The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 12 No. 21 - March 7, 2012

BUSINESS

Creating style at Bridge Street Interiors

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

LOUISE BOLGER | SUN
Deborah and Matt Myers invite the
public to celebrate their
10th aniversary on Wednesday, March 7,
from 5 to 8 p.m.

Style is a subjective concept. What is stylish to one person is totally gauche to another. When it comes to decorating our homes, this fact becomes essential to our comfort and happiness and getting professional advice may be the key to becoming confident in our decisions.

Professional advice is exactly what Island residents have been getting at Bridge Street Interiors for 10 years. Deborah and Matt Myers' wonderful little shop has become a mainstay on Bridge Street, where practically everyone who walks in the door has either been there before or has previously used their expert decorating advice.

Although the Meyers' business is primarily devoted to home styling, their shop on historic Bridge Street contains a cornucopia of ornamental items for the home, small pieces of furniture, lamps, prints, candles and gifts. Bridge Street Interiors also carries a large inventory of jewelry from Florida artists including many pieces of sea glass. Their latest addition exclusive to the Island are Sea Jewels Perfumes customized with Anna Maria Island on the containers.

But Deborah and Matt Myers' real love is working with homeowners to find the perfect style for their homes. Deborah Myers says they don't just decorate, they style homes for the owners' individual tastes and lifestyles, avoiding cookie cutter designs and pieces. It's not uncommon for clients to come back year after year to work with the Myers as they style their home in stages.

Bridge Street Interiors offer full service decorating including furniture selection, bedding and upholstery with a special emphasis on custom window coverings including Hunter Douglas blinds. Deborah Myers said through the years they have decorated restaurants, single family homes and many condos on Anna Maria Island, Longboat Key and mainland locations and are able to work within everyone's budget.

Every Thursday evening between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Bridge Street Interiors hosts Ladies Nite Out. This is a great time to partake of refreshments, bring your pictures, decorating questions and problems and maybe even win a free in-home consultation

The Myers will be celebrating their 10-year anniversary at Bridge Street Interiors with a blow out celebration on Wednesday, March 7, starting at 5 p.m. They want to thank their long time customers for supporting their business and welcome everyone to come and see them for some snacks, champagne and to participate in 10 gift drawings, one for each of their 10 years in business.

Style is the process of creating something, and Bridge Street Interiors is in the business of helping you to create the right style for you and your family and has been for 10 years. Stop by and wish them a happy anniversary and grab some style while you're at it.

Bridge Street Interiors

114 Bridge Street
Bradenton Beach

941-782-1130
www.bridgestreetinteriors.com

Monday-Saturday:
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Thursday: Till 8 p.m.

Sunday: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

All major credit cards accepted

10-Year Anniversary Celebration
March 7, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

 

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

Manage your portfolio like you would run a business

Investment Corner

The financial markets have been a much friendlier place for investors in the last few months compared to the extremely volatile times we went through last summer and fall. But rest assured, there will be trying times in our future at some point, just as we have experienced in the past.

For individual investors, it is how we react during these times of stress that goes a long way to determining our long-term results. Of course, predicting trouble in advance is never an exact science, so the choices are to:

• Not react emotionally and ride out periods of volatility;

• Use a disciplined rules-based process to try to control risk by varying your asset allocation over time;

• React on intuition or emotion.

Of course, the last option generally does not work out very well for most, as they tend to get too aggressive after markets have done well and tend to bail out after markets have declined. This is the opposite behavior of the buy low, sell high theory.

I think investors can have more patience and success if they manage their investment portfolio like it was a business. Not all of us have owned or run a business, but it's not hard to imagine the thought process. Let's say, hypothetically, that we owned a successful boutique on Pine Avenue here on Anna Maria Island.

In fact, let's imagine that we were successful enough that two to three times in an average week, investors inquired if we would be willing to sell the business to them for $250,000. After enough offers of $250,000, we could make the assumption that the fair value of our business is about that amount.

Then, for three weeks in a row, we only get one offer each week for $200,000, a 20 percent lower value than previously offered. Would we panic and sell to the low bidder? Probably not. Instead, we would keep working in the business, generating income from it and hopefully building the value in the enterprise so that we would one day sell for an evenhigher amount than the $250,000 offers.

If you think about it, your investment portfolio is a compilation of stocks, bonds and perhaps real estate investment trust and other investments. The value of these investments changes a bit every day, but periodically may drop more than usual based on the level of demand from buyers, just like in the boutique example above. Should we panic and sell our investment portfolio at a lower price? Generally, this would be a bad idea. If you consider your portfolio as a business, which holds ownership in companies and their debt obligations, you may be less likely to be driven to sell after declines.

After all, if the price of IBM's stock drops 20 percent, does it mean it is selling 20 percent less mainframe computers and software? Not likely, and in fact its sales could actually be increasing while the stock price temporarily declines. So, rather than sell at the low price, continue your disciplined approach to running the business and building value to eventually sell when you can get a premium price.

Tom Breiter is president of Breiter Capital Management, Inc., an Anna Maria based investment advisor. He can be reached at 778-1900. Some of the investment concepts highlighted in this column may carry the risk of loss of principal, and investors should determine appropriateness for their personal situation before investing. www.breitercapital.com

Tom Breiter is president of Breiter Capital Management, Inc., an Anna Maria based investment advisor. He can be reached at 778-1900. Some of the investment concepts highlighted in this column may carry the risk of loss of principal, and investors should determine appropriateness for their personal situation before investing. Visit www.breitercapital.com.


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