Each year the Upper Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce recognizes those individuals in our communities that give of themselves ‘above and beyond’ to make our community a better place.  This year our recognition luncheon will be on May 9.  We need your help identifying those individuals you think deserve that little pat on the back.  There is no set criterion, just let us know who in your judgment contributes to the betterment of the community.  You can just give us a name and we’ll track it down or you can help even more by providing a little background information on this form.  We are looking for someone to represent Oldsmar, Town and Country, NW Hillborough (Westchase, Citrus Park, etc.) as well as someone whose contributions extends across or beyond those borders and will be recognized as our Upper Tampa Bay Cup recipient.  Thanks for your help!  We have a lot of great people to choose from but would like your help in narrowing the field.  Please let us know by May 1.  Contact Mark Howe at 813 855-4233.

The Office of Congressman Gus Bilirakis in cooperation with the US Chamber of Commerce and several local chambers including the Upper Tampa Bay Chamber sponsored a Veterans Job Fair on February 23.  Marady Leary, US Chamber organizer reported that 67 employers were on hand for the event and each had a minimum of five jobs readily available.  A total of 547 vets and spouses pre registered for the event and about 500 actually participated. 

The Upper Tampa Bay Chamber has been working with Congressman Bilirakis’ office the past several years on an annual job fair and that experience evidently showed as Ms. Leary sent us an email saying “Jerry your team was the best! They were so helpful and really funny. You have a great staff. The event was a success thanks to your Chambers help. We couldn’t have done it without  your support, thank you for everything.”

See what John Wilson and Fox News had to say…

Facebook readers may have to click on “Read original post” to access this complete article.

There is a difference. Do you need to choose between the two?  Can you do both?  I saw this article referenced in a Linked In group I’m in and thought it was useful.  You may have to put up with some ads from Entrepreneur Magazine but it’s a good article. My take?  You want to be both.  It’s kind of a process, the difference between giving a sales pitch, providing an infomercial and becoming a full-fledged resource.  One thing for sure, it’s all about relationships and the more we connect the better it is for our business, the effectiveness of the chamber and the health of our business community. Click here for more.

Facebook viewers may have to click the “Read original post” to read the entire blog.

All Florida Businesses registered with the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations must file an annual report by May 1 of each year. The deadline for this year is coming up quickly and if payment is late a $400 penalty (that cannot be waived!) will be required to file the report (except for not for profits).

Some quick points about annual reports:

What is an annual report? The report is the annual filing made by business entities to confirm or update various information with the State of Florida including registered agent, officer(s), owner(s), and address(es).

What entities must file an annual report and what is the current fee? All of them—$150 for a profit corporation; $61.25 for a not for profit corporation; $138.75 for a limited liability company; and $500 for a limited partnership or limited liability limited partnership.

What happens if an annual report is not filed? In addition to the late fee imposed for late registration, failure to file an annual report by the 3rd Friday of September will result in the administrative dissolution of the business entity. Administratively dissolved entities may be reinstated by submitting the appropriate reinstatement application and the appropriate fees due this office at the time the entity applies for reinstatement. In addition, names of administratively dissolved or revoked business entities are made available to other parties after one calendar year.

Does an annual report need to be filed if the business entity has closed? No, but you should consider formally dissolving or withdrawing the entity.

What changes can be made in the annual report?

• add, delete, or change the names and/or addresses of the officers, directors, managers, managing members, and addresses only of general partners;
• change the registered agent and registered office address;
• change the principal office address and mailing address for the business entity;
• add or change a federal employer identification number.

For additional points, please visit The Gordon Law Firm at http://www.thegordonfirm.com/annualreports/.

This edition has the end of the month numbers for January sales included. It’s interesting that there is a rule set by the folks that run the real estate data base (MLS) that states you MUST report all status changes within 48 hours or face a fine, yet I cannot get accurate numbers until the 10^th of the month. And so it goes… 

As bleak as the sales numbers look in the report, the reality in the trenches is quite different. I have found a lot of buyer activity that has been verified by the other Realtors that I interact with. If you never looked at the statistics and just went about doing your job in blissful ignorance, you’d think things were improving! The world is a funny place. 

Gerald Jacobs
Your Most Reliable Source For Real Estate in Tampa Bay
813-625-2424
Gerald@GoGerald.com
www.gogerald.com

The Gordon Law Firm | P.A. 

Brent formed The Gordon Law Firm, P.A. because he wanted to make legal services and representation accessible to individuals and small businesses.  Brent chose to open his practice in Oldsmar because of the central location, the strong business community, and the quality of its citizens and work-force. 

 Brent takes the knowledge he gained and skills he developed as a former state prosecutor and as a civil litigator with one of the oldest law firms in Pinellas County to provide legal counsel in an effective and affordable manner.  Brent is sensitive to the challenges that both individuals and businesses face.   He insists on personal attention to each case and will work to provide a package of representation that makes financial and legal sense.

 The Gordon Law Firm, P.A. is a proud member of the Upper Tampa Bay Chamber and provides representation in general business law, start-up business formation and development, real estate law, landlord – tenant issues, collections, and construction law – and general criminal defense and civil litigation.  

Brent will be blogging on various legal issues that small businesses and individuals face every day. 

Brent Gordon, Esq.

“Making the Law Work for You and Your Business”

The 51^st Annual Oldsmar Days Festival brought to you by the Upper Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce will be held March 23-25.  All the pieces are in place and we have what we think is our strongest band lineup yet!  So make your plans now to enjoy beautiful R.E. Olds Park on the shores of Old Tampa Bay for the music, great selection of food and arts and craft vendors, car shows and a carnival for kids of all ages.  Plus we’ll be adding more old time audience participation games including pie eating and watermelon seed spitting contests.

But as for the classic rock we start off Friday night with the Trigger City Trio followed by our headliner the immensely popular Black Honkeys.  Brother Phil has led the Honkeys all over Florida for more than ten years building a great fan base.  If you haven’t heard the Groovalicious Nicole Coleyfield Davids you are in for a treat.  Plus some great horn sounds offered by Terry Clark on the trumpet, Scott Myers sliding the trombone and Andy Beer blasting away on the sax and pounding the keyboards. Drummer Steven C. Tanner and guitarist Greg Czinke add all the funk you want. So if some great Motown sounds are your thing you want to make sure you are in the crowd for these crowd pleasers.   

Saturday’s after parade activities kick off with Cross-Eyed Larry.  They were a hit at Rocktoberfest 2011 and plan to rock the bandshell with their unique sounds including  a yakkety sax.  Cross-Eyed Larry is predominantly made up of local businessmen led by chamber member John Monte that is building up quite a following.  Listen in and you’ll know why. They will be followed by an Oldsmar band the Dive Bar Stalkers.  If you like high energy rockabilly this one’s for you. Jeff Vitolo leads this very popular outfit and add harmonica madman Lindsey Mercer and you’ll be top tapping all night. And that’s just the warmup for the Greg Billings Band.  You want to talk about energy and classic rock it does not get any better than this in Tampa Bay. Greg has been in the area more than 30 years and started his recording career with the band Stranger.  Greg continues to ‘live the dream’ backed by an all-star cast including drummer Leroy Myers, Ronnie Dee, son of the legendary Joey Dee, on the sax, George Harris. And Tom King Cardenas on the guitars with Rob Stoney on the keyboards and you can count on a couple hours of onstage mayhem. Greg always draws a crowd so come early.

Sunday does not slow down as we bring you Slick Side.  Billy and Jenna Sandlin offer a versatile array of classics plus some jazz.  Billy is bringing  the legendary Joe Lala with him to spice the act up even more. Joe has performed with numerous legendary rock and other bands including Chicago, the Byrds, the Bee Gee’s, Rod Stewart, the Allman Brothers, Crosby, Stills, and Nash and more.  We bring Oldsmar Days 2012 to a close with Tampa Bays premier rock band, Stormbringer.  The versatility of lead singer John Vasalakis is nothing short of amazing and you’ll understand why he’s played on bills including Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Tom Petty and others.  Guitarist Nick Cardullas isn’t far behind on this score.  Likewise, guitarist Rick Moon is no stranger to the local rock scene.  Drummer Dana Newcomer and Keyboardist Fry round out this superbly talented group.  You’ll go home humming and  counting Oldsmar Days 2012 as the best ever.

The National Association of Realtors produces a monthly confidence index that’s full of interesting information. For instance, the latest report shows that a third of all real estate transactions in December failed to close. There were three major factors; poor condition of the house, failed to appraise and buyer’s inability to get a mortgage. Only two thirds of all transactions did not have appraisal problems. Hard to get prices to rise if you can’t get them to appraise. Check the full report here.  

Gerald Jacobs
Your Most Reliable Source For Real Estate in Tampa Bay

 

Wow!  Check out this website.   It contains links updated daily to the front page of newspapers all around the globe and we mean all around the globe.  Just click a region of the world and navigate around the map to find the country and major city you want to check the happenins’.  This is really for infomation junkies.  Have to remember Mark Twain’s advice though – “Those that don’t read the newspaper are uninformed.  Those that do read the newspaper are misinformed.”  Since this does front pages only I guess you’re somewhere in between but you get a glimpse of the big picture pretty quickly.

With that disclaimer, I think you’ll find this fascinating and maybe even useful.  You do a see a stark contrast in the availabilty of ‘free press’ as you navigate the world.  I don’t know if that is a function of reality or the research done to build this website (impressive to say the least).  I suspect it is some of both.  But this leaves little doubt regarding  access to ‘whatever is fit to print’ in our society.  Enjoy!

Courtesy of our guest blogger Andy Chiodo - Charisma PR 

“The only thing that is more misunderstood than Marketing is love.” 

Successful marketing, in any situation, requires a clear understanding of what prospective customers will PERCEIVE as valuable.  In today’s economic conditions, that is more important than ever. 

How?  Simple, you have to get back to basics. 

You have to know the following five essentials:

1.     Know your prospects by knowing your current customers
2.     Know what customers will believe is your company’s real VALUE
3.    Keep your sales “pitch” focused on VALUE 
4.    Keep it simple
5.    Stay consistently visible 

1. Know Your Prospects By Knowing Your Current Customers
The first step is making sure you know WHY your current customers do business with you.  This is critical to turning prospects into customers. Too many businesses, in this economy, believe that the right prospects are defined as “anyone with money.” This is a fatal mistake. 

Because they believe that fatally flawed idea, some companies attempt to portray themselves as all things to all people. The rationale goes something like this: “If I limit my markets, I’ll miss opportunities.” However, most of the time, this approach is going to make selling harder, not easier. 

No matter how wonderful your product features and fanciful your approach is, the issue is simple and functional – if you don’t know WHAT they want to buy, and HOW they want to buy — you will be disqualified. 

2. Know What Your Current Customers Believe Is Your Company’s Real Value

“Mine” your current customers to find out WHY they bought – and, hopefully, continue to buy – from you.  You may be surprised to find out what they say, once you get past knee-jerk: responses like “you do a good job.”  What you REALLY want to know is HOW you got the chance to demonstrate that you were capable of doing a “good job.” 

Without being pesky, you have to GENTLY by asking questions like “what was it that convinced you to do business with my company?”  In many cases, the answer will be something like “because you were referred to me by someone I trust,” “because you seemed like a nice person and knew what you were talking about,” but the REAL reason is “because you didn’t waste my time, and found out that I needed X and convinced me that you could deliver it.”   

3. Keep Your Sales Pitch Focus on PERCEIVED VALUE

Every company must routinely question its own value proposition. WHY do your current customers buy your product or service? Is it because they see it as a “must have” or a “nice to have”?  These days, it has to be because it’s a “MUST have.” 

 To your current customers, “X” is what they PERCEIVE as the value you deliver.  In the marketing business, this because the basis of your value proposition – the “offer” you make to provide something that the customer sees as having value. 

SO – if you have done your homework, you will know WHY what YOU sell is perceived as a one of those oh-so-important “must haves.”  Make sure that everything you say or show is based on that “must have” perceived value. 

4. Keep It Simple

In the marketing business, “creeping elegance” is considered dangerous.  The more a prospect hears that sounds “complicated” the less chance you have to sell.  Many businesses get so wrapped up in going through an elaborate pitch, or feel that they have to “educate” their prospects to the point where they lose the sale.  

The majority of prospects care about THEIR issues, not yours.  If you stick to what they perceived as needed, make sure that you have presented your value proposition and that they understand it, you have much better than even odds to close a sale.  

And, once the prospect is nodding yes, smiling and agreeing – stop talking and close the sale.  Continuing to “pitch” after they have already agreed to buy is annoying and potentially fatal.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with saying, “So, why don’t we just go ahead and pick a delivery date?”  If they’re happy, you’re done, if they have any issues – you have a chance to resolve them and move forward. 

5. Stay Consistently Visible

Make sure that you keep in touch.  Make an effort to email pertinent things to customers – forwarding information that relates to their business and could be of value is one way,  calling occasionally is another – best of all is to know when they will need MORE, and call to sell it.