May

LLC/LP Franchise Tax is due June 1, 2013

2013

This is an urgent reminder that if you have a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Partnership (LP) formed in the State of Delaware, the annual franchise tax filing is due by June 1, 2013.

This year the June 1 due date falls on a Saturday. However, the State of Delaware will not extend the deadline through Monday. All payment and filing arrangements must be received by the State of Delaware no later than 11 pm EST on Saturday, June 1, 2013.

If you have not paid your annual franchise tax yet, you need to take care of it right away.

Failure to pay the annual franchise tax by the June 1 deadline will result in a $200 late penalty plus 1.5% monthly interest imposed by the State of Delaware. This will also render the company in a ceased good standing status. Additionally, any company that does not pay the annual franchise taxes for three years in a row will be voided by the State of Delaware. In order to restore the company back into a good standing status, a Certificate of Renewal will have to be filed and the past due franchise tax fees, late penalties, interest, etc. will have to be paid.

Harvard Business Services offers a franchise tax filing service in order to assist you with the filing of the annual franchise taxes for your company. For a small service fee, we will ensure that the franchise tax filing for the company will be filed on time with the State of Delaware, so there will not be any late penalties or interest fees assessed.

To take advantage of this service and make payment arrangements for the franchise tax fees, visit our secure website at: www.delawareinc.com/payft/existing. Payment arrangements can be made through Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover or PayPal.

You can also telephone our office with your payment arrangements or questions at 1-800-345-2677 or 302-645-7400, extension 6901. We are also available for assistance via email at franchisetax@delawareinc.com.

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May

Book Review: Profiles in Leadership

2013

BY Rick Bell

Reading Profiles in Leadership by Emilio Iodice reminded me that entrepreneurship is all about leadership. Successful entrepreneurs come to know that and take the honing of their leadership skills seriously.

Consider this: almost every successful entrepreneur I’ve encountered admits they don’t fully understand some major areas of their business, but they have become successful in spite of that because they have successfully inspired others to handle those essential responsibilities and duties with dedication.

Likewise, former entrepreneurs who have been unsuccessful in business will usually tell you that they failed because they didn’t understand some major area about their business. In fact, what they usually don’t realize is that they didn’t fail at business; so much as they failed at leadership.

This book is an exciting read, from cover to cover, and should not be overlooked by anyone who is or wants to be a successful entrepreneur. It is an enabling textbook that will produce incalculable self-improvement results for those that desire sustainable business success.

Emilio Iodice’s premise – that leadership skills are learned, compels us to conclude that entrepreneurial success is possible for everyone who understands and effectively dedicates themselves to leadership education.

This is a revolutionary concept when looked at from the conventional standpoint of entrepreneurial success, and I believe he’s right.

The current myth is that success is the result of someone coming up with a “great idea” or doing something “at the exact right time”, or doing something “extremely well”. The press is full of articles swooning over someone who has “achieved” accidental success.

These myths are accepted, even by entrepreneurs who will tell you that there is no real school that can guarantee success as an entrepreneur. They will tell you that they learned everything they know from encountering challenges on the job and listening to someone’s smart advice. Succeeding in a fiercely competitively environment, they contend, is not a profession that can be taught and learned, it is a calling.

They will point out that some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs are drop-outs from college or high school. Some never even went to school. Education, they assert, is not a factor.

Yet, along comes this carefully researched and meticulously documented folio of 500 pages written by a recognized leader in several fields over a long career, which points out that leadership education is not simply relevant to, but it IS the stuff that makes successful leaders successful.

We are all leaders in one context or another. Now we must admit that our relative success is largely determined by how well we lead, and how well we lead is a matter that can be learned. This book will make you much more aware of your skill level, and will help you become great – if that is your calling.

Profiles in Leadership – from Caesar to Modern Times By: Emilio Iodice, Vice President of Loyola University of Chicago and Director of Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center is available from Amazon.com.

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May

HBS at The Small Business Expo in NYC

2013

BY Michael Bell

Harvard Business Services is proud to announce that we are going to be an exhibitor at the “Small Business Expo 2013” on May 16, 2013 at Pier 92 (12 Avenue @ 52^nd Street) in New York City.

The Small Business Expo is one of the largest and most anticipated national Business Networking Events and Business-to-Business trade shows. Entrepreneurs, Senior Management, Business Decision-Makers, and other Professionals attend our business events to meet vendors whose products and services can grow their businesses, as well as taking advantage of the small business workshops, seminars, and networking events. Expo attendees can also convene with other small business owners and entrepreneurs in the Cyber Lounge and speed networking areas of our events and even watch exciting new product demonstrations!

For more information go to www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

This is our first year as an exhibitor, and you can come meet me, Michael Bell and Devin Scott in person! We will be giving out brochures, Harvard Business Services bumper stickers and are happy to answer all your questions. But, that’s not all, we are also offering a special discount off all formation packages during the show to incorporate your Delaware LLC or Corporation on location. That’s right, we will be able to form your company with you in person right there at the show.

So if you’re in New York City, come stop by and see us at Booth #237 from 10am to 5pm on May 16, 2013!

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May

101: Web Strategy

2013

BY Gregg Schoenberg

We all know that an effective web site is crucial to the success of just about any small business and that increasing traffic to your site can be a primary source of new revenue. But how many of us have taken the time to understand and analyze what is working about our web strategy, and what isn’t?

By putting a little but of effort into these three areas, you’ll increase your chances of having a more successful—and profitable—web presence.

Design

Start by taking an honest look at the design of your site and then comparing it with sites of your competitors as well as those of some unrelated firms that have a robust, and successful, Web presence. One of the most popular web site in the world is apple.com. Almost everyone wants to succeed like Apple, but your business may not lend itself to Apple’s web design.

How does your site measure up? If it looks like it was designed in the 1990s, then visitors are likely think to think that your business is stuck in the age of flannel shirts and grunge rock. Perhaps it’s time for an update.

You don’t need to spend a fortune or hire a hotshot designer in order to improve your online appearance. The goal should simply be to create a clean look with a number of easy-to-use action buttons such as “contact us” or “learn more.”

Customer Interaction

No matter how good your Web site might appear, it’s critical that you adopt messaging and keywords that clearly reflect your core business if you want to draw the right kinds of visitors to your sight. If you don’t know much about search engine optimization (SEO), it’s probably time for a crash course. Try reading SEO for Dummies by Bruce Clay, the premier SEO consulting company.

You should also learn to use Google AdWords and Google Analytics to track your success. The more you know the more successful you can be.

Fortunately, one of the most important things you can do for your Web site is also one of the simplest: prominently display your company’s phone number at the top of every page.

It’s easy to forget in an era when so much business is not conducted face to face, but people want to be able to reach you when they have questions, and many of them will not take the time to fill out a form or send an e-mail and hope for a reply. By making it easier for customers to initiate personal contact at their convenience, you’re almost certain to increase your site’s effectiveness.

Metrics

But how exactly do you measure effectiveness? Everyone likes to look at the total number of visitors to their site, but if that’s all your doing then you’re only seeing the forest and not the trees.

The number one metric to measure is your conversion rate: the percentage of your Web site visitors who turn into sales leads. A visitor becomes a lead by completing some desired action such as joining an e-mail list or requesting more information about your firm.

You should also be tracking your bounce rate—the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing just one page. If your bounce rate is high, you’re either attracting the wrong kind of visitors or you’ve got a pretty unappealing home page.

There are a number of consulting firms that can help you measure these metrics and offer specific advice on how to improve them. There are also many software products to help you measure your success against your competitors.

Let’s face it, web marketing is here to stay. The more you embrace the proper web strategy for your company, the more successful you will be.

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May

New LLC/LP Franchise Tax Notices

2013

BY Amy Fountain

If you are an existing client of HBS, you will notice that we recently updated our LLC/LP franchise tax notices. The newly improved notices are now printed two-sided; so make sure you check out the back side when you receive it. Having less paper to sort through will make the process more convenient for you. Plus we are able do our small part to help save the environment by using less paper, ink, etc.

In addition, we added the ability to pay with your Smartphone via a QR Code. This unique code has been added to each entity notice to make it even faster and easier for you to pay the LLC/LP franchise tax fees. You simply need to have a QR Code Reader App installed on your mobile device. Then scan the QR Code box on the notice and you will instantly be connected to our online payment page. The name of your entity and corresponding Delaware State File Number will be pre-populated for you. For security and privacy purposes, you will still need to enter your credit card details and billing address. But that is it! Once you are done, an email receipt will automatically be sent for your records. How easy is that?!?

We also added a section on the notice for you to be able to update your address. Due to time sensitive deadlines for your entity, it is very important that the address on file with HBS is current at all times. If you have a recent change of address, please complete the requested details and return the form to our office via email or fax for processing.

Should you wish to make payment arrangements directly on our website, the address is: www.delawareinc.com/payft/existing.

Perhaps you prefer to mail a check for the fee? Not a problem, simply follow the instructions on the notice and mail to our office with your payment.

Of course you always have the option to make payment arrangements for the LLC/LP franchise tax fees via telephone by contacting us at 1-800-345-2677 or 1-302-645-7400, extension 6901.

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May

How to Recruit Employees Using LinkedIn

2013

BY Kathryn Hawkins

Are you looking for new employees in skilled fields? Despite a high unemployment rate, it can often be difficult to recruit the right candidates for positions that require certain types of skills or backgrounds. Fortunately, LinkedIn—the business-focused social network with more than 175 million members—is an ideal place to scout for talent. Here are a few tips on using it properly to recruit employees.

Search your friends’ connections. LinkedIn allows you to run searches according to a variety of functions, including industry, specific skills, and companies worked for. For instance, if you’re curious whether you might be able to find an employee who worked for a competing business, search for the business’ name and see who pops up. If any of your immediate connections are connected to that individual, you can request an introduction to your potential recruit.

Share your job posting on your status line. You can broadcast a message to all of your 1^st degree connections at any time, so use your status updates to share links to job openings and encourage your contacts to share the message on their own profiles.

Post the job listing on relevant LinkedIn groups. Search for discussion groups that are relevant to your industry or your location, and become a member. You’ll be able to share your job listing there for free, and you can also read the discussions and browse member profiles to see if anyone who’s written on the forum has the skills you’re seeking.

Use LinkedIn’s paid recruiting options. Often, you can find good candidates simply by using the free recruiting methods listed above, but if you’re not getting the right results, try the premium version. By upgrading to a LinkedIn Premium account, you can use “inMail” to contact any user, even without an introduction from a contact. Alternatively, you can pay for a 30-day single job listing or a multi-job pack, and see who finds you. Check out the site’s recruiting options on this page.

Vet candidates by browsing their profiles. Once you’ve narrowed down a list of candidates, whether you found them through LinkedIn or another source, search for their LinkedIn profiles and compare them to the resumés they sent over. Do certain facts not add up properly? Is there a candidate without any recommendations, even though he’s worked for three employers? Candidates can customize their own profiles on LinkedIn, so you’re not likely to find anything overwhelmingly negative—however, if there is a red flag, you may spot it here. On the flip side, stellar testimonials from previous employers can take away the need to solicit references, so you may be able to recognize star candidates right away. You’ll also be able to see who you know in common, so that you can solicit honest opinions from your own connections.

Build up your company’s profile. LinkedIn provides the opportunity to create a page for your own business, where you can share your philosophy, spotlight projects you’ve worked on, and include listings for open jobs. Make sure to fill this page out in as much detail as possible, and keep an eye on who starts “following” the business page. If they seem like high-quality candidates, they may be interested in working for you.

What other successful strategies have you found for recruiting candidates through LinkedIn? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Apr

What You Need to Form a Delaware LLC

2013

BY Devin Scott

So you are ready to form a Delaware LLC. You have decided that Delaware has the strongest corporate law structure to protect your business. Now what? Often, clients will contact Harvard Business Services Inc. asking what they need to form a Delaware LLC. The answer sometimes seems too simple for a lot of clients.

We will ask for:

A company name: We will check the name to make sure it is available to be filed with the Delaware Division of Corporations. We can determine this very quickly, and if unavailable we can help you find a second choice. Sometimes it can be as easy as just adding or changing one word in your company name to make it available.

Contact information: We will ask for the name, address, phone number, and email of a contact person for your company. Usually this is YOU, but the contact person does not need to be a member. Sometimes, a client will prefer that their accountant or attorney act as the contact person. Typically, the contact person is not listed on the Certificate of Formation, however, the Delaware Division of Corporations may request the contact person’s information from their Registered Agent.

Names of the initial member or members: This is so we can release the LLC to the initial managing member(s). They are not listed on your Certificate of Formation and are not filed with the Delaware Division of Corporations. Members can resign at any time, and new members can be added, as specified in the Operating Agreement.

Other than a form of payment, this is all we need to form your LLC with the Delaware Division of Corporations. Typically, we will not need any further documentation from you, such as a copy of your driver’s license, passport, etc. That’s how easy it is to form a Delaware company.

We can take the information from you over the phone, or you can give us this information online. We will file the Delaware LLC on a same day basis and that date will be the “birth” date of the company (usually referred to as the formation date). The typical turnaround time is two to four business days with normal processing, except during some of the busiest days in the year. Some clients will elect to expedite their order in order to receive their approved Certificate of Formation back the very same day. The time date stamped document that we email you will be exactly the same as if we were to put it in the mail. This is just another advantage of forming a Delaware LLC with Harvard Business Services.

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Apr

Five Types of Emails Customers Want From You

2013

BY Jamillah Warner

With the buzz of social media all around us, email marketing can feel rather old school. I mean we have options, multiple ways to connect with our audience. We can:

pin this
tweet that
connect with friends and fans on Facebook
reach out to colleagues on LinkedIn
give your favorite content a +1 on Google
launch a channel on YouTube

And there’s no telling what’s coming next. But no matter how large social media becomes, you’ll always need a home online (your website) and a consistent way to connect with people who follow you home. And that’s where email comes in.

“The primary intent” of email marketing “is to establish loyalty, trust and brand awareness,” says Brian Gardner, founder of StudioPress.

“Unfortunately, email marketing seems to have a bad reputation,”

Gardner adds in his article, What is Email Marketing and Why You Should Be Doing It. That reputation comes from poor tactics and a misplaced perception of what subscribers will tolerate.

If you respect your audience, however, put yourself in their shoes and share the information they want to hear, then email marketing becomes an effective way to build a relationship. Below are five types of emails that your customers want from you and look forward to receiving.

1) New products and services.

Even if they don’t buy every time you promote your new goods, they want to be in the loop. Share the information. You never know which piece of contact gets them back in the store or on your website.

2) Training on how to use your product.

Consider your own shopping habits. You buy services and products all the time. And for the more advanced items you could use a little help: your clients probably could too.

Whether you’re a camera store with a class on lighting or a law firm with a class on estate planning, share it with your email list. If you’re doing something that can improve your clients’ life, then they want to hear about it.

3) Sales, discounts and holiday specials.

The shopper craves a deal. So be sure to share these bonuses with your loyal subscribers. Never have a sale or any other kind of opportunity and leave current clients out of the loop.

4) Major changes to the company.

This includes name changes, discontinued services and relocation. If you want your clients to show up to the right place, you have to let them know. If you no longer offer a service, use email to give them a heads up.

5) Major industry changes.

If you can teach or break down something that others in your industry have failed to explain well, then your people want to hear from you — especially if you serve other business owners.

Your clients may not want to hear from you five times a day every day of the week. But they do want relevant information and a relationship that improves some aspect of their life or business.

Take the position of service by always remaining customer-minded. While developing your email campaign answer the following questions:

1.What do my people want to know?

2.What is the most effective way to provide this information?

If you get ready to send out a message and you don’t know why it would matter to your audience, then it doesn’t need to go out.

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Apr

Harvard Business Services Visits SXSW

2013

BY Michael Bell

I had the opportunity to attend “South by Southwest” (SXSW) this year in Austin, Texas for the first time. For those of you that are not familiar with SXSW this is a three part conference and festival that covers Interactive, Music and Film. The event started back in 1987 with 400 attendees and its goal was to create an event that helps to act as a tool for creative people and the companies they work with to develop their careers, and to bring people together to meet and share ideas.

I attended the music part of the festival which is a 5 day event where everyone from around the world comes to see and hear the next great talent in the music industry. According to what I was told there were over 500 bands in attendance playing at the many different venues that were spread throughout downtown Austin. More than 300,000 attended the entire 10 day festival, and it will continue to grow every year.

The reason for Harvard Business Services visit to SXSW was to meet new clients that need to form a company and see many people who already use HBS as part of their success in the music industry. Being the industry’s Delaware formation specialist we know that in order for a band to get a record deal they need to be a company – either an LLC or a corporation. Record companies don’t sign bands unless they have confidence that the band creates their own music, and have a company to own and manage the copyrights.

We also wanted to get a feel for where the Music industry is headed. The music industry is constantly expanding, with no limit in sight. Once Rock n’ Roll was strictly a few singers in the South, then came Elvis, The Beatles, the whole California scene and a great proliferation of superstars from all across the USA from Jimmy Hendrix to the Alman Brothers to Lead Zepp, and many many more.

But today, the music industry is a big multiple of what it was back then. The question everyone at SXSW is asking themselves is, “How does MY BAND get noticed?”

Well, assuming you’ve already got original material that rocks and you have practiced it until its perfect, the right way to impress a recording company and to get a recording contract signed is to have your Delaware LLC or Corporation already up and running, With that matter, Harvard Business Services is here to help you.

Why do record companies insist that the bands they sign have formed a company? Here are a few reasons:

It helps protect your rights and protect your personal assets.
Recording companies want to deal with a companies, not with individuals or groups of individuals.
It helps define Ownership of your music, equipment and other assets.
It helps define the roles, responsibilities and contributions for each member in the band, and protect the record company if any member leaves the band.
Protection against liability

For more information on why musicians should incorporate in Delaware click HERE.

The conference part of SXSW was held at the Austin Convention Center, here you could find the trade show, interviews with celebrities, keynotes, live bands and 1 hour educational sessions with a panel of experts that spoke to individuals on a variety of topics.

Some of the events that I most enjoyed while attending SXSW were:

The keynote speech this year was given by Dave Grohl who is most well recognized as the drummer for Nirvana and the founder of Foo Fighters. His career in the music industry started when he was 13 when he picked up his first guitar, everyday he would record himself on a cassette player where he would make up a jam on the guitar then place that cassette in another cassette player to play back and record himself on a separate cassette recorder playing a drum beat to the rhythm he played on the guitar. He would do this for hours upon hours to improve his music. Then at the age of 17 he dropped out of high school and joined the DC-based punk rock band “Scream”. After three years in the band “Scream” he was told about the band Nirvana, at the time Nirvana was a garage kept secret, they had no record label yet, but they started writing songs and practiced non-stop out of a barn in Seattle. After much practice they were summoned to southern California where they made their defining first album in 1991. Later, due to the death of Kurt Cobain, the lead guitarist and songwriter of Nirvana, the band broke up and left Dave out on his own again. After a guest drumming opportunity with Tom Petty, Dave took center stage and formed the band Foo Fighters, where he wrote, recorded and sang every note, except for one guitar track. Since then Foo Fighters has grown into arguably the last great American arena/stadium rock band.

There were two interview sessions that I most enjoyed, one was with Clive Davis and the other was with Curtis James Jackson III aka 50 Cent.
- Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive who has won Five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. He has helped some of the biggest stars become the leading artists in the Music industry such as; Kelly Clarkson, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart, Carlos Santana and dozens more.

Clive Davis is still in the music industry at age of 80 and his interview touched on his career, what he has meant to the industry, leading singers/artists he has discovered and signed to his record companies. He also spoke in-depth about his newly released book entitled, “The Soundtrack of My Life”.

Curtis James Jackson III aka 50 Cent is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor and actor who has risen to fame with his rapping abilities, SMS headphones, energy drink and vitamin water.

50 Cent spoke candidly about his career, where the music industry is going, what his goals are for the future and what life is like being an actor and entrepreneur.

One of my favorite sessions was called “50 years of The Beatles”. This was a terrific session on what The Beatles meant to the United States culture and to Rock N’ Roll when they came here in late 1962 and how things have evolved in the music industry since that time.

Overall, for those who have not had the opportunity to attend SXSW I would highly recommend it especially if you are looking to get your foot into the Interactive, Music or Film industry and for those of you who like Music in general there is a great deal of talent that you can listen to day and night. I am certainly looking forward to SXSW 2014!

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Apr

Are You Putting Your Potential Clients to Sleep?

2013

BY Jamillah Warner

When it comes to traditional marketing the goal is to make people focus on you and your product. In this vein there are numerous tools including oversized ads that are too hard to miss or blinking street signs that light up the night sky. The problem with these tools is once people get used to seeing them, then they become invisible — just a part of the landscape, a message you take for granted. And that’s one way to do it. But according to Sally Hogshead, author of Fascinate: Your Seven Triggers To Persuasion And Captivation, there’s a better way.

Instead of begging people to pay attention to what we’re saying, your goal ought to be to fascinate them. When others are fascinated by your message, their attention is automaticly focused on you and you brand.

“Fascinating messages, like fascinating people, have the potential to consume us as almost nothing else can, sucking us into a vortex of intensity,” says Hogshead. She goes on, “fascinating people…don’t just talk at us. They get under our skin and into our conversations….They earn our business, as well as our trust. Instead of getting us to merely notice them, the fascinating ones change us in some way.”

Both her book, Fascinate, and her branding test, The Fascination Advantage, are based on her Kelton Fascination Study of 1,059 Americans around the country — all 18 and older. In the study fascination was defined as

“Intense captivation. When something is fascinating, it captures your attention in an unusually intense way. It’s more than “interesting.” It distracts you from other things around you, and makes you want to pay complete attention….Note that when something is fascinating, it is not inherently good or bad, only that it captures your full attention.”

According to Hogshead that study revealed the importance of fascination as well as seven universal triggers. And you don’t need all seven in order to engage your audience.

In case, you’re not quite convinced that your marketing needs to be fascinating, let’s address one more thing.

Why “Boring” Is So Dangerous

Facts are boring and at best mildly interesting if you really pay attention. But turn them into an infographic or a story and your message comes to life. In fact, the better the image, the better the story, the more fascinating the message.

Companies can also become boring. Add a personality behind the brand, however, and the business begins to pop. Think Papa John’s and the recent changes that Domino’s Pizza is trying to make. You add a personality and the whole brand becomes more engaging. It’s what Steve Jobs does for Apple — even now — and what you can do for your own business.

Said another way, boring is death to your brand. If it dies there’s another company ready to take your place.

It requires consistent and creative effort to figure out what makes you interesting to others, but this awareness is the lifeline to small business marketing and designing an effective brand message. In part 2 of this series, How Fascinating Is Your Small Business Brand?, we’ll look at three simple actions that every small business can take to help their brand fascinate.

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Apr

Have Your Voice Heard about Harvard Business Services

2013

BY Michael Bell

Harvard Business Services is holding a Testimonial Contest! We value our customers and are excited to offer our clients the chance to make their voices be heard. We have over 35,000 loyal clients from all over the world and we get emails and phone calls every day from appreciative clients thanking us for our excellent service.

Now, we want to say “Thank You” to those of you who feel that way and are creative enough to make us a short cell-phone video testimonial that we can use to convey to others how much we care about your satisfaction and how efficient we are at filing your company.

Besides a chance to make your voice heard, we’ll award the best 100 video testimonials with a $50 debit card for you to celebrate on us!

Here’s how it works. You send us a cell phone video of yourself telling us something specifically positive about your experience forming your company with Harvard, or contacting Harvard after forming your company to ask a question, pay your Franchise Tax or add extra services.

Rules:

IT MUST BE TRUE. We don’t want a bunch of BS. Nobody wants a bunch of BS.

It MUST BE SHORT. 30 Seconds at the most, (with a little bit of leeway there) but longer testimonials about how great Harvard is will be appreciated but may not selected as a winner!

IT MUST BE POSITIVE. We’re not looking for constructive criticism. That’s why we call it a Testimonial Contest!

You MUST EMAIL it to us and include the following information in your email:

Your Name

Your Company Name

Your City and State, or Country if outside the USA

You MUST give us permission to use your testimonial anywhere we want as long as we want. We will use it on our web site, our YouTube Channel, our Facebook page and our LinkedIn page for starters. If it’s a GREAT Testimonial we’ll use it everywhere for a long time.

Please copy and paste the following Statement into your email:

“If I am a winner of the $50 award, Harvard Business Services, Inc. may have the exclusive unrestricted rights to use my Testimonial video and indicate my FIRST NAME and CITY and STATE (or Country) in the testimonial. I DO NOT give Harvard Business Services, Inc. permission to reveal my full name or any address information to anyone for any reason.”

If you are interested in having your voice be heard please email your short video testimonial to: video@delawareinc.com

So go ahead and show your support for Harvard Business Services and again thank you for giving us the opportunity to be your Delaware Registered Agent.

This offer is good until May 1^{st, 2013} so make it happen and make it good!

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Apr

Molible Payments

2013

BY Gregg Schoenberg

Square, the upstart mobile payments company headed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, was in the headlines again recently when Starbucks announced that it would use the company’s technology to process all of its debit and credit card payments, and that it was investing $25 million in its new business partner. While this particular bit of news may not have a big effect on most entrepreneurs, other than giving them a new way to pay for their daily caffeine fix, the world of mobile payments is in fact transforming the way many businesses—from the tiniest start-up to the world’s largest coffee retailer—accept money from their customers.

In order to accept credit cards back in the old days of the mid-2000s, small businesses had to apply for a merchant account from a large bank, submit to a credit check, and wait weeks to have their application processed. For those lucky enough to get approved, it was a costly proposition. You had to buy hardware that could cost close to $1,000, and there were “transaction” fees of up to $25 a month, even if you didn’t process any transactions. Once you started accepting cards, the fees were not only expensive—as high as 5 percent—but they were multi-layered and opaque, if not downright misleading. On top of all this, you were left with a clunky system that took up valuable space and relied on paper receipts. Needless to say this wasn’t very appealing to the thousands of entrepreneurial enterprises that operate on tight budgets.

Square changed all of that when it came along in 2009; anyone can download the Square app for free and start accepting payments right away, and the fees they charge could not be more straightforward: 2.75 percent per transaction, period. And its elegant design, the tiny 2.5-centimeter namesake square, plugs into a smartphone or tablet and gives merchants the ability to instantaneously e-mail receipts to customers without any additional hardware.

As you would expect, Square’s success has spawned a host of competing products from some of the giants of the tech industry. Now battling it out in the mobile payments space are Google with its Google Wallet service; Intuit and its GoPayment offering; and PayPal with its triangular take on Square, PayPal Here. All of these services attempt to make it simple and cost-effective for entrepreneurs to accept credit and debit cards as the world increasingly moves away from cash transactions. And they are all pushing into the next frontier of the mobile payments world by giving customers the ability to pay for their purchases with their smart phones. There are some differences in the fee structures as well as the software, so definitely shop around and see which one could work best for you.

Because no matter how small or how big your business is, and no matter if you’re a startup looking to begin accepting card payments or an established firm looking to cut your monthly card-processing bill, you need to get to know the new payments landscape.

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