Michelle Singletary: Book answers all of your student loan questions. 2D
Business&Money
S U N D A Y , J U N E 5, 2005
WWW.TUSCALOOSANEWS.COM
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Business is rolling along for Harley
Rental car tips
Did you rent a car for the Memorial Day weekend? Did the experience leave you discouraged? Whether you rent for business trips or weekends in a different city, the trip to the rental counter can be daunting as clerks run you through a gantlet of insurance: collisiondamage, liability and personal injury. The key to a smart transaction is knowing what sort of credit card benefits and insurance coverage you already have, according to the June issue of Money Adviser, a monthly newsletter published by Consumer Reports. Rental agencies sell two main types of insurance, collisiondamage, which covers you if the car is damaged or stolen, and personal liability, which covers damage to other cars and injuries to people not in your car. Most will also push personal injury coverage. Visa cards and most American Express cards cover damage to rental cars, but they don’t cover your liability. But if you already have an auto insurance policy, you should be covered. And your health insurance plan through your job or spouse will cover your injury claims. Also, when you get the keys, inspect the car carefully inside and out. Don’t just hop in and roar off.
Healthy appreciation
The upward spiral of health-care costs in recent years has made employer-sponsored health coverage a premium perk for many workers. A recent sur vey about jobbenefit desirability bears it out. More than half of adults, 58 percent, said participation in a health plan was the best choice among possible employee benefits. The next option, a $500 salary increase, was cited by only 14 percent. Participation in a 401(k) plan with a company match was chosen by 12 percent and 8 percent said paid life and disability insurance. Only 2 percent said they’d pick an extra five vacation days. And the interest in health care was not limited to the older among us — 52 percent of the generation X crowd, the group following the baby boomers, also chose health insurance benefits as their first choice. The survey of 1,092 adults was commissioned by Medco Health Solutions Inc., a Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based manager of prescription drug programs.
Wealthy readers
It’s the start of summer, and you might be mulling a beach holiday: sun, sand, surf, sunblock, paperumbrella-adorned cocktail and trashy novel. JPMorgan Private Bank releases an annual summer reading list for its high net worth clients. Among the tomes on this year’s? ■ “Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right,” by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Bossidy is the former CEO of Honeywell International Inc. and Charan is a former faculty member of Harvard Business School. ■ “It’s Only a Movie-Alfred Hitchcock: A Personal Biography,” by Charlotte Chandler, a biographer. ■ “The World is Flat: A Brief Histor y of the Twenty-First Century,” by Tom Freidman, The New York Times columnist. ■ “Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America,” by Russell Shorto, a New York writer of biographies and children’s books. ■ “Managing for the Long Run: Lessons in Competitive Advantage from Great Family Businesses,” by Danny Miller, a Canadian business professor, and Isabelle Le BretonMiller, a senior research associate at the University of Alberta. ■ “The Wisdom of Crowds,” by James Surowiecki, the New Yorker magazine’s business columnist. ■ “Through the Eyes of the Gods: An Aerial Vision of Africa,” by Bobby Haas, a Dallas-based private equity investor and wildlife photographer.
SECTION D
By Kathleen McLaughlin NYT Regional Newspapers
Sometimes
the perfect job
is the perfect ...
With schools of first-time job seekers out of college, con artists are looking to reel in the money By April Wortham Staff Writer
To Chance McDaniel, it sounded like the perfect job. The newspaper advertisement promised good money and opportunities with a growing company for young, enthusiastic people who could start work right away. After meeting with the company president, McDaniel, who had just graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in telecommunication and film, was even more optimistic. But then came the follow-up interview. Reporting to the company’s Birmingham headquarters at 8:30 a.m., McDaniel would spend the next 10 hours going door-to-door at strip malls as the two employees with whom he rode tried to convince business owners to switch phone service providers. “It wasn’t at all what I thought it was going to be,” said McDaniel, now 24 and working parttime as an on-air personality for a New Orleans radio station. “There were so many times during the day that I thought about grabbing a cab and getting to my car back at the office so I could get out of there. It was miserable. “It really gave me a bad impression as far as what opportunities are out there,” he said. With college commencements now over, tens of thousands of new graduates are hitting the job trail in what analysts are forecasting as the best market for entry-level jobs since 2001. Companies are expected to hire 13 percent more graduates this year than last, and 85 percent of employers said they are offering higher initial salaries than in 2004, according to a poll by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. SEE SCAMS | 5D
More than ever, Harley-Davidson is the motorcycle for middle-aged men with money to spend. The company says its riders are aging and becoming wealthier, with a median age that last year passed 45 and a median income surpassing $80,000. Dealers in some communities, where the demographics match that profile, find they’re in the perfect place to peddle the brand favorite. In sunny Southwest Florida, for example, dealerships are exREADY panding, hoping to TO RIDE? capitalize on an exTo draw in new pected wave of reriders, especially tirees. women, dealer“Our core age deships are offering mographic is really 35 introductory ridto 54, though we cering and safety tainly sell motorcycourses. The cles to people of all company’s dealages,” said Bob Klein, erships will teach a spokesman for about 20,000 Harley-Davidson in people how to Milwaukee. He estiride this year. mates that 70 percent of Harley buyers are in that age range. But industr y analysts warn that overall, Harley-Davidson faces some changes. Nationwide, growth in Harley’s sweet spot is slowing and the company will have to compete for younger riders. “Harley still has the best brand name in the business, but that loyalty, when you start aiming at a younger customer, is not as important as it was with the baby boomers,” said Don Brown, an independent analyst and former motorcycle executive in Irvine, Calif. “Dealers are going to have to work harder, promote more and have SEE HARLEY | 4D
Birmingham architectural firm helps blacks enter the field By Amanda Dawkins The Associated Press
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STAFF ILLUSTRATION | ANTHONY BRATINA
MONTGOMERY | When James Wilson saw the mural displaying notable blacks associated with his high school, he drew inspiration from a painting of Wallace A. Rayfield, the first black architect in Alabama and one who helped break racial barriers nationally. “Not only was Mr. Rayfield an incredible architect, his ingenious entrepreneurial skills allowed him to have several practices around the country, including his office in Birmingham,” Wilson said. Now Wilson, who graduated from A.H. NEWS TO USE Parker High School The National in Birmingham, is atOrganization of tending architecture Minority Archischool at Auburn, tects will hold thanks to a firm that its annual conferfor two decades has ence in Birminghelped put blacks into ham, hosted a field where their by the local numbers are scarce. NOMA chapter, Of the 50 members of Oct. 13-15. Birmingham-based Giattina Fisher Aycock Architects Inc., 20 percent are black — compared to only 1 percent nationally and about 3 percent in the state. Although Alabama has been recognized as the birthplace of modern architectural design for blacks, with Rayfield and many others beginning their careers at Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute, today only 24 of 774 architects registered in the state are black, according to the Alabama Board of Architects. But Giattina Fisher Aycock — none of the founding partners is black — has sought out Birmingham-area minority students who are interested in the field. If a high school student shows an aptitude and desire, GFA puts them SEE ARCHITECT | 5D