Posts Tagged ‘economy’

Let Vcorp Services Take Away Your Corporate Filing Burden

Monday, September 15th, marked a significant day for the State of California as it deals with incorporating new companies and document recording/retrieval.   From now when a company is incorporating in the State of California, there will be several options available for companies looking to expedite the incorporation process.  And it is for these very reasons why we started Vcorp Services.  Trying to navigate through the paperwork required to incorporate your business can be a daunting task, and hiring a lawyer is not an option if you are trying to keep your corporate expenses low.  If you haven’t incorporated your company yet, call us today at 1-888-52-VCORP (82677).

Below is a full explanation regarding each of the new rules and regulations associated with incorporating your business.  Being the complex process that it is, it is vital to have a partner who can help you get through the paperwork and help you get back to what you do best… Running your company!

Mail Service

Filing and order requests submitted by mail to the Sacramento office are generally processed within 10 to 20 business days and do not require payment of a special handling fee.

Drop-Off Services

• Filing requests submitted in person to the Sacramento or any regional office (located in Fresno, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego) along with a $15 special handling fee and applicable filing fee will be processed in priority over documents submitted by mail. The average processing time for drop-off services is three to seven business days.
• Order requests submitted in person to the Sacramento office, along with a $10 special handling fee and applicable copy/certification fee(s), will be processed in priority over requests submitted by mail. The average processing time for drop-off services is three to seven business days.
• Certificate of Status requests submitted in person to the Sacramento office, along with a $10 special handling fee and $5 certificate fee, generally will be processed within 24 hours.

4-Hour Filing Service (Class A)

Filing requests submitted in person to the Sacramento office along with a $500 expedite fee and applicable filing fee are guaranteed to be processed within four hours.

Note

Preclearance approval (fees ranging from $250 to $500) is required to be eligible for the 4-hour
filing service. Additional information regarding preclearance services is available on the Secretary of
State’s website at www.sos.ca.gov/business/precexp.htm.

Same-Day Filing Service (Class B – New)

Filing requests submitted in person to the Sacramento office by 9:30 a.m., along with a $750 expedite fee and applicable filing fee, are guaranteed to be processed by or before 4:00 p.m.

24-Hour Filing Service (Class C – previously Class B)

Filing requests submitted in person to the Sacramento office, along with a $350 expedite fee and applicable filing fee, are guaranteed to be processed within 24 hours.

Request for Specific File Date

If a customer initially requests the date of submission as the file date and the document is returned for correction, the requested file date will be honored as long as the document is resubmitted by the end of the third day following the date of return and conforms to law.

Note

If a business entity document is resubmitted more than once, each resubmission will be treated
as an original submission and the document will receive the earliest file date available based on the
criteria specified above.

Small businesses—of which there are nearly twenty-five million in the United States—form the backbone of the American economy. As more and more consumers turn to the Internet to find products and services, small business owners are faced with the challenge of making their presence known in the online marketplace.

A disparity exists, however, between consumer practice and small business response. While nearly 75% of U.S. consumers use the Internet when shopping for goods and services, less than 10% of advertising dollars are spent online, and nearly half of all small businesses don’t even have a website.

For years, many small business owners spent the bulk of their advertising dollars on traditional media such as print advertising in local newspapers or the yellow pages. (Some small businesses go so far as choosing outrageous names for the sole purpose of getting listed first!)

“In the online marketplace, small businesses often lag behind the competition due to lack of computer know-how and inability to adapt their messaging, resulting in a failure to be found online,” says John Wall, CEO of Innuity, Inc., a Software as a Service (SaaS) company headquartered in Redmond, WA, that delivers online solutions specifically targeted to small businesses. “There are myriad ways for America’s small businesses to grow online, from targeted online advertising campaigns to enhanced search engine optimization.”

Small businesses in need of some online marketing savvy in order to stay competitive in today’s plugged-in marketplace include everything from sole proprietors working from home, to local family doctors and dentists, to neighborhood restaurants, private law practices, and most everything in between.

“It became obvious we needed a presence on the web,” says Innuity client Dr. Dave Parker of the Washington Institute of Sports Medicine. “We knew we didn’t want to spend $10,000 to get started, and we also didn’t want to have someone do it for us who would turn around and keep charging us to maintain it.” Innuity’s Internet technology is based on an affordable, on-demand model that allows small businesses to interact simply with customers, business partners, and vendors, and efficiently manage their business.

“The Internet is a fantastic platform for businesses of any size and stripe,” says Mr. Wall. “Thanks to the power of the web, small truly is the new big.”

The large component of the accounting industry is the credit and lending industry.  And with the current economic state, it is important to have a solid understanding of what current consumer habits are domestically.  Call it survival of the financially fittest, or financial Darwinism. Consumers are adapting to a changed economic landscape by cutting back on their credit card spending, attempting to pay down debt and monitoring interest rates, according to a new nationwide poll from CreditCards.com.

The findings are from the Second Annual Taking Charge survey, an in-depth investigation of America’s relationship with credit cards. The national study was fielded by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media for CreditCards.com, the leading online credit card marketplace and consumer information source.

Taken as a whole, the poll shows most consumers are reacting reasonably to financial difficulties by pulling back on discretionary spending, and express little concern about their ability to pay down debt. But those who can’t or won’t adjust are finding themselves in deeper and deeper debt trouble. To put it in Darwinian terms, consumers must adapt or they simply won’t financially survive.

“As the use of plastic becomes more prevalent in American daily life, consumers who implement healthy credit card habits will be more apt to financially survive in a cashless society,” said Ben Woolsey, Director of Marketing and Consumer Research for CreditCards.com.

Consumers appear to be taking proactive steps to avoid the credit crunch in their credit card affairs:

• 25 percent of U.S. cardholders say they spent less on household living expenses last month compared to normal.
• One-third of cardholders report that they ended the previous month with a lower outstanding balance than the month before.
• 34 percent say they spent less on discretionary expenses, such as eating out or shopping at the mall; 46 percent say they spent less on major purchases, such as appliances or furniture.
• Some consumers are giving up on credit: The proportion claiming to be current cardholders has dropped 4 percentage points since the 2007 Taking Charge survey.
• Only 7 percent of Americans say they worry “a lot” about paying off their credit card bills; 63 percent say they are not at all worried.
• People are hunting for low interest rates. Nearly 4 in 10 surveyed agreed that they are always looking for low interest rates to transfer their existing balances, while 67 percent of cardholders agree that they “actively monitor” the interest rates on their credit cards.
• Despite all the bad economic news of the past year, American cardholders are no more worried than last year about paying their credit card bills, with 27 percent agreeing with the statement, “At times I worry about how I’m going to pay my credit cards.” That figure is unchanged from last year’s poll.

Who does worry about paying credit card bills? According to the poll, those with the greatest credit card bill worries are people:

• With household incomes below $75,000.
• Who have four or more credit cards.
• Who are older than 40.

During economic slowdowns I always look for the silver lining, and with the current subpar job market, right now is the best time to start your own business. And how do I know the economy is in trouble? I listen to what the CPA’s are saying, since they are the one’s accounting for business cashflow (of lack thereof). The U.S. economy has already entered a recession and the outlook remains negative according to a majority of chief financial officers and senior-level executive CPAs surveyed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

For a third consecutive quarter, executive CPAs serving in business and industry continue to foresee slowing economic growth ahead, the latest AICPA-UNC Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey shows.

“Our members are still seeing increased pressure on profits from rising costs without the ability to raise prices,” said Chris McKittrick, director of members in business, industry and government for the AICPA. “Expectations for revenue and hiring are trending downward.”

A 62 percent majority of CPA respondents said they were pessimistic or very pessimistic about the economic outlook for the U.S. over the next 12 months, an increase in pessimism from 57 percent who held negative expectations in the second quarter. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they believe the U.S. economy has already entered a recession. The survey found only 10 percent of CPAs in executive positions expressed optimism about the economy, a decline from 12 percent in the second quarter.

“It is hard to see much good news here,” said Mark Lang, PhD, a professor of accounting at UNC Kenan-Flagler. “There were some hopeful signs in last quarter’s survey suggesting that the economy might be bottoming out, but weakness persists across the board. The fact that firms continue to reduce planned growth in capital investment, staff development and employment is particularly troubling since it suggests that slowdown could have longer-term implications.”

Chief financial officers remain more optimistic about their own organizations than they are about the broader U.S. economy, although the declining trend in economic outlook is mirrored in declining optimism for their own companies.

“As I met people at our Controller’s Workshop in Las Vegas in July I asked many of them this simple question: ‘How’s your business?’ I was surprised by how many responses I got like ‘Just fine’ and ‘We’re ahead of last year and ahead of plan,’” McKittrick said. “Maybe things are not as bad as we might be lead to believe and the tough times are limited to certain industries at this time.”

Thirty-eight percent of executive CPAs said they were optimistic or very optimistic about their organization’s economic prospects over the next 12 months, a 7 percentage point decline from 45 percent who were upbeat in the second quarter. At the same time, financial executives with pessimistic or very pessimistic views of their own organization’s outlook increased to 27 percent in the quarter, up from 22 percent in the prior period.

Fed Policy, Energy Prices
Notwithstanding the pessimism for the economy, CFOs and executive CPAs said Congress and the Federal Reserve should refrain from pumping more cash into the economy. Asked whether Congress should pass a second economic stimulus package to boost the economy, 74 percent rejected the idea. A strong majority of 62 percent said the Fed should maintain interest rates at current levels.

Addressing oil prices, 36 percent of CPA decision-makers support opening up additional land and offshore areas for drilling and 27 percent support additional financial incentives for alternative energy. Nine percent said the government should take no action and let the market drive responses. There was very little support – 3 percent – for releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. When asked what actions, if any, companies are taking to help their employees with high gasoline prices, 63 percent said “none.” Thirteen percent were implementing flexible or compressed work schedules and 11 percent allow telecommuting.

Economic Data
There is some debate among economists about whether the U.S. is presently in a recession or will enter a recession as the economy slows. The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass., defines a recession as a ‘significant’ decrease in activity over a sustained period of time measured by declines in GDP, payrolls, production, sales and incomes. The NBER usually declares a recession six to 18 months after it begins. A widely-used definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of declining Gross Domestic Product. U.S. GDP declined in the fourth quarter of 2007, but rose in the first and second quarters of 2008, according to the U.S. government’s inflation-adjusted numbers. Revised second quarter data is due Aug. 28.