Pinky Cole Says This Is The Secret Sauce To Running A Business

Running a business is far from easy. From coming up with an initial concept to acquiring investors, being an entrepreneur is serious work. There are thousands of entrepreneurs in the United States, but some especially stand out. For example, Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole has made her mark in the vegan space. The Black female vegan entrepreneur started Slutty Vegan in 2018. Six years later the fast-food vegan chain has fourteen brick and mortar locations. But Cole isn’t stopping there. She is a big believer in mentoring and investing in Black vegan entrepreneurs like Angela Simmons, who started a vegan funnel cake company called Angela’s Cakes. Simmons was inspired to start Angela’s Cakes when Cole initially came up with the idea. Now Angela’s Cakes is operated as a partner through Pinky Cole and Slutty Vegan.

Simmons only had kind words to say about her mentor and business partner Pinky Cole. “Pinky and I had a relationship prior and then we talked. Pinky was the part of the brainchild behind Angela’s Cakes. I talked to her and she had an idea. We collaborated and came up with Angela’s cakes. It’s really important to be behind one another when it comes to the different ideas we have. I’m a really big believer in collaboration,” she told me.

“It’s always great to get advice from someone who’s done it before. I’m really big on getting advice from people who have done it successfully, who have great input. Pinky is a mentor. This is what she does in the food world. This is my first go at being in the food space. Even though I love it, it’s much different when you’re actually in it from a business perspective. Make sure you have a mentor in that space, and, if not, look for one,” she said. And Cole is one of Simmons’ biggest champions. I spoke with Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole about what she believes is the secret sauce to running a successful business.

Emphasize Marketing and Branding

Cole isn’t in the food industry for the money, although according to her, Slutty Vegan is valued at nearly one hundred million dollars. She believes that marketing is the voice of a business– and she isn’t wrong. The Atlanta based entrepreneur has plenty of solid advice for up and coming entrepreneurs, especially those

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Warren Buffett Paid $1.7 Billion For A Business Without Ever Meeting Its Founders By Using The ‘Most Important’ Thing in Business

Warren Buffett Paid $1.7 Billion For A Business Without Ever Meeting Its Founders By Using The ‘Most Important’ Thing in Business

Warren Buffett is known for his astute business practices and hardball negotiation tactics. His company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is one of the largest conglomerates and investment companies in the world. It has acquired dozens of companies over the years with over 75 wholly owned or controlled subsidiaries. It owns shares valued at billions of dollars in companies like Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Mastercard Inc. and others.

Buffett amassed his incredible portfolio and his company’s nearly $1 trillion value through decades of astute investing, smart acquisitions and business acumen. Buffett, a long-time resident of Nebraska, earned his undergraduate degree in business from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1950. Nearly six decades later, he returned to the university to give a speech to the graduating class, talking about some of the most valuable things he learned at a young age that helped propel him to where he is today.

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Buffett said there’s nothing more important to understand than accounting.

“People ask me what they should take in business school,” Buffett said. “You have to understand accounting. It’s the language. It’s like being in a foreign country without knowing the language if you’re in business and you don’t understand accounting.”

Not only is this a valuable tool for understanding the world of business, Buffet says it made him “a lot of money.”

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Accounting isn’t an abstract principle only used in textbooks. Buffett recounts how he used accounting to acquire the popular home manufacturing company Clayton Homes in early 2003.

Most acquisitions have extensive due diligence, meetings, negotiations and other processes before an acquisition can take place. While much of this likely still took place, Buffett gave a unique, billion-dollar example of how he used accounting to acquire the business.

“We agreed to $1.7 billion for it. I made that deal over the phone without ever meeting the people there,” Buffett said. “But I had seen enough through reading 10-Ks, 10-Qs, annual reports.”

Buffett admits using his accounting skills and an acquisition target’s Securities and Exchange Commission disclosures to analyze the company and learn about its quality based on the decisions revealed in their filings.

While it’s likely a host

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Comer denounces Greene’s motion to vacate Speaker: ‘Not the right business model’

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) pushed back on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) motion to vacate against Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), saying it is “not the right business model.”

“Now Mike Johnson walked into a bad situation,” Comer said Friday in an interview with Fox News’s Martha MacCallum. “It’s gotten a lot worse since he’s been here. But changing Speakers is not the right business model.”

His comments come as Greene has ramped up her threat against the Speaker in light of his efforts to provide additional aid to Ukraine. She filed the motion to vacate against Johnson back in late March and has gained at least three GOP co-sponsors.

Earlier this week, the Georgia Republican said she doesn’t care if the “Speaker’s office becomes a revolving door.” In an appearance on former White House aide Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, she said she wants “an ‘America First’ economy” and that “we are going to demand it from our Republican leaders.”

Comer appeared to disagree, saying Friday that Johnson should “remain Speaker,” at least until the end of the current session. Then, he said, “we can re-huddle, and decide which direction to go in next year.”

He also acknowledged he thought the motion to vacate that resulted in the historic ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) late last year was a “mistake.” He added that the move “really disrupted” the House Republican Conference in “a bad way.”

Also asked about former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s (R-Ga.) recent comment that the motion to vacate was “totally stupid,” as it would be difficult to find 218 supporters, Comer seemingly agreed, standing behind Johnson.

“But right now, as you mentioned, there’s not going to be another candidate that 100 percent of our conference is gonna rally behind,” the lawmaker said.

Still, Comer said he was opposed to the Ukraine aid provisions within the foreign spending package introduced by Johnson nearly a week ago.

The pressure on the Speaker to pass additional assistance for the embattled country has been strong. With the help of Democrats, to some conservatives’ dismay, the House advanced the group of bills that would send more aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region, among other priorities.

“They are different aid bills. With respect to Ukraine, I’m totally opposed to that,” Comer told MacCallum. “I don’t believe the hard-working, tax-paying people in Kentucky want to

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Our business is basements, our foundation is people

Mention a leaking basement, and most homeowners will cringe. Water intrusion is damaging and stressful, disrupting lives and posing a potential risk to a home’s most crucial systems. For those seeking relief, the answer is often found in the expertise of an experienced basement repair company that can address the root problem, not just the symptoms.

DryBasements.com Ltd. understands this well. With over three decades of experience in the waterproofing industry, they’ve cultivated a reputation for reliability and customer-centric service. While their skills in basement repairs are undeniable, DryBasements.com believes their true strength lies in the emphasis they put on their people, from their clients to their skilled team.

“A company is only as good as its worst installer,” declares Josh Horst, Operations Manager at DryBasements.com. “We strive to make sure everyone is well trained in the repair work they are doing.” The company invests heavily in staff training, recognizing that consistency in quality comes from ensuring all team members have the required knowledge base and a meticulous approach to their work.

The focus on people and relationships is evident from the first point of contact for most clients. Tamara Bolderson, who works in the office at DryBasements.com, describes the approach: “I try to empathize with our clients. It’s not fun having your basement leak. I like to show them that I care and reassure them that our team will work hard to find a solution.” It’s this understanding of a caller’s potential stress and a willingness to take the time to listen that starts to build the sense of trust DryBasements.com cherishes.

Wendy Lower, receptionist, explains: “During heavy rains or snowmelt, many of the people calling are very stressed, upset, or in a panic as their basement is flooding. I try to stay calm while they are not.” Like Tamara, Wendy’s goal is to make the homeowner feel heard and understood, a crucial ingredient in the customer experience DryBasements.com wants to foster.

Rob O’Donnell, an estimator with DryBasements.com, understands the importance of clear communication and building trust with homeowners. “My main goal is making sure the client understands the reason behind the water intrusion and the best way to repair it.” He uses detailed literature and visuals during assessments and welcomes questions to ensure homeowners fully grasp the proposed solution.

O’Donnell’s approach highlights his belief in empowering homeowners with knowledge. “We want clients to feel confident in the

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Company in Sydney Harbour launches new business marshalling offshore wind turbine parts

Provincial Energy Ventures, a privately owned coal pier in Sydney Harbour, is being renamed the Atlantic Canada Bulk Terminal and has begun offering services for marshalling huge steel parts for offshore wind turbines.

Richard Morykot, an engineer and vice-president of the bulk terminal, said the company will still deal in coal, but it is undergoing a major transition.

“I think it’s new energy for this region and there are spinoffs,” he said. “We just completed a lot of work and we are slowing down as of today, but there’s been a lot of different activity on the site for a lot of different companies, a lot of local companies.

“Sand bags, cranes, labour, civil construction companies, welders, riggers. There’s many parts to this and … when we build the business bigger, there’ll be more opportunities.”

The coal pier was built early in the last century with slag from the former Sydney steel plant, covering more than 40 hectares of land with a 500-metre-long wharf.

Morykot says the coal pier was built on the harbour with slag from the former Sydney steel plant, making it a solid site for the storage of large, heavy wind turbine components. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

Morykot said its construction makes it ideal for holding massive steel materials and the wharf has room for multiple ships to load or unload turbine parts.

Because of its history and construction, the company was able to get the site ready in a couple of weeks with very little investment, mostly by clearing and levelling the ground.

“We’re very fortunate,” Morykot said. “I mean, this was a steel facility and steel facilities are built, as you can imagine, to support steel, so they’re very robust and they’re strong and we’re benefiting from that.

“It’s a great, positive legacy of the Sydney steel plant.”

The 15 giant steel tubes now on the Sydney site are called monopiles. They are foundations that will be driven into the ocean bottom to anchor turbines at sea.

The monopiles, weighing hundreds of tonnes, are made of steel nearly 12 centimetres thick, are up to 10 metres in diameter and up to 80 metres long.

They are destined for offshore wind projects in the U.S., where the industry is well underway.

Several large grey-and-rust-coloured steel tubes lie on their sides dwarfing nearby buildings and a shipping container.
Giant grey-and-rust-coloured steel tubes stored in Sydney Harbour are slated to become the underseas foundations for offshore wind turbine projects in the U.S. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

There is

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