Katie: Welcome, once again, to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: And I'm Esther Steinfeld.

Katie: And we've got an extra-special show this week called "Overtime on a Budget," because we know how important it is to save money when it's possible and spend smart when you have to. First off, we'll bring you the most up-to-date news, but with a little slant on saving some cash, and then we'll tell you about the financial heroes behind our CEOs, followed by the interesting thing that Sprint's CEO had to say about the iPhone.

Esther: In Part 2, we'll talk to financial planner, Dan Bender, of Johnson, Bender & Company about small business and personal planning, followed by a chat with a lawyer/stay-at-home mom named Karen Walrond, about small business planning. We'll finish it off by focusing on companies that thrive in a bad economy and how they do it. So let's jump right in and get started here. First, we're gonna talk about one of our favorite budget retailers. They're in a whole lot of trouble.

Katie: Oh, oh.

Esther: So this is from the L.A. Times. They're reporting that in California, Costco employees have filed a lawsuit against their employer for false imprisonment.

Katie: False imprisonment? At Costco?

Esther: Mm-hmm. They make them stay 15 minutes late to remove jewelry from the cases.

Katie: Are they on the clock, like this is just part of their end-of-day procedure.

Esther: They're not on the clock. They're not on the clock anymore.

Katie: You're kidding?

Esther: They probably work 8-hour days. It's probably in their contract that they work from 9:00 to 5:00 or whatever, and at 5:00, they wanna go home, or whatever time –

Katie: What?

Esther: They're ready to go. Their employers are saying no, you need to stay and take the jewelry out of the cases. Well, they don't like that. This is what Mary Pytelewski – Mary Pytelewski, she is a Costco warehouse clerk, and she's the one who initially filed the lawsuit, and more people have joined on. But she said, "Costco is building its business and its competitive advantage at my expense, and at the expense of all of its hourly workers.

Katie: Goodness.

Esther: Don't you work at Costco? Doesn't the success of building the business directly relate to whether or not you have a job?

Katie: Exactly. And it looks kinda like that issue is that the management is actually the ones that are taking care of the cash registers and getting all the valuables out of the cases. But what does that speak to their company culture that they can't even trust their employees to even go home before all the stuff is in the safe or wherever it is they keep it? That sounds like a much deeper problem than just like, "Hey, guys. Stay a little late today. We're not gonna pay you."

Esther: I know. That's bad news for Costco.

Katie: That really is.

Esther: What is it about working there that's so terrible that makes people not even wanna stay 15 minutes more?

Katie: Yeah, that's confusing.

Esther: It is.

Katie: That's confusing. That's maybe something they do need to cut besides prices.

Esther: Yeah, seriously.

Katie: So on the same vein as our budget show today, which is a topic so close to my heart, let's take a look at how business travelers are getting affected by the economy and are actually out there on the road, but still trying to cut costs right now through some interesting ways. I know that whenever you look at people that could potentially be affected by businessmen and women not traveling in, let's say, business class, not staying at the real nice hotels. Tourism is a huge part of so many cities economies. So it's been interesting to see how these different business owners, like people that run hotels, are actually cutting down on some of these amenities to make up for some of the lost profit, people trying to go to those cheaper hotels, people staying one night and catching the redeye out so they don't have to stay an entire day. It's really kind of interesting. We hear so many different stories about the airfare prices going up and down and hotels doing all sorts of things. We were talking earlier about how there's a hotel that was actually offering these uber-budget ala carte survivor packages. In San Diego, the Rancho Bernardo Inn, that they were actually letting people stay for $19.00 a night.

Esther: That's pretty amazing.

Katie: This is a luxury hotel, 19 bucks.

Esther: I'll stay there.

Katie: But all you get is a room. You don't get electricity. You don't get toilet paper. You don't get a mattress. Right? So everything you want, you gotta pay a little extra for it.

Esther: By the way –

Katie: Yeah, ha ha. Good thing so many bathrooms have those phones in there.

Esther: It reminds me of that movie Best in Show. Did you ever see that movie?

Katie: I love that movie.

Esther: Where they show up and they don't have a room and they make them sleep in the supply closet?

Katie: Yeah, right next door.

Esther: Yeah, but you'll be just fine here.

Katie: Yeah, right next door to the kitchen. Room service is no problem, right? So while most hotels aren't going quite the lengths that this Rancho Bernardo Inn has been taking, travelers are definitely seeing a lot of things that they took for granted, like free wi-fi, like continental breakfast. These things are going away as people are spending less.

Esther: Are going by the wayside. And the truth is, you could think of it as a positive, because you still get to go on the trip. You still get to take the trip. I know that in our company, we cut back on business travel significantly last year or at the beginning of the year and we said, "Let's just hold off and see what happens." And now, we've picked up again and we've been allowing people to take trips and we sent a lot of people on business trips now again, but maybe we're not staying at the nicest hotels. We're staying at the middle hotels, which are just fine. And you know what? If you have to pay for your breakfast, then is it really that big of deal? You got to go on the trip. You got the flight. You got the hotel. You're comfortable.

Katie: Exactly. You networking, making business happen.

Esther: Right. These hotels are just fine, and actually, you're not in the hotel really anyway.

Katie: Exactly, and I wonder if this is helping hotel managers really shift their priorities. What do they really need to do that's gonna serve the customer that isn't gonna drive up prices? How can they get around these expensive, extravagant things that just make them look flashy? So we could be in for some interesting hotel innovations.

Esther: Absolutely, maybe the mid-range hotels will start stepping up their game big time. You won't need to stay at the nicest hotels to have a great experience.

Katie: Exactly. Exactly. Now there is one guy, that poor man has definitely gotten some of his travel cut back.

Esther: Yeah, poor guy. I don't know about that.

Katie: So let's talk about AIG's CEO, Robert Benmosche, who, according to the Business Insider, was trying to take a little trip home, trying to take a flight home. Go to Croatia.

Esther: Wasn't he trying to go –

Katie: His house in Croatia. And the way –

Esther: I didn't even think that was his home. I think maybe that's his second or third home.

Katie: One of his homes.

Esther: Home, either way.

Katie: But the problem was not so much that airfare or something was too much. In fact, he was trying to request to get on the company jet, and AIG board said, "Absolutely not, man."

Esther: Only for business travel, my friend.

Katie: Exactly. Exactly. So you know you're kind of in trouble whenever your board of directors is telling you that in order to get a flight to your vacation home, you may need to speak to the government after all the bailout money. Not something you really wanna hear, especially as a new CEO. That's a little –

Esther: You know what? Some people don't even get to take vacations at all.

Katie: Honestly, honestly.

Esther: On another note, we're noticing this trend. I don't know if you've ever heard of this word, but we've definitely heard it, and the word is "staycation."

Katie: I love staycations.

Esther: Are you familiar with staycation?

Katie: Oh, yes, so instead of – I don't know where the "va" in vacation takes you, but the "stay" in staycation, takes you right where you are. You stay for that vacation.

Esther: Absolutely. Well, according to TripAdvisor, they did this survey and about 50 percent of American travelers are changing their summer travel plans because of soaring fuel prices and sticking closer to home, which is amazing, 50 percent.

Katie: 50 percent?

Esther: Keep in mind this is a survey on a website, so this is not all Americans. This is people who come to TripAdvisor and take the survey. But still –

Katie: Honestly, they go to that website specifically to book travel, so they probably have a pretty good cross section of people.

Esther: But you know, it is actually interesting, I think, at least it's probably good news for us, is that people are spending more money at home.

Katie: Exactly, supporting local economy.

Esther: Absolutely, and instead of going to the Louver in Paris, they're going to the local science museum or the local art museum.

Katie: And this is kind of interesting because we also hear a lot about this whole – I don't know if you've ever heard about the home exchange programs that are out there. So there are sites like homeexchange.com, where, okay, maybe you've saved up a little bit and you can afford some airfare and some meals out, so you're able to locate a family or a person that has an apartment, condo or house that is interested in switching houses with you for a week.

Esther: Isn't there a movie about that?

Katie: I think that there was, actually.

Esther: With Kate Winslet? Called The Vacation, maybe?

Katie: I hope it had a good ending. I can't remember.

Esther: Yeah, I think everyone falls in love. I didn't see it, but –

Katie: And then the movie ends happily.

Esther: Kate Winslet is in it. Everyone must fall in love.

Katie: Exactly. So home exchange is definitely an interesting way to kind of cut down on travel budget. And for the braver of you out there, there's always couchsurfing.org.

Esther: Oh, gosh.

Katie: It's actually really cool. I've known a lot of people that have gone all over the world and they have made the best friends. And, of course, I hear the good stories. Who only knows what happens.

Esther: I'm very skeptical. Not to say that it's not a great idea. I think it's a great idea for people that are adventurous, but I'm –

Katie: Adventurous or large men that are well trained in martial arts. I don't know.

Esther: What can I say? I don't trust to sleep on anyone's, you know, even acquaintances. They're couches sometimes –

Katie: My couch is totally clean. I promise you can come anytime.

Esther: Your couch, well, you're my friend. I would definitely sleep on your couch. I'll scoot you over in the bed.

Katie: That's right, getting cozy on the Overtime Show, like two little spoons. This is totally inappropriate. So we've gotten some really interesting budgeting tips ripped from the headlines this week. So Esther, I'm excited about hearing about this week's hero on the BusinessMakers Overtime Show. Who is it?

Esther: Actually, it's not one person. It's many people.

Katie: Oh, my gosh.

Esther: You know one. I know one. Actually, I know several. CEOs are usually the faces of corporations and they collect accolades and social influences. They promote their businesses. That's part of being the CEO. They're usually seen as the architects behind great innovation and that comes from their organizations. Some of the most influential figures of our time have actually been great thinkers and business makers, like Steve Jobs and Sam Walton and Jack Welch. And I probably don't even need to tell you what companies they started.

So keep in mind that corporations actually have a quiet, private side, one that can't be tweeted or facebooked or written about in press releases. That work is actually done by a company's CFO. The information and innovation produced by him or her and his department is usually kept strictly confidential. We often forget how vital and difficult his work is. Who keeps the company afloat? Who tells the chief marketing officer, "I'm sorry, we just don't have the cash flow for that million dollar technology right now?"

In any living, breathing business, there has to be checks and balances and he's usually the one who keeps the dreamers in check, even is he has to be the most unpopular guy in the room. And maybe the saying should go, "Behind every successful CEO, there is a successful CFO." So to all those CFOs out there, keeping businesses on budget, we salute you as our business heroes of the week.

Katie: Cash is king and we do salute.

Esther: That's right. So now we wanna give you a little bit more from the headlines. It's actually quite interesting. You don't often hear competitors speaking so highly of each other, and I don't know if he even meant to say this. I'm still a little perplexed that this came out of his mouth. So CEO Dan Hess, he's the CEO of Sprint, by the way, he sat down with Charlie Rose and he had some interesting things to say about the iPhone, about the mobile technology that's evolving. And he actually said – keep in mind Sprint cannot sell this phone. Charlie Rose asked him if the Palm Pre is making a dent in the iPhone market, and he said, "It's doing well, but you can almost put the iPhone, to be fair, in a separate category. The Apple brand and that device have done so well, it's like comparing someone to Michael Jordan."

Katie: Oh, my gosh.

Esther: Can you believe that? The thing is, with a big public company like Sprint, what do you think that did to their stocks when the CEO is saying, "We can't compete"?

Katie: See, I don't know because a lot of times you'll see businesses that are up against, if it's like this David and Goliath scenario, a lot of businesses will take the approach of, "Okay, here's No. 1. Here's Coke. I'm gonna be Pepsi." And that's, if you think about it, market leaders, people typically only psychologically, mentally, whatever, have room for just two or three market leaders. So maybe this was his sort of tactful, but he kind of stumbled on the words, way of being, like, "iPhone, we see you. We recognize you." Like, "Good for you."

Esther: Here we are at No. 3.

Katie: Here's what we're doing. Like, "We're doing it as well as we can."

Esther: Yeah, and I think you're right. I think you're right. I think there is some value, a lot of value, actually, in being transparent and just being, just acknowledging that, "Yes, we're not the best. Okay."

Katie: "We're not iPhone."

Esther: "We're working on it."

Katie: Exactly.

Esther: That's true, and I think it is surprising that he made such a grand statement, as to compare an iPhone to Michael Jordan.

Katie: Right. At least he didn't call it the Jesus phone, because I hear that all the time.

Esther: Oh, my gosh. I think when you have a phone like the Pre that's been promoted so heavily, and so touted as the next big thing, it didn't really pan out that way, it's kind of disheartening, because I actually used to have a Palm phone and I loved it. It was great. Now I have an iPhone. I just got my iPhone.

Katie: Welcome to the –

Esther: Welcome to the world. I know and I love it.

Katie: I just got one, too.

Esther: But I'm almost rooting for the Palm, because it was the first real smartphone that really did something.

Katie: It's true.

Esther: That really made a dent in the smartphone market.

Katie: They were leaders for a long time.

Esther: And it's kind of sad to see it falling out of favor. To me, it is, because I loved that phone. I really think it's a great phone, but it doesn't have the cool factor of iPhone.

Katie: But hats off to somebody that was aware enough and confident enough in the situation at hand that he could just be honest and he wasn't like, "We're gonna blast that iPhone out of the water. Nobody's gonna carry one of those."

Esther: "It's the next big thing."

Katie: Exactly. So I guess a little humility and a lot of hard work will hopefully take him where he wants to be.

Esther: Good luck, Sprint. And coming up next, we've got two awesome interviews. You're gonna learn all about budgeting, financial planning, wealth management from two people who really know how to do it.

Katie: Can't wait.

Esther: You're listening to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.