Mark's weekly blogging

Below is an article put together by our marketing consultant.  In response to this article, we at CFH have decided to go to work in our community and raise funds for the Florida AIDS Walk in April.  Below is a link that you can read about the cause and donate money to show your support.  I hope you'll find this article useful in your own business and consider getting involved within your own community.  Florida AIDS Walk

--------------------------------

Public Advertisement vs. Community Involvement:

By: Katie Pederson, Marketing Consultant

For decades, big businesses have spent billions of dollars on traditional marketing campaigns. By running countless television, radio and print ads to target their demographics, many of these companies have found as of late that their traditional efforts are producing less than stellar returns to recuperate their costs.

Why might this be? Well, first of all, customers are human and therefore capable of completely undermining the effectiveness of an ad campaign. What one firm or advertising agency views as highly effective might be ignored by the public audience. Second, in a renewed attempt by most company advertisers to attract a cult-like customer following by being funny, catchy, or off the wall in their ads, most fall dismally short. Sometimes they even overshadow their own brand with memorable messages or one liners that don’t create a connection with their products. Take for instance any car commercial – they either all run together as one in your mind, or if there was a memorable song or moment, you would be hard pressed to remember the make or model described in the ad.

So, what does this mean for firms still attempting to get their name out and drive growth? What is the solution to drowning traditional forms of marketing? One of the best alternatives that today’s companies can adopt is a renewed spirit of community involvement. Most often referred to as social responsibility, the act of aligning business practices with the needs of community has become a very hot topic in today’s marketplace. Everyone from Apple, to Target, Walt Disney to Waste Management has seen the merits of not only complying with environmental and legal standards but more so getting out and proactively supporting their communities.

Involvement is simple. It can be anything sponsoring a charity walk, working on activities at an after school program, or collecting for a canned food drive for the local homeless shelter – research has shown that the more a company identifies and involves itself positively with the needs of a community, the more recognized, respected and patronized that company is by those community members. And happily for these firms, most of these ideas are very inexpensive, requiring only the time and energy of their employees and can often have a bigger return on investment than using the same or more resources on traditional advertising. So the next time that the marketing budget comes around for approval - think about just where all that money is going and consider spending some on community involvement efforts – who knows, you might just find that it means more and pays better!

Hello everyone!  It seems that the funding firm of DEWEY, CHEATHAM & HOWE is back in business again.  We are getting an increasing number of deals from borrowers and/or realtors are telling us should be able to get funded.  These deals have, in most cases, been reviewed by another firm (a short email in most cases without a lot of pertinent data) and had an LOI issued to the borrower.  Our firm is contacted somewhere in this mix and given the same minimal amount of data to work from.  At this point, we request more data and do not issue any sort of documentation because we have nothing to base a valid assessment on.  The next thing we hear is that people have given substantial monies, and NON-REFUNDABLE, for this LOI that was issued without sufficient data.  The funny thing is - no one that we talk to ever understands how this could possibly happen. hmm...

DOES THIS STORY SOUND FAMILIAR TO ANYONE?

The fact of the matter is - use some common sense when looking at any of your financing requests!  As commercial and business underwriters, we do not want to have to worry about running a business when someone else fails.  This means that the underwriting requirements for everyone are grounded in the same basis of thinking.  The moral of the story is...if your client has poor credit, no money, or no business experience in the field he or she is trying to borrow money for - they will not get funded in today's market.

The lending markets are controlled by Wall Street (secondary Market) not the banks and not your local mortgage company.  The fact of the matter is they are not taking questionable paper for the time being.  If you do not believe this and live in some fantasy world where someone will fund garbage deals in today's environment - then you and your client will find one group
(and one group only) to work with you and they are the funding firm of DEWEY, CHEATHAM & HOWE.

Mark

I hope everyone is off to a great start this year.  We have noticed that there is alot of business out there, at least on the commercial side of the world. 

I thought these pointers might be useful as just some sort of reminder to what we already know.  Hope this helps somebody this week.  We all love Covey!!

13 simple ways to improve time management.

1.       Plan 15-30 minutes everyday before you start the day.

2.       Prioritize all work.

3.       Think about important, medium, and long term projects.

4.       Separate business and personal priorities.

5.       Use only one calendar, including the advance planner, monthly calendar, and the phone directory to stay organized.

6.       Organize your work area so everything you need is at your fingertips.

7.       Understand the difference between urgent, important, and vital tasks and the order to do them.

8.       Focus on the top priorities that will give the most return for the guest, cast, and company.

9.       Eliminate tasks that waste time.

10.   Train others to do things so you will be free.

11.   Use proven management techniques to improve effectiveness:

a.       Handle papers only once (as far as possible)

b.      Make comparisons to sell ideas

c.       Do one thing at a time where thought is required

d.      Draw pictures to help others understand

e.      Always be on time

f.        Use time wisely

12.   Always have an agenda for meetings you conduct.

13.   Use proven techniques to shorten phone calls/meetings.

The real point here is something that can help you and your clients.  It is particularly useful for any of your Real Estate investors who flip properties and retain capital gains throughout the year...

Swapping to Lower Your Taxes

Tax swapping is the most common of all swaps. Anyone who owns bonds that are selling below their amortized purchase price and who has capital gains or other income that could be partially, or fully, offset by a tax loss can benefit from tax swapping.

You may have realized capital gains from the sale of a profitable capital asset (e.g., real estate, your business, stocks or other securities). Or you may expect to sell such an asset at a potential profit in the near future. By swapping those assets that are currently trading below the purchase price (due to a rise in interest rates, deteriorating credit situation, etc.) you can reduce or eliminate the capital gains you would otherwise have paid on your other profitable transactions in the current tax year.

The traditional tax swap involves two steps: (1) selling a bond that is worth less than you paid for it and (2) simultaneously purchasing a bond with similar, but not identical, characteristics. For example, assume you own a $50,000, 20-year, triple-A-rated municipal bond with a 5.00% coupon that you purchased five years ago at par. If interest rates increase (such that new bonds are now being issued with a 5.50% coupon), the value of your bond will fall to approximately $47,500. If you sell the bond, you will realize a $2,500 capital loss, which you can use to offset any capital gains you have realized. If you have no capital gains, you can use the capital loss to offset ordinary income. You then purchase in the secondary market a replacement triple-A-rated 5.00% municipal bond (from a different issuer), maturing in 15 years, at an approximate cost of $47,500. Your yield, maturity and quality of bond will be the same as before, plus you will have realized a loss that will save you money on taxes in the year of the bond sale. Of course, if you hold the new bond to maturity, you will realize a $2,500 gain in 15 years, taxable as ordinary income at that time. By swapping, you have converted a “paper” loss into a real loss that can be used to offset taxable gain.

This strategy was designed and is particularly useful when paired with real estate holdings.

Have a great holiday weekend and we will see you after the first of the year.

Mark