North Bay Business Journal

Managing your workplace within the law

There are a multitude of laws that tell us how we can and cannot treat our employees. Mistakes in this area can be very costly, in terms of both time and financial impacts. Human resources laws that apply to you will vary based on where you do business. There are both Federal and State Laws that apply to your business. In addition, some cities have local ordinances as well. Here in California we have a lot of human resource laws that go well beyond the Federal requirements.

BEST and Lucasfilm: Going after the big one

Under the leadership of BEST (Building Economic Success Together), a new regional economic development initiative and a public-private partnership designed to facilitate business success in Sonoma County, seven incentives to attract Lucasfilm to Sonoma Country quickly appeared.

Do you have a strategic plan for attracting talent?

Even though it appears to be an employers’ market right now, finding and keeping the specific talent your company needs is more challenging than ever. One reason for this comes down to basic supply and demand. Despite persistently high unemployment, there is growing shortage of talent because more baby boomers are leaving the workforce as our overall population ages.

What if the GSA had a policy against ‘conduct unbecoming?’

Conduct unbecoming …. You may have heard this phrase before, perhaps from the clenched teeth of a military JAG officer about the same time you learned that “Crystal” is a perfectly apt response to “Are we clear?”

Facing big losses, two Lake County clinics to be closed

Sutter Lakeside Hospital announced recently it would close two clinics in Lake County. The Upper Lake Community Health Clinic, which serves roughly 2,400 patients per year and was losing more than $200,000 a year, and a chronic pain clinic will both be shuttered in the coming months.

California’s latest casualty: The young family

The political class in Sacramento is obsessed with raising taxes, enacting new regulatory schemes and green economy pipedreams. But they should be focused on this stunning trend.

Wine industry seeks producing vines as cost, competition pressures rise

After a dozen years of winegrape excess statewide, the California wine business is headed into several years of tighter supply to slake growing global demand while competition and costs of production are rising, according to experts at the Business Journal’s 2012 Wine Industry Conference in Santa Rosa on Wednesday. … The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors last week voted unanimously to roll back all but simplified registration provisions in the county’s Vineyard and Orchard Frost Protection Ordinance. … F. Korbel & Bros., producer of Korbel sparkling wine, plans to sell the half-million-case-a-year Kenwood Vineyards brand and related assets to Banfi Vintners, one of the country’s major wine marketers. … The McWilliams family, owners of Arista Winery with 36 acres of estate vineyards on Westside Road in Russian River Valley, purchased the 74-acre Martinelli Road Vineyard from the Martinelli family. … Sebastopol-based mobile wine filtration services provider American Winesecrets teamed with Australia’s Diverse Barrel Solution Pty. Ltd. to operate the latter’s Phoenix high-tech barrel-restoration system starting in July. … Longtime wine and spirits executive and entrepreneur Mike Kenton formed OFFbeat Brands to develop, find sourcing for and market high-quality, “eclectic” and different wine and spirit brands. … Santa Rosa-based Provino, which evolved its wine telesales business into an outsourced direct-to-consumer marketing service for vintners, changed its name to VinoPro to reflect its move further in that direction and launched a technology services division to blend its DTC customer resource management software with popular wine business software package. … Spring and summer are set to have more wine business seminars and training: Sonoma State University’s new Napa Valley expansion for the wine executive MBA program, Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute global wine business education conference, Vineyard Economics Seminar, Wine Industry Technology Symposium.

Grape Market Insights: How to win the California (grape) Lottery

In this game, which is the real California Lottery, you’re going to need a four-wheel drive vehicle and you’ve got to get your boots muddy. There will be two kinds of mega-winners: Growers who have used this time strategically to build relationships with the best long term homes for their grapes and brand owners who have forged relationships with key growers that will allow them to respond to growing consumer demand with an ample supply of quality wine while maintaining a healthy profit margin.

You can try, but you can’t fake authenticity

                    “If you seek authenticity for authenticity’s sake you are no longer authentic.” –Jean-Paul Sartre Years ago I was traveling regularly to Asia, and wanted to buy my wife a Cartier tank watch, a style that was very popular at the time. I visited a reputable jeweler where most of my partners had been shopping [...]

Need for new vineyards opportunity for cooperation

As most people know by now, a very tiny but vocal and bitter minority of opponents and a Kafkaesque California regulatory environment has driven filmmaker George Lucas’s latest project out of Marin County and perhaps California.

Need a tax extension? Request one on the IRS website

As the April 17 federal income tax filing deadline approaches, the Internal Revenue Service has reminded taxpayers that filing for a six-month extension is a simple process.

This time is different: A transformative recession

This recession (and the subsequent slow recovery) is different. It is a transformative event. The economy that ultimately emerges from these difficult times will be fundamentally different from the economy that existed before the recession.

Lucas’s Grady Ranch: A huge missed opportunity for Marin County

Marin County as a place to do business took a huge step backwards on April 10, 2012. On April 10, Skywalker Properties decided not to continue the pursuit of its Grady Ranch project. Not only did a major project with great potential economic benefit for the County get derailed and ultimately canceled, an influential landowner trying to generate business on his land was thwarted unnecessarily. Marin County supervisors are now trying to broker a solution as one leadership step forward; Marin Economic Forum has asked our state legislators to step in as well.

At $300,000 for the Human Race and running

Am I dreaming, or is it really time for the Human Race (yes, May 5, 2012)? Hopefully, this is not your recurring nightmare to receive my annual letter asking (groveling) for your help ($), to stop cancer and save lives.

Out-of-control regulatory system killed Grady Ranch

A lot of people are saying how sad they are that Lucasfilm is withdrawing its Grady Ranch studio proposal from Marin County. But no one can be sadder than George Lucas. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the the Grady Ranch saga is that it demonstrates clearly that even the genius and sensitivity of a George Lucas are no match for California’s out-of-control and unaccountable regulatory bureaucracy.

Focus on this: Wash, rinse, repeat

Does it seem like we’ve talked about distractions a lot in the past? Maybe it’s just the ones in my head that makes me think so … which of course, is a distraction itself. (In the interest of full disclosure, I did write about distractions last April, “Are Distractions Destroying Your Brain?” I responded to the tempest by offering some ideas about how to defend your castle by building a moat, then some barricades, then some lookout posts). I hope you’ve taken some steps to rein in the beast, but we’ll keep talking about it because a day doesn’t go by when I don’t hear about this plague.

40 years later, Title IX has changed women’s sports forever

One of the little known facts about cartoonist Charles Schulz was that he was a big supporter of women’s athletics and athletes.

“I have a vision, Chuck,” Peppermint Patty said in a 1979 Peanuts strip. “I can see a day coming when women will have the same opportunities in sports as men!”

Hiring military veterans proves good for businesses

New tax incentives for hiring veterans could mean tax savings, but in order to take advantage of these incentives, businesses need to have the know-how.

Dissecting the latest effort to upend Proposition 13

The issue of a split roll property tax, which has been raised seemingly every year since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, was back for another go-round during a March 12 hearing of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee. No votes were taken at the hearing, which was held to take testimony from critics and supporters of Proposition 13 alike. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who is not a member of the committee, attended and provided comments in favor of a split roll.

Change to rule on sales tax would hurt state economy

The CMTA opposes AB 1500, which calls for the single sales apportionment factor (SSF) to be used by all qualified taxpayers.

The bill would raise taxes on employers operating in the state in order to fund college tuition and fees. The laudable goal of increasing access to college should not be achieved by selectively imposing higher taxes on manufacturers, retailers and other employers who already bear one of the highest tax burdens in the nation and are struggling to maintain operations in the state.