Feature

Small Biz Focus: 2019 Trends for Entrepreneurs

By ARLnow.com Sponsor
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This column is sponsored by BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

By Tara Palacios

Want to be your own boss?  Tired of the day-to-day grind? Do you have dreams of launching your invention dancing in your head?

Starting a business is not an easy endeavor.

However, keep in mind these latest trends in 2019, as you prepare to launch:

1. Add Experiential Marketing — Experiential marketing is a small business trend that is growing in popularity. Providing your customers with a unique and fun engagement with your brand helps to instill loyalty. It could be as simple as having your customers interact with the naming of a product or service or interactive social media campaigns. Remember to stay on brand, and not get off message.

2. Provide Excellent Customer Service — Excellent Customer service is key to differentiating your business from the competition. In today’s fast-paced world where everything moves at a lightening speed, many businesses forget to provide the best customer service through each touch with their customers. This trend never grows old. Ensure your staff as well as management is trained on how to provide the best customer service experience.

3. Build Sustainable Relationships — Although there are mobile apps for just about everything, and a ton of transactions occur online versus at the mall — old fashioned relationships where everyone knows your name is priceless. We buy from those we trust. Trust is earned through interaction. Expand your network, and build relationships every day.

4. Encourage Employee Happiness — Unemployment is at an all-time low. How do you retain talent and ensure your staff is engaged at all times? Create and maintain programs to ensure your employees are happy. Studies show that when employees are happy daily productivity is boosted by 10-25%.

5. Incorporate Social Entrepreneurship — Social entrepreneurship is the art of promoting a worthy cause as you build your business. Many small businesses in 2019 incorporate an area of social entrepreneurship whereby they strategize to make a difference in the world. They build social entrepreneurship into their business model. This is a long-term trend, and has no sign of slowing down. Many small businesses are adding social entrepreneurship to their overall strategy as they launch.

6. Understand policies and regulations governing your industry — This trend never gets old. As an entrepreneur before you plan to launch, understand the policies (I.e., national, state and local) that regulate your industry, and could potentially impact the success of your endeavors.

Let’s keep the conversation going! BizLaunch is hosting its bi-annual Starting a Business workshop on Monday, February 11, 2019 at Arlington Public Library, Central. Hear the latest trends in launching a small business, and get all the resources you need to successfully start your endeavors.

Just Reduced Properties in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Each week, “Just Reduced” spotlights properties in Arlington County whose price have been cut over the previous week. The market summary is crafted by licensed broker Aaron Seekford of Arlington Realty, Inc. GET MORE out of your real estate investment with Aaron and his team by visiting www.arlingtonrealtyinc.com or calling 703-836-6116 today!

Please note: While Aaron Seekford provides this information for the community, he may not be the listing agent of these homes.

If you’ve been reading this column long enough, you know that I love quirky, daily holidays.

Case in point: Today is Yodel for Your Neighbors Day. Yes, this is apparently a real thing and, well, happy yodeling out there, folks. (Okay, so maybe don’t yodel here in Arlington too late into the evening)

Anyway, there is quite a bit to yodel about here in Arlington.

  1. Our schools remain among the top-rated in the nation.
  2. The government is finally open again, so a good chunk of our locals can go back to earning some of the highest wages in the nation.
  3. And, real estate prices are projected to spike in early 2019, thanks in part to Amazon’s forthcoming HQ2 in Crystal City.

And, there is so much more to our amazing community. When you’re ready for a yodel-worthy home of your own, our team is ready to help you GET MORE out of your transaction.

As of January 28, there are 112 detached homes, 12 townhouses and 97 condos for sale throughout Arlington County. In total, 11 homes experienced a price reduction in the past week:

Please note that this is solely a selection of Just Reduced properties available in Arlington County. For a complete list of properties within your target budget and specifications, contact Aaron Seekford.

Ask Eli: Arlington 2018 Real Estate Review — The Amazon Impact

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This regularly-scheduled sponsored Q&A column is written by Eli Tucker, Arlington-based Realtor and Rosslyn resident. Please submit your questions to him via email for response in future columns. Enjoy!

Question: What impact has Amazon HQ2 had on the Arlington Real Estate market so far?

Answer: For those keeping score, this is Part Four of my Four-Part series reviewing the 2018 Arlington Real Estate market and Part Two of my ongoing look at the impact Amazon is having on our market… I’m sure you care.

Over the last three weeks I looked at how the Arlington market for detached single-family homes, condos and townhouses/duplexes did in 2018. Now we’ll dig into the impact of Amazon’s HQ2 announcement.

Key Dates

On Saturday, November 3 the Washington Post broke news that Amazon HQ2 was in final discussions with Crystal City and by Monday, November 5, the impact on property values was all over the national news. Late on Monday, November 12, the Wall Street Journal reported the decision was final, and the next day, it was confirmed by Amazon.

Top Three Takeaways

  1. Massive Loss of Inventory:From the time the Washington Post broke the news on November 3 until now, the amount of homes to go under contract increased by nearly 17% from the same period over the last four years.The amount of new inventory to hit the market during that time decreased nearly 25%. The result being a net loss of 157 homes available for sale during a time when we usually have a net gain in inventory due to lower demand.
  2. No Time To Wait: 30% of homes listed since November 3 went under contract in five days or less. Of the 410 homes listed for sale since November 3 that are under contract or closed, they averaged just 17.5 days on market which is 3x faster than the average time properties spent on the market the rest of 2018.
  3. Prices Are… Down?: In order to draw a high level of confidence in a data set, data scientists generally recommend collecting at least 30 samples.With 350 sales (samples) of Arlington homes having gone under contract since November 3, you’d think that I’d be confident in the conclusion highlighted in the data set below which shows a decrease in the average sold price of Arlington homes that went under contract from November 3 to January 28.

This is a perfect example of data not correlating to reality and a good time to stress the importance of not using one or two data readings, especially average sold price, to drive your decision-making on a purchase or sale.

The reason average prices are down over this period isn’t because the Amazon announcement or because historically low supply and historically fast sales are magically making real estate less expensive.

It’s simply because we’ve had a higher volume of less expensive real estate sell during that period, thanks to a spike in investor activity since the announcement.

I can assure you that based on what my clients, both buyers and sellers, are experiencing in the market over the last three months that prices are up and competition is fierce in Arlington and the surrounding Northern Virginia communities.

The big question heading into the spring, which usually brings out the strongest buyer demand, is whether or not we will see a spike in new inventory coming to market from owners seeking to take advantage of low inventory or whether new inventory will remain at historically low levels because as owners hold out for potentially larger returns once Amazon starts hiring.

Look out for an inventory progress report from me in a few months!

If you are planning to buy or sell in 2019 and want an in-depth analysis of how Amazon HQ2 and the current market conditions will impact you, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].

If you’d like a question answered in my weekly column, please send an email to [email protected]. To read any of my older posts, visit the blog section of my website at www.EliResidential.com. Call me directly at (703) 539-2529.

Eli Tucker is a licensed Realtor in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland with Real Living At Home, 2420 Wilson Blvd #101 Arlington, VA 22201, (202) 518-8781.

Legal Review: Should the Census Include a Citizenship Question? The Supreme Court Will Decide

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

By Immigration Attorney Mario A. Godoy of Godoy Law Office

The U.S. Census is an important document filled out by every person in America.

The census results not only tell lawmakers how many people are in the country, but it also determines the number of seats held in the House of Representatives by each state.

The census is taken once every decade and as the time approaches for the next one, President Donald Trump has made one significant change that some say is simply continuing his war on immigration.

The Trump administration now wishes to include a question about citizenship on the 2020 census. If this is allowed, along with filling out information such as a name and income levels, a person will also have to state if they are a citizen or a legal or illegal immigrant. Last month, a New York federal judge, Judge Jesse Furman, struck down the ruling, saying it would negatively affect too many states.

Now, it’s up to the Supreme Court to decide if they want the question included.

“This will do nothing but keep non-citizens from taking part in the upcoming census,” says Mario A. Godoy of Godoy Law Office. “That not only means the census results in 2020 are going to be inaccurate, it also means several states will lose seats in the House, along with losing federal funding.”

The state that has the most to lose in terms of seats within the House is California, which would be a major blow to Democrats. When making his ruling on the issue, Judge Furman also states that eight other states, along with D.C., would feel the negative impact. These include Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.

If the citizenship question is allowed on the census, it will be the first time since 1950 that the document asks for this information. However, after Justice Brett Kavanuagh was confirmed to sit on the Supreme Court in the fall of 2018, conservatives currently hold the majority on the bench. That majority likely means that the Supreme Court will overturn Judge Furman’s decision.

Legal Insider: Whistleblower Claims in Virginia

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This is a sponsored column by attorneys John Berry and Kimberly Berry of Berry & Berry, PLLC, an employment and labor law firm located in Northern Virginia that specializes in federal employee, security clearance, retirement and private sector employee matters.

By John V. Berry, Esq.

We represent employees in Virginia who have been terminated in retaliation for whistleblowing. Whistleblower cases are unique and present their own unique challenges.

Employees are advised to seek counsel as early in the process as possible if they believe that they have been terminated (or will be terminated) in retaliation for whistleblower activities.

Whistleblower Law in Virginia

In Virginia, if a whistleblower reports alleged wrongdoing or states that they intend to report it, this can subject the employer to a civil lawsuit for retaliation if it falls under certain criteria. While Virginia is an at-will state, and employees may be fired for any reason or no reason at all, exceptions can apply.

In the past 30 years, exceptions to this general rule have started to emerge in Virginia. One such exception involves employee termination in retaliation for whistleblowing.

The Virginia courts carved out this exception to the at-will doctrine in the 1985 case of Bowman v. State Bank of Keysville. Other rules on whistleblowing can apply to federal employees and state or local employees. This article focuses on private company employees in Virginia.

What Kind of Retaliation is Covered?

An employer may not terminate an employee for reporting an issue that relates to the public policy of Virginia. An employee has a potential claim for wrongful discharge when the basis for the discharge violates public policy.

In order to determine what constitutes public policy, Virginia courts have pointed to statutes to determine if an issue has been endorsed by the state (e.g., the right to collect unemployment compensation benefits if eligible) or prohibited (e.g., criminal laws prohibiting perjury).

Example: Employer is sued for a personal injury by a shopper in their department store. Employee Jim Smith is a witness to the injury. The employer asks the employee to lie in court so that they won’t be liable. Mr. Smith refuses to lie in court. Employee A testifies truthfully and is then fired.

Statutory Whistleblower Retaliation in Virginia

In addition to the exceptions carved out by the Virginia courts, the Virginia General Assembly has passed specific statutory protections for certain activities. Employees who engage in protected activities under laws in certain areas are also protected from retaliation. These include asbestos, lead, and home inspection contractors; occupational safety and health issues; and workers’ compensation.

However, because the Virginia assembly has not passed a general whistleblower protection statute, most workers have to rely on the exceptions carved out by the courts to pursue a whistleblower claim. The courts in Virginia have seen an increase in the number of these types of cases in recent years.

I believe that more cases will expand this doctrine as Northern Virginia grows and exerts influence in Richmond for these types of employment protections.

The most usual remedies for Bowman Whistleblower claims can include:

  • Reinstatement
  • Damages
  • Lost Benefits
  • Attorneys fees

Conclusion

If you are in need of employment law advice representation, please contact our office at 703-668-0070 or through our contact page to schedule a consultation. Please also visit and like us on Facebook or Twitter.

Rosslyn Startup ‘Hungry’ Expanding, Looking for New Talent

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

A little over two years after it launched, Rosslyn-based startup Hungry still feels like a small company.

These days, founder Eman Pahlevani is as likely to answer the company’s main phone line as anyone else in the 30-person office. If everyone else is busy, Pahlevani says sometimes he’ll even get up and go run a delivery.

But the small feeling belies some remarkable successes over the last two years. Last summer, the company announced plans to expand into Philadelphia. Riding high on that growth, Pahlevani said the company is planning on expanding into five new cities in 2019.

“The first two will be Atlanta and Boston,” said Pahlevani. “The last three are still in the works, but these are your big east coast locations.”

The core concept of Hungry is simple: office lunches can be a hassle for everyone involved. Office managers have a limited set of dining choices and face repetition, while restaurants struggle with orders they’re not built to manage.

“Nobody in this industry was looking at how to solve the buyer’s needs,” said Pahlevani. “These people are buying food daily or weekly for their teams, but today they’re being serviced by restaurants not optimized to handle catering. If I go to Panera, I can get those sandwiches once or twice a month, but not every day.”

With Hungry, office managers pay no more than what they would for the average office meal. Pahlevani estimated lunches range from $9 to $12 per person. But the manager has access to a wide variety of chefs hand-picked by Hungry so a client could order lunch every day for a month and never get the same food twice.

“There’s just so much variety,” said Pahlevani. “We solve those problems with a distributed network of chefs.”

It’s an idea that seems to have caught on. Pahlevani said the company saw 500 percent growth in 2018. Its fleet of delivery drivers has grown to between 70-75 employees.

“We’ve been hiring in Arlington weekly now,” said Pahlevani.

The infrastructure of the company is built on a network of commercial chefs and delivery drivers. The chefs audition at the company’s headquarters and Pahlevani says Hungry doesn’t put anything on their menu that doesn’t pass the staff’s food test.

Once they are chosen, the chefs work out of commercial kitchens that Pahlevani said cropped up across urban areas, after legislation required food trucks to be tied to a commercial kitchen.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is how many talented chefs there are in any given region,” said Pahlevani. “I mean these are really good, authentic chefs, but most of them work in a restaurant and work on someone else’s menu in the back of a kitchen. It’s a lot of hidden talent. So we let chefs cook their own menu, set their own prices, and we highlight them at every catering.”

Pahlevanis said most of the chefs start as part-time workers, but within a month go in full time. Some chefs make between $20,000 to $30,000 dollars per month.

But the other big component Pahlevani credits for Hungry’s success is delivery drivers — or ‘delivery captains’ as he calls them. Drivers can often struggle with getting into loading docks or finding the right rooms in office buildings, or when they do arrive they just drop off the bags of food.

“We train all of our deliverers to get inside loading docks, get clean, set up and clean up,” said Pahlevani. “You’re trying to optimize and train people to solve these people’s problems.”

Pahlevani says the company has seen so much demand recently that it’s still hiring new delivery drivers, just to keep pace.  The company is also hiring staff for sales and engineers or developers for the technology side of the company.

Photo via Facebook

The Chew: How To Help Stray Cats During The Winter

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

The following bi-weekly column is written and sponsored by Bark + Boarding, which provides a heart-centered and safe environment for your pets. Conveniently located at 5818-C Seminary Road in Bailey’s Crossroads, Bark & Boarding offers doggy daycare, boarding, grooming, walking and training services, plus in-home pet care.

Winter brings below-freezing temperatures and icy or snowy conditions, and for stray cats this can pose a potentially deadly problem.

Cats’ fur can only keep them so warm, but there are plenty of ways you can help. If you’ve seen a stray cat hanging out in your neighborhood, don’t assume it is able to take care of itself or that someone else will help it. There are a few simple steps you can take to help these animals.

Provide Food and Water

Leaving out food and water for cats is helpful for several reasons. Besides the obvious of keeping the cats fed, it also keeps them from consuming scavenged food or water that might make them sick.

It also means they don’t have to roam as far looking for food, which can lead to them getting hurt by a cars, predators or other dangers. Wet food requires less energy to digest, leaving more energy to keep warm, but it is also in danger of freezing.

Serve it in a plastic bowl and warm up the food before putting it out to help prevent this. If it keeps freezing, switching to dry food is always better than nothing.

If you put food out at the same time each day, you create a schedule that the cats can come to expect, meaning that both the food and the animals spend less time in the cold.

To keep water from freezing, use bowls that are deep rather than wide, and place it in sunlight. Avoid using a metal bowl, and adding a pinch of sugar lowers the freezing point of water, ensuring it stays liquid longer.

To take extra caution, you can spray insulation foam into the underside of plastic feeding dishes and water bowls. Another solution is to place a microwaveable heating pad under the bowls, and you can even make your own heating pad using a sock filled with rice.

Make a Shelter

Creating a shelter doesn’t need to be expensive or time consuming. A few modifications to something as simple as a heavy cardboard box make a perfect place for cats to sleep.

Raise the bottom of the box a couple inches above the ground so it doesn’t get soggy, and cover the top with plastic, such as a garbage bag, to protect from the elements. Cutting a hole in a plastic storage bin is also an easy way to create a shelter. Generally, a good size is about two feet by three feet, and 18 inches tall.

Smaller spaces keep the heat close and allow the cats to lay next to and on top of each other to share heat. The door should only be large enough for a cat, about six to eight inches. Adding a flap is a good way to keep out ice and rain and keep in heat.

Straw is by far the best choice for bedding in a shelter. Blankets, towels and even hay will absorb moisture and then potentially freeze, providing no help at all. Straw will help insulate the cats while staying dry.

Be sure to shovel snow away from the entrance so it doesn’t pile up too high and prevent the cat from entering or exiting.

Practice Winter Safety

There are a few things you can do around your house to help keep stray cats safe. One is to check under your car before starting it and driving away. Animals are often drawn to the heat emanating from the car, and may be curled up underneath to stay warm.

Don’t use antifreeze in areas that are accessible to cats, as consuming it can be lethal. Similarly, be sure to use a pet friendly ice melt to melt snow.

Trap-Neuter-Release

Possibly the best thing you can do for the feral cats in your area is something often referred to as TNR: trap, neuter, release. Trapping cats and giving them to an animal shelter may just add to an already overcrowded shelter, and, depending on where you live, may just lead them to be euthanized.

Neutering or spaying the cats and then releasing them allows them to continue to live as they like, while also limiting the population. Spaying and neutering also improves cats’ overall health.

Contact your local shelter for more information on how best to do this in your area.

Open Houses in Arlington this Weekend

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Looking for a home? There are plenty of houses and condos open for viewing this weekend.

Check out the Arlington Realty website for a full list of homes for sale and open houses in Arlington. Here are a few highlights:

3546 N. Utah Street
5 BR/4 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Howard Brock Realty Company, Inc.
Listed: $2,100,000
Open: Sunday 2-4 p.m.

 

2203 19th Court N.
4 BR/3 BA, 1 half bath villa/townhouse
Agent: TTR Sotheby’s International Realty
Listed: $1,170,000
Open: Sunday 2-4 p.m.

 

1600 Clarendon Boulevard W212
1 BR/1 BA condo
Agent: Optime Realty
Listed: $749,000
Open: Sunday 2-4 p.m.

 

2200 N. Westmoreland Street #312
2 BR/2 BA condo
Agent: Sweet Homes America Incorporated
Listed: $605,000
Open: Saturday 1-4 p.m.

 

2104 S. Nelson Street
3 BR/1 BA, 2 half bath single-family home
Agent: Re/Max Allegiance
Listed: $489,000
Open: Sunday 1-3 p.m.

 

1121 Arlington Boulevard #939
1 BR/1 BA condo
Agent: Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.
Listed: $143,900
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

Just Listed in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Just Listed highlights Arlington properties that just came on the market within the past week. This feature is written and sponsored by Team Cathell, “Your Orange Line Specialists.”

It doesn’t seem like it when you look outside, but Arlington’s Spring real estate market is already here.

Eager buyers snatched up 42 homes this week with ratified contracts, several in bidding wars. Some 14 of those homes sold within seven days on the market and sellers listed 38 homes.

Inventory remains very low, and lack of good options is probably holding back a lot of buyers.

Mortgage rates fluctuated based on bond market activity this week but ended up unchanged at 4.5% for a 30-year fixed rate with no points. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) this week report that the number of home sales in 2018 was down nearly 11% from 2017, but home prices still inched upward.

Going into 2019, the biggest factor to affect our housing market will be affordability, according to Freddie Mac. Affordability is a combination of:

  • Rising mortgage rates which erode a buyer’s purchasing power
  • Rising home prices which results from buyer pressure due to low inventory
  • Lack of wage growth to equal or surpass inflation rate

Basically, buyers are getting squeezed by rising home prices, rising mortgage rates and stagnant income. Freddie Mac expects 2019 to see a slight increase in the number of home sales and number of loan applications for purchase. But that’s based on sustained economic growth at its current pace. Everything will change if our economy starts to slow in 2019.

Click here to see all the fresh new inventory in MRIS and call Team Cathell (703-975-2500) when you find a home you like.

How To Experience France This Summer Like a Local

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If you’ve ever wanted to go to France, or if you’ve already been, you probably dream of quaint villages, hot crepes, sipping espresso, exploring narrow streets and immersing yourself in history and folklore.

You dream of biting into fresh pastries, indulging in cheese and wine, trying to speak French and marveling at the Mont St Michel. You imagine walking in the footsteps of artists like Van Gogh and Monet, discovering relics from Roman times, seeing the Normandy beaches of D-Day and hearing the stories of courage, touring luxurious chateaus and making friends with locals.

These activities are part of the everyday life of the French and now there is a way to authentically experience it all as if you lived there, all while avoiding the crowds.

For the past 4 years local Arlington based tour company TripUSAFrance has been making those dreams come true for hundreds of travelers. Owner, French ExPat and main tour guide Julia Girard-Gervois followed her passion for French culture and tourism and started the business with the goal of enabling travelers to experience the best of France like she does.

She crafted two tour programs so far that each highlight the best of the regions they showcase. They are collecting rave reviews on TripAdvisor and Facebook. Tourists have said they love getting amazing regional food at handpicked restaurants, the small group dynamic (no more than 14 travelers per tour), getting to mingle with locals, amazing off-beaten path sites, fun activities and being treated like friends with the personal service and care that Julia and her father Stephane bestow on each person on the tour.

For an affordable price that includes everything but airfare, you can be whisked away on a trip that brings to life the France you’ve always imagined. Book your trip online at www.tripusafrance.com. Private tours also available by request.

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