WHER Chat: Veteran-Owned & Women-Owned Businesses

WHER Chat: Veteran-Owned & Women-Owned Businesses

In honor of V-J Day, commemorating the end of World War II and the bravery of our veteran soldiers, NDILC member Erica Courtney, President of 2020vet and Zulu Time, U.S. Army Aviation, Major NATO Gender Advisor, highlights serious resource shortfalls for America’s women veterans face as entrepreneurs that the nation must be prepared to face in the near future in our 2020 NAWRB WHER, Volume III: Business Ownership.

Veteran women entrepreneurs possess traits that make them ideal business owners. Due to military training and knowledge, veterans are dependable, conditioned to make hard decisions, have integrity, take initiative and can adapt easily to challenging and evolving situations—all characteristics of a successful business owner. These women may see entrepreneurship as a means to prosper on their own terms by being their own boss.

This is a great time to be a woman veteran entrepreneur as we are the fastest-growing segment within the entrepreneurship community increasing by an astonishing 296 percent since 2007. Some of the reasons include a slight increase in women veterans; they are building businesses out of necessity; 40 percent of veterans are going into business for themselves as compared to the 10 percent Vietnam era entrepreneurs; more veterans have disability ratings than in wars past due to technology and better equipment; recent positive legislative changes; demand for third party corporate certification; and more available resources in terms of capital, education, and counseling.

It is important to note that despite the hurdles, veteran business owners have proven to be twice as successful in terms of revenue and business longevity, are twice as likely to hire other veterans, and contribute over $1.14T in sales receipts, $195B in annual payroll and employ over 5.03M employees. In 2012, veteran women-owned businesses were responsible for nearly 20 billion in receipts – an increase of 26.3 percent since 2007.

Veteran women continue to serve the United States by reinvesting and devoting themselves to the future, not through military service but through entrepreneurship. They are no stranger to hurdles and overcoming barriers as many dealt with this routinely while serving in a male-dominated profession. They are strong, smart, and driven, but we must understand specific challenges they face so we can help them be successful. 

Through entrepreneurship, many of the issues the community faces subside. Instead of masking the problem through medication prescribed at record rates, healthcare systems trying to keep up with a new demographic, and job placement programs in which the majority of veterans quit by year two, let’s put our efforts towards something that is working. It is not only a moral imperative that we take care of them but an economic one as well.

Find out more about NAWRB and how you can get involved and be a partner here!

About 2020 NAWRB WHER

The NAWRB Women Housing Ecosystem Report (WHER), our annual research report, provides the vision to revitalize communication and partnerships between industries as we work together to form mindful strategic solutions for social impact with a gender lens achievement. The 2020 NAWRB WHER includes the most diverse coverage of the Housing Ecosystem with almost eighty resources in six volumes: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Real Estate; Business Ownership; STEM; Access to Capital; and Aging Population. While waiting for the release of 2020 WHER, order a copy of the 2019 NAWRB WHER here!

 

WHER Chat: Imperatives of the Commercial Real Estate Industry During COVID-19

 

In 2020 NAWRB WHER, Volume II: Real Estate, we explore how the real estate industry is navigating COVID-19 challenges and utilizing technology as a solution. The industry must accomplish crucial initiatives during the pandemic to ensure the commercial real estate sector’s sustainability and reliability in the future.

1. Earning the respect, trust, and loyalty of customers and employees: In this time of uncertainty, leading operators are learning the importance of communicating to the point of overcommunication to make sure they are fully understanding and attending to their tenants’ needs at this moment and helping to protect everyone in their ecosystem. This may make communication as a company-level brand, rather than a property-level brand, more common, thereby speeding up an existing market trend.

In B2B environments, such as offices and retail stores, CEOs, and management teams are finding it helpful to asset managers and property managers by engaging directly with tenants. By interacting with the tenants directly, they not only address their needs more efficiently but also create a more trusting relationship with tenants who feel like they are being heard and valued.

2. Centralizing cash management: Prior to COVID-19, the McKinsey report notes that real estate was highly decentralized as important decisions regarding cash flow were made at the property level. However, due to the duration and depth of this crisis, which seems to have no end in sight in the United States, top management is now taking the initiative of centralized direction on property-level cash management in addition to company-level balance-sheet decisions and credit lines. As stated by the report, “All levels of management—including those at the property level and company level—are beginning to identify efficiency levers and when to pull them based on the underlying performance of properties and the business as a whole.”

3. Making tailored and informed decisions: Even within a single asset, needs will vary among tenants, particularly in commercial lease concessions. Real estate leaders are utilizing available behavioral data to generate fact-based insights that can help them make more informed decisions tailored to the needs of their diverse tenants (rather than a “one-size-fits-all” decision approach). They have data on local epidemiological and economic scenarios, competitive assets around a property, and the impact of the crisis on individual tenants.

4. Taking the digital leap: As we mentioned earlier, professionals in residential real estate have already taken the leap in digital sales and leasing processes, such as using virtual open houses and showings (sometimes augmented and virtual reality), as well omnichannel, targeted, and personalized sales. All of these tools are also available to the commercial real estate market in allowing their prospective tenants to find the right space for themselves.

5. Rethinking the future of real estate: Some landlords and lenders in the commercial real estate sector are looking ahead and preparing for how a business will change after the crisis is over. However, professionals are broadening their resources to include psychologists, sociologists, futurists, and technologists in addition to traditional economic or customer-survey-driven approaches. Some of the questions real estate professionals will have to ask include: “Will employees demand larger and more enclosed workspaces? Will people decide not to live in condominiums for fear of having to ride elevators?” By extending their research to include interdisciplinary resources and experts, business leaders will possibly find creative, informed solutions to these unprecedented challenges facing the industry.

About 2020 NAWRB WHER

The NAWRB Women Housing Ecosystem Report (WHER), our annual research report, provides the vision to revitalize communication and partnerships between industries as we work together to form mindful strategic solutions for social impact with a gender lens achievement. The 2020 NAWRB WHER includes the most diverse coverage of the Housing Ecosystem with almost eighty resources in six volumes: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Real Estate; Business Ownership; STEM; Access to Capital; and Aging Population. While waiting for the release of 2020 WHER, order a copy of the 2019 NAWRB WHER here!

FDIC Names Five New Members to Its Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee

As it is quite well known, the Great Depression that started in 1929 had a devastating toll on the American economy, people, and spirit. Because of this, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the 1933 Glass-Seagall Act which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Through this, a new government agency was born to maintain stability and foster public confidence in national banks by insuring depositors in the case of bank failures. Eighty-seven years later, the FDIC still strives to protect depositors by insuring $250,000 per individual.

In 2011, the FDIC created the Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee (SRAC) in order to provide the FDIC with resources and solutions to a variety of financial issues and companies. With 16 members, the SRAC strives to analyze how the FDIC’s authority under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 can impact covered individuals and more.

On July 23rd, the FDIC named five new members to the committee. In addition to the current eleven members of the SRAC, the five new members are Dr. Ben S. Bernanke, Gary Cohn, Hon. Robert Drain, Timothy J. Mayopoulos, and Sandie O’Conner. Committee members are chosen based on their wide range of experience in managing complex firms; administering bankruptcies; and working in the legal system, accounting field, and academia.

Click here to view the press release!

Leading Increasingly Intergenerational & Diverse Teams

Jason Ma

The future of work and talent has arrived, and change is not only constant but also accelerating. Worldwide, the growing impact of technologies (especially artificial intelligence), digital transformation, globalization, intergenerational and cultural shifts, diversity, as well as the changing nature of careers and the “gig economy,” are raising people’s and companies’ productivity and connectivity. At the same time, these factors, along with social media, geopolitical turbulence, educational system issues, among other causes, are increasing stress, anxiety, fear, and already intense competition.

These trends are occurring while the G20 has declared that the future of work is one of its top three agenda priorities. Just this past weekend, the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina (the G20 host country for 2018) concluded with the publication of the G20 Leaders’ Declaration. Here is an excerpt of this declaration by the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the 20 largest economies:

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HUD Announces Nearly $99 Million Awarded for Disabled Residents

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On Tuesday, HUD issued a press release announcing its awarding of $98.5 million to 285 public housing authorities across the country. These housing vouchers are intended to provide permanent housing assistance to “non-elderly persons with disabilities” who are, according to HUD, either transitioning out of institutional or other separated settings, at serious risk of institutionalization or who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

The press release emphasized that these are new vouchers, providing permanent housing to an additional 12,000 low-income disabled residents per year and that it meets the Americans with Disabilities Act goal by helping people with disabilities to live in an integrated setting.

They also provided a list of the PHAs in each state that have been awarded the vouchers and for which amounts.

View the original press release here.

LA Family Housing is One of Dateline’s “Angels of Skid Row”

Of the half a million people across America homeless at any given time, a quarter reside in California, with 55,000 in Los Angeles alone. Los Angeles’ Skid Row, 52 square blocks of blight, has the highest concentration of homeless in America.

Skid Row came about under unofficial policy of containment, but now thousands of homeless are spilling out into other areas in LA creating an even greater crisis.

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Unspoken Issues Impacting Women: Poverty, Health, Sexual Exploitation and Self-Confidence

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From its title alone, you can tell this panel was a little different from the others. Wide-ranging in scope, yet narrow in its focus on issues that derail women from advancing in life, the conversations held on stage focused on topics people are sometimes uncomfortable talking about including sexual exploitation and poverty.

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Beyond Abuse: Finding Our Voice on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

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It started with a phone call from Capital One Financial Corporation on January 14th, 2016. “Ms. Patno, are you the sole owner of Desiree Patno Enterprises, Inc.?”

That simple call was how I found out that my husband’s accountant had been dispersing my unsigned business checks illegally, with some going into her personal accounts and several others paying her bills directly.

I was (and still am) angry that not only my trust was betrayed, but after years of hard work and developing a reputation as a successful businesswoman in the housing and real estate sector, I was, to put it quite simply, duped.

How could this happen to me? And if this could happen to me, in my mid-fifties, plugged into and engaged fully in my businesses, what happens to women older than me, with fewer resources at their fingertips and perhaps cognitive issues?

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sheCENTER(FOLD) Edie Fraser

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Chairman and Founder, STEMconnector®/Million Women Mentors® (MWM)

Edie Fraser

Edie Fraser has spent her life in the service of equality with a passionate vision for a better tomorrow. Having led national poverty programs and worked to advance women’s gender equality for decades, she has a precise understanding of women’s progress. Discussing her life, Fraser alternates seamlessly between lessons learned in childhood and her biggest professional challenges, detailing her storied career and how the future is developing for women in America. 

NAWRB: In your opinion, what is the most important success women have had in the last 50 years?

Edie Fraser: Successes have been achieved and we celebrate them, and yes, we want parity. Studies show that it could take as long as 117 years to reach parity in the private sector. Let’s advocate for parity within every government institution, business, profession, organization, and in higher education.

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The Effect of Oil Prices on Real Estate

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As housing starts showing improvement, a new worry has crept in: can the dip in oil prices impact the recovering real estate market? At $30 per barrel, oil costs are the lowest they have been in almost 12 years and this could mean that gas prices will soon show a decline too, which will be favorable for millions of drivers across the nation. But is there a negative impact on the housing market?

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