Posts Tagged ‘liz roz’

No matter where you work in the country, if you are in the accounting or real estate industries, you know that the economy is not going to turn around overnight.  And it is during these times that having a firm knowledge of the upcoming financial forecasts is most vital.  I wanted to post an article that discussed what we could look forward to this fall in the real estate market and I came across a research report from OptHome, which is an online resource for empowering homeowners, buyers and sellers to make smart decisions for all their homeowner needs, announces that although the fall will probably not show an increase in home prices, buyer interest appears to be building, and will begin to set the stage for recovery. The areas of the country that have seen the biggest price declines have now seen the biggest increase in sales, indicating that buyers are responding to lower prices. And while it is impossible to say precisely when the real estate market will bottom out until it actually begins to go back up, the market is likely hovering at the bottom right now—begging the question—is this a good time to jump into the market?

“When mortgage payments and property taxes are around the same as it costs to rent, this is usually an indicator that it is an excellent time to buy,” said Dave Sears Co-Founder and Chief Strategist at OptHome. “While the market could still go down a bit, it can also begin to go up, so buyers may want to seriously consider taking the leap.”

OptHome cautions savvy buyers and sellers to look at a different kind of “To Dos and To Knows” checklist before making a move this fall or beyond, and offers the following tips.

Tips for Sellers:

• Now is THE time to move up: If you want to buy a bigger or nicer home, now is the time to do it. Right now you will get a better deal because the larger house you want to buy has probably taken more of a price cut than you will have to take on your current home. It’s a sliding scale – in your favor – as you consider more expensive homes.
• Pricing your home correctly has never been more vital; do your homework and listen to your agent: Well priced homes in good condition and good locations are selling faster than ones that are priced above the appropriate range.
• “Fixer-Uppers” don’t win in this market: Homes in good condition are available at very reasonable prices.
• Understanding the Home Improvement Return on Investment Index is critical in this market: Sellers may not recoup investments on many upgrades; focus your dollars and time on what will help your home sell.
• Paint before it gets cold: If you want to sell in the fall, do all your painting now. Use the last of the summer weather to do any exterior painting your home may need.
• Don’t let your house hibernate: Be careful not to give your house the closed-down, winter hibernation look. For example, don’t leave a boat wrapped and covered for winter on your lawn.

Tips for Buyers:

• Don’t try to “time the bottom of the market” – you may kick yourself later: This is a great market for a buyer. By the time you realize the market has hit rock bottom, it will already be on its way back up.
• Do research on prices of similar homes: Focus on the true value of a property rather than the percentage you may be able to negotiate off the price. You may not get the “rock bottom” price, but you will do well as the market improves in 2009 and 2010.
• Really look at ALL the numbers: Find out the price per square foot of your potential new home. Is it below what new construction or the cost to replace it would be? If so, you will build equity quicker.
• Pay close attention to your mortgage rate: Fixed rates are your safest bet and if you can afford it, going with a shorter term mortgage helps build equity in your home faster.
• Be careful with “Short Sales”: This is when a seller can’t afford to pay their mortgage and the lender agrees to accept less than what is owed. This should be disclosed, but it is important to ask before you make an offer. Otherwise you may end up at the mercy of the seller’s mortgage holder which could delay and even prevent closing as it can sometimes take weeks for a lender to respond to an offer.

Territory rights are some of the most important regulations to franchise law, and one of the industries that this is most critical is the auto dealer market.  The majority of consumers purchase cars based on location, and auto dealers pay handsomely to “own” their territory.

An interesting case study of this law is occurring presently, with Bill Ussery Motors’ Mercedes Benz of Coral Gables dealership filing a lawsuit against Palmetto Sport Cars, Inc., alleging that the used car dealership illegally acquired and sold new Mercedes Benz vehicles less than one mile from the Mercedes franchise dealership. The suit seeks compensation for related damages and an injunction against the independent dealership to prevent it from continuing to illegally compete with the Ussery dealership.

The lawsuit alleges that Palmetto Sport Cars acquired new Mercedes vehicles from an out-of-market dealer and illegally offered for sale these new vehicles that had never been legally titled from a dealership to a purchaser. In fact, the manufacturer’s records still reflect that most of these cars, if not all, are still in the inventory of the out-of-market dealer.

“Florida statutes governing franchise dealerships are designed to protect legitimate business enterprises from those who engage in unfair methods of competition, or unconscionable, deceptive or unfair business practices,” said Alex Kurkin of the Miami-based law firm of Kurkin Brandes, LLP, the attorneys for Bill Ussery Motors, Inc. “Palmetto became a de facto Mercedes Benz dealership in wanton violation of the law. This has caused a substantial monetary loss to our client which we will seek to recover. As this is not the only dealership that has engaged in this practice, this case will likely be the first of many of these lawsuits unless other violating dealers take heed and immediately abandon this practice.”

Obviously we do not have the details on this case since we’ve only heard the plaintiff’s argument, however in general, if you are in the franchise industry, pay close attention to your rights, along with your competitor’s rights prior to selling a directly competing product.  And if you are a used car dealership, please don’t try selling new cars!

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 accounting industry has changed dramatically with the advent of online banking.  And with each day more and more individuals are migrating to the Internet to bank.  In fact, more Americans than ever, an estimated 63.1 million households or three-fourth of those online, are paying their bills online rather than writing checks, according to a survey by CheckFree.  This means that you, as an accountant, will have to have a firm foundational knowledge of online banking across various mediums.

The survey mentioned above indicates that consumers are more confident about online security as more Americans are gaining experience in using Internet services, making security concerns less of a barrier to online bill payment adoption than in the past. In the latest survey, only 13 percent of respondents cited online security as the top reason for not using the online bill payment service, down from 17 percent in the 2007 survey. Overall, online security ranked third among barriers to online bill payment adoption this year, compared to its number-one ranking in 2007. The primary barrier (15%) in the new study was “I don’t know enough about how it works.”

An estimated 31 million households are using online banking websites to pay bills, 47.9 million households are using biller websites and 16 million are using both online banking and biller sites to receive and pay bills. Approximately 63.1 million of Internet-using households pay at least one bill online in an average month, up from 61 million in the 2007 survey. These households collectively paid 934 million bills in a typical month, according to the survey results.

Online bill payments continued to outpace check bill payments for the second consecutive year. Online bill payments made at both bank and biller websites rose to 42 percent of the total volume of household bill payments made each month, up from 39 percent in the 2007 survey. Online bill payment adoption has significantly grown since the 2002 survey, when only 14 percent reported paying their bills online.

Check payments among survey respondents who use the Internet fell to their lowest level in six years, accounting for only 31 percent of the total volume of household bill payments – down from the 34 percent recorded in the 2007 survey. Check bill payments have fallen by half on a percentage basis since January 2002, when Internet-connected Americans made 61 percent of their bill payments by check. Still, 59 million online households pay at least one of their household bills each month by check.

“As more consumers gain experience and become more comfortable using the Internet, their confidence in online security grows and we see an increase in the adoption of online banking and bill payment services,” said Todd Lesher, division president, CheckFree electronic Banking Services, now part of Fiserv. “For a minority of users who haven’t used the Web as long, we see that security concerns remain a significant barrier to online banking and bill payment adoption. We continue to work closely with our financial institution customers on joint programs that help educate consumers that online financial services are safer and more convenient than traditional, paper-based methods.”

Survey findings include:

• Internet-using households pay an average of 11 bills per month. Consumers use an average of three different ways to pay bills, with online, check, automatic debit and in-person topping the list of popular bill payment methods. Online bill payments at bank and biller websites comprised 42 percent of total monthly payments, followed by 31 percent of bills paid by check. [See Chart, “How Consumers are Making Their Monthly Bill Payments.”]
• Fifty-one percent of survey respondents cited the environment as a reason why they chose to view and pay bills online. Of these, 72 percent identified paper and clutter reduction as chief benefits, followed by tree conservation (19 percent) and reduction in gas consumption (16 percent).
• Saving time and gaining control over their finances were major online bill payment benefits cited by 44 percent of respondents. Consumers surveyed also cited other important reasons for paying bills online, including eliminating the hassle of writing checks, enabling them to pay all bills in one step and saving the cost of stamps.

Considering the state of the real estate market presently, it is vital to offer your clients as many value-added services as possible.  And I’ve found a great online resource that helps to make moving more efficient.  Relocation.com and HGTV’s, FrontDoor.com have partnered their services and now provide free moving quotes from Relocation.com’s moving professionals that will be available to FrontDoor.com users through the Moving tab.

Relocation.com also will provide FrontDoor.com with original articles from its relocation experts and additional moving-related content that helps further engage consumers, providing everything from packing tips to planning tools to money savings tips for their upcoming move.

According to Relocation.com’s 2008 consumer survey, 66 percent of recent movers searched for their moving professionals online. This is a way you can offer a great service to your clients and enable their move to be as quick and easy as possible.

“Despite the challenges in today’s real estate markets, consumer interest in the real estate sector hasn’t waned. Working with a leading consumer media property such as HGTV’s FrontDoor.com is a natural fit for us,” said Greg Hebner, CEO, Relocation.com. “We know that consumers are using the Internet as a primary source for finding moving services, and this partnership is a great way for us to extend the reach of our unique moving content and resources with one of the Internet’s most visited real estate destinations.”

“We are dedicated to providing users with a robust real estate resource that pulls together in one place everything needed to find and then settle into a new home. Working with Relocation.com will allow FrontDoor to provide our site visitors with additional high quality, original content as well as access to moving professionals,” said Vikki Neil, vice president of real estate at Scripps Networks, parent company of FrontDoor.com.

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.

Start up companies now have a friend in the banking world with HSBC. HSBC has partnered with LiveWorld, an online social network marketing agency, as the provider of its new “Business Network” online community for start-up companies in the United Kingdom.  The focus of HSBC’s Business Network is to empower new start-up companies to succeed by enabling them to network and form relationships with each other, as well as leveraging the expertise and support of HSBC’s business specialists. New businesses will leverage the Business Network to form relationships, share experiences and learn about a wide range of relevant topics such as:

• Starting Your Business: writing a business plan, financing, researching your market, securing premises
• Growing Your Business: sales strategies, marketing, selling on the web, tax and employment law
• People Issues: Expanding overseas, buying commercial property, franchising

“HSBC is dedicated to the success of our customers. For businesses, especially start-ups, this means creating a successful relationship network and leveraging the knowledge and contacts of others,” said Amanda J. Rendle, Head of Business Marketing, HSBC. “We chose LiveWorld to leverage their best-in-class social network platform, and as important, their thought leadership for Internet relationship marketing.”

The online community will feature the highly-rated Start-Up Stars program in which HSBC annually showcases successful and innovative start-up entrepreneurs. HSBC’s business specialists who focus on building relationships with start-up managers and to help them succeed will be active members of the community. The social network is integrated with HSBC’s Knowledge Centre web site featuring a wide array of business resources.

“HSBC is at once the largest bank in the world and the most dedicated to connecting with their customers at a local level,” said Peter Friedman, Chairman & CEO, LiveWorld. “In the 21st century, this means connecting globally and locally through social networks. Their commitment to empowering their customers to connect with each other, as well as HSBC, represents the market leader’s customer centric-thinking.”

HSBC’s Business Network launched this Spring and can be visited at http://network.hsbc.co.uk/index.jspa. Built on LiveWorld’s industry-leading Community Center platform and moderation services, the business network features rich profiles for businesses and individuals, blogs, photo albums, video, podcasts, topical message forums, showcase galleries, HSBC community calendar and many other features.

Liz Roz

You have been reading some of my posts on the Vcorp Services Finance Blog, the Entertainment Blog, and our Legal Blog.  And this morning I wanted to keep you up to date on some exciting news.  This week Vcorp Services announced publicly that I, Elizabeth Roz, would be the company’s new executive vice president for business development.  In the newly created position, I will be responsible for the company’s financial and corporate development, identifying opportunities for growth and facilitating strategic alliances.

“We are pleased to welcome Liz,” said Vcorp Service Co-Chairman Shai Stern.  “Vcorp has reached a growth point at which a dedicated and experienced new business executive is necessary to guide the company through its next stage of development. Liz brings a dynamic combination of experience in corporate finance, retail legal services and e-commerce to our team.”

I was most recently controller at Cerrell Associates, where I was responsible for directing the firm’s finance and human resource functions. Previously, I served as director of accounting and human resources at LegalZoom.com, where I supported the company’s growth of over 1,000% during my four-year tenure with the company.

Through my experiences, I have a proven track record of designing, implementing and maintaining programs that support revenue growth, and I have substantial experience in venture capital financing transactions, integration with third parties, affiliate management and acquisitions.

“Despite a generally weak economy, Vcorp Services continues to grow its client base by offering a wide range of services,” said Co-Chairman Seth Farbman. “So we are especially delighted to have someone with Liz’s breadth of experience join the Vcorp team.”

Co-Chairmen Stern and Farbman previously established a New York-based firm that provides financial filing services to over 3,000 public companies, executives and law firms and is now ranked among the top five SEC Edgar filing firms in the nation.  Stern was formerly Vice President at American Stock Transfer Company, initiating business relationships and overseeing outstanding share balances for over 2,000 publicly held companies.  Farbman is an attorney specializing in corporate securities matters as well as domestic and international venture capital financing transactions.  He has provided counsel to private equity funds, start-up companies, corporate executives and public companies, and has represented NASDAQ-listed companies and worked on public offerings underwritten by major investment banking firms.

I am thrilled to be a member of the Vcorp Services team, and I look forward to bringing my own experience to the already considerable expertise represented here, furthering Vcorp’s growth as we continue to be responsive to the needs of our clients.

If you are in the real estate industry, you know that there is a growing contingent of your clients that are heavily interested in energy efficiency and climate responsibility. With the world’s increased focus on sustainability, many in the retail real estate industry have responded with “green” initiatives and developed “greener” properties and practices. In support of these efforts, the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) has announced its inaugural conference and trade exposition focused solely on sustainability, energy, environmental design and operations. The program, ICSC RetailGreen: A Conference and Trade Exposition on Sustainability, Energy, & Environmental Design will feature leading industry experts discussing how and why they are building “green stores” and “green shopping centers.” In addition, experts will discuss strategies on how to be more energy efficiency and water conscious, as well as other methods for sustainability.

“ICSC RetailGreen is one of the essential new conferences ICSC is offering this year,” said Lawrence Kilduff, chairman of ICSC Environmental Committee and chairman of ICSC RetailGreen Advisory Committee, president, The Kilduff Company, LLC, Mequon, Wisc. “As we plan for the shopping center of the future, we must think of what type of green footprint we plan to leave behind. ICSC RetailGreen Conference and Trade Expo provides us that opportunity,” Kilduff added.

Over the course of two days ICSC RetailGreen Conference and Trade Expo will provide participants with a fresh and innovative look into how sustainability is changing the retail landscape – both for retailers and for retail real estate developers and operators. The conference will include:

• General and concurrent sessions featuring leading industry experts discussing the latest issues in sustainability, energy and environmental design. Topics include:
• Climate Change and the Future of Energy featuring Peabody and two-time Emmy Award winner, futurist and energy expert David Houle, The Shift Age
• LEED for Retail: The Various Choices for Retailers to Go Green moderated by Justin Doak, U.S. Green Building Council
• Daylighting in Retail Design to Reduce Costs, Increase Sales and More hosted by Lisa Heschong, Heschong Mahone Group, Inc.
• Uptown Monterey Shopping Center: Tracking Green Costs (A Case Study)
• A Trade Exposition featuring exhibitors with products or services aimed at the sustainability of shopping centers;
• Over 35 roundtable discussions on sustainability, energy and environmental design;
• Two optional Green Retail Off-Site Study Tours featuring:
• Wal-Mart High Efficiency (HE.2) Store, Garland, Texas – Opened in May 2008, this Wal-Mart Supercenter is one of the most efficient stores in the world, using 40 percent less energy than comparable Wal-Mart Supercenters and saves on water use. This tour will provide insight into a full range of sustainability practices and high energy efficiency technologies for retail.
• Watters Creek at Montgomery Farm, Allen, Texas – Watters Creek at Montgomery Farm offers 550,000 square feet of shopping and dining, plus office space and residential lofts, totaling 1.15 million square feet. Defined by its conservation-focused designs and wide-open spaces, this newest mixed-use development features live-work-shop-play mixed-use environment intended to minimize driving and greenhouse gas emissions. The project architect will lead the tour to highlight the sustainable design elements.

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.