Jonathan Sweet

Day 1 of Boot Dusseldorf is in the books, and it was an interesting day. As I noted earlier, it’s my first time at the show, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. First of all, this is one heck of a big show. One reason, of course, is that they’ve got the superyachts in the exhibit halls rather than ...

Greetings from across the ocean. I’ll be covering the Boot Dusseldorf show this week, so keep an eye out for info here on BoatingIndustry.com, as well as our Facebook page. This is my first trip to Germany, so should be an interesting experience. The show kicks off tomorrow morning, but I took some time to get acclimated today, walking around ...

Remember that famous scene in Caddyshack when Rodney Dangerfield crashes his yacht into Ted McKnight’s sailboat? Go ahead and watch the video below. I’ll wait a minute. The yacht, a 60-foot, 1979 Striker (dubbed “Seafood” in the film) is now on the market, the Washington Post reports. The boat apparently needs some work, including a new paint job, an interior ...

Everyone seems busier these days. Since the Great Recession, employees and owners have had to take on more work to get the job done. Everyone is doing more with less. Now, in a recent article in Harvard Business Review, researchers argue that “busyness” has become a status symbol in America, more important than the “conspicuous consumption” of recent decades. Researchers ...

Most – if not all – of your employees are spending plenty of time on social media. So how can you leverage that to boost your business? Depending on the size of your business, involving your employees in your social efforts can greatly increase your reach. It’s about more than just having your employees share info willy-nilly, though, according to ...

A new study shows that Facebook is only growing in importance as a tool for reaching potential customers. Social Media Update 2016, the latest analysis of social media from the Pew Research Center, finds that 79 percent of online adults — and 68 percent of all adults — are Facebook users. That’s up from 72 percent of online adults in ...

For boat dealers, the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo is one of your best options for growing and improving your business. It’s your opportunity to network, to learn more about management and raising your company to a new level. MDCE, produced by the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas and Boating Industry, is December 5-8 at the Orange County Convention ...

Late last year, I wrote about the U-6 vs. U-3 unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that can offer a better view of unemployment. (A quick recap: The U-3 is the headline number we see reported every month. It doesn’t include those who are underemployed or those who have given up looking for a job. The U-6, on ...

I headed down south earlier this week to spend some time at the Honda Marine media event. Honda hosted a group of boating journalists ahead of its dealer meeting on Lake Lanier, north of Atlanta. The company introduced three new models, which I wrote about earlier. Beyond the products, though, what caught my attention was the attention the company continues ...

If you’re heading to this year’s Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, you’ll want to act by Friday to take advantage of the Early Bird discount. MDCE is December 5-8 at the Orange County Convention in Orlando and is produced by Boating Industry and the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas. Last year more than 1,100 industry professionals attended MDCE and ...