Married Millions

Jack Rabbit Creations

With creativity, some crucial contacts and a lot of hard work, Jim and Erica Lancaster have turned playtime into profits.

Their company, Jack Rabbit Creations, makes heirloom-quality toys and gifts that are updated twists on classics with original art and unique packaging. The Lancasters started the company after the birth of their first child about 12 years ago because they were dissatisfied with the toy market.

"Our house started filling up with plastic garbage," said Jim Lancaster. "You could carry out five Hefty bags of junk that we didn't like."

As a result, Jack Rabbit never uses plastics and prefers using natural materials, such as wood and cotton. The parents-turned-entrepreneurs also decided their toys would never require batteries.

"There are no flashing lights, loud sounds or any of that stuff that drives you crazy as a parent," Lancaster said.

Instead, they started making simple and appealing toys like plush balls, pinwheels and wooden trucks, as well as some clothing.

They had one major advantage when they started the company in 1996. Erica Lancaster had previously worked as a buyer for The Nature Company, which was acquired by The Discovery Channel Store. She knew how to get things made overseas, so they were able to quickly establish relationships with manufacturers in China and arrange to have their products tested in independent labs before they were imported.

To get the company off the ground, Lancaster walked around Berkeley, Calif., and convinced a few specialty stores to carry their products. Sales then began taking off.

Jack Rabbit now sells its products through 90 independent, regional salespeople.

They initially took out a small-business loan and borrowed money from Erica's mother.

Jim Lancaster said they considered taking on investors or business partners to secure funding, but decided against it -- a decision that had the fortunate result of them remaining the bosses.

Without outside funding, however, they had a tight budget.

"We did everything ourselves," Jim Lancaster said. "Our house was full of boxes and our garage was so full we couldn't fit the cars in."

They started the company in Berkeley and moved to Atlanta shortly after.

With their inventory in the middle of their Virginia-Highland home, they filled orders and mailed everything themselves.

Add a baby to the mix, and life was pretty chaotic.

"Erica accidentally mailed our TV remote control to someone in a box with a toy," said Jim Lancaster.

The business turned a profit within a few years, but they didn't pay themselves a salary until 2001 when Jim quit his corporate job in technology sales.

"It was like volunteering," he says. "We put all our profit back into inventory."

He still says there's not a lot of money in making toys, but he and his wife are happy with their lifestyle. With a 12-year-old son, a nine-year-old daughter and a baby on the way, the couple enjoys the flexibility of running their own business.

"It's a lifestyle decision -- you don't do it to get rich," he said. "You're going to make more money if you put on a tie and get a corporate job."

They have always tested for lead, choking hazards, flammability and other dangers, while meeting all of the federal safety standards, Jim Lancaster said.

One of their toys even made a list of "best toys" on the Web site HealthyToys.org.

As parents grow weary of recalls and become increasingly concerned about chemicals in toys, many seek alternatives to mass-produced plastic toys.

This will likely fuel the demand for heirloom-quality toys that have been popular with a small but loyal number of parents, says Cliff Annicelli, editor of Playthings magazine.

"Jack Rabbit is one of several U.S. toy companies who tap into parents' desires to give their kids a more 'classic' play experience, like those they, or more likely their grandparents, had," said Annicelli.

Eye-catching packaging helps market Jack Rabbit's products as gifts, rather than everyday purchases. This also means they sell at a higher price point -- $25 to $35.

"There is meant to be a 'wow' factor at a first birthday or a baby shower," Jim Lancaster said.

"This is not supposed to be a toy that I would run out and buy my kid on any Thursday."

Sprout, a children's store on Howell Mill Road in Atlanta, carries Jack Rabbit products.

Jack Rabbit's "roly poly balls" -- plush balls in bright colors -- have been one of the store's top sellers for five years in a row, said Rachel Baba, owner of Sprout.

"There is a simplicity to the Jack Rabbit toys that parents really like," said Baba.

Baba has also been pleased with how the Lancasters run their business. She says that good relationships with customers and vendors are crucial in small business.

"You have to take care of them, get to know them and get invested in them," Baba said. "Jim and Erica run their business that way. It's a personal touch they have."

The Lancasters plan to stick with that approach as they strive for slow, steady growth.

Original article written by Erin Moriarty for The Atlanta Business Chronicle

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How To Buy Married Couple Car Insurance

There are a few key insurance factors involved when you're married and you both drive the same car--or even if you have multiple cars. Get several quotes online from various insurance companies for the best auto insurance rate available. Here's how to buy car insurance for married couples.

1. Get several quotes from various auto insurance companies. Married couples usually have cheaper car insurance because they are married or live with a significant other. The loss is reduced because there is less driving than a single, more-active driver.

2. Purchase another vehicle for the husband or wife (if you don't have two already from when you both were single). You can also receive a multi-car discount, in addition to the cheaper rate offered by being a married couple.

3. Consult your agent before you're married. You may qualify for the domestic partner discount. Various insurance companies are now giving discounts to common law and significant others. Notify your insurance agent once you get married to get the married couple discount.

4. Determine each other's driving records. Look at whether there are traffic tickets and Driving Under the Influence violations. These will cause you to lose your discounts before you even get them. If one of you has had a few accidents that raised your insurance rate when you were single, there's a good chance it will raise the rate as a married couple.

5. Consider getting separate auto insurance policies if either one of you has an expensive car or a sports car, one has a bad driving record or one wants higher limits than the other. These are the times you want to get separate car insurance policies.

6. Determine where your new home together is located and whether it is in a safe area. If the area is at bad risk for car theft, you may end up paying a higher premium.

7. Increase your coverage limits since both incomes are now combined. You want to cover your combined income and assets. Also now that you are married, name each other as beneficiary on the death benefit coverage.

Original article can be found at www.ehow.com

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'Co-preneurs' brave work-life challenges

couples
Originally uploaded by bluvampier

Staying married is hard enough these days. Could you stay in business with your spouse, too? In a new twist on the traditional mom and pop shop, millions of couples are running businesses together, from bakeries to software consulting, and clothing lines. "Co-preneurs" prize the intense togetherness that others might find suffocating, and the idea of finding a business partner they can fully trust.

"It's impossible in almost any scenario to find a business partner whose interests are so much aligned," says Dan Ratner, who became chief operating officer of his wife Genevieve Thiers' start-up, Sittercity.com, a few years after she founded the online caregiver service in 2001. Thiers is the company's chief executive.

Still, the risks are high. If the partnership or marriage sours, all is at stake, says Miriam Hawley, a Cambridge therapist who runs an executive coaching firm with her husband, Jeff McIntyre. Together, they interviewed 50 couples for their forthcoming book "Intimate Leadership: The Power of Couples In Business Together" (New Win Publishing, fall 2008).

"There's a downside to everything being in one basket," says Hawley. "If you're having a hard time on the business or personal side, everything can fall apart."

By one estimate, the "drop-out" rate may be steep. Twenty percent of co-preneurs surveyed in 1997 had quit working together by 2000, according to national surveys by Glenn Muske, a professor at Oklahoma State University. Still, the total number of such couples - 3 million - remained steady, meaning just as many went into business together as quit during that period, says Muske, adding that about one-third of US family businesses are led by couples.

So in an era when close to half of first marriages ultimately fail and two-thirds of new businesses collapse within four years, how do co-preneurs do it? Aside from the need for a rock-solid relationship, the secrets to such twinned work-life success seem to be knowing where to draw boundaries and carve out breathing space - from each other and from the job.

This can be difficult for people, like Christopher and Jennifer Smith, who tend to complete each other's sentences. Christopher is the president of Aquent Graphics Institute, a software consulting firm for publishers that Jennifer started in 1994. She is executive vice president of the Woburn firm, and they have three children, ages 2, 4, and 7.

"It can be difficult . . . ," begins Jennifer.

" . . . spending too much time together," interrupts Christopher. "We don't share an office anymore. We do need to go off and do our own things."

"You get so comfortable that you meddle in . . . ," she adds. And he jumps in, "each other's affairs." Then they good-naturedly bicker a bit about whether she's correct in calling such meddling "disrespectful."

Perhaps that's why employees can be forgiven for thinking the pair are in Jennifer's words "sharing the same brain." Says Christopher: "Someone in our Chicago office will have a conversation with Jen and they presume that I must know everything that took place with her."

On the flip side, their closeness means they each inevitably hear more of what's going on at the company, and employees receive "an additional sounding board," observes Christopher. The company's finance guy, for instance, recently asked Jennifer how he could persuade Christopher to file expenses on time.

Playing distinct roles within the business is key to surviving as co-preneurs, many say. Boston's Flour Bakery owner Joanne Chang says her strengths complement those of her fiancée Christopher Myers, a partner in Radius, Via Matta, and Great Bay restaurants. Five years after becoming a couple, they opened their first joint venture eatery last year, Myers+Chang in the South End.

"He'll come in to the bakery and say, 'I think you should spruce up the artwork,' " says Chang. "He's a restaurateur. He's been in the business longer. He's not a chef. I'm a pastry chef."

"You're walking up each other's backs all the time if you don't have a reasonable division of responsibilities," says Myers. "She loves being hands-on in the restaurant, and communicating. I like working on tweaking the mechanisms of the business, the marketing, the branding, how the restaurant feels and looks and tastes."

When disagreements inevitably arise, couples take different tacks, from using e-mail even across the same room to physically separating for a bit of time. "It gets personal so fast," says Thiers of Chicago-based Sittercity.com. She and Ratner married last year, although they've been a couple for nearly seven years. "We don't fight about anything except work."

During one particularly heated disagreement over a marketing strategy, the pair discovered the "Camp David approach" of negotiating with each other through a written document to keep their argument professional, says Ratner. It worked, and they now use that strategy if needed. They also have a prenuptial agreement that outlines the company's fate if they divorce.

Now Thiers and Ratner are setting a new work-life goal: they're trying not to talk about work 24/7. Last year, they managed a rare feat for co-preneurs - a vacation - and during the 10-day honeymoon in Marrakesh, Morocco, they hardly talked about the company. But they couldn't completely get away: they checked into work twice a day.

Original article written by Maggie Jackson for the Boston Globe

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Magic BeansSheri and Eli Gurock Keep The Local Toystore Concept Alive

Sheri Gurock and her husband, Eli, own Magic Beans, a toy and baby gear store based in Brookline, MA.

As the primary buyer for the store and website, Sheri uses her first-hand experience as a mom of two young children to guide her choices. Before starting a family and a business, Sheri was a copywriter who specialized in branding. In her spare time, Sheri is usually researching new baby gear, testing toys, playing with her kids or queuing up reality shows on her TiVo.

Eli Gurock is Sheri’s husband and partner-in-crime at Magic Beans. He is a certified car seat installation technician and stroller matchmaker. When he isn’t selling strollers, adjusting car seats or hanging out with his family, Eli is usually cooking up something good on the barbecue. Prior to opening Magic Beans, Eli was a high school art teacher.

As a stay-at-home Brookline mom with an 18-month old daughter, Sheri Gurock watched in horror as toy store after toy store shuttered its doors.

“I actually kind of panicked that I wouldn’t have any place to shop,” Gurock recalled.

So when the Imaginarium in Coolidge Corner announced plans to close in 2003, she decided to take matters into her own hands: Within months, she had taken over the toy store’s lease, hired its old manager and launched her own baby-gear store, called Magic Beans.

Four years later, the purveyor of high-end diaper bags and customizable strollers is in the midst of a sudden expansion, opening a second and third store in this month and planning for a fourth.

The Magic Beans empire has grown to include three stores, a warehouse in Brighton and a toy-cluttered office above the Bank of America building in Coolidge Corner. The store has also developed a national following through its Web site, www.magicbeans.com, which offers personalized stroller-matching advise and a baby-gear blog called Spillingthebeans.

The whole operation is still run by the Gurocks. The couple met as kids on a New York school bus and never planned to run a store together.

“We had never run up a cash register until the day the store opened,” said Eli.

Now 30 and 31 years old, respectively, Eli and Sheri are still young parents themselves and that, they say, gives them an edge in the burgeoning baby-gear market, which grew to $7.3 billion in sales in 2005, up from $4 billion in 1995, according to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association.

In the last three years, young parents have become increasingly willing to pay top dollar for high-end baby products, the Gurocks said. Today it’s common for parents to spend upwards of $700 for a stroller, and Sheri Gurock herself had a collection of 12 strollers before her first toddler’s first birthday.

Magic Beans has capitalized on the trend, offering everything from a color-coordinated baby stroller with three cup-holders to an army-camouflage diaper bag or a rubber-duck thermometer that beeps when bath water gets too hot.

Through its Web site and blog, Magic Beans has also become popular with young parents across the country. SpillingtheBeans, in which Sheri writes about toy trends, product recalls and the antics of her young daughters, draws about 10,000 readers a month.

Eli’s personalized strolling matching service, which he runs through the store Web site, also gets about between two and six requests each day.

The couple has plans to open a Dedham store in 2009, but said they’re still waiting to see if their brand will work outside Coolidge Corner.

Original article written by Neal Simpson for www.wickedlocal.com

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This Couple Owns Our Blog

Ben Trott listened to his wife, and the result was Movable Type, tailored for creating online journals.

In 2001, Mena Trott couldn't find any software she liked to use for her online journal. She complained to her husband, Ben, that the available tools didn't offer enough control over comments or archiving, for instance.

So Ben, a software developer, built a program that gave Mena everything she was looking for. The result is now one of the most popular Weblogging tools around. Movable Type is the parent company to Typepad.com

High school sweethearts from Petaluma, Calif., Mena and Ben Trott got into blogging after losing their jobs at a small San Francisco-based Web design firm in the dot-com bust. With extra time on their hands, they developed a software tool to help Mena post her personal blog. It worked. When they put the tool online in October 2001, nearly 200 people downloaded it within the first hour.

Initially working out of their apartment, the couple launched a software company, hired dozens of employees and raised over $10 million in venture capital. And as blogging took off, the tool they called Movable Type (after the Guttenberg printing press) became an industry standard.

"What had started as a hobby turned into full-time job, complete with 70 hour weeks," Mena says on the company's Web site.

The couple, both in their early 30s, have since added to their fortune by launching other blog publishing applications, including a successful hosting service. After the rapid growth of Movable Type, the couple says their current strategy is to build momentum slowly with a diverse line of inter-related products.

"I can't imagine where we'll be in a year, let alone five years," Mena says.

Original article written by Angus Loten for Inc. Magazine

Below is a video of Mena Trott at the TED Conference. She speaks about her business, her husband, and the power of blogs large and small. The video is about 17mins, but it is very interesting.

For more information about married business owners, visit
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Website published by Sam Leccima and Shani Leccima

You Ought To Be In Pictures

Now Showing
Originally uploaded by HamWithCam

They heard the venerably frumpy Plaza Theater was up for sale two years ago and did what a lot of diehard Atlanta moviegoers did: half-joked about buying it.

But the more they talked, the less Jonathan and Gayle Rej (pronounced Ray) laughed about owning the two-screen, art-deco art house built in a Poncey-Highland strip mall in 1939.

"It hit us: It'd be cool to try to keep that place open," Jonathan said. "So we called and said, 'How much you want for that place?' I don't know why. We just did it."

They met with a broker, looked at the books, stopped by a bank.

Jonathan: "Finally we said, 'Wow. I guess we can actually do this.'"

The joking stopped. Asking price for eveything but the leased building: $100,000

"I totally remember sitting at the dining room table going, 'You want to do it? Are you sure we can do this? Maybe we shouldn't do this,' " Gayle recalled.

Jonathan's tie breaker: "It came down to, 'I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Let's just do it.'"

So like a hipster remake of an old MGM musical, the Rejs did it. Almost two years later, they remain unlikely saviors of Atlanta's oldest continuously operating movie house. For how much longer remains an open question.

He's 35, a former skateboarding punk rocker who runs a film production company. She's 39, a former Star Bar band booker (including the Drive-By Truckers "before they got huge") and high school drama teacher.

Venture surprises film fans
The torch-passing from George Lefont, Atlanta's pioneering art house entrepreneur, was greeted both with relief and awe among film buffs.

The Plaza is a financial high-wire act. Its ups and downs largely mirror the uneasy future faced by art and revival houses everywhere in an age of 34-screen multiplexes, Netflix, DVD-watching airplane passengers and Turner Classic Movies.

The Rejs' uneven answer so far: second-run independent films, movies paired with art openings at the lobby gallery, and monthly throw-back events like matinee horror flicks (kids free) and '80s-style splatter movies for adults.

They've also held "Grease" singalongs and a "Summer Camp" series — campy classics like "Barbarella" (starring Jane Fonda, whose daughter, Vanessa Vadim, showed up for the first screening) and "Some Like It Hot."

"The people running the Plaza are doing something heroic," said Linda Dubler, curator of media arts at the High Museum. "They're going out on a limb to keep that experience alive. It's a very risky enterprise."

Told he'd been called heroic, Jonathan – whose four tattoos include the Creature from the Black Lagoon and a band his brother played in called Dead Elvis – shook his head.

"That's a good way of saying, 'Thanks for doing that. Glad it's not me that bought this place.'"

Multiplexes pose a challenge
The Plaza's original single screen looked out on 1,000 seats, including a balcony. While the theater never achieved the cache of the 4,000-seat Fox or the long-gone Lowe's Grand (where "Gone With the Wind" premiered), the Plaza's fun-house deco marquee signaled decades of movie-going good times.

That ended in the 1970s, with the advent of urban blight and twin-screen suburban competitors. The Plaza survived as a porn house until it was rescued in 1983 by Lefont, who converted the balcony into a 200-seat second theater.

Yet running a combo art and revival house became increasingly tricky with the steroid-like multi-screening of theaters, even for someone like Lefont. His empire once included movie houses in Ansley Park, Toco Hills, Garden Hills – all closed.

"It was a labor of love, owning [the Plaza] as many years as I did," said Lefont, who now runs the eight-screen Lefont Sandy Springs.

The Rejs were Plaza regulars, as much lovers of local color as film enthuusiasts, often approaching a night at the movies the way gourmands hunt for locally grown produce. Their first "not-date," as Gayle called it, was the French movie "Amelie" at the Garden Hills Cinema.

Growing up in Columbia, S.C., Jonathan always figured he'd wind up in Atlanta. He floundered in school at everything but art ("If I got a C in math we were going out to dinner; it was celebration time") and took up film and video at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

He got editing jobs with CNN's documentary unit and then at the Cartoon Network. He hung out with artists and musicians – he played in a band called the Mouthbreathers – and his production company made music videos for groups like Man or Astroman? and Mastadon.

He met Gayle while she worked at the Star Bar. She had master's degrees in theater and English education, but spent years managing multiplexes and booking bands. She finally tired of "being the only sober person in the bar at 3 a.m." and landed a job running the drama department at Stockbridge High School.

They got together the same way they bought the Plaza.

"People ask, 'When was the moment?'" Gayle said. "It just sort of happened."

A friend called Jonathan in 2003 about an apartment in Malibu. He grabbed his bike, computer and not much else. He worked on a few reality shows, hated it, and ended up "just surfing every day."

That lasted two years. Jonathan moved back to Atlanta and married Gayle.

Then the whole Plaza thing came up.

It hasn't been easy. Indie films no one else in Atlanta will show, and that the Rejs thought would be their sweet spot, have too often bombed. Events – kiddie matinees, splatter flicks – have been hits.

The result, said Jonathan: "We're making enough to keep going. It's good I have a production job. We wouldn't be living off this."

Yet despite the monthly roller coaster, the daily headaches, the lost vacations, the Rejs say they're glad they saved, as Dubler put it, "one of those rare relics in Atlanta, which is a place that prides itself on obliterating the past."

Gayle talks about driving by the marquee some nights and thinking, "Huh, that's my theater."

"Sometimes during a spook show, there'll be 300 people in there, and we'll get some popcorn and sit with everybody else. And we'll look at each other and go, 'This is so cool. This would not exist if we hadn't bought it — these people just had an experience that would not exist.' "

Original article at Access Atlanta written By Drew Jubera of
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For more information about married business owners, visit
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Website published by Sam Leccima and Shani Leccima

New Tax Rule for Married Business Owners

SAY YOU AND your spouse jointly own and operate an unincorporated business and share in the profits and losses. For federal tax purposes, you may have a husband-wife partnership on your hands — even if you don’t have a formal partnership agreement.

When you do have a husband-wife partnership, the general rule says you are supposed to follow the partnership tax rules. These include the requirement to file an annual Form 1065 partnership tax return and issue an annual Schedule K-1 to both you and your spouse. The Schedules K-1 report your respective shares of tax items from the business, which are then taken into account on your Form 1040. The same guidelines apply to a husband-wife LLC that’s classified as a partnership for federal tax purposes.

Unfortunately, partnership tax status can create headaches. The partnership tax provisions are complicated, and preparing Form 1065 and Schedule K-1 is no fun.

Thankfully, for 2007 and beyond, a special simplification rule allows an election out of partnership status — for federal tax purposes — for certain unincorporated husband-wife businesses (state tax rules may vary). To be eligible for the election out, you and your spouse must file jointly, and your husband-wife business must be a qualified joint venture (defined below).

Electing Out of Partnership Status Means Simpler Tax Filings
After electing out of partnership tax status, you and your spouse must separately report your respective shares of business income and expense items on the appropriate IRS forms.

For example, you would report income and expenses from an eligible husband-wife business (other than farming) on separate Schedules C filed with your joint Form 1040. You would report income and expenses from a farming activity on separate Schedules F. Similarly, you and your spouse must calculate your respective self-employment (SE) tax bills by filling out separate Schedules SE and filing them with your Form 1040. You and your spouse will then receive credit for your shares of SE income for Social Security benefit eligibility purposes.

How to Elect Out
Making the election out of partnership tax status is easy. Starting with the year that you want to elect out, you and your spouse must separately report your respective shares of income and expenses from the business and separately calculate your respective SE tax bills in the manner explained above. Also, you must stop filing partnership returns for the business. That’s it.

Key Point: Electing out won’t change your joint federal income tax liability or your joint SE tax liability. However, electing out will eliminate the hassle of having to comply with complicated federal tax rules and file partnership returns with the IRS.

Only Qualified Joint Ventures Can Elect Out
A qualified joint venture is an unincorporated business activity that meets the following description.

1. The husband and wife are the only members of the venture.

2. Both spouses materially participate in the venture.

3. An election out of partnership tax status is made for the venture in the manner explained above.

This seems pretty clear, but the waters can get muddy in real-life circumstances. Two recent developments provide some clarity on exactly what types of husband-wife businesses can be qualified joint ventures. One development is good news while the other is not. Good news first.

Rental Real Estate Business Can Be Qualified Joint Venture, but Beware of Tricky Tax Filing Instructions
The IRS recently admitted that an unincorporated husband-wife rental real estate business can meet the definition of a qualified joint venture and thus be eligible for the election out of partnership tax status. Previously, it was unclear if the election out was allowed for a rental real estate activity. So far, so good, but now it gets tricky.

To make the election out for a rental real estate business, the IRS currently instructs you and your spouse to report your respective shares of income and expenses on separate Schedules C filed with your joint Form 1040. This is unusual, because income and expenses from rental real estate activities are typically reported on Schedule E (not on Schedule C). The distinction is important. Net income from a Schedule C activity is generally subject to SE tax and should be reported on Schedule SE. In contrast, net income from a Schedule E rental real estate activity is not subject to SE tax and should not be reported on Schedule SE.

Unfortunately, reporting your share of rental real estate income and expenses on Schedule C may cause the IRS to expect to see a related Schedule SE for you, as well as one for your spouse, even though no Schedules SE are actually required. To address this little problem, the IRS issued supplemental 2007 Form 1040 filing instructions. They can be found on page 15 of Publication 553 (available on the IRS web site). If you carefully follow the supplemental instructions, IRS personnel should know that no SE tax is due on net rental income that’s reported on your Schedule C or your spouse’s Schedule C.

IRS Says Husband-Wife LLC Cannot Be Qualified Joint Venture
Now for the bad news. In a recent article on its web site, the IRS says a husband-wife business that’s operated as an LLC and that’s currently treated as a husband-wife partnership for federal tax purposes does not meet the definition of a qualified joint venture. So electing out of partnership tax status is not allowed. Therefore, a husband-wife LLC must continue to follow the burdensome partnership tax rules and return filing requirements with no relief in sight.

Some tax experts (including me) think the IRS is dead wrong about this, but arguing the point is probably not worth it. If no partnership return is filed for a husband-wife LLC, the IRS could decide to assess a failure-to-file penalty. The penalty amount is $85 per month for each spouse for up to 12 months (or until a partnership return is filed). The maximum penalty is $2,040 ($85 x 2 x 12 = $2,040).

The Bottom Line
When available, qualified joint venture status can be helpful for a husband-wife business, because it eases the task of complying with the federal tax rules. This article explains two recent developments on the qualified joint venture front — one regarding real estate, the other LLCs. As always, the IRS could change the rules (which might provide more relief for husband-wife LLCs) so stay tuned.

Original article for Smartmoney.com by Bill Bischoff
A certified public accountant with more than 25 years of experience, has authored books and training courses for tax professionals, and frequently writes about consumer and small-business tax matters.

For more information about married business owners, visit
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Website published by Sam Leccima and Shani Leccima

Taco Shack Inc, Orlando and Yoli Arriaga's Story

Taco Shack 07/33/25
Originally uploaded by william c hutton jr

Orlando and Yoli Arriaga opened their first Taco Shack in 1996 at 4412 Medical Parkway in a small Central Austin building that formerly housed a barbecue restaurant. By 1999, they were ready to open a second location. They have since opened five more locations around Austin including inside the Frost Tower location at 402 Brazos.

But Orlando Arriaga says he couldn't get return phone calls from leasing agents representing Austin's prime commercial corners and more desirable strip retail centers.

"That hampered growth," he says.

To get around the problem, Orlando Arriaga says he chose agents who specialize in the parts of the city where he wanted to open restaurants.

"I do not work with just one broker," he says. "I surround myself with people who have expertise in certain areas of town. And that's how we've been able to get these five locations without spending an arm and a leg."

Despite an up-and-down Austin economy and difficulty gaining access to prime locations, in just eight years the husband-and-wife co-founders of Taco Shack Inc. have built the success of one small Mexican food restaurant into a five-unit chain with annual revenue exceeding $2 million.

Orlando Arriaga grew up in Austin and is an alumnus of McCallum High School. He met Yoli while the two were attending St. Edward’s University. As former teachers, the couple feels deeply committed to supporting local schools. They focus most of Taco Shack’s promotional dollars on school sponsorships, such as the annual “Taco Shack Bowl” football game between rivals McCallum and Anderson high schools.

The employee retention problem most restaurateurs face is unfamiliar to Arriaga. He's had many of the same employees since 1996, and some even worked for him in his landscaping business before that.

He attributes his success at keeping Taco Shack employees to the good treatment they receive from managers.

"We treat them like family," he says. "In an emergency, we help them out financially or with some paperwork."

Taco Shack restaurants are open 6:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays. Orlando Arriaga says the abbreviated work schedule and "closed on Sunday" policy might contribute to employee retention.

The Arriagas say they've been able to achieve financial success by only breakfast and lunch.

"Once you see the numbers and see you can have a sane life, why not stick with that?" Orlando Arriaga says.

He says some of the company's success is tied the country's current anticorporate climate.

"Due to the corporate scandals that have happened in the last several years, I think people are coming back to wanting to frequent the local mom-and-pops," he says. "Plus, I think Austin has more allegiance to local companies than to corporate America."

Original article written by Cheryl Lockhart for the Austin Business Journal

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Fresh Cosmetics

Fresh Rose Face Mask
Originally uploaded by kikykit

Standing at a counter in the Newbury Street outpost of their store Fresh, Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg test different moisturizers on the back of a visitor's hand. Some are thick and rich, some are light, but all absorb into the skin with a gentle rub.

When shopping for a facial moisturizer of your own, the couple says, one of the things you want to pay attention to is how quickly it absorbs. It should only take a few seconds.

"You're looking for something your skin will drink in," says Roytberg, the company's president and creative director.

Glazman and Roytberg, who are married and live in Brookline, founded Fresh in 1991 when they began selling soap at a shop in the South End. Today, the company sells cosmetics, fragrances, and hair-care products around the world, and skin care makes up about a third of its business.

The couple advise to look for products that match your skin type dry, oily, or combination, and remember that skin care can be seasonal: As the weather turns colder and drier, you probably want a richer moisturizer, Roytberg says. Richer creams typically have more oil but can still be suitable for people with oily skin, the couple says.

Sun protection is also important, even in winter, and is often built in to moisturizers. Women tend to have more sensitive skin that reacts to hormonal changes. Men's skin can feel drier because they shave. In extreme cases, Glazman says he will sometimes use two moisturizers at once -- one for his nose and forehead, and a stronger one for his jawline.

But he advises both men and women to be cautious about using too many products, noting that after a few layers the moisturizers probably aren't penetrating much anymore.

Fresh likes to use natural ingredients; its rich Creme Ancienne uses components such as meadowfoam seed oil and beeswax.

"Sometimes it's good to go back to basics," he says.

But some ingredients and processes come at a premium. Creme Ancienne, for instance, costs $250. Products by companies like La Mer and La Prairie, which sell creams for several hundred dollars a jar, also have become popular in recent years.

Glazman, who admits he used to like trying any new product, says how much you spend is a matter of choice. ``If it works for you," he says, ``you've got to go for the best out there."

In 2005, Americans spent $737 million on basic facial moisturizers that are available in department stores, according to NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y., market-research firm.

Article originally written by Emily Shartin for the Boston Globe

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Flippin' FudgeTrust Us, It's A Good Thing

Two-toned chocolate peanut butter fudge
Originally uploaded by desertculinary

Flippin' Fudge! was founded by the husband and wife team of Tim and Liz Young. They have always shared a passion for delicious chocolate treats. One night, after watching Napoleon Dynamite for about the 50th time, Tim said in his best Napoleon accent, "let's make some flippin fudge!". "How flippin' hard can it be", was Liz's reply, and so we hit the kitchen. As it turned out, it was much harder than we thought...at least to make great fudge.

That led them on a year-long journey of exploring all kinds of old and new ways to make fudge. They didn't have a recipe that was passed down for generations. And they didn't like ultra sweet and grainy candy shop fudge. Tim and Liz wanted to make a great chocolate fudge product that was smooth, firm, creamy and ultra chocolaty. After a year-long research effort including meetings with award-winning pastry chefs, candy makers, visits to countless fudge shops and experimentation with hundreds of recipe combi- nations, the couple found what they were looking for. But it was too good to keep to themselves, so Flippin' Fudge! was born.

For Tim, Flippin' Fudge! was his third start-up. In 1995, he founded TECHMAR Communications, a marketing services firm, which grew to over 450 employees and was ranked by INC. Magazine in 2000 as the 129th fastest growing privately-held U.S. business. With Flippin' Fudge, Liz and Tim wanted to create a company that made people happy and made it fun to give and receive gourmet gifts. They're happy, be- cause they work together doing something they love...making great tasting fudge! Their customers are happy, because they both provide a fun and unique way of gift giving and recognizing people they care about. Their employees are happy because, well, because they're making Flippin' Fudge! after all! What a great job!

The couple love dark gourmet chocolate, but after they perfected that recipe, they experimented with dozens of flavor combinations. They thought that some gourmet chocolate was too serious and unapproachable, and they were determined to have fun along our journey. Hey, fudge is candy and candy is fun after all! They finally settled on 8 delicious and unique flavors: Dark Secret (dark chocolate), Skippyís Surprise (chocolate and peanut butter), Berry Nuts (raspberry walnut), Island Retreat (coconut), Citrus Shot
(Orange), Wake-Up Call (espresso), Fuzzy Bubble (champagne peach) and Toffee Crunch.

Each piece of fudge is slightly larger than 1" and is individually foil-wrapped for freshness. All orders are
carefully packed in our signature party box with your personalized gift card. Whether youíre ordering for
yourself or as a gift, you are assured freshness, unsurpassed taste and our unconditional guarantee.


For more information about married business owners, visit
Married Millions
"Your one-stop, information destination for couples who run their own companies and for those couples who want to start them."
Website published by Sam Leccima and Shani Leccima