15

During my five week internship at The Colbent Corporation, I have managed to learn several things.  I have gotten to sit in on conference calls, I have gotten to help take part in a 33,000 piece mailing job as well as very many other small mailing jobs, I have gotten to know some of the employees and learn about what they do, and I have gotten to learn more about what the company actually does.  Not only that but I have learned how to drive in traffic; I always thought it would be the same as driving normally, but I was very wrong.  Sitting in traffic for four hours a day, two hours down, two hours back, really opens your eyes and lets you see how many bad drivers there are in the world.  The driving is the main reason why I would never continue to work at The Colbent Corporation.  I loved doing the work and learning about the business but the drive is brutal.  It is not that far of a drive but there is always so much going on down on Rout One and with the Tobin Bridge that it is not even worth working in the City or south of the City.  Besides the drive I had a great experience working for The Colbent Corporation, and maybe if I live down that way someday I could continue working with them, as well as the other two companies I had helped out over the five weeks I was there.  

14

 My favorite day of working down at The Colbent Corporation was the day that I had to get my fingerprints taken down at the Braintree police station.  I know that is not something that sounds like it would be all that much fun, but it was to me.  I loved every second of it.  I loved it so much because it made me feel like I was important, and that I was going to be handling a bunch of important documents.  It was also a fun day because I washed my hands in a holding cell instead of in a bathroom because I got lost in the station on my way to find the bathroom.  One of the other days that I truly enjoyed was the day that I got to help with the 33,000 piece-mailing job.  That also doesn’t sound like fun, and it really was not all that fun at the time, but for some reason now looking back on it I really enjoyed doing it.  All I had to do was sit there at a printer and keep feeding it envelopes while Mike put the already printed envelopes in the stuffing machine.  So we both did not have to do much, but we both really enjoyed doing this because again it made us feel like we were contributing and helping out The Colbent Corporation with a very important task.  But in reality we were not doing all that much, 33,000 is no where near the biggest mailing job they have had so we were really just helping them with an average job.  But that is all right with me because I truly enjoyed it.  

13

The last day that I was at The Colbent Corporation was the day that the big mailing job was to take place.  On that day Paul Beardsley, my cousin, realized that they did not have the correct size mailing trays or covers.  This did not seem to be a big problem in my eyes but to him, this would ruin the entire project.  Because Mike and I were the interns it was our job to fix the problem.  We called the Braintree Post Office to see if they had any of the EMM mailing trays.  Fortunately for us they had about three hundred and fifty of them, and we needed about three hundred so we were in luck.  They also had the same amount of covers so that was even better.  We drove down to the post office and began our new adventure.  We did not get lost on the way to the post office, shocking I know, but we had a problem once we got there.  We were in my car, a Toyota 4Runner, not a truck; so we could not just put the entire pallet in the car, we had to find a way to squeeze about ninety five of the EMM trays in each trip.  We took four trips to get all of the trays and only one trip for the covers.  The covers were very thin so we could fit a ton of them in the car.  We filled the car so high with covers that on the ride home when I hit the breaks they would fly up over our seats and hit us in the back of the head.  Once we got back Paul was very thankful and the job was completed on time.  

12

One of the first days of work at The Colbent Corporation I was assigned the task to remove several desks and chairs.  These were no ordinary desks, they weighed about 500 pounds each, the desks that is.  So to begin this task we had to drive all the way home to get Mike’s truck, and then we had to drive all the way back.  Once we were finally back we began.  We had to move the desks from the back room in the warehouse.  The same back room that we had to move all of the boxes into for the people up stairs.  Finally once all of the boxes were in the warehouse instead of the room we began to have problems.  We had to move them about one hundred feet to a loading dock.  Then from the loading dock we had to drop them into Mike’s truck, which was about three feet lower than ground level of the loading dock.  This only caused us a problem for about ten minutes, and being the smart kids that we are we decided it would be best to get a pallet jack, a device made to move thousands of pounds of boxes on pallets, and put three desks on at a time.  This started out a great idea because it made them much easier to move more quickly.  The only problem was they could not fit through the door to get them out to the loading dock.  So after another ten minutes of working out how we could do this, we decided we would just slide them from there, and then slide them off the edge into his truck.  This was loud and obnoxious but the only way possible.  This was a day were we didn’t do much business but we did learn how to move a bunch of heavy things.   

11

Another job I was sent to do was to try and remove some of the broken pallets from the warehouse.  I was given the task to do some research and find where there is somewhere where I can leave pallets in bulk, or possible sell them.  After about an hour of doing some research I finally found one place around here that would buy pallets.  Everywhere else could only take at most five at a time, but this place could pay for them in bulk.  So finally after a couple more days of organizing the pallets and finding all of the useless spare pallets we finally decided it was time to take them down to this place.  I can not remember what the place is called, all I can remember is that it was in Chelsea and had a large neon yellow sign that said “WE BUY PALLETS”.  We loaded up mikes truck with about twenty four pallets and went on our way.  We put the directions into our GPS and were praying that we would make it there with no problems.  It took us around an hour to get from Braintree to Chelsea because of the traffic and construction on the Tobin Bridge.  But once there I can safely say this was the creepiest place I have ever been in my entire life.  After walking in and around the building for about twenty minutes looking for the two guys Ernie and Hector we decided to leave and just bring the pallets back home.  Later that night I found out that right around the corner that is where my grandfather had lived growing up, and my grandfather was the man who started the company that I am working for now, so I thought that was a funny coincidence.  

10

Back to one of my first blogs, when I had to go to Westborough to help Bob move his computer equipment, we had the same type of equipment back at Colbent that had to be moved to an office building in Quincy.  So that Monday we took Mike’s truck down to Braintree because my car would not have been able to fit all of the computer equipment in the trunk.  So finally we get to Braintree and move the two pallets full of computer stuff over to the loading dock and begin to load them into mikes truck.  We did not realize how heavy these computer things actually were until we had to lower them down from the loading dock into his truck.  Each box of what ever it was that was in the box weight somewhere between two and three hundred pounds, so it was a struggle to move all of them.  Finally we did manage to get each box into the truck, it wasn’t very graceful but we somehow managed to do it.  After that we had to drive to Quincy and find where Tracy’s office was.  As I am sure you could have guessed we got lost and drove around for about a half hour before we found it.  Once there we unloaded the boxes and left.  Unfortunately for us we left one of our dollies there because boxes were still on in, so that would be a task for another day to go and retrieve it.  

Blog #15

It’s so strange that these are my very last days of the internship. I am so used to coming to the office every morning and I genuinely enjoyed the work that I have done here. My uncle says that we work together so well that he wants to hire me over the summer to continue helping with the business! I couldn’t believe it when he asked me that. My uncle does everything on his own, and he’s the type that likes things done the way he does it. I’m totally the same way, but I guess because we are related we tend to do things similarly! I have learned so much from working with him and even though I have messed up a few times, my uncle never made me feel bad. It was such a great learning environment and I felt so comfortable. The union workers are still chipping away at these boxes, and I think they like me interning here too! So far I have run down to Richdales twice. Once for bags of cookies and then again for a few bottles of Sprite’s.  It’s funny because I feel like when people think about interns they think storing paperclips and folding papers. I love how my uncle really took my experience with him to the limit and didn’t doubt me for a second. I know it may be questionable to work with relatives, but in the right setting I think it is extremely beneficial. 

Blog #14

It was 12:56 when the big union truck rolled in to Manchester. My uncle sprang out of his seat so fast, it was actually funny to see how intense he gets during these shipments! Now to give you all in idea of how many boxes will be loaded today, there are currently 5 workers present and they will be here for roughly an hour. Just when we thought everything was going smooth, the man who works in the office next to us was not a happy camper. My uncle sent out an email to everyone stating what was happening today out of common courtesy. I guess this neighbor did not receive the message and began complaining that he will not be able to efficiently enter and leave his parking spot. Now, there are many parking spots in this lot. Yet he was upset because his spot was not as accessible due to the truck. Right as this was going on, the plumber shows up! Not exactly the best timing. So now we have 5 union guys, a crazy neighbor, and a plumber all together in this tiny office! Yet my uncle was not discouraged and handled everything very graciously. The truck was moved, the neighbor left, and the plumber fixed the toilet in under 10 minutes. Good thing the situation was avoided smoothly, and this shipment can proceed without hassle! 

Blog #13

I must say today is a very intense day at the office. My uncle is getting ready for his big shipment of all his products, and he has to get as many boxes into this one shipment as possible or else he has to pay for any extra boxes. These people say they will come between 1-4, but my uncle was in a total frenzy that he wouldn’t be ready by 1 o'clock. We still were packaging up tons of last minute orders, and I was racing around this morning trying to finalize all the labels. I kept thinking we had plenty of time, because I feel like whenever these union shippers say 1-4, it usually means 4. Yet today was a totally different story, and to top it all off my uncle had ME run down to Jungle in ipswich to pick up his final order that had just arrived. It was 12:15 and he got an email stating they had three more boxes ready for him. It costs $35 for every box that doesn’t make it on this load right now, and so I went on a total mission to get these boxes even though I had no idea what I was doing. I walked in acting like I knew exactly what I was doing, asked for some guy named Dave, and in record time I got those boxes in my little car and was back in Manchester by 12:45! I think I’m starting to get good at this job! 

9

Before we were sent to rearrange the warehouse for the temps to come in to work there, we were asked to prepare the envelopes for them.  Both Mike and I had no idea what this meant so it took us some time to figure out that we had to stand at a printer and watch it print 33,000 envelopes.  When you hear someone tell you that you have to stand at a printer and watch it print 33,000 envelopes your initial reacting will be happy because you think you are off the hook from doing actual work, but let me tell you I never want to do this again.  I stood at the printer for about six hours straight feeding it envelopes and having to make sure that the stamp on each and every one came out clearly.  This might have been the most boring thing I have ever done in my whole life.  The only thing that made this job slightly more fun was when the UPS man, Gerald, would come in with a package. Gerald would come about once an hour with a new package and every time he would see me in the same spot.  After his second trip he decided to come over and talk to me and make me laugh a little bit because he could tell at that point I hated what I was doing.  After talking to him for a few minutes he would leave only to return again shortly.  Finally once all 33,000 envelopes were printed I got to leave and go home, and I can safely say I never want to see another envelope again.  

8

After finishing up work for the Phia Group I was sent back down stairs to The Colbent Corporation to continue my internship there.  Once again we were sent out to the back where house to rearrange that room.  I would consider myself a professional at this because I have rearranged it about five times now.  Only this time was different, we had to move in about ten new pallets filled with boxes and have them in a spot that was easily accessible.  This was not hard; the hard part was being able to find a spot to put three long tables.  Later that day there would be around fifteen temps coming in to begin work on a 33,000 piece mailing project so we had to create space for them to work.  It took us around an hour to figure out where we could put all of the pallets and the boxes and the tables but eventually we made it work and the fifteen temps came in and had a nice workspace and seemed to be happy with the amount of room that they were given.  The job took them around two days to complete, so that meant that each temp was stuffing about 1,100 envelopes each day.  I have done this type of work before and 1,100 envelopes a day is an incredible amount for one single person to do in one day of working.  Finally they were all done with their mailing and they were paid and sent on their way.  

7

After filling out the applications again we were once again called upon by the Phia group from upstairs.  This time it was not to move a room full of boxes, but instead to move a room full of useless miscellaneous items.   The room was filled with all sorts of things.  It ranged from paper plates, to yoga mats, to water-skis, to a grill and about five million packets of ketchup and mustard.  This job was actually much more fun than I had expected because the items we had to move were much lighter than the last ones, and more fun to play with.  It took us around five hours to move everything out of this room.  I thought we were working at a slow pace but once again the owner came down to talk to us and he was thoroughly impressed at how quickly we moved the entire room.  This was only the second time I have ever met this man, and it was the second time that he had offered us a job.  Once again we told him we are unable to take the job right now, so he said to give him a call in the summer if we are ever looking for work.  I am sure I will be taking him up on that offer because the environment of the Phia Group office was nice and seems like it would be a nice place to have a summer job.  Let’s just hope that he remembers who I am by the summer.  

6

1     At the start of the second week we walked into the office and were stopped by one of the other employees named Courtney. Courtney is the newest addition to The Colbent Corporation, and because she is the newest she gets stuck dealing with the application processing.  Courtney approached us and had us come into her cubicle so she could talk to us about filling out an application and the W9, W4, sexual harassment awareness, and a few other sheets that were vital to have filled out for real employees.  Although we are not getting paid and do not have to pay taxes, we were still required to fill out the W-9’s and the W-4’s so we would know how to do them in the future.  I have never had a real job so I was slightly confused as to what the sheets were asking but after having been walked though it I understand now.  It seemed silly at the time to fill out because we are not getting paid so it seemed useless to me, but after having filled it out it is good practice for the future.  The other sheets in the packet that we were given were all just to make sure that we understood the consequences for sexual harassment and for theft or dishonesty, pretty straightforward stuff.  By the end it took me about an hour to fill out all of the application forms as well as all of the other forms and I am glad to have done them because it is good practice for future job applications.  

5

1     Once we were all done helping out the Phia Group we were sent back out to the warehouse to check and see if my supervisor Paul Lynch needed any help.  He usually does not have much for us but on this day in particular he needed us to come down to the police station with him.  We were both set back a little bit by this because we thought we were in trouble.  Come to find out we just had to get finger printed because it is protocol for working with secure information.  Because we are dealing with other people’s private information we are required to be in the FBI’s database. Mike and I were not the only that needed to be finger printed so me, Mike, and a couple other employees headed down to the police station with Paul Lynch.  Once there we had to fill out two forms.  One form with all of our personal information on it for the police station to mail out, and another for The Colbent Corporation to keep for its own record.  After filling out the forms we waited around until the officer came to get us one by one to take our fingerprints.  Finally when it was my turn he sent me down a hallway to find a sink to wash my hands.  By mistake I walked into one of the holding cells and tried to use the sink in there.  When it came time to take my fingerprints I learned that ink is no longer used.  They now use “inkless ink” which made no sense to me until I saw that there is no ink or liquid at all.  It is all computerized and I just had to touch my fingers to a computer screen and then I was done.  This was a cool experience and now I am in the FBI database.  

4

1     After traveling to Westborough to help Bob move all of his computer equipment, we were rented out to the company upstairs for a couple of days.  For them we had to move all of their records from the years 2008-2012 down stairs to a room that The Colbent Corporation is renting out to them, as well as move all of the things in their utilities room into the room we had just cleared out, and all of their other random things into the room downstairs.  We probably moved about one hundred and fifty boxes for each year down to the room.  We worked efficiently so by the time we were done the owner came to meet us.  When he came to meet with us and tell us we did a good job he offered us both summer jobs.  The company he works for is the Phia Group, and they advise other companies on health insurance and health plans.  He gave us his number and told us if we ever have a week or two in the summer where we need to make a little money to give him a call.  So after a few weeks of being here at The Colbent Corporation we have worked for two other companies, and have gotten job offers from one of the companies that we have helped.  Although we are not doing exactly what I expected we have already made connections with real life businesses and have created great connections for future job opportunities.  Working at Colbent is already starting to help out in real world situations.  

Blog #12

What I really like about this internship is the creativity aspect and how you really have to know whats in style. When picking out inventory, its extremely important to know what the current style is and to remove of an outdated styles. The other day my uncle was deciding what type of shorts to order for women’s wear. Now of course I had to fold a great deal of the products, and I couldn’t bear to look at the cotton shorts with a big logo across the butt. I immediately told him to hold off on the outdated logo butt shorts, and to go with what all the girls are wearing now! Running shorts by Nike or Under Armor for example are the most versatile shorts ever. They are basically “go to” shorts when you want to go to the gym, when your hanging by the pool, or even going out. Running shorts are extremely comfortable and my friends and I all have at least 4 pairs of these shorts. At first my uncle was a little hesitant about the idea, because basically he has had the same type of shorts for the last couple of years. Yet I sold him on the idea of the running shorts and I can’t wait to see how the outcome is. If a lot of these shorts sell, it will be so cool knowing that I was the one who chose such a great style! I’m really excited to receive feedback on my style choices. 

Blog #11

It’s quite interesting what you learn when working in the real world and experiencing real jobs. The business world is very tricky, and I realized that my uncle has to work to keep so many people satisfied. This world is very competitive and he as to separate himself from any sort of competition to hold his position at these trade shows. I never realized what type of work that was until today. My uncle was sent thousands of these little music tags that go on instruments, and he has to sort them all out into bags of 100. This isn’t stuff that he hires people to do, this is extra work he does after his long day at work in order to show his dedication to these companies. He needs to keep in good graces with these people and he says he doesn’t want any excuse for NAMM or E3 to go ahead and look for someone else. It’s basically him doing something nice despite his 18 years of loyalty. So I sat all day and did exactly what my uncle does. It just goes to show that these type of mindless jobs can exist for anyone, and I think it also shows a lot of great qualities within my uncle that he doesn’t mind doing such tedious work that would usually be for interns or newcomers. Today was an eye opener for me and it just goes to show that work comes in all different forms! 

Blog #10

Today has been a very interesting day at SCORE. I got to help with more decals and designs! My uncle and I were working on a new logo and I am very proud to say that I got to choose the font for this design. I have to say myself, It does look pretty great! The shirts are for the E3 video game trade show coming up, and I chose to put the intricate design on the lower back part of the t-shirt. I chose the colors blue and gray for this shirt. It feels so cool to know that I helped make this design for such a big trade show. I can’t wait to see how many people will buy the shirts! 

I am also organizing labels today. Every box that is shipped has to have the correct labeling so when my uncle arrives at the show, everything will be set into place. Thousands and thousands of products will be shipped out to the store so when my uncle arrives on site the organization is key. I am very tedious with these labels to make sure I don’t mess anything up! The labels are based off my inventory count, which my uncle left all to me, so there is a lot of pressure. If there is a big mistake in the inventory or the labeling this could cause a great deal of havoc. There is enough set up going into the on site stores so if there is a big mix up inventory wise it will only cause more stress. 

Blog #9

So far this week has been filled with lots of inventory and stock managing. Instead of my uncle paying people on site to fulfill all his inventory needs, I am taking care of everything. I enjoy how much responsibly I have and it feels like I am doing such a real job. I have to keep track of everything all shirts, sizes, colors, what he needs and what he doesn’t need. I package them away and organize all of the boxes and labels. I know this type of work sounds a little boring but I love it! It’s a lot more work than it seems and I get to focus more on improving my organization skills because every definitely has to be organized and put together or else the wrong orders could really mess up the store. 

We had to deal with another logo glitch. The women who creates the logos made the ones on the front of the shirts too big, and not going to lie it does look a little awkward. Good thing it was only a batch of about 100 shirts so the problem was able to be avoided in time! My uncle creates the logos the exact sizing on the computer, but if there isn’t proper communication with these artists then situations like these can happen a lot. Sometimes if they don’t receive enough information, even though it seems obvious, the creators just go with what they think is best and now I see how to avoid these types of problems . 

Rough Draft

John Beardsley

5/10/13

SCORE Rough Draft

Sustaining a Small Business

As a night student at Bentley College, my grandfather Robert C. Saladino created a corporate actions processing company that is now called The Colbent Corporation. The Colbent Corporation is known and trusted by all of their competitors and partners greatly for their financial services and all of the other services that they provide; many close-knit relationships with clients have been created over the years because of Colbent’s trust worthy services. The corporation was created to focus on Corporate Actions Processing, Proxy Tabulation Processing and Mutual Funds Settlements.  After Mr. Saladino created as well as ran The Colbent Corporation for twenty years, his daughter, Susan Beardsley was thrown into position of taking over a company she knew nothing about. As death can cause many small businesses to fly below the belt, Susan handled her loss with the burden of taking on a business and making it thrive. It took her several weeks to get the real “hang of it” but eventually it became like second nature. Small businesses normally have a difficult time surviving without the stresses of  new Chief Executive Officers and what not. As a second-generation small family business, The Colbent Corporation keeps itself afloat with great perseverance and dedication to what they do best. Hard work and dedication is not always shown from sweat and tears, but The Colbent Corporation stays in business by focusing on the smallest possible things, and capitalizing on them.  No small task goes by without full concern at Colbent.    

The Colbent Corporation specializes in many different business affairs. The company, now run by Susan Beardsley, has twenty employees who all work towards many aspects of their field of expertise. Colbent specializes in Corporate Actions Processing or “Reorg”, Proxy Tabulation Processing (which is just another form of corporate action) and Mutual Fund Settlements and Distributions. It has become very clear throughout the time of being an intern, that Colbent is not easily explainable to many people, even some of the long time employees still have a hard time explaining exactly what it is that Colbent does.  Each of the three main topics of the company is very complex and focuses on many different aspects through out their industry.

After listing all of their features, Colbent does a lot more than just say they are right for the job.  The main office is located in Braintree Massachusetts where as the Chief Executive Officer; Susan Beardsley’s office is located in Essex Ma. In Braintree, Don Beardsley, Chief Operating Officer’s job is to make sure everything goes smoothly. He talks daily to clients about Colbent’s services trying to bring in new jobs. He travels numerous days out of the year to attend business meetings trying to bring in new jobs for Colbent. He meets with Banks and many executives from large and small companies throughout the country. Often Don creates a presentation and in their meetings he will explain what Colbent can do for them and why they are the best choice. Colbent’s success can be attributed to taking on projects that other agents were unable to handle with their “IT” structure. All of Colbent’s processing systems and related programs are proprietary and have been developed in-house since 1994. Colbent’s ability to understand a project and implement a plan to process and report the result to the client has been instrumental in adding and maintaining excellent relationships with customers. Converting a file or multiple files from various platforms quickly and accurately has allowed Colbent to gain the confidence of many clients. Most of the work that Colbent does is for a small group of clients who have worked closely with Colbent to develop interfaces into their record keeping systems with minimal manual intervention.

 Beginning with Corporate Actions Processing, they focus on mergers and exchanges, tender offers and Dutch auctions, liquidations, subscription offers and rights offers, debt instrument redemptions, odd lot programs, stock dividends or splits/ spinoffs, thrift conversions, class action settlements, and insurance company restricting/ demutualization. Most of Colbent’s projects are non-routine corporate actions, that is, they fall outside the scope of the normal day-to-day processing done by transfer agents.  An interview with Don Beardsley said that “Dividend payments are examples of routine processes that transfer agents administer for their clients” .  As for the non-routine work, the transfer agents outsource a lot of that work and send it to Colbent. “The transfer agents typically have a department to handle dividends, weekly or periodic stock purchase plans, option administration, proxy tabulation, payments, or routine processes etc.” (Don Beardsley, Interview). Colbent is engaged when all shareholders of a specific issue or stock are affected by a corporate action that the transfer agent does not have a dedicated staff to handle, or when a non-routine project is needed.

  As for the Proxy Tabulation Processing, it includes, mail and printing, tabulation that includes: online, paper ballots, touch-tone, solicitor vote, interface to all Bank, broker and nominee voting. Also it includes Notice and Access. Proxy Tabulation is just another form of corporate action. Colbent works in unification with a Solicitor on a proxy campaign to tabulate and report votes to the company, the fund or the transfer agent. They convert the record date file of registered or direct holders of either a mutual fund or issue of stock, and we create a mailing file to each holder with the proxy ballots for an upcoming annual or special meeting. The shareholders can either vote their proxy via Internet, touch-tone, paper ballot, or phone call by the solicitor. Colbent collects the votes from these various methods and reports them to the client up to the meeting date. For example, in 2006, Colbent worked on proxy jobs for Company ‘A’ and ‘B’. In 2006 and 2007, Colbent only tabulated proxies for open-end mutual funds for ‘A’ and ‘B’. In 2008, Colbent began tabulating for ‘C’ for corporate clients in addition to mutual funds. This proxy typically will fall during the spring ‘proxy season’. “We expect to do some more but again have no way of gauging the potential revenue” (Colbent Corporation Sales Memo).

As for the Mutual Fund Settlements, Colbent’s website when into elaborate detail about each subject within their settlements. It goes much deeper than the sub categories within this. Mutual Fund Settlements touches upon, expertise and speed, flexible technology, total regulatory compliance, absolute security, versatile capabilities, personalized and responsive service, unmatched value from other companies. Colbent was active in class action settlement distributions between 1994 and 2003, but have not had new class action projects since that time. Most mutual fund restitution projects have “developed from the market timing and late trading settlements started by the New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in late 2003” (Colbent Corporation Sales Memo).

The Colbent Corporation uses many different pieces of information to complete a single project. For example, as Colbent works on a non-routine project, their steps are categorized and documented. They are labeled under mandatory mergers or exchanges, basically when a company acquires another company for some consideration. This can either begin mandatory or be made mandatory after the initial tender offer for a majority of shares from an acquiring firm. As Don Beardsley stated “typically the acquiring company offers stock, cash or a combination to the shareholders of another company”. Another type of non-routine work that Colbent does is voluntary offers or elections. By definition from the Tonneson & Company, “Voluntary offers or elections is, an offer for some or all shares of a company by a company or individual to acquire those shares”. Voluntary offers come in many shapes and flavors but usually they all give the shareholder the option of participating or not (hence the name voluntary). Many of the several types seen are Stock-Cash elections, which acquire companies to pay stocks or cash or a combination to participating shareholders. Also there are Dutch Auctions, which is another form of a tender where the shareholder gets to elect the price within a range to sell shares back to the bidder. Odd Lot Buy Backs are shareholders of small lot shares (fewer than 100) and they are offered to sell their shares to either the company or to an Odd Lot agent such as Company ‘B’ (same reference as before, and also a close client of Colbent). Tender Offers where many companies, mostly close-end funds, are required to offer shareholders the right to sell their shares if the stock price does not meet certain requirements; and Rights Offerings, shareholders of a stock are offered the right to purchase additional shares through a program open to all holders. Each of these sub divisions is made up of the non-routine work that Colbent does everyday. Their jobs are often very long and have a lot of little work to be done within them. Already there are so many details that are not touched upon because Colbent does so much within a single project. Due to this business being so confidential numbers specific to jobs described above are not allowed to be released, although it would make much more sense to use numbers and specific details it is against the company privacy policy.

Throughout this internship Susan Beardsley showed a lot of what she does on an everyday basis. As the Chief Executive Officer, she owns, runs and works for The Colbent Corporation. Her office is located in Essex conveniently at home; this made work hours easier because there was no commuting time, but also difficult because there were distractions of being at home. As in intern it was important to focus on what Susan did everyday. Her job is significantly different than what; Don Beardsley does on a daily basis. Unlike him, she works alone basically on her computer all day. Whereas Don Beardsley, the Chief Operating Officer of Colbent, spends his days at Braintree with twenty five other employees, talking to clients via phone, email, and meeting in person. As Chief Operating Officer, Don makes sure the show runs smoothly. He looks over all operations and supervises practically everything Colbent does. As Colbent is extremely influenced by its mail and bank statements, it became a significant part of this internship. Most of the company mail company bills are sent to Braintree and then if specifically needed; they are taken home to Susan’s office with Don. Granted many of the documents that go through their offices are highly confidential, the safe transportation of many documents is extremely important. After receiving each bank statement or piece of mail, Susan is responsible for documenting what she has received and making sure to put all of the statements in safe places. She has spent many days reviewing the numbers of the entire company. Normally she spends a great deal of time projecting numbers, predicting where the company’s financials will be in six to ten months from the time.

After watching the numerous hours stressing over taxes, this internship began with a normal ratio of stress. The Colbent Corporation recently switched health insurance companies, which is relevant to this internship because it showed how much money of the company was lost and gained through new plans, and what would be fixed if they were to “do it all again”. Basically what Susan did was made a comparison of different health care companies to see who could give Colbent the best rates for their twenty-five employees. This is important because Colbent is a small business, and their rates usually rise between 15 and 20% each year, because they go to market as a smaller employee group. They search for better benefits each year because The Colbent Corporation provides comprehensive services, which includes, payroll, benefits, recruiting, training, human resources (HR) practices, 401-K, and employment compliance, for their employees. The employees are stated as “one of the most important assets of The Colbent Corporation because they are one of the factors that can bring the company to the next level” (Susan Beardsley, Interview). Each year when Colbent re-assesses their prices for their insurances, they have to go through many benefit brokers. From the beginning of S.C.O.R.E. the focus was intensely upon making spreadsheets and editing word documents stating the new prices. Susan had to look deeply into the benefits for every employee so they were pretty even for the entire company and no one was hit with a huge increase. As it is extremely different for large companies, teachers and anyone apart of a union, smaller business insurance can be an extremely difficult price to pay. Due to the very few employees, the individual rate costs more because there are fewer people being covered. Because of the chances of prices being significantly higher than those paying in a large company atmosphere, it has become important to Susan as the Chief Executive Officer to make everyone’s payments as similar as possible. The only reason people would be hit with such a significant increase in charge is because of where the other money from the employee’s paycheck goes.

Throughout the weeks at The Colbent Corporation S.C.O.R.E. internship, many days consisted of working on the payroll. Due to not commuting to Don Beardsley’s office in Braintree everyday interaction with different people was extremely scarce therefore sometimes making this internship seem like forever. The Colbent Corporation pays their employees on a bi-weekly calendar, basically saying that they get paid twice a month. This is sometimes easy and hard for Susan to manage through all of the stresses. The payroll processing system is a complete start to finish cycle. The process consists of check calculation, tax calculation, report generation, check signing and sealing. Colbent’s payroll processing tools allow users to utilize features such as the Pre-Process Payroll, unlimited paychecks per employee, unlimited earnings and deduction codes, and unlimited direct deposit transactions. Conveniently Colbent provides 3^rd party checks (agency checks). Colbent provides checks to a third party vendor or agency based on payroll deductions. Health insurance, garnishments, and 401(K) deductions can be placed on agency checks that will be made payable to the appropriate agency on a weekly or monthly basis. For example an employee of The Colbent Corporation is still paying of his student loans and each time a payment is needed for the loans, Colbent has a specific deduction to be taken out of his paycheck that is set up to be able to send the money directly to the school. Colbent has re-vamped their payment system with a feature of direct electronic payment to an employee’s bank account. Colbent now provides an unlimited number of direct deposits into different accounts at different financial institutions per employee. The employees are allowed to choose where to have their pay divided into different accounts. They can either be divided static amounts or percentage of the net pay. Colbent uses the software called Millennium. It provides them with great Payroll and Human Resource functionality in a cost effective package, “The PC based software provides quick, easy and accurate payroll data entry allowing you to take control of your payment” (Susan Beardsley, Interview).

Many days with The Colbent Corporation were unlike the others. Due to the fact that business is not always hot and jumping, some weeks were slower than the one before. Obviously with slower weeks comes less work, in that instance, as an intern it was important to read up on many of the important mini factors of The Colbent Corporation. One being a profit and loss statement; during tax week this is when these statements came in handy. As many handouts were printed to read, Susan explained how she learned all about what The Colbent Corporation does. As stated before, after her dad died in 2006 she was named Chief Executive Officer of this company but it is important to know that she had never worked for Colbent before. Although many people had their doubts, it took her two solid months to get the company back on its feet. With the help of few others and the Internet, she figured out a lot about The Colbent Corporation. A Profit and Loss Statement (P&L) is a “financial statement that summarizes the revenues, costs an expenses incurred during a specific period of time” (Profit and Loss Statement ‘P&L’ Definition). Susan gave old Profit and Loss statement sheets from 2007-2008 and as instructed statements from 2008-2009 were compared as well. A Profit and Loss statement is also known as an “income statement” or an “income and expense statement”. Although specific numbers and often many names are not allowed to be exposed this example below may help the understanding of a Profit and Loss statement that can apply to The Colbent Corporation’s business apparatus:

“The statement of a profit and loss follows a general form…It begins with an entry for revenue and subtracts from revenue the costs of running the business, including costs of goods sold, operating expenses, tax expense and interest expense. The bottom line (literally and figuratively) is net income (profit)” (P&L definition).

Like many aspects of business, the Profit and Loss statement has a partner that’s role is equally as important as its own function. This so-called partner of a subject to The Colbent Corporation is called a Balance Sheet. By definition a balance sheet is an, “income statement and a statement of cash flow” it is the most important financial statement produced by a company (Balance Sheet Definition). As quoted by Susan Beardsley, “Each of the Profit and Loss and the Balance Sheet are important, they are supposed to be analyzed together”. A Balance Sheet is a, “Statement that summarizes a company’s assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity at a specific point in time” (Balance Sheet Definition). A Balance Sheet segment gives many investors ideas “as to what the company owns and owes, as well as the amount invested by the shareholders” (Balance Sheet Definition). It is important to follow and understand the following formula: Assets= Liabilities + Shareholders’ Equity. Easy enough to understand because it simplifies the true meaning to a Balance Sheet:

“it is called a balance sheet because the two sides balance out.  This makes sense: a company has to pay for all the things it has (assets) by either borrowing money (liabilities) or getting it from shareholders (shareholders equity). Each of the three segments of the balance sheet will have many accounts within it that document the value of each” (Balance Sheet Definition).

These are two of the many important documents that Susan Beardsley is responsible for making sure they are balanced and make sense when comparing them to years past. It is important to be very careful while reviewing all of these forms because any outstanding differences in costs from year to year could be a mistake and either make The Colbent Corporation spend more at the end, or have money returned to them from an over payment.

This internship is legitimate because it includes up to date information about today’s economy. By being a second-generation small business, it has been made very difficult to survive in the economy today. After the 2008 presidential election of Barrack Obama, the raised taxes upon small business owners has knocked off many of the businesses within Colbent’s industry. Through the thick and thin of the past five years, Susan Beardsley has been able to keep this company alive without her father, the originator, by her side. Through every untouched subject of Colbent’s deep purpose, every project can be compared because they need to be taken slowly and done correctly the first time. Although not every project cannot be easily completed correctly its first time, Colbent wants to make sure each process is taken into considerations so no extra costs are being charged their way. Susan Beardsley has been able to make a second-generation small family business five years out of its normal context, and it is still thriving today.

Interning with a small business really opened a lot of doors. It showed what many positives and negatives are of working in this industry. For instance The Colbent Corporation is a family business, owned and run by a married couple. Living with Susan, the owner, and Don the chief operator showed a lot of inside details and the stresses of owning a business. For one, working with a family member is extremely difficult because there is no time to escape “the office”. It was very clear that the stresses from the office ad the long work days were brought home and they can be discussed easier with just two people to hear instead of everyone surrounding the decision making in Braintree. It was easier to get information from Susan because she is a first  hand source of a new person in the industry. Having been a self taught Chief Executive Officer she was the easiest to work with because she knew what it is like to know nothing about something and need to learn it before a certain date. Although as their daughter, still treated as an intern, things were never different as an employee for The Colbent Corporation. Confidential matters were still kept confidential and names and numbers were extremely hard to get handle of. Few times did Susan actually have hands on work to complete; her work was much easier in the long run because she has the more simplified information than Don does down in Braintree.