The most expensive real estate in Los Angeles may be 6 feet under.
"It's a deal at $699,000," said Tom Gregory, standing over the cemetery plot he owns. "It's about $10,300 per square foot."
From Jane Wells at CNBC:
LA's priciest real estate? Not where you'd think
Jane Wells | @janewells Tuesday, 4 Feb 2014 | 1:00 PM ET
Like any real estate, Gregory believes what makes this plot of land so valuable is location. It's only a few yards from Marilyn Monroe's crypt. "I already know what my epitaph is," he said, pointing behind him: "'She's over there.'"
The plot—which holds up to four—is inside the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, the final resting place for many Hollywood elite. Those buried here include Dean Martin, Natalie Wood, Farrah Fawcett, Truman Capote, Peter Falk, Jack Lemmon, and the list goes on and on, all tucked into a tiny, quiet cemetery hidden behind skyscrapers off Wilshire Boulevard. No grave gets as much attention as Marilyn Monroe's, as evidenced by the discoloration of her crypt from being touched and kissed by legions of fans.
Gregory, a producer and longtime collector of Hollywood memorabilia, bought the cemetery site a decade ago for $350,000.
"I had a friend who passed away, and no one told me, so I said, 'Where is Juan?'" After being told his friend's ashes had been scattered, Gregory
"At the time, I was with someone who is still a very big community leader, and I thought this was a significant cemetery for he and I to be interred in," Gregory said. At first, his partner suggested a place closer to the cemetery's chapel, but Gregory didn't like the neighborhood. "I didn't recognize any names. Some of them, they just looked distracting to me."
Then he discovered that a so-called "bench estate" was available at the highest point of the cemetery near Marilyn Monroe. It was more expensive, but Gregory figured it was worth it. "I can't imagine being lonely for all eternity," he said. "I like people around, and this (area) gets a constant flow of people."
Here the ... plot ... thickens. Gregory and his partner eventually broke up. He moved on, and moved in, to a new home. He has decided to sell the cemetery plot for twice what he paid. "I don't need to sell it, but I've been renovating a house, and it sure would be nice to sell it." The site is listed on eBay. Gregory is also accepting offers via email at BigStarPlot@aol.com
"It's real estate, it's not a condo," he said. "I mean, even Marilyn's in a condo. A bad seismic day and she's going to come rolling down the hill, and I'll still be safe underground."
Even at $699,000, the asking price is actually a bargain compared with the reported $4.6 million paid when the crypt above Monroe's was sold to an unnamed bidder on eBay in 2009.
Eventually, though, if the plot sells, where will Tom Gregory's own plotline end? He's considering the possibility of being buried in New York, maybe near Joan Crawford. He will miss visiting Westwood.
"I found a lot of peace here. On days that are really busy, I love coming over here and just looking at my headstone," he said wistfully. "People don't think this far ahead. They think about Calabasas and Beverly Hills these days with reality TV, but they don't think about, you know, after Cedars Sinai, where are they going to go? And if you average the cost of this plot over eternity, it's virtually free."
—By CNBC's Jane Wells; Follow her on Twitter @janewellsCold, hard business lessons from a Girl Scout
You think selling Girl Scout cookies is easy? Well, of course it's easy. They're delicious.
But selling more than 21,000 boxes? That's an art. The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, apparently.
In a hilarious parody video created by Mashable, the very real 12-year-old Katie Francis of Oklahoma City reveals her strategy for selling the most cookies in Girl Scout history.
The video starts sweetly enough, as the sixth-grader announces that she recently broke the old record "by selling 21,477 boxes of Girl Scout cookies." Her secret?
Play hardball.
"First of all, cut the Do-si-dos and wake up!" she says.
Katie explains that the business world "is cut-throat, if you can't get your head in the game, you're going to lose." She goes on to advise that successful deal closers need to know their competition, "and be ready to take them down at a moment's notice."
Wow. Make new friends, and kill the old! One is silver, and the other is … better off dead.
Katie first made headlines last month when she broke the record by "a margin about the size of a Thin Mint." In those original, straight news stories, she was her true self: a sweet young lady who likes to sing about cookies to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." She told The Oklahoman "there were only three ingredients needed to rack up large sales: a lot of time, a lot of commitment and asking everyone she met to buy."
Hold on! Mashable "reveals" there's a fourth ingredient to success—making grown men cry! (That's my favorite part of the parody video. Bravo.)
Katie Francis is so self-assured, so successful, such a go-getter, she doesn't need any stinking equal-pay-for-equal-work bill to protect her.
By the way, she's still selling cookies. Like some freckle-faced cookie monster, this kid won't quit until you do.
—By CNBC's Jane Wells.
Of course, some just succeed by selling smart:
Girl Scout sells cookies outside pot dispensary: 117 boxes in 2 hours
It's that time of year again. Time when your local market entrances are flooded with Girl Scouts selling boxes of Samoas, Tagalongs and Thin Mints. But one 13-year-old Girl Scout in San Francisco and her mother made a rather business-savvy decision to sell cookies outside of a medical marijuana dispensary.
On Monday, Danielle Lei and her mother set up shop outside the Green Cross store with the cookies. With the store's blessing, Lei sold 117 boxes in two hours.
Holli Bert, a spokeswoman for the Green Cross, said that after just 45 minutes, Lei had to call for backup cookies to replenish her stock.
"You put it in terms that they may understand," Lei's mother, Carol, told Mashable. "I'm not condoning it, I'm not saying go out in the streets and take marijuana. It also adds a little bit of cool factor. I can be a cool parent for a little bit."
According to Kelly Parisi, chief communications officer from Girl Scouts of the USA, each region of Girl Scouts has its own guidelines.
"All the money stays in local councils, and they make all decisions on how the cookie program is run," said Parisi in a statement. "As always, our primary concern is the safety and well-being of the girls we serve. Volunteers and parents are empowered to relocate their booths if conditions change and the location is no longer suitable."
With no opposition from Lei's local Girl Scouts chapter, she and her mother plan to return to the Green Cross to sell more cookies Saturday.
[Updated at 12:03 p.m. Feb. 21: “To date, we have not attempted to list either “permitted” or "prohibited” locations and have relied on parents and volunteers to make wise decisions for their girls,”said Dana Allen, Director of Marketing and Communications of the Girls Scouts of Northern California, the region Lei belongs to. “As always, we evaluate our policies and procedures at the end of each cookie sale and will consider whether further guidelines will be beneficial regarding booth site selection.”]
The Girl Scouts of Colorado issued a tweet expressing their disapproval of the situation. "If you are wondering, we don't allow our Girl Scouts to sell cookies in front of marijuana shops or liquor stores/bars" read the tweet.
The Green Cross, which also sells a variety of marijuana named Girl Scout Cookie, has posted numerous items on its Facebook page referencing Lei, with one comical post featuring the Dos Equis beer "most interesting man in the world."
"I don't always buy Girl Scout cookies, but when I do, I buy them from the genius outside The Green Cross pot dispensary," reads the post.
Do you think the mother-daughter duo are business-savvy or inappropriate? Let us know in the comments below.
Meet the marijuana mavens, the women of pot
Thursday, 22 May 2014 | 4:51 PM ETI've noticed an emerging trend in the marijuana industry in Colorado.
There are an awful lot of women running these businesses—whether it's retail pot shops, manufacturing edible products infused with cannabis or running testing labs.
At this week's first-ever Colorado Cannabis Summit in Denver, the entire panel of local experts on safety and technology was made up of women.
"I like to call them the marijuana mavens," said Brooke Gehring, a former mortgage banker who now owns four pot stores in Colorado.
Read MoreColorado cracks down on edible pot products
"It blows my mind, the incredible women I've met in this industry," said Genifer Murray, founder and CEO of CannLabs, a state-certified lab that tests the potency and safety of recreational pot products.
Murray said so many women have come into the industry that even though they often compete against each other, they're starting a group called Women Grow to mentor the next generation of female cannabis entrepreneurs.
"My lab director's a woman, the director of my micro department is a woman, I have a couple other women lab techs, and I was so excited when I looked through resumes and there were a lot of women!"
Why are women attracted to this industry? Could it be that they do well here because customers feel more comfortable with a woman behind the counter or running a business as marijuana tries to shake its shady image?
"I think it starts from the compassionate side of medical marijuana," said Jaime Lewis, chief operating officer of Good Chemistry. "We were able to take care of people and allow them an alternative way to medicate outside of pharmaceuticals and what their doctors were recommending for them."
Lewis is a former professional chef from San Francisco who began making edible marijuana products for AIDS patients. Now she's in Colorado baking and selling full time for both medical and recreational consumers.
"I strongly believe there's that compassionate edge to it that attracts most women to the business," Lewis said.
There are no hard figures on how many "Mary Janes" there are in the legal retail marijuana business in Colorado, but at the Cannabis Summit, women made up at least a third of the attendees.
Murray said it's still a male-dominated industry, but women can make inroads if they have the stomach for it. "To be in this industry, you have to be bulletproof," she said. "You have to be steel."
You might say that about competing in any industry, but pot brings its own unique challenges. Colorado is, to an extent, making up the rules as it goes along for things like labeling, limits on THC in edibles, packaging and mandated security measures.
Read MorePorn, pot and payday lenders unwelcome in banks
This remains an all-cash business as banks refuse to let pot businesses open accounts or get lines of credit. There's talk of creating a banking cooperative for the industry, but some fear that would be too risky.
"I would be very scared to expose our money, and then, for any reason, be at risk for any type of laundering," Gehring said.
Finally, even as some vendors begin pitching their services to the marijuana industry, others still shy away—and not even a woman's touch can change that.
Murray said it took her 10 phone calls to find a waste management company willing to take her trash, and some scientific companies refuse to sell her lab equipment.
"Shame on them," she said. "It's going to be a billion-dollar industry."
—By CNBC's Jane Wells
I deserve a raise! Or at least some free tacos!
Here's an amazing piece of news. Many Americans think they make a fair wage.
But not everyone.
A new survey by Glassdoor.com found that nearly 2 in 5 workers say they are unfairly paid for the work they do. More women than men see a
About half of those surveyed say the gap in pay between executives and the rest of the workforce "is getting worse."
Whose fault is it? Like everything else, it's management's fault. The Glassdoor survey found that 57 percent "believe employers are in the best position to address pay gaps." Well, who else would be? Apparently, several other culprits could help make things right, or at least force transparency into the murky world of salaries and benefits.
Thirty percent of those surveyed by Glassdoor said Congress is in the best position to fix pay gaps, and 14 percent believe President Barack Obama oughta do something about it. He's already barred federal contractors from retaliating against workers who reveal their own compensation.
Most surprising to me is that 13 percent of those surveyed thought "the middle class" could make a difference, (How? Higher taxes?), and another 11 percent said "the upper class" could. Finally, 9 percent believe banks and financial institutions are in a good position to address pay gaps...maybe they're just supposed to give money away.
Glassdoor said 1 in 3 of those surveyed "do not believe they understand the process their employer uses to determine pay raises or cost-of-living increases." Maybe you should ask!?!
Then there are the best pay substitutes.
When asked what perks employees would accept if getting a raise was not an option, the most popular answer was "more vacation days" (61
Read More Sick from your job? My grandma would laugh at you
Fifteen percent said they'd accept "free food & drinks." Or, as I describe it, "Will work for food."
Look, if you can't even get free Taco Tuesdays, maybe it's time to move on. Most of those surveyed (62 percent) said they would consider looking for work if they didn't get a raise within the first year of starting a job. Maybe they should. If you're not earning a raise in the first year, either you don't deserve it, the boss can't afford it, or the company's too cheap. Either way, keep those resumes handy.
—By CNBC's Jane Wells