Wall Street Media Presents Exclusive Videos from the William Blair - Businesswire.com
NEW YORK–( BUSINESS WIRE )–Wall Street Media is presenting exclusive highlight videos from the presentations of THQ Inc., (NASDAQ: THQI), Donaldson Company Inc., (NYSE: DCI), Eclipsys Corp., (NASDAQ: ECLP), Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc

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Filed under: Estates

This Newport, Rhode Island home is a beauty with a long history. The home was built in 1881 for Edwin Dennison Morgan III, of the J.P. Morgan family and became a studio for sculptor Felix de Weldon, who created the statue of The Flag Raising on Iwo Jima. The home sits on three acres of rolling lawns and boasts beautiful harbor views. The home is an 11,000 square foot residence which has luxurious details such as gold brick domed ceilings and hand painted Gracie murals. The home is completely modern but the exposed brick and hewn beams show the original home’s bones. The home has a lavish master suite and four additional en suite bedrooms. The property also includes a fitness cottage, landscaped grounds and a small pool. It is listed at $9.9 million.
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Continue reading Beacon Rock, Estate of the Day

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To continue my interview with the owner of Olde World Bed and Breakfast in Dover, Ohio (Check out Part 1-intro, Part 2-benefits of staying in a B&B, and part 3-cost/benefit analysis of b&b ownership).

My husband and I just returned from spending two nights at a wonderful bed and breakfast in Dover, Ohio called Olde World B&B. We’ve stayed here at least 4 times, partly because we’ve family in the area, and also because we love this place. It has a beautiful garden, a hot tub in a separate building, and a deck out back where you can sit and grill out and watch the sunset.

In addition to being a great B&B, Olde World is also a “tea room,” where groups (usually ladies) can come for a lovely lunch and tea. They also do wedding and baby showers in their big parlor.

Yesterday I talked about the process Linda and Ronnie Stroup went through to find the B&B and get it started. After they took over last June, the summer and fall were pretty good, with tourists coming to see the fall foliage and do Christmas shopping. Then the winter hit, and they went for weeks at a time with no business. They laid off their housekeeper and did the work themselves when people came, and the wedding/baby showers helped keep them going. The lived off their savings (Ronnie had changed jobs), and made it through until now. With the good weather, business is picking up, but it is still slow because people aren’t traveling with the gas prices so high. Linda is hoping people will begin taking short day/weekend trips (”one-tank” trips, she called them).

As you can see, the B&B business is tough. Linda says you need to be in a tourist area or large university town, but even the tourist business may be seasonal, and the economy has a direct effect on it.

Linda states they are in this for the long haul. They love their lives now and they want to be in the area. She states it’s not unusual for B&B owners to burn out after a couple of years. It is very hard work. The biggest challenge is the requirement that you be around, all the time. Don’t plan on taking trips, or taking off for more than an afternoon/evening. You need to be there to serve breakfast every morning, and make sure the guests feel welcomed and provided for.

The Stroups live in the basement of their B&B,as do many other owners, but you may need to find somewhere else to live (close by), or find someone to run the place for you.

Linda believes there are several essentials you need to have if you want to be a B&B owner:

• A love of cooking. You’re going to be doing a lot of it.
• A genuine interest in people and an capability to relate to them. Introverts don’t do well, because you have to chat with people, show an interest in them, and generally be a “friendly innkeeper.” No introverts here, please.
• As I said above, you must be willing to give up travel plans and long vacations (unless you do them in the very slow time, but then who has the money then?!) and concentrate on being there every day.

To Linda’s list, I would add two more:

• An capability to do fix-up chores easily. Most B&B’s are older homes, and they need a lot of care. If you or your spouse aren’t mechanically inclined, you’ll need to find someone to do the work for you, sometimes on an emergency basis.
• Finally, and maybe most important, enough cash reserves to sustain you in the slow times. If Linda and Ronnie had not had savings to draw on last winter, they wouldn’t have been able to pay the bank and other fixed expenses. You must know how to live on a small income and “make do” until business comes in.

Tomorrow, marketing a B&B

Photo courtesy Linda Stroup

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Brazil stocks drop on Petrobras, Itau; real falls - Reuters
SAO PAULO, June 18 (Reuters) - Brazilian stocks fell on Wednesday as investors sold off oil giant Petrobras and banking shares, while the currency weakened as investors’ appetite for risky emerging market securities waned. The Sao Paulo Stock

MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks Beat An Early Retreat, Playing Off FedEx - CNN Money
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Stocks open lower as FedEx issues profit warning - Washington Post
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US stocks head for lower open as oil prices rise - Boston Globe
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US STOCKS-Market falls on banks’ woes, FedEx outlook - CNBC
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US STOCKS-Market opens lower on FedEx, banks - Reuters
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Brazilian Stocks Fall on Inflation Concern, Led by Retailers - Bloomberg
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Stocks fall amid concerns about financials, FedEx - Newsday
NEW YORK - Stocks extended their declines Wednesday amid renewed concerns about the financial sector and after FedEx Corp. warned that weakening demand and surging fuel costs would weigh on fiscal 2009 profits. The major indexes each lost more than 1

Stocks fall in early trade - CNN Money
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks fell on Wednesday morning on weak earnings reports from both the investment bank Morgan Stanley and delivery company Fed Ex. The Dow Jones industrial average ( INDU ) was down 0.2% and the broader Standard & Poor’s

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