Journalists and others have been pixelating pictures for ages to “protect the innocent” and themselves from claims of invasion of privacy, defamation etc. In the old days of hard copy everything, pixelating was static and the only thing that could make a pixelated picture not look pixelated was poor eyesight. Say What? Seriously, if you’re [...] Continue Reading…

I know it’s terribly trite to say “I love my work” but the fact that I do came home to me when I was not home, but on vacation. We spent a glorious couple of days at Rough Creek Lodge. I relaxed and had a great time, but spent a lot of my time at [...] Continue Reading…

With some signs that the economy is picking up, there are bargains to be had everywhere. Real estate is still low, and so are business values. But if you have some cash, or even just a business that has weathered the storm, now might be a good time to look around at some of your [...] Continue Reading…

With a tight economy, small businesses need every advantage they can get.  If you’re the owner of a small business and are a minority or woman, being certified as a Minority or Woman Owned Business can be useful. First, it’s important to know that there are two types of certification. You can be certified by [...] Continue Reading…

For those of you with sole proprietorships, when you speak with your accountant in preparation of filing your taxes, be sure to ask whether it’s time to incorporate. This is worth asking every year. Please ask your insurance agent the same question. It might be possible that by creating a separate entity like a corporation [...] Continue Reading…

We’ve talking about the delays in getting paperwork processed by the California Secretary of State.  Just before the new year things were getting caught up. But because of the number of new filings at or near the new year, they are falling behind again.  As of February 18, 2011 the Secretary of State was exactly [...] Continue Reading…

Today’s our day for getting these “We’ll do form minutes for you” letters. This one is an improvement over the other in one way, but also a bigger risk. …

If you got a letter from the “Corporate Compliance Center” that looks like this, it’s a rip off.

In November we mentioned how far behind the California Secretary of State was in processing corporate documents. Well the delay has been reduced somewhat, but it’s still causing problems for people wanting to get down to business NOW. As of right now, filing articles of incorporation will take about 75 days if you mail them [...] Continue Reading…

One risk that corporations have is having payments to shareholders deemed by the IRS or state taxing authority to be dividends.  Dividends are not deductible by the corporation so most small corporations try to pay their owners things like salary (deductible), or provide things that are business expenses (deductible) that the owners might have a [...] Continue Reading…