Marathon Business: Insights on Hospitality, Race Day Challenges, and Harvard's Legal Battle

On today’s program, we talk about the business of the Boston Marathon. We start with the President of the Lenox Hotel, Dan Donahue. Next we chat with the Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray. We also speak with the manager of TJ‘s in Ashland about the restaurant business on Marathon Monday. Grant Welker, reporter with the Boston Business Journal, talks about the challenges Harvard is now facing in its showdown with the Trump administration. And Eric Groves, the CEO of Alignable, explains the hardships facing small businesses in this current climate.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the New England Business Report with Joe short
Sleeve and Kim Carrigan, a weekly roundup and discussion of
the top business news impacting our New England economy.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
And good morning and welcome to the New England Business Report.
On this Easter Sunday, April the twentieth, Joe Shorts live
here with you and Kim Carrigan, and happy Easter to you. Kim,
did the Easter bunny come to your house?

Speaker 3 (00:23):
The Easter bunny did come to my house, and yeap,
he hopped himself right in left a bunch of candy.
It's funny the Easter bunny brought his candy a little
early to my house and I had to fight my
husband off of it. Before anybody really lived times I'm
sure changed around my house now it's my husband who's hunting.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Hey, you go, I have the Easter egg hunt with
the grandchildren as well, so you know it'll be it'll
be a great day.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Hey, listen, today's program.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
We're going to spend a good deal of the program,
a good deal this hour on the New England Business
Report talking about the Boston Marathon, which of course is
tomorrow Monday, April twenty first is always a third Monday
in April. I've been going on since eighteen ninety seven.
So we're going to talk about, you know, the business impacts.
You know, I guess there's some five hundred thousand spectators

(01:16):
or thirty thousand runners. And one of the people, Kim,
that we're having on the program is the guy who's
right right in the thick of it.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
You want.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
It's the Lenox Hotel, right, they're right there at the
finish line, and we're going to talk with Dan Donnehue.
He's the president of the Saunders Hotel Group, which of
course owns the Lenox Hotel one of I guess several
properties that they have, and we'll talk a little bit about,
you know, the business of the marathon.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
Now. I guess they have some new restaurants there to.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Kim, Yeah, I mean it's you're right, he's right in
the thick of things, that is for sure. So this
is an important, important time, no doubt for the folks
at the Lenox.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
And also, Kim, you arranged for us a chat with
Dave mcgilbrey. He is the race director for the Boston Marathon.
Of course, Dave's a very familiar name here in New England.
He's run hot what is it, one hundred and sixty
five marathons?

Speaker 4 (02:13):
I mean, are you kidding me?

Speaker 3 (02:15):
He's a ten time iron Man, can you imagine? And
he's about to run his fifty third consecutive Boston. So
that's pretty amazing.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I grew up Kim in Newton. I grew up on
com Avin Newton, right on Heartbreak Hill. So from age
twelve after my college years, the marathon was always front
and center. So sure, you know they should be good conversations.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Absolutely. Then in the second half of the show today,
the CEO of the online networking platform he's joined us
before Alignables, is going to be our guest. Eric Groves
is going to share some data on small businesses, the
anticipated effects of the Trump tariffs on those small businesses.

(03:05):
He's also going to share some tips on how these
businesses can mitigate some of the impact that is coming.
I mean everyone is talking about it, and everybody is
talking about how the world sort of seems to be
slowing down and is on hold while we all wait.
You know, we learned a lot about that last week
and the fact that these three months ninety days that

(03:28):
the President put some of these tariffs on hold is
maybe even tougher than had they gone into effect and
people knew how to react. So we're going to talk
to Eric Groves about that, and then we're going to
get a little clarity on exactly what the Trump administration
is asking Harvard University to do or not to do,
and some of the reaction from the school. As this

(03:51):
past week, you know, moved on. We watched this situation
escalate more and more, and it seems that Harvard themselves
in the crosshairs of our president. Grant Welker from the
BBJ is following that story very closely. He's going to
join us to talk a little bit more about that,
and then finally back to the marathon.

Speaker 5 (04:10):
Of course.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Oh I'm sorry, jocohead Oh.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
No, I was just going to say, I mean, at
the latest headline coming out of there, of course, he's
trying to revoke their tax accept status. I mean, wow,
talk about the whole country watching closely there. Whether that's
a bet, yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Mean, it's going to set a precedent whatever happens here
for other schools and maybe nonprofits and so on and
so forth. We want to go back to the marathon
then the financial impact of this twenty six point two
mile race can have on businesses along the route. Of course,
we talked about the fact that we'll speak to the
folks at the Lenox Hotel. But let's go to the

(04:42):
other end of the race, and that is in Ashland,
which is just beyond Hopkinson and Ed O'Neil is the
manager of TJ's Fine Food and Spirits there. They've been
there since I think the early eighties, so they've been
a part of the marathon and this tradition for a
very long long time. We'll see what kind of day
he's anticipating.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Okay, Kim, you know, as promised, we are going to
be talking about the business of marathon Monday, twenty four
hours from now, and I don't know if I can
think of a place that will be busier on the
planet Earth than the Lenox Hotel tomorrow. They of course
right there at the finish line. And you want to
talk about business implications, well, let's bring in Dan donahue.

(05:24):
He's the president of the Lenox Hotel, but he's really
president of the Saunders Hotel Group, which owns several properties,
the Lenox being one of them.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
Dan welcome to the program.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
You know, hey, twenty four hours from now, I think
it's probably going to be Is it correct that it's
probably one of your business days of the year.

Speaker 5 (05:45):
Well, you know it's our it's you know April Mark
c you know, as you come out of the you know,
the winter months, April Marks are kind of Black Friday
in the hospitality right for you know, Boston comes alive again.
It's springtime. Although a couple weeks ago you wouldn't know
what the snow, but it really is. It just it's electrifying.
And you know, the time around marathon, especially in Boston

(06:09):
is very very special, and you know, it just people
just it's awesome, especially now as the weather tells us
it's going to be a great day tomorrow. So we're
very excited about it.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
So give us a sense of how far in advance
you have to book a room to be there during
this time period. I sort of think of it like
Times Square for New Year's Eve.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Yeah. Well, you know it's funny that, you know, we
so we're very lucky. We're family owned and we in
essentially we really like to create a sense of family,
a sense of place, and you know, we sell out
the day after marathon, So we are booking windows a
year out, so the day after. Most of our guests

(06:53):
have been coming to us for years, I mean years
and years and years. I mean it's amazing but very
very fortunate. I mean you could stand at the corner
of our hotel on Boss and Extra and throw baseball
in the finish line. So we're lucky to have the
best location around.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Dan Donna, who's our guests.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
He is the president of the Saunders Hotel Group of course,
the folks that own the Lenox Hotel there at the
finish line of the Boston Marathon. Let's talk about, you know,
preparations for today and how many balls were you have
in the air tomorrow?

Speaker 6 (07:26):
Dan?

Speaker 2 (07:27):
In terms, I know you've got at least three restaurants there.
How many people will come through the hotel?

Speaker 5 (07:32):
Oh literally? You know we we we host Heavy's team
on our second floor. Of course, you know, another family
owned business to balance to David Stanley, a couple of thousand.
It really is just is an experience, right, It's days
leading up the marathon, day after. It's just a good

(07:53):
time to be in Boston in the backback.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
So Dan, you know, since COVID I know, a lot
of hotels and a lot of hospitalities had trouble really
getting enough employees to keep up with business. What's business
like there at the hotel as far as your employees
are concerned, And is it easy to staff? Do you
know weekends like this one?

Speaker 7 (08:16):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (08:16):
Yeah, you know, we we we you know, we're very
fortunate throughout again, being family owned, the family was very
deliberate keeping the staff, uh supporting the staff financially over
the COVID and we didn't really lose to anybody. We're
very I mean we have people have been with us
for thirty five forty years, so we're very lucky. And
when it comes to staffing, very lucky that you know.

(08:39):
And I think I you know, speak, I was a
buch of hotel people in restaurant people this past week
and every saying that, you know, the job the job
market is good again. I think people are back to work.
I think they're you know, everything has kind of shifted
to getting things that if you will, normal, whatever that is.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Dan Donnie was our guest. Dan and president of the
Saunders Hotel Group. Tell us about the Saunders Hotel Group.
If you could tell us about what properties you have so.

Speaker 5 (09:13):
We have the Lemus, of course, which is iconic. We
also are we're part owners of the Raffles Hotel, which
is a few blocks away. So the first one, first
Raffles in North America open what will be two years ago.
We have the we run the Cambria in Summerville, and

(09:34):
then we have the company in the suites at the.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Airport and Revere fantastic. Talk to us a little bit
about what you anticipate. I know you said, you know,
April sort of kicks things off, if you will, this
is the Black Friday of the holidays for you guys.
What are you anticipating this summer? Dan, there's a lot
of talk that travelers aren't going to come to the

(09:58):
United States, and it bost and maybe one of those
cities that suffers from Canadians and Europeans not coming this
direction as a result of some of the new administration's policies.
What are you guys?

Speaker 4 (10:11):
See?

Speaker 5 (10:13):
You know, there's a lot of speculations tim that that
you know, people won't travel. I don't know if I
necessarily believe that. I think it's certainly there will be
some hesitation, especially as you know, as the terrors take
hold and you know Canadians themselves. I mean, you know,
Boston's Canada is a huge fear country for us, and

(10:33):
you know they're right next door. But now I think
with that expense, if that goes through, it's obviously going
to hurt us, right.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
Yeah, And are you seeing it already?

Speaker 2 (10:42):
I mean there are tour operators that are from the
Cape at this point up there in Montreal, they're all
saying they're seeing it already.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
Yeah. I think. I think I think you're going to feel.
We definitely feel at the airport, you know time, you know,
time gone by, you'd have people drive down from Canada,
park at our hotel and fly out of Boston because
it was cheaper. So I don't think we're going to
see much as that. And I think at the Lennox,
you know, I think we're pretty resilient. We have some
great partnerships with you know, it comes to like Texas

(11:12):
New Balance, Robson Gray. We're very lucky to have some
strong partners who are still traveling and probably will continue
to do so. So but you know, it will you know,
the effect will be will be felt.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
You have very new restaurants there, Dan They're not they're
not new they're also Redone.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
Take us through that well.

Speaker 5 (11:36):
So this past week we just opened will On Ivy,
which is a very uh the family committed to kind
of evolving our food and beverage into something more Boston centric,
and this restaurant really we totally renovated. We get it
the whole restaurant and when you walk in, you're you're

(11:56):
greeted by a little pergola of it that as you
both through it, you're brought into an eighteen foot Florida
ceiling windows that kind of you know, activate both back
bay in and out right. And then there's in the
middle of it, as you look through the lobby into
the restaurant is an eighteen foot us tree. So that's

(12:18):
a real Cycas tree. So it really is a special
it's a special menus that you know, you have carbostones.
You come in. There's a brick, a whole brick wall
with Ivy growing up. But we really wanted to give
you a sense of place and sense of Boston. The
menu speaks to it. It has something for everybody. Being
a hotel, we have to you know, we might be

(12:39):
a hotel restaurant, but we're really just a neighborhood restaurant. Right,
so when you come down, our guests are very lucky
to be able to be with the locals. Right. And
you know Irving, which is sitting the smack in the
middle of our lobby. It's kind of a martini bar,
gently lit. It's one of the few hotel bars or
one few bars, and and it doesn't even have a TV.

(13:01):
So you just sit there. You have a cocktail. Chef
Daniel Kenny has created a great menu, great you know,
chacoury board, great cheese board, His smoke dorsters and his
pork dumplings are going to die for.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (13:14):
And then on the on the on the boils and
side you have the Irish pub, which really you know,
we took the whole team to Ireland this past fall
and really wanted to get to the essence of what
an Irish pub is.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
Right.

Speaker 5 (13:27):
It's you know, intimate, small little areas that sit and
the food really speaks. We have an Irish breakfast that
we serve every day. Speak Ireland, we say.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
So, Dan.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
Final question, we only have a couple of seconds here.
How many hours you're going to work tomorrow? What time
do you show up? When do you go.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
Well, let's say no sleep tomorrow.

Speaker 7 (13:51):
No.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
Well, enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
So he's Dan Donnie, who was the president of the
Lenox Hotel. We appreciate hi joining us on the New
England Business Support. Up next, we're going to talk with
the race director for the Boston Marathon.

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the Voice of Boston w RKO six' eighty. Joe and
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Speaker 3 (16:31):
Welcome back, everybody. Well, our next guest knows a thing
or two about the Boston Marathon. Joe, that is for sure.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
Yes he does, Yes he does. He is the marathon.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
That's so true. Dave mcgilvrey has been the race director
in Boston since two thousand and one, and tomorrow he
is getting ready to run his fifty third consecutive Boston Marathon.
It is a tree to talk with. Dave mcgilvrey. How
are you, sir.

Speaker 11 (16:57):
I'm going to keep trying this rate until I win it,
all right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
So, I just don't know how your knees and your
hips are holding out there, David. You know, the rest
of the world is complaining about aggs campaigns and here
you are.

Speaker 5 (17:09):
Man.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
Good for you, I.

Speaker 7 (17:11):
Would, I guess.

Speaker 11 (17:12):
Don't change me, Joe. Don't mean maybe because I'm small
and that not beating myself up as a lot of
other people do. But no, I'm very fortunate to I
guess biomechanically be touch with the ground, with the asphalt
that it's allowing me to continue to run all these
miles for all these years.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
Dave Let's talk about you as a runner in just
a second. But first let's have you put on your
director hat. You're twenty four hours out right now from
the race. Tell us where do we stand? How are
you know the plans? And what's your biggest concern right now?

Speaker 11 (17:52):
You know the Hayes in the Bond. I always pretend
the race is like two weeks before it actually is
because I want to trick myself into getting everything done
that I can get done in advance. So I leave
myself open to help other people or to put out
buyers or prevent buyers is what I'd rather be doing,

(18:12):
or putting them out. And no, but everything is looking great.
You know. The greatest assets that we have at the
bars of marathon is the experience and expertise of all
the people we surround ourselves with. I mean, there are
people who have been working this race twenty years, thirty years,
forty years, fifty years, so they become the best in

(18:32):
the business, the best in the world at what they do.
You know, their specific role within the race, whether it's
a lead vehicle coordinator, a volunteer recruiter, or whether a
medical director, whoever it might be. They're the best at
what they do. It's bobbyous for me to tell them
how to do their job. They know exactly what they're doing.

(18:53):
The way I look at my role typically over the
years now is more of a conductor than a director.
You know. Just think sure that everything is working harmoniously,
everyone's working together well with communicating, and you know, the
biggest challenge obviously always is the weather, you know, and
what mother Nature may throw our way. And right now

(19:13):
we're looking pretty good. So we've had some pretty difficult
conditions over the years, nor reces and infernos and everything else,
but hopefully other nature cooperates with us the time.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Dave Micgilvray's our guest, of course, twenty four hours out
from the marathon. He's the race director. You know, Dave,
we are a business program, so we got to dig
into it a little bit of the business of the marathon.
I mean a lot of questions in this one question here,
but I mean the cost of the race, and how
does Bank of America come into play and all your
other sponsors.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Well, yeah, I.

Speaker 11 (19:45):
Mean in my industry putting on event, you know, there's
a lot of different revenue aspects to it, you know,
sponsorship is certainly one of them. NTP revenue is another,
and then there's a lot of others, whether it's merchandising
or concession, but the two major ones are sponsorship revenue
and entry fee revenue. So I personally don't know what

(20:09):
the overall budget of the race is, of course in
the millions, and you know it's not costing less and less,
it's costing more and more to produce these things. And
you know, we're about to pursue of athletic excellence.

Speaker 7 (20:22):
We're expected to put.

Speaker 11 (20:24):
On the best marathon in the world, and so as
a result, you know, we need to be spending some
money on the infrastructure and making sure we're taking care
of all our customers.

Speaker 7 (20:36):
So we're very, very.

Speaker 11 (20:38):
Fortunate to have someone like Bank of America come along
and you know, replace John he Hankocket for thirty plus
years and step right up and not only support the
race financially, but support it with their resources, their staffing.
And also they're very very you know, sensitive about and
supportive of our charity program, which you know, last year

(21:01):
raised almost seventy million dollars and this year where we're
you know, ahead of record pace, so a lot of
good will is done. The economic impact in the city
of Boston is over five hundred million dollars.

Speaker 7 (21:13):
So there's not a lot of other.

Speaker 11 (21:15):
Events or entities in the city that can lay claim
to such economic impact as the Boston Marathon does, Dave.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Obviously, the Boston Marathon has taken on over the last
twelve years a bit of a different tone. So we
would be remiss if we didn't ask you at this
stage of the game about security and what it takes
to secure this race.

Speaker 11 (21:38):
Yeah, I mean, prior to you know, twenty thirteen, we were,
you know, very focused on security.

Speaker 7 (21:45):
We always have been.

Speaker 11 (21:46):
We've never you know, let our guard down. But of course,
once what happened in twenty thirteen happened, and the level
of security just went you know through the roof obviously,
but rightfully so, uh, the advanced level of security. And
and it hasn't it hasn't backed off since. Yeah, thank goodness,

(22:07):
nothing has happened at the Boston Marathon really at any
other road race that I'm aware out since. But what's
going on in the world, you know, we have to
be sensitive to what happened in New Orleans, what happens
in a lot of different locations, so we are very
very fortunate to have the support of the mess to
Emergency Management Agency, you know, obviously the federal government coming

(22:31):
in and supporting the event, the State Police, all the
cities and towns. We go through eight cities and towns,
I mean, most other major marathons that did within one
jurisdiction as is within eight.

Speaker 7 (22:42):
So to try.

Speaker 11 (22:43):
To you know, collaborate everyone's efforts and make it work seamlessly,
and you know, it's still trying to you know, show
the face of a family fund friendly event, which I
think we do so. I think we protect everyone spectated
staffing is but at the same time, we we do
it in a way that's not intimidating to everyone who

(23:06):
has a role in the event.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
Yeah, I don't know if you know the answer to
this one.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
I'm curious about the cost of security in terms of
the not the final number. But as you just mentioned,
the state police, the local police, the Boston police, do
they all just sort of assume their own cost at
that point or is the marathon on the hook for
any of that.

Speaker 11 (23:24):
Yeah, I mean, the marathon does make contributions to the state,
does make contributions to each of the cities and towns
along the route, so you know, some of that goes
to its reimbursing the departments. Everyone every city in sound
decide how they want to distribute their you know, their
their contributions that the BA makes to them. So it's

(23:45):
it's it's a very different situation here in Boston because
we've been around so long and presidents have been set.
But the BA does an amazing job at making sure
everyone's taking care of and the cities and towns in
the States does an amazing job and assuming you know,
some of that responsibility too, because it does have a significant,

(24:05):
like I said, economic impact on the state and on
the cities.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
Dave, you're seventy seventy or seventy one, yeah.

Speaker 11 (24:15):
Seventy yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
How much long are you going to run your fifty? Well,
I can't believe it either. If anyone who knows you
knows that, that's a hard pill to swallow, because it's just,
you know, you defy the age, that's for sure. You're
about to run your fifty third consecutive. How long will
you run it? Meaning how many more hours?

Speaker 11 (24:39):
Yeah? Well, until I can't I guess, you know. I
when I ran my very first one, when I finished.
I said to myself on that day in April nineteen
seventy three, I was going to run this race every
year for the rest of my life. And then in
nineteen eighty eight I got the job of technical director
of the race. I'm like, ah, what do I do?

Speaker 7 (24:58):
You know?

Speaker 11 (24:59):
I said, I was going to run for the rest
of my life, and now I can't past up the
opportunity to help manage it and direct it.

Speaker 7 (25:05):
So I took the job.

Speaker 11 (25:06):
But that you know, I was standing at the finish
line five and all the runners, and I'm like, ah,
I felt full of self pity, which is I tell everyone,
don't be full of self pitty, but I was. And
I tapped a police officer and the shoulder and I said, oh,
so you do me babies what I said? Will you
drive me back to the start? He said, well, you
forget something. I said, yeah, I forgot to run, And

(25:27):
eight o'clock at night he drives me back to their scot.
I ran the whole thing by myself, finished at eleven
o'clock at night, sort of dead laugh, even though I
started eight hours after everyone. But and I ran it
that way for thirty six years in a row. You know,
directing it during the day and then running it at night,
and it became a tradition for me.

Speaker 7 (25:45):
But it also.

Speaker 11 (25:46):
Became hard right as I aged, and you know, and
as the days seemed to get longer and longer and
I'm on my seat nine.

Speaker 7 (25:53):
Hours and all that kind of stuff and breaking all.

Speaker 11 (25:55):
The rules leading up to running in a marathon. Last
year I came back and ran it for the first
time during the day in thirty seven years with my
daughter Ellie, who's twenty years old.

Speaker 7 (26:07):
So we ran.

Speaker 11 (26:07):
Together in the middle of the pack and it was
just an amazing experience. The last time I had run
it during the day, there was only seven thousand in
the race, and last year there was north of thirty thousand.
And I'm going to run it that way this year,
run it during kay so would.

Speaker 7 (26:25):
Be exciting for me.

Speaker 4 (26:26):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
We want to wish you and your family the very best.
Thank you so much for being a part of the
show today, and have a terrific day tomorrow. All right.
Coming up next, tariff sand the threats that they are
starting to are they starting to take a toll rather
on businesses here locally. We're going to talk with some
businesses about that this is the New England Business Report.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Kim and Joe. We'll explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they returns Keys Getting.

Speaker 6 (27:05):
Yeah, Keith Skeetting.

Speaker 8 (27:06):
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Speaker 6 (27:55):
Classy start.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Carrigan and.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
I'm Joe Shortsley. If you want to be part of
the New England Business Report. Sponsorships are still available.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
You can email us at any business radio at gmail
dot com.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
That's any business radio all one word at gmail dot com,
and we'll get your business on the show too.

Speaker 9 (28:28):
Are you a brother or a sister of one of
Greater Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting
ready to hang up your tools after thirty five years
of working your tailoff? Congratulations, you worked hard to build
your retirement nest egg. But now what? Let me help
you break through the nonsense and financial speak so we
can get to the questions that are important to you.
As you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,

(28:50):
and neither will you a financial future. My name is
Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshall Wealth Management and
creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive customer plan that'll
help you answer important questions in all seven key areas.
You don't have to do it alone. There is no
cost or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three
four to two ten thirty. That's eight five seven three

(29:13):
four two ten thirty. We'll check us out online at
Marshallwealth dot com. Marshall with two l's Marshallwealth dot com.

Speaker 10 (29:20):
Advisory services offer through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer Member Finra, SIPC,
Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshall Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
Welcome back to every one to the New England Business Report.
Just a quick reminded that in this half hour we'll
be talking about the recent demands the Trump administration is
putting on Harvard in the response coming from the university leaders.
But first, our next guest is the CEO of Alignable.
It's an online platform for business networking, most specifically for

(29:56):
small businesses. Eric Groves is our guest, and Eric, it's
great to have you. Thanks so much for joining us
this morning.

Speaker 7 (30:03):
Well, thank you so much for having me. It's great
to be back with you.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
You bet. For those who don't know about Alignable, let's
first just get a quick overview if you will tour well.

Speaker 7 (30:14):
Alignable is an online networking platform for small business owners
which helps them build relationships which lead to word of
mouse referrals between business owners and so it's sort of
a critical element of how business owners grow their businesses
is being able to tap into their networks to generate
those referrals. And so we've got about nine and a

(30:35):
half million businesses across the US and Canada. They use
the platform for that on a daily basis.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Wow, and that goes across I'm looking at your story
here and it talks about some thirty five thousand communities,
So there's a quite a reach here to alignable.

Speaker 7 (30:52):
Absolutely. Yeah, we've you know, we started often outside of
Boston with around three hundred businesses launched on the Cape
and now it's frown I really all over all across
North America. So it's super exciting.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
Eric, You guys recently conducted a poll of some of
your members related to how they viewed the White House
the tariffs that are now on hold for ninety days,
but the tariffs and the impact that they anticipated they
may have on their businesses give us an overview of

(31:24):
what you guys find out and what small business owners
are talking about.

Speaker 7 (31:28):
Absolutely well. Unfortunately, the uncertainty around tariffs is getting worse
and for many small business owners here in Massachusetts and
across North America, it's starting to feel like the early
days of COVID all over again in terms of the
economic strain that it's putting on business owners. Our research

(31:49):
center has been tracking sort of the impact on businesses
for over five years now. We started going deep into
this during when COVID hit, and we're starting to see
that the US policy is taking a serious toll on
business owners. Nationally, forty four percent of small business owners
I say now that they're worried about declining sales due

(32:12):
to trip tariffs. But it's even tougher in Massachusetts, with
forty eight percent of these business owners here expecting revenue
to drop tied to these tariffs. And that really goes
into the psyche of what it is like to run
a small business owner. You know, when they feel uncertain,
where their confidence starts to erode, then they have to

(32:36):
change the way they operate their businesses. And we're really
starting to see that confidence eroding pretty significantly across the
US just this last so we're serving pretty much on
an every two week basis, and just in our last survey,
sixty one percent of business owners nationwide said that they're

(32:56):
now pessimistic about their financial future. I think the most
important thing to take away from that is just it's
a dramatic reversal from just a few months ago, back
in January, where sixty two percent of them told us
they felt optimistic about the financial future for twenty twenty five.
So a massive swing here and here in Massachusetts it's

(33:17):
even more pronounced, with seventy three percent or three out
of four small business owners saying they've lost confidence in
the economy. So that's you know, that's kind of what
we're seeing across the board and really how it's coming
home to roost here in Massachusetts.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Eric grows as our guests, is it all tariff related
or are there other things that play here?

Speaker 7 (33:41):
Well, you know, not, just similar to when COVID hit.
There's a lot of factors. And what the posture on
the tariffs does is it creates a sense of unknowing. Right.
There's not like a method to the madness around the tariffs.
It's just kind of like on today, off tomorrow. And
that kind of fluctuation and uncertainty is very challenging for

(34:04):
small business owners in many cases. They you know, when
you think about the core or the foundation of our
small business economy, a lot of its local retail and
those folks have to buy supplies and you know, right
now they're thinking about back to school type of sales
that they're doing in terms of when they have to
buy inventory. And so when you're dealing with tariffs and

(34:26):
you're trying to figure out when do I buy, you know,
is my product going to come in in a week
or is it going to take four months because I
got to pay tariffs when the product hits customs. And
so now you're just making a business owner think of
all the uncertainties and so, you know, whether it's inflation
or tariffs, it all just creates this sense of angst

(34:49):
amongst business owners. And you know, one of the things
we knew we learned during COVID was that a lot
of small business owners don't have a lot of cash
on hand. Historically, thirty four percent of small business owners
have less than thirty days of cash to run their
business on hand. And so, you know, any kind of
variation like that really causes an enormous amount of anxiety.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
So, Eric, are these business owners, I don't know if
you're asking them this, but are you asking them what
their plans might be? Are they going to have to
lay people off? Are they going to freeze hiring? What's
typically the answer there?

Speaker 7 (35:29):
Well, I think one of the things that we find
in this we're way back even before COVID, FEMA had
done all of this analysis of what happens when a
disaster hits a community, whether it's a hurricane or fire
or whatever. And what they find is the first thing
that business owners do is they try to, you have,

(35:49):
to create a sense of community. And so what we
see is the amount of discussions happening between business owners
of asking each other, how are you thinking about this?
Where are you, you know, doubling down on your supply
chain in order to get added flexibility and then you know,
so they go through that whole process and then they
start to think about their pricing strategy, right. And you know,

(36:13):
historically what business owners try and do when prices, their
supply prices increase is they try and hold off as
long as possible before they shift that burden to their customers.
And you know what happens is that they can only
do that for so long. And as we saw towards
the end of COVID, the inflation of all those prices

(36:34):
going up, that was kind of a delayed reaction as
businesses tried to keep their customers close. Well, the problem
is right now, is that they've already done that, and
now you layer more costs on top of them, and
they're trying to generate cash to stay in business, and
so the transfer of those increases is going to happen faster,

(36:55):
and so they're trying to figure out what can I
do in order to minimize that back on my customers
so I can keep them coming back.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
All right, these are very tumultuous times, There's no two
ways about it, and it seems uncertainty he is playing
such a huge role in all of this. Eric Groves,
thank you so much for being a part of the
show today. Alienable is the name of his company, Joe, of.

Speaker 4 (37:17):
Course, Kim.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
The other story that has been making headlines for the
last week or ten days or two weeks is that
I've been the standoff between Harvard and the Trump administration,
and it seems like, you know, that battles only getting
more and more heated. Let's bring in Grant Welker. He's
the project's reporter with the Boston Business Journal. He's been

(37:38):
following this closely and he's a regular visitor of the program.
We welcome Grant on this Sunday morning.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
Well, Grant, take us through this.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
I started with the Trump administration freezing over two billion
dollars in Harvard funding.

Speaker 12 (37:52):
What's going on right, So it's a showdown between two
two giants, really with the White House and the Companydministration
in Harvard. And that latest two billion dollar freeze came
immediately the same day that Harvard decided they were going
to fight back and they weren't going to adhere to

(38:12):
the administration's demands that we saw in other cases, most
notably with Columbia.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Harvard is fighting back. Harvard says that they're not going
to they're not going to follow the directions, and what
are the grounds on which they are saying they don't
have to?

Speaker 7 (38:28):
Right?

Speaker 12 (38:28):
So the critical change here because the administration had previously
told Harvard it wanted to address alleged anti semitism, a
problem that Harvard admitted to itself, and so that it's
been working to address. What really changed things in the
last week or so is that the administration said it
wanted Harvard to make governance and the leadership changes and

(38:50):
to bring what they called viewpoint diversity to admissions and hiring,
really getting into the weeds with the way Harvard operates,
and at that point is when Alan Garber, the Harvard president,
essentially said we can't operate like this. This is not
that we can allow a government takeover of our university.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
I'm talking with Grant Welker of the Boston business Joeneral
on the standoff with Harvard University of the Trump administration.

Speaker 4 (39:18):
Of course, the late last week, the.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Next headline that came along in addition to the freeze
of two billion dollars in funding, is the possibility of
threatening their tax exempt status.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
What's going on there right?

Speaker 12 (39:33):
And that is yes, it does escalate the fight for sure.
In that case, Harvard, like a lot of other colleges
many others, are our tax exempt because they are a nonprofit,
and the Trump administration, I think, sees that as another
way of ratcheting up the pressure on the university from
reporting that I have seen experts saying Harvard has a

(39:57):
very great case on this that they are still worthy
of being a taxics identity because the administration's issues with
the university aren't around dating. If the league are, and
if there is, they're talking about alleged anti semitism, Harvard
can say we're addressing that. Or if the administration is
looking to the essentially turn all the wheels are all

(40:19):
the gears with Harvard, that's not something that rises to
the leave of the irs revoking that tax accept status.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
And to revoke that, what would we be talking about financially?
I mean, this is this is a lot of money.

Speaker 12 (40:34):
There's a lot of money. It's not clear how much
it would change Harvard's finances. Of course, Harvard is as
the resources to fight in this case that no other
university or a lot of other private employers can match.
With talment that's over fifty billion dollars.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
Is there any precedent for such an action Grant.

Speaker 12 (40:54):
And that I've seen?

Speaker 6 (40:55):
No.

Speaker 12 (40:56):
Of course, there's not a lot of precedent, with a
lot happening with the Trump administration, and Harvard is almost
four centuries old. But and so it doesn't seem like
it's going to go away anytime soon. I'm not sure
it's a fight quite like this, at least in the
recent time.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
All Right, So where are we going from here? I mean,
on both these fronts, the freezing and funding the tax
exempt status. I mean, how do you see this playing
out over the next weeks and months.

Speaker 12 (41:22):
It's hard to imagine ending anytime, particularly soon both because
both sides are dug in their heels so much. I
don't think the Trump administration gives us a fight too easily. Harvard,
as I said, is four centuries old. It's not going
to go away and not going to want to give
in too easily. And a lot of people in higher
education see this as very precedent setting in a different

(41:43):
way than Columbia was Columbia are we already gave into
the administration's demands and has yet to have funding restored.
Most notably, and in Harvard's case, again, it has the
financial ability to withstand pressure that any other school wouldn't have,
but it's seen as okay, Harvard is fighting back.

Speaker 7 (42:03):
This is critical.

Speaker 12 (42:04):
It sets the pass a template for other universities to follow,
to say we're not going to get in either. And
we've seen universities team up on lawsuits in the same
way that attorneys general do for states and really standing
up for one another and seeing how critical this is,
how how significant of a fight it is for higher education,

(42:27):
that it's really being targeted in such a critical way
by the administration.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
And in fact, you've sort of answered, but you know,
have there been other universities who have stepped forward, including
Columbia that maybe you have said, you know, we're with
Harvard and we're going to stand with them.

Speaker 12 (42:44):
Not quite the same way we did see a lot
of universities in putting someone in the Boston area course
Toughs and Wells.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
That come to my mind.

Speaker 12 (42:53):
Immediately that that have said over the last couple of
months that we really stand with our values. Now it's
a little bit more general than saying we're going to
fight against these specific financial threats, but it can really
build on itself when you have university starting to stand

(43:16):
up and not cowering. We hadn't seen anything like this
until Harvard. Whether it's Columbia or other schools or most notably,
law firms that the Trump administration had kind of forced
into different accommodations.

Speaker 7 (43:31):
Whether it's the other Ivy League schools.

Speaker 12 (43:32):
Princeton and Penn have also been targeted the U and
toughs in cases of alleged anti Semitism. There's a path
hew that they can start to say we're not going
to give in, We're going to stay independent, We're going
to stay shoot our mission.

Speaker 5 (43:45):
Into our values.

Speaker 4 (43:48):
And grant. Why is the MIT suing the Department of Energy.

Speaker 12 (43:53):
So this is similar to a lot of people may
know of the NIH the National Institutes of Health grant funding.
In that case, that sort of kicked off a lot
of this fight between the administration and higher education putting
a lot of financial pressure on them by limiting indirect
cost coverage. And the Department of Energy is very similar. Harvard, sorry,

(44:14):
MIT is one of the universities that really relies on
a lot of Department of Energy funding for so much
of its research, and MIT and Brown and others have
said it's illegal. We had an agreed upon calculation for
covering these expenses and it can't just be done away
with on a whim because this administration has decided it

(44:38):
doesn't want to adhere to that.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
All right, we want to thank you for taking time
and joining us on this Sunday morning on the New
England Business Report. Up next, we're going to continue our
look at the Boston Marathon. The business of the Marathon Marathon,
of course, is tomorrow we're going to go out to
Ashland and talk to the manager of TJS.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six 't eighty Joe and
Kim will be right back.

Speaker 9 (45:10):
Are you a brother or sister of one or greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff. Congratulations, you worked hard to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what? Let me help you
break through the nonsense and financial speak so we can
get to the questions that are important to you. As
you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,

(45:31):
and neither will your financial future. My name is Mike Marshall,
President and CEO of Marshall Wealth Management and creator of
the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive, customized plan that'll help you
answer important questions in all seven key areas. You don't
have to do it alone. There is no cost or obligation.
Call us at eight five seven three four two ten thirty.

(45:52):
That's eight five seven three four two ten thirty. Well
check us out online at Marshallwealth dot com Marshall with
two ls Marshallwealth dot Com.

Speaker 10 (46:02):
Advisory services offered to capital analysts for Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer member
FINRA SIPC, Lincoln Investment dot com, Martial Wealth Management and
the above firms are independent and not affiliated.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
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Speaker 3 (47:09):
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Speaker 2 (47:18):
And I'm Joe Shortsley. If you want to be part
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Speaker 3 (47:24):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
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Speaker 2 (47:29):
That's any business Radio all one word at gmail dot
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Speaker 1 (47:43):
The New England Business Report on w RKO is brought
to you in part by Subaru of New England. Feel
the freedom of a brand new twenty twenty four Subaru
featuring symmetrical all wheel drive superu of New England dot Com.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Okay, as promised, we've been talking about the business of
the Boston Marathon, which of course up kicks off tomorrow morning.
There's one place out in Ashland where a race of course,
very close to the starting line. It's TJ's Fine Food
and Spirits, and well they've been making marathon Monday, you know,
a big deal for many years and it's a big

(48:21):
deal to them. But we have the general manager of
the TJ's on the phone with us, Jill Tomas. Jill,
thanks very much for joining us talk to us about
your marathon preparations and how big a deal it is
to TJ's.

Speaker 6 (48:36):
Well, thanks for having me on, Joe and Kim, I
really appreciate it. This is one of the biggest days
of the year for us here at TJ's in Ashland.
A lot of strategic planning goes into it, with different
vendors on site and applying for different liquor outdoor licenses
that we have to work closely with Hopkins and Ashland

(48:59):
Border Selectman with We also work with both Ashland and
Hopkin and Police Department to make sure we have all
the appropriate crew for security purposes at the restaurant. So
we're looking to forward to a great year again and
just it looks like the weather will be gearing up

(49:20):
to be a nice day.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
So Jill, let's take a look at it by the
numbers if we could. First off, what's the increase in
just the product that you have to purchase?

Speaker 6 (49:30):
I mean, we we probably quadruple our orders just for
the day what we would order in a week. We
you know, allocate for that one day.

Speaker 4 (49:42):
Wow, So what is that?

Speaker 3 (49:43):
What is that number? What's that like?

Speaker 6 (49:46):
I mean on an average day we might have roughly
two hundred people come through the door. We and to
anticipate closer to about eight nine wow.

Speaker 12 (49:58):
One.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Yeah, Jill, give us the hours of operation on tomorrow
on Monday, and how many employees do you need in
place and.

Speaker 4 (50:09):
What kind of planning it obviously is for you we
go all.

Speaker 6 (50:12):
Hands on deck for marathon Monday. It's it's really just
the more bodies the better, because we do get an
outdoor liquor license, which means that all that attend the
restaurant are allowed to carry their drinks their food into
our parking lot. We are two miles down from the start,

(50:35):
so it is a early start for most that come.
Our doors open at seven am. We will start serving breakfast.
Then our liquor license doesn't start till eight am. The
road one point thirty five coming from Hopkinton closes at

(50:57):
seven am, so if you plan on driving and parking
in the actual parking lot, you have to plan accordingly
in time that before seven am. There are a lot
of cross roads that you know a but the restaurant.
So you have Woodland Road in Ashland, in all of

(51:18):
Street in Ashland, or you could do Cross Street or
Clinton Street in Hockington. Park on those crossroads and it's
a short three minute walk from any of those streets
and then the roads kind of open back up around
one point thirty and people are welcome to stay or

(51:38):
you know, part their ways then go on with their Monday.
We do have a DJ on site from eight till three.
Our outdoor license also goes to two pm. We do
a cookout out in our parking lot where we offer
you know, you know, hamburgers, usage pepper and onions, uh,

(52:02):
you know, traditional cookout items. We also will have vendors
on site as I mentioned before, Sam Adams, Mister and
Missus T and Sun Cruiser. Each each vendor has a
special you know booth that they will be hosting. Uh,

(52:24):
cornhole tournaments, ladder golf tournaments a minute uh uh. Mister
Missus T is bringing a mini golf course for people
to you know, stay outside and enjoy the day and
watch the past the racers pass by. Wow.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
So a nice weather day is a good thing for
you guys, that sounds like for sure.

Speaker 6 (52:44):
It is such a weather contingent event. So when we
do have a nice day, we really harness on that
and just pull everyone in that's willing to do something and.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
What talk to those about what's going to be the
number one food that folks are going to be buying
on Marathon Monday from you?

Speaker 4 (53:05):
And who's your client?

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Who's showing up there at TJ's in the intel.

Speaker 6 (53:11):
Is everyone from families to you know, just those that
are looking to come down to cheer. We do get
because it is so close to the start line. We
are usually those that don't like to watch right at
the start line because you know, all the crowd, that's
hard to find the person you might be looking for.

(53:33):
And if you're trying to track your runner along the
route and hit them at different locations, we seem to
attract a lot of those that are, you know, trying
to track their racer at different points. So they might
stop at TJ's because they can get out by one
point thirty. Then they might meet them at Heartbreak Hill,

(53:54):
and then they might meet them at the finish line.
You know, you kind of just have to plot that out.
We do attract a lot a lot of families and
kids just because of all the different you know, events
that are going on with the different vendors to keep
kids occupied. And you know, I would say that, you know,
we're open to anyone that wants to sure.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
So Jill, let me ask you about the differences maybe
this year versus other years. Just it sounds like you're
serving a lot of breakfast and obviously we all know
everybody's been fighting that egg issue and the cost of eggs,
so our price is up at TJ's this year. You know,
where do you guys stand on all that.

Speaker 6 (54:35):
Any of our food item prices from last year to
this year. For the marathon, we do do egg sandwiches
as I had mentioned, you know, your traditional egg sandwiches.
We keep it very, very basic. We don't offer our
in house menu until three point thirty on the day

(54:56):
of just because the volume, as I had mentioned before,
or with people is so high, and because people are
scattered all around, we really pushed people to the outside
cookout the egg issue. It's funny that you bring that
up last year when there wasn't the price that increased.
You know, ever since COVID in the new race times,

(55:21):
with the waves being launched earlier, you know, they used
to start closer to eleven am, and now we're at
nine am, which I believe that this year, I think
is a little bit later than the last two years.
It has hurt our numbers a little bit in the
sense of people just being able to get to our
location by the eight o'clock seven am you know shutdown

(55:45):
of the roads, but they do let you cross the
street by foot up until about eight fifty before the
the wheelchairs are released. That had diminished our numbers in
the earlier time, but for some reason, by the start
of like the elite runners. I don't know if they
come out of the woods or where, but we are packed,

(56:07):
so we just cannot accommodate our regular in house you
know menu until then situation. We are fully stocked up
and ready to go again. We haven't changed our prices
on that. We really harness on, you know, affordable pricing

(56:29):
where you can bring your whole family to dine and
not break the bank. So we're ready to.

Speaker 4 (56:37):
Roll for it's twenty four hours away.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
We've been talking to Jill Tomas as the general manager
of TJ's out there in Ashland, the TJ's Fine food
and the spirits and the interesting what you said, Kevin terms,
it's the biggest event of the year for them, and
we need.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
The weather to be good for them, but not too
good where it's hot for the runners. Well that's going
to do it for this edition of the New England
Business Report. If everybody has a wonderful holiday. Joe enjoyed
that a hunt today.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Oh yeah, so I'm going to be knocking those grandkids
over just trying to get to those purple eggs, you
know what I mean, out of my way?

Speaker 3 (57:17):
Oh can I do anything to see that? All right,
let's take a look at what's coming up next week.
Dog Howgate, he's the president of the Massachusetts Taxpayer as
a Foundation. He's going to join us to talk about
the tariffs and their effects on the Massachusetts economy. That
is coming up next Sunday at eight am, right here
on the Voice of Boston WRKO six eighty am. Good

(57:38):
luck to all the runners tomorrow, and we'll talk to
you again next week. Okay.