Bookkeeping Express Expands in Washington, D.C. Market

McLean, VA, August 13, 2008 - Greg Jones, CEO of Bookkeeping Express Enterprises LLC, announced today that the company has sold the franchise rights to seven territories within the Washington, DC, city limits to a group of local entrepreneurs.

McLean-based Bookkeeping Express provides certified bookkeeping services to small businesses nationwide. The company launched a franchise system on June 16, 2008. 

“Once we build out these territories, Bookkeeping Express will have doubled its presence in the metro Washington area,” said Jones. “This is just the beginning. Now that we are offering franchise opportunities, we are receiving a phenomenal number of inquiries and expect to grow regionally and then nationally at a very manageable pace.”

Bookkeeping Express tied for the #10 listing of locally-based franchises in the July 18, 2008, edition of the Washington Business Journal. The list ranks locally-based franchises by the number of metro-Washington-area locations. On the date of publication, Bookkeeping Express had seven area locations, tying with the Austin Grill, which was founded in 1988.

Bookkeeping Express opened its first corporate office in January 2008 at its headquarters in McLean and has added other corporate offices in Reston, Arlington, and Leesburg, Virginia; Rockville, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

On July 23, Bookkeeping Express signed an agreement with a group of local entrepreneurs trading under the name of Intelligent Bookkeeping. The owners, Rick Lowrie, Chris Keenan and Pramod Raheja, operate five Intelligent Offices in the metro Washington area. The Washington office of Intelligent Bookkeeping will be headquartered at Intelligent Office of Washington, 1425 K Street NW, Suite 350.

“By teaming with the local Intelligent Office owners, we are bringing value-added bookkeeping services to the small business community in Washington, DC,” says Jones.

“We are partnering with Bookkeeping Express to add to our services to small businesses,” says Lowrie. “This is a logical extension of the front-office services we offer our in-house clients and companies in the metro Washington area to help them grow their businesses. Bookkeeping Express is a perfect fit for the entrepreneur who wants to economically outsource their back office operations, which can take countless hours of the business owner’s time. It’s a time and quality issue. We free up the business owner’s time and provide a quality service.”

Bookkeeping Express leverages technology and a platform that has been in place for more than 20 years to maximize resources and reduce expenses. The business owner pays only for the services he/she uses, which could include any or all of the following:

• Setting up Chart of Accounts and General Ledger
• Monthly data entry
• Processing and managing Accounts Payable and Account Receivable
• Producing regular monthly reports
• Tax reporting.

“The Bookkeeping Express Bookkeepers are insured and certified. They provide a unique service and a protection to our clients,” says Lowrie. “Often when you hire a bookkeeper, you have no idea of his/her training, certification or integrity. Bookkeeping Express puts its bookkeepers through a thorough corporate training program and they are certified by the American Institute of Professional Bookkeeping. They are available to clients online, by phone or in person.”

About Bookkeeping Express
Coming out of Northern California in 1987, Bookkeeping Express (www.bookkeepingexpress.us) started out selling services to small businesses through a licensing model. There are 27 existing licensee locations across the United States. Three entrepreneurs in McLean, Virginia, purchased the business in the fall of 2007 and launched a franchise system in June 2008.

Bookkeeping Express has established partnerships with QuickBooks® to provide its electronic software platform, Automatic Data Processing, Inc., (ADP) to provide payroll services and the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers to oversee its training and certification program.

About Intelligent Office

Intelligent Office serves a client base of approximately 1000 small businesses in the metro Washington area. With locations in Arlington, Reston and Tysons Corner in Virginia, Rockville, Maryland, and downtown Washington, Intelligent Office provides business support services and executive phone service with a Remote Receptionist, which is especially attractive to home-based businesses and virtual companies.

For more information on their Intelligent Bookkeeping services, visit www.bookkeepingexpress.us or call 202-587-5700.

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 Brenda Blisk Named One of Top Wealth Advisors Nationally and in State of Virginia

McLean, VA, June 20, 2008 –- Brenda Blisk, CFP® and CEO of the Blisk Financial Group (www.bliskfinancialgroup.com)  at Spire Investment Partners in McLean, Virginia  has been named one of Barron’s Top 100 Women Financial Advisors.  

Blisk has also been named one of the Top 50 Wealth Advisors in Virginia. This is the second year she has been named to both lists. With clients in more than 20 states, Blisk and her team manage $240 million in assets.

Blisk is # 90 in the national list, which appears in Barron’s June 9th edition and #19 in the Virginia list, which appears in the June edition of Virginia Business magazine. Both lists are compiled by R. J. Shook and based on criteria such as a minimum of seven years of financial services experience and other weighted requirements including wealth management focus and customer satisfaction.

According to Virginia Business Magazine, “R.J. Shook’s ranking process begins with a national survey of securities firms, insurance companies, banks, independent financial adviser practices, and other organizations that employ series-7 registered financial advisors. Shook says that each of these firms promotes objective and independent advice and provides clients open access to the best products available in the market. He extracted the Virginia rankings from his national research database.”

Finalist for Philanthropy Award

Blisk has been recognized by the Washington Business Journal as a finalist for its 2008 Philanthropy Awards. Blisk is a finalist in the category of CEO Leadership Award for Small Business. The awards will be presented on June 17.

Blisk founded The Blisk Financial Group 23 years ago and in 1997 became an Investor Advisor Representative of Legacy Advisors, LLC, (now Spire Investment Partners) in McLean, Virginia. Wealth Manager Magazine has ranked the firm as one of its top financial advisory firms four consecutive years from 2004 through 2007. Spire manages over $1 billion (update?) in client assets.

Blisk provides independent advice and asset management to executives, retirees, families, and business owners with wealth accumulation, wealth management and distribution strategies. Her services include retirement planning, investment management, distribution planning and long-term care and special needs planning.

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200 Guests Attended 100th Anniversary Celebration at McCandlish & Lillard in Fairfax

Fairfax, VA, June 20, 2008 - Two hundred guests attended the 100th anniversary celebration at the law firm of McCandlish & Lillard (www.mccandlaw.com). The guests included local politicians, judges, clients, friends of the firm, former partners and families of the original founders. The celebration was held at the firm’s offices in the City of Fairfax on June 19.

McCandlish & Lillard traces its beginnings to the practice of F.D. Richardson in 1908. To mark the milestone, the firm has documented its 100-year legacy of excellence in a narrative and pictorial history entitled “McCandlish & Lillard 1908-2008: 100 Years of Tradition, Innovation, and Results.”

The growth of McCandlish & Lillard has been closely aligned with the growth of Fairfax County and Northern Virginia. Today, McCandlish & Lillard’s traditions are carried on by its present-day team of 20 lawyers with offices in both Fairfax and Leesburg, Virginia.  The Firm provides legal services in six primary practice areas:  Business, Health Care, Information Technology, Litigation, Real Estate and Individual Services, including personal injury litigation and domestic relations.

During its 100-year history, McCandlish & Lillard has made significant contributions to the legal and business communities of Fairfax County, Northern Virginia and the Commonwealth of Virginia.  The Firm has produced two presidents of the Virginia Bar Association, five presidents of the Fairfax Bar Association and the current and a former Loudoun County Bar Association president.  Members of the Firm and its employees participate in countless other charitable, pro bono, Chamber of Commerce, and bar related programs.

Eleven attorneys from McCandlish & Lillard were named to Virginia’s Legal Elite in December 2007. Most of the Firm’s attorneys named to the 2007 list have been honored several times previously. Three of the firm’s attorneys, Peter A. Arntson, Gary W. Brown and J. Robert McAllister, III, have been recognized as “The Best Lawyers in America.”  Gary Brown, Peyton Mahaffey, Douglas Sanderson and Randolph Sutliff, of the Legal Elite list, were also named to “Super Lawyers” in the Commonwealth of Virginia and in the Washington D.C. area, and Mahaffey was also named to “Top Lawyers” by Washingtonian Magazine.

Richard Vodra, Expert on “Peak Oil,” Is Named Financial Planner of the Year 

McLean, VA, June 16, 2008 - Richard E. Vodra, J.D., CFP®, 60, vice president of Spire Investment Partners, LLC, has been named the Financial Planner of the Year by the Financial Planning Association, National Capital Area Chapter (FPA NCA) at the chapter’s annual gala on June 12.

Vodra is an expert on the financial implications of “peak oil” and global climate change. Peak oil refers to the point in time when the world will reach a peak in the production of oil. Once the world hits that peak, oil production will go into decline, prices will rise, and shortages will develop worldwide. The American lifestyle which depends on consumption of cheap energy will face dramatic changes. Some experts believe that “peak oil” production has already been reached; others predict the peak will occur by 2012.

In 2007, Vodra was the first person to speak to the Financial Planning Association’s National Retreat about the implications of the world’s finite energy resources. He was also the first financial planner to speak to the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas at their national conference last October.

He has written two articles on these subjects for Financial Planning Magazine. More recently, Financial Advisor magazine wrote about Vodra and his planning practice in “A Compelling Inconvenience,” which appeared in its March 2008 issue (copy of article attached). 

In 1997, Vodra served as president of the Northern Virginia Chapter of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners, the predecessor of the FPA NCA Chapter. He served on the local board through most of the 1990s. Nationally, he serves as Vice-Chair of the Public Issues Advisory Council and as a member of the editorial review board of the Journal of Financial Planning.

About Richard Vodra

Richard Vodra is a founding member of the Nazrudin Project, a group of about 125 financial advisors who are responsible for much of the “Life Planning” movement in the last decade.

He manages $100 million for 40 clients, who have an average of $2 million invested with him. His “Worldview Two” portfolio includes direct investments in energy production, global currencies and global bonds.

Vodra received the Certified Financial Planner designation in 1988. He worked with the Financial Services Group, Mason Associates and the Acacia Group before joining Spire Investment Partners in 1997.  His book, Enough Money, was published in 2002.

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in economics from the College of Wooster, an independent liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio, nationally recognized for its curriculum of independent learning. He received his law degree from the Yale Law School.

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2000 Children Will Enjoy New Reading Room at Unity Health Care’s Clinic

Washington, D.C., June 2, 2008 – Two thousand children who visit Unity Health Care’s East of the River Center will soon enjoy a new reading room. Design plans were unveiled on May 28.

Sherry Ways, Principal Designer, of Design Scheme Interiors, LLC, a DC- based interior design firm, is leading a team of local volunteers who are refurbishing the reading corner with new seating, new books and a mural by local artist William Howard.

 “Unity Health Care Foundation is pleased to partner in this effort to enhance our reading corner,” says Vince A. Keane, CEO/President of the Unity Health Care Foundation.  “When 35% percent of DC's children live in poverty, such children generally enter school with basic skills lagging two or more years behind those of other children. Every effort that our community makes to help improve reading among our clients will have a lasting impact on improving literacy in the District.”

Ways was joined by William Howard as they unveiled their designs for the reading corner and the mural during a meeting at the Unity Health Care’s East of the River Center (123 45th Street, NE) on Wednesday May 28, 2007. Both are members of the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, one of the groups sponsoring the project. Ways also serves on the Board of Directors.

The other sponsoring groups are Unity Health Care Foundation and the Decorators’ Alliance of North America (DANA) of which Ways is a member. Ways is leading this effort as the local coordinator of Project H.O.M.E. (Helping others, Opening doors, Making over lives, Empowering people), a national program started by DANA.

Health Centers Work with Rech Out and Read

“Unity Health Care Foundation works in partnership with Reach Out and Read of Metropolitan Washington to improve literacy and promote a greater inertest in reading to the clients served at Unity Health Care Centers,” says Ways.  “In an effort to promote these efforts the center hosts routine reading and story-telling circles with volunteer readers; however, the reading site is the in the midst of a bustling, distracting waiting area.  Our goal is to create a beautiful, functional space that will be conducive to learning.”

According to The State Education Agency, a recent study found that 36% of Washington, DC, residents are functionally illiterate compared to a national average of 21%.  People who are functionally illiterate have some ability to read and write but not enough to be able to fully function in everyday life. They have difficulty with crucial tasks such as filling out job applications, reading maps, understanding bus schedules, reading newspaper articles, etc. These factors are compounded by the factors associated with high rates of poverty that residents in Ward 7 face each day. 

Unity’s East of the River Key Corner Project is also seeking financial contributions of $500 and up, which can be made payable to the Unity Health Care Foundation. For more than 20 years, Unity Health Care, Inc., a non- profit, 501(c) (3) foundation, has provided health care and social services to the under-insured, the uninsured, the homeless and working poor in Washington.

About the participating organizations:

Unity Health Care, Washington DC’s largest nonprofit health and social service organization serves individuals and families in all eight wards of the District of Columbia through its network of eleven community health centers, four specialized health centers, nine sites serving homeless people and two mobile medical units. More than 80,000 people including the working poor, uninsured, homeless and the formerly incarcerated benefited from services in 2007. Additional information about Unity Health Care, Inc., visit our website: www.unityhealthcare.org.

The Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, also a non profit, 501(c) (3) organization, seeks to foster awareness of, support for, and participation in the arts among community residents and visitors of all ages and to preserve and enhance the local community's cultural and entertainment heritage.

The Decorators’ Alliance of North America is a national membership organization providing professional affiliation, certification and continuing education to the interior decorating trade.

In late 2007, DANA launched Project H.O.M.E. with the choice of three pilot projects: the Children’s Reading Corner project here; the rebuilding of a home for a family of six in Jupiter, Florida, who lost their first home to fire; and the refurbishing of a TV/Craft room for Project Shelter in Akron, Ohio, a residential program for children aged six to 18, with adjustment problems. To follow progress of the H.O.M.E. project, visit www.projecthome2008.blogspot.com.

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