Category: Business

State Business Filing Data

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Taxprof:

Larry Ribstein has posted some fascinating state-by-state business filing data from the International Association of Commercial Administrators. Of the 35 states with filing data for the past four years, 32 reported increases in LLC filings and 21 reported decreases in corporation filings. In the six largest states. the growth in LLC filings from 2002 to 2005 ranged from 60.3% to 237.9%, while three of the states experienced declines in the number of corporate filings ranging from (11.4%) to (27.3%) and the three states with growth in the number of corporate filings ranged from 4.6% to 23.7%:

Wisconsin’s data:

  • Business & Professional Corporations: 12/31/2004: 5,571 ($1,8M); 12/31/2005: 5,104
  • Nonprofits: 12/31/2004: 1,927 ($73K)
  • Limited Liability Copmanies (LLC): 12/31/2004: 25,268 ($3,484,515); 12/31/2005: 26,653
  • Limited Partnerships: 12/31/2004: 203 ($20K); 12/31/2005: 203

Minnesota had more than twice as many corporate filings and about 1/3 less LLC formations than Wisconsin. Illinois has a significantly larger annual number of corporate filings than Minnesota or Wisconsin.

It would be interesting to see what the numbers look like over time, attrition rates and the correlation to taxes and jobs.

The First Action Hero

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Bryan Myrkle:

I once read that a person with experience caring for horses knows more about what it meant to be a human in the last thousand years than anyone without. Similarly, anyone who’s driven a Model T knows more about what it felt like to be an American in the first half of the 20th Century than anyone who hasn’t. History records the Model T as a two-fold blessing: it created the American working class and it put them behind the wheel. Again, the map is not the territory. To fully appreciate the Model T’s impact on American psychology, you have to get behind the wheel.

Intuit Chief Marketing Officer Speech in Madison

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Ben McConnell:

The company’s chief marketing officer, Mark Schar, told attendees today at the Brandworks University conference in Madison, Wisconsin, how Intuit recently recognized an employee with a “Swing for the Fence” award for a big idea, even though the idea didn’t work out. The big idea? Partner with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who would encourage 18-24-year-olds to file their tax returns early using TurboTax and win some prizes, like tickets to a show featuring rapper Jah Rule. Launched last year, the program flopped.

2006 Political & Economic Risk Map

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AON:

Political, economic and social environments can shift at a moment’s notice, disrupting business operations for anyone involved in international commerce. Companies can be subjected to discriminatory action – or inaction – of foreign governments and third parties, potentially leading to forced shutdowns, relocations and other unforeseen expenses.

The impact of these political and economic exposures is examined by Aon Trade Credit in its 2006 Political & Economic Risk Map, created in conjunction with Oxford Analytica, an international, independent consulting firm of more than 1,000 senior faculty members at Oxford and other major universities and research institutions around the world.

$2,489 vs $971 Revenue Per Square Foot

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photo by ifoapplestore.

Steve Lohr takes an interesting look at Apple’s retail store initiatives (high end, expensive locations, large open spaces and lots of space to play with the goodies), their inspiration and performance:

“We had to design an experience that was as big as the space,” said Mr. Johnson, 47, who is senior vice president in charge of the stores. “When your product line is the size of a conference table, that is a real risk.”

Taking that risk has paid off handsomely so far. Since it opened its first two stores five years ago today, the Apple chain has become a retailing phenomenon. Necessity and inspiration led Apple to toss out the conventional textbook on computer stores and to ignore the rules of location, design, staffing and services provided.

Revenue for each square foot at Apple stores last year was $2,489, compared with $971 at Best Buy, the big computer and electronics retailer, according to Forrester Research, a market research firm.

This evening, Apple is opening a showcase store in Manhattan that will burnish the company’s reputation for clever design. The entrance to the store, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets, is a glass cube, 32 feet on each side, with a suspended Apple logo inside. Customers walk down a circular staircase — or take a cylindrical glass elevator — to the 10,000-square-foot store below. The store will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week — a first for Apple and an acknowledgment of New York’s status as a round-the-clock city.

Red Bank, NJ: More Telco Fun

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Redbanktv Blog:

Verizon infamously hired an ‘astroturfing’ company to send faxes to the mayor of Red Bank proclaiming to be from local residents. Mayor McKenna sensing something afoot with these faxes did a little research and called Verizon out. Verizon wanted it to appear that there was a real grass roots effort in support of them being undertaken by the residents of our small town; but there wasn’t. It was all made up and it backfired miserably.

Pull Over Harley, Looks like Honda’s on Your Tail

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Michael Taylor:

n fact, police in the United States have been using motorcycles since about 1912 when the nascent Harley-Davidson Co. started outfitting a few departments with them. The cycles turned out to be a godsend for traffic enforcement — they could chase speeders through traffic, and they could get to the scene of an accident far faster than a patrol car. This basic principle still holds true.

For nearly 100 years, Harley has dominated the U.S. market — the company said last year that its motorcycles “are presently in service with some 2,800 law enforcement agencies nationwide.”

Now, however, Honda, the world’s most successful maker of motorcycles, is testing the law enforcement waters here. Honda has the largest share of the U.S. civilian motorcycle market, with 26.9 percent of all new bikes sold in the United States, followed by Harley with 23.7 percent and then a handful of other manufacturers, according to figures for 2004 provided by the Motorcycle Industry Council.