I Start Telephone Seminars

Portal to Portal Act: Determining Hours Worked at the Start and End of the Work Day BenefitsEmployees and their counsel continue to pursue class action claims for off-the-clock work and unpaid overtime wages at a fever pitch. Thousands of wage and hour class actions asserting violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act or parallel state laws are filed each year and the costs of defending these matters and the damages claimed and paid, whether through trial or settlement, are  more...

Portal to Portal Act: Determining Hours Worked at the Start and End of the Work Day BenefitsEmployees and their counsel continue to pursue class action claims for off-the-clock work and unpaid overtime wages at a fever pitch. Thousands of wage and hour class actions asserting violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act or parallel state laws are filed each year and the costs of defending these matters and the damages claimed and paid, whether through trial or settlement, are  more...

Loan Modification Fundamentals BenefitsMortgage loan defaults and foreclosures are at historic levels. New businesses counseling borrowers and dealing with these crises have been created. How we deal with this crisis will have a significant impact on the nation's economy. Borrowers and lenders alike are working to resolve these defaults and foreclosures, attempting to find a balance between allowing consumers to remain in their  more...

Writing Real Estate Descriptions That Sell BenefitsThe real estate industry has changed significantly in the last 20 years, especially with the use of internet marketing. Effectively communicating what you are selling is crucial to your success, yet the typical real estate agent is still running their business as they did 20 years ago, with brief, and not descriptive ad copy. Many real estate professionals are simply at a loss for words  more...

Are You Prepared for the Financial Institution Record Match Program? BenefitsThe State of California enacted legislation (California Revenue Tax Code 19266) that will impact virtually every bank, credit union, thrift and brokerage firm doing business in California. This new program will place a new burden on financial institutions in order to help the state collect delinquent taxes. Financial institutions should start consideration of the FIRM Agreement and how  more...

Excel Power Tips and Shortcuts BenefitsNeed an Excel productivity boost? You can now learn simple tricks and many shortcuts that will make you instantly more proficient using Excel ! Most Excel users are underutilizing this software. Start using the full power of Excel , and learn cool Excel tips and tricks that will make you the 'go-to' person in your office! Master more than 100 tips to make you a Power User! This live audio  more...

Commercial Lease Negotiations and Due Diligence BenefitsIn this informative live audio conference, our speaker will take the key lease provisions and go back to the basics with respect to commercial leases. This live audio conference is ideal for beginners and experts alike, since each provision will start at the simplest level and go to the most sophisticated level. You will learn about the critical due diligence issues and developments that  more...

Federal Cases From Pleading to Judgment for Paralegals BenefitsThe litigation process, from the beginning of a dispute, through pleading and discovery, to the culmination of a final judgment, is a long and complex process. The most seasoned paralegals and attorneys must juggle deadlines, control the pace of their case, meet the expectations of clients and anticipate their opponents' next move. In this high-stakes chess game, paralegals and attorneys  more...

Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits: Using Tax Incentives to Develop and Invest in Historic Properties BenefitsThe federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit (HTC) has grown into a key financing tool for economic development, historic preservation, and neighborhood revitalization. Combined in many areas with available state historic rehabilitation tax credits, HTCs have been used to rehabilitate historic city centers, theatres, warehouses and other historic buildings across the country. This live  more...

Trucking Litigation BenefitsLitigation involving trucking and bus companies seems straightforward. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to trucking tort cases. During this live audio conference, you will hear how to negotiate the waters and learn how the myriad of confusing federal and state regulations could torpedo your otherwise straightforward common law case. Hear from the former  more...

COBRA: A Little of Everything is Changing BenefitsThis live audio conference is for agents and new employee benefit specialists or the seasoned specialist that want to double check the basics and the most recent changes in the COBRA law. We will discuss who has the compliance responsibilities and what an employer must do every day to be in compliance! How do all of the employee benefit laws work together - when do they work separately.  more...

Drafting a Green Ordinance: Case Study BenefitsHigh energy costs and increased public support for sustainable initiatives are driving local governments to respond affirmatively with the adoption of green codes - local ordinances that mandate and incentivize more efficient forms of development. Unfortunately, there are few good models to follow and little operating experience to judge what works and what will not. There is an obvious  more...

Commonly Encountered Sales and Use Tax Audit Issues and Strategies to Defuse Them BenefitsStates are becoming more aggressive as falling tax revenues constrain expenditures and force budget cuts. Business structures, products and services are increasingly complex with outcomes that don't always fit neatly into vaguely worded and outdated statutes. Heightened audit activity, the states' shifting tax policies and a new wave of proposed sales tax legislation all serve to highlight  more...

Embracing Social Media to Build Concrete Relationships in a Bricks-and-Mortar World BenefitsTo many, social media may sound more like social waste of time. In reality, social media is a shift in how we communicate. It's about relationships, not technology. It's changing our business world faster than we thought possible. Many within the more traditional bricks-and-mortar A/E/C industry are getting left behind. Attend this audio conference and you will learn how some companies in  more...

Creating a Payroll Manual: Putting Your Procedures Into Writing BenefitsThe Sarbanes-Oxley Act made it abundantly clear that all areas of accounting within a company should have well documented policies and procedures. These are an integral part of every function and that includes payroll. During this audio conference, we will discuss the steps you can take to ensure your procedures are well documented, clear and concise. During the program, we will discuss  more...

Understanding, Preventing and Addressing Well Performance Issues BenefitsThe demand for reliable clean water continues to grow across the country and one of the most common sources is ground water. The most important component in a ground water based supply system is the wells used to extract water from underground aquifers. Maintaining the long-term performance of wells requires an understanding of the factors that effect well performance. Problems with well  more...

Using Payroll Audits to Detect Errors and Fraud BenefitsAs a finance professional, you probably are expected to safeguard your company's money. Unfortunately, there is no typical picture of the fraud perpetrator and embezzlement of funds is all too common place, so you have your work cut out for you! An excellent place to start is with Jeffrey G. Matthews' 'Using Payroll Audits to Detect Errors and Fraud' teleconference. You will learn about  more...

Building Information Modeling: Planning, Design and Legal Considerations BenefitsWhether you are an owner, a designer or a builder, you need information about building information modeling. The good news is that there is lots of information out there; the bad news is that much of it is not useful. No one knows everything about BIM but we can start by talking about authoritative sources for BIM information, then sprinkle in some basic BIM concepts. Information will be  more...

LEED Tax Incentives and Credits for Green Buildings BenefitsLEED is a certification program for green buildings. Key elements of the program are water conservation, energy conservation and a reduction in waste going to landfill. Federal, state and local jurisdictions are looking for ways to incentivize improved performance in these key areas. The President is working with Congress to pass comprehensive legislation to protect our nation from the  more...

Protect and Collect - The Effective Use of Engagement Letters BenefitsToday's economy finds companies in every industry, including professional service firms, looking at best practices to keep revenues steady and to decrease liability. The collection process has become more burdensome as cash flow tightens across the country. With more and more lawsuits arising against professional service providers and their firms, law firms, accounting firms and even  more...

Noncompetition Agreements for the HR Professional: Protecting the Company's Business Resources? BenefitsNow more than ever, employers are seeing former employees trying to jump start their career moves - voluntarily or involuntarily - by cashing in on the employer's investment in relationships and information. Quite simply, the most effective way to protect your company's resources against the actions of departing employees is the noncompete agreement. But effectively using noncompetes  more...

Clean Air Act Update BenefitsU.S. businesses are facing unprecedented uncertainty as to future requirements under the Clean Air Act and an array of new programs addressing stationary and mobile emission sources. The Obama Administration and Congress are poised to usher in a new era of greenhouse gas and energy regulation. At the same time, the Obama EPA is confronting a bewildering array of court-ordered regulatory  more...

Transitioning Special Needs Students: It Doesn't Start at 21! BenefitsWhile most professionals working in special education want the best possible outcomes for their students it is often unclear what that might be for any given student, how to find out what the student will best succeed in, and how to best prepare them for the 'real world'. This teleconference is designed to provide professionals with the information they need to enhance their students'  more...

Building Preservation: Preventive Measures to Combat Deterioration BenefitsDo you have an old or historic building and just don't know where to begin with condition assessment and repairs or renovations? This information-packed teleconference will cover the nuts and bolts of repair and maintenance of historic, landmarked and old building exteriors. We will help you understand why certain buildings are considered historic and how to preserve their valued  more...

Purchasing Contract Administration BenefitsNegotiated a great deal recently? How's that deal working out for you? Do you expect a raise or a pink slip when your annual evaluation rolls around? This teleconference is an introductory course in understanding how to add real value and avoid tragedy through the contract administration process. It will provide best practices from Fortune 500 companies, tips on how to approach difficult  more...

Increasing the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Manufacturing Logistics nIn manufacturing logistics, the first priority is providing the right support to make production flow smoothly and put out the goods the company sells. This is effectiveness. The second priority is to provide this support without wasting human, technical or financial resources. This is efficiency. What most companies do in logistics is pursue efficiency at the expense of effectiveness, curtailing  more...

Successfully Maneuvering the Tax Maze of Amortization Rules nEfforts to simplify the rules on capitalization and amortization of intangible assets and benefits have resulted in a few lengthy sets of regulations that are often not easy to remember or apply. This teleconference provides a framework for identifying and applying the tax rules for the acquisition and creation of intangible assets, as well as costs to facilitate such transactions. Special  more...

Getting to the Root of Root Cause Analysis nFailures are a fact of life. In every industry and occupation we are faced with failures. Failures of products, processes, systems and services abound. n nSome of us are tasked with fixing the processes that lead to failures. The customer wants "faster, better, cheaper" but we are delivering "slower, worse and costly." Failure can mean not meeting a customer requirement. It can relate to form,  more...

Differing Site Conditions nThe advent of and increasing use of 3-D building information modeling is taking much of the guess work out of a variety of different types of construction. For example, through BIM, the structural steel, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, fire sprinkler and communications subtrades can all determine whether the new and existing utilities, beams, piping and conduits are going to run into each other or  more...

Investing IRAs and Qualified Plan Rollovers in Real Estate, Franchises, Start-Ups and Other Private Investments - Techniques and nA growing number of IRA owners and recipients of qualified plan rollovers have sought to take control of their own investments by investing directly in real estate and small businesses that they may intend to manage or otherwise be personally involved in. This trend has accelerated in recent years as syndicators, entrepreneurs, private fund managers and franchisors have come to view IRAs and  more...

Preparing a Winning Closing Argument n"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we will now hear closing arguments." Even the most experienced trial lawyer may inwardly quake when the judge utters these fateful words. But what makes for an effective closing? Do closings even matter? When should you object? Should you really start preparing your closing the day you get a new case? These are questions that are not addressed in law school, and  more...

Overcome Your Competition: Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace nYear in and year out, sales professionals invest their time and their organizations' money along with leveraging high-priced resources in sales pursuits, but walk away with no fruit for their labor. This percentage varies from company to company, but on average the percentage of opportunities pursued and not closed is well over 50 percent! Extensive studies have proven this excessively high  more...