Why We Can’t Afford to Ban Same-Sex Marriage By Simma Lieberman www.simmalieberman.com A Date To Remember On November 4, Californians will vote on whether or not to ban same sex marriage, which has been legal for the last six months. It is now legal in Connecticut and Massachusetts. A Union of Economic Interests While the US and the rest of the world are in the midst of an economic crisis, out-of-state special interest groups are pouring millions of dollars into California and flying people in to help pass Proposition 8, which would outlaw same-sex marriage. People are losing their retirement funds, worried about how they will afford health care and whether or not they will have a job when they wake up in the morning while certain groups are more concerned with same-sex marriage in California. I must be missing something here. It seems to me that instead of sending money here to push their agenda, and interfering with our economy, they could use all of that “extra” money and help peo

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes standards for minimum wages, overtime pay, record keeping, and child labor. These standards affect over 100 million workers, both full-time and part-time, in the private and public sectors. The Act applies to enterprises with employees who engage in interstate commerce, produce goods for interstate commerce, or handle, sell, or work on goods or materials that have been moved in or produced for interstate commerce. For most firms, a test of not less than $500,000 in annual dollar volume of business applies (i.e., the Act does not cover enterprises with less than this amount of business). However, the Act does cover the following regardless of their dollar volume of business: hospitals; institutions primarily engaged in the care of the sick, aged, mentally ill, or disabled who reside on the premises; schools for children who are mentally, or physically disabled or gifted; preschools, elementary, and secondary schools

Too often organizations’ confuse employee satisfaction surveys with cultural reviews and become disappointed when they cannot achieve a culture change. So, what is the difference between an employee satisfaction survey and a cultural review?” A culture review is neither an attempt to solicit a list of ideas the organization can implement to improve morale or job satisfaction, nor an attempt to get some sense of what the most popular benefits package would be. A culture review is an examination of specific cultural levers to provide an insight into the organization to understand how the cultural lever composition impacts on the organizations performance. Below are some of the key differences between cultural reviews and employee satisfaction surveys: Culture Survey 1. Collects information about cultural levers and how they impact on an organizations operational ability. 2. Are based on known cultural levers that impact on 90% of an organizational culture. 3. Are conducted for

Reverse Mergers, Private Placements and Raising Money What is a Reverse Merger? The definition of a reverse merger is when a public shell corporation mergers with an operating private business. A reverse merger occurs when a shell corporation acquires a private business, and changes its name to the private company. Shell corporations usually have no assets of any significance nor any employees. Reverse mergers are not as good as an IPO because you cannot raise money unless the company does a private placement. Business do private placement to raise money. We do not advocate reverse mergers. Most investment banks don't like reverse mergers. The best way to raise money is to do a private placement and raise some seed capital and then do an IPO an initial public offering. There are a many places to find capital for a business instead of a reverse merger. Capital sources include loans, lines of credit, factoring, seed capital and venture. Please see our website which has informatio

Management Challenge Organizations are judged on their financial performance and therefore, by default so are their management teams. The key for managers is understanding how financial success is measured, impacts on operational performance and options available to make positive sustainable change. Traditional Approach Typically managers tend to think in two dimensions when trying to address the problem. What do I need to change in my operations to achieve the desired financial results? Timescales may be tight and sometimes the short term needs may outweigh the long term aspirations. Sometimes short term measures can damage the long term capabilities of an organization. This can become a vicious circle where the law of diminishing returns is compounded by the diminishing options available. If you look at the diagram link below you will see a dotted line defined as the Minor Loop where the financial demands of revenue, profit, cash flow and equity are served by changes in operations

Tax in the UK comes as part and parcel of everyone’s everyday life these days. The most common form of tax which must be paid by every working person, including self employed people who are earning over a certain amount per year, if the person is earning less than the tax threshold amount, no income tax will be charge on the person. The higher amount a person earns per annum is dependant on how much tax they will need to pay, a higher earner will be placed in a higher tax band, therefore they will pay more tax, it is important for legal reasons to declare all earnings which are taxable, including wages, income from renting out accommodation and even interest on a person’s bank account. Other common for of taxes in the UK is Value Added Tax or VAT, it is added to the price of most items we buy in the shops or the supermarket and most business goods which involve a transfer of goods or services. If a business reaches a certain financial point, they will need to register for VAT and c

I’d like to share a valuable principle with you. It’s something I’ve taught to many business owners and executives I’ve worked with. This principle may go against the grain of some of your beliefs about time and the best way to get things done. Because of that, I ask you to keep an open mind. Multitasking is a myth. It just plain doesn’t exist. Does that shock you? Multitasking has become something of a heroic word in our vocabulary. Many executives pride themselves on their ability to “multitask”. Recent job descriptions that I have seen even ask that potential employees have the ability to multitask. A current national commercial sings the praises of multitasking. However, multitasking, as most people understand it, is deceptively counter-productive. Multitasking is tremendously costly. Multitasking hurts us every time we attempt to engage in it. I should clarify a few definitions. When I speak of multitasking as most people understand it, I am not referring to doing something c

For the most part, everyone is qualified to have their own home based business. It is the effort and desire that separates success from failure when it comes to an online business. The competition is so extensive that it requires a great deal of time and energy to have success. But the opportunities available make every bit of time worth it. There are some things that can help you determine whether a home based business is for you or not. When it comes to having an online business, patience and the ability to stick with something are crucial. You cannot expect to come in and become rich over night. And to be honest, it may take several months before you begin earning a steady income. After those first few months though, everything will be uphill. The next qualification to having your own home based business is having a business owner’s mindset. It is a completely different world when you have a business of your own as oppose to working under someone. You have to be able to h

Introduction This introductory article attempts to answer questions for: 1. Those in the private sector wondering if social enterprises are a threat or an opportunity for them (and how they might alter their own practice to remain competitive). 2. Those in the voluntary sector trying to work out their medium/long-term future (whether they should engage or resist the notion of social enterprise). 3. Those in the public sector being asked to develop, support or commission work from social enterprises. 4. Those who self-define as part of the social enterprise sector, wondering how to understand themselves and describe the value of their approach to others. In recent years, a new term - social enterprise - has been promoted throughout the world (Borzaga and Defourny, 2001). The problems surrounding its meaning can be explored by reviewing the contexts in which the term is now achieving recognition. A national economy can been conceptualised as having three sectors (Billis, 1993; Pear

A business can be profitable and still go under due to poor cash flows. What a profound statement. Even though your business is showing a profit it can be difficult to pay suppliers and make payroll on time. This difficulty is typically caused by a delay or fluctuation in revenues. Cash flow shortages are usually caused by slower paying customers, seasonal sales, or your company suddenly experiences growth. When customers do not pay with cash on delivery (COD) a gap is created between the receiving of the revenues and the payment of expenses. Payroll, rent, utilities, suppliers etc. all need to be paid on time. Lets say in one month you sell $100K worth of product with a profit of $20K. The $80K in expenses needs to be paid right away but your customer does not pay for 30 days. This creates a gap in cash flows. You need to pay out $80K before you see the $100K in revenue. You are profitable but do not have the cash on hand to pay your bills. This is why profitable companies can still