A couple of months ago, one of my clients had heard that she would need to trademark her new book and she asked me if I knew that to be the case. I've dealt with trademarks and copyrights in my custom puzzle business some time back, and I knew creative works essentially protected themselves. There are easy ways these days to prove when you wrote or created something, though it never hurt to send in a copy for the copyright protection. Trademark, however? It still didn't strik

The past few weeks have found me greatly focused on VA's. (Virtual assistants for those not yet in the know.) When I decided to grow my freelancing into something more substantial, I knew from day one I could not and would not do this alone. I needed some kind of partner. Ramona, my puzzle business partner, had already set the bar pretty high, so I didn't expect it to be easy finding the right synergy with someone else. But find it I must; if I wanted to stay motivated, I nee

When I first had the thought to turn my freelancing into a full business, I thought about me, myself, and I helping people in a variety of editorial ways. When I connected with the Coach Ya Damn Self group last November and we started talking about growing businesses beyond ourselves, and when I really started to think about what that might mean and when I talking about all this with my life coach too, I got to thinking about the OTHER people I enjoy helping, also newbies but

I should have blogged four days ago, but this is the eternal struggle of a (temporarily) solopreneur – working IN your business while working ON your business. This past week has been more in than on, thus no blog post this past week despite a plethora of topics awaiting my fingers to do the dance across the keyboard. But that’s my fail. Because once a week, no matter what is going on, is doable. It’s a matter of making the time, which means some sort of schedule and I tend t

There's been a lot of talk of branding going on in my world. Colors and logos and fonts and the feel of things; target markets, avatars, products, products, products. There is a plethora of advice and a ton of smart people worth listening to. And I do, generally with one ear. Today I emailed my mastermind group and part of what I talked about was how I was going to sell my services. It's really a lot like how we sold our custom jigsaw puzzles because we always found the great

I haven’t blogged in a week. It’s not that the blog is in danger of me not blogging. On the contrary. I assure you there are plenty o' things to say. It’s just that I have been so very busy and most of that busyness comes from thinking, but some of it - thankfully - comes from working. When I started my Savor Circle three weeks ago, I had said I wanted to blog at least twice a week because up until that point I had. But lately it has been a challenge just remembering to do it

I posted on my Facebook page recently that I feel like I have been in a cocoon all month and that I will stay that way for at least another month. But of course if you think about the literal meaning of that, then it means I feel like changes are happening and something better will be revealed in due time. That is indeed the case. This course I am on isn’t new. Like any path, there are hills and slopes and even those have varying degrees of management. While I was working on

Here’s the question for those of us in Gen X and up – Do you remember the Burger King commercial? “Have it your way at Burger King now!” I'm sure Gen Y, Millenials and younger have their own version of this, but one thing I'm sure of -- There is no generation where “I did it my way” is not a siren call. Everyone wants some element of control in their lives. Some of us need it in more places than others. Some of us bristle at authority while others simply know how to work the

Now that this blog is outlined, sorta, I can finally just start talking about what's going on today as if you’ve been along with me for the entire time since I was born. This is important because I am about to do something different from what I’ve done before because I am freaking serious about extricating myself from my job. Did that sound negative? Not trying to do negative. No. I'm freaking serious about moving on to the next stage of my life, that's all. Better. This week

Right now, I am going to bring you in to the middle of my journey, although the middle is still pretty much the beginning of a new venture for me. That venture isn’t so much the business I am officially launching this month, but it is a venture into taking my way of thinking to another level so that I can achieve what I know is mine to have. You see, the problem is I have been on this road, oh about 17 years already? Wow. I just did that math in my head and I was hoping I was