What's a victim of layoff/downsizing to do? Start your own business! According to Manta, it's your best bet for successfully weathering the rest of the recession and beyond! The author outlines 5 great reasons why. I fully concur with the last one - "You'll never go back!"

Read  "Entrepreneurship: It's Not Just for Mavericks Anymore".

Small business owners are some of the busiest people on the planet! I know from personal experience. So when you finally get the opportunity (read: money to pay for it) to delegate a project to someone else, it can seem like the weight of the world is suddenly lifted off your shoulders. However, be forewarned, dear small business owner - delegation is not equal to non-participation. You cannot ask someone to redesign your website, walk away, come back a month later and expect a beautifully designed and executed project without any interaction on your part. You will still need to actually attend a kickoff meeting, discuss goals and desired features and ideas, provide source material and other information, and review, comment on, and approve proofs.

In the past year, I have worked on too many website projects where business owners failed to attend meetings, didn't provide source material, didn't review proofs, didn't respond to emails and generally acted as though they didn't need to participate in the process at all. Their projects dragged on for months with me desperately pleading for feedback in order to keep the project moving. I really don't understand their thinking.

Contrary to popular belief, graphic designers, writers and marketing people in general are not mind readers. In order to produce a project that truly reflects your business' brand, we need something to go on. It may seem like we can conjure beautiful, effective deliverables from mid-air, but I assure you we don't. The best professionals take time to get to know your business before starting to plan, write or design. How is that done? By listening to you, reviewing what you've done in the past and acting on your feedback. You see, it's all about you and we can't do it without you!

For me, I am thankful for my family and our good health. I am thankful for my business and my clients and associates. I am thankful for our friends and neighbors who are friends too! And I am thankful for this wonderful country into which I was fortunate enough to have been born.

However, as I consider others' circumstances, I find other things to be thankful for. Recently I heard a story on NPR which has really stuck with me. It was about a woman who has been living in a Haitian refugee camp since the earthquake. She was pregnant at the time of the quake which killed her fiancee and destroyed their home and all their possessions. Her parents refused to take her in since she had become pregnant before marriage. Today she has a young infant to feed and no job. Her tent in the camp contains only a small pile of clothes, and a makeshift bed of plywood and two blankets. She only breastfeeds her baby and is completely dependent on the charity of her neighbors for food for herself. I'm sure the thankfulness she feels toward those people tremendously outweighs my thankfulness even though I have so much more to be thankful for.

Considering her circumstances, I realize I should remember to be thankful for the things that many Americans take for granted every day. For the clean water that flows out of my faucet whenever I turn it on. For my warm bed and sturdy house. For the electricity that works at the flip of a switch. For the ability to walk into a grocery store (or restaurant) and buy food whenever I am hungry. For the education of my children. Thankfully, the list goes on and on.

http://blip.tv/file/1821209

For those who are still lost, here is a very basic guideline:

Home page - Who are you and what business are you in?

About Us page - History of the company, bios of partners.

Services page - What services do you provide? What is your process?

Case Studies/Success Stories/Portfolio page - Examples of the services you have provided to past clients.

Resources page - Information that you think is useful to your clients. Links to other sites.

Contact page - Contact information

Don't forget to include how you are unique and different from your competition!! Why should clients buy from you?

As if I needed another reason to think that working for LEGO would be the most awesome job imaginable, Alexander Kjerulf just blew my mind with these customized minifig business cards that LEGO employees get.LEGO Business Card, Feb 2009

I sooo agree! I'd love to hand these out! You should read the whole article.

An interesting graphic of the President's speech to Congress done by Wordle. Find it here.

There are several reasons - time and ignorance of the process being the two biggest. So when I recently met Cliff Hyra of Hyra Intellectual Property Law Office, I felt like I had stumbled onto a gold mine. Cliff is the only lawyer I've ever met  personally, who specializes in Intellectual Property AND has set affordable flat rates!

Another reason is that I just didn't think anyone would rip off my logo. However, about two years ago, one of my small business clients was served a Cease and Desist Order from a very large company, claiming that her logo was too similar to their logo. The fear of a lawsuit with this large company with deep pockets prompted her to contact me to revise her logo immediately.

I've also been running into a lot of people with the initials MW. And they love my logo! That's good but it also makes me nervous. I'm not a big company, but I do need to protect my IP. And so do you.

Every company should have a vector version of their logo complete with font and ink color information on file as well as an eps version to use for print, a jpg for web use, and a png to use in Microsoft applications. A black only version of the logo is also very helpful for one color publications or for use on promotional products.

If you don't know, vector refers to drawing programs that use mathematics to describe lines and curves and they look smooth. Adobe Illustrator is one of these programs. Most likely your logo was originally designed in a vector program. Jpgs use pixels to render an image so curves end up looking jagged in low resolution versions. (More on resolution in a later entry) That is why they look fine on screen but do not look good when printed.

If you don't have a vector version of your logo, hire a professional graphic designer to recreate it and the various formats you will need and then keep them on file where all the people in your company who need it will have access to it.