Today, I returned from a wonderful trip to the Montreal Jazz Festival. My bestest friend, Tremayne, works in Vermont, so I flew there and we road tripped to Montreal.

Fast Fact: The Canadian border puts you halfway to the Equator AND is the last stop before the North Pole! Hey. That's what the sign said.

During our two hour road trip, we discussed some of our 2009 Goals, which she still hasn't completed.

The most important are our Wills - Living Trusts, Living Wills and Power of Attorney.

So, this topic is very important to anyone in a business...scratch that...to anyone breathing!

Your Will is the map that is used to determine what to do with your assets. You've worked long and hard to build a business.
-Will your children or siblings continue on?
-Do they know where your business accounts are held?
-What about filing final tax returns?
-What about clients/vendors whose contracts are still pending?

Wills can be quite simplistic in nature, but the weight they carry is massive!

There are plenty of sites which offers low cost ways to create a Will(s). You can also contact an attorney, accountant or local law school for assistance.

According to Legal Zoom:
A will is perhaps the most important legal document the average person will ever sign. It is an instrument that, upon your death, controls who receives your property, who will be the guardian of your children and who will manage your estate.

So, take the time in the next 2-weeks to update - or create - a will covering both your personal and business assets.

Legal Zoom
Begley, Carlin & Mandio (Pennsylvania)
Vaughn A Booker, Esq (Pennsylvania)
The American Bar Association Guide to Wills and Estates

Hi, everyone! I apologize for the long absence, but so many things have happened lately, that I just short-circuited (mentally & physically).

Anyway, I'm back now and ready to go.

The upcoming series of articles reflect conversations I've had with other business owners, and are common Q&A for any business.

If you come across articles of interest, please feel free to submit them for publication.

Please be mindful that the posted articles are supplied as reference materials. Always, ALWAYS do your own research before reaching a decision on how to proceed.

PBS isn't just about moi - it's about you too!
__________________________________________________________________

Trademarks 101: How to protect your good name
By Kathleen Ryan O’Connor, CNNMoney.com contributor

Registering your company’s name as a trademark isn’t legally required, but it can pay off down the road.

QUESTION
I am starting a clothing company and need to copyright the brand name. What is the best way to do this on a tight budget?

ANSWER
The difference between copyright and trademark isn’t always obvious, but the distinction matters here.

Both are ways of protecting intellectual property, but copyright generally protects “original works of authorship” like a book, song or poem.

A trademark covers the right of such things as brands, titles and logos.

There are plenty of low-cost ways of accomplishing this, none of which even require a lawyer.

Do-it-yourself legal sites like LegalZoom or Nolo can be great resources for registering a trademark. The do-it-yourself cost ranges from $150 or so for a basic package to around $400 for more bells and whistles.

LegalZoom, for example, will search the federal trademark database for direct conflicts – if you try to give your clothing company a name another clothing company has already trademarked, your application will be rejected – and perform a comprehensive state and common-law search.

Absent conflicts, you, a lawyer or a legal service will prepare a federal trademark application and file it with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO Web site has a wealth of information, including an extensive FAQ section and a fee schedule if you choose to file directly on your own.

There is nothing that says you must trademark your name, says Oliver Herzfeld, chief legal officer for The Beanstalk Group, a brand licensing consultancy in New York.

You technically gain rights and protection just by using the mark – but there are advantages to owning a federal trademark registration. The registration will give you an exclusive right to use the name nationwide, certain overseas rights, and a legal presumption of ownership.

Registering your trademark is only the start of defending your corporate name.

For your rights to a trademark to continue, you have to use it, protect it against infringers, and renew it. The history of brand names is littered with aspirins, cellophane and crock-pots – all former trademarks that lost their protection because their use became generic.

The most fraught venue for trademark disputes is the Internet.
In that realm, trademark fights pop up constantly, according to Mark A. Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School.

First, take keyword advertising. Companies frequently buy ads that appear on search results for competitors’ trademarks. “If a consumer searches for Honda, a Toyota ad might come up if Toyota has purchased the right to place an ad there,” Lemley says. “There is a lot of litigation on this, with inconsistent results so far.”

Another trademark issue on the Internet is the problem of geography.
“Your name may be unique in your hometown, but someone across the country or across the world may use the same name, and online there are no geographic boundaries,” he says. “So we get all kinds of conflicts – does the domain name delta.com go to the Delta Faucet company, Delta Airlines, or Delta Dental plans, for instance?”

So far, the tendency is to register domain names on a first-come, first-served basis.

“But we also have circumstances in which a small company who is first runs into a large company that comes later. Amazon (AMZN), for instance, is the name of a long-standing women’s bookstore in Minneapolis,” Lemley says. “When Amazon.com began selling globally, the bookstore sued because it was confusing their Minneapolis consumers, and Amazon.com had to buy out their rights to online sales.”

As you pick out your company name, it pays to plan ahead and chose the strongest possible trademark. Very specific and descriptive names are easier to defend than broader ones, and the strongest trademarks are extremely unique.

“Fanciful” marks like Exxon (XOM) or Kodak, essentially made up words, are the easiest trademarks to protect, Herzfeld says.

Once you have your name, be sure to police it. Patents last 20 years and copyrights live on for 70 years past the death of the author, but trademarks can last forever as long as you monitor them and follow the rules. ”That’s a huge benefit,” Herzfeld says.


The pricey path to patenting an idea
Patent vs. copyright: Protecting your creations
Is your idea safe?
What fair use protects – and doesn’t


http://askfsb.blogs.fsb.cnn.com/2009/05/13/trademarks-101-how-to-protect-your-good-name/

How to Start a Business for $100 or less

I've had the great pleasure of attending Tori's seminars in New York, am a member of her LinkedIn group, have religiously followed most of her advice with success and really admire how she started her business.


I recently came across a Tori article that actually helped me start a business in 2001. I hope you gain some insight and resources from it.


As always, take what will help, leave what will hinder and Pay It Forward to the next person!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Get the Word Out
First step, put it in writing.


Write a brief plan outlining your goals. You don't need anything formal unless you're going to seek substantial capital. In fact, researchers at Babson College found that in businesses started between 1985 and 2003, there was no difference in the performance of those that launched with or without a written business plan.

Go through a simple exercise of putting a few things on paper for your own good: describe your business in one sentence. Who will buy your products or service? How much money do you absolutely need to get started? How much can you realistically charge for your product or service? What will it cost you to deliver that product or service? In the worst-case scenario, how much can you make?

Don't assume the best-case scenario because more often than not, you won't meet those projections. A baker may dream of selling 100 cakes a week, but is five more realistic to start? A dog walker might assume he can handle 10 customers a week, but is two more realistic to start?


Know the competition.
Don't worry about reinventing the wheel. Chances are you're going to provide a service or product that already exists. That's OK. There are multiple banks, coffee shops, clothing stores and restaurants on every street. There are thousands of doctors and dentists in every major city. It's wise to know your competition, but don't be intimidated, especially if you offer a quality product or service.

Create marketing materials. You need a marketing plan to target the right people about your business. Because you aren't going to run expensive newspaper ads or Super Bowl commercials, think free and inexpensive.


Web site. When you're looking to buy something -- from a haircut to a custom cake -- you likely hit the Internet. So even if you're not selling online, every business should have a Web site. Before you decide on a name for your business, check the availability of domain names, because it could affect the name you choose.

A Web site can cost as little as $10 a month and many hosting companies offer free site-builder templates to get you up and running in a few hours. Register.com and GoDaddy.com are two services I've used.



Network
Print business cards and flyers. I use both VistaPrint.com and GotPrint.com for high-quality printing at affordable prices.

Splurge for the upgrade! If not, the printing company will advertise for free on the back your business card!


Phone system. If you worry about your kids answering your business calls but you don't want to install a dedicated phone line, consider a service like RingCentral.com to have calls routed to an 800 number with voice mail exclusively for your business starting at $10 a month.

Use free social and business networks. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and others are valuable tools for spreading the word about your business.


Establish mutually beneficial partnerships. Recently a "Good Morning America" viewer asked me for ideas on how to spread the word quickly -- without spending a dime -- about her new pet massage business.


I suggested partnering with the most popular pet store in her area to host in-store events every Saturday where owners could bring their animals for on-the-spot mini massages. It's good for the store because it brings new and existing customers into the shop, and it's good for attracting awareness -- and customers -- for this new pet massage business.

A cake baker might offer to do fundraisers for her kids' school. She could talk to wedding vendors about offering affordable alternatives to new brides. She can visit local coffee shops with samples of her baked goods to persuade them to carry her stuff.

Generate free media coverage. One of my favorite new resources is Help a Reporter Out, which enables anyone to sign up for a free e-mail alert, delivered three times daily, listing the immediate needs of writers and producers from major TV and print outlets to blogs and books. By registering for the daily e-mails, you can respond to queries from journalists that relate to your business and your expertise -- without hiring a publicist to do the work for you.


Free Resources
Find free helping hands. When you have little to no money to start, you have to be resourceful to get as much as you can for free. In addition to begging family and friends, contact colleges in your area to post internship opportunities (or post them on Craigslist) for students who'd welcome a compelling role in assisting with your start-up.

Tap free expert resources. Contact the Chamber of Commerce in your area, Small Business Association or SCORE, which provides free and low-cost advice on every aspect of your business, including the licenses you may need to operate and the tax and insurance considerations.


Among my favorite resources for small-business owners: Make Mine a Million, StartupNation, Small Business Television, and Collective-E.


Finally -- just do it. If you can't get out there and sell your product or service, you don't have a business. It doesn't matter how fabulous your offering, your expertise or your Web site, if nobody will pay you for it, there's no business.

Get your ducks in a row and then get in front of your target audience. Nobody will have the same passion and enthusiasm as you, and your passion is priceless.


Tory Johnson is the workplace contributor on "Good Morning America" and the CEO of Women for Hire. Visit her Web site at www.womenforhire.com.

More time for $500, Alex...

There's three true facts about time that applies to every living person:
1: it waits for no one
2: once gone, you can't get it back
3: it only gives us 24-hours a day

Now, seeing as those we have no control over those three facts, we do have control over how we use that time.

The owners of StartupNation (Jeff & Rich), lends the following advice:
Give yourself permission to breathe!

We know that your clients are very important and that you only have a certain number of hours in the day to accomplish that big project.

You aren’t comfortable telling your assistant to hold your calls while you take a 30-minute siesta. We get it.

But you have to give yourself permission to stop.

Here are some basic tactics that will help you deal with – and maybe remedy – your pressure-cooker business life:
Keep a time log.
For two weeks, jot down how you spend every minute of your day. Then calculate how much time was wasted – who wasted it and how often. Now you can clearly see how much time you can devote to doing something good for yourself.

Plan for each activity.
Most things take longer than you expect. Pad extra time around appointments to account for time-killers like traffic. It will help you get everything done in a more realistic way, and plan better for family and extracurricular activities.

(This is a biggie)
Evaluate the quality of your clients.
You know some people take more time than others. Is it really worth the time and effort to do business with them? Deal only with people who don’t take advantage of you, who pay you on time (and at the rate you deserve) and frankly, who are pleasant. Stress will take a dive. Time-consuming issues won’t be as frequent, because the people in your life won’t be as difficult.

Result: More contentment, more time to yourself.

We're Backkkkkkkk!

Wow! It's been a long 3 1/2 weeks for me. As most of you know, I'm pursuing a degree in Computer Forensics. I absolutely LOVE this curriculum. But it involves lots of studying and case analysis.

(FYI: you never completely delete anything from your harddrive. Doesn't matter what the fancy-smancy software promises.)

These last two weeks were all about getting ready for project finals.

I took Parts 1 & 2 last night. I thought I'd finish in - oh - two hours or so.

Nope.

Try almost SIX hours later, I finished!

We were warned that if our programs shut-down or we lost our internet connections, we wouldn't get a second chance. So, I started at about 11pm Saturday night and didn't even notice the time until I heard birds chirpping...at 5:30AM!

Exhaustion is not the word but, you know, it's such a sense of accomplishment.

So, thank you for hanging in there these last three weeks.

Get It Together! (6 Easy Steps to Organizing Your Home Office)

Organizing your office space is a must, especially when that space is limited. Trish - an EHow Editor, tells us how to do it:

How to Organize a Home-Based Business
By Trish62, eHow Editor

As you are starting a home-based business, there are something that will help you to stay organized while your business begins to grow.

Even if you have had your business going for some time now, there are always places that could use more organization and efficiency.

Here are a few ways to help you no matter if you are just starting out or have been running your home-based business for some time.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:
Desk and computer
Trash can
Pens
File folders (manila or the hanging style)
Mail basket
Address book or Rolodex
Calendar, Palm Pilot or Blackberry

Step1
Make a specific area in your home your office space. A desk or table works well at first, with your computer either a desktop or laptop. Make sure everyone in your home knows this is your office space. This is very important if there are not doors to close to show the boundaries of your office.

Step2
Get a calendar, Palm Pilot, or Blackberry from the very beginning of starting your business. You need to have a place to write your appointments. A Blackberry works well because it takes the place of your Palm Pilot and your cell phone, combining both tools.

Step3
Set up a good filing system. By doing this it will keep the paper on your desk down. As you get busier with you home-based business, this will be very helpful to minimize paper stacking up on your desk.

Step4
On your computer, set up main files under your Documents. This will help you keep things organized on your computer.

Step5
Do the same setting up main files in your email account. Again this will help you to keep track of information that you may need.

Step6
Since your business is home-based, remember to keep personal items such as catalogs and magazines off your desk.

Blog Blast - It's the LAST day!

Day 31 - Run a SWOT Analysis on Your Blog

I hope you had fun and learned alot about boosting your blog presence.

Remember, just because it's a 31-Day Challenge, doesn't mean it stops here.

Start it over again during the summer; put it on your 90-day plan. Just don't let the momentum die!

Talk to you soon!