From Greg's Head

I tweeted about this, but also wanted to mention it in the blog. On June 5^th, the Houston Technology Center is holding the Texas Technology Leadership day. *Note, the HTC is now on Twitter – @HouTechCenter.

During the morning Technology Champions meeting, Houston Mayor Bill White will be speaking about the role of technology in Houston. Then, during the Texas Emerging Technology Award luncheon, Texas Governor Rick Perry will be the keynote speaker. 

The Emerging Technology Fund assists small to midsized technology firms expediting the commercialization of new life changing innovations and improving research at Texas universities.

This will be a great opportunity to hear and ask questions about the future of technology in Houston and Texas from two of the men who can make things happen. This is definitely a can’t miss day down at the HTC. If you have any questions, contact Deena Carstens at 832-476-9235 dcarstens@houstontech.org. 

Another item of note the HTC recently released a new video about the value they provide entrepreneurs. It’s about 8 minutes long and you can watch it below, or click here to view it on the HTC site.

HTC Video from Houston Technology Center on Vimeo.

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Ok, after mulling it over for a few months, I’ve decided to make the leap into the Twitter universe. You can follow me – fromgregshead – and I’ve posted a link in the blog roll so you can access my twitter page quickly. I’ll be tweeting a mix of personal and professional bits. This is something that I’m experimenting with, so if you have any tips for me, let me know either here or on Twitter. 

On a similar note, since the world is a buzz about Twitter and you can’t seem to escape it, I recently read two very interesting and helpful articles about professional service providers jumping on the Twitter train. The first, by Rick Telberg, I found on the AICPA and the second by Larry Bodine, a legal marketing guru, was passed to me by my colleague Raissa Evans. 

The two articles offer differing opinions on the use of Twitter for those of us in professional services. Bodine highlights why Twitter is not an effective tool for law firms to use. The potential liability of a lawyer’s tweets outweighs the benefits that other industries enjoy. Telberg’s AICPA article takes a different view and espouses the benefits of a CPA tweeting, namely the networking opportunities it presents.

Are you tweeting? Is your company tweeting? How are you handling the balance between your personal and professional tweets?

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Recovery Act), which was signed into law by the President in February, includes many tax breaks for businesses. There are a couple worthy of note.

1. Bonus Depreciation

The new law extends the 50% first-year bonus depreciation allowed under the 2008 Economic Stimulus Act (2008 ESA) through December 31, 2009. The extension is retroactive to January 1, 2009.  This only applies for purchase of new equipment or certain components of newly constructed buildings.

2. Code Sec. 179 Expensing

The new law extends the increased 2008 Code Sec. 179 expensing (aka, small business expensing) amounts for 2009. The 2008 ESA increased the amount of Code Sec. 179 expensing for 2008 to $250,000 and increased the threshold for qualifying purchases for the deduction up to $800,000.  

Be sure to speak to your accounting service provider about these tax breaks. They will be able to answer any questions you may have and to help you take full advantage of the new laws to minimize your taxes. More information about the Recovery Act may be found at www.pkftexas.com/taxnews. 

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I was out of town last week and was told about a great article in the Wall Street Journal.  So I embarked upon a knowledge search and found it.  The article was titled, “Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich” and was in the May 18th edition of the journal.  It was written by Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore.

I strongly suggest that all readers of fromgregshead.com read this article.  The article discusses the impact of raising the marginal tax rates on the rich by certain states in the US.  Backed up by research and facts, Laffer and Moore show us that instead of solving problems, this type of thinking by our legislative bodies creates more and bigger problems for their states.

In short, people with higher incomes will migrate to locations with more favorably tax conditions and thus the increased tax rates in the former states actually hurts the middle class more as they have to bear the brunt of the taxes.  Laffer and Moore point examples of state after state that has made their locations more tax friendly and those who have become totally tax dependent bodies.  They highlight the results of each state’s decision.

So what does this mean for us in Houston?  Governor Perry said recently. “Out state is competing with Germany, France, Japan and China for business.  We’d better have pro-growth tax system or those American jobs will be outsourced.”  Laffer and Moore write, “Gov. Perry and Texas have the jobs and prosperity model exactly right.  Texas created more jobs in 2008 than all other 49 states combined.  And Texas is the only stae other than Georgia and North Dakota that is cutting taxes this year.”

I hope you take a moment to read the article and let your representatives know where you stand.
 

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

Conducting regular waste reduction audits should be a part of your regular business processes.  As is the case with most improvement initiatives, the first step is to gather your management team and hold a “whiteboard” session. Your management team will have a good feel for where waste is occurring in your business.

The most common areas of waste are:

• Overproduction
• Waiting
• Transport
• Inappropriate Processing
• Inventory
• Motion and process improvement
• Defects

Brainstorm at least three ideas per area about what can be done to eliminate the waste. Rank each idea on a scale of one to five, one being the easiest and five being the hardest to implement. Estimate how much money the company is spending or losing because of each area of waste.

At the end of this process, it will be easy to identify the ideas that will have the highest value with the easiest implementation. This should be the starting point for attacking waste in your business.

Finally, document your work. Complete a one-page-plan for your company with regard to your waste reduction projects. 

By starting with the easiest, most valuable idea first, you will be able to transition into the ongoing waste reduction process for your business.

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I want to let all of the Aggies and friends of Aggies know that the nomination period for the 2009 Aggie 100 closes on May 31, 2009. To submit nominations, visit www.aggie100.com and click on “Nominate.”

To be considered for the Aggie 100 program companies (corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietorships) must meet the following criteria:

• Company Size and Longevity – The Company must meet both of the following criteria:
  • Have been in business for 5 years or more as of June 30, 2009, and
  • Have had verifiable revenues of $100,000 or more for calendar year 2006.
• Aggie Leadership – The Company must meet one or more of the following three criteria:
  • A Texas A&M University former student or group of former students must have owned 50% or more of the company from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2008, or
  • A Texas A&M University former student must have served as the Company’s chief executive (for example chairman, CEO, president or managing partner) from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2008, or
  • A Texas A&M University former student must have founded the company and been active as a member of the most senior management team from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2008.
• Company Character – The Company must operate in a manner consistent with the Aggie Code of Honor and in keeping with the values and image of Texas A&M University.

As the accountants for and the sponsors of the Aggie 100, PKF Texas is proud to play a part in the celebration of Aggie entrepreneurship. If you have any questions contact Lenae Huebner at 979-845-4882 or E-mail: lhuebner@mays.tamu.edu.

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Celebrate!Enterprise is this week and the events are all can’t miss events. As you know, PKF Texas is sponsoring the first annual 40 Under 40 awards, held in conjunction with the third annual Battle of the Business Bands. PKF Texas is also sponsoring the Best CFOs of the Year Awards for the third year. Next week, I’ll be posting wrap-ups of the events that I and other PKF Texans attend. Below is the schedule for the full three days:

Wednesday, May 20, 2009:

Houston Growth Summit

7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Healthcare Heroes Awards

Presented by Humana

11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 21, 2009:

The Houston Energy Forum

Presented by Porter & Hedges

7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

40 Under 40/Battle of The Business Bands Awards

Presented by Sterling Bank

4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Friday, May 22, 2009:

The Best CFOs of the Year Awards

Presented by Insurance Alliance

11:30 a.m.to 1:30 p.m.

If you have any questions, contact Lee Ann Semmel at the HBJ - lasemmel@bizjournals.com, 713-688-8811.

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Raissa Evans is the Senior Manager in the Practice Growth department of PKF Texas.  She attended the May 14th panel presentation, "The Upside of the Downturn" and I thought it would be beneficial for you to hear her thoughts. 

This week I was privileged to hear a wise panel of speakers speaking on the topic of the “Upside of the Downturn.” They were Val Gibbs, president of Bank of Texas, our own Byron Hebert, director of Entrepreneurial Advisory Services at PKF Texas, Alex Howard, senior managing director of Howard, Frazier, Barker, Elliot and Fritz Koehler, Executive VP of Sales at Insurance Alliance. Russ Capper, host of the BusinessMakers Radio Show was the facilitator for the group.

As economic news and conversation continues to be peppered with negativity, talks of cuts and financial hardship, at PKF Texas it has long been the conversation that it is more productive to our clients’ business strategy and frankly, morale, to talk about the opportunities. Action is, after all, more beneficial than the paralysis of gloom. These knowledgeable panelists came together to give their clients some insightful views on the present. Some key takeaways for me, that I thought might be beneficial to the From Greg’s Head readers:

- Val says some banks really are loaning some money, to some borrowers. Just don’t expect it to be as easy as it was. Have a plan and contingencies, communicate with your banker to give them confidence. Also use your banker for benchmarking - ask, ”How do I compare to others?” Approach your banker first, but other types of lending such as asset-based or mezzanine may be available to you.

- Byron affirms that his best clients are busy working ON their businesses. They work with him on process improvement, efficiency of their operations and conducting waste audits. It is also a key time to renew your relationships. Clients like this are taking market share. And inevitably, this economy and the brilliant talent making transitions is going to spark another wave of entrepreneurism as it did in 2003.

- Alex agrees that now is the time to position for your next growth period. Reflect, take time to do the right steps that in the faster times you skip over. Also, this is a perfect storm for wealth transfer planning for the next generation.

- Fritz warns of how the SALY effect (same as last year) inhibits most people. For insurance, it is wise to evaluate your strategy, take advantage of cost savings, and make sure you are covered for incidents. Protect what you have built. You can view your broker as an insurance vendor, or a risk management consultant that can help with disaster planning, loss control and contracts review. He says he encourages his clients to ask “What if?” instead  of “Oh, by the way…”

- All of the panelists agreed that this is a key time to provide reassurance to your top tier people. Retain them, train them, and engage them. Doing so will ensure that they do not become targets to your competitors. It may also be a time to recruit some star players who may not feel confidence in how their company has been handling this market. And above all, communicate with your people.

Feel free to contact Karen Love, director of Practice Growth (klove@pkftexas.com) if you have questions or want to talk to Byron or any one of our professional advisors. Or, let us know if you’d like to be included on our mailing list for events and news that may impact your business by emailing me at revans@pkftexas.com.
 

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

Do you have the relevant, timely and accurate information you need to make solid business decisions and execute strategy for your company?

By retooling your processes and technology, retraining your users, and retaining your best system users you can get this information faster, better, and cheaper.  We call this the R3 - retool, retrain and retain - framework.  Things to think about include:

• Improve/fully use what you already have. Do you understand the full functionality of your current resources? Using more of a system you already own helps eliminate pesky side systems.

• Assess how technology will improve your company and invest in additional training for your users. A smarter staff enables your company to generate very important financial data to help guide your business through rough waters.

• Re-evaluate your internal processes to trim waste.

• Leverage your intellectual capital. Your partners and service providers bring with them the experience of seeing what other organizations have done to do more with less.

• Adjust spending. Evaluate your spending habits, consider less expensive solutions. Many business owners fail to remember that mid-market accounting systems, such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV, will more than satisfy current needs and future growth.

Using the R3 framework gives you the tools to take your business to the next level in any economic condition.

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With the recent news that Yahoo! is shutting down the long running Geocities web hosting service later this year, I became a bit nostalgic for the early days of the internet.

Who remembers the simpler time when Prodigy, AOL and Netscape ruled the World Wide Web? My daughter was watching the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks movie, You’ve Got Mail, a couple weeks ago, and though it released in 1998, we’re already light years ahead of the technology from the film. Dial-up seems like a distant memory.

It can be hard to remember when things weren’t instantly available at the click of a mouse. Can you imagine the technology we’ll have in 2019? 

As a self proclaimed techno-file, I love to think about this kind of stuff. The interaction that I have with the Fast Tech 50 companies and the Houston Technology Center allows me the chance to get a peek at the future. The recent mantra I’ve seen is an emphasis on faster, better, cheaper. 

I know our Consulting Solutions department at PKF Texas is focused on assisting our clients with solutions, like Microsoft Dynamics NAV, that give them the information they need to run their business faster, better and cheaper. 

What technology are you nostalgic about? Can you venture a guess as to what kinds of technology will impact us in 2019? How does your business continue to adapt as different solutions hit the market?  Jason Pontin has some interesting thoughts on his blog about how old technologies rarely die, they just get upgraded.

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Back in January I blogged about how Microsoft needed to launch and ship Windows 7 during 2009, to make up ground lost during the Windows Vista misfire.

Well, earlier this week Microsoft announced they would do just that. 

The signs have been pointing in this direction for a few weeks now. Microsoft recently released Windows 7 Release Candidate allowing users to try out the pre-release software. I haven’t done so, but let me know if you have, and what you think about it. 

On Monday, Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President for the Windows Business, said that Microsoft is planning to ship its desktop Windows 7 in time for the 2009 Christmas shopping season.

As a fan of Microsoft, I’ll repeat what I said in January, they can’t afford to continue losing market share to Apple on the “home front” or Google with their net-based apps. Here’s hoping that Windows 7 will help them make strides in the eyes of the consumer.

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I’ve written many times in this blog about how Houston is an international city and how the future of business is being a player in the global community. Here’s the perfect opportunity for you and your business to reach out to the international community in Houston, the Greater Houston Partnership’s World Trade Soiree. This year’s theme is Houston Scores! Connecting Global Champions, and will be held on August 29th at Hotel ZaZa.

Tad Brown, CEO of the Houston Rockets and the Toyota Center is the 2009 Honorary Chairman and PKF Texas’ own Karen Love is the 2009 Working Chairwoman of the Soiree.

With the Rockets in the playoffs (Go Rockets!), it’s worth noting that some of their biggest name players, Yao Ming, Luis Scola, and Dikembe Mutombo (recently retired), aren’t from the U.S.  These guys will be doing some promos for the Soiree, so be on the lookout in the coming months. 

Seliece Caldwell Fulweber, Rockets VP, Ticket Sales & Business Communications, was kind enough to send over some cool statistics about the Rocket’s International presence:

• Over 95% of the Houston Rocket’s regular season games were broadcast internationally this year

• Rockets games are seen in the following international telecast markets: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iceland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey and Ukraine

• Over 80% were directly broadcast in China

• Specific to just China, the Houston Rockets averaged over 11 million viewers per game this season for a projected total of approximately 400 million viewers for the 2008-09 regular season

• The Yao-Yi match-up in 2007-08 drew a reported television audience of over 200 million people worldwide

I’m really looking forward to this event!  The annual Soirée showcases the Houston region’s star power as an international business center. The region’s global business leaders, government representatives, economic development allies, and our valued Consular Corps take part in this world-class tribute to international business and the world marketplace. This year’s event will include ethnically diverse dinner stations, dancing, a silent auction, and entertainment highlighting the cultures of our regional trade partners. Stay tuned for more details!

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

Times of economic turbulence may bring renewal.  In the technology sector, for instance, many small entrepreneurial firms disappeared, either through bankruptcy or acquisition, after the fortunes floundered in the irrational exuberance of the dot-com boom.  (No bail out for them!) 

But many of their ideas survived and transformed the market.  The Internet itself became a new ecosystem, with emergent technology models such as social networking, rough-hewn consumer feedback, Web-based classified advertising, and blogging replacing dot-com era concepts. 

Similar transformations have many times before:  During the Oil embargo of the 1970s, for example, and at the end of the Cold War, when many Central European countries and companies joined what are now called Emerging Markets.

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Oh Canada!

While the Canadian National anthem starts with that opening, I find it appropriate to start my blog article on this as well, given the discussion that took place recently. My PKF Texas colleagues (Karen Love, Frank Landreneau and Rafael Carsalade) and I met with Norris Pettis, Counsel General for Canada in Texas and David McGregor, Head of the Canadian Consulate, here in Houston, recently to further our existing relationship with this great country.

Incidentally, Karen and David serve together on the City of Houston Mayor’s International Affairs & Development Council (MIADC) – Canada Council.

During our discussions we reviewed the significant business and trade impact that both Canada and Texas have with each other. Texas exported in excess of $12 billion in goods to Canada in 2007 and imported in excess of $15 billion from Canada. In terms of job impact to our state, Texas has over 521,000 jobs supported by Canadian-US trade. Almost 427,000 Texans visited Canada spending an estimated $307 million. At the same time almost 385,000 Canadians spent an estimated $302 million in Texas.

Texas’ leading exports to Canada include: Chemicals/Plastics; Energy Products; and Transportation parts.

Canadian exports to Texas include: Transportation; Chemicals and Energy Products.

This summer I will be visiting Calgary, Alberta and I am told I will be in for quite a treat. For additional information on Canada’s trade with Texas you can check out the following websites: www.houston.gc.ca and www.dallas.gc.ca. Thanks Norris and David, our neighbors to the north who are important to Texas and Houston!

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

Reading Microsoft’s position paper, the effect of economic turbulence is all about external factors disrupting the underlying assumptions of an organization. 

In an interconnected global economy, for instance, networks transmit risk from the center to the edge, so that even “innocent bystanders” are implicated in the web of uncertainty.  System crises in one sector have the potential to disrupt access to capital, inhibit consumer spending, or constrain business activities in other sectors.

Look for opportunities amid the turbulence.  Even during turbulent economic times, opportunities exist.  They are, however, unevenly distributed.  Economic instability does not imply a retreat from technology, but it may require refocusing or relaxing boundaries. 

Business Intelligence (BI) and integrated communications technologies can help organizations better understand the world that exists by rapidly revealing changes in customer or market behavior.  Communications can also extend the reach of the organization to keep customers close during times of uncertainty. 

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