Congratulations, April licensees!

Congratulations to the following Licenses, Etc. clients who were approved in April:

• Paulette Brown at Brown & Brown Residential Builders, Inc. of Punta Gorda, FL
• Arnulf Albrecht at Arnulf Albrecht General Contracting, Inc. of Naples, FL
• Robert Ricciardelli at Pelican Bay Contracting, Inc. of Naples, FL
• John David Lowe at Physical Security, LLC  of  Bessemer, AL
• David Williams at Eikon Builders LLC  of  Fort Myers, FL
• Jeff LeBon at LeBon Services LLC  of  Port Charlotte , FL
• Erique Matta at SPF Roofing Systems, Inc. of Pompano Beach, FL
• Matthew Jackson at T.V. Diversified, Inc. of Lake Worth, FL
• Randolph Carter at All Septic All Plumbing, Inc. of Cape Coral, FL
• Michael Cusick at Mike Cusick, LLC  of  Leesburg, FL
• Gary Huffman at Campus Crest Construction, Inc. DBA Florida Campus Crest Construction, Inc. Charlotte, NC
• Richard Copeland at Thor Construction, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN
• James Calvert at Advanced Service by James Calvert, L.L.C. of Venice, FL
• Shanze Lee at S Lee LLC  of  Lake Mary, FL
• James M. Burbach at Summit Building & Development, Inc. of Lake City, FL
• Perry Hodges at Highway Intelligent Traffic Solutions, Inc. of Lancaster, TX
• Blaise Daluise at Innovative Construction Design LLC  of  Sarasota, FL
• Jose Toledo at Melcon General Contractors, LLC  of  Long Island City, NY
• William Markulin at Modern Concepts HVAC, Inc. of Sarasota, FL           

Any questions? Call Lisa at 239.777.8321 for more information.

2012 Grandfathering Does Not Apply to Electrical Contractors

There appears to be some confusion over which registered licenses can now submit applications to become certified through the new Grandfathering statute. There were no changes to the Florida Statutes to allow for grandfathering of registered electrical contractors’ licenses. Only registered licensees under the purview of the Construction Industry Licensing Board can grandfather.

The DBPR has stated that some licensees have received letters from county building departments that they can grandfather their registered electrical contractor’s license. These letters are incorrect and there is no grandfathering for registered electrical contractors at this time.

If you are interested in becoming certified, we can help you file an application for the initial issuance of your Certified Electrical license. Or, if you do have a registered license governed by the CILB, you can find more information here:  http://licensesetc.blogspot.com/2012/09/registered-contractors-grandfathering.html

Fictitious Name Renewal

So we all love this time of year.  The ending of another glorious year.  We can start wrapping things up and hope that next year will be even better.  But it is also a time when a lot of renewals come due.  One of those is fictitious name renewal. 

When you file for a fictitious name, it is good for 5 years. Your renewal must be filed by December 31st of the 5^th year since you filed to remain active. This can easily be done online at www.Sunbiz.org. If you fail to file the renewal, the registration will "Expire" and will not be able to simply be renewed or reinstated. You would need to file a new fictitious name registration all over again. This will include another ad in the paper, too.

When you renew your fictitious name, it will be active again for another 5 years. The fee is $50.00 and at this time you can change your mailing address, the county of the principal place of business, the federal identification tax number and the name and/or address of any owner.

Many people have questions regarding if they need a fictitious name or not. This is because most people don’t understand what a fictitious name is. All it means is any name being used to do business other than the legal name of the company. An example would be ABC Contracting, Inc. that would like to advertise themselves using the name ABC.  This usually pertains to franchises like when a local company wants to do business as McDonald’s.

If you have a fictitious name and aren’t sure if you are due this year, go to http://www.sunbiz.org/ficinam.html and type in your name. Click on the link for your name that should appear on the next page and find the expiration date listed under the filing information.  As always, if you need help in filing or would like further clarification, give the gals at Licenses, Etc. a quick call.  We are always here to help.

Facebook for Advanced Business User

There are more than 750 million active users on Facebook.  50% are active users that log on to Facebook in any given day.  The average user has 130 friends and people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.  Last night we discussed how to leverage this information to benefit businesses.

A few of the topics discussed were:

·         Facebook Advertising

·         Check - In Deals

·         Custom Applications including Fan Only Applets

·         Posting as Your Business

·         And much more...

To see the slide presentation in its entirety, go to http://www.slideshare.net/lisaadamslicenses/score-facebook-for-the-advanced-business-user-workshop.  There are active links within this presentation, so be sure to click on the pictures!   

A big thank you to Whole Foods Market Naples for donating the snacks for this event.  What an amazing spread they made available last night.  Yummy!

If you have any questions after watching this (or would like to hire us to do the work for you), please don’t hesitate to call Lisa at 239-963-5369!

Florida UC Assessment

It appears the Florida Department of Revenue is hitting mailboxes this week with tax assessment notices [bills].

These taxes ARE NOT due to an incorrect filing or underpaid deposit.

In a nutshell, the Florida unemployment ‘piggybank’ has been empty for years.  Because that fund is basically insolvent, Florida continues to borrow from Uncle Sam to meet its unemployment obligations.

All of us as Florida employers must bear the burden of paying the interest on that debt, and that is what these notices pertain to.  It appears the state is examining a look-back period of 7/1/09 through 6/30/10 for the purposes of computing each firm’s obligation.

The formula for calculating the payment is specified by law.  The calculation is based on your taxable wages reported from 7/1/09 through 6/30/10 which is listed as line 1 on your bill.  There will be a flat charge of $25 for any delinquent quarter which is line 2 on your bill.

Call us with any questions.

-    Thanks to Greg Borden at Olde Florida Payroll for this information.

Congratulations, January licensees!

Congratulations to the following Licenses, Etc. clients who were approved in January:

· Khamir Patel at KHP Developers, Inc. of Tampa, FL

· Michael Armstrong at Armstrong Woodworking, Inc. of Indiatlantic, FL

· Isabelo Rodriguez at Accutilities, LLC of Miramar, FL

· Bryan Meklir at BBMK Contracting and Blue Team Restoration, LLC of Fort Lauderdale, FL

· Mino Campobasso at Bell'Aqua Pool Service, Inc. of Naples, FL

· Joy Iurato at Kemo Jama Enterprises, Inc dba Tampa Bay Construction Group of Tampa, FL

· Roger Frakes at Ecoswitch, LLC of Valrico, FL

· Scott Kish at Kish Enterprises, Inc. of Naples, FL

· Matthew Lyons at Expedited Development Services, LLC of Pompano Beach, FL

· Travis Carter at Granite Construction Limited of Naples, FL

· Joe Miceli at Construction Brokers, Inc. of Kansas City, MO

· Kevin Barry at Orion Home Inspections, Inc. of Bonita Springs, FL

· Braddon Cornish at Technology West Group, Inc. of Las Vegas, NV

· Dan Sheffield at J and L Electric Group, LLC of Seville, FL

We're also pleased to share the newly created or revamped Social Media Networking pages for these fine businesses we get to call clients:

· The Lykos Group

o    Facebook:  www.Facebook.com/LykosGroup

o    Twitter:  www.Twitter.com/TheLykosGroup

Be sure to connect with them on Facebook and Twitter.

Would you like to be set up on Social Media Networking sites, too? Call Lisa at 239.963.5369 for more information.

Time Is Almost Up to Grandfather for Home Inspection and Mold Licenses

Our phones have been ringing with questions about Mold and Home Inspection licenses.  These new licenses came into existence in July of 2010.  The DBPR has provided a short window of time to get licensed via Grandfathering—a process with dramatically fewer requirements than the normal licensing procedure.  The deadline to Grandfather for these licenses is March 1, 2011.  It is important to note that having a State Certified Contractor license has NOTHING at all to do with getting any of these licenses; however having these new licenses may be a nice compliment to the licenses that you may already hold.  Grandfathering is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the DBPR.  Future requirements will be as stringent as the requirements to become a Certified Contractor!!

Mold Remediation and Mold Assessment are two separate licenses.  Each can be grandfathered in one of two different ways.  By far the easiest is by belonging to a state or national mold-related association, completing 30 hours of CEUs for Mold Remediation and 60 hours of CEUs for Mold Assessment on mold related services, and applying with the DBPR.   The other option is to Grandfather via Experience.  To do this you must establish at least 3 years of experience by submitting at least 40 invoices for mold assessment or mold remediation (as applicable to the license desired). The DBPR may investigate the validity of a mold invoice and, if the applicant submits a false invoice, may take disciplinary action.  
There are also two ways to grandfather into a home inspector license.  The easiest way is to belong to a state or national home inspection association, complete 14 hours of home inspection CEUs, and then apply with the DBPR.  The other option is to Grandfather via Experience.  To do this you must establish at least 3 years of experience as a home inspector and complete at least 14 hours of verifiable education on home inspection services. To establish the 3 years of experience, you must submit a list of at least 120 home inspection reports. The DBRP may investigate the validity of a home inspection report submitted and, if the applicant submits a false report, may take disciplinary action. 

Please note that these licenses are individual licenses—they do not qualify a business.  This means that there must be a licensee on site at each project that is being worked on.  So there will need to be a licensed mold remediator on each project while work is being performed.  You cannot have staff working on a project without having a licensee present.  Assessment work can only be performed by a licensed assessor.  Reconstruction can only be performed by an appropriately licensed contractor.

How can Licenses Etc. help you get licensed quickly and easily? 

As always, we make preparing the application forms as easy as possible for our clients.  We have created a special discounted fee structure for people who are trying to beat the grandfathering deadline.  Because we know that many of you will be applying for two or maybe even three of these licenses, we’ve developed a package deal. 

Initial Licensing:  Grandfathering (via certification and education only)

Mold Remediator, Mold Assessor or Home Inspector:

1^st application per applicant:  $300—additional concurrent applications $150 each

This charge includes the following:

§   Typed, easy-to-read forms (with the exact information required to get your application approved the first time!)

§   In-depth, 2-time review of the entire application package to ensure everything is exactly right and all necessary supporting documents are included

§   Overnight shipping to the DBPR

§   Monitoring of DBPR’s approval process and immediate response to any issues that arise

§   Unlimited time from us to provide assistance and answer any questions you have related to the license and application process

§   A copy of your entire license package sent to you once we send it to DBPR

You will need to provide proof of certification by a state or national association for the requested license type(s) through proof of a proctored examination and also proof of completing the required number of hours of education per license type(s).  We can provide information on different courses that are available…just let us know if you need details.

The other costs for you are the class/membership fees, the DBPR application fee, and the fingerprinting fee. The application fees must be separate checks made out directly to the DBPR for $330 for each license that you’re going to acquire. The fingerprinting costs are $57.25.

This pricing is valid for deposits received no later than February 15^th 2011.  Applications must be RECEIVED at the DBPR no later than February 28^th, 2011. 

Call us now and you can have the paperwork in hand when you complete the class.  What could be easier than walking out of class with everything together and ready to mail?  Contact us NOW…we’ll make things easy for you!

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