President of Outskirts Press

Latest Outskirts Press Anthology (Four of a Kind) is published

Before I continue with the Google + series of posts for businesses, I’d like to take a quick moment to announce the publication of our latest anthology at Outskirts Press. This one is titled Four of a Kind and is the second in a series of anthologies we are publishing exclusively for our published authors.

BET ON GREAT ENTERTAINMENT

Over forty-five published Outskirts Press authors have contributed to this eclectic collection of anecdotes, poetry, non-fiction, and fiction.

Anecdotes

– Harley Dickson, author of All I Really Need to Know About Ministry, recalls a holiday when his Mama got lost in “Christmas at Coloridge 1951.”
– Sharon Elwell, author of Caught In the Middle, reveals a little known secret in “Everything I Need to Know I Learned Playing Wacky Jacks.”

Poetry

– Janet Hoult, author of Body Parts, illustrates the art of being a writer in “Blank Paper 4.”
– Michael H Hardy, author of H1, finds joy in fruit in “The Mystery of Pomegranates.”

Non-Fiction

– Robin Sacks, author of Get Off My Bus, offers the secrets to success in “Find Your WHY and Start to THRIVE!”
– Richard S. Pearson, author of 5 Necessary Skills to Keep Your Career on Track, comes to the rescue in “Passed Over For A Promotion? What Now?”

Fiction

– Jessica Mary Buck, author of Makeshift Christmas, draws a portrait of an imploding affair against the backdrop of 9/11 in “The Survivors.”
– Dr. Robert L. Clark, author of My Bittersweet Charlie, shares a Lieutenant’s journey for love in “Forever and Always: A Short Love Story.”

… and many more!

It’s available for discounts ranging from 10%-20% off normal retail at our direct online bookstore. Click the big green button to order it today.

ceo

Happy Thanksgiving

I promised my family I wouldn’t work today. And I’m not going to — I scheduled this posting on Monday. Happy Thanksgiving.

branding, search engine optimization, Social Networking Sites, start-up

Google Plus Profiles vs. Pages

… continuing this series on Google Plus that was started a couple posts ago…

Once you “join” Google Plus as a user, after completing your set-up, you see a page that looks something like this:

Not too much there yet. Thus begins the process of building up this new social media presence according to your own personal goals, wants, and desires. But today, we’ll focus on the little link along the right-hand side that says “Create a Google Page” which takes you to this:

Already that are some problems, or at least, potential areas of confusion, when it asks you to classify the type of “business” you are creating a Google Page for. Here are the choices:

Local Business or Place (and Google provides examples like hotels, restaurants, places (?), stores, services
Product or brand (examples like apparel, cars, electronics, financial services (?)
Company, Institution, or Organization (companies, institutions, organizations, non-profits — thanks, Google, because that was so unclear by the category name)
Arts, Entertainment, Sports (movies, TV, music, books, sports, shows)
Other (if your page doesn’t fit a category above)

There are two problems with this screen:

1. Google doesn’t tell you WHY you are classifying it. Is there a difference in how the resulting pages look? Does one receive different functionality? Or does Google simply want to know what kind of advertisements to send you? Tell us why you’re asking this question, Google, and the 2nd problem with this screen becomes a little less problematic.

2. The second problem revolves around category #2 – Product or Brand. I’ll bet the hotel that is used an example for Category #1 considers themselves a brand, especially if they’re going through the trouble of making a Google Plus page. Outskirts Press probably falls into the catch-all Category #3 (in fact, what wouldn’t? I mean, Google Pages are meant for businesses, so everything is probably a “company” or “organization” of some sort). But even though Category #3 might define us best, I also consider Outskirts Press a “brand” – so should I choose #2, instead? Who knows… Google isn’t telling me WHY I’m having to classify my page.

This all becomes a matter of trial and error, and it doesn’t even tell you that if you want to change your mind later, you can. So… make your best guess: That’s what I’m going to do. “Company, Institution, or Organization” sounds so boring, so I’m going to choose Product or Brand. Hey, if Google suggests it for “financial services (really, Google, really?!), then it works for us at Outskirts Press!

In reality, it doesn’t seem like Category #2 and Category #3 behave any differently as far as Google is concerned. Both result in providing you with a drop down box during the next step with a list of more specific categories (and the drop down choices appear to be exactly the same, with the exception of general categories that appear at the very bottom of the drop down box). “Publishing” or “self-publishing” isn’t in either one (which is surprising, given Google’s in-your-face experience with publishers during their Google Book Library Project, but that’s a post for another day).

Regardless of the category you choose, Google Plus is going to ask you to “Title” your page. Just like when you title your book or buy a big neon sign for your local business, your goal when giving your Google page a title is including a keyword (in this case, for search engine optimization). So be sure your Google Page title includes your most relevant keyword. Then provide the URL to your company website, select a category (again), set age-appropriate specifications based upon the content you’re going to post, and agree to Google’s invasive “Page Terms.” If you can be bothered to read it, these specific terms are broken down into three categories: Privacy Policy (you don’t get any); Legal Terms (things you post on your Google page must comply with other Google terms — i.e. promotions need to abide by their Content and Promotion Policies, and text, images, etc., must comply by their User Content and Conduct Policy); and Content Policy.

Humorously, Google’s Content Policy (a list of 12 things they “don’t allow”) clearly demonstrates that the employees of Google have never bothered to visit the Internet. Here’s what they say isn’t allowed:

1. Illegal Activities
2. Malicious Products
3. Hate Speech
4. [Sharing] Personal and Confidential Information
5. Account Hijacking
6. Child Safety {they mean child exploitation}
7. Spam
8. Ranking Manipulation
9. Gambling
10. Sexually Explicit Material
11. Violent or Bullying Behavior
12. Impersonation or Deceptive Behavior

Hey, Google! Allow me to be the first to welcome you to the Internet. You’ve just listed 12 of the most common things you’ll find on it…

Then click “Create…” and the next step is customizing your page, which we’ll discuss next week…

branding, Google

Google Plus and Facebook

This week’s series of post involves Google+, setting up a personal account and using Google+ business pages for your company’s promotional efforts. Yesterday’s post focused on setting up a personal Google+ account and finished with clicking the Join button. Once you’ve joined Google+, you see this screen:

Google+ wants to find people to add to your account for you. I’m probably not the first to suggest this, but allow me to suggest to Google clearly, visually, what this screen should look like to actually be useful both for the user, and for Google in their effort to compete with Facebook:

Yes, Google+ would be much better if it could automatically populate friends/associates from Facebook accounts. But, of course, that’s the rub, isn’t it? Facebook doesn’t allow Google to aggregate or spider its content (that’s part of the reason Google had to invent its own social network). You might say Facebook has created its own, largest competitor. And, in reality, the fact that content on Facebook doesn’t translate to SEO (search engine optimization) but content on Google+ does will mean that businesses may find more and more reason to spend their time on Google+.

But, that’s in the future. Now, there’s no denying that Google+ has its work cut out for it, and this first screen on Google+ is one example of the hill it has to climb.

… stay tuned…

branding, ceo, Google, start-up

Google Plus For Business – Part One

Google launched Google+ in June 2011, which Mark Zuckerberg described as Google “… trying to build their own little version of Facebook.” He’s right. If you look at Google+ you immediately see the similarities, so much so I’d be surprised if Facebook lawyers weren’t contemplating a suit. But that’s a posting for a different blog. This one involves using Google Plus for business.

Of course, up until November, you couldn’t use Google+ for business, not really. But in early November, Google+ launched business pages for their new social networking site, so now’s the time to write about how to set-up and use Google+ (Google Plus) for business.

First, you need to create a Google+ account at http://plus.google.com

Doing this requires you have your own Google account, which perhaps you have already set-up for Google Alerts, or many of the other services Google offers. Enter your first name, last name, gender, and year of birth. All self-explanatory. Then upload a photograph, and if you’re an author, I would recommend uploading the same professional image you use on the back of your book and for all your book marketing efforts.

So far, this is basically the same as Facebook in that I created a “personal profile” on Facebook prior to creating a Facebook Page for Outskirts Press. Their close association has always prevented me from truly using Facebook (even my personal profile) for much other than business. This is the reason my photograph on my personal Facebook page is the round OP Logo. Kind of defeating, I know, but it is what it is…. So now that I’m starting with Google+, I’m going to see if it is feasible to separate business from pleasure, so to speak — after all, that is one of the “benefits” Google+ claims over Facebook; we’ll see if it’s true. To that end, I’ve uploaded my professional head-shot into my personal Google + account. As you do this, you may or may not have the same considerations.

The next check-box question requests your permission to “personalize” the web for you. This is Google’s way of asking if they can use your personal information to tailor advertisements to you. Their description of this functionality is purposefully vague on its real purpose, but that’s no surprise. Who’s going to answer “Yes” to “Send me lots of ads” but saying “Yes” to “You’ll get to see everything your friends recommend that you might also enjoy” is a lot easier to swallow. Here’s the disclaimer language on Google’s help page regarding this check-box: When you click the +1 button, you’re explicitly signaling interest in displaying, sharing, or recommending specific online content, including ads.

Of course, one might argue that disabling that check-box removes half the point of social networking, and that’s true, so what you do with this check box is up to you.

Then you click join… and come back tomorrow for what happens next…

start-up

How to incorporate a company on the internet – Part 9

This is the last posting of a 9 part series about using Legal Zoom to incorporate a small business. Part of the reason I did this was to draw a comparison between two online services (incorporating a business and publishing a book), seemingly vastly different — and yet the online process had consistent similarities. One could argue that both of these objectives (incorporating a business and publishing a book) can be done without the convenient services of an online company. That’s true, and then one has to ask one’s self whether the learning curve and time expenditure is worth the money saved. I’m not an attorney or a CPA, so I don’t want to learn the in’s and out’s of incorporating a company — I just want to incorporate one! Ergo, Legal Zoom. By the same token, most writers don’t want to learn the in’s and out’s of publishing a book – they just want to publish one! Ergo, Outskirts Press.

So even though the industries that Legal Zoom and Outskirts Press exist in are very different, they have a lot in common, as demonstrated by this 9-part series. To complete that comparison, I’m going to soon publish a similar blog series covering the step-by-step process of someone using Outskirts Press to publish a book. But first, we’ll take a break next week and talk about Google+.

So, that brings us to the final step of Legal Zoom — paying! Here’s the last screen I get, which is a comparison chart, designed in a manner to promote upsells:

What is this screen missing? The cost! Now you have to imagine that Legal Zoom conducted some tests on this screen to see which was more successful – including listing the price here or not. But, if they did, frankly I’m surprised this was the result. Asking someone to commit to something without knowing the final price is asking a lot of an internet customer. Sure, I realize clicking the “continue” button isn’t a “commitment” per se, but it still seems like a pretty big oversight for this page. Only by selecting each package and clicking the “Continue” button can you see what the cost of each one is, which I’ll do for you:

Economy: $99 (plus whatever upgrades you selected during the course of the process) – so my total with this package ends up being $317.95
Standard: $239 (plus whatever upgrades you selected during the course of the process) – so my total with this package ends up being $457.95
Express Gold: $369 (plus whatever upgrades you selected, although some of those upgrades are supposed to be included) – so my total with this package ends up not making any sense, because the screen shot above indicates my Fed ID number and my subchapter S election are supposed to be included – only by reading the fine, fine print do you see that they’re NOT actually included with this package — they’re just cheaper.) Should that really be a check-mark, then? Probably not.

I’m going with the economy rate of $99, which gets to $317.95 awfully fast. Of course, they add on a $9.95 “shipping and handling” fee, and it’ll be interesting to see the actual postage on what I receive — probably $2.25. I’m not particularly bothered by this, I’m just making a point: All companies have necessary profit margins. Anyone who expects otherwise probably doesn’t own a business. The same thing happens when you hire a lawyer for $200 a hour and the minute you walk out the door, the lawyer hands it to a paralegal who makes $80 a hour.

And boom, presto, they say I’ll have my documents in about 35 days and my new business will be officially incorporated. Ahh, isn’t it nice having a service company take care of things like incorporating businesses and publishing books for you? I think so…

start-up

Help incorporating a business – Part 8

.. continued from yesterday…. and all this week and last week…

Okay, it’s been a long time coming (and certainly longer than the 15 minutes Legal Zoom said it would be), but we’re almost wrapping up this online process of incorporating a small business online with Legal Zoom. We’ve taken care of the federal stuff. Now, we’re on to the state questions. The wording here may be different depending upon what state YOU’RE doing it in, but for me, Legal Zoom asked me this:

Most companies that do business in Colorado or have employees there must register with the Colorado Department of Revenue for state tax purposes.

Would you like us to prepare your Colorado Business Registration to register your business with the state and request your Colorado account number? (An additional $49 fee will apply.)

I personally don’t have an immediate need for this, and saying “No” doesn’t prevent me from incorporating, or getting a local account number later, so I’m answering no. This answer depends upon the type of business you are incorporating or your intention on hiring local employees anytime soon (in which case you might answer yes). If you will need a state tax license you would also say yes. Basically, if you’re opening a retail store or restaurant (or something else that sells tangible physical goods to local, physical customers) you would answer yes.

Legal Zoom then asks if you want a “free consultation” with a marketing firm concerning website design. This is a clever co-op up-sell with a partner they’ve procured. Great for them, and perhaps a good idea for others, but I don’t personally need it, so that’s another “No.”

Wow – then the next screen hits me up with what amounts to an advertisement for American Express. It went from clever to … shameless? “Start building credit for your company!” the headline screams. I think I’ll pass.

Then, it says they’ve received all the information they needed. Whew – finally!

So how’s it all end (remember, thus far I haven’t given Legal Zoom a penny)? Let’s find out tomorrow with the big finish to this two-week series….

start-up

How to incorporate online – Part 7

… continuing on from yesterday, we are filling out the part of the Legal Zoom online incorporation forms that focus on the Federal Tax ID application.

1. Do you expect to have $1,000 or less in employment tax liability for the calendar year? (If you expect to pay $4,000 or less in wages, you can select Yes.) I’m answering yes because as the sole stockowner of my company, I’m not required to give myself employment tax liability.

2. Does your corporation own a vehicle with a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more? Only include vehicles that were designed to carry loads on the highway. – Well, since you are just starting your corporation with the completion of this form, it’s doubtful your corporation owns ANY vehicles at the moment, even if you do personally. So perhaps what this question should say is WILL your corporation own a vehicle that you plan to use for the purposes of this company, with a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more. That sounds awfully big (like construction equipment big), so the answer is most often “No.”

3. Will your corporation operate a casino, or does your corporation’s business involve gambling or wagering? – Uh, no.

4. Does your corporation need to file Form 720 (Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Return)? Unless your company sells the following, the most likely answer is “No.”

Gas and other fuel;
Tractors;
Air or ship transportation services;
Insurance policies issued by foreign companies;
Fishing equipment;
Electric outdoor motors; or
Bows and arrows.

5. Does your business make or sell alcohol, tobacco or firearms?

The final question on this screen asks: Which of the following best describes the corporation’s primary business activity?

If you are an independent consultant working for another company or two, there’s no need to limit yourself to THEIR type of business here. You would just select “Consulting” which is second only to “Retail Store” on this alphabetical list (even higher than Accommodation and Accounting) for a reason – “Consulting” is a nice catch-all, although remember that this answer will play a role in determining whether your company name and trade name (if provided) are acceptable.

If you chose “Consulting,” the next screen will ask you if you provide your companies (clients) with operating advice and assistance. Unless you’re consulting as an tempoary COO,CEO, CFO or some other executive-level position, the most appropriate answer here is probably “No.” It also asks what your primary type of business is.

The purpose of these last few questions is primarily so Legal Zoom knows what kind of “forms” and templated agreements to try to up-sell to you, which comes with a $8/month subscription. I think I’ll pass.

… to be continued…

start-up

How to incorporate a small business online – Part 6

Over the past two weeks I’ve been using Legal Zoom to incorporate a new small business and have been posting the progress. We are now at the stage of the process where we are defining principals. It asks for the director, the president, the treasurer, and the secretary. Did I say I was starting a small business? I am! All those people are me, and there’s nothing wrong with that when you’re first starting out. These are the same answers I provided back in 2003 when we incorporated Outskirts Press, and now look at it – a back-to-back-to-back Inc. 5000 honoree of the fastest-growing companies in America. So, you just never know…

If you have other people involved with your new small business, you can certainly enter them instead, and the screen on Legal Zoom even has space for additional officers if you have established those already, although you can leave that optional section blank if you want.

…And that brings us to stockholders… Here’s where you divide the number of shares you set on the previous screen among the principals of your company. Since it’s me, myself, and I, I am the sole stockholder with 1000 shares, each of which is worth $0.01 so I will be providing a capital contribution into this company in the amount of $10 in cash (if you’re in Texas, you have to contribute more). Offer your address again and then declare whether you have a joint owner. If you’re married, the answer to this is probably “Yes” but that’s between you and your spouse.

Next you provide some contact information for the IRS. All pretty self-explanatory. Finally, this screen asks you if you will be operating under a trade name. In most cases, you might answer “No,” but if you think you might have one or more DBAs (doing business as), then answer “Yes” here, although be prepared to provide your different trade name on the next screen. Lastly, Legal Zoom asks if you are planning on hiring any employees in the next 12 months (and if so, be prepared to say how many from among three different categories). It’s easiest to say no to both of these since answering “No” doesn’t prevent you from starting a DBA or hiring someone if you need to.

If earlier in the online process you requested Legal Zoom to complete your Federal Tax ID application for you, the next screen covers that information, which we’ll cover next time…