Business News

Brian Gerber was very happy working from his home in Santa Clarita, but arranging a place to meet his clients was always a nuisance.  “As a financial planner, always having to find a Starbucks or a restaurant to meet my clients didn’t convey the image that I wanted to portray,” said Gerber.” Barrister Executive Suites Inc. in Valencia offered the perfect solution.  They gave me a professional address and a place to meet clients.  The professional image and support has really added credibility to my business.”

You practically jump out of your skin as your alarm clock startles you awake.  It’s 7 a.m., the start of another day.  What are you thinking?  Does the conversation in your head sound something like this, “Oh, I don’t want to get up.  I’ve got so much to do today.  How will I ever get it all done?  I wish I could just stay in bed.”  Is that what you hear each morning?  If it is, why not change the conversation and start your day in a more positive way?

So you’ve been job searching.  You’ve spent time and energy peddling your skills and work history to various employers.  You expect offers and maybe even more than one if you’ve done good marketing.  But don’t forget about the “fit,” or the culture of the organization. 

The spirit of volunteerism is alive and well in the United States.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  About 64.5 million Americans volunteered at least once between September 2003 and September 2004.  If you did volunteer work for a charitable organization in 2005 and you itemize deductions on your tax return, you may be able to count some of your expenses as charitable donations for the year.

A year ago, Alaska’s Department of Revenue was preparing their 2006 effort to deliver the annual checks to Alaska’s residents of their share of the State’s oil revenues when a technician accidentally erased a disk drive containing applicant/member information on an account worth $38 billion. 

A 401(k) plan allows you to invest easily for your retirement, defer any related taxes and you could have up to three percent matched by your employer.  Make sure you know what you’re doing when you invest, as most people choose a plan, glance at it once in a while and never take the time to be sure they’re getting the most out of their investment.  Manage your 401(k) well now, and you’ll have much more money and less hassle when you retire.

Foreclosure is the legal process by which a lender can take your home for failure to make payments.  The prospect of losing one’s home is devastating.  However, there are options available to a homeowner who has fallen on difficult times.  All does not have to be lost, but don’t wait until it’s too late.  The foreclosure process takes at least four months.  If you wait until the day before the foreclosure sale, your options are limited.  Don’t ignore the letters from your lender.  As soon as you know you are going to miss a payment, you should consider your options. 

Part of seeing the big picture is seeing things that are beyond your own perspective.  One of the greatest challenges in business today is to develop the ability to understand the other persons’ point of view.  Part of doing this is to shift from meeting your own needs to be involved in meeting the needs of others.

Judges are human, which means that they can make mistakes.  I can tell you from years of practice that once a judge makes a decision, it is very hard to get the Judge to change his or her mind.  One thing to try is a motion for reconsideration.  But those are very dangerous.  Asking a Judge to take a look at the same thing a second time is not something a Judge appreciates very much.  What about simply appealing the decision?  Sometimes that won’t work.

Valerie is a tall, lanky nine-year-old girl.  She loves writing and drawing with chalk.  She is a bundle of energy, riding her scooter over the concrete in her backyard.  She has a younger brother, but she doesn’t play with him very much. You see, Valerie is autistic and her lack of response to her brother and other children is just one aspect of her autistic personality.

The Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act of 2007, signed into law on May 25, offers tax breaks for you and your business, but also contains less beneficial provisions that may require changes to your tax plan.
Here’s an overview:

Planning Your Charitable Donations with a Donor Advised Fund

The majority of us have a plan for retirement, for education funding and for estate planning, but how many of you have a charitable giving plan?  Having an effective charitable giving plan is one of the best ways to ensure that your contributions are being used according to your wishes and as effectively as possible.  A Donor Advised Fund is a simple way to incorporate charitable giving into your overall financial plan and may provide personal and financial benefits.

In their continued effort to crack down on tax cheats, Internal Revenue Service officials announced plans to launch a new National Research Program reporting compliance study for individual taxpayers that will provide updated and more accurate audit selection tools and support efforts to reduce the nation’s tax gap.  The latest NRP study will be the first of an ongoing series of annual individual studies using an innovative multi-year rolling methodology.  

Choppé Advertising Group in Valencia has signed on two new clients, Layne’s Legacy Foundation in Valencia, a non-profit organization and SCVBank, which operates a branch in the Valencia Town Center, as well as branches in Fillmore and Santa Paula.

This month I am going to focus on job searchers’ struggles to compete in the employment marketplace.  You cannot simply offer your list of current job responsibilities.  You must instead make it clear to your interviewer or the person reading your resume just exactly why you should be hired instead of the myriad of other excellent candidates.  But how do you stand out?

At some point you may come into a large sum of money or property as the beneficiary of a deceased IRA holder or from a distribution to you as a retirement plan participant. Understanding the tax consequences may prove helpful.

In California, if you have a claim for personal injuries or wrongful death against a private party, you generally have two years to file a lawsuit.  Additionally, you are not required to file a claim against the private party before you file a lawsuit. However, if you have such a claim against a public or government entity, you have to abide by government statutes requiring you to file a claim with a much shorter time frame.

Most people are aware of lawsuits filed to recover unpaid overtime wages, but what happens if an employer does not allow its employees to take meal breaks and/or rest breaks that are required by California law?  The answer is that companies are increasingly facing lawsuits for such violations.  In addition, the potential awards against employers for meal and rest period violations have at least tripled.  Therefore, it is possible that each employee who has not been allowed the required meal or rest break can recover up to $10,000 or more.