Small Business Fair
Small Business Fair
WORKSHOP & RESOURCE EXPO
Free Admission! Space is limited. Please register EARLY!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Holiday Inn
1900 Hilltop Drive, Redding CA
Archive for 'Business'
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July 4th Celebration–Request for proposal guidelines.
The Mount Shasta Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and promoting trade and tourism in the Mount Shasta area for the benefit of its members and the citizens of the community, is organizing its 31st July 4th Celebration in 2010. The three day celebration attracts an average of 5,000 people. We are seeking an individual able to provide artist and/or DJ services and stage production between July 2 and July 4, 2010.
Guidelines will be available at the chamber office on February 10th. The office is located 300 Pine Street in Mount Shasta and open to the public from 10am to 4pm. You may also send a request by emailing marie@mtshastachamber.com or by calling 530-926-3696 ext. 201.
Holiday Magic in Mount Shasta
The holiday season is upon us. Soon we’ll not only be hearing the jingling bells and the singing of carols, but also the ringing of cash registers as the holiday season gets into full swing.
November 19: Discover the treasures the city of Mt Shasta offers from 4pm to 7pm. To kick off the season Jamie Coleman from Petals is spearheading a Town-wide Open House. All participating businesses will provide edibles and discounts. Shoppers will also have the opportunity to win a gift certificate for their favorite business or businesses.
November 27: Locals and visitors can gather in front of Mt. Shasta City Hall at 305 N. Mt. Shasta Blvd. for old fashioned caroling while waiting for the Christmas tree to be lit. The Emcee for the evening is Scotty Bates, Chamber Board member. The Strawberry Valley 4-H will hand out candles; sell hot chocolate and apple cider. The evening will begin with an invocation by Pastor Gary Van De Walker of the Evangelical Free Church at 5:30pm. The community will then join in singing several old fashioned Christmas carols led by Carol Taforo’s COS Children’s Community Choir. Candles will be lit at 5:50pm. Christmas tree lights will be switched on at 6:00pm. Pay a visit to Santa’s Shop and his Elves at the Fire Station where they will be busy building toys, baking cookies, hanging ornaments and more. Stores, shops and galleries in the downtown area will be open until 8:00 pm. for holiday browsers and shoppers.
Holiday Magic Downtown Mt. Shasta — Walk, Shop & Dine in December
Join the Mt. Shasta community for fun-filled Wednesdays in December. Music will fill the streets during the day and live carolers in the evening. Participating restaurants will offer specials to shoppers. Several businesses will house a “Giving Tree” for children in need from December 1 to December 17. On December 2, 9, and 16 from 5:30pm until 7pm, the Sacred Mountain Spa will be providing space for “Portraits with Santa” by professional photographer Sequoia, offered at $30 (a $50 value), includes (4) wallet size, (2) 4×6 and (1) 5×7 prints. Portraits will be available for pick up a week later.
December 2: Receive a small gift for shopping or donating a non-perishable food item to participating businesses. Donations will go to “Meals on Wheels”, St. Vincent de Paul’s food bank and the Elks food baskets.
December 9: Fun for the kids! Meet the Weed Dog Sled Team in the afternoon. Bring your camera for photo opportunities! Play Onionhead games at the Gallery from 4 to 6pm. Enjoy storytelling at 6:30pm at Village Books.
December 16: Shop at your favorite stores and enter a raffle at each shop.
December 23: Stroll downtown and vote for the best holiday shop window decoration! There will also be a snowman building contest for kids and the young at heart. Make it a family event!
The Mount Shasta Chamber of Commerce encourages area residents to spend their holiday shopping dollars with local merchants. Stay tuned for more evening shopping opportunities. Visit our community calendar often at mtshastachamber.com
Dollars for dishwashers
By Lynn Teuscher of Aiello-Goodrich-Teuscher
A few months ago, the federal government had a program called “Cash for Clunkers,” which gave rebates to the auto dealers for sales of energy efficient vehicles purchased by the consumers. Coming soon to consumers in late 2009 or early 2010 will be a federally-funded program run by each individual state to give rebates on purchases of “Energy Star” appliances; sort of a “Cash for Clunker Appliances” program. The rebates will commonly range from $50 to $250 depending on the product being purchased.
The “Stimulus Bill” (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) provided $300 million to states for consumer rebates on the following ENERGY STAR qualified appliances:
- Central air conditioners
- Heat pumps (air source and geothermal)
- Boilers
- Furnaces (oil and gas)
- Room air conditioners
- Clothes washers
- Dishwashers
- Refrigerators/freezers
- Water heaters
This appliance stimulus rebate is different than the recent “Cash for Clunker” vehicle program in that the federal government is not doing the paperwork for each consumer transaction, instead they have asked the individual states to run the program, and the federal government will fund it. Each state has been given the authority to decide which appliances and what level of efficiency of that category of appliances will be eligible for rebates. The states were required to submit their plans to the Federal Department of Energy by October 15, 2009 for review. The manufacturers of appliances are concerned that it will be very difficult for them to have their products ready for 50 different state strategies in the upcoming months.
Dollars for dishwashers and other appliances are coming soon, so keep in contact with your appliance dealer for further details.
Evening shopping in Mount Shasta
The holiday season is upon us. Soon we’ll not only be hearing the jingling bells and the singing of carols, but also the ringing of cash registers as the holiday season gets into full swing.
To kick off the season Jamie Coleman from Petals is spearheading a Town-wide Open House on Thursday, November 19th from 4pm to 7pm, all participating businesses will provide edibles and discounts. Shoppers will also have the opportunity to win a gift certificate for their favorite business or businesses.
The Mount Shasta Chamber of Commerce encourages area residents to spend their holiday shopping dollars with local merchants. Stay tune for more evening shopping opportunities and visit our community calendar at mtshastachamber.com
Executive Director Siskiyou Land Trust — open position
The Siskiyou Land Trust (SLT), a 501(c)(3) with offices in Weed, CA, is seeking a one-half-time Executive Director to manage its affairs. SLT is a private conservation organization governed by an eight-member Board of Directors which is “dedicated to long-term stewardship of agricultural, forest and wildlands in Siskiyou County by working with willing landowners, agencies and organ-izations.”
Contact SLT at (530) 926-2259 for a position description and application information. The deadline for applications is November 13, 2009.
Meet the lenders in the Mt. Shasta Area on October 28, 2009
Resources for Business Financing
Time: 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Location: Silva’s Restaurant,
1886 Shastina Drive, Weed
Cost: Free — Open to the General Public
Please pre-register by calling
Jefferson Economic Development Institute
(888) 926-6670 ~ (530) 926-6670
- Learn the latest on the state of business financing in today’s economy
- Meet the public and private lenders and experts in the field to discuss options
- Learn about the loan process from successful borrowers
- Discover all the resources available to small business owners
- Understand the steps to becoming “loan ready”
This workshop is brought to you by a partnership through: JEDI, Superior California Economic Development, Northeastern California SBDC at Shasta College and the College of the Siskiyous and Siskiyou County Economic Development
Payroll Compliance Can Be a Headache!
By Marina Mort, Payroll Services of Aiello-Goodrich-Teuscher
It seems an impossible task for small employers to keep up with all the complicated employment rules and the increasing emphasis on enforcement. It is vitally important that employers understand their responsibilities.
Listed below are a few areas that can create problems for employers. This list is by no means comprehensive, nor do the descriptions fully explain the requirements for each topic. For a comprehensive list and more information, you should look at the following websites:
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/DLSEManual/dlse_enfcmanual.pdf (Department of Industrial Relations);
http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services);
http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-flsa.htm (U.S. Department of Labor)
- Immigration Form: The government is serious about enforcing immigration laws. To make sure you are in compliance you need to have a completed I9 form for all employees. Special attention should be placed on Section 2 of the I9 form which is the employer’s responsibility to complete. Read the instructions to know what is required.
- Meal & Rest Breaks: Employers must provide an unpaid meal break of at least one half-hour for every work period of more than five hours. If six hours of work complete the day’s work, the employee may voluntarily choose not to take the meal break. The employee must be relieved of all duty and free to leave the premises during this time. Employers must provide paid rest breaks of not less than 10 consecutive minutes for every four hours worked, occurring as near as possible to the middle of the work period. Failure to provide a proper meal break compels the employer to pay a one hour penalty to the employee at their regular rate of pay.
- Timecards: Timecards must be completed and signed by all non-exempt (subject to overtime laws) employees every pay period. They should include date worked, time-in at the start of shift, time-out for meal break, time-in when returning from meal break, and time-out at the end of shift. Employees who do a variety of duties should also write a brief description of duties performed for the day. Timecards must be retained for three years. Properly completed timecards are your best defense against an employee claim that they did not receive proper meal breaks or proper payment of wages.
- Hiring Minors: Employers must have a work permit on file for each minor (workers under the age of 18) employed. Permits are obtained at the child’s school. Permits expire 5 days after the beginning of a new school year. Permits are required before employing minors. It is not legal for an employer subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (most employers) to hire children under age of 14. Youth under age of 18 may not work more than 8 hours in a day. Youth may not work during scheduled school hours.
Feel free to contact Aiello-Goodrich-Teuscher for assistance with these or other payroll compliance questions.
Mt. Shasta Area papers join Zip2save.com
Zip2save.com is a group website featuring electronic versions of the weekly advertising flyers that are inserted into the newspapers. It is owned by a large group of over a 1,000 newspapers across the country with a combined paid circulation of over 6.4 million. New, additional newspapers are signing up every day.
This website and local newspaper website links will be heavily promoted in all of these newspapers, as well as, on their website, TV, radio and more. Everyone will know about it very soon.
The launch is October 1, 2009. Wal-Mart, Michaels and many other national stores are already on board. It is modeled after the highly successful Canadian site, www.flyerland.ca.
Your local business can be included right along side of the national stores with your advertising flyer. If you don’t have pre-printed flyers, you have options to purchase ad space on home page of this exciting site. Get in on the ground floor.
Here’s how it works: the zip2save site will be linked to over 1,000 (and growing) newspapers websites and promoted as a standalone website like Google or Twitter. Customers enter their zip code and all of the flyers for that area are available for them to preview. They can even get an alert when their favorite stores post new flyers!
The businesses advertising their flyers (or an ad) on the site will be featured on local advertising, linked from both the Siskiyou Daily News’ website and the Mount Shasta Area Newspapers websites and every online pre-print advertiser will get a store locator feature with Google mapping.
Add-on like coupons and featured items, plus banner and other site ads are also available. Here’s the best part: The Introductory Launch Pricing at almost 50% off the regular rates. Act immediately and you can take an additional 10% off those prices by September 11th, 2009.
For more information call 530-926-5214 or 530-926-6166
California Siskiyou County Enterprise Zone
Where’s The Money?
The majority of your new hires will probably qualify for this tax credit…
ARE YOU USING IT??
By Lynn Teuscher of Aiello-Goodrich-Teuscher
For the past year, there have been discussions about the Siskiyou County Enterprise Zone, but where’s the money? Fortunately, we have seen some of our clients significantly benefit from this new Enterprise Zone credits.
Let’s take a moment to review one of the methods our clients are using to reduce their California corporate and personal income taxes through the Siskiyou Enterprise Zone Hiring Credit.
First, you need to have hired a new employee after June 23, 2008, and the new hire must have lived in Siskiyou County for at least 30 days prior to employment; AND, your business must be located in the enterprise zone which is determined by the property parcel number your business is located on.
The hiring credit for the first 12 months of employment is calculated by taking 50 % of the employee’s hourly wage, up to $12 per hour of the employee’s wage.
Example: Sundance Maintenance (A sole-proprietorship) hires John Thumb on July 1, 2008 at $13 an hour to do landscape maintenance work. Sundance Maintenance ends up paying John Thumb for 8 weeks of work for a total of $4,160 (8 weeks x 40 hours x $13 per hour). The Siskiyou Enterprise Zone hiring tax credit would then be $1,920 (8 weeks x 40 hours x $12 per hour x 50%).
The hiring tax credit is used as a dollar for dollar reduction of State of California personal and corporate income taxes. The following is a table showing the credit percentage of wages that can be saved for an employee’s first 5 years of employment:
Year Credit %
1 50%
2 40%
3 30%
4 20%
5 10%
In the example above, Sundance Maintenance earned $1,920 in tax credits on $4,160 in wages paid. The $1,920 in California tax credits can be used to reduce the 2008 California income tax as low as zero, and any credits left over can be carried to future tax years.
A couple of months ago the rules were greatly enhanced and simplified on which new employees are eligible. These rules are retroactive to June 23, 2008. The eligibility went from a small selected group of workers to any resident of a targeted employment area (TEA). In most cases, your new hires will probably reside in Siskiyou County, which would qualify for the TEA.
Our office is currently trying to identify clients that would be eligible for the 2008 hiring credits under these new rules. The goal is to file amended income tax returns for eligible clients to get California refunds. We also want to address our clients regarding lowering their current California estimated tax payments or tax withholding if they expect to do more hiring in 2009.
There is money that can come back to you through the use of our California Siskiyou County Enterprise Zone.
Please call us if you have questions about the California Siskiyou County Enterprise Zone.
