FM.

In early November, Superior Energy released a report stating that two of their hydraulic snubbing units had been seized by the Venezuelan government in Anaco, Venezuela. The seizure took place after a Venezuelan company owed $9 million in debt to Superior Energy and Superior demanded payment.

Looper Reed & McGraw P.C. Associate J. Wayne Ballew stopped by Bauer Business Focus recently to discuss Superior Energy and the politics of oil in Venezuela.

“It’s becoming sort of a routine or a counter to somebody’s demand for payment with ongoing AR (payables) that are continuing to mount,” Ballew said.

Even with the political uncertainty in Venezuela, some U.S. and other foreign companies continue to do business there.

“Given the stability, or [in]stability of the regime, there’s a cost of doing business or a portion of your planning that can go into what would ultimately be a seizure by the government or an ousting by the government, and that’s a factor taken into account at the onset and on an ongoing basis by these projects,” Ballew added.

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