Guest Editorial

We are eagerly heading to the Palm Springs Convention and are excited about meeting colleagues in person again.

The Monitoring Association (TMA) announced that systems integrator Convergint Technologies, LLC., Renton, WA, became the 50th FirstNet certified company. 

You are probably aware of the Colonial pipeline ransomware debacle which recently shut down 45% of the East coast supply of jet fuel and gasoline.  This led to long lines at gas stations as we approached the Memorial Day holiday.

Here we are mid-2020 and finally things are coming back to life.  A new comfort level with being “out and about” is provided by vaccines and encouraging statistics of a declining pandemic.  Businesses, shops, stores, restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, etc., are all coming back to life.

The last few articles have attempted to show the growing interaction between the security industry and the solar rooftop opportunity.  Solar rooftop (with batteries) within a mini-grid environment would likely have eliminated much of the damage from the “Texas freeze” a few months ago.  Texas has its own interconnecting grid that covers the entire state.  All of the interconnecting switches, valves and other components required a winter upgrade, which did not happen.  When a portion of the system froze, the entire grid went down and the state went into a deep freeze.

There is another new study that points to a direct correlation between customer reviews and revenues for the businesses who receive them. Conducted by a leading social analytics firm and the Paley Center for Media, this study measured exactly how much more people were willing to pay for products based on the reviews they had…

Over the last few months, we have written about the growth prospects and necessity of rooftop solar especially here in California and the West.  Many pundits predict that the number of new solar homes will be approximately 30 million, with most of them in California.  The truth may be that the number might be larger…

After a year of coping with COVID lockdowns and reduced revenues the potential increase in business and individual tax rates may be our next challenge.  President Biden has suggested raising federal rates on businesses and the wealthy to pay for his forthcoming infrastructure bill and programs to combat inequality and climate change. Under his proposed…

Payroll taxes and withholding present a tempting source of working capital for a small business.  Payroll tax payments are easy to divert because there isn’t really an invoice (at first).  Payroll taxes and withholding are ‘voluntarily’ reported on IRS Form 941 (Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return) and paid via direct deposit to the IRS.  The…

Just over a year ago, businesses in this country and around the world had to shift into a very different mode of operating as shelter in place and work from home became the new reality.   Once we addressed keeping our employees and co-workers safe, the big questions on the minds of everyone in the…