Professor Elam

Wednesday June 11, 2014

The fortunes of RAdio Shack RSH continue to sag. 

The stock may go to $1 which would cause it to be de listed from the NYSE. RSH lacks a coherent strategy to take it forward in a day and age of dlwonloaded songs and personal iPods and Phones. I never thought hte make it a phone store was a good iodea.  I stopped at ATT on SE Military and there was a four person wait to even speak to a salesperson, and that was at 2 30 PM on a Monday. RSH used to be in the hobby business of thing a ma jigs and made some pretty decent stereo equipment. Now they are pressed to compete wtih Amazon much less Best Buy.  They gave up computer sales decades ago. 

Meanwhile HR Block HRB is back from the dead. A column in the WSJ today recommends its purchase.

I have recently visited with two of our studnets interning with small CPA firms. I asked if this was really a CPA practice or a glorified HR Block franchise with the necessity of becoming a CPA. My point, as we say in managerial accounting, where is the sweet spot for tax returns. If you can do a return in less than an hour, and charge $200, that may be far more profitable than doing a complex  return in three hours, then re doing it becuse the client wants a smaller tax bill, and then charging say $595. Liberty, Block, and others all offer franchise opportunities ifyou see tax returns as a business model, I don't by the way but, HRB is now angling to get a slice of the Health Care Business as well.