Neil Hurwitz
Forum Replies Created
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Oh come on with this Non-compete stuff.
Courts are very very reluctant to enforce them because
people have a right to work, especially at lower levels.
If leaving Job A to go to Job B or to start up your own company
and taking clients with you were to be estopped by the courts
half the people on the COW would be on the street with a tin cup.
This is a creative industry, people need to move around to stay fresh.Neil Hurwitz
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Years ago my shop did tons of work for one of the worlds
largest pharmaceutical companies, as long as I had the right
paperwork and Po’s it was 30 days like clockwork. CEO retires,
my contacts at senior management level told me the new CEO is a
hatchet man and get ready for a sh-t storm. Sure enough 2 months later I get a form letter saying that the company is going to a
“Net60” policy No Exceptions, Take it or Leave it. This company
spends Billions a month so they created a “profit center” out of a “cost center”. So I just added a little to my rates, no problem.
Then the real hammer came, everything over 1,000.00 had to be triple
bid. The end of an era for me. If you have locomotive clients
(that pull the train) you are always vulnerable. It’s the age old question, Is it better to have 100 clients each representing 1%
of your billing Or 5 clients each representing 20%?
It has been my experience that Unless you have some really
big clients, % wise, you are in for a tough haul.
I would be interested to get a concensus on thisNeil Hurwitz
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Congratulations on growing your operation to the point where
you need a full time employee.
What you pay them is up to you and I can’t comment on.
However there are a whole lot of things you need to do when you put
someone on payroll
1. You need a workers comp policy and or disability policy
2. Federal employer ID number
3. Unemployment ID number
You will have to file loads of quarterly reports to a whole host
of Local, State and Federal authorities.
My suggestion is that if you don’t have experience with
these is that you hire a “payroll service” that will
become the employer of record and do all this for you.
You will pay a fee for it but it will be a wash with the
amount of time you or your accountant spends on it.
If you are hiring your Freelancer as a Full time employe you open up
a pandoras box with various agencies that might want to reclassify
the Freelance labor as an employe and whack you for back taxes.
You think you’re doing good by creating a job in this economy
but our gov’t will declare war on you and bomb you
with all sorts of rules,regulations, fees and fines all of
which are a personal obligation.
Jingle Bells.Neil Hurwitz
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What, No new job with a 5 figure increase?
I’m Shocked, Shocked I tell youNeil Hurwitz
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I agree with most here, BUT There is a real cost associated
with getting new clients that should not be ignored.
The small bill mentioned here might be a lot less than a
fancy dinner to schmooze a new client. For sure, I’m not
saying bend over, What I am saying is that it’s better to
work with a client in distress than to blow them up.
They could land a whale next week and ring your phone to gloat
“I just got a million dollar contract and you’re not getting a dime
because when I was down you kicked me in the gut”
Remember the scene in Pretty Baby where Julia walks back into
the fancy Rodeo Drive shop, Hoists up her bulging bags and says
“You work on commision right? Big Mistake, Huge”
So with clients in tough times it’s
“Swim Together or Sink Alone”Neil Hurwitz
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I have not seen the commercials you reference,
But I think the idea is brilliant.
If the footage was shot by tourists and is acknowledged as such
then a viewer at home can Invision themselves in the exact same
spot and say to themselves “Oh Baby I want to see that” and
actually have a real shot at doing it. Not too many people can
afford to rent helicopters and fly over beaches and volcanoes.Neil Hurwitz
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Where did you get the drives from?
I recall reading somewhere that
Some drives that are labeled “OEM” may have custom firmware
on them. Perhaps Bob can shed some light on
drives marked “Retail” and drives marked “OEM”Neil Hurwitz
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Hi Walter,
I’m happy to contribute any way I can. Thanx
You bring up an interesting component to success that
till now hasn’t been mentioned, the effect of Local and
State level taxation on companies. I’ve spent my carrer
in NYC which I can only describe as Hostile to Business.
For example, Here in NYC we have a commercial rent/occupancy
tax of 7.5%. So if your rent is 5,000 per month you have to write
an additional check to NYC for 375.00 Every Month. This is on top
of the Real Estate tax the owner of the building pays.
If your company owns the building and pays no rent you
still pay the occupancy tax which is calculated by the gov’t
as if you were a rental tenant. It’s just nuts. I know of no other place that has this tax.
When my shop was going balls out
I lusted after the Sales Tax remittances,
lots of times it was greater than my salary and perks.
It seems to me that your home state
has identified a possible area of job creation/relocation and
has made an effort to go for it. I wonder if a Law and Order
Atlanta is in the works.Neil Hurwitz
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Unless you agreed to terms up front, you could be in for a
sticky wicket. (You thought COD, They thought 30 days)
My advice, Unless you specifically offered
terms, the job is COD. Send them all the invoices they want
just don’t send them any product until you are paid in full.
I believe that MS office or word have pre-formatted invoices.Neil Hurwitz
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Hi Walter,
You should consult with your Tax Accountant about the
different ways to charge off or capitalize your cash out
for your upcoming build. The way things are intially set up
will have long range consequences on you financial reporting
and Taxes. As an example, The building might have to be depreciated
of 39 years, so if you spend 390,000 on it, you could claim a
depreciation expense of only 10,000 per year. However
if you can legally reclassify 100,000 of that as an Equipment
purchase then you could depreciate it (the 100,000) over 5 years
and get an extra 20,000 in yearly expense.
This might be important because after the build out
you might find that it’s difficult to run as lean as you would like, There might be unforseen expenses and that extra
depreciation which would leave more cash in your
pocket would be handy. I suppose my point being that if
you don’t know what the various Local, State, Federal laws
presently are regarding Depreciation and Build Out expenses
It’s better to investigate now than after the fact.
Best of LuckNeil Hurwitz