Chamber President Bill Ryan announced this official name change last Thursday night at their Pi Day Business Networking Special Event held at the Scottish Rite Hall in Bordentown.
The Chamber has served the Burlington-Mercer county areas for more than 40 years, with its commitment to providing affordable networking opportunities and special events to connect their members with customers in those areas.
Even though the new name better reflects their geographic coverage areas, Ryan said they also have members who have joined from Bucks, Monmouth and Ocean counties, in order to also promote their businesses to a wide variety of diverse, engaged business people.
Not only does the Chamber help its predominantly small and mid-sized chamber members, but it also has a huge impact on local communities by donating thousands of dollars annually to local non-profits and awarding business and art scholarships each June to area high school seniors.
The affordable annual membership is $125. The Chamber also hosts many events that are free or discounted for its members.
Coverage area for the new Burlington Mercer Chamber of Commerce. — Google map
Both Chamber members and all other businesses are warmly welcomed to monthly networking breakfasts or luncheons, evening networking events, a Business Expo, the Hidden Treasures Scholarship Calendar, and the Bordentown Street Fair each May.
Their next event will be the Evening Business to Business Networking Event scheduled for March 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Hamilton Tap and Grill.
There are several avenues for involvement with this Chamber. And, at this time they are accepting nominations for two open seats for their Board of Directors.
EWING, N.J. – Upon entering Iris Thrifts & Gifts store, a customer sees a variety of interesting, cute, and fashionable items for little girls and older ladies, and recently the store added tea to the list.
Last week, the store owners held an Afternoon Tea Party where they invited guests and patrons to enjoy a relaxing afternoon sipping tea and participating in activities, while also shopping at the store.
Iris Thrifts & Gifts owner said she organized the tea party because she wanted to promote the idea of simple, old-fashioned traditions of getting together, relaxing and having a cup of tea.
Located at 2124 Spruce St. in Ewing, Iris Thrifts & Gifts opened in February 2015 because the owner has a passion for thrifting and gifting.
According to the owner, the top-selling thrifting and gifting items in the store are usually women’s clothes. Other items include natural soaps, body butters, pots and pans, lamps, paintings, handbags, shoes, vases, Shades of Color afro-centric stationeries, Paparazzi jewelry, handmade stone hearts from Kenya, and even tea cups and saucers.
The thrift items are usually the nearly new stuff, whereas the gifts are the brand new items.
The owner of Iris Thrifts & Gifts said she likes the idea of combining the two: thrift items with simple, but also beautiful gifts.
She added that they try to focus on top-selling brands and good quality items at the store.
She also mentioned that the all-natural soaps, hand-carved stone hearts from Kenya, and the Paparazzi jewelry are popular for gifts, and that there are a variety of other unique and different gifts and thrifts items in the store.
Iris Thrifts & Gifts also supports other local organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club located next door on Spruce Street. They will donate partial proceeds from their recent Afternoon Tea Party to this local chapter.
With tax season almost here, employees and contractors are thinking about the forms the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will require them to use to report their earnings and to file their taxes.
There are two main types of workers: The self-employed (freelancers, contractors, business owners), and also employees who work for employers who deduct their taxes.
You need to understand the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidelines so that you can derive joy, satisfaction, benefits, and total happiness from your dream career.
Whether to select a W2 or 1099 as the primary tax form is an important decision that will have an impact on ones work condition. It affects the ability to simply accept insurance, assignments, and benefits, and also influences tax liabilities. It is not merely a matter of decision, but it can legally implicate you. Therefore, it is necessary to make the right decision about your employment and the forms you will use.
Breakdown
For two different kinds of workers, W2 and 1099 are two distinct tax forms that are recommended. If you’re an employee, you will obtain a W2. If you’re an independent contractor or freelancer, you will use a 1099 form.
Decision
If you are a W2 employee, all payroll taxes are automatically removed or deducted from your paycheck and then your employer forwards the deductions to be paid to the government. On the other hand, it is the self-employed, contractor, or freelancer’s responsibility to make the necessary calculations about their payroll taxes and then forward the sum to the government on a quarterly basis.
Choosing
The most important factor that must be considered in your decision-making is your personality or behavior. W2s and 1099s both vary in complexity when setting up your own business. The 1099s are the most complicated with W2s being simpler. You just have to decide what best fits your way of life. This is because the cash you save on taxes at the end of the day will not appear to be justified, despite all the trouble you have gone through. They are basically the same.
Consider these factors when deciding how you want to work:
1. Are you a procrastinator? Consider W2
You should try picking a W2 to save yourself a lot of sleepless nights and troubles if you are someone who dislike tax time and would prefer a root canal than completing and submitting 1099 government forms.
W2 Pros
• Simplest and easiest option if you are not a savvy employee.
• You are not totally responsible for the employee tax burden.
• Little or no accounting required.
• W2 employee can deduct or itemize business expenses.
W2 Cons
• Deductibility of unreimbursed operational expenses and medicinal insurance premiums are extremely restricted.
• Limited capacity to withhold income if a 401(k) is unavailable.
• Transportation is not deductible
2. Do you like challenging authority? Try choosing 1099
If you have the courage and strength to find your way out and overcome all the troubles of IRS, you should try using the 1099 form. In any case, there are a few drawbacks to this option that will probably make you consider choosing W2: like your sales will probably get the attention of the IRS. Since contractors may sometimes be irresponsible about paying their taxes, the IRS has been vigilant. The government has gathered $9.5 million in back wages from employers who misclassified workers as self-employed since 2011.
1099 Pros
• Easy to begin.
• You may be qualified to collect the Home Office Deduction.
• Losses may be used to counterbalance other income (limits apply).
• Easy to cease when your agreement closes.
1099 Cons
• An unlimited obligation for the sole proprietor.
• You must make quarterly calculated tax installments.
• More complications and accounting than the W2 option.
• All benefit is liable to self-employment tax notwithstanding the income tax.
Conclusion
Whether you are an employee or an employer, the issue about W2 vs. 1099 and employees vs. contractors/freelancers is worth thinking about. With regards to who ought to be classified as independent contractor and employees, the keyword here is “control.’’ It is all about who controls the work you choose to do and how you will be taxed.
Art All Night Trenton 2017 art exhibit. –Photo by Michelle Dryden
Today, millions of American artists are doing freelance work, and the business of freelance writing is filled with endless possibilities, opportunities and freedom.
One of the biggest advantages of freelance writing is that it takes almost nothing to start. The same is true for an artist. For either of them, it costs almost nothing to begin their journey.
Shelly Larson shares findings of a research in her article about freelance writing that is growing tremendously with more than 53 million Americans doing it.
Freelancing is an escape dream for many who do not want constraints on themselves, their work, or their time. It allows dreamers to escape into their dream world, and none does it better than the artist.
Artists crave freedom and creativity to showcase their talent and hard work to the world. They want to evoke emotions in others that give them abundant joy.
Although there are many aspirants to these artistic fields, only few make the leap. We can refer to the adage: There are two sides to the same coin. That is, freelancing has pros and cons.
There is a huge growth in demand for artists and freelance writers, owing to the Internet revolution and self-publishing sites like YouTube and Facebook.
As a freelance writer or artist, you do not have to worry about where to go to work. A freelance writer can work from almost anywhere in the world, with reasonable Internet connection. Artists do not have to worry either, because art is appreciated everywhere.
Artists are their own bosses and do not have to work for anyone except the vision of their art. Art is beautiful to the artist, and the idea of provoking emotions in others simply by your work of art is very intriguing.
However, on the flipside of the coin, freelance writers and artists have inconsistent income. Their hands can be so full sometimes that they might just have to turn down a few things. At other times, they are trying to find water in a desert.
Low income is a very high possibility for artists and freelance writers due to a lack of skill in lead acquisition. Although freelance writers and artists have freedoms that regular jobs do not have, they do not have the health benefits that most regular jobs offer.
Kristin Rymoen Ellstrom shares in her article that being an artist can be lonely. After all, she finds that most of the creative fields are solitary.
Whatever freelance field you choose, whether it is freelance writing or the path of an artist, you should consider the pros and the cons mentioned here.
Fearing loss of employment to contractors, close to 40,000 Verizon workers on the East Coast were picketing Wednesday during a labor dispute strike. Photo by Eugene Sonn/WHYY In this picket line, Verizon workers in Philadelphia join nearly 40,000 strikers along the East Coast.
Verizon’s spokesman, Ray McConville, said that the current contract does not offer Verizon enough flexibility to move workers around.
‘”Let’s say there is a big job happening in Philadelphia, and we need to bring in some extra people to help out and I have a surplus of technicians in South Jersey,… The current contract prohibits us from doing that,”’ he said.
However, Verizon plans to continue to offer phone, Internet, and cable service to customers even though they are walking the picketing line in eight states that include New Jersey, Pennyslvania and Delaware.
Tom Romantini of Communications Workers of Americas said amidst the fear of being outsourced and replaced by contract workers, Verizon workers are just looking for good paying jobs in this country.
‘“All these corporations, they continually send jobs out of this country. And they deprive this country of its tax base and of good-paying jobs,”’ he said.
Perhaps. This boxed-like, squared, pixeled QR Code image seen here can be downloaded to your smartphone and used to scan same like images on products to get information.This technology can be fun and intriguing to use for finding product prices and coupons, advertisements, useful information and links to websites, businesses, entertainment, and the like.
As an alternative to barcodes, QR Codes were very promising because they are 2-dimensional and can store more information than the barcodes. QR means Quick Response. The little black and white, pixel-square codes were developed in Japan, by Denso, a Toyota subsidiary, in the 1990s to track car parts.
And, with the popularity of smartphones, the creators of QR Codes were optimistic that everyone would be downloading the codes to their phones to scan for a variety of information on the go. Infographic source: MarketingCharts
However, nowadays not many people are using their smartphones to scan QR Codes. In fact, Lifelearn states that since 2011 when they were everywhere only 21% of smartphone users have been scanning them.
Likewise, MarketingCharts has reported that even though the number of smartphone users
has increased, the scanning of QR Codes has stalled.
However, some people are still optimistic about the future uses for QR Codes. Locally, Mike Russell, a residence technician at Staples, Lawrenceville, NJ, recently said that their computers have the codes on their tags and if customers scan tags they can get specs about their computers.
But Paul Pascale, assistant manager at Sprint, Fairless Hills, Pa, sometime ago said, “some people don’t like these codes, but some do.”
Some people think the codes are more popular overseas like in Singapore, where shy singles at a bar can communicate with each other by sending a barcode message on a bottle to someone of interest.
“After you’ve written something for the person you like, flip over the tag, buy another beer and place the tag over it. Then have it sent to that special someone so they can read the message you can start a conversation,’’ writes Emma Hutchings for PSFK.
Here in the U.S., QR Codes are used mostly for advertising coupons in the food, fashion, and beauty industries.
Kate Freeman’s article in Mashable tells us about Split Bread, a gourmet sandwich shop in San Francisco, that offers a service where customers order and pay for their food using the codes on their tables. According to Freeman, 30 per cent of patrons to this establishment pay using the codes.
Overall, according to MarketingCharts staff, women are more likely to scan and redeem QR Codes than men, as they are more likely to use coupons in general.
Nevertheless, a slight majority of women prefer to display coupons to cashiers rather than scanning them shows the study by MarketingCharts staff. The study claims that 36 per cent find push notification of mobile coupons offers useful, but less than three in 10 prefer barcode-scan mobile coupons.
This same study notes that one in five mobile users do not want coupon offers on their devices. However, one can use QR Codes for more than coupons scanning.
For those fascinated with QR Codes, they have websites that can create them,’’ said Russell of Staples. However, “I haven’t seen many people using them,’’ he added.
QR Codes are built in apps that can be downloaded from the Operating Systems of smartphones. There are QuickMark and Enigma for Androids, and MiraScape for the iPhone.
I am an enthusiastic freelancer who is excited to work on your projects. As an experienced, talented and professional writer, editor, reporter, educator, translator, and content curator, I am the versatile and ideal choice for your jobs. Both my education and my work experiences have prepared me to handle just about any journalism or related task. I recently earned my M.A. in New Media Journalism. I also have a B.A. in traditional journalism. I have worked at daily newspapers as a staff writer, editor, reporter and paginator. And, I launched my personal news website, The Media Pub. Plus, I have another blog called, Drydens Designer Tools, where I feature educational games, lesson designs and academic writings. With my multimedia and educational experiences, I am prepared for your gigs.
MONTCLAIR, N.J. — Like several U.S. public television stations, New Jersey Network, (NJN), struggled for funding, but lost in 2011 and is now New Jersey public Television, (NJTV), operating from college campuses.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey decided he no longer wanted to be in the television business. Therefore, in June 2011, he stopped state funds to the 43-year-old NJN and closed the State-owned building in Trenton. This forced several employees out of work and left NJN to find a new business location, a different schedule, a smaller workforce, and a new name.
Photo by Michelle Dryden John Servidio, general manager of NJTV, sits in a conference room at Montclair State University in March, where he discusses the operations of the new television station. He said that NJTV is doing well, but it needs money to continue to operate as an improved public television station in New Jersey.
John Servidio, general manager of NJTV and a Montclair resident, said that, “NJN was financed primarily by the State of New Jersey when it was in operation. Gov. Christie’s administration decided that it wasn’t wise for the State to be financing a station with a new show on it that was covering Gov. Christie and the administration so they stopped funding for that reason and to save some money.”
NJN had a staff of about 130 employees and operated on a yearly budget of approximately $33 million. When Gov. Christie cut funds to NJN, nearly all these employees were laid off. The governor hoped to save the state about $11 million, reports Peggy McGlone of The Star Ledger.
New Jersey’s new public television station now broadcasts mainly from Montclair State University, (MSU). Effective July 1, 2011, NJTV came on the air as an independent public television station that has a five-year contract with New York’s WNET Channel 13. WNET oversees NJTV’s programming, making it New Jersey centric, and also cost saving to New Jersey’s taxpayers, McGlone writes.
However, when NJTV first debuted, the ratings were lower because there were some New Jersey residents who believed it was now a New York property. NJTV has worked diligently to dispel that myth, said Servidio. The new network also suffered a bit at first because it had fewer staff members and a smaller budget. They have been operating with only 26 full-time journalists and on a budget of only about $9 million for fiscal year 2013.
Servidio said when New Jersey’s governor closed NJN, several companies put bids out to help develop a new network and WNET’s bid won. He said, “We had about a week, week and a half to put the station together.” However, they managed to set up the station by July 1, but it was not as professional as they would like it to be. With much fewer staff and great improvisation, he said that over 20 months, the station has improved and continues to get better.
Photo by Michelle Dryden The DuMont Television Center at Montclair State University houses the NJTV studios since July 1, 2011, when NJN lost state funding and its state-owned building.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, (CPB), and Public Broadcasting Services, (PBS), currently are the primary financial supporters of NJTV, Servidio said. NJTV is among several U.S. public television stations that are under-funded by their states even though their main purpose is to gather content to serve their local communities.
The Jan. 29, 2007, U.S. Accountability Office Report shows that there are about more than 300 public television stations in the United States that evolved from a handful in the 1950s, and in 1952 the Federal Communication Commission, (FCC), decided that they should serve their communities locally.
The U.S. Accountability Office Report states that, “CPB’s primary responsibility is distributing federally appropriated funds to benefit public television and radio.” On the other hand, PBS is a nonprofit membership organization made up of licenses of public television stations. Fees paid by its member licensees, underwriting, and grants from CPB and other federal sources, fund PBS, the report states.
Larger public television stations, such as WNET of New York and WGBH of Boston, supply smaller public television stations with their programming. CPB and PBS do not necessarily produce programming. However, according to the report, “PBS acquires children’s and prime-time programming and operates a satellite-based interconnection system to distribute this programming to member licensees.”
Photo by Michelle Dryden Debra Falk is the director of communications at NJTV at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J. She talks about the status of the new public television station, mentioning that it offers a variety of programming and has a great online presence.
Therefore, many public television stations broadcast some PBS prime-time and children’s programming, but some like NJTV, also improvise with content bureaus on various New Jersey state college campuses to find other content such as local programs that include community events and history, arts and culture, public affairs and also non-broadcast services that help teachers, said Debra Falk, NJTV director of communications.
Even though NJTV gets grants from CPB and PBS, it also improvises for additional funds. NJTV rents its satellite tower at the MSU campus to other channels such as the Food Network to bring in needed funds. It also gets money from corporations, foundations, and from individual memberships, pledge programs and others, Servidio said.
It is very important that public television remains local serving its immediate constituencies, report authors, Amber M. K. Smallwood and Soo Jung Moon, who write an article titled, “Predictors of Localism in Public Television in the United States,” that appears in the 2011 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.
Smallwood and Moon’s article discusses “the goals and direction of broadcasters across the United States, especially public television stations.” They also note that, “in media regulation, localism was intended to distribute power among local communities to promote a healthy democracy.”
When the governor of New Jersey closed NJN, there were some locals who questioned the call and said they found it to be highly political and not democratic enough. Greg Tift, a local resident and State of New Jersey employee said, “It all depends on conservatism and liberalism.”
He claims the current governor is republican, who is considered conservative, and so he wants to control the messages that go out over the airwaves while he is in office and that is why he closed NJN, which was considered a liberal news outlet.
Photo by Michelle Dryden Jim Hooker stands in front of New Jersey statehouse recently as a former news anchorman of NJN, the previous public television station in New Jersey. He speaks about how he handled the demise of the former station and what he is doing for employment now.
Former NJN Anchorman, Jim Hooker, also said there was a school of thought that NJN was closed to appease a wealthy political family in the north. However, Hooker also said the family denied the rumor.
Like many of his colleagues, Hooker did not immediately find new employment. He said he worked for a local political website, and then briefly as a writer for CBS in New York, before coming back to New Jersey where he found a more stable position as a chief of staff employee for a senator.
The City of Trenton North Ward Councilwoman, Marge Caldwell-Wilson, expressed dismay that the governor put so many well-known people who had became an institution in the community, out of work and left a vacant building in her ward in the city.
Photo by Michelle Dryden Marge Caldwell-Wilson is a City of Trenton courncilwoman for the North Ward. She is active in the community; seen here on a recent Wednesday evening at a Mill Hill District community meeting. Caldwell-Wilson also had opinions about the closing of NJN.
“It was very upsetting to find that the governor was not going to fund public television anymore. Apart from the fact that I miss the regular scheduled programs that were on NJN; I think they did an amazing job, but I am concerned about that empty building that’s just sitting there,” Caldwell-Wilson said.
Public television is among other media forms like newspapers and magazines that have financial challenges. Three authors, David D. Kurpius, Emily T. Metzgar, and Karen M. Rowley, try to analyze this crisis in their article, “Sustaining Hyperlocal Media: In search of funding models,” that appears in the journal of Journalism Studies.
These authors believe traditional media are shrinking because it is typical of a mature industry. They argue it is a gradual decline and that we must meet the challenge by trying to find alternative ways to fund new media.
They also note that it is good news for public television because they can fill the niche of providing the local news that traditional media no longer seem to be reporting in detail. Recently, more people are going online and traditional print media are losing advertising revenues.
They also state the newspaper advertising revenues dropped an estimated 23 percent over the past two years since 2010, but newspapers are trying to embrace their online communities.
Kurpius, Metzgar, and Rowley contend that public television has the advantage to remain hyperlocal and fill the news gap with local content and they too can have an online presence.
The U.S. Accountability Office Report states that, “today there are 349 public television stations, owned and operated by 173 licensees, which reach 98 percent of the households that have televisions.”
With hopes that NJTV will gain wider viewership, Falk of NJTV said that they have tried to improve the new public television network by broadcasting in high definition (HD) and also by creating a much better and more robust online presence.
Servidio said he hopes the station will get much better as the economy and viewership improve. Hooker, NJN former anchorman, said he believes NJTV will pass “something of a taste test” and will survive beyond five years.
Vivix is a powerful anti-aging tonic that was developed after years of research by Shaklee, a popular natural nutrition company in the United States.
Nicole Stone, an independent distributor and director of Shaklee Corporation, who started selling Shaklee products November 2012, said Vivix is one of the most popular Shaklee products.
“It helps people with all kinds of ailments like diabetes, high blood pressure, glaucoma, skin problems, heart problems and many more,” said Stone.
Stone said that people feel rejuvenated after taking Vivix, which work on their body cells, as it fights against cellular aging. She said many individuals are getting rid of their prescription medicines.
“We have testimonials about the products,” said Stone.
