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Why Use an Attorney?

Posted in: Blog, Legal Issues by Josh Andrews on July 9, 2009

When you decide to “make it official” and form a company, you have many options. You can do it yourself, you can ask someone who has done it before to help you (though the one helping you may be offering you legal advice, which is not good), you can use a document generating online service, or you can call a real-live attorney licensed to practice in your state. As an attorney, you can assume my answer is that you should contact an attorney. In this post I will tell you why it is the best option.

You know what you want, but you may not be certain how to achieve it. When you create a company, you must treat it as an entity separate from yourself. Depending on your entity selection, you may create hurdles to accessing what is yours as the owner. A qualified attorney worth the paper on which his law degree is printed will take the time to explain to you those options, and work to know what you want and how to achieve it. A document generator will not do that. A well-qualified lawyer should be able to discern what you mean from what you are saying. A document generator only thinks in “true” and “false” and only gives you what you ask for without discerning what you really mean.

You are not a lawyer. You do not have training in the legal facets of creating a company. Not that you couldn’t do it, but you need to focus on selling your product or service. One of the first steps to your entrepreneurial success is to realize your limitations and employ those who will complement your limitations. Asking a lawyer to work with you on the legal aspects of your company and your business is an investment worth making.

Getting it wrong can cost you everything. In the litigious world in which we live, you do not want a lawyer working to undo your personal attempt at your company’s formation. You want to know that your investment is protected because you did everything right. If you make a mistake, your liability shield may be found to not exist, and everything would be at risk.

It will cost more to correct a mistake than to make it right in the beginning. Reassembling a poor foundation can often take more time and energy and cost more money than ensuring it is proper in the beginning. Like I mentioned above, you want a lawyer making sure you are protected before someone else brings in a lawyer to prove that you aren’t.

Business owners are willing to ensure against many things, but they often overlook the insurance-like benefits of knowing that all of your legal foundations are firm. Never forget, it is much easier to defend from a firm foundation than it is if your foundation is questionable.

Keeping up is part of your job!

Posted in: Blog, Technology by Brian Cauble on June 1, 2009

Are you paid for what you know and can figure out?  Are you a knowledge worker?  There is a good chance that you are.  This world is changing at a dizzying pace.  Technology has accelerated the pace we must learn at.  It has also opened the world up to competition from all over the globe.  Many industries are being replaced or at least modified significantly.  The music industry was slow to adjust to changing technology and consumer demand and they have been decimated by it.  The newspaper industry was another industry that was slow to adjust.  Blogs, twitter, and online classifieds have put the entire industry in jeopardy.

So what does this mean to you?  It means that you have an opportunity and a risk.  You need to keep up with how the world is changing.  If you don’t feel like you understand how it effects your business, you need to keep trying.  You can also turn to people you respect for their thoughts.  It doesn’t have to just be people you know.  Read blogs, articles, and follow people on twitter.  If you do manage to understand where things are going, you and your business have a real opportunity.  However, if you don’t, you put everything at risk.  You don’t want to find yourself in the position of the newspapers do you?  Wondering how you never saw the changes coming and wondering if you’re business will survive.  I don’t.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-31

Posted in: Twitter by Brian Cauble on May 31, 2009

Five reasons Apple gets it (Customer Service)

Posted in: Blog, Customer Service by Brian Cauble on May 29, 2009

I want to share a quick story with you.  My macbook started getting a crack in it a few months back on the case.  Well, the little crack started to get bigger and bigger until some of the casing was chipping off.  Needless to say, I felt that this shouldn’t happen after just over a year.  In fact, this is a know issue for plastic macbooks.  As luck would have it, my warranty was up when this started.  I was just going to put this off until it got back enough.

Well, the other day it dawned on me that I purchased my macbook on my American Express.  Why does that matter?  Because Amex extends your warranty by a year at no cost.  Maybe just maybe, I wouldn’t have to spend $200 or $300 dollars to repair the computer.  So I called Amex up to inquire about the warranty figuring that it probably wouldn’t get covered due to fine print.  I figured they would say that we only cover PC purchased between January and March in New Delhi.  Who knows.  I was ready for excuses.  To my surprise, Amex was very easy to reach and very helpful.  They needed 3 things. My receipt, my credit card statement from the purchase, and a repair estimate.  Not too bad.  For several hundred dollars, I’ll do that.  

So I got the paper work and headed off to the Apple store for an appointment to get the repair estimate.  Let me first say that Apple makes it so easy to get checked in at the store.  They have a constantly updated list of who is next in the wait list projected on the wall, and you don’t generally wait very long.  So they call out “Brian C with a Macbook”.  I go to the desk and explain to the tech what the problem is and that I just need a repair estimate because Amex is going to cover the repair.  Lo and behold, he looks at the laptop and says “we’ll cover it no charge. We can have it ready for you in 24 hours or less.  Is that ok?”  After reviving myself from a sudden fainting spell, I said sure.  7 hours later, I get a call from Apple saying I can pick up my computer.

Now I know they did exactly what they should but I want to list the things that impressed me.

1. Apple knew they had a problem and admitted it.  How many companies make you fight with them and go to a manager before they give in?

2. They fixed it quickly.  How many companies would have to ship it off for a week?

3. They communicated well.  From the time I showed up at the store, I was constantly updated by a updated list, by reps asking how they could help, and by someone calling me to tell me everything was good.  How many times do you have to call and deal with one person after another just to find out if your repairs are done?

4. They didn’t hide behind another company. The tech knew that Amex was going to cover the cost but he knew it was Apple’s design issue and so he fixed it.

5. They give their employees power to make decisions. In most of my dealings with Apple, you can tell that the employees have the power to satisfy the customer without asking a manager.  That isn’t always true, and shouldn’t be, but it is most of the time. 

So I have to give Apple big props.  Instead of irritating me, they confirmed my decision to buy a mac as a good one.  So when you setup customer service at your company some day, go to the Apple store.  They just seem to get it.

PS. I have to give a little bit of love to Amex.  They handled everything nicely also and made it a fairly easy process to fix my laptop.  That is a really nice benefit and a good reason to purchase major items on my Amex in the future.

Test post for technorati

Posted in: Uncategorized by Brian Cauble on May 27, 2009

Technorati Profile

In This Economy, Play “Small Ball” for Success!

Posted in: Blog by Glenn S. Phillips on May 19, 2009

Everyone loves the “Home Run,” whether it is in baseball or business.  That one play (or project) that scores for sure, makes the paper and even has a clear hero!   Unfortunately for many teams and businesses, home runs are not the most common play.  And in a slow economy, the home run deals become even less common for businesses, potentially putting companies at risk.

So if you are a good coach or manager, what do you do when the big hits are slumping?  You recognize the situation, you take what the opponent is giving and you adjust.  You deliberately play “small ball.”   That is, you manufacture scoring by patiently hitting singles, bunts and taking the walks.  You suggest smarter projects to the client for things they really need or did not have time for last year.  You find creative ways to setup projects and flexibly payment plans.  Does all this have more overhead and effort?  Probably.  However, it typical has less risk too and, in some ways, that reduces the overhead of all the strike outs you get swinging for the home runs.  

It the current economy, most businesses that may hire your company will likely have slowed or stopped the big projects for at least the short-term.  But business and commerce has not stopped, it continues on.  That means the companies that can step up and “take one for the team” by accepting smaller, flexible projects from their clients can stay busy and successful.  These companies also demonstrate stability that can add to their reputation when business heats up again.

Keep in mind that playing “small ball” with projects does not mean unprofitable.  Playing “small ball” in business means you are still advancing the bases, still limiting strikeouts and still playing the game with discipline.   In some ways, you are even playing with more discipline.  That can be a good thing for you and your clients!

Temporary finance for your business

Posted in: Blog, Funding by Brian Cauble on May 15, 2009

Imagine for a second that your business is experiencing a shortage in cash flow. You sitting at your desk late at night looking at the screen wondering how you make payroll. The funny thing is that accounting shows that you are profitable. You have made money. The problem is that your money is tied up by people who owe you money (accounts receivable). If you could only get those people to pay your invoices, you would be fine. So how do you do it? You can’t.

However, you can get the money that is owed to you through a method called Factoring. Factoring means that you are selling your invoices at a discount. Factors will buy (most of) these invoices and they will collect it. The upside is that you get your cash immediately, and you can make payroll. Another upside is that you don’t have to collect the money. The factor now owns these invoices. The downside is factoring can be an expensive form of financing. However, some times it can be a good form of temporary financing in your business.

If you have relatively good credit, you should consider borrowing against your assets instead of Factoring. You can borrow against your A/R, Real Estate, Inventory, Purchase Orders and anything else of value that can be liquidated. This is called Asset Based Lending and it works much more like a home equity loan for business. Except your collateral is not your house. It is your assets. Just like any loan, you pay a rate (normally lower) on only what cash you borrow and you pay it back in the future.

These are both good alternative methods of getting cash when you are generally a strong company but in need of temporary cash. Just use them sparingly and make sure that you shop around for the best rate. The are thousands of Factors and practically all banks will lend you on your assets. Good luck!

Networking is hard work, but totally worth it

Posted in: Blog, Networking by Brian Cauble on May 1, 2009

I have spent the better part of the last month networking. I have been to event after event all over town. OSBO, BNI, Innovation depot seminar, Bar Camp, Birmingham Entrepreneur meeting, Career seminar at New Horizons, Tech Birmingham breakfast, and more that I don’t remember. I have also spent hours responding to emails asking questions about what people are doing and finding ways that I can help them.

I know what you’re thinking. “I am way too busy” or “Why bother?”. Because frankly, this is how business is done and reputations are built. There are truly amazing people in Birmingham, and there are good opportunities in Birmingham. If you find yourself complaining about your job, I challenge you to become active in the community. Go to a variety of activities around town. You may not be able to attend them all or you may have to rotate each of them to get them all in, but do it. It will help you find wonderful opportunities and people.

My final points are simple. Be genuine and helpful whenever you can. The more you help other people, the more you get back in return. Offer to introduce people or pass resumes on. Just help them when you can. Second, become a leader of something. Create a group or join a group and volunteer to help organize. Being a leader opens doors that you didn’t even know were closed.

Truth be told, it is really hard work. I am tired. I was tempted to not even post tonight. Then I thought back to just people I met this week and I realized that it was totally worth it!

Why is passion important?

Posted in: Blog, Uncategorized by Brian Cauble on April 23, 2009

If you have heard it once, you have heard it a 100 times. You need to be passionate about your business to be successful. Do you really? Why? I guess it depends on your definition of success. You and I both know plenty of people that run fairly successful businesses that don’t love what they do. Their business has good growth and seems to be doing fine. When you talk to them, you can tell that they don’t love what they do.

So what gives? I believe that you can create a business in something you aren’t passionate about and you can be successful, but let me tell you why passion is important.

Starting a business is really, really difficult. It takes your constant time and attention. It will push you to wonder about your abilities and you will work harder and longer than you ever have before.  If you truly care about and believe in what you do, you will still get tired. You will still have stress. But it’s different. When you love what you do, it is so much easier to work that late night or weekend. You find yourself constantly thinking about how to improve your marketing, sales, products, and services. You feel satisfied about what your doing. As a matter of fact, you would do it for free. Making money at it just gives you more time to spend doing it. It just makes everything you do a little easier.

There is a second reason that it makes such a difference to be passionate. Have you ever heard of the 10,000 hour rule? It is discussed heavily in many books such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. The thought is that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in your field. This means it takes that many hours of pure programming to become an expert software developer. Since there are other things you do every day even when you are working, that is roughly seven years till you are an expert. Do you think that you will get to the expert level faster if you are passionate about what you do? Of course you will. If you don’t care for what you do, you spend as little time possible doing it so that you can do what you care about.

Finally, life is short. Spending your days doing something you care about is possible and achievable. You may have to spend quite a bit of time thinking about what you enjoy doing and how you can translate that into a business. It won’t be easy, but it is worth it. Millions of people do it. Everybody you read about or talk to that is extremely successful has figured out how to take their unique strengths and interests and turn it into their living.

You and I know both know in our heart that passion is important. Now you just have to believe that it is possible and worth it.

Nettuts / George Harrison

Posted in: Projects, Websites by Brian Cauble on April 17, 2009

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The Client: Your Client Here

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Client Testimonial: “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis. Quisque eleifend!”

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis. Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum varius, risus neque venenatis arcu, a semper massa mi eget ipsum. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis. Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum varius, risus neque venenatis arcu, a semper massa mi eget ipsum.