Nolan Accounting Center, a Greenfield-based accounting firm that focuses on small business clients, has acquired West Allis-based Mitter Accounting & Associates Inc. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Janice Mitter, former owner of Mitter Accounting, and her three full time and six seasonal employees have become employees of Nolan Accounting Center, said Timothy Nolan, president of the company.

Mitter Accounting’s former West Allis office has been closed, with all operations consolidated into Nolan Accounting Center’s Greenfield offices. With the addition of the Mitter Accounting employees, Nolan Accounting has 22 full time employees and about 11 seasonal workers.

Before the acquisition, Robert Nolan, founder of Nolan Accounting Center, and Janice Mitter knew each other professionally for many years, Nolan said. The pair began talking about the acquisition in June, and the transaction closed Oct. 1.

“They knew each other’s practice,” he said. “We work on similar matters, we’re both focused on small businesses. Mitter) offered payroll services that we could automate, and we can do the same thing with income taxes.”

To help its customers overcome the current difficulty in obtaining traditional bank financing to purchase businesses, Sunbelt Business Brokers has partnered with Pendarvis Capital Group (PCG), a Maryland-based financial group, to provide alternative financing.

Sunbelt, a national business broker, has a Brookfield-based franchise location. The firm specializes in the sale of Main Street type businesses, with deal sizes ranging between $250,000 to more than $5 million.

PCG was created by Ed Pendarvis, who founded the Sunbelt network in 1978, said Ed Krajcir, owner of the Brookfield Sunbelt franchise. Pendarvis is no longer affiliated with Sunbelt, but PCG’s financial services are offered exclusively through Sunbelt, Kracjir said.

“Financing through the banks and credit markets tightened over the fourth quarter,” he said. “We sell businesses and it’s been a challenge.”

PCG has secured funding from an un-named private lending group, Kracjir said. He said Sunbelt is not releasing more information about the lending group at this time. However, PCG is vetting all financing applications, effectively serving as the lender from the customer’s perspective.

“PCG is the group that’s doing the financing from the buyer’s perspective,” Kracjir said. “They have secured the funds with the group.”

The firm is financing deals between $100,000 and $750,000, Kracjir said. The buyer and seller must contribute a 50 percent down payment in total to qualify for PCG financing.

“Over 30 years of selling businesses, Sunbelt has learned that when both parties have skin in the game the business will be more successful,” Kracjir said. “It means both parties can’t walk away and it helps make everyone more motivated.”

Interest rates for the PCG money are higher than traditional bank financing – the company is offering its loans for about 13.95 percent over six years. However, that higher interest rate is more affordable because the money is paid back faster, Krachir said.

“When you talk about a six year term the interest rate is such a small percent because the principal is being paid back,” Kracjir said. “Principal is such a large percentage (of the monthly payment) because it’s being paid back more quickly.”

For more information, visit www.sunbeltmidwest.com.

The U.S. Small Business Administration will honor 15 Milwaukee businesses who participated in the first class of the Emerging 200 Initiative (e200) tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District office, 260 W. Seeboth St.

The e200 program identified a series of 200 inner city businesses around the country that had high growth potential. The business owners were then enrolled in a free six month business education program that focused on organization management, growth strategies and growth management, market development and strategic planning.

The 15 Milwaukee businesses who took part in this year’s e200 program are: Buveck Consultants, Companion Natural Pet Food, Cross Management Services Inc., Holliman & Laster Plumbing, Maures Development Corp., McDowell Construction, Phoenix Electric, Penebaker Enterprises, Pinnacle XL Inc., Prism Technical, Ramirez Restoration, Reynolds Pasty Shop, Spann & Associates, Wild Flour Bakery, and Zoe Engineering.

Other cities that took part in this year’s program included Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Des Moines, Memphis, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

“These business owners participated in a mini-MBA curriculum that focused on developing a winning strategy for their business, including options for capital access and contracting,” said SBA Deputy Administrator Jovita Carranza. “They worked with mentors, attended workshops, and networked with leaders in the business and financial community. The results have so exceeded our expectations we are adding five expansion cities so that we can train up to 250 urban entrepreneurs this coming year.”

Will the economy begin to rebound in 2009, or will the recession deepen? What will be the opportunities for growth? What will be the most significant obstacles in our path?
The answers to those questions and more will be explored in the 2009 Northern Trust Economic Trends Breakfast to be presented by Small Business Times on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at the Italian Community Center in downtown Milwaukee.

The speaker lineup for the 2009 conference will include:

• Michael Knetter, dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Business in Madison, will return to provide his macroeconomic outlook. Knetter, a former economic advisor to Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, will have some especially timely and critical insight at the 2009 event.
• With the conference occurring one day after the presidential inauguration, Jeff Mayers, president of WisPolitics.com, will provide insights about the priorities of the Obama administration, the Congressional agenda and the impact on Wisconsin.
• Jerry Shereshewsky, chief executive officer of Grandparents.com, will travel from New York City to Milwaukee to join the panel and speak about how Wisconsin businesses will have incredible opportunities to market their products and services to the growing population of baby boomer grandparents. This generation has wealth and is more vibrant, healthy and dynamic than any preceding generation of grandparents, according to Shereshewsky, who is a legend on New York's Madison Avenue. Shereshewsky invented the Mellow Yellow brand of soda. After stints among the "Mad Men" with Wunderman, Burson Marsteller, the Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and Yoyodyne, Shereshewsky became one of the driving forces in the growth of Yahoo!, where he spent almost nine years overseeing marketing for the Yahoo! Media Sales Group. Shereshewsky, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, served on the board of directors of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), as well as the Dean's Advisory Board at the UW School of Business.
• Richard Meeusen, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Badger Meter Inc., will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing Wisconsin's manufacturers in 2009. Meeusen says Milwaukee's proximity to Lake Michigan will provide economic opportunities for the region. Badger Meter has grown to become a global company. The firm's stock is now traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
• Jane Cooper, founder, president and chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Patient Care, the nation's leading advocacy company that helps employees navigate the health care system and become better consumers, will discuss the future of health care. Patient Care's clients include Assurant Health, Harley-Davidson Motor Co., MillerCoors LLC, Briggs & Stratton Corp., Regency Hospital Company and Midwest Airlines. Cooper founded her company in New Orleans in 2001. Cooper and her company fled to Milwaukee after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. Previously, Cooper was the CEO of the Community Physicians Network in Madison, Wisconsin, where she led a financial turnaround of the regional Independent Physician's Association (IPA). She also founded Advantage Health Plan, a regional preferred provider organization (PPO) and health maintenance organization, which grew to $280 million in annual revenues and 300 employees. Cooper also served as the chairman of the American Association of PPOs. She will discuss the future of health care in America.

To register to attend the event, visit www.biztimes.com/trends.

Manitowoc Company sells off Marine division
The Manitowoc Company Inc. announced the completion of its previously announced sale of its marine segment to Fincantieri Marine Group Holdings Inc., an Italian shipbuilder.
The acquiring company is a subsidiary of Fincantieri-Cantieri Navali Italiani SpA.
The net purchase price in the all-cash deal was approximately $120 million. Manitowoc intends to use the after-tax proceeds for debt reduction and other corporate purposes.
"We are now entirely focused on two strategic lines of business: cranes and commercial foodservice equipment," said Manitowoc chief executive officer Glen Tellock. "We have built market leadership positions in both of these global markets and now will be able to direct all of our efforts on growing these two businesses even further. While the company was founded as a shipbuilder in 1902, in recent years we have pursued growth in markets where we have stronger competitive positions and opportunities."
In 2007, Manitowoc's marine segment reported annual sales of $321 million and operating earnings of $26 million.

Mach One will acquire Kenosha firm

Name:  Joe Martin

Title: Vice President and Director of Commercial Banking

Company: Bank Mutual

City of Residence: Mequon

Family: Wife Sue, Daughter Michelle and Son Nicholas

What’s new at your company this year? “We added experienced and consultative relationship managers to our Commercial Banking and Investment Real Estate departments as we continue to increase our focus and emphasis on growing these two areas. We rolled out our new Remote Deposit Capture service, which allows business owners to make deposits at their place of business without coming to the bank. We opened brand new offices in Franklin and Greenfield and are now up to 78 Wisconsin locations plus one in Woodbury, Minn.”

What was the best project you’ve been involved with? “While most have been a true pleasure to work on, financing my very first commercial office building construction project many years ago was very rewarding as I was able to help numerous businesses who moved into the new building, along with learning the basics of commercial construction lending.”

What was the most interesting moment of your career? “Getting a two hour tour on a tractor of a very large apple orchard. The owner kept stopping and giving me different types of apples to sample. By the time we were done, I was hoping I’d never see another apple for a long time.”

Distressed newspaper company could face stock delisting

Lee Enterprises Inc., the Davenport, Iowa-based parent company of The Journal Times in Racine, has been notified by the New York Stock Exchange that it has fallen below the NYSE's continued listing standard relating to average share price.

Lee also owns half of Madison-based Capital Newspapers, publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times.

The stock exchange standard requires a minimum average closing price of $1 per share over a consecutive 30-trading-day period.

The NYSE also noted that Lee was nearing non-compliance with its market capitalization standard, which requires a 30-trading-day average of $25 million. The NYSE said it reserves the right to re-evaluate continued listing determinations regarding other standards, including whether the stock trades at sustained levels that are considered to be abnormally low.

Lee intends to notify the NYSE within the required period of 10 business days of its plans to return to compliance.

Under the NYSE rules related to the average share price, Lee common stock is allowed to continue to be listed on the exchange during a six-month cure period. Suspension and delisting procedures could begin sooner if other standards, such as the $25 million average market capitalization, are not met.

Lee operates 49 daily newspapers and a joint interest in four others, online sites and more than 300 weekly newspapers and specialty publications in 23 states.

Daily newspapers throughout the nation are facing significant economic distress.

Journal Communications Inc., the parent company of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, recently announced it expects to take a fourth-quarter charge of as much as $240.4 million to reflect a decline in the value of its assets.

State closes year with record budget deficit

The Wisconsin state government closed its books on fiscal year 2008 with a $2.5 billion deficit, the largest in the state's history, according to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group dedicated to policy research and citizen education.

The deficit figure was reported in the state's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) prepared by the state controller and audited by the Legislative Audit Bureau.

"It usually goes unnoticed, but each year at this time, the state issues its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) prepared by the state controller using generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). This year's CAFR puts the state's 2008 GAAP deficit at $2.5 billion. Relative to population or state income, Wisconsin has the largest GAAP deficit of all 50 states," the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance reported.

Wisconsin has reported GAAP deficits for almost two decades, regardless of who was governor or which party controlled the legislature. A new development, however, is the size of the deficit and the direction it is headed.

To obtain a copy of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance's report, titled, "Unmentioned news story of 2008?" send an e-mail to wistax@wistax.org.

Consumer confidence plummets with home prices

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index declined to a new all-time low in December.

The index now stands at 38.0 (1985=100), down from 44.7 in November. The Present Situation Index plummeted to 29.4 from 42.3 last month. The Expectations Index decreased to 43.8 from 46.2 in November.

The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a sample of 5,000 U.S. households.

Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said, "The further erosion of the Consumer Confidence Index reflects the rapid and steep deterioration of economic conditions that occurred in the fourth quarter of 2008. The Present Situation Index is now close to levels last seen in the months following the 1990-91 recession, but is not as low as levels reached during the 1981-82 recession. Declines in the Expectations Index appear to be moderating, but this index continues to hover at historical lows. Both sub-indexes bear careful watching over the next several months to see if they are starting to show signs of approaching a bottom. In the meantime, however, the overall economic outlook remains quite dismal for the first half of 2009, and only a modest recovery is expected in the second half."

Consumers claiming business conditions are "bad" increased to 46.0 percent from 40.6 percent, while those claiming business conditions are "good" declined to 7.7 percent from 10.1 percent last month.

Consumers' assessment of the labor market also was considerably more negative than a month ago. Those saying jobs are "hard to get" rose to 42.0 percent from 37.1 percent in November, while those claiming jobs are "plentiful" decreased to 6.2 percent from 8.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index fell by a record 18 percent from October last year, the largest drop since its inception in 2000.

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce will hold a "Mandated Sick Leave Legal Challenge" from 7:30 to 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 13 in the MMAC offices, 756 N. Milwaukee St., suite 400. There is no cost for this meeting. Speakers include: Scott Beightol - Managing Partner, Michael Best and Friedrich Daniel J. Finerty - Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. (Maximum of 70 individuals may attend.) Cancellation Policy: If you pre-register for an event and cannot make it, please kindly let us know, in advance. Contact Person: CARRIE GOGGIN (414) 287.4114 cgoggin@mmac.org.

"Assessing Nonprofit Organization and Managerial Effectiveness" Seminar will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tueday, Jan. 20 in the UW-Milwaukee School of Continuing Education facility, 161 W. Wisconsin Avenue 7th Floor. Cost is $150 per person. For information, email sbufford@uwm.edu.

Banking

• Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions 
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
• Wisconsin Bankers Association 
• Community Bankers of Wisconsin
• Wisconsin Mortgage Bankers Association
• American Bankers Association
• Bankers Association for Finance and Trade
• Commercial Finance Association 
• Risk Management Association

Mergers & Acquisitions

• Association for Corporate Growth 
• International Business Brokers Association 
• Mergers.com

Wealth Management/Financial/Retirement Planning

• Financial Planning Association
• Financial Planning Association of Southern Wisconsin
• Investment Management Consultants Association
• National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA)

Other 

• Small Business Administration
• State public awareness campaign
• Wisconsin Credit Union League
• CFA Institute
• CFA Society of Milwaukee
• Wisconsin Angel Network