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Coffee Talk
+ I'll take the
Obama girl dress
It's called the Tank Leaf Print dress, but Chico's FAS should rename it The Michelle Obama dress. Or come next year, maybe the White House dress.
The wife of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama wore the Fort Myers-based retailer's dress on The View on June 18, a daytime talk show on ABC hugely popular with women. The dress is sold by Chico's White House | Black Market brand.
When discussing fashion on the show, Obama cited her taste for reasonably priced yet fashionable clothes. The dress costs $148. As soon as the show ended, Chico's executives say the company's phones rang, its Web site traffic surged and women thronged the stores to buy the Michelle Obama dress.
"I think what is so appealing is Michelle Obama looked fantastic in it," says Jessica Wells, Chico's public relations director. "I also think the fact that this is a woman who has designers courting her and has access to top designers, she still chose the $148 dress. Great style is truly accessible."
There are only a few Michelle Obama dresses left, but the company is now taking orders for more deliveries in August. Chico's is using the unexpected publicity, highlighting the dress on its Whitehouseblackmarket.com Web site (It reads: Road to the White House style.)
+ Quick I-75 relief comes
from hard work, luck
Thousands of commuters and drivers in northern Manatee County were happy, relatively speaking, to be back on the road heading southbound on Interstate 75 to start the workweek June 23. A portion of the road, near the Prime Outlets Mall in Ellenton, had been closed since June 4 after a fiery and fatal fuel tanker explosion caused interstate bridge over U.S. 301 to collapse.
But Jovan Zepcevski, the owner of Fort Myers-based Zep Construction, was especially happy about the completed roadwork. Zepcevski's firm not only won the bid for the $1.7 million contract through the Florida Department of Transportation, it also finished it 20 days early, triggering a $15,000-a-day bonus for an extra $300,000.
"These are complicated jobs," Zepcevski tells Coffee Talk. "It's something like a chess game. You have to have all of the logistics solved" before beginning work.
Early completion bonuses are standard in roadwork and construction. But cashing in on them - at the full rate, no less - is more unusual. And collecting an extra 15% of the total project is a nice boost for the 60-person firm, which Zepcevski founded in 1973, soon after he moved to Florida from his native Yugoslavia. While Zepcevski declines to release annual revenues figures, he does concede the company's employee base is down about 40% since 2006.
Zepcevski says the fact that his firm has done seven or eight emergency road repair jobs prior to this one was a big help in finishing so early. What's more, the lack of substantial rain allowed crews to work more often and the lack of many other current projects the company had going on allowed Zepcevski to place backup crews at the site. The combination of those factors paved the way for workdays lasting as long as 18 hours.
Even though I-75's southbound lanes have reopened, Zep's crews are still working at the site, both on the highway and on some sections of U.S. 301. Work could be completed on both projects by the end of July.
+ Infinity acquisition comes
through the Review pages
Dale Ott decided about 10 months ago that his Sarasota-based technology-consulting firm, Vitil Solutions, was getting too big and unwieldy. The 30-employee company had a division for schools and government entities, as well as a separate unit for small business clients.
"I was feeling a bit scattered in picking the environment I could be most successful in," Ott tells Coffee Talk. But after he settled on the government and schools section, Ott then had to find a buyer for the other side of his business, which had generated about $1 million in annual revenues.
Ott found his answer reading the Review. He read a story in the Nov. 16, 2007 issue on Tampa-based Infinity Business Solutions, a company with about $5 million a year in revenues that was looking to grow its IT services business across the Southeast. Infinity's focus was based on combining a constant maintenance program for clients with the latest and greatest in technology.
Indeed, after reading the story, Ott told several Vitil employees that Infinity was exactly the type of company he was looking to sell the small business unit to.
Turns out there was an equally interested buyer in Terry Hedden, Infinity's chief executive officer. "A firm of Dale's quality doesn't come along every day," says Hedden. "They have happy customers and happy employees."
After Ott cold-called Hedden to start a relationship, the executives began working out a deal. The sale closed in mid-June. Both executives declined to disclose a price.
Infinity will take on three Vitil employees, who will begin working in a new office later this year. And the $1 million in annual revenues Infinity is acquiring include about $650,000 in service contracts, says Hedden, an integral component in growing the business.
The deal also facilitates Infinity's expansion plan, which calls for making one major acquisition every three to six months across the southeast U.S. Next up: Naples and Fort Myers. Hedden tells Coffee Talk that Infinity could have a location in that market by the end of 2008, either through opening a new office from scratch or by buying an existing company.
+ WCI Communities:
An Icahn transaction?
In a recent filing for Bonita Springs-based WCI Communities, Carl Icahn says he may enter into a "transaction" with the builder.
Investors may not want to get their hopes up. It's unlikely Icahn will offer the $22 a share he offered in the spring of 2007. The board, then led by Don Ackerman, rejected Icahn's offer and now WCI's stock trades below $2 a share.
But Icahn doesn't have to buy the company's stock, which some observers have termed to be worth less than its current price. Icahn could buy the company's bonds for pennies on the dollar or assume payments on the company's current $1.7 billion in debt.
In any case, the stock didn't move above $2 a share when Icahn made his filing on June 20.
+ Accountant fights
in Washington D.C.
It might only have been five minutes, but Bradenton accountant Byron Shinn didn't hold anything back when he got a chance to speak before a U.S Congressional committee about challenges facing small businesses.
Shinn focused his June 18 testimony in front of the Finance and Tax Subcommittee of the House Small Business Committee on what he considers one of the largest looming dangers to Florida small businesses: The archaic rules governing S-Corporations, entities where the company divides income or losses among shareholders, who then must report it on their individual tax returns.
According to Shinn, S-Corp owners and shareholders have been at a competitive disadvantage due to tax laws that allow for more write-offs and other benefits when an entity is registered as a limited liability corporation or another type of partnership.
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, a member of the House Small Business Committee who invited Shinn to speak, agreed. Buchanan says the system needs tinkering, not an overhaul.
Shinn hopes the government goes at least that far. He testified that the rules should allow S-Corps to form LLCs and other partnerships without having too jump through as many hoops as currently required.
"Congress and government hasn't kept up the rules in the S-Corp arena like it has in the LLC world," says Shinn, speaking to Coffee Talk after returning from Washington. "I brought them a breath of fresh air that was different."
Shinn has both business and personal experience in S-Corps. His firm, Bradenton-based Shinn & Company, P.A., is an S-Corp. And many of his small business clients are also S-Corps.
A past chairman of the Florida State Board of Accountancy, Shinn is the second Bradenton-area business owner to testify recently before a House Small Business Committee panel. Vanessa Baugh, owner of a Lakewood Ranch jewelry store, testified about the difficulties small business are facing in getting credit at an April 30 hearing.
+ Getting 245 mpg
electric in Clearwater
Gulf Coast residents have heard a lot about electric cars, but they haven't been easy to find. Thanks to Clearwater businessman Jack Boone, that is changing
Boone, who owns the Transportation Station at 2396 Gulf to Bay Blvd. in Clearwater, is selling the Zenn, a two-seater electric car made in Canada.
"The interest in it is has been overwhelming," Boone says. "I've been an auto dealer for many years and I was in business when we had a gas shortage. Now, it is like that, in a different way."
Boone recently got eight cars in. Two remain on his lot. He's ordering more.
The cars sell for $15,800 to $19,000. Although they run on electricity, federal law requires that the mileage be posted. Using a formula, Zenn estimated its car would get 245 miles per gallon.
"Everyone comments on the looks of the car," Boone says. "They are contemporary. They have good fit, finish and trim."
The Zenn comes in green, silver and blue. The exterior is plastic, made from PVC material. They top out at 25 miles per hour, and can go 30 to 50 miles on one charge. Drivers can't use they on major highways.
They include stereo systems and something many other electric vehicles don't have: air conditioning.
Going green
in St. Pete
Part environmental, part marketing, whatever the motivation, the green trend seems here to say. A St. Petersburg software firm took the trend literally recently.
Employees of Sage Software, who work at Baypoint Commerce Center in St. Petersburg, planted 12 oak trees around the company offices as part of a team-building project.
Baypoint has also organized other environmental activities for tenants including aluminum can, paper and cardboard recycling; roof coatings that reduce electric consumption; and repair and control of irrigation using reclaimed water.
Glen Peak, president of PeakBiety, a Tampa branding and advertising firm, said the green trend is definitively marketing related, but it's still a good thing.
"In fact, there are consulting firms that specialize in helping companies employ 'green marketing,'" Peak says. "But it's hard to be critical when the outcome is good for the environment and all of us that live in it. Remember: Some would say that marketing is about delivering value to consumers (what they want) and consumers today have said, in the polls I read, that they are concerned about the environment."
GULF COAST UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
What the data shows: The unemployment rates on the Gulf Coast continued to rise, with Punta Gorda and Cape Coral-Fort Myers rising above 7% for the first time. All areas of the Gulf Coast registered higher unemployment rates than the state average. Florida's unemployment rate in May was the highest since January 2003 on a seasonally adjusted basis.
What it means: The construction downturn accounted for 54% of the job losses in the state, no surprise to business owners on the Gulf Coast. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers area registered the biggest percentage-point jump in unemployment in large part because of the massive residential and commercial overbuilding in recent years.
Forecast: Finding workers, especially in construction, should prove much easier than even a year ago. However, industries such as tourism, education and health are still seeing job growth despite the downturn. Still, some are cautious about tourism as airfares and gasoline prices rise. Education is also a concern as municipalities reckon with lower tax revenues.
May unemployment
Area May 07 May 08 Pt. chg.
Bradenton-Sarasota 3.5% 5.8% 2.3
Cape Coral-Fort Myers 3.9% 7.1% 3.2
Naples-Marco Island 3.4% 5.7% 2.3
Punta Gorda 4.5% 7.4% 2.9
Tampa-St. Petersburg 3.7% 5.6% 1.9
Florida 3.5% 5.3% 1.8
U.S. 4.3% 5.2% 0.9
Source: Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation
Fort Myers area sees no foreclosure letup
The Cape Coral-Fort Myers area registered the nation's second-highest foreclosure rate in the country, with one foreclosure for every 79 households, according to California-based RealtyTrac.
The increase shows no sign of slowing down along the Gulf Coast, except in Manatee County, which showed a slight decrease in foreclosures in May compared with the same month a year ago.
Stockton, Calif., led the pack with one foreclosure for every 75 homes. Here is a breakdown of the data from RealtyTrac for nine Gulf Coast counties by metropolitan-statistical area and by county:
May 07 May 08 Foreclosure/
Area foreclosures foreclosures %Annual chg. # households
Cape Coral-Fort Myers 1,019 4,311 323% 79
Naples-Marco Island 174 893 413% 210
Punta Gorda 217 538 148% 179
Sarasota-Bradenton 1,215 1,623 34% 236
Tampa-St. Petersburg 3,699 4,773 29% 271
May 07 May 08 Foreclosure/
County foreclosures foreclosures %Annual chg. # households
Charlotte 217 538 148% 179
Collier 174 893 413% 210
Hernando 248 502 102% 154
Hillsborough 1,443 1,868 29% 271
Lee 1,019 4,311 323% 79
Manatee 586 569 ‑3% 292
Pasco 806 860 7% 248
Pinellas 1,202 1,543 28% 323
Sarasota 629 1,054 68% 206
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