Ghostwriting is the process by where the writer is hired to pen an article for publication that carries someone else’s name. Here are a few examples of pieces I have ghostwritten:
Example 1: Chapter from a book (comedy)
The Mole People of Babylon
By Vito D’Erasmo
Babylon, the Land of Strange Beginnings
I grew up in the town of Babylon, actually North Babylon, where, everybody pretty much knew each other. A small town on the tip of Long Island’s Suffolk County, Babylon is a strange place to be from. Maybe it was the water or maybe the houses were built on Indian burial sites, but whatever the phenomenon was it was a freaky place to live. People like Joey Buttafucco and his teenage paramour Amy Fischer (aka: the Long Island Lolita) to the Amityville horror house, Long Island provided a colorful assortment of eccentric as well as down right interesting people.
However, unlike the romanticized view of Italian-Americans that the public got to see in “Moonstruck” with Cher and Nicolas Cage, Babylon was home to mostly working-class Italian and Jewish families who migrated from New York City, looking for a home of their own: the ‘American Dream.”
My dad, like a large majority of folks from our part of Long Island, worked for Grumman Aerospace, where rocket ships are products. Only that wasn’t exactly what my Dad did at his job. If you asked him, he would tell you that he saved the Apollo 13 astronauts. In fact, that is exactly what I heard him telling a bunch of gang members in L.A. when he and my Mom came out once to visit me. To myself, I chuckled, “Come on, Dad. You were just a parking lot attendant!”
The truth is, my Dad had a very boring life and he liked to spice it up a little by pretending he had a lot going. What I remember about my Dad is that you could smell him, long before you saw him coming – and not in a ‘good’ way. For family vacations, he wanted to take us to Chernobyl – because he could get a good deal on airfare after the nuclear disaster. My Dad was really ‘out there.’ But I didn’t know how ‘different’ my family was until I moved to California and met people who weren’t like us.
Until you actually get off the island, it’s very Stepford – Italian-style. It’s a place where the women have mustaches and the lunch ladies wear hairnets under their arms. In fact, I grew a mustache to look like my mother. My Mom looked like Abe Vigoda in drag.
People who knew my parents used to say to me, “Oh you come from such a loving family.” Loving family? I never saw my parents touch, which makes me wonder how we were conceived. What I remember best is my Mom telling my Dad, “You’re a disgusting pig; don’t touch me!”
Yes, Babylon had a way of growing on you in a sweet/sickly kind of way. The way a piece of fruit smells after it’s been left on the counter for too long.
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Example 2: Chapter for a book (business)
Anatomy of a Growing Company: The Cavalry is Just Over the Hill!
By Dick Dadamo
In growing companies, there is a tendency for the founder or president to want to serve as an expert in all aspects of the business. This is especially true with engineers.
I was involved with a company that made a significant investment to hire a technical person, appointing him as President. I was elected to watch over him. In my first visit to his office I observed him studying five dental insurance plans. I suggested that he decide what services he wanted, then I would find a broker to provide him with five quotations within a week. Fortunately, he followed through with my suggestion and the company received the care and service they needed from an expert in that area of business.
This kind of management is naïve and dangerous creating limitations that keep the company from reaching their full potential. I have seen presidents who believe they are great negotiators, pay the penalty, later on, for a bad agreement.
Another aspect of the ‘founder culture’ is remaining with a bookkeeper when it is time to switch up to a controller. This behavior is directly related to the founder’s belief that watching over a person is sufficient to getting the job done. Unfortunately, having someone on board who is not capable to advancing the company will cause a breakdown when it comes to getting investors or a bank loan as the accounting records may not be sufficient evidence to acquire that needed financing.
Outside help is readily available when a company needs assistance in areas in which they have not previously acquired expertise, such as marketing, strategic planning, accounting, auditing, quality control, and most importantly, areas where legal advice is a necessity like any business matters relating to people, and for drafting business agreements and/or contracts.
Always keep in mind, ‘no contract’ is the worst kind of contract. With an inexperienced president, this mode of operation is not uncommon. Hiring an attorney or an audit firm can be a real challenge, particularly if one’s perception of lawyers is based on the negative belief system created by many of the ‘lawyer jokes’ that circulate in the workplace.
It is critical to have management advisors who can help with the timing, need, and selection of outside personnel. This is particularly true in hiring consultants who can provide legal services, as opposed to personnel. Today, more and more companies are finding it more beneficial to form Advisory Boards consisting of retired, experienced managers and executives who can contribute valid experience and who want to give back to the business world. This can be a win-win situation for both and invaluable to the inexperienced company president or founder who may need someone to watch over him or her.
on Middle Eastern Gardens
Example 3: City of Hope’s “City News” magazine
City News
Winter 2007 issue
By Pat Kramer
First Person
In 2006, 48-year old Beverly Austin celebrated her eighth year, cancer- free, after receiving treatment at City of Hope for early stage breast cancer. As a result of this experience, Beverly now has a sense of gratitude for each day of her life and is a regular participant in the Walk for Hope to Cure Breast Cancer.
Two months after my 40th birthday, in July 1998, my doctor called me at work to tell me that I had a malignant tumor in my breast. The news left me numb with despair. I wondered, ‘Why is this happening to me?”
Soon after, I met with an oncologist who recommended a lumpectomy followed by radiation and chemotherapy treatments. After breaking the news to my family, I hesitated to tell my new boyfriend, thinking he would break up with me. Instead, he offered to take me to my surgical appointment. That was the day I fell in love with him.
The lumpectomy went well but the radiation treatments proved challenging, as my doctor was several hours away from my San Gabriel Valley home. When a friend suggested that I transfer to City of Hope, it made perfect sense: I remember how impressed I was while visiting the campus as part of an on-site review team for my company’s Employee Contribution Committee for the United Way campaign.
I was even more impressed with the care and support I received once I became a patient. City of Hope treated me like family, preparing me, every step of the way, for what I could expect from the radiation and chemotherapy treatments.
As a patient, I learned about City of Hope’s yearly fundraiser: Walk for Hope to Cure Breast Cancer. Seeing the value it provided to both the medical staff and survivors, I made the commitment to take part. That first Walk was a little rough because I was still undergoing treatment. But being among family, friends, and numerous survivors and supporters was an empowering experience. So I have made a commitment to participate in the Walk, every year, and to make breast cancer awareness my mission for life.
Thanks to City of Hope, I am blessed to still be here. I hope that my involvement in the Walk and as a patient speaker gives other breast cancer survivor hope. I also wear a pink ribbon on my label to remind others to get regular mammograms and perform self-exams, because early detection is the key.
I love the City of Hope credo: “There is no profit in curing the body if in the process, we destroy the soul.” I carry that message in my heart every day.
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Example 4: President's Letter/ Non Profit Newsletter
From the President: Dena S.
Managing the different aspects of this amazing agency is an enormous job. With around sixty programs, which serve a broad cross-section of our community, it is no mean feat to assure that each call to JFS is met by the appropriate, high caliber response for which we are justly known. Our day-to-day operations are impressive and efficient, but we are always searching for ways to improve. We receive and respond to around 60,000 calls a year!
We are faced with a shifting paradigm for funding in many arenas; some funds disappear, others we uncover or raise to accommodate those services for which we provide. We must continue to provide services that meet the same high standard whether the recipient is fully or partially subsidized or a full fee-paying client. All JFS clients are assured they will get the best care.
We have learned that we need to be both proactive and creative. We spent the year before last grappling with a strategic plan for the agency’s future. At the end of that year, it had become clear that strategic planning is an ongoing process, not an occasional activity. To reach our vision for the future, we implemented workgroups to look into critical areas on which the future of the agency rests. Among those were social enterprise, volunteers and strategic alliances. After a year of meetings and consultations, these groups have identified new and hopefully better ways to assure an income stream that will fund our programs and operations; better ways to recruit, train and utilize volunteers; and ways to ensure that our voice is heard and registered in the legislature and as advocates for those whose voices are often inaudible or unheard.
We have now moved these workgroups into working committees of the agency and they, like every aspect of what we do, will be subject to our Continuing Quality Improvement reviews—CQI. In the coming year, we will move to other areas of the agency and apply the same discipline and rigor. We cannot rest on our accomplishments; families depend on us, and we will be there, for we are a family of services and a family that serves.
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Example 5: Chapter for book (educational)
The Fez Waterworks
By Achva Stein, Ph.D.
Set in a natural amphitheater below the surrounding hills of the Taza Pass, the site for the City of Fez was built at the junction of two main travel routes, one from Algeria and the other from Spain. Although it was not an ideal location from a defense perspective, the availability of an assured supply of water outweighed this consideration. Idriss I, the founder of the city and the first Moslem ruler of the region, bought the rights to the local water sources in perpetuity from the local tribes at the end of the 8th century. A system of irrigation was established then; one which is still at work today.
Fez represents an ingenious approach to developing a functional water system in a dense urban settlement. The hilly location of Fez allows for the design of a water system where the water flows in channels from the sources of the stream, on the banks where it is located, through man-made conduits, each serving a different area of the city before being discharged, once again, downstream.
At the higher reaches of the Oued Fes, water is first diverted for use in the Agdal and for the royal palaces. In the royal gardens of Bou Jeloud the water is collected and lifted into a series of major channels that flow through the western slopes of the city. The eastern slope was supplied by a channel that branched off from the Bou Jeloud and flowed outside the city walls overlapping the Oued Boukhrareb upstream.
Main conduits feed adjacent properties, the water passing through carved stone screens with openings proportional to the size of the properties to be supplied. The allotted water is directed by gravity or lifted up into the houses by natural pressure into a central basin where it passes through another screen to apportion the water to individual households. There, the water flows first into the private fountains, then into the kitchens and finally into the bathrooms after which it enters a sewage system. The sewage from each house then merges into progressively larger channels, which meet at the bottom of the valley in the Oued Boukhrareb. From there, it is discharged into the river Sebou and then into the sea.
This flow of water is the determinant for the system of channels and pipes, creating an organic urban structure. The royal palaces are located upstream the medersas are found on the major conduits and springs and the enclosed orchards and gardens, public fountains and specific industries which require water are sited according to their traditional economic and social priority and need for fresh water.
The thread of water is hidden from the eye. Sensed by the ear it only emerges inside the private interior courtyards and gardens of the city. Around the central jet of water in the courtyard fountain, the structure of the house. Yet as in all cities and arid climates, water is a constant in the consciousness of all; it is heard in the splashing of the fountains and the tumbling stream flow. The water of Fez is celebrated in poetry for its quality. The paths it takes link the population as surely as do the streets of the city.
Example 6: Article, published in the San Fernando Valley Business Journal, Feb. 19th, 2007
What You Don’t Know Can and Will Hurt You When You Renegotiate Your Office Lease:
Advice from a Tenant Advocate
By Sheryl L. Mazirow
When negotiating the lease of your office building, what you don’t know, can and will hurt you. If you accept your landlord’s rental rate without negotiating, you will pay top dollar. To prevent this from happening, tenants either need to be aware of market conditions or they need to be represented by an experienced tenant advocate.
What are “market conditions?” Market conditions affect, not only the rental rates for commercial properties, but also how and when they can be increased.
Rental rates can be increased in a couple of ways. One is a fixed increase, either annually or midterm. Another is based on the Consumer Price Index, which sometime has a floor and a ceiling. Then there is the “Load Factor,” which refers to common areas in a building and defines the amount of usable square feet a tenant actually has.
A “Base Year” determines the landlord’s charges for operating expenses. Ask your landlord what the cost ratio is for these expenses. You don’t want to have a lease start in November, only to have it increase in January, due to an unfavorable base year.
Find out if your lease is available on a month-to-month basis, after the initial term expires or if there is an extra “Holdover Rate,” which can be as high as 300% of the last month rent.
These are just a few of the hidden lease costs that tenants need to know to sit at an even negotiation table with a landlord.
For the average person, these issues are easily overlooked when trying to negotiate a rental rate. One common mistake lessees make is waiting until they are pressed for time to enter into negotiations. The best time to negotiate a lease is two years before the current term expires. Without timeframes, a tenant can shop for an alternative location, research the market, then enter into the negotiating process for a new or existing location fully prepared.
Once a tenant signs on the dotted line, they are often bound to that contract for five years. Since a business’s profitability is directly impacted by the cost of their office space, even a 25-cent variance in price for 5,000 square feet adds up, totaling $75,000.00 in extra costs.
When seeking a tenant advocate to represent you, you want a person with the knowledge, confidence, expertise and who has existing relationships with landlords. Like your accountant or attorney, your tenant advocate will provide valuable, professional services, securing a transaction that represents the actual market.
First, make sure the firm has expertise not only in real estate, but is dedicated to working with tenants only. Many real estate companies represent both landlords and tenants.
Secondly, ask if they have local market expertise. A tenant advocate is most valuable when they work in a specific geographical area.
Thirdly, find out if they have a proven track record in achieving results. Ask them for a few client referrals, ask how long they have been working in this business and finally, ask what they can do for you with your specific situation.
Finally, ask which landlords the firm has negotiated leases with on behalf of clients. Relationships can make or break a deal. You want someone who already knows the key players and is well thought of but tough and respected for their know-how.
Over the years that I have been a tenant advocate, my clients have saved thousand of dollars per year in occupancy costs. In today’s market, you can’t afford to make a mistake. Stay in touch with your tenant advocate and they will be a valuable business partner for your firm through the years.
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Example 7: Article, Published in professional journal
Tax Audits: Several Reasons Why it Pays to be an S-Corp and Why Sole Proprietors Endure the Highest Audit Rates
By Eric Lane, CPA, SLGG LLP
It’s tax time and with it comes the inevitable audits by the IRS. What most companies don’t realize is that the IRS has an established audit rate for each business structure. This report will help you understand why the IRS chooses to audit targeted business structures and what can be done to give your firm the best tax advantage.
Among the highest group audited are individuals filing under the category, “Returns by Size of TPI.” Of the three levels of income reported, those in the lowest earnings category: under $25,000, have the highest audit rate - 1.48% or every one hundred returns filed.
Those in that same category who have earning $25,000 to under $50,000 have only a 0.60% audit rate and those with $50,000 to under $100,000 have a 0.57% rate. For those over $100,000, the rate is nearly double at 1.19%.
To understand why this is high, take a look at S-Corporations, which only have a 0.30% audit rate. Partnerships is similarly low at 0.33 % and corporations with income under $10 million have a 0.79 audit rate.
When you look at these percentages on a ratio, it seems pretty onerous that those with the lowest income have the highest audit rates. There are several reasons for this.
Earned Income Credits:
If your income is low enough and you have dependents, the government allows for earned income credits, which is a negative income tax. Those individuals are able to collect a tax refund without having paying taxes. This raises a red flag to the IRS. Due to the nature of this tax advantage, historically, there has been a great deal of fraud which requires the IRS to carefully scrutinize each return, establishing whether it is bona-fide before cutting a check to the filers.
It is interesting to note that the IRS’s audit trend becomes even more drastic when comparing those filing Schedule C’s against S-Corps. Anyone reporting an adjusted gross income of less than $25,000 on his or her Schedule C has a 3.68% audit rate, among the highest of any business structure (except corporations with assets of $10 million and over, which generates a whopping 20.02% audit rate).
Schedule C filers with $25,000 to under $100,000 are audited at 2.21%, while those earning $100,000 and over are audited at 3.65%.
Losses and the Home Office Deduction Lead to Higher Audit Rates for Schedule C’s
The IRS is much more interested in looking at a sole proprietor’s tax return when it generates high losses. In this instance, they will want to know how this person is supporting himself or herself when faced with these high losses.
Another reason for the high audit rate is the home office deduction which filers of Schedule C’s tend to utilize. This used to be a very strong draw for an IRS audit because there is more room for judgment and as such, more of a tendency for abuse. However, the IRS has eased up somewhat on this lately, perhaps due to pressure from Congress to lighten up on those working from home.
The 3.68% audit rate for Schedule C’s is relatively high compared to W-2 reporting taxpayers and makes an interesting case for incorporating. By incorporating, it appears that you can substantially lower your risk of audit because less than 1% of these individual returns get audited. On the IRS’s 2005 Data Book Audit Chart only 0.79% of corporations with under $10 million in assets were audited.
Even if you are reporting two entities, your combined risk of an audit is very low.
For small corporations – say with $8 million in assets, the risk is greatly reduced by incorporating.
My firm, SLGG, recommends S-Corps more than any other business structure due to its many tax advantages. While there is an additional expense to maintaining this tax structure - in California, there is a minimum tax of $800 per year regardless of income, if executed properly, S-Corps offer service businesses three distinct advantages:
Most importantly, as an S-Corp, you can avoid the pitfalls of double taxation that are inherent with a C-Corp. Under a C-Corp, if you own Microsoft stock, Microsoft would pay its own taxes – 30% - 40% on all it makes. The remaining earnings would then be evenly invested and spent on operations or paid out as dividends. When they paid those dividends, you as the recipient, will be taxed at a rate of 15% for federal and 9.3% for California state tax. As you can see, the taxation of a C-Corp is very inefficient.
With an S-Corp, all the income and deductions of the corporation are pushed down to the shareholder, who only pays taxes once. This makes for a much more efficient tax vehicle. (See chart for C-Corp, S-Corp, and LLC tax levels).
While it seems so simple, there are always wrinkles in tax planning. One of those wrinkles is the higher maximum tax rate for individuals over C-Corps. For individuals, the maximum rate is 35% while for corporate it is 34%. Similarly, the state tax rate for individuals is 9.3% while for corporations, it’s 8.8%.
While C-Corps initially save money on taxes before paying dividends, when they start paying out dividends, the saved income is taxed twice making it both expensive and inefficient to operate as a C-Corp.
Another advantage of an S-Corp relates to business losses and this is important for start-ups.
While money lost in operating a C-Corp doesn’t benefit anyone until the corporation makes money in future years, in an S-Corp, operating loss is typically moved down to the investors’ returns. The investors can then utilize those losses to offset other income.
When speaking of professional service firms (those who do not carry inventory or manufacture goods), S-Corps offer a distinct growth advantage. Service firms are allowed to remain as a ‘cash basis’ tax payer for an unlimited amount of time while C-Corps are restricted to income of under $5 million, averaged over a three-year period. At that point, they are forced to be taxed an accrual basis.
These are just a few attributes of S-Corporations when it comes to taxation and auditing. In the next communication, I will reveal some interesting advantages
S-Corps offer over LLCs.
For questions about S-Corps, tax structure advantages, or further information about the IRS audit rates, please contact Eric Lane, Senior Manager, Singer Lewak Greenbaum & Goldstein LLP at: (714) 953-9734 (ext. 167) or e-mail: elane@slgg.com.
Mr. Lane is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Valuation Analyst specializing in forensic accounting and valuations with the firm SLGG LLP.
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