ENTREPRENEURSHIP CAN OFTEN be glamourized, especially by folks like us, who focus on small- and medium-sized enterprises. We talk about it in lionized terms, celebrate entrepreneurs doing exciting things and encourage consumers to support these companies.

But it’s easy to forget that entrepreneurship can be an immense challenge ― and that it’s not always suited for everyone.

Recently, the BBC talked to entrepreneurs who looked back and suggested that, while they have been successful, regret their decision to strike out on their own. “If I’d had a crystal ball, I would’ve never made that jump,” said one Boston-based consultant. “I regret it all the time. I look back, and by now I would’ve consistently been making seven figures as a management consultant had I stayed working with the large firms.”

Money is a regular feature of these complaints; entrepreneurship is always a bit of a gamble, especially if you’re leaving a high-earning track to pursue it. The other is time. “My biggest misconception was that being my own business equalled freedom ― that you could come and go as you pleased and set your own hours,” said another PR entrepreneur.

To the experts, it’s crucial to make sure that if we are encouraging entrepreneurs to start their own ventures, that they also be encouraged to see the whole picture, not just the good parts.

“Entrepreneurship is a beautiful thing,” writes Forbes business development council member Tim Conn. “Accept that the path forward isn’t going to be easy. Your problems won’t go away with the new path you decide to go down, but in a sense, better problems may arise.”

“This entrepreneurial drive and risk-taking spirit have shaped our world today,” added regretful entrepreneur Sam Schreim. “But that optimism has to be accompanied by a strong sense of realism. You need to be aware of the ups and downs that this career choice brings before you decide to follow through.” Kieran Delamont

TRAVEL & LOGISTICS

Business travel is dead. Long live business travel

Contrary to dire predictions, business travel is making a comeback ― but it looks different

THERE WAS NO shortage of people eager to declare that the pandemic would kill off business travel. With Zoom meetings the new norm for the past few years, air travel being fraught with delay nightmares and costs being squeezed, many made reasonable predictions that business travel might be one of the first things to disappear in the new business world. (Heck, we’ve definitely mused about it in this newsletter!)

Well, to paraphrase the old Mark Twain quote, reports of the death of business travel have been greatly exaggerated.

“Microsoft founder Bill Gates predicted that more than 50 per cent of business travel would disappear, and even some senior airline industry bosses thought a significant chunk was gone forever,” writes the Financial Times’ Philip Georgiadis. “But in reality, executives have been quick to abandon video calls and get back on the road. Like many changes that seemed permanent during the pandemic, old habits have steadily returned.”

That’s been backed up by what airlines and hotel groups are saying in their quarterlies. In their most recent quarterly earnings report, Delta Air reported that their small- and medium-sized business bookings had fully recovered to 2019 volumes. Marriott reported that hotel demand was “strengthening” for corporate group bookings. And last fall, Southwest Airlines said it saw evidence that business travel was returning in strength.

Ariel Cohen, founder of the corporate booking platform Navan, suggested that what’s going on is that the nature of business travel is changing, but the volume of it is holding steady. Fewer salespeople are hitting the road on sales trips, but more companies are flying people to a single location to meet.

“The theory is that because you have remote work, people need to meet more because they don’t know each other.” (That seems to track with something else we’ve talked about in Worklife ― the increasing trend of internal “retreats” accounting for a good chunk of business travel.)

Interestingly, the pandemic shove to remote work is also contributing to the biz travel bounce back through a marked rise in “bleisure” and “flexcation” travel, which combine the worlds of leisure and business travel.

And there’s even more hope within the industry that as China relaxes its Covid rules, that the numbers will keep going up. “We believe there’s still further upside for 2023, especially now that China’s borders have reopened,” said Marriott president Tony Capuano. Kieran Delamont

COMPENSATION

Recession? Maybe. Perk-cession? No question

Goodbye to the good life: The cushy perks, unlimited snacks and office play toys are rapidly becoming a thing of the past

AS HAS BEEN the case for most of the last eight to ten months, we may ― or may not ― be in a technical recession right now, depending on how you’re looking at the data. The indicators are conflicting on that one – we’ve got layoffs, but low unemployment; companies cutting costs, but recording profits. Like I said, conflicting trends.

But we are in a “perk-cession,” stated the Wall Street Journal.

“The ping-pong tables have turned,” writes Anne Marie Chakar. “Companies are cutting back on prized employee perks from fancy coffee to free cab rides, as they vow to trim costs and prioritize efficiency.”

This development has even hit some of the most notoriously perk-y workplaces. Meta was among the first to cut off the perk faucet, ending free laundry and dry cleaning as well as the free evening meal. At Salesforce, the free specialty coffee baristas are gone.

“This is me, playing the world’s tiniest little violin,” you might say to yourself as you pop open your Tupperware lunch. Fair! But as a point of economic data, experts see some interesting things going on here. Perks are never just perks ― they are part of the overall way workers are compensated and rewarded.

In the post-2008, low-interest-rate economy, tech companies were notorious for their perks, in part because having investor cash to burn on perks helped them attract and retain some of the most skilled talent. But now that capital isn’t so cheap and accessible, the perks can’t flow so freely.

While the bottom line may benefit from cutting perks, HR departments are shouldering the challenge of offering attractive benefits and packages to employees. “Just because companies can’t ― or don’t want to ― offer employees over-the-top perks, doesn’t mean you have to stop making your organization a great place to work,” writes Michele McGovern at HR Morning.

“This continuing tussle, about where and when and how we work, is an enduring symptom of the post-Covid economy,” writes Stefan Stern in The Guardian. “The real challenge here, as usual, is for managers themselves. What sort of work environment are you creating? If you were a twenty- or thirtysomething employee, paying high rent, still dealing with a student loan and having to travel in for an hour or more to reach the sacred office, would you really bother leaving the flat if you could do the job from home? It will take more than a free croissant to get people to show up.” Kieran Delamont

PRODUCTIVITY

Say hello to your new online coworker

Why are remote workers “body doubling” online, and can it help get stuff done?

MORE FROM LONDON INC.

Follow Us