Posted by Elena del Valle on March 26, 2010
How to Sell Your Privately Owned Company A Basic Guide for Independent Business Owners
Photos: ERV Productions, Inc.
In How to Sell Your Privately Owned Company A Basic Guide for Independent Business Owners (ERV Productions, ) Eric R. Voth and six other businessmen share how-to ideas for business owners who want to sell their companies. Voth became involved as a business transaction consultant when he sold his own business in 1993. The authors first look at the types of issues a company owner should take into account before deciding to sell his or her business.
They also examine the steps to take to ensure the business is ready to sell, finding help selling the business, determining a sales prices, preparing a plan to sell the company, finding a buyer, making a good sale, and finalizing the sale and moving on.
Author Eric R. Voth
In addition to Voth, the book lists profiles for two of the contributing authors: Andrew Robertson, CBI, a certified business intermediary based in California; and George Siercho, an accredited business coach based in New Jersey. The other four contributing authors are Kerney Laday, Doug Ortega and David Mahmood of Dallas, Texas; and Scott D. Mashuda of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
The 196-page softcover book is divided into eleven chapters: Making the Decision to Sell Your Business, Getting the Right Help, Putting a Price Tag on Your Business, Finding the Right Buyer for Your Business, Making the Right Deal, Successfully Closing the Sale – and the Door, In Conclusion, Glossary of Terminology, Internet Resources and Words of Caution, and Profiles of Contributing Writers.
According to promotional materials, Voth is a serial entrepreneur and investor who also provides matchmaking services to business sellers to merger and acquisition middlemen, investment bankers and business brokers. He is co-author with Ron Myers of The New Owner: Making the Transition from Employee to Employer.
Click here to buy How to Sell Your Privately Owned Company
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Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 24, 2010
Food product labels include a list of ingredients
Photo: HispanicMPR.com
Can you tell which of the following four sweeteners, fructose, dextrose, sucralose and acesulfame potassium, is natural and which is artificial? If you know that the first two are natural sugars and the other two are artificial sugars you may be among 4 percent of surveyed respondents who knew the answer. The other 96 percent were not be able to identify the difference. Knowing what ingredients are contained in a product only helps, some advocates of enhanced food products labeling argue, if consumers know what the ingredients are.
If, like in this artificial versus natural sweeteners example, they don’t know a natural sweeter from any other ingredient listing the ingredients may offer few insights when consumers are making purchasing decisions based on nutritional content. Experts point out that often consumers have heard of the brand names like Equal but do not know the generic name like aspartame.
The confusion may be aggravated by the significant increase in sweeteners since labeling regulations began. Where there used to be five sweeteners there are now 27, according to a recent The Palm Post article. In 2005, the Sugar Association filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting a labeling change to make it clear to buyers when there are artificial sweeteners in a product. A study, conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by the Sugar Association, indicates most parents of children 18 and younger prefer to avoid artificial sweeteners for their children.
With the high incidence of diabetes, obesity and chronic diseases related to dieting some believe truth and clarity in labeling are more important than ever. Among Latinos many of whom are at high risk of diabetes (see Exercise specialist, researcher explore diabetes issues relevant to Latinos) the issue may be aggravated by cultural practices and preferences and labeling, especially of chemical sounding and unfamiliar ingredients, may do little to help. That is not even taking into account Spanish dominant Latinos who have difficulty reading labels in English.
Executives at the Center for Science in the Public Interest are so convinced of the public confusion about labels that in December 2009 they sent a 150-page report, Food Labeling Chaos: the Case for Reform, to the FDA about false and misleading food labels. The report emphasizes three problem areas: the Nutrition Facts Panel, ingredient labels and false and misleading health-related claims.
They highlight a cereal (Kashi, owned by Kellogg) that promises “healthy arteries” from green tea ingredients although there is no FDA approval of such a relationship (between green tea and healthy arteries); an English muffin brand (Thomas’ Hearty Grains English Muffins) that touts whole grain although the main ingredient is “unbleached enriched wheat flower;” and fruit juices (Gerber Graduates Juice Treats) with pictures of fruits on the labels that are not contained in the juices.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest dual missions are to “conduct innovative research and advocacy programs in health and nutrition, and to provide consumers with current, useful information about their health and well-being.”
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 22, 2010
William Perez, Ph.D., Author, We Are Americans
Photo: William Perez, Ph.D.
A podcast interview with William Perez, Ph.D., author, We Are Americans Undocumented Students Pursuing the American Dream (see California professor shares findings on United States undocumented youth) is available in the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing & Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, William discusses the issues relating to undocumented students in America based on his recently published book with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast.
Born in San Salvador, El Salvador William came to the United States in the early nineteen eighties at the age of 10 to escape the civil war that began in 1979. He spent his remaining childhood in Pomona, California, attended Pomona College, and later earned a Ph.D. in child and adolescent development from Stanford University.
A professor at Claremont Graduate University, he is an emerging leader on research that examines the social and psychological development of immigrant and Latino students. He strives to brings depth of research experience to the complex problems of academic achievement and higher education access. His research has been funded by the Haynes and Fletcher Jones foundations. He currently lives in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz where he enjoys hiking the trails in nearby Griffith Park. He competes in triathlons and is an avid fan of the local indie-rock scene.
To listen to the interview, scroll down until you see “Podcast” on the right hand side, then select “HMPR William Perez” click on the play button below or download the MP3 file to your iPod or MP3 player to listen on the go, in your car or at home. To download it, click on the arrow of the recording you wish to copy and save it to disk. The podcast will remain listed in the March 2010 section of the podcast archive.
Click here to buy We Are Americans
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 19, 2010
Roberto Carlos in concert
Photos: AR Entertainment
Beginning April 10, 2010, Brazilian crooner Roberto Carlos will tour the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and Peru while celebrating his 50 years in the business. Eight of the 15 concerts will be in the United States.
This cycle of presentations began with a historical concert last April in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Espírito Santo, Brazil, the city where Roberto Carlos was born and where his career began when he was nine years of age. The artist, who has sold over 100 million records according to promotional materials, went back to his city after a 14-year absence, with a concert at the local stadium in Sumaré.
This year he will celebrate his birthday in public at the Radio City Music Hall in New York on April 16. Known for songs such as Qué Será De Ti, Amada Amante and Cama Y Mesa, Roberto Carlos has performed more than 24 concerts in 20 cities of Latin America and Brazil as part of this tour. This new stage of the tour begins on April 10 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, and ends on June 5 in Panama City.
Roberto Carlos
The venues where he will perform are April 14 at Boston Agganis Arena, April 16 in New York City Radio City Music Hall, May 4 in Lima, Peru’s Estadio Explanada Monumental, May 8 at the Mexico City Auditorio Nacional, May 13 in Guadalajara, Mexico, May 15 at the Monterrey Arena de Monterrey, May 22 at the Chicago Rosemont Theater, May 23 at the Toronto Massey Hall, May 26 at the San Diego, California San Diego Sports Arena, May 28 at the San Jose, California HP Pavilion, May 29 at the Los Angeles, California Nokia Theater, May 30 at the Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara Bowl, June 3 at the Costa Rica San Jose Ricardo Saprisa, and finally June 5 at the Panama Panama City Arena Roberto Durán.
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 17, 2010
By Edward M. Bury, APR
Edward M. Bury, APR
Communicators today need to maximize every resource available to make sure messages reach their target audiences, and perhaps a few more. This is especially true in an era when online communications and social media continue to eclipse traditional print and broadcast media in many ways.
The social media news release (SMR) has emerged as an option to help communicators deliver messages effectively and efficiently without relying on the traditional or mainstream media. In short, social media news releases are a communications tool that lets groups, companies and organizations self-publish messages online. It’s a relatively new resource, but one that every communicator needs to understand and incorporate into public relations and marketing programs.
Click here to read the complete article
Hispanic Marketing and Public Relations Understanding and Targeting America’s Largest Minority book
“A must resource for practitioners/professionals expecting to reach US Hispanics; also valuable for college programs in marketing, public relations and communications. Highly recommended.”
Choice magazine
Click here for information on the Hispanic Marketing & Public Relations book
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 15, 2010
Batista debut album cover
Brooklyn born singer song writer Batista must be feeling pretty good. Batista, his bilingual debut album, is due for national release by Wu Latino very soon. The New York artist of Dominican background described the album as having “scores fused with elements of tropical rhythms favoring bachata, as well as elements of pop/rock and U.S. urban tendencies.” The new recording has 12 tracks in Spanish and English. Scroll down to listen to Todos Unidos, a single from Batista’s album.
The music ranges from bachata, experimental, tropical, bolero and reggaetón. The first single released is the track Dame Tu Amor, a Spanish language variation of the classic Bee Gees hit How Deep is Your Love, rewritten and arranged to a bachata rhythm by Batista. Batista relies on traditional bachata instrumentation, electric guitar and bass, bongó and güira as well as technology via sequences and samples to modernize the bachata sounds, according to promotional materials. The single Todos Unidos was designed to be a tribute to Coldplay’s Viva La Vida.
Batista
“I follow the music, what’s in my heart; I write what I hear internally. One day my inspirations may direct me to write a romantic love song or a bachata and another time an R&B score or a more upbeat composition. It’s all about how I feel at the time and not about using a particular formula to create a song or bind myself to a specific style or form of music,” said Batista. “In this recording, most of the selections that I included are geared towards the tropical market and to the Latin world’s music audiences. In reality, this production is a tribute to my Dominican culture and the music of my parents, which is also a big part of me. As I continue to grow as a songwriter/singer, my other musical colors and flavors will surface, taking me to other stages in other markets.”
As a young man Batista built his own recording studio and learned about the business of music before becoming a producer for local artists. He was influenced he says, by rock, pop, urban and Latin genres and artists such as BonJovi, Inxs, Leo Dan, Camilo Sesto, Social Club and Juan Luis Guerra.
Although the album is not for sale yet,
Dame Tu Amor, a previously released single, which was in the top position on the pool charts for two weeks is available for purchase on iTunes.
Click on the play button to listen to
Todos Unidos from the
Batista album.
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 12, 2010
Click on image to enlarge
Photos, video: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Our Family Wedding, a new Fox Searchlight Pictures film, opens today in theaters nationwide starting a black and Latino cast and a family theme. Some of the actors are America Ferrera, Carlos Mencia, Forrest Whitaker, Diana Maria-Riva, Regina King, Anjelah N. Johnson, Lupe Ontiveros, Taye Diggs, and Charles Q. Murphy. Scroll down to watch a video with film premier highlights and film moments.
Marcus (Lance Gross) and Lucia (America Ferrera)
Lucia (America Ferrera) and Marcus (Lance Gross) are newly engaged. As they plan their union they learn the hard way that the path to the wedding involves family related challenges. Saying “I do” can be rife with familial strife. According to promotional materials, their fathers (Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia), two highly competitive men with big egos, stand between them and their special day.
Lucia’s mother (Diana Maria Riva) is busy planning the wedding of “her” dreams. Only Angela (Regina King), the groom’s father’s best friend and lawyer manages to keep her cool when the madness reaches a crescendo.
The film was directed by Rick Famuyiwa from an original screenplay by Wayne Conley and Malcolm Spellman and Rick Famuyiwa with story by Wayne Conley. It was produced by Edward Saxon and Steven J. Wolfe.
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 12, 2010
Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green
Jay Conrad Levinson, known for his 60 Guerrilla Marketing books, and Shel Horowitz, an environmental activist and marketer for more than 30 years, teamed up to write Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Plant ( Wiley, $21.95), a book about effective marketing with an environmental emphasis published this year. The book includes a Foreword by Stephen M.R. Covey, author, The Speed of Trust.
The 236-page softcover book, based heavily on Horowtiz’ Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, is divided into three parts: The Way of the Golden Rule, The New Marketing Mindset, and Hands-On with Cooperative People Centered Marketing; discussed in 21 chapters. The authors start from the perspective that being environmentally friendly is what everyone seeks to do.
They promise to explain how readers can increase profits and lower costs by emphasizing ecologically sensitive and ethical policies; convert customers, suppliers and competitors into supporters; make business acquaintances joint-venture partners; and take advantage of social and traditional media to boost revenues and decrease advertising expenses.
Conrad Levinson has taught guerrilla marketing for ten years at the extension division of the University of California in Berkley. Prior to that he was senior vice-president at J. Walter Thompson, and creative director at Leo Burnett Advertising and in Europe.
Horowitz describes himself as an ethical and green marketing expert, book shepherd, writer, international speaker, consultant, community organizer, and frugalist. He is the author of the e-book, Painless Green: 111 Tips to Help the Environment, Lower Your Carbon Footprint, Cut Your Budget, and Improve Your Quality of Life-With No Negative Impact on Your Lifestyle.
Click here to buy Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green
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Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 10, 2010
In the last few years, Americans (and others abroad) have witnessed the slow and painful breakdown of traditional print and broadcast media as the financial model that held up the media outlets became obsolete and a new one was not embraced well, quickly, efficiently, replaced with a better one or all of the above. While we wait for the dust to settle we rely on the media outlets and the journalists that remain to fill the large shoes of the many that are gutted or gone. That is a tall order. Now that they are teetering on the edge of disappearing, at least in some ways, many people have begun to realize how much they had come to rely on that news reporting in their daily lives.
Newspaper ad revenue took a nose dive a long time ago and doesn’t seem to be coming up for air any anytime soon. The industry had a 23 percent drop in ad revenue in the last two years, according to the State of the News Media 2009, a report about media in the United States. The researchers who prepared the report concluded that 20 percent or one of every five journalists working for newspapers in 2001 was no longer around by the end of 2008. They anticipated that journalist losses would be the worst in 2009. Other sources indicate this was the case.
In the newspaper segment alone more than 40,000 newspaper jobs were lost in 2009 and 21,000 were lost in 2008, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics quoted in a December 2009 article by Joe Strupp of Editorandpublisher.com. That loss was more than any single year in the past 10 years. The experience and contacts of dozens upon dozens of senior journalists may be disappearing before our very eyes. As of the end of 2009 many senior newspaper editors were no longer at their jobs, and in most cases no longer in the newspaper industry. Last year lone some of the losses included senior men and women from well known national and local publications such as USA Today, Newsday, The Star-Ledger, The Oregonian, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and The Washington Times.
As media became fragmented and media executives searched for ad revenue to survive many lost touch with their audience. Local television stations shed news staff, saw falling, or for the lucky ones, flat ratings; and lost more revenue, 7 percent in an election year, according to the 2009 media report. Network news ad revenue fell and ratings dropped as well. Ethnic media too, which had shown signs of growth in the past, is now floundering. In 2008, the only shining light was cable news and many of those ratings increases dropped after the elections.
Meanwhile, in spite of the traditional media’s past disdain for online venues the audience has embraced new media and online media sources with a vengeance. In 2008, traffic to the top 50 news sites increased 27 percent and the number of people seeking news online went up 19 percent in two years. That could be the solution, some thought, except that the ad revenue did not follow the audience. Although two years ago ad revenue online grew about 30 percent per year two years in a row the ad revenue on online news sites stopped growing and continued declining in print.
Although nobody seems to know for sure some estimates place the revenue decline in the news industry at double previous numbers in 2008, the most recent year for which data seems available. There are those who believe the loss in revenue was even worse in network television. Last year was expected to be by far the worst all around.
The State of the News Media 2009 was the sixth edition of the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism annual report on the state of the news media in the United States. Among the more than three dozen readers and several researchers the 2008 analysis covered 69,942 stories in an effort to find out what news media covered that year. The total was divided into 7,350 newspaper stories, 6,539 online stories, 19,796 network television stories, 21,892 cable news stories, and 14,365 radio stories.
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 9, 2010
Information provided by our Event Partner
Not to be missed! Discount for HispanicMPR Subscribers:
Horowitz Associates’ 10th Annual Multicultural Media for Multicultural America Forum is March 25, 2010, The Roosevelt Hotel, NYC. Network with Hispanic, African American, Asian, and global TV, technology, and advertising execs. Get the latest Horowitz survey data on multicultural/Hispanic consumers.
On the cusp of Census 2010, this year’s theme is The Multicultural Media Ecosystem. We’re all grappling with enormous shifts in how, when, and where consumers interact with media brands. Blockbuster Census 2010 data will likely be even more transformative than Census 2000 for affirming that multicultural America is America, and multicultural media is American media. And it’s now multiplatform.
The forum will focus on the dynamic, ever-changing relationships between television/broadband content providers, advertisers, distributors, and consumers in an increasingly complex, multiplatform media environment.
