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June 1, 2010 Written
by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews
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From the desk of Bob Meyer... 06/01/2010
Gift-Tax Exclusion Good Estate-Planning Option
One of the best estate-planning options remains the $13,000
annual gift-tax exclusion. Anyone may give another person up
to that amount per year in cash or property, free of gift
taxes.
One partner of a married couple can double the gift and the
exemption. So a couple with three married children and six
grandchildren could give away over $300,000 a year,
tax-free.
Legendary Investor�s Advice
Seth Klarman, president of the Baupost Group, an investment
firm in Boston that manages $22 billion in assets, says one
of the best ways to protect against a decline in purchasing
power is to buy whatever is �out of favor, loathed and
despised.�
He says forget about gold or other trendy hedges. His three
private partnerships have returned an average annual yield
of about 19% since inception in 1983 � and nearly 17%
annually over the past decade when stocks were going
nowhere.
Creditcard Issuers Charging More Than
Consumer Credit Cards
Over the past six months, American Express, Bank of America,
Capital One, Citi and Wells Fargo, have raised interest
rates for new small-business creditcards offered on the
Internet roughly six times faster than rate increases on
consumer cards, according to
BillShrink.com, a consumer help site that tracks
creditcard offers.
On average, interest rates for small-business cards were
13.7% higher in April than last October, while rates for
consumer cards, on average, were just 2.4% higher.
IMS Annual
Shareholder Meeting Scheduled
International Monetary Systems (OTCBB:ITNM) has scheduled
its annual meeting for Thursday, June 17, at the Sheraton
Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel. Shareholders as of May 7 will be
eligible to vote on the business presented as well as the
election of three directors.
For more information
click
here.
More People Thinking Of Owning A Business
According to a recent consumer survey conducted by the
software-maker Intuit, about one in five people (17%
actually) interviewed have actively worked on starting their
own business in the past year. Intuit says the web has made
it cheaper and easier than ever to turn your favorite hobby
into a business.
College Grads Facing Tough Job Market
College graduates in 2010 are facing a tough job market. The
vast majority of states in the U.S. had higher unemployment
rates this past April than a year earlier, according to the
Labor Department.
An Expanded New Business Deduction
The tax laws are constantly changing. For example the HIRE
Act, passed in March 2010, raised the first year expensing
limit for equipment purchases made in 2010 to $250,000. (The
limit that had been set for 2010 prior to the new law change
was $134,000.)
Profitable small businesses that need machinery, equipment,
furniture and computers, can write off the cost in the year
of purchase, rather than having to depreciate the cost over
a number of years. Entrepreneurs should work with a CPA or
other tax advisor to stay abreast of new deductions that
will enable them to save on small business taxes.
All
back issues of "From the Desk...� can be accessed by
clicking
here.
(Please feel
free to forward our newsletter to your friends and
colleagues. We have a �box� at the end of the
newsletter for your convenience.
See you next week. . .) |
NATE Holding 26th Annual
Convention This Week
The
National Association of Trade Exchanges (NATE) has scheduled its
26th annual convention at the Astor Crowne Hotel in New Orleans
where nearly 30 trade exchanges are expected to attend, on June 3-5.
The
convention, hosted by Crescent City Trade Exchange, consists of
seminars for trade exchange owners and brokers as well as sales
representatives. Topics of discussion will include, but are not
limited to the following: brokering in today�s economy, how to
expand your business through marketing and PR, referrals, and
facilitating successful trade fairs.
Along with the seminars and discussion panels, convention attendees
have plenty of action to look forward to this year. Many social
events are planned as a way for the various exchanges to interact
and learn what the others have to offer in hard goods and in travel.
NATE has also planned a dinner cruise on New Orleans� Creole Queen
paddle-wheeler, and the annual awards ceremony will take place at
Michaul�s restaurant.
For
more information contact Lauren Pound at (678) 302-6772.
Is Your Trade Exchange Missing Out On
Valuable New Business?
If
your barter company�s listing on BarterNews.com isn�t current, you
are definitely missing out on new business. The web site
BarterNews.com receives heavy traffic � with over 150,000 page-views
every month. Entrepreneurs and corporate executives check the
thousands of articles, the weekly �Tuesday
Report,� and the �Contacts
Section� of our site. They use the latter to find barter
companies with which to do business.
Is
your barter company�s listing up-to-date?
To
keep your listing current is very easy. See the links below to (A)
update any changes to your company�s listing, such as new location,
phone number, web site or other information, and (B) if your company
has not been listed.
Here�s how to get on board:
To
make changes to your listing
click here.
For
new listings
click here.
Minutes Of The Joint
Business Meeting Of The Assembly Of Barter Companies Of Europe &
Asia, With IRTA-Europe
(Held At The Hotel
Napoleon, Paris, France, May 2, 2010)
1. It was moved by Giuseppe Littera, seconded by Dorottiya Szabo,
that the Assembly and IRTA-Europe draw up guidelines for
international trading among barter companies. Approved unanimously.
2.
It was moved by Sanjay Thakrar, seconded by Atul Sharma, that an
insurance reserve be established to cover losses from credit
extension, based on a percentage of the value of each trade.
Approved unanimously.
3.
It was moved by Dorottiya Szabo, seconded by Max Giannopoulos, that
IRTA-Europe explore the possibility of obtaining funds from the EEC.
Approved unanimously.
4.
The draft letter from IRTA and the Assembly to the European
Commission, proposed to be signed by IRTA President David Wallach
and Assembly Chairman Sirri Simsek, expressing the barter industry�s
concern that regulations dealing with financial clearinghouses may
be construed to apply to trade clearinghouses, and requesting that
trade clearinghouses be exempt from regulation of financial
clearinghouses, was approved by the Assembly (the decision was
unanimous by Assembly members in Paris; members not present in Paris
were given an advance copy of the letter and none have objected).
The joint letter now awaits action by the IRTA Global Board of
Directors.
5.
It was moved by Dr. Lee Oi Kum, seconded by Maximilien Urso, that we
work to constitute IRTA-Europe as a legal entity. Approved
unanimously.
6.
It was moved by Dr. Lee Oi Kum, seconded by Nuno Ladeiras, that
members present may volunteer to constitute the founder board to
draw up the legal foundation for IRTA Europe. Approved unanimously.
7.
Whereupon the following persons agreed to constitute the founder
board of IRTA Europe: Nuno Ladeiras, Dorottiya Szabo, Guiseppe
Littera, Sanjay Thakrar, Dariusz Brzozowiec, and Alina Piddubna.
Alina Piddubna agreed to serve as leader of the founder board. These
actions were decided collectively, without objection, by the 16 IRTA-Europe
members at the Conference, and are deemed approved.
8. It was moved by Sanjay Thakrar, seconded by Dorottiya Szabo, that
IRTA-Europe shall have a Treasurer. Approved with one dissenting
vote.
9.
Sanjay Thakrar nominated Atul Sharma to be elected Treasurer of IRTA
Europe; the nomination was seconded by Dorottiya Szabo. No further
nominations were received, it was moved and seconded that
nominations be closed, nominations were closed without objection,
and Atul Sharma was deemed elected unanimously to be Treasurer of
IRTA-Europe.
The
foregoing minutes are submitted for approval. If revised in a
material way, the minutes will be submitted again for approval. If
no material revisions are made, on June 8 the minutes will be
considered approved by the Conference.
Respectfully submitted,
PAUL E. SUPLIZIO
Member, Global Board of Directors (for Europe)
International Reciprocal Trade Association
Secretary to the Assembly
�
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Section. If YOUR exchange isn�t listed see the forms on the lower
left of the page. (Click
here.)
�
Attention trade exchange owners...thousands of visitors every month
visit our BARTER CONTACTS section on our web site where we have
names & addresses of barter companies in the USA. If YOUR exchange
isn�t listed, or the information is incorrect, you can correct the
situation by using the forms to the lower left of the USA map. (Click
here.)
Click here
www.barternewsblog.com.
Buy.Com Founder Sells
Company Twice For Multi-Millions!
Scott Blum, who�s 46 and the founder of Buy.Com, has scored big-time
once again. He�s now sold his company twice, first time he pocketed
$195 million and did so again recently for $250 million, in an
all-cash transaction. In both cases the sales were made to Japanese
companies. BarterNews has followed Blum�s story because Buy.Com
company headquarters are located seven miles from us.
Blum has an interesting story that�s worth noting �
As
an only child, Scott was born in San Jose in 1964. As a hyperactive
child Scott was placed in a swim class at age 5 to channel his
boundless energy. By age 8 he had become a national champion and
showed so much promise that his family moved from San Jose to Orange
County so he could join one of the best swim clubs in the country,
the Mission Viejo Nadadores. By age 14 he had met with huge success,
earning 4 gold medals, 2 silver and a bronze.
A
prankster at heart, he got kicked out of Mission Viejo High School
in his junior year when he �Krazy glued� the locks at the school,
shutting it down for two days. On another occasion he drove the
principal�s golf cart into the school�s swimming pool.
He
was sent to live with a family friend in Englewood (CO) and
graduated from Cherry Creek High School. But the lure of waves
brought him back to Southern California.
He
took a job parking cars at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Dana Point and
bragged to his buddies that one day he�d own a home in the elite
development across from the hotel, which turned out to be true.
In
1995 Blum took a job selling shoes at a Nordstrom department store
and within three months was the top shoe salesman. While at
Nordstrom�s he started his first company, Microbanks, one of the
initial sellers of add-on memory modules for Macintosh computers.
He
had the astute business sense to lock in a contract to buy memory
chips from Texas Instruments and Micron just before prices
skyrocketed. In the first year they made a net profit if $1.2
million on revenues of $1.8 million. A year later, just days before
his 21 birthday, he sold Microbanks to San Diego-based Sentron
Technology for $2.5 million.
He
then cofounded Pinnacle Micro with his father. The company burgeoned
into an $81 million-a-year business. He left the company after 10
years, ready to move on. As a community college dropout with no
technology training, Blum, the master salesman, convinced the
big-time Softbank Venture Capital to invest $225 million in Buy.Com.
His
business model was simply to attract customers by selling everything
below cost, drive revenues with premiere advertisers by guaranteeing
them a buying market, and keep costs down by outsourcing
fulfillment.
One
year later, in 1999 he took out $195 million and retired from
Buy.Com prior to the company�s first filing to go public. In 2001,
after the dot.com bust, Blum bought back all shares of the company
at 17-cents a share, for approximately $15 million and subsequently
took the company private.
He
just sold his privately held company again in mid-May, to Japan�s
Rakuten for $250 million in an all cash deal. The new owner plans to
merge Buy.Com�s 14 million customers with Rakuten�s core �Rakuten
Ichiba,� Japan�s largest internet shopping mall.
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The Growth and Use of Secondary
Capital (New Money) Creates Unprecedented Wealth In Today�s New Age
Of Possibility
There are many forms of secondary
capital�which can be defined as any financial instrument that
measures and communicates value in a common language. Would you like
to see and learn more about the many forms of secondary capital?
We have 70 free, informative and
inspiring, articles for you in our �Secondary Capital Section.�
Check it out...
www.barternews.com/secondary_capital.htm.
Get New Money-Making Ideas And
Valuable Contacts!
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obtain useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available
back-issue of BarterNews.
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click through to our Global List
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