Ongoing Management and Protection

CorpNet’s blog posts offer a wealth of information for navigating through the ongoing management and protection of startup and business operations. Our articles are written by industry experts who have the experience to help you avoid common and unnecessary mistakes.

What To Do When The Luck Of The Irish Isn’t On Your Side

  With certainty every year, the celebrations of all things Irish in honor of St. Patrick’s Day go into full swing on March 17. But when you’re starting or running a small business, nothing is ever completely certain. Sometimes all things go according to plan...

4 Gifts You Give Every Day as an Entrepreneur

While your focus this time of year might be on giving your clients gifts, don’t overlook yourself. This year, you don’t need to put a bow on a present and put your name on it under the tree; you’re already reaping the benefit from some pretty fabulous gifts to yourself.

Gold present and bow with gold glitter

Small Businesses & Retirement: What You Need to Know

Did you know that 68 million employees don’t have a retirement savings plan at all? This is often due to the fact that their employers — often small businesses — don’t offer employer-sponsored retirement plans. And small businesses aren’t eager to offer retirement plans for employees, either because they don’t know how to go about doing it or they can’t afford to.

Retirement spelled out in white cards

Did You Overlook Trademarking Your Brand?

You probably didn’t come up with the perfect business or product name overnight. Most likely, you brainstormed. You sought the advice of colleagues and friends. You tested out a few options, and checked what domain names were available. In short, you’ve invested a...

Trademark written in wooden cubes

5 Small Biz Secrets of Success When Your Kids are Home for the Summer

Whether you work from home or run your business elsewhere, having your kids at home for three months can create a logistical problem that can threaten your small business’s productivity during the summer.

Short of closing your business for several months (not happenin’, am I right?), here are a few strategies to help you keep your business booming while still being a kick-butt parent.

Nellie and Family Having Fun

5 Tips to Creating Loyal and Long-Term Employees

One of the things that I’m most proud of in running CorpNet is how long our staff has been with us. Many were there at the start. Our turnover is incredibly low. Clearly, we’re doing something right to keep our employees happy! Here are a few of the ways we do that.

Business people giving high fives

Businesses Incorporated in Texas Need to Fill Out an Annual Report By May 15

Before you form an LLC in Texas or incorporate a business in Texas, it’s important that you know what your responsibilities will be in reporting on your business in future years. If you’ve already formed an LLC or corporation, you need to be aware of an important deadline on May 15.

That’s the date your Annual Report — also called Franchise Tax Report — is due. Here’s what you need to know to ensure that you stay compliant with the state of Texas.

Welcome to Texas on Store Window

5 Ways to Show Administrative Professionals a Little Appreciation

There’s an important holiday on Wednesday, and it’s likely one you’ve overlooked. It’s Administrative Professionals’ Day, and a day that you need to make sure you show support to the people in your office that help you run like a well-oiled machine.

gifts

Small Business Taxes and How Incorporating Affects Them

This time of year, most business owners are thinking about their small business taxes: how much they owe, what they need to do to file them, whether they have enough to pay what they owe. But did you realize that if you incorporate a business, how you file your small business taxes and how much you pay can sway in your favor (depending on the corporate structure you choose)? Let’s take a look at how incorporating affects your taxes.

death by taxes

14 Days Until Tax Day? 14 Things You Must Take Care Of

If you’re like a lot of other small business owners, you drag your feet until the last minute to file and pay your taxes. It’s getting down to the wire, folks, so even if you want to wait until April 15 to file your taxes, you still have a lot of work to do to prepare.

Money Bag and Calendar

How To Find Motivated Employees for Your Small Business

When you first start a business, you may not need to hire, But as you grow, you start looking for people to help you take your business to the next level. But where can you find the right motivated people? Sure, you can post your job on a job board, Craigslist, or career site, but you can’t always know that you’re getting quality applicants.

So where DO you find the right people?

Group of People Holding Hands

Starting a Business: What Roles Do You Need to Fill?

When you first start your business, whether you are set up as a sole proprietorship, partnership, a corporation, or a Limited Liability Company (LLC), you may take on all the work yourself. After all, you consider yourself a great multitasker, so why not do it all yourself?

You’ll learn this lesson sooner than later, but I’d rather you do it now and save yourself a lot of headache later: you’ve got to delegate to be an effective entrepreneur. That means that from Day 1, you should have the right people on your team that will help you skyrocket to success.

Business woman standing with arms crossed

6 Ways to Lead by Example

Running a company — and therefore being in charge of people — is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because it’s fulfilling in so many ways. But it can be a challenge because every day, regardless of how you feel, you have people looking to you for guidance. You’ve got to be on your toes and ensure that you’re doing your best to lead by example so that your staff emulates what you do and works their hardest for your company.

Here are 6 tactics I’ve found effective in my leadership strategy.

Group of business people standing with confidence

Trademarking a Business Name: Do You Need To?

I get asked a lot: does incorporating my business automatically trademark it? The fact is: being incorporated keeps anyone else in your state from using the name, but it doesn’t protect that name in the other 49 states. For that, you need a federal trademark.

Registered Trademark Symbol

What I Love About Having My Business Partner as My Valentine

One thing that makes CorpNet.com unique is that it's run by husband/wife team, Phil and Nellie Akalp. In honor of Valentine's Day, Phil answers a few questions about working with the one he loves.

What's the best thing about working with your spouse?

Well…we have A LOT more to talk about at dinner and on date night. Although it’s important to separate the stressful part of our work lives from our personal lives, I find it very beneficial to our relationship to share and discuss the exciting and/or creative parts of our business…even during “personal time.” We really “connect” when we are excited about something at work. Thus it’s always a good idea to discuss a new project or idea…but we NEVER discuss accounting, taxes, or legal matters on date night.

Nellie and Phil Akalp of CorpNet

5 Small Biz Excuses That Shouldn’t Follow You into the New Year

Do you ever find yourself blaming everyone around you when things don’t go the way you want in your business? Maybe it’s “the economy” that kept you from hitting your sales numbers this year. Or your lack of employees that had you in the weeds all year. Whatever your favorite excuse, put the the kibosh on it in 2015.

If any of these sound familiar, make a New Year’s resolution to strike them from your vocabulary.

Highway sign with no excuses words

8 Top Secret Tax Tips the IRS Doesn’t Want You to Know About

When it comes to filing your small business taxes, it can seem overly complex. After all, what qualifies as a deduction? Are you filing as the proper status?

Don’t let tax season overwhelm you. Believe it or not, the IRS isn’t out to get you, but they do want you to play by the rules. These tips will help you alleviate the stress you feel this time of year and help you maximize your refund.

Man Cutting Tax With Scissors

5 Ways to Ward off Entrepreneurial Stress

Entrepreneurs are notorious overachievers. They’re accustomed to pushing forward without a playbook, yet the exhilaration of starting and managing your own business also comes with a heavy price - stress. That’s because small business owners tend to work long hours, with little separation between work and play.

If that sounds all too familiar, read on to learn several everyday tips to combat the stress of entrepreneurial life:

Man getting ready to hit laptop

How Becoming an Entrepreneur is Easier Than it Was 10 Years Ago

For those of you who started a business before the age of social media, blogging, and websites, you can attest: it’s a lot easier to be an entrepreneur these days.

Back then, we spent more time on the phone cold calling, and direct mail was booming. Networking was done face-to-face, and we couldn’t always track our marketing efforts. My, how times have changed.

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