At this time last year I told the whole team here at HBS, that I could not argue with the economic facts that point to a massive global economic train-wreck in our future, but I was not convinced that it will happen in 2011, and would not, therefore, use the doom-and-gloom scenario as an excuse to freeze salaries or benefits, as we were forced to do in 2009 when sales fell 25% when the economy “contracted”.

In fact, we had had a good year in 2010 and I wanted to reward each of them, whom I consider my best friends, for their performance, expertise, dedication and customer friendliness, which largely accounted for our success.

So I gave everybody a raise, and told them, if times get tough, we will all be on the same train and we will all ride it uphill and downhill together. And that’s the way it will be.

That’s how I planned to be successful in 2011. It worked. That set the tone for 2011. Instead of concentrating on the negative, like the NEWS did, we all pitched in to make the company and our service more perfect, so we could better serve our current clients and win a greater share of the potential customers out there. We also concentrated on outperforming our competitors in terms of the client experience by improving on hundreds of details on all levels of the business. We weren’t trying to re-invent ourselves, just improve upon what we already do well, to set the bar higher for excellence in our tiny industry of Company Formation Services.

Every year, for 30 years, I’ve done this. I plan for greater success every year by consistently improving every aspect of the company, and getting everyone involved in the details.

We invested in making our information and services available across the whole spectrum of the web including social media, mobile devices and notebooks. We set up an active Facebook page, and a Twitter account, and produced 13 videos to walk clients through every question and quandary when it comes to forming a Delaware LLC or Corporation. We will soon be QR coding your invoices so you can access your account, and pay your Franchise Tax and Registered Agent fee in less than a minute! Poof! If compliance can be made simple, we will make it so simple for you.

If you have a smart phone, try our mobile site. Just go to the same url: www.delawareinc.com and it will recognize your phone and give you the “Wham Bam Thank You Mama” version of our info.

But I have to admit, in 2011, we were very lucky. Despite the economic reality we all faced, more people wanted to form new companies and when we asked them why they wanted to start out fresh at a time like this many of them totally dismissed the notion that times are tough and said, ”because this is THE TIME” for them. And they are right.

I started Harvard Business Services in 1981 when the economy was equally depressed. But the USA is not a depressed nation and we always prevail over economic challenges. Americans love a challenge. Americans love to work and to be the best at what they do. Americans are also innovative, and free to innovate, which is our big advantage.

2012, the election year: What policies will govern the country in 2013 and beyond? The voters will decide that. This year, it is more important than ever, that you VOTE. In the USA, VOTERS determine the future, not the politicians.

What Our Clients Want: When I talk to our clients, nobody cares what the dollar will be worth, or what gold will be worth or what the interest rate will be on treasury bills. Really, they don’t care. Do you?

What people we talk to care about is activity in the marketplace. When are the buyers going to make a comeback and start calling again? Let’s get the phones ringing, let’s get the sales folks showing people properties, let’s get the customers making offers, and deals, and buying things. Let’s get the banks making swift and easy loans again. Let’s get this economy rockin’! That’s what we’re they’re saying.

So, my advice for 2012, which is free advice and worth every penny of what you pay for it, but no more, is to invest in yourself. Invest in your company no matter how small or how large it is. Pour your money back into your own company’s infrastructure and environment and security. Invest in your people. Raise their level of education and their standard of living and challenge them to do more.  And they will. Build an emergency operation center to avoid shutting down if one strikes. Plan for the train wreck, even if it doesn’t happen.

Plan ahead and Go Ahead: By all means, if you’re just starting out, you should know that you’ve picked the very best time in recent history, in my opinion, to start your own company. Survival will determine the fittest but in these uncertain times, start-up companies with dedicated sensible owners often have the advantage over established companies with good balance sheets.

Opportunity is alive and well here in the USA. GO FOR IT! Make 2012 your year to form a company.

Like any business, we like to end the year with a little profit. But we also like to have enough money – before profit – to improve our infrastructure. In years past it was a new roof, a new parking lot, Aeron chairs for everyone. Those were the good old days.

Making improvements in your infrastructure is important. It let’s your people know you care about them, and they appreciate the benefits they get from your expenditures. It can also be a very smart move financially. Example: we bought and installed two large monitors on every desk at HBS and everyone thanked me for months afterwards. The simple truth was, it made their jobs easier, which made them more efficient. They now provide services to our clients over the phone much faster, with multiple screens up at once and clients are pleased at the speed with which our people can now come up with real-time data from the State of Delaware and from our own client database. That improvement was a wise investment in many ways.

This year, 2010, we used our infrastructure reserve fund to hedge against two distinct potential threats: rapidly inflating future energy costs, and a potential interruption in the supply of electricity from our regional grid.

Regarding the first concern, skyrocketing projected energy costs for Americans:

Americans have enjoyed low energy costs for many decades due to our power to buy in enormous volumes, our good credit, and our stable currency. (Oh, so THAT’S why it’s going to skyrocket!) Well, I’m no MacroGlobal Economist but it is pretty clear that the cost of energy is now on the launching pad ready for take-off. Prepare yourself and plan for your company.

You’re not too late, even though some government credits will not be available next year. 2011 is a “Get ‘er Done!” year for renewable power. There are two options for reducing dependence on your energy supplier by producing your own sustainable energy: solar and wind. At this time turbines and photovoltaic cells will supply you with a very small percentage of your total electric power, if you’re a small American business with over a million dollars in overhead. But State and Federal tax credits and Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) will return a big percentage of your investment over the next 15 years (maybe even all of it), which gives you five years of free energy (at prices 15 years out) figuring the life of the system will be about 20 years. This year, this expenditure was our #1 priority for infrastructure improvement.

Second was the purchase of a 100 KW Kohler back-up generator that stands five feet six inches high and is 11 ½ Feet long by four feet wide (See photo above). This baby has a Corvette Vortec 8.1 Liter (496 CI) engine powered by propane from an on-site 1,000 gallon reserve tank that will carry the electric load for the entire HBS operation through any foreseeable natural disaster. This powerhouse cost more than a bright yellow Corvette convertible, which I really would rather have in my company’s back yard, but the desire to reduce vulnerability was much greater than the desire to drive a yellow Corvette in 2010.

With these additions to our infrastructure we head into 2011 knowing that we are prepared for the future.

The highlight of the event is the “Annual Report” given by Richard J. “Rick” Geisenberger, the chief Deputy Secretary of State and Director of Corporations. This year he reported:

Delaware is now the home to 890,000 domestic entities. They include 260,000 corporations and 630,000 LLCs, LPs and Statutory Trusts. An additional 11,000 entities from outside Delaware are registered here as “foreign Entities”. Delaware, which has always had more chickens than people, now has about one company for every person who lives in the State. Most states have about 1 company per 20 people.

Delaware is home to 63% of all fortune 500 companies this year and was the choice of 734 of the 907 new IPO’s (Initial Public Offerings) in the past 7 years. IPO activity reflects the dismal economic business climate in the USA today. It wasn’t long ago that more than 400 IPO’s were launched in a single year, then the total fell abruptly to 28 new IPOs in 2008, then 37 in 2009 and 53 so far this year. The upward trend the past three years could be called a recovery, but still a poor showing when compared to the boom years of the past.

A new trend is emerging however, giving hope for more business. Foreign companies, especially from China, are incorporating in Delaware and going public in the USA. Watch for this trend to continue as China becomes the dominant player in manufacturing for the global markets.

Delaware’s Court of Chancery still makes the news regularly for its many high-profile cases. This year we saw a battle between EBAY and CRAIGSLIST fought in Delaware just up the road from my office. Meg Whitman, and the EBAY group, won this one.

Delaware has been working with the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Department of Justice to reduce the incidents of the fraudulent use of Delaware companies in the International arena. Since Delaware prohibited Bearer Shares in 2003, it has been proactively issuing regulations that are designed to help prevent the fraudulent use of companies.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has proposed several drafts of a plan to make the ownership of companies easier to trace. Currently, Registered Agents are not obliged to keep Beneficial Ownership information on the companies we form for our customers. In Delaware we are required to keep an up-to-date record of the “Communication Contact”. However, in the future the Department of the Treasury is recommending that Registered Agents will be responsible for keeping Beneficial Ownership information accurate and current.

As a final bit of good news, Mr. Geisenberger reported that the Division of Corporations brought in $878 Million dollars in the last fiscal year which accounted for 27% of the State of Delaware’s budget, emphasizing the importance of this effort for the whole state.

Kevin Andrade, Creator of the HOLA! Awards, formed his company through Harvard Business Services and has produced a weekly talk show on WGMD in Delaware for the past six years, which focused on matters important to the local Latino community. The show mixes Spanish and English and has made a big contribution to the Hispanic community.

In 2009, Andrade organized the first HOLA! Awards Gala which recognizes Community Service and Entrepreneurial Success by persons in the local Hispanic community. Harvard Business Services has been in support of the awards since the beginning and this year the award was named the “Harvard Business Services Entrepreneur of the Year Award”.

Andrade recently acquired an a.m. radio station, which he is dedicated to developing into a 24/7 community oriented Latino station. The station is called Maxima 900 on a.m.

Ramiro Herrera was the winner of the award this year. Herrera came to the USA 20 years ago as a field worker. He began working in a restaurant and got his U.S. Citizenship before he decided to buy a restaurant of his own, which he called La Tonalteca. Today he owns 10 La Tonaltecas in Delaware and is working on another one to open in January 2011.

Harvard Business Services is proud of our support and relationship with the local Latino community. Heather Garza, Harvard’s Director of Hispanic Communications, has helped many Spanish speaking clients form LLCs and get started on the road to success. Harvard publishes it’s free booklet, “The Insider’s Guide, What you need to know before, during and after forming a business entity” in Spanish as well as English. It is available to download HERE.

Read the full text of Rick Bell’s speech below:

Thank you Kevin for producing this awesome evening.
Next year I think YOU should receive this award.
Thank you everyone for attending this fantastic event. Your support for this event is important and greatly appreciated.

At Harvard Business Services (delawareinc.com), we form Delaware companies for entrepreneurs all across the country and all around the world. This year, we’ll form more than 6,000 new Delaware companies for our clients, some of whom are right here in this room.

I’d like to introduce you all to Heather Garza, Harvard’s Director of Spanish Language Communications.  Thanks to Heather we have formed strong bonds with the Latino community here in Sussex County and we’re very proud of our reputation for serving all of you with dignity and respect.

I believe that the most important freedom we enjoy here in this great country is the freedom to start a business of your own.

Individuals who start businesses contribute to our community in many ways. They provide the consumers with a goods and services and they provide many of our neighbors with jobs. They keep the economy going in good times and rough times, and they face stiff competition every single day.

New entrepreneurs soon learn that you have to be good, and fast, and efficient at what you do in order to compete.

To be successful you have to promote your business, win new customers continually, please your returning customers and treat them special, all while you juggle the many roles you have to play to be successful.

It takes a vision to be successful, and continually focusing on the vision, even when others around you tell you that you’re trying the impossible.

Entrepreneurs are driven by a calling from within, nobody demands as much of a successful business owner as himself, or herself.
Entrepreneurs take risks, they make mistakes, they learn as they go and they get better at what they do every year. Why?  Because they have to. Small business owners are often called “self-employed”, but we know that’s a myth. Business owners know what it is to make a payroll every week. They work for their employees. Business owners know how demanding the public can be, they work for their customers. Business Owners pay taxes. They contribute to society. They work for the community. You can call them “self-Employed” but owners of small businesses work for all of us.

Tonight we honor Latino entrepreneurs in our community who have already proven to be successful. We acknowledge that their community and their County and their State has respect for their dedication, hard work and accomplishments.

Every one of the nominees already makes a major contribution to the economy of our county and our state. Every one of our nominees tonight deserves this award…..but only one will receive it. You voted, and your choice will now be heard.

And the 2010 Most Respected Latino Entrepreneur is Ramiro Herrera!

Pictured in the photo (Left to Right): Paulise Bell, Rick Bell, Ramiro Herrera, and his business partner.

Starting on July 1, 2010 at 9am EST, ALL of our prices on formation packages will be reduced by $30.00!  Both the Domestic and International packages are included. Top quality and unsurpassed service have never been cheaper, NOW is the time to file!

• Basic Domestic Service is now $299.00
• Basic International Service is now $420.00
• Standard Domestic Service is now $399.00
• Standard International Service is now $620.00
• Premium Domestic Service is now $569.00
• Premium International Service is now $820.00

To take advantage of these savings online – simply start your order at www.delawareinc.com and enter the discount code “summer” to apply the discount.  To apply by phone – just call one of our friendly and knowledgeable incorporation specialists at 800-345-2677 and the discount will be applied to any DE Filing Package.  With every filing you will receive the best agent service rate in DE at just $50.00 per year and the best lifetime customer support possible.  Please call or visit us online today.