Blue Collar Yields

Ren Cicalese is the managing shareholder of Alloy Silverstein, a regional full-service accounting and advisory firm headquartered in southern New Jersey. Ren shares with us how he went from a tax-time temp position to running a firm that includes three companies and over 50 employees. Ren’s specialty, amongst other things, is to help business owner clients maximize their profits. He believes in shooting straight and providing his clients with the best advice, even if it isn’t exactly what they want to hear. In the episode, Ren shines a light on the importance of work ethic by discussing his first job and the lessons he learned while working at such a young age. Ren discusses the tax benefits of investing in commercial estate and how 1031 exchanges build wealth by deferring income taxes. Ren has a number of professional athletes as clients. He talks about the advice he gives his athlete clients, the responsibilities he puts on them, and how he thinks there is not enough financial education in our school systems.

Meredith Harris is a Principal Engineer for Roux, an environmental engineering and consulting firm. Meredith walks us through Phase 1 studies and why they are crucial to the acquisition due diligence process for investors. She also covers the proper environmental due diligence you should complete on a residential transaction. Meredith goes over New Jersey’s Preliminary Assessment Report and the Licensed State Remediation Professional program.

Meredith goes over the potential dangers and escalating cost of closing on a commercial property without getting environmental studies done and what most lenders will require when you pursue financing. She discusses how most environmental issues are not visible to the eye and how a trained professional can identify possible issues that also help investors renegotiate with the seller once an issue has been identified. Meredith goes into detail about underground storage tanks, how most of them fail, how to remediate, and the escalating cost of removal.

In this episode, Ashley Coyne discusses how she started Heart Beet Kitchen, which has taken Westmont and Ocean City by storm. Ashley talks about her professional athlete patrons and how she picked the locations of her stores. Ashley talks about how she was working for the Philadelphia Wings when they were relocated to Connecticut and how her gluten allergies fueled her quest to start a restaurant in South Jersey. Ashley also speaks about her initial struggles with hiring, her chef quitting days before the opening, and the fears that came from buying used equipment from restaurants that shut down within six months after opening. Her product was like nothing the Westmont area had ever seen before, and because of that, she doesn’t have to pay for marketing as local media companies regularly approach her to do stories on Heart Beet.

A preview of the episode with JerseyMan's Ken Dunek