Wednesday, November 28, 2007

IncParadise helping with small businesses forming corporations

If you are considering incorporation for your business, then you might want to check into the information and services provided by Nevada based IncParadise for small businesses seeking incorporation. IncParadise is able to help small businesses incorporate in all fifty states. The one thing I'm not really sure I agree with is their specialty of helping businesses that are not in the state of Nevada register their corporations in the state to take advantage of the benefits offered by Nevada for corporations.

There are laws in the state of Nevada that require business entities to maintain a Resident Agent that is physically located in Nevada, and IncParadise can assist corporations in meeting this requirement by providing a Nevada Resident Agent that is available during regular business hours. They also provide Resident Agents for other states as well, stating they have resident agents available for all 50 states.

I'm not very sure about the ethics of forming a corporation in a state other than the one your business is actually in, so I am not sure how much I can honestly recommend this service, however, I do know that it is something that many small business owners will want to look into for themselves, and will need to make their own judgments on, so I present this information for my readers in the spirit of fair representations of all aspects of running a small business. And IncParadise can help with incorporation in all fifty states, so business owners can easily get assistance with forming a corporation in their own state.

Something that I can highly recommend for anyone is to look into the free forms that IncParadise offers. These cover a wide range of forms that are of interest to anyone that is forming a corporation, including stock certificates in several styles.

IncParadise will also prepare sets of documents for $20-$25, you can find out more by visiting the company minutes page on the IncParadise website. For even more information, including the differences between LLC and Corporation, visit their FAQ page - link located on the menu bar near the top of website pages.





Evolution of computers

My dad is in the other room watching 70's tech on Modern Marvels. It is interesting to look back at things I grew up with, such as Pong and Speak & Spell and all that, and other things I have known in my life, and see just how far those things have come to what we have today. I remember going to work with my dad when he worked as a computer programmer in the 70's and the computers took up a huge wall in a room. I would sit and feed punch cards into the computer for him. Years later I was in college and the teacher held up some old methods for storing data on computers and asked if anyone knew what they were and had ever seen any of them. I don't think he believed me when I said I recognized every one of them and had seen them all before. That was when computers were just starting to use 3.5 floppies. Now here we are, my brother has a DVD burner that features lightscribe technology. Where will we be in another 30 years?

Working from home is a cold business

Winter is most definitely here, because sitting here at the desk my fingers are cold, my toes are cold, and even my poor nose is cold. It's not cold in the house, it is rather warm in fact, but working and sitting with my feet on the laminate wood floor seemed to have got the better of my poor fingers and toes. Time to take a break and go find me a nice heating pad to put under my feet and a nice mug of coffee to warm my hands around.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Sometimes you want an office outside the home too

You know, working at home is great, so don't get me wrong and think that I don't absolutely love it, but it really does have its drawbacks. I'm lucky in that I am a freelance writer, so my at home work is mostly things where I do not have to have meetings with clients and since I am not into interviews I don't need to worry about that, but there are times when getting out of the house is essential.

I've been looking more and more into podcasting (I need voice lessons eewwww), but anyway, there is so much noise in my house that it is hard to work on a podcast without having the commercials on the front room television suddenly blaring loudly in the background. Or having someone yell through the house, or the phone ringing... add in barking dogs and meowing cats that think they need to be in my lap or on my shoulder and you can see why I want to run screaming to an office outside the home some days.

Back when I was writing business plans and grand proposals for people I would have them meet me at the local coffee house rather than bringing them to my house. A much better alternative would have been to have had them meet me at an office, but I had never heard of any such thing as office space that you could rent without having to rent an entire office building. Now days there is a much better solution for writers that are looking for a place to meet clients rather than going to the local coffee shop. You can rent either shared or private office space on a month to month basis.

If you live in the Memphis area Memphis office space is available starting at $84 a month (as of this writing). Conference rooms and private offices can be reserved for use by the hour, and everything from Internet service and unlimited long distance phone service to office furniture can included in the office.

If you would like to find out more about hoe you can enjoy the luxury of working at home and still have a place outside the home to meet with business partners or clients then check out the link above and find out what office space rentals are available in Memphis from Ofiplex - Executive Suites & Virtual Offices.



Looking for Office Music

I'm looking for some good music that I can work to, something with a low sound to it that works as a background but is not something I would end up singing along to. I'm thinking something like an instrumental or easy listening type that would work to let me focus on my work without drawing me into the lyrics. One of my friends gave me a collection of CDs a couple of years back for the Lord of the Rings movies, which has some great music on it for working along on my novels, now I just need to find something that would be good for general office work when I am not working on a novel.

All I really need is something that can be turned down to just the edge of hearing but loud enough to drown out the television set in the other room so I can work without being disturbed by the sound of the television talking about this that and the other dozen things.

Get 100 Free blogger cards from ooprint

I'm slightly bouncy at the moment, which might explain why I am in such a mood as to want to clean the office LOL. I have found myself a Christmas present for me and I can even justify getting it and not feeling bad because I went shopping for me and not someone else. Business cards! And no, not just any business cards, these are blogger business cards. Well, they may be listed as being for bloggers, but I have found a wonderful side effect of them in the cards being perfect for my novel website which has a blog for my novel in progress. Check this out:



Wouldn't you just LOVE to have one of them for your blog or novel? Heck, forget one, get 100, and they're free even! Yup, you can get 100 FREE business cards and you just pay for the shipping and handling costs. This is not one of them too good to be true deals, it is the best way that the card company knows to show off their product to you and hopefully entice you to be a loyal customer.

The catch? Yeah, you knew there was one, huh? Well, the catch is that unless you decide to pay an added $4 to get a blank back there is a small line of print on the back of the card with:

ooprint
100 FREE business cards with www.ooprint.com

Not too bad, and hey, they're giving you 100 cards for no more than the cost of shipping them out to you, so that's not a bad thing to have on the back, and even though I don't have my cards yet, it don't look to me like the thing is that large on the card back so what have you got to loose?

Ordering the cards is quick and painless, the most difficult part for me was deciding what I wanted in the tag cloud and where the words should be positioned. I do need to go back through and rebuild the cards, however, since when I backed up to check on what was printed on the back of the free cards I accidentally told it to give me two orders, then when I deleted the second one I goofed and deleted the whole order. Oops! I'm off to play with the cards again... maybe I'll see what the red design looks like this time... or that pretty golden orange... or-... well, there's over 30 design models to pick from in this section alone, so I'll let you go look at them yourself, and I'll hush up and go toy with my card design.



Office getting too cluttered

It is time to clean the office out and start over from scratch. Okay, maybe it does not really require anything that drastic, but my office is definitely in for a complete overhaul and cleaning. I've got to the point where I can not spread my hand out on my desk, much less the novel manuscript that I want to print out.

I need to tuck everything that I have not used in the past three days into a box and get it out of my way so that I can reach the things I actually use on a daily basis and still have room to work on daily projects.

Sitting here now, looking across the desk, I can see far too many things that leave me wondering why it is there. Books I read before I went to Las Vegas, items I had been sent to review that I have reviewed and should now be moved into other parts of the house where they will be put to use, first aid type things that should be in the first aid kit - not on my pencil shelf, and so on and so forth...

Time to get to cleaning things up and reclaiming my desk and then the entire office from the clutter bunnies.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Office products from Allegro Medical?

Have you ever considered a medical equipment supplier as a place to look for office equipment? Now don't laugh, I'm serious. Check out a site such as Allegro Medical and look through some of their items such as the Daily Living Aids and you will find a lot of things that can help with daily office tasks as well. Visit the Allegro Medical site at the link above and click on 'Around the office' in the left hand column and you will find such aids as big button speaker phones, long loop self opening scissors, wrist supports, and large print or big keys keyboards for computers.

My dad has a large print keyboard for his computer and he loves it, in fact, my oldest brother and oldest sister both want large print computer keyboards too after they saw my dad's large print computer keyboard.

Browse through the around the office products at Allegro Medical and see for yourself what kind of office supplies might help you run your business more comfortably.

Need a new chair

I need to find me a better office chair. For some reason I can't find one that is actually comfortable that does not have a tendency to flip backward with me. The one I have now does not do that - yet - but it is not what I would call comfortable either. It is just your standard armless secretarial chair and while it is a pretty chair, brown fabric seat and brown leather back, it is just an armless secretarial chair with no real comfort to it. Time to go chair hunting and find me a good chair.

Cyber Monday?

Thanksgiving is over, and Black Friday has come and gone, anyone ready for Cyber Monday?

A term coined by Shop.org in 2005 and picked up by mainstream media. Is it indeed the busiest online shopping day of the year? It would seem not. According to Wikipedia:

In 2005, the year the term Cyber Monday was coined, the busiest online shopping day of the year in the U.S. was actually December 12, two weeks after "Cyber Monday"


Still, the term seems to be catching on, maybe one day it will be the biggest online shopping day of the year.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Martin Worldwide mailing lists

“ResponseCom™ is the result of decades of tracking, compiling, and optimizing data merged into one vast database of proven direct mail responders. As a result, our clients have experienced higher response rates, profitability, and new business opportunities.” - Chip Matthews, Client Relationship Manager for Martin Worldwide

Higher response rates, profitability, and new business opportunities... who does not want to have those results from their direct marketing campaign? If you are going to be purchasing lists to use in your direct marketing campaigns, don't you want to feel assured that you have a list that will bring back results?

Martin Worldwide has a multi-dimensional database comprised of U.S. consumer databases showing consumers with a proven track record for impulse buying, Martin Worldwide is so sure of this information that they will replace the non-responsive leads at no additional cost to you.

One of the leaders in the direct marketing industry, Martin Worldwide brings you over a decade of experience, knowledge, and expertise in direct marketing lists, experience that they use to help you find the right Sales Leads for your marketing campaign. You can get a free no obligation quote, find out more about their mailing lists, and even subscribe to their newsletter by visiting the website at the link above.

Still not sure? Request a free 66 page catalog of their most popular list categories. This is a handy reference to help you decide which lists are right for you so that you can be sure that you will get the absolute best possible response rates for your investment.

Stiff neck

I woke up yesterday morning to a stiff neck, and today it has spread into a painful across the shoulders and up to the base of the skull PAIN that just won't slack off. Trying to work is difficult, trying to make a Thanksgiving dinner... can't we just put that turkey back in the freezer and have TV dinners tonight?

I tried some hot water in a zip-lock bag earlier (can't find the hot water bottle) and that helped some, at least the pain is down to where it was yesterday. I plan to try more of the hot compress treatment in a little while and see if it helps enough I can finish getting dinner ready. All I want to do right now is go back to bed until May.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

No rest for the business traveler

Got back from Vegas, and am very slowly getting back into work. I had been exhausted by the chaos of getting ready to leave, then several days of whirlwind conferences that I walked to every day just wiped me out physically. Then staying up all night to see my friend off on time at six in the morning, then up all night the next night to watch them implode the Frontier and get packed for my own departure... it was a very insane week that left little time for rest and left me completely exhausted. Spent the first two days I was home recovering from the trip and this past week trying to get to where I can get back into the swing of working. I'm glad I am not planning to go anywhere for business again until the next Blog World Expo.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Capella University

Something I love about fully online university's like Capella University, is that you do not have to skip out on classes to go on vacation or a business trip. By taking classes online you can take the class whenever and wherever you want to. Catch up on things while you are waiting at the airport to board your flight, or compete a course assignment in the motel room after a business meeting.

A fully accredited university, capella university offers graduate online degree programs in business, information technology, education and other programs, and bachelor’s degree programs in business, information technology, and public safety. Currently serving nearly 20,000 students from all 50 states and 56 countries Capella University can help you to better yourself and your business no matter where your business takes you.


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This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com

Luggage

Dropped into the basement and got my luggage for the trip last night, took a wash cloth to it earlier to get the dust from storage off of it. I need to from now on tuck it in somewhere that it will stay dust free when I put it away. At least I found all of it. My black carry on is getting a bit beaten up, but I think it might have one more trip in it. Maybe.... we'll see what it would cost to replace it.

Clothing picked out for Vegas - I think

I've been sorting out the things that I will wear to the seminars and it is starting to really drive me insane since I am not sure just what the weather will be like in Vegas. I know it is a dry heat, so it's hard to pick out stuff that will be cool, and yet not so cool it will leave me cold at night if the temperature drops. I think I have some nice outfits picked out now though, and I just need to find me a good pair of dress type shoes rather than the walking shoes I have. They will do in a pinch, but I'd rather find some nice low side boots or something that I can wear as an alternative shoe style.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Webloyalty

Have you ever wished that you had some kind of incentive program to help you entice customers back after they have made a purchase from you? Well, I have been looking at a company called Webloyalty. Webloyalty makes an incentive offer to any customer that completes a purchase on the affiliate company's website.

Webloyalty will guarantee payments of $.50 - $2.00 for every transaction on the travel company's website where a customer accepts the free trial of the benefit package, which can potentially earn the travel company repeat customers. When someone finishes shopping with the affiliate company that customer will see an offer from webloyalty as a thank you for their order. The customer has a free month trial of Webloyalty, then after that initial free month the customer can opt to pay webloyalty $10 per month to remain a member.

Webloyalty assists you in providing your customers with a benefits package, one that is tailored specifically to the needs of your company's clients. Founded in 1999 as an online marketing services company that provides customized programs to fee-based businesses, they help their clients increase revenue while offering those clients’ customers a range of valuable benefits packages.

Find out more about Webloyalty by visiting the link above.


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This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com

New phone case

I picked up a cell phone case, but I have no idea on if the thing is safe to be around a computer because of the magnetic closure, so rather than risk it I pulled the magnets out of it and I am going to replace them with a Velcro closure so I can attach the carry case to the side of my laptop carry case. That way I can keep my phone handy rather than tucked down inside the laptop case where it is difficult to get to.

Got new watches for my trip

I went into town today and picked myself up a pair of watches from Wal Mart. Nothing fancy, just a $5 and an $11 watch, but the $11 one has got the moon phases on it and the date, so I am happy with that. And the $5 is a very nice looking little black and gold watch that will look perfect with my outfit for going out to the Tao when I am in Las Vegas.
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