This Issue: Don't Let Foreclosure Riches Pass You By

Even though women have made great strides, so many of them still hit a glass ceiling on payday.

According to some surprising research from the American Association of University Women, women earn just 80 percent of what men earn one year after they graduate from college. And that pay gap widens, falling to as little as 69 percent of what men make 10 years later.

According to the study, one factor that plays a significant role in the salary disparity is that women tend to study areas with lower salaries such as education, health and psychology whereas men dominate higher-paying fields like engineering, math and physical sciences.

Even so, men and women in the exact same fields still did not make equal pay. That’s even considering that in college women outperformed men academically and their grade point averages were higher in every college major.

I have to admit that I was surprised to hear the results of the study. This gender disparity obviously isn’t fair. I do my best, at least at the Trump Organization, to make sure it doesn’t happen here and hope that other businesses will do the same.

Talented people are talented people, no matter what.

An interview with Patricia Gaylor

During the last 25 years, interior designer Patricia Gaylor has achieved just about everything that anyone in her profession could want - prominent exposure at showcases and industry events and a steady stream of well-to-do clients who can afford to invest in her innovative ideas.

So why did she decide to transform her business to “green” by specializing in environmentally responsible interior designs? So much so that she was selected to create environmentally responsible interiors for BASF’s Near Zero Energy House, a state-of-the art green building in Paterson, New Jersey.

When we saw Ms. Gaylor present her interiors on Good Morning America a few weeks ago, we were fascinated by all the green materials she was able to use: beautiful moldings made from cherry wood that is veneered over a substrate of chopped wheat stalks, bedsheets made from bamboo, pillows stuffed with recycled plastic bottles and other environmental wonders.

How and why did Ms. Gaylor take her company green? What have the benefits been? Our Executive Editor Barry Lenson called her up to ask.

Barry Lenson: When did you first see the advantages of going green?

Patricia Gaylor: I guess it was always in the back of my head. Even as a young woman just starting in business, I was extremely uncomfortable in an office setting. Those offices were windowless and eerily lit, with inadequate ventilation. And in those days, smoking was actually permitted! So suffice it to say, I never lasted very long in an office situation. Thank God! I was able to find work that had me in the field most of the time. Over the years, as I learned more about “sick building syndrome,” I still felt helpless in terms of exactly what to do about it. It's only been in the past few years that this problem has been seriously addressed, and “off-gassing” has become a familiar term.

BL: How have you let customers know that green design is now a core activity of yours?

PG: I never really made a huge deal out of it, or got on my soapbox. Green design is front and center in the media at the moment, so I don't have a problem now at all in attracting customers who are interested in green design. But even prior to this recent movement, I would speak to my customers about their initial design needs and then talk about why creating a natural, enduring, and non-toxic environment is essential on so many levels.

First of all, if children live in the house, it's a given that the parents will want it to be as healthy as possible. And I always stress ENDURING. There are so many shows on TV that make design and remodeling look so easy and quick, and it simply isn't true. The quick fix doesn't work. And it doesn't last. All that sloppy weekend warrior stuff winds up in a landfill pretty quickly.

BL: What have the benefits and advantages been to your business?

PG: Well, of course, the benefits speak for themselves. One Earth, One Chance to get it right. We all can do small things towards a cleaner planet. By simply changing one regular light bulb for a compact fluorescent one, you are saving hundreds of pounds of carbon emission. And carbon emission is what causes global warming. Just think if we ALL did it, what a difference it would make. That's the advantage.

BL: That’s the big-picture stuff, but how does going green help the bottom line - by attracting customers, cutting costs?

PG: Being more conscious of the environment, and promoting your business as earth-friendly, can only make your business look better in the eyes of the customer. Many large manufacturers of goods that I use for my interior design practice, like ceramic tile and carpet, are actually making money on the reclamation of their scrap materials. So not only do they look environmentally friendly in the eyes of the public, they are using their waste to create new products, and saving money at the same time.

Small businesses can do the same thing on another level, by promoting their green awareness, gaining respect from their customers and building new business on that basis. It becomes a win-win situation for everyone involved.

If I told you that I know someone who bought a business nine years ago and just sold it for an 80% loss, you would probably think I was describing an individual who doesn’t have one iota of business sense.

But you’d be wrong, because that is exactly what Mercedes-Benz did a few days ago when they unloaded Chrysler. Here’s what happened, as reported by Mark Landler on May 14^th in “A Corporate Divorce on the Cheap,” his article in The New York Times:

“The price of freedom for the soon-to-be-renamed Daimler A.G. is $677 million in cash - its out-of-pocket outlay in the $7.4 billion transaction - for Cerberus to take Chrysler off its hands. It is also shedding nearly $18 billion in health care and pension liabilities. For a merger once valued at $36 billion, it was a humiliating comedown.”

The article further states that Mercedes actually spent far more than the $36 billion they paid for Chrysler back in 1998. When you include the money they spent to improve and restructure Chrysler, they actually paid $60 billion.

“Don’t buy a business you cannot run,” is one lesson you can learn from this story. But I am actually going to offer a different take on the Chrysler-Mercedes split:

A business that is being run by the wrong people can be a great buy

Chrysler isn’t the only company in the world that you can buy today for 20% of what it was worth only a few years ago. So be savvy, hone your skills and you can find bargains in far smaller businesses too.

I imagine that you, like me, have looked at a business and thought, “They run this company so badly, how do they ever manage to stay in business?”

But have you realized that such businesses can be great ones to acquire? They are surviving, even though they are badly managed. Simply by managing them well - by providing better customer service or marketing more strategically  or doing something else right - you can probably boost profits quickly.

Buying a business that is poorly run, but surviving anyway, might be a counterintuitive way to select a business to buy - but it makes a lot of sense. Incidentally, it’s just one of the strategies we explore in my Trump University Course, The Art of Buying a Business.