Speaker 1: Small business owners are both optimistic and uncertain, the NFIB
Speaker 1: Optimism index rising for a fourth straight month to its
Speaker 1: highest level since February of twenty twenty two. At the
Speaker 1: same time, the Uncertainty intex index also continues to climb.
Speaker 1: Let's get a read on how business owners feel across
Speaker 1: the country. Joining us now is Barbara Corkoran, the founder
Speaker 1: of the Corcoran Group and of course executive producer of
Speaker 1: Shark Tank. Barbara Great having on the program, Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for joining us.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about your advice to small
Speaker 1: business owners. They come to you time and again for
Speaker 1: help and growing their businesses. And we're at a time
Speaker 1: right now where it looks like the economy is growing,
Speaker 1: but the US consumer is pulling back. What are you
Speaker 1: telling these business owners.
Speaker 3: I'm telling them that someone has to get more of
Speaker 3: a fair share of the market than the next guy,
Speaker 3: and fear stands in the way, Loneliness stands in the way, and.
Speaker 2: It it erodes people's confidence. This always business to be had,
Speaker 2: Why s you have it?
Speaker 3: So I'm getting them to be more aggressive and more
Speaker 3: confident in reaching out, and.
Speaker 4: Of course Barbara on Bloomberg. We talk about the FED
Speaker 4: all the time. We talk about high interest rates all
Speaker 4: the time. Matt has made the point just this morning
Speaker 4: that even if the FED cut rates in September, that's
Speaker 4: going to work with a lag. You're not going to
Speaker 4: feel that immediately in the economy. What is the on
Speaker 4: the ground view, the on the ground perspective that you're
Speaker 4: hearing about how high interest rates are filtering through down
Speaker 4: to small business owners.
Speaker 3: Over the last six months, it's been nothing but a
Speaker 3: series of complaints. I almost put my phone on mute
Speaker 3: when I get a call from someone. But in the
Speaker 3: last month, I would say, once people have passed the fear,
Speaker 3: people are feeling more optimistic. My very tiny entrepreneurs have
Speaker 3: just started within the last year a feeling more optimistic
Speaker 3: because they're greatly affected by business loans and they're expecting
Speaker 3: rates to come down somewhat, so they're feeling more optimism.
Speaker 3: I would say overall across the board.
Speaker 5: When you think across the board as well, and you
Speaker 5: think but the cost that business owners are still struggling with,
Speaker 5: it's everything from real estate costs. As you know very
Speaker 5: very well this industry. It's also still wondering about where
Speaker 5: labor goes from here, What are the biggest challenges you're
Speaker 5: seeing that they have, and who do you think comes
Speaker 5: in to fix it?
Speaker 3: The only one who could fix the business as the
Speaker 3: entrepreneur themselves. That's why our webinar series sponsored by AT
Speaker 3: and T Business is so valuable because we give a
Speaker 3: lot of practical answers and examples and into a lot
Speaker 3: of people who are doing it right. Really, the only
Speaker 3: thing that gets in the way of a business moving
Speaker 3: forward is really thinking that it's a time to be afraid.
Speaker 3: But what I have learned in business, every time I
Speaker 3: moved my own business ahead, it was in the worst
Speaker 3: of times that everybody was an aasayer. Because when those
Speaker 3: times hit, everybody's laying low and everybody's afraid to move ahead.
Speaker 2: And that's when you can actually.
Speaker 3: Grab the basis of customers from your main competition if
Speaker 3: you care to, because this great opportunity all around that
Speaker 3: you could take advantage of.
Speaker 1: We talk about interest rates now as if they are
Speaker 1: sky high, and we've never seen anything like this. You know,
Speaker 1: seven percent mortgage rates. You crazy became famous, made your fortune,
Speaker 1: started your career in real estate at the time when
Speaker 1: rates could.
Speaker 2: Get much higher.
Speaker 1: What do you tell people who are worried about you know,
Speaker 1: rates at this level, you know, paralyzing transactions.
Speaker 3: It's really a waste of time to spend a minute
Speaker 3: worrying about it. The only thing that counts in growing
Speaker 3: up business is what can you do about it? And
Speaker 3: certainly you have no control over the rates. But I
Speaker 3: do remember when interest rates were eighteen percent and everybody
Speaker 3: was afraid of buying, except the super rich, because they
Speaker 3: had the capital behind them to go out there and
Speaker 3: pay all cash for anything they wanted.
Speaker 2: They took advantage.
Speaker 3: You got thirty percent discounts on the market rate of
Speaker 3: a year before the price rate of a year before.
Speaker 3: I tell people that whenever there's a change in the
Speaker 3: in the making a business and everybody's afraid, just have
Speaker 3: to look around and see where you could take advantage of,
Speaker 3: where you could go in and scoop something out. At
Speaker 3: that time, when interest rates were eighteen percent, I remember
Speaker 3: making the actual decision in one day to switch my
Speaker 3: business halfway out of sales and go into rentals to
Speaker 3: move with the market.
Speaker 2: But it's funny how not even.
Speaker 3: Funny, but it's sad how entrepreneurs get stuck with their
Speaker 3: old reality of what they specialized and.
Speaker 2: What they're good at. I learned. I learned the rental
Speaker 2: market right away because I had to. There were no sales.
Speaker 4: Well, to use a personal example when it comes to
Speaker 4: real estate, I tried to buy a house an apartment,
Speaker 4: and the interestrars are just too high. And my bet
Speaker 4: there was, Okay, I'll just wait a couple of years,
Speaker 4: sign another multi year lease and then hope on the
Speaker 4: other side that rates will be lower. How much pent
Speaker 4: up demand do you think is on the other side
Speaker 4: of lower mortgage rates from here?
Speaker 3: Tremendous demand because there are so many people thinking exactly
Speaker 3: as you are. And if you would take my advice,
Speaker 3: I would say get out there because what you have
Speaker 3: right now, which you won't have if rates come.
Speaker 2: Down another point.
Speaker 3: They just came down, but you need one more point
Speaker 3: to bring everybody out into the market.
Speaker 2: And what's going to happen is you're going to pay
Speaker 2: more for the house.
Speaker 3: So what have you really gained by paying the landlord
Speaker 3: over these years and taken the increases in rent?
Speaker 2: Not much because price have gone up.
Speaker 3: But wait, do you see what happens with prices when
Speaker 3: interest rates come down another percentage point.
Speaker 5: Well to that end also, right, you know, interest rates
Speaker 5: go down, prices go up, And at the end of
Speaker 5: the day, how much, Barbara, do you worry about housing
Speaker 5: affordability in this country.
Speaker 3: I worry about it all the time on two fronts.
Speaker 3: Rents keep going up anywhere in the United States, and
Speaker 3: that's a real concern because people can afford the rents
Speaker 3: based on their income. And I also worry much more
Speaker 3: so about people getting their piece of the American dream
Speaker 3: buying their first house, because the first house market, the
Speaker 3: story house market, is the hardest hit where the greatest
Speaker 3: bidding is going on. I even I had the daughter
Speaker 3: or a friend of mine tell me that last week
Speaker 3: she was competing again. Are two best friends in the
Speaker 3: New York market. It's crazy and she's going to have
Speaker 3: to invite them for dinner parties after. So it's this
Speaker 3: so much competitive bidding, so much going over the price,
Speaker 3: and so much fear going around because people feel like
Speaker 3: can't get a head no starter. Prices are a real
Speaker 3: problem in America and they're going up everywhere.
Speaker 2: Barbara.
Speaker 1: I want to get back to the small businesses you're
Speaker 1: helping out, you're working with at and t business talking
Speaker 1: about technology driven solutions. That immediately makes me think of AI,
Speaker 1: artificial intelligence, and I wonder, you know, given that you've
Speaker 1: seen the real estate market and business move through the
Speaker 1: Internet age, what's your take on this new, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: supposedly revolutionary technology.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a very good parallel you draw because I
Speaker 3: remember the days when I went on the Internet, and
Speaker 3: I was the first, over two years before my competitors
Speaker 3: went on, and what an advantage it was.
Speaker 2: But I had one magic thing. I wasn't afraid.
Speaker 3: What's stopping people using AI? And with so much chatters
Speaker 3: or around it, I'm sure you've sensed it is that
Speaker 3: people are afraid of it. But it's really like a
Speaker 3: muscle that you have to use and exercise. And it
Speaker 3: doesn't even take as much muscle as getting into the
Speaker 3: Internet took, which was rather complicated for a lot of
Speaker 3: small businesses. All you have to do is schedule ten
Speaker 3: minutes a day and just fool around with it and
Speaker 3: you start to learn, excuse me, AI and how you
Speaker 3: can use in your business. It's the single best thing
Speaker 3: that has affected small business and that's why we made
Speaker 3: it a topic of our third at and T seminar
Speaker 3: because people need to know how they could use a
Speaker 3: pardon me a one to save costs of hiring people
Speaker 3: that they get for free now by using AI, they
Speaker 3: used to have to contend with the payroll.
Speaker 2: Who do I hire? AI does all the.
Speaker 3: Grudge work today for every small business I'm going to
Speaker 3: change your attitude or AI.
Speaker 4: Well, I want to talk about the attitude a little
Speaker 4: bit more before we let you go, because we're talking
Speaker 4: about fear among small business owners. There's a lot of
Speaker 4: ways to get scared about AI. When you think about
Speaker 4: robots replacing all of our I mean, how do you
Speaker 4: get past that fear and actually change the attitude?
Speaker 3: Well, I have to say people who get past the
Speaker 3: fear are not the people who are employed, but the
Speaker 3: people who should have no fear other people who employ them.
Speaker 3: Because before you do that next hire that you think
Speaker 3: you have a need for someone, you try AI. They
Speaker 3: will answer your needs. So there's really a no fear
Speaker 3: or shouldn't be fear on the part of the business owner.
Speaker 3: All right, Barbara, So don't forget the seminar you could
Speaker 3: find on eight A eight Barbara dot com.
Speaker 2: I have to get that in sponsored by AT and
Speaker 2: T business.
Speaker 4: I respect it. You got that plug in. Barbara really
Speaker 4: enjoyed this conversation. Hope to have you back soon. That,
Speaker 4: of course, is Barbara Corcoran.