UK-based eskandar expands in the US with Business Management Services from Benay Enterprises

eskandar AW12 collection

Benay's longstanding client, the British luxury womenswear brand eskandar, is opening its third US flagship store at the end of September in Chicago.

NAVIGATING LOCAL BUSINESS PRACTICES

Since 2002 Benay has provided eskandar with back-office support for its US operations, ranging from day-to-day financial management to navigating the unique requirements of setting up business in the US.

Functioning as eskandar's US business arm, Benay enables the UK-based company to focus on marketing and sales by providing efficient compliance state-by-state with local employment practices, tax filings and other non-core business activities.

US EXPANSION

Chicago is the sixth eskandar flagship store after London, Paris, New York, Milan and Los Angeles. The eskandar womenswear collections are also sold in an increasing number of select locations around the world including the leading department stores Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus in the US.

The new Chicago venture, like New York and Los Angeles, will be an eskandar lifestyle store offering its complete ladies' collection of clothing, as well as jewelry, hand-woven scarves and homewares including antique silverware, contemporary British ceramics, glassware and more. The new store is located in a beautifully preserved classic stone-facade building on East Walton Street which forms part of the "Magnificent Mile" shopping district.

Benay is proud to be associated with eskandar as it brings unique designs andproducts to American shoppers.

Do what you do best, and let Benay do the rest!

International and US companies outsource their non-core business management functions to Benay so they can concentrate on growing their companies.

If you know a business that wants to reduce the time and expenses it devotes to doing it all in-house, we're happy to provide a consultation.

The Benay Bank of Goodwill

Like most companies we look for banks that offer direct deposit, online banking, and a host of other services. But we also have an in-house bank, the Benay Bank of Goodwill. It’s not your traditional bank, rather it’s a policy that represents the most financially, socially and emotionally rewarding investments we as a company can ever make.

Daily Deposits

What is the Benay Bank of Goodwill? It’s the bank where employees (and the boss, too) make daily deposits of commitment to the company’s success by coming in on time, staying until the job gets done, working hard, supporting one another, and consistently striving to provide accurate and outstanding service to our clients. It’s where employees deposit mutual goodwill by doing a coworker’s task while they’re too busy, on vacation or out with a sick child—all to make sure that Benay Enterprises runs smoothly as a business and as a team.

You might say that sounds like a normal job: everyone should be trying to do their best, help their co-workers, and improve the company’s bottom line. The difference is that we reward our employees for acting like a team by letting them draw on their deposits in the Benay Bank of Goodwill, usually in a non-monetary way.

Withdrawals as Needed

One employee, who works doggedly every day, draws down on the bank by asking to work fewer days but longer hours in order to go back to school and get an MBA. As long as the work gets done and performance stays consistent, that’s fine with me.

For another employee of over 16 years, the withdrawal has been bringing her newborn to the office twice a week. Who doesn’t love a baby? She’s happy, so we’re happy; and we’re all getting work done.

The team here at Benay understands that we all have a life outside of work that’s much more important than anything we do from 9 to 5. We all have obligations and issues, so when one of my staff asked to leave early every other Wednesday to have dinner with her ailing father, I said “no problem.” The reward? She’s a dynamo who finds a way to assist every client with every problem and probably puts in more energy on those Wednesdays she leaves early than any other day of the week.

Clients Benefit

The rewards aren’t just for the employees. I have not had to worry about reassigning payroll duties for years. Even when my head bookkeeper is on vacation, she does payroll remotely, which keeps us running seamlessly for our clients. Her withdrawals from the Bank of Goodwill? Scheduling her vacation whenever she wants. Leaving early for a parent-teacher meeting. No questions asked.

We’ve even loaned money to an employee. If that employee didn’t get a needed a short-term loan for a car to get to work, they faced traveling to work by bus (which runs infrequently in the burbs), potentially missing hours or days of work to the point of losing their job. Then what? I would have lost a great employee over a small sum and they would have lost their livelihood and career. This is what our deposits of goodwill are for: mutual help, understanding and assistance when we most need it.

Intangible Assets

The Benay Bank of Goodwill, while having no visible monetary value, is what gives the real worth to my company, my staff and what we do. The deposits and withdrawals are made each and every day, in big and small ways.

I guess that makes me a rich banker, and here I thought I was a business manager! I urge you to create your own company Bank of Goodwill – the dividends are priceless.

What Happened to Sophie Wilder

That’s the question we hope to know the answer to in the finishing pages of Christopher R Beha’s debut novel, What Happened to Sophie Wilder (Tin House Books).

Beha’s wonderstruck writer of a main character, Charlie Blakeman, lost track of Sophie Wilder after they spent their college days in a turbulent relationship fueled by their mutual passion for writing, though he never stopped thinking about her. A serendipitous run-in with Sophie years later baffles him. The once impulsive, wild and free artist is now a devout Catholic, an ex-wife, and an ex-writer.

Sophie disappears from Charlie’s life as soon as she reappears, making her all the more attractive to him, and giving him all the more reason to find her.

As the New York Times points out in their book review, which was mostly positive, Charlie sums up his feelings about Sophie’s character when he describes her swimming in a pool in Connecticut:

“She moved quickly through the pool, though from where I was watching she appeared to do nothing to propel herself, like a bird that stays perfectly still while cutting through the sky. She seemed not so much a body as a shimmering trick of water and light.”

It’s always dangerous to write about a writer; especially since one of the easiest cop-outs for making a first person narrator super duper poetic is by making him or her a poet—surprise.

But the reviews from the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle seem to reinforce the idea that Beha’s book isn’t gimmicky. There might even be an intentional meta-writing element in this novel; a writer, Beha, is writing about a writer, Charlie, who seems to be writing about the woman he thinks he might love. What does it all mean?

Perhaps, like Charlie, we have as much control in the present moment as fictional characters do in a novel, which is very little, (Like Stranger than Fiction kind of). Or maybe it’s the exact opposite, and like a novelist, we dictate how our stories end. It’s impossible to say for sure without actually knowing what happened to Sophie Wilder.

-Dominick Sorrentino

Intern

Tin House is "Raising the Roof"!

Exciting news from Tin House Books!

Christopher R. Beha is the author of his newest release What Happened to Sophie Wilder. As reviewed by the New York Times Book Review: "What Happened to Sophie Wilder is about many things -- the New York publishing world, the growing pains of post collegiate life, the rigors of Roman Catholicism -- but at its center its a moving meditation on why and for whom we write." Beha also wrote an essay on the idea of the 'new' new atheists in Harper Magazine, titled "Reason for living: the good life without God".

Beha explains that the 'new' new atheists like Rosenburg whom are writers that take on a more philosophical approach to religion as opposed to past writers like Richard Dawkins who focus mostly on the God vs. science aspects of religion. These 'new' new atheists tackle the important questions such as "what is the meaning of life" and "how should I live my life" by eliminating God as a necessity and facing the questions for what they are, if there are no religious boundaries than life can have as many meanings as [you] decide. Click here to listen to Beha's interview with KUOW radio: http://www.kuow.org/mp3high/mp3/Conversation/ConversationB20120621.mp3

In other news: Parsifal by Jim Kruscoe has been chosen for Mediabistro's Los Angeles Book Club and Misfit by Adam Braver was voted Best Cover at BEA and Tin House recently released The Listeners by Leni Zumas!

To check out more, go to TinHouseBooks.com

Newest Release from Tin House Books

“Parsifal” will be released on July 14^th, the newest addition to author Jim Kruscoe’s collection of novels.  Parsifal is a humble man who sets out on a journey to revisit the place where he was born. On his adventure he meets a range of different people varying from a blind person to an interesting young woman named Misty.

Kruscoe’s other Tin House novels include Toward You, Erased, Girl Factor, and Iceland.

Check him out!

Akashic Books: Two New Releases

Akashic Books, a beloved Benay client, has released two new titles illustrated by Ricardo Cortes.

The first book which is both illustrated and written by Cortes started as a way to teach children about the history of the cocoa bean. However, after an interesting discovery Cortes decided to change paths and instead uncovers the untold past of the Coca-Cola Company in “The Secret History of Coffee, Coca, and Cola”. While there is potential for controversy between Cortes and the company, he remains unscathed and confident.

In the second book, “Seriously, Just go to Sleep”, Adam Mansbach hopes to bring parents and children together—the hassles of night time antics are condemned and put to rest.

“Seriously, Just Go to Sleep brings children in on the joke, helping them understand their own tactics and why their parents just want them to go . . . to sleep.”
--Publishers Weekly

Go check them out!