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As I was saying on Tuesday the 5th, in the primary held in London by the Democrats Abroad (DA), my personal feeling was well confirmed worldwide: 66% of voters chose Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton in the DA global primary result, representing thousands of ballots submitted by 164 countries and territories between Feb. 5 and Feb. 12.
As explained by the IHT, Americans living abroad had the possibility to vote online, by mail, fax or in person (in some 30 countries). The overseas Democrats allocated a small number of delegates on Thursday: 4.5 (Obama wiining 2.5 and Clinton winning 2). A further 2.5 delegates will be allocated at a DA convention in April 12 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The group also holds 4 superdelegate votes, for a total of 11 votes in the national convention scheduled for late August in Denver.
Born in Hawaii, Obama did particularly well in the Asia-Pacific region, winning 79% of the vote in Japan and 76% in Indonesia. He also did well in Europe, carrying more than 70% of the votes in Switzerland and France. Clinton won in Israel, the Dominican Republic and the Phillipines. her best regional showing was in the Americas, with 44% of the vote.
Republicans do not hold a global primary but they cast votes directly in their home districts (also on option for DA).
Biba has been specializing in networking for years. Her company, Biba4Network, helps business owners to connect to who they need and maximize their networking results.
Focus on Career aims to help Francophones to start their own businesses in the US and facilitate their expatriation.
Company:
Biba4Network, LLC / Focus on Career
City - Country : New York/Miami - USA
On which economic sector are you acting and what is its advantage?
Biba4Network international network for proactive entrepreneurs and small business owners, helps people to maximize their networking results, connecting them to who they need to meet & training them to network more effectively so that they can grow their businesses faster.
Focus on Career, French division of Biba4Network, is a One-Stop-Shop specialized to help Francophones to start their own businesses in the US. From incorporation to immigration, accounting, banking, communication, public relation, launch of products, business development, real estate investment and a lot more.
As a One-Stop-Shop, we save time and money to our clients. As a Francophone network, we speak their language, know their culture and can advise them on the American business culture to avoid the biggest mistake that most foreigners made when they try to start a business on their own.
Can you talk a bit about your company?
Started in 2003 in New York, Biba4Network open a second office in Miami in 2007. Based on networking, our company works with business partners and experts, all specialized on their own field, to serve the clients and facilitate their expatriation . Thanks to our extended network of professionals we can serve 99% of any demand of our clients.
Can you talk about your activity?
The easier way to learn more about of activities, is to read our series articles on how to work, live, and start a business in the US at www.focusoncareer.com/articles.html
Do you offer additional services?
Biba4Network organizes monthly teleclasses on various topics like networking and marketing, and a mastermind group to help entrepreneurs to grow their business.
Learn more at www.biba4Network.com
Focus on Career also helps Francophones and Europeans to invest in real estate in the US, and take advantage of the all the wonderful deals thanks to the down US real estate market and a very strong Euro. Today we can offer condos or houses for –50% to –70% less than there value.
What is the profile of your clients?
Our Biba4Network’s clients are Americans small business owners and solo-entrepreneurs, starting their business or wanted to refocus their business.
Our Focus on Career’ s clients are Europeans and mainly Francophones small business owners, from France, Belgium, Switzerland and Africa. People who already have a business in their own country or want to immigrate with a new project.
What is your first advice to somebody who want to start a business in the US ?
Want to live the American Dream is Great, but you need to be prepare. Too many people think that itw ill be easier than in France, and that they will pay less taxes. If it is your first motivation, forget about it.
Starting a business in the US, will be take longer than you think, will cast you a lot more than you think, and will get a lot more obstacles than you think.
When people come to me at first, I help them to structure their idea. I very often hear “Oh I have a great product and no competition” but when I ask about their strategies to launch the product or their investment available for this project, I have no answer.
The first think I ask my clients, is to have a very clear idea of their business and how they will promote and develop it. Then I ask them to calculate how much it will cost them for the first year, both on the business side and personal side. One third stop there, because they quickly realize that a good idea is not enough, and without a solid business plan and substantial financial investment, there is no viable business.
What are the conditions of success for a business in the US ?
As a foreigner, whatever your nationality is, you need to understand the US market, and the “American way of business”. Even if you have a very successful business in your own country, it is not a guarantee of success in the US. You need to forget almost everything you learned and start again from scratch “thinking US”. Ask help of professional, don’t try to do everything on your own, it may seams to be cheaper at first, but you will pay it ten time later, as far as time and money. If you start on the right track, then motivation and focus are the two ingredients for success.
What services/information/help do you provide to individuals?
Specializing in networking, connecting people together, we always find the right resource for our clients, using our network and creating strategic alliances and partnership on various field related to business and starting a business.
Can you speak about your service/project and the difference regarding competitors?
There is no one offering the same services as a one-stop-shop as we do. When a client come to us, he doesn’t need to look for other contacts, we provide him with everything he needs and all the contacts he needs, in a more effective and efficient way, than other, because they have only one interlocutor to take care of their file instead of wasting time to look for XYZ contacts or solutions.
What is your activity on the Internet?
All our communication is provided via our websites on internet, and most our services provided by phone.
We us a client doesn’t even have to come to the US to start his business or invest in real estate. Thanks to our network everything can be done online, or over the phone.
We also offer products, like books or CD of seminar we recorded live in New York, on the topic of starting a business in the US.
What advantages/discounts could you offer to our readers?
We offer a 30 minutes free consultation to any one who want to start a business, to discuss their project and answer their questions.
The way of choosing the candidate for each party is rather complicated in America, even for insiders.
In
the year of the presidential election (hold in November), political
parties conduct national conventions to choose their candidate. During
those conventions (summer preceding the election), delegates at the
party convention choose the candidate.
Those delegates are
selected at the state level according to rules determined by each
political party (for example, this time, the Democrats - under the
reform of Howard Dean - have decided to run a proportional vote
everywhere, where each candidate is awarded a number
of delegates in proportion to their support in the state caucuses or
the number of primary votes they won). There are two types of
primaries, closed and open. In a closed primary, voters may vote only
in the primary of the political party in which they registered (i.e. a
voter who registered as a Republican can only vote in the Republican
primary). Most states hold closed primaries.
The caucuses
are political meeting where the voters of the party (selected by the
primary election) select the delegates who will be voting for the
presidential candidate of the party at the convention.
So as a summary: American voters SELECT registered supporters for the Party at the state level who SELECT delegates who will go to the national convention to SELECT the presidential candidate of the party.
Super Tuesday
refers to the Tuesday (usually early February or March) where most of
the states will hold caucuses (24 states will be voting today - the
largest super Tuesday to date).
In order to follow closely the election and the selection process in the US, we recommend reading the blog: http://www.pollster.com
And for a more relaxed way to approach the (s)election day, here is the Seesmic video about Caucuses:
The new "Tax Cut Package" from George W Bush looks actually like a tax increase for American expatriates. As expressed by the IHT actually, those expected to feel the most pain are expatriate workers who earn comfortable, but not lavish, livings and semi- retired workers earning some foreign income while drawing U.S. Social Security, pensions and other income from U.S. sources. Many of these expatriates will be pushed into higher U.S. brackets, as will employees and independent professionals in no-tax and low-tax areas like much of the Middle East, some Caribbean nations and Hong Kong.
The foreign-earned income exclusion is expected to be lifted to $82,400 in the new law and indexed to US inflation after 2008. However there are some new legislation proposed by a Republican Senator hoping to ease expat income tax and eliminate the cap on income that Americans working abroad can earn
without having to pay both local and U.S. taxes on it, a change meant
to bring the U.S. system
in line with those of other industrialized countries.
On the other hand, the new law cap the exclusion for housing allowances (rent, utilities, insurance ...). It is currently calculated as 30% of the foreign-earned income exclusion, minus the 16% that would be paid in the US. With the new law it is more or less eliminated.
Usually in most countries the US have signed treaties to avoid double taxations. But in countries such as Saudi Arabia or Hong Kong with low or none income tax, American expats will fill the change more painful. For senior executives, it is more likely that companies will take charge of the increase in taxation. But people affected will be probably middle-tax payers and people who retire while still earning an income from abroad.
Foreign salary of $150,000 and US ordinary income of $10,000
Old law: $1,519
New law: $2,686
%change: +77%
Foreign salary of $1,000,000 and US ordinary salary of $50,000
Biba has been specializing in networking for years. Her company, Biba4Network, helps business owners to connect to who they need and maximize their networking results.
Focus on Career aims to help Francophones to start their own businesses in the US and facilitate their expatriation.