Region's Robust Growth Expected to Continue

Cal State economists say that Southern California's robust economy, bolstered by a long-awaited rebound in Los Angeles and continued growth in Orange County, is strong enough to withstand an expected slowdown in the national economy late next year. The accelerating regional economy will lead to more jobs, increased output, higher incomes and a resurgent real estate market in the coming year. The big difference from last year is that Los Angeles County has joined the economic renaissance.

Even a slowdown in the national growth rate, which is expected to occur late next year, will only slightly dampen Southern California's bright prospects. A latecomer to the national recovery, the Southern California region now has enough momentum from its rebounding manufacturing, construction and service sectors, foreign trade and tourism to keep the expansion going well into the next century. Until now, Orange County has led the area out of the recession. By last year it had recovered all the jobs lost during the turndown. The county will add 34,000 jobs this year, an increase of 2.9%, and an additional 32,000, or 2.7%, next year, thanks to burgeoning tourism, construction, business services and high-tech exports. Over the next five years Los Angeles County will average a 2.3% annual increase in payroll.

Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation agrees that the county "is back," and that we are on a roll.  "Continued growth in Orange and Los Angeles Counties keeps Southern California's economy booming" The Riverside-San Bernardino area is also gaining speed, thanks to a manufacturing revival, while Ventura County growth is being spurred by wholesale and retail trade and services. The five-county region is expected to add a total of 146,000 new jobs this year, a 2.4% increase, and 128,000 next year, a 2.1% gain.

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Facts of Owning Your Own Business

Every business owner will one day exit his or her business. How and when to turn your largest single asset into a liquid equity may be the most important financial and personal decision you as a business owner will ever make. Most business owners will have this opportunity only once. That is why it's important that you have intelligent choices and know that: Business value has nothing to do with "Rules of Thumb, "Formulas" or "Multiples." Selling at the wrong time can cost you hundreds of thousands to millions. The best buyers for your business are often not the most obvious. Building value is not necessarily the same as increasing your bottom line.

Business Services Available for Owners:

"Defining your options"

M&A: LSH's Mergers & Acquisitions services encompass the entire buy in and selling process, including: Business Valuation, Professional Selling Documentation, Business Marketing, Tax Planning, Buyer Prospecting, Due Diligence & Structuring, Negotiating and Closing the transaction. Business Valuation: LSH provides professional, fair market business valuations based on in-depth market and financial research and analysis. Value-Building: LSH develops value-building strategies so that the risks you take, and the time and energy you invest in your company, will increase business value and your personal net worth. Even if you're not in a position to consider a business sale, one day you will. The best time to consider exiting is now. Now is the time to prepare, to have the luxury and the complete freedom of being totally prepared to maximize your future wealth when the time is right. It will also give you the ability to clearly "see where you are today," and be able to "stay on a defined track" that will maximize your wealth when you do decide to exit.

The Keys to Succession:

Like the keys that protect your most prized possessions, the secret to securing the future of your business is to make succession planning a part of your routine. Many business owners delay planning due to tensions or ambivalent feelings towards family members and their roles in the business. Others look upon succession as an event - a day long into the future when the keys to the company will be passed on. But to secure the future of your business and to ensure that family economic needs are met succession planning needs to be an ongoing process. A planned approach to succession minimizes the potential for significant transfer taxes, which can threaten the viability of your business Applying the plan over time also proves an avenue for dealing with the family/business issues that arise. At LSH, our experience has shown us that companies that successfully live on for generations have these characteristics

Succession Value Building Helping & Resolving Disciplined Advisors

Motivated Successors An Organized Team of Key Managers Competent Disciplined Advisors An Uncomplicated and Rational Ownership Structure Strong Accounting and Information Systems

Accommodating Heirs A Working Board of Outside Directors A Plan for Meaningful Post-Retirement Roles Up-to-date Estate Plans

How We Work with Companies Like Yours: This timeless truism is the cornerstone of our approach to helping your business survive and thrive. Our services focus on helping business owners address and resolve the personal, economic and organizational aspects of: succession management ownership, and management strategy We use a multi-disciplined, personally tailored approach to understanding and advancing both family and business goals. Our objectives are yours: long-term family harmony and business success. For example, some of the ways we can work with you include: how to select and use outside directors, determining equitable compensation for active and inactive shareholders, defining the role of spouses in the business, realistic retirement planning, the role of key nonfamily managers, personal and corporate tax planning. Our people are specially trained and experienced in meeting the needs of family businesses, from the strategic to the tactical. You have the confidence that you are working with a leading regional organization that is dedicated to your business growth, wealth creation and preservation.

Everyday Business By The Numbers

Running your business "by the numbers" is at all like painting by the numbers. Unlike a paint-by-number kit, financial ratios such as sales to inventory, return on assets and the current ratio of assets to liabilities can offer businesses a variety of pictures, including how a company is performing today, and how to meet company objectives in the future. And every picture tells a story about how successful a business is, or could become. By examining the business ratios of peers or successful industry leaders, business owners and managers can project and plan to make adjustments, matching industry averages or role models. In order for you to get a true picture and make reasonable planning projects, you've got to compare your company's financial ratios to those pulled from a national poll of similar companies.

Lee, Sperling, Hisamune
Accountancy Corporation

550 North Brand Boulevard, Suite 650, Glendale, CA 91203
Tel: 818.507.664 Fax: 818.507.7891