Crains New York - April 15, 2013 - (Page 13)

SMALL BUSINESS REPORT INSIDE THE LISTS NYC’s largest public events and trade shows PAGE 15 ‘In this era of the lean startup ... these competitions are like rocket fuel’ —Professor Bruce Bachenheimer, Pace University, Page 14 BOWLED OVER: NewlyWish’s Amanda Allen won $30,000 in seed money to start her business, which serves as a wedding registry for local stores such as Brooklyn’s Greenhouse. Tax hike inspires fancy footwork Facing bigger bills from Uncle Sam, owners tap into tax breaks BY JUDITH MESSINA competitions, NY state (out of 231 in U.S.) she got free consulting support from experts at SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), a nonprofit mentoring organization. She found out how to incorporate the business, launch a functioning website and snare retailers. Ms. Allen tapped what she learned to enter business-plan competitions throughout the area— and won the 2010 Pace Pitch Contest and then the 2012 Women 2.0 Pitch NYC Startup Competition. All told, she walked away with $70,000 in prize money and extra bonuses like free office space at Tech- Hurricane Sandy put a temporary kibosh on a planned new Linda the Bra Lady store at Third Avenue and East 80th Street, but owner Carl Manni expects to open there this year and depreciate much of the build-out cost up front. “In 2013, we expect to be profitable,and we’ll get the write-off,” he said. Mr. Manni, whose business brought in $7 million in revenues last year, isn’t alone in working to reduce his tax bill by taking advantage of tax credits and fasttrack depreciation schedules that Congress extended for a year under the American Taxpayer ReOF SMALL lief Act of BUSINESSES 2012. want major Small tax reform businesses Source: U.S. Chamber with of Commerce $400,000 or more in profits could be staring down a 2013 tax hike as a result of the higher taxes ushered in by the eleventh-hour deal that created the law. “Those making under $400,000 averted the higher tax, but plenty of small business owners are going to be at [the higher] 39.6% bracket,” said Barbara Taibi, a tax partner at consulting and accounting firm EisnerAmper. “A lot of people filing tax returns now are not feeling any of this.Next April the hit will come.” Even those who dodge the speeding income-tax bullet may feel the pain, depending on their businesses’ structure, thanks to rising taxes on investment income and the tab for Obamacare. “It’s a big concern,” said Jude Coard, tax partner at accounting firm Berdon. “Not only have federal taxes gone up, but state taxes in the past few years have also gone up.” Source: Bizplancompetitions.com See PERFECT PITCH on Page 14 See TAX HIKE on Page 14 buck ennis 79% The perfect pitch Startups flock to business-plan competitions to win cash and publicity BY LORI IOANNOU Four years ago,Amanda Allen and Robard Williams discovered an overlooked niche in the $19 billion wedding-registry market while they were planning their own nuptials. There were plenty of registries run by big, mass-market retailers, but there wasn’t a similar,one-stop Web destination that sold the products they really loved from local stores and artisans. Itching to turn that idea into a business, Ms. Allen quit her job as a bank examiner and enrolled in Fordham University’s graduate business school program to incubate NewlyWish.com. The stars aligned in 2009 when Ms. Allen entered the Baruch College & Merrill Lynch Entrepreneurship Competition, which was open to students from other campuses. She won $30,000 in seed money in the eight-month contest. As part of it, $2M TOTAL PRIZE MONEY from NY state business-plan competitions 21 NUMBER of business plan April 15, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 13 http://www.NewlyWish.com http://www.Bizplancompetitions.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - April 15, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
CORPORATE LADDER
OPINION
STEVE HINDY
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: SMALL BUSINESS
THE LISTS
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - April 15, 2013