I heard that it is a good thing that the Yankees won the World Series because the stock market has an average gain of 10% in the year following a win by them in the World Series. Well, as a Red Sox fan I have a hard time feeling good about them winning it all but at least there is a fringe benefit. And we can’t win it all every year after all. ;) The point I wanted to talk about today was how you can get a read on the economy by the usage of conference calls as well. And it is probably a little more reliable than the connection between a baseball game and the economy too.
Over the eyars of being in the conference call industry I have noticed a couple of interesting things that can help indicate how my day is going to go. The first thing I notice is the traffic on the way to work. If it is a busy traffic morning there are going to be a lot of conference calls held that day. Now, in some respects you would think just the opposite. If people stay home they would need to hold meetings remotely and a conference call is a sure bet. But actually, most of the conference calls are being attended by people in their place of business and when people are staying home they are probably on holiday and are not doing conference calls. So, as business traffic picks up, so do the number of conference calls.
The other thing I notice is the type of businesses that sign up for a conference call service is a good indicator of the health of that segment of the business. And when I see a greater number of sign ups than business in that area is probably picking up. Lately I have seen a number of real estate offices and associations signing up for our service. And after speaking to some Realtors I know it appears that the real estate market is picking up some steam after a tough couple of years. That is good news for all of us since that is one of the leading indicators in the economy.
Beyond the signing up for a conference call service I also notice the amount of conference calling done by my customers in general is a good indicator of the economy. And certainly over the past year the financial sector has been especially hard hit. So, companies that do mortgages for instance, just aren’t writing as many mortgages so they are not doing as many conference calls with their offices and vendors to talk about mortgages. And so forth. But again the good news is that the volume of conference calls is starting to pick up in a number of industries that have suffered over the past year or two. It has a ways to go, but in general based on the number of conference calls being done it appears that the economy is on the mend. Maybe we can thank the Yankees and conference calls for the good market over the next year!