Whatnot At Work

Small Software Companies - One Day Results

Yesterday, Baseline picked the 10 fastest growing small software companies. Today several of these companies had a nice bump up in their price, 16.74% for SOFO. Here's the one day snapshot for the ten:

Ten Fastest Growing Software Companies

According to Baseline Briefings Magazine, here are the ten fastest growing small software companies.

1. J. L. Halsey (JLHY.OB) - Email Marketing - 1003% Sales Growth
2. Vertical Communications (VRCC.OB) - Business Phone Systems - 218% Sales Growth
3. Park City Group (PCYG.OB) - Perishable Food Management Sofware - 95% Sales Growth
4. Saba Software (SABA) - Human Capital Management - 69% Sales Growth
5. Opsware (OPSW) - Data Center Automation - 67% Sales Growth
6. Sonic Foundry (SOFO) - Content Management Software - 51% Sales Growth
7. Netsol Technologies (NTWK) - Auto Finance, Leasing Software - 50% Sales Growth
8. Commvault Systems (CVLT) - Data Management - 38% Sales Growth
9. Concur Technologies (CNQR) - Corporate Travel Software - 35% Sales Growth
10. Unica Corp (UNCA) - Marketing Management Software - 30% Sales Growth

You can see the article and a slide show here: Baseline Top Ten Small Software Companies
And here is a Yahoo list of the stock symbols: Top Ten Small Software Companies

Treasury Report: US is Insolvent

A new report from the US Treasury Department  (pdf) released 12/15/06 claims that the United States owes 4 times what it makes each year. On page 152, in section "The Nations Fiscal Imbalance", GAO Chief Walker states:

...the U.S. government’s total reported liabilities, net social insurance commitments, and other fiscal exposures continue to grow and now total approximately $50 trillion, representing approximately four times the Nation’s total output (GDP) in fiscal year 2006, up from about $20 trillion, or two times GDP in fiscal year 2000.

He further states that the situation is unsustainable:

As this long-term fiscal imbalance continues to grow, the retirement of the baby boom generation is closer to becoming a reality with the first wave of boomers eligible for early retirement under Social Security in 2008. Given these and other factors, it seems clear that the nation’s current fiscal path is unsustainable and that tough choices by the President and the Congress are necessary in order to address the nation’s large and growing long-term fiscal imbalance.

The tough choices that the President and Congress must face amount to three choices:

1. Raise taxes
2. Lower government spending (less benefits)
3. Print more money (Inflate the dollar)

Chances are good that there will be some combination of the three coming soon.

As Lawrence Kotlikoff pointed out in his paper titled “Is the US Bankrupt?” posted to the St. Louis Federal Reserve website, the insolvency of the US will minimally require some combination of lowered entitlement payouts and higher taxes.

What This Means For Employees
What this means to employees is that the spending power of their take home pay will be reduced, there will be more fees and co-payments cropping up (since fees and co payments are easier to slip through than taxes), their benefits will be reduced, and prices will go up.

Combine this situation with the falling housing market and employees will be left with less money, more expenses, and more debt (especially for employees with adjustable rate mortgages and those that cashed in and spent their equity).

What This Means For Employers
What this means for employers is higher costs for benefits as companies are forced to fill the gap between reduced federal benefits and increased benefit costs. Higher borrowing costs, higher raw material costs, higher payroll costs. Human resource professionals should expect to see more employee bankruptcy and related financial issues.

CEO Stole From 401K Accounts

The CEO of 1Point Solutions is alleged to have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from client 401K and retirement accounts for his own personal use. 1Point provides and administers 401k and retirement plans for companies.

The revelations make clear that the estimated 40,000 people with retirement or other types of benefits managed by 1Point will not receive checks for what they are owed any time soon, McLemore said.

According to court documents that McLemore filed Tuesday, employee 401(k) money and other funds coming to 1Point from about 40 companies among its 700 clients were at times co-mingled in a single "1Point 401K" account at Fifth Third Bank.

Employee 401(k) funds were then used to pay Stokes' business and personal expenses...

Online Check Scams

Beware of the latest online check scams disguised as job offers. This scam resulted from the person submitting her resume to an online job board. The scammer offered her a job depositing checks (that turned out to be worthless) and wiring most of the money. She would keep a percentage as her payment.

Online check scams have similar traits:

• The scammer asks you to cash checks, keep a percentage, and wire the rest back. The checks are phony but you wired real money, so when the check you deposited bounces, you have to pay the bank back the amount you wired.
• The scammer pays you much more than the asking price of what you are selling, asking you to wire the difference back. As above, the checks are fraudulent, so you lose your product and the difference you wired back.

Retirement Planning: Best Places To Retire

When you are doing those retirement planning meetings with employees, here's a list you can provide employees of the Best Places to Retire. Here are the top five that fit the criteria of: great health care, culture, green space and low taxes.

1. Walla Walla, Washington
2. Holland, Michigan
3. St. Simons Island, Georgia
4. Williamsburg, Virginia
5. Prescott, Arizona

Avoid Hospital Overcharges

Ten tips to help your employees avoid being double billed or overcharged for hospital stays. Hospitals overcharge on average $1,300.00 per hospital visit, which adds up to $10 billion dollars of overcharging per year.

"More than 90% of the hospital bills I've audited have gross overcharges," says one hospital auditor.

"I've seen $90 charged for a 70-cent I.V. How about $129 for a mucous recovery system? That's a box of Kleenex," Johnson adds. She's also seen charges for ordinary supplies, such as towels and sheets, that should be included in the room charges.

The ten tips:

1. For non-emergency stays, review your policy before going in so you know what is and is not covered when you get there.
2. Find out what is not included as part of your room charge and bring things that are not covered with you.
3. Ask for an estimate from your doctor.
4. Make sure all of your attending staff are covered by your health plan.
5. Keep a record of all the procedures that are being done on you.
6. Save the explanation of benefits (EOB) that is sent prior to the bill.
7. Never pay the bill at the hospital. Always wait until you are billed at home.
8. Compare your EOB and your bill with your record of procedures you kept.
9. Get an itemized bill from the billing department. Do not settle for misc fees or lab fees. Every state requires itemized bills.
10. Get your medical records and compare against your itemized bill to make sure the treatments you are charged for were actually performed.

Inflation and Raises

Raises expected to average 3.5% for this year and next, but inflation is expected to be 3.3% for this year and next, leaving an average net raise of 0.2%

Scrounge The Trash

Northwest Airlines offered a helpful booklet to many of its staff that are facing layoffs called Preparing For A Financial Setback. The booklet contains 101 tips for saving money after you get laid off, including these gems:

• Don't be shy about pulling something you like out of the trash.
• Move to a less expensive place to live.
• Ask your doctor for samples of prescriptions.
• Use old newspapers for cat litter.
• Buy spare parts for your car at the junkyard.
• Search the Internet for freebies.
• Never go grocery (shopping) hungry.
• Take a date for a walk along the beach or in the woods.

Here are some other tips for preparing for financial setbacks unrelated to the airline.

Profits Tied To Hiring Practice

Profits increase by 23% when you hire people that fit into your company culture, according to new research at Cornell University. Researchers studied 323 small businesses across the country and found that revenues went up 22%, proft went up 23%, and turnover went down 67% when you hired employees based upon the following three criteria:

• Hiring employees to fit in with company culture, rather than just hiring solely on a job candidate's individual skills.
• Trusting employees to manage themselves, rather than enacting strict controls.
• Creating a familylike environment, rather than trying to motivate employees solely through money.