New Tax Breaks to Benefit Employers Hiring Unemployed Workers

Employers who hire unemployed workers this year (after Feb. 3, 2010 and before Jan. 1, 2011) may qualify for a 6.2-percent payroll tax incentive, in effect exempting them from their share of Social Security taxes on wages paid to these workers after March 18, 2010. This reduced tax withholding will have no effect on the employee’s future Social Security benefits, and employers would still need to withhold the employee’s 6.2-percent share of Social Security taxes, as well as income taxes. The employer and employee’s shares of Medicare taxes would also still apply to these wages.  Click here for information regarding “qualified employees”.

In addition, for each worker retained for at least a year, businesses may claim an additional general business tax credit, up to $1,000 per worker, when they file their 2011 income tax returns. Note that family members and relatives of the Employer do not qualify. These tax breaks come as a result of the newly enacted Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment act, or, (HIRE). You can find additional resources realated to the HIRE act by clicking here.

You can read more about these new tax benefits for employers here.

Todd Chamberlin: Leading Innovation through Family Focus

By: Gordon J. Bernhardt, CPA, PFS, CFP®, AIF®

Struck by a sudden sense of ardent realization, Todd Chamberlin stopped rifling through his father’s effects and paused with his hand on the old photograph. He could almost smell the sweat that would soak his shirt after a long day of hard labor under a hot summer sun; could again feel that sense of fulfillment from seeing the look on a customer’s face when he’d exceeded their expectations. Even in his first job mowing lawns at age twelve, Todd had always earned generous praise from clients. His father, however, had been a different story. A man with unparalleled work ethic and tight-lipped sternness, Ashby Chamberlin was not apt to dispense expressions of praise or pride despite his son’s best efforts. Even after assuming presidency of Kenwood Golf and Country Club in 2005, he still found himself wondering at times if he was living up to his father’s unspoken expectations. But here, staring at the photograph that Ashby had kept of the young boy on a bicycle trailing his lawn mower behind him, Todd felt a whole history of commendation wash over him.

If there’s one thing that makes Kenwood unique amongst its peers, it’s the theme of family that so thoroughly permeates its nature and philosophy. Established in 1928 in Bethesda, Maryland, the 108-acre property became an heirloom of the Chamberlin family in the 1950s when Donal Chamberlin split ways with his business partners and acquired sole ownership of the club. His son, Ashby Chamberlin, got involved with the club at age 26. Todd, coincidentally, also began working at the club at age 26, gaining ample expertise and knowledge to assume the presidency in succession. Now, five years later, he has expanded his family’s legacy into a state-of-the-art facility poised at the forefront of its industry. And, if you were to speak with Todd about his aspirations for the future, you’d find he’s just getting started.

Not only is Kenwood the only family-owned country club in the area, but its entire business model is oriented around family. While clubs have historically tended to discourage the presence of children and have fostered a “boy’s club” atmosphere, the country club landscape is shifting toward more family-friendly practices, and Kenwood appears to be ahead of the trend. Its emphasis on children is reflected in the various activities, events, and seasonal camps offered by the club, as well as by the welcoming and tolerant attitude of the staff and members. Kenwood has positioned itself as a place where families can spend quality time together, and the vision has paid off tremendously through the satisfaction of its membership, which holds at around sixteen hundred.

While the theme of family has remained pervasive throughout Kenwood’s history, Todd’s management philosophy has initiated a new era for the club. Whereas Ashby Chamberlin’s method tended toward the preservation and maintenance of the club’s unique charm, Todd hoped to offer new and innovative amenities to its members and redesigned its budget such that initiation fees were used for improvements rather than subsidization. The centerpiece of this visionary and disciplined approach and of his presidency to date is the club’s extraordinary fitness center, which features a 75-yard swimming pool, full-service spa and locker rooms, group exercise room, childcare facilities, and an eighteen-person Jacuzzi. Serving as a gathering place for family and friends, the fitness center upholds the club’s deepest values while also offering an ideal product in light of the fact that the American College of Sports Medicine has ranked DC as the most health-conscious city in America. Todd credits the fidelity of Kenwood’s membership in spite of the current recession in large part to this feature.

But not just any fitness center could serve as a sticking point for clientele when deciding whether to retain their membership or not. In the early 2000s, companies generally built more conservative fitness centers, which are now the chief complaint of members in today’s club landscape. Had Todd followed this trend, he would now be faced with the need to upgrade a past project instead of focusing on new ones. In planning for the center, he intended to construct a facility that would remain competitive for three or four decades, he reports. So far, this goal has been realized.

So how exactly does one come to acquire this intuitive degree of forward-thinking? Todd argues that it is not bred from intuition at all, but rather from instinct—survival instinct, to be more specific. Even from the time of his lawn mowing ventures, he felt an inner drive toward the achievement of self-sufficiency and independence. He had adopted the tremendous work ethic of his father—a man who, as Todd explains, can still outwork most people even at the age of seventy-two. Compelled by this sense of discipline, he worked hard as a boy and came to understand that his own survival and independence was inextricably linked to his ability to foster truthful and genuine relationships with his customers. Thus, excellent client service was set as a cornerstone of his management philosophy and has proven to be a strong foundation for his role at Kenwood.

Patience and understanding, Todd explains, are the other crucial traits to possess from the time one first enters the workforce. In his early affiliation with the club, he worked in every department, with full years dedicated solely to golf course monitoring, housekeeping, and maintenance, respectively. He views this apprenticeship experience as a fundamental phase in his life in which he absorbed the wisdom and knowledge of those who had come before him. Recognizing that many young people today are not cognizant of this tremendous opportunity to grow through learning from their predecessors, he would advise the next generation to adopt such practices.

Taking the time to learn a business from the bottom up in this fashion also equips a leader with the valuable ability to empathize with employees, as Todd’s situation demonstrates. Maintaining a sincere respect and appreciation for his staff is an important facet of his management philosophy, and it seems that the success of his approach stems from the brand of deep compassion that can only be achieved by having stood in his employees’ shoes in the past. Embracing the old adage to treat others as you would wish to be treated, he strives to maintain a hands-off management approach to give staff members the opportunity to carry out his vision in their own way. When an employee demonstrates hard work and commitment, his praise is sincere, personalized, and specific, underscoring the individual’s effort in detail.

By instilling this quality of sincerity in his relationships with both club members and staff, Todd was able to transcend historical barriers between the two that had, in the past, posed them as adversaries. At the club’s Seventy-Fifth Anniversary, he promised to break down the walls between management and membership to create a unified and cohesive front. With this revolution in climate and attitude, board meetings are no longer sites of conflict. Rather, management and membership are working together to decide what is best for Kenwood as a whole, fostering an atmosphere that is more conducive to innovation and progress than ever before.

Considering his remarkable ability to promote unity within his club and within the families of his community, it comes as a surprise that this great strength also manifests itself as Todd’s greatest challenge—a struggle to separate work life from family life. On one level, Todd’s situation is not unique from that of many other Americans with resource-intensive jobs that demand a considerable amount of time and energy. Like so many of us, he makes a conscious effort to “draw the line” at the end of the workday, liberating himself from frustrations and tensions so that he arrives home happy and ready to greet his wife and children.

On another level, however, Todd faces very individual struggles as a family business owner, in which the “line” between the work sphere and family sphere is often blurred and difficult to define. Working intimately with a family member in business can at once serve as one’s greatest motivation and one’s greatest insecurity, for only those close to our hearts could inspire such perpetual examination of self and practice. In his own experience, Todd utilized the assistance of a personal business coach specializing in family dynamics as a mediator and mentor. While many family businesses fail due to the internal pressures they face, the Chamberlins were able to channel their experience into a creative force that has advanced both their familial ties and their enterprise as a whole.

Reflecting back upon the hallmarks that define Kenwood, the two themes of calculation and risk repeatedly arise and complement one another. If a family business is risky, Todd moderates the stakes through employing the knowledge of an expert coach. If constructing a cutting-edge fitness facility was risky, it was offset by thorough research and analysis of the costs and benefits. It is this combination of calculation and risk that consumes Todd’s days as president of Kenwood. He may no longer be sweating beneath the hot summer sun, but he maintains the same degree of focus and commitment that he had as the young lawn mower in his father’s photograph. Gathering research, experience, and the opinions of members, staff, and specialists, he synthesizes these various pieces of information into comprehensive plans for the future that are ambitious yet plausible. His next brainchild, a project in the works, is the construction of a racket and paddleball facility. One skeptic asked him why he would want to do such a thing when no other club in the area has attempted it. In characteristic fashion, Todd replied, “That’s exactly why.

For additional information about this profile and case study, please contact:

Gordon J. Bernhardt, CPA, PFS, CFP®, AIF®
Bernhardt Wealth Management, Inc.
2010 Corporate Ridge, Suite 210
McLean, Virginia 22102
(703) 356-4380
www.BernhardtWealth.com

Health Care Reform: Important Things that You Need to Know

Along with the year long contentious debate over the recently signed Health Care Reform bill, there have also been many misconceptions and falsehoods spread that the Health Care bill is bad for small business. Truth be told, as with most legislation, there is both some good and some not so good. The good is that this bill will do much to counter the skyrocketing costs of health Insurance while cutting a projected 138 billion dollars from the federal deficit between 2010 and 2019 and an additional 1.2 trillion over the second decade which could, in turn, reduce taxes and interest rates. Additionally, Starting with 2010 taxes, small businesses with fewer than 25 employees that pay at least 50% of the health care premiums for their employees qualify for a tax credit up to 35% of your premiums (50% after 2014 if you purchase insurance through an exchange). How much of a credit you’ll get depends on the number of employees you have and their average wage. NOTE, This tax deduction is not available to sole proprietors, so you may want a different corporate legal form. The not so good is that there are no caps on health insurance premiums. This may cause insurance companies to hike rates significantly before they have competition in 2014. If a company has more than 50 employees, They will have to provide coverage, or pay a fine beginning in 2014.

These are a few of the highlights. Check out the details in the Small Business Majority’s, “What’s in Health Care Reform for Small Businesses” , detailed fact sheet.  The Small Business Majority was founded by small business owners to present an impartial view of the issues that have the greatest impact on small businesses.

~Kevin Lawton

Best Practices Only Get You so Far

I found the article in the April 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review, “Best Practices Only Get You So Far”, an interesting read. As HR consultants and practitioners we tend to reference best practices and benchmarking stats quite frequently. However C.K. Prahalad, the Paul and Ruth McCracken Disringuished University Professor of Strategy at University of Michigan’s Ross Scholl of Business, believes companies become winners by spotting big opportunities and inventing ‘next’ practices.

Best practices, C.K. argues, may allow enterprises to catch up with competitors, but it doesn’t turn them into market leaders. C.K. believes organizations become winners by inventing ‘next practices’. Next practices are all about innovation: imagining the future, identifying the mega-opportunities–and building capabilities to capitalize on them. Check out the article in its entirety by clicking here

~Kathy Albarado

An Argument for Privatizing Health Care!

Today my 17-year-old daughter returned from Senegal, Africa with her French class. I admire the tenacity of the 11 students and 2 teachers who visited the third world country to experience a culture unlike their own. Having participated in a teacher exchange program, the students at Oakton High School visited their former exchange teacher, Mr. Jobe,  who returned to his native country in June of 2009.  The group was in Senegal for a period of 10 days.

What does this have to do with health care you say? I regress only temporarily to tell you that in order to prepare for a trip of this magnitude it became necessary to ensure that my daughter was up on those shots necessary to ensure her protection. Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Meningitis, even HINI and the ‘regular’ strain of flu.

Imagine my dismay when her life long doctor’s office (she has been treated there since she was an infant) could not advise me on the appropriate preventive measures we would need to take to mitigate her risk of infection and disease. They referred me to a private health care provider, HealthSmart Vaccines. www.healthsmartvaccines.com Not surprisingly, that was the same group that came onsite to the Helios offices last fall and administered the Flu vaccine for all interested parties.

My experience with the staff at HealthSmart exceeded my expectations! They were not only knowledgeable regarding the specific vaccines we would need, but educated us both on the climate, culture and helped us understand what to expect in general.  I can’t express the comfort I received from Kathy Miller, the RN that vaccinated Amanda.  Kathy agreed to see us on my schedule and there was never a wait!  I tell you, it was a phenomenal experience in customer service. Kathy provided us an incredible amount of comfort and genuine caring.  Although a number of the vaccines were not covered by insurance (nor was the malerone–antimalaria pills), the experience to me was absolutely worth the out of pocket expenditure.  Dick Miles, President of HealthSmart,  also took the time to welcome us and meet Amanda on one of our visits.  (We had to go back when Amanda’s doctor’s office was out of seasonal flu shots.) How do you put a price on comfort and reassurance? Especially when your child visits a third world country with the threat of new disease and limited health care options should she need them abroad.

HealthSmart also makes house calls… hmmmm…. sounds like a fabulous new way to consider health care to me!

~Kathy Albarado