Tag Archives: Las Vegas

Nevada’s Pot Business About to be Smoked

03 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by in About Reno, Aging, Branding, Business, Education, Employee Retention, Ethics, Generational, Government, Government Regulation, Green, Health, Higher Education, History, Honor, Management Practices, Politics, Pride, Public Image, Public Relations, Recreation, Respect, solar, Space, Taxes, Technology, Travel, Universities, US History

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Welcome to Nevada, where citizens watch other people get rich

Nevada has relied on being the rebel for decades, and it always fails to provide a reliable economy.

When gambling was taboo in the nation, Nevada became one of the few places people could gamble. People flocked to Nevada to gamble. Nevada had a ‘gaming’ industry.

In 1988, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act opened the door to legalize gambling on Indian Reservations, and over the next three decades California built up an Indian Gaming industry that didn’t require taking chances with a trip to Nevada. Nevada’s gaming industry stagnated.

When a quick marriage and/or a quick divorce was taboo in the nation, Nevada made divorce easy. People flocked to Nevada to officially end or begin a relationship. Nevada had a marriage industry.

Then divorce became a fact of life and most of the rest of the country decided that government should be trying to inhibit the desires of a couple, so they made marriage and divorce easier. Couples no longer had to travel to Nevada to say their vows, or go their separate ways and Nevada’s marriage and divorce industry collapsed. 

Gambling, divorce, prostitution have all been part of Nevada’s economic plan, and they all have created more problems than money for its citizens. It’s a consistent trait of Nevada’s leadership in pursuing big money that comes with little or no foundation in what is best for the average citizen.

For the last six months, Nevada boosted its economy with legalized recreational marijuana sales. Again, people from California flocked to the state to get what they couldn’t get at home. Pot. And again, Nevada’s economic boost will be short-lived as California recreational pot business gets underway in 2018.

Nevada is a state where a few people become filthy rich and pay very little in taxes. Nevada compounds the problem by prostituting themselves for marginal industries that are not stable and corporations that seek to avoid paying their share of taxes while reaping big profits.

The result has been that Nevada has no money to improve schools that are ranked near the bottom in the United States. Nevada’s poor education record has resulted in businesses needing a highly educated workforce to go elsewhere despite the seductive tax environment.

Nevada has to stop lusting after short-term economies and start building a real economy…or watch the hopes and dreams of its citizens go up in smoke.

Senator Dean Heller is Still a Stockbroker

20 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by in About Reno, Aging, Business, Ethics, Generational, Government, Government Regulation, Health, History, Honor, Politics, Public Image, Public Relations, racism, Taxes, US History, Women

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Senator Dean Heller and his client, Donald Trump

Dean Heller is a career politician who has been on the payroll of the government for almost 30 years. His primary ‘real world’ employment consists of five years (1983-1988) working as a stockbroker for Pacific Stock Exchange in California, two of those years he was finishing up his undergraduate degree at University of Southern California (USC.)

Despite his short stint in private business three decades ago , Heller is still a stockbroker serving the needs of his wealthy clients. He is a friend to the Nevada gaming corporations, the Nevada mining corporations, and the energy corporations. As a stockbroker politician, it’s not that Heller doesn’t like those who are not wealthy, he just doesn’t care about them, unless he can trick them into voting for him.

Earlier this year Senator Heller feigned his support of the average Nevada citizen by waiting until it was clear that Trump’s plan to end health insurance for millions was going to fall short by more than two Republican votes needed for passage, then he announced that he would be the fifth Republican to vote against it. His ‘no’ vote was meaningless, but he did exploit the opportunity to make it look like he was for the ‘little guy.’

Heller’s vote for the Tax Cuts for the Wealthy is consistent with his political stockbroker role in government. He can also be relied on to make cuts in programs that are vital to average Nevada citizens in the new year…unless, of course, other Republicans fail to support it, and then he will likely beat his breast and say that he also opposes it.

It’s sad that the average Nevada citizen’s best hope lies in Republican Senators from other states doing the correct thing, while Heller serves his wealthy masters.

Starbucks makes a smart move: Free WiFi

09 Friday Jul 2010

Posted by in About Reno, Branding, Communication, Customer Relations, Customer Service, Information Technology, Internet, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Relationships, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations, The Tipping Point

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by Paul Kiser
USA PDT  [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Customer Loyalty: Paul Kiser in Starbucks style

Today I’m dressed like a Starbucks employee to honor the wisdom of the decision-makers at the famous coffee company to team with AT&T to offer free WiFi to all. They started it on July 1st. It is a smart move…a very smart move.

Why? There is one common aspect of every successful business and it is simply to give your customers a reason to love you. That’s it! Customers who love a service or product is an absolute ‘must’ if you want to build customer loyalty and business referrals. You can spend millions of dollars in advertising and not get the return that a company gets with requited love from their customers. With free WiFi Starbucks has found a way of creating value-added service that will cause many people to love Starbucks.

If you have a ‘butts-in-the-seats’ type of business and you want customers to: 1) frequent your location, 2) spend time and money in your business and, 3) be loyal to your business then free WiFi is one of the best ways to make it happen. Here’s what will happen for Starbucks over the next 12 months.

  • Starbucks will see increased traffic of laptop users (a ‘small’ market of people who will buy almost 200 million laptops in 2010)
  • Starbucks will see more repeat business
  • Starbucks will be more visible to more people
  • Starbucks will not need to spend as much on advertising and will get more social media publicity

All butts-in-the-seats organizations would like to experience these four outcomes in their business, so why don’t more places offer free WiFi? In brief, the answer is ‘accountant-think’, which is always short-sighted. The common rationale is one of two issues. First, instead of seeing free WiFi as an inexpensive way to add value to their service the accountant-think business people try to make it a revenue source. In Reno, Nevada the major hotel/gaming properties have been known to charge as much as $500 to ‘turn on’ WiFi in their convention areas and most of the properties charge around $13/day for guests to have access to WiFi. The result is that technology conventions go elsewhere rather than be charged for a service that they can get for considerably less (or free) in another market. The Reno gaming properties have boxed themselves in with contracts or dependence on the revenue source from WiFi, so they are now in a death spiral of losing more and more business or give up a piece of their dwindling revenue.

Last year I was in Las Vegas on a business trip and stayed at the South Point property. They charged a fee for WiFi, so I went to Starbucks to get online (my home account is with AT&T, so I’ve always had free access at Starbucks.) Afterward I picked up dinner at the Outback Restaurant next door and took it back to my room. South Point didn’t get me to stay on property, nor did they even get me to eat at in-house, simply because they didn’t offer Free WiFi. Is that a smart business move on their part? Nope, just good, solid accountant-think.

The second rationale accountant-think executives is that WiFi customers don’t have a revenue impact. In August of 2009, Erica Alini wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal (NOTE: the Wall Street Journal or WSJ is a historical archive of old business trends written by accountant-think reporters) that declared, “Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users.” For her article Ms. Alini cites three examples in New York that discussed limiting or eliminating laptops at a cafe or coffee shop. The most common problem seemed to be too many customers … what a tragic problem … and that some laptop users were purchasing minimal product. However, Ms. Alini admits that some places were using laptop users to ‘make the place look busy.’

A deserted restaurant is cause for people to avoid the business, so having customers, even minimal revenue producing customers, can mean more paying customers. My question is how much would a coffee shop have to pay people to sit and look like customers? Free WiFi is a small price to pay. I spend $10 to $15 per day at my Home Starbucks on Keystone in Reno, NV, USA. It will not make me a shareholder, but it is money I would not spend in one place, except for the fact that I am a captured customer. I also always meet with people at a Starbucks, so I bring in additional customers. The major factor in my customer loyalty is the access to free WiFi.

Starbucks has made a very smart business move with making free WiFi a value-added service for all and the return on the service will reap big dividends in customer loyalty and increased traffic (butts in the seats.) Starbucks customers have a new reason to love Starbucks and that is key to survival in today’s world. But don’t try telling that to the accountant-think executives running other stores and restaurants. They just won’t understand it … and I’m sure that’s okay with Starbucks.

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