Business

Two major indicators of home remodeling activity are pointing to a decelerating market throughout 2015, but investors seem to be confident that remodeling companies and supporting retailers will continue to be profitable nonetheless. The National Association of Home Builders released its Remodeling Market Index for the first quarter of 2015 on April 23. It was set at 57. Any RMI figure above 50 indicates that more remodelers say they have more activity than they did in the past quarter than say they have less activity; the current figure is above that key point, but lower than the 60 set in the last quarter of 2014. That means that the market is growing but at a slower rate. The latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity, set by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for...

Wells Fargo announced earlier this week that it had established a new group specifically to provide financial services to investors, developers, and owners of senior living facilities. The new group will be fully-staffed, and expands support for balance sheet lending in addition to providing traditional banking and credit services. The demand is high for new senior housing, as the population of Americans over the age of 65 is expected to grow to 80 million by 2040, according to the United States Census Bureau. This will be a 67% increase from 48 million seniors currently. While not every senior will need assisted living, the Department of Health and Human services expects 70% of seniors to eventually require long-term care. The group has already begun its work, financing several projects...

Can self-service be good customer service? Both the overall population and Millennials in particular think so, according to a new report from Aspect Software. The study, done in conjunction with the Center for Generational Kinetics, found that more than 65% of respondents said they felt good about both themselves and a company when they were able to solve a problem without directly contacting a customer service agent. That figure ticked up slightly for Millennials, at 69%. “Though the idea of self-service customer service may seem counter-intuitive, it makes sense when one thinks about it,” Peter Roesler wrote in a Denver Business Journal review of the study April 22. “Customer service reps for a company are normally providing assistance based on information given to them in a user guide...

Anyone working in an office environment knows that productivity is always the top priority, regardless of how it's measured. The problem, as many American workers will vouch for, is that meeting the productivity goal often isn't enough; the prevalence of mobile devices like smartphones and laptops allow the workplace to infiltrate the home environment so much that employees are often expected to go above and beyond the basic goals. For many young adults, habits are developed early in life, during high school and college, in order to produce results for a system that measures success in terms of grades. As a recent New York Times article has noted, this time period is often when young people develop dependencies on stimulants like Adderall, Vyvanse, and Concerta. These highly controlled p...

Virgin America announced last week that it will be offering its first flight to Hawaii in the fall. A daily round trip between San Francisco and Honolulu will begin Nov. 2, and a route between San Francisco and Kahului (on the island of Maui) will be launched Dec. 3. CEO David Cush has also indicated that flights to Hawaii out of Los Angeles will likely be added in 2016. “This announcement is exciting news for Hawaii,” the Hawaii Tourism Authority said in a statement regarding the plans. “We have been working together with Virgin America for more than five years to make these new flights and their entry into our market a reality.” Tourism is a major part of the Hawaiian economy, from exploring the ocean to tours throughout Hawaii, travelers from near and far come to enjoy all of the ben...

As the Obama Administration continues to advocate for a nationwide network of electronic health records that would allow for better information sharing among healthcare providers, a new analysis shows that millions of electronic patient records have been compromised in the past years in data security breaches. According to the analysis, published April 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, healthcare organizations put 29.1 million patient records at risk between 2010 and 2013 as the result of 949 reported security breaches. “The personal information of patients in the United States is not safe, and it needs to be,” Dr. David Blumenthal of the Commonwealth Fund and attorney Deven McGraw of the law firm Manatt Phelps & Phillips wrote in an editorial published alongside t...

B2B marketing is different from B2C marketing campaigns on a fundamental level -- everyone in the industry knows that, and it's why there's a small uproar every time a new report is released claiming that B2B is "becoming more like B2C" in terms of marketing and conversion strategies. As Practical eCommerce contributor Marcia Kaplan recently stated, "[o]nline B2B sellers now recognize that the customer experience in a B2B environment is just as important as the customer experience in B2C." B2B companies, Kaplan argues, are starting to pick up the marketing strategies that B2C companies typically use -- most notably, B2B marketers seem to be using social media and content marketing more than ever before. But according to the annual B2B Web Usability Report conducted by KoMarketing and Buy...

Web design has traditionally relied heavily on programming code -- until now. Techcrunch.com reports that code-free web design platforms are becoming increasingly popular with businesses and web designers alike. Platform companies such as Wix and Squarespace offer a "hassle-free" method of web design that requires no knowledge of coding or web design. Some platforms, such as Webydo and Webflow, are geared toward professional web designers that lack the desire or patience to write code. Webydo, the Tel Aviv-based platform developer, was created in order to aid web designers by eliminating the need for busywork. "We initially felt enslaved to an old process that depended on developers to manually convert graphic design into handwritten code," said Shmulik Grizim, the CEO and co-founder of...

Given the kind of patients The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has recently admitted, one wonders whether the eponymous founder had any pets himself. The Baltimore Sun reports that over the past couple of months, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has been treating animals in addition to humans. Veterinarians not affiliated with the school have been able to order cutting-edge diagnostics tests such as MRI scans and request special treatments for animals. So far, the school has mostly seen cats and dogs but has also admitted birds and other exotic animals to its Center for Image-Guided Animal Therapy (CIGAT). Though The Johns Hopkins University is not affiliated with any veterinary schools, administration officials claim that the animal treatment fits in with its research mission. Doct...

Mobile web usage has been on the rise ever since smartphones and tablets became accessible and affordable, and for years now, consumers have been using their mobile devices to make purchases, to stay connected with friends, and to find out about the latest news stories. It's no surprise that a business's mobile web design -- or lack thereof -- is becoming increasingly indicative of the business's overall success. It's surprising, therefore, that so many businesses ignore the importance of a responsive and effective mobile web design; for consumers who are trying to find information about the business or make a purchase, it can be downright aggravating. For this reason, Google announced back in February 2015 that it would be releasing another algorithm update in April, and would be focusi...