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MyCorporation is now into its fifteenth year of business – 15 wonderful years of helping entrepreneurs to create their own small business and get it started on the right foot! We were one of the first, online document filing services, and the … Continue reading
We have A LOT to be thankful here over at MyCorp – it has been an awesome year, and it has been an absolute blast helping small business owners turn their dreams into an actual business. While we could go on and on and on listing all the people and groups we want to say thank you to, that wouldn’t make a very interesting blog post. Instead, we’ve narrowed the list down to our top five.
Our Team
What can we say about the MyCorp team that hasn’t been said time and time again? Enthusiasm, teamwork, and an unwavering dedication to our customers – team MyCorp is one of the main reasons we love coming into work everyday. So a big thank you to everyone, from sales to management to design to IT, for being a part of MyCorporation.com!
Our New Website
Speaking of team members, we have to give a special shout-out to Garret Bever, our in-house graphic designer and webmaster, for working so hard on our new website. MyCorp was due for a facelift, and he did an amazing job at making the transition from old to new as painless and easy as possible. People have had only good things to say about our new look, and that’s largely thanks to Garret’s hard work.
Our Affiliates
MyCorp has developed quite the network of affiliates, and it has been an absolute pleasure working with so many great people. Without our affiliates MyCorp would be nowhere near as successful as we have been, and we are honored to provide document filing services for your clients and customers. And, of course, a big thank you goes out to our affiliate manager, Cynthia Sokoloff, for acting as the face and voice of MyCorp’s affiliate program.
Our Customers
Where would we be without our customers? Without all of you, there is no MyCorp. We try and go above and beyond to provide you with the level of service you deserve, and in return you’ve allowed us to help you get your business started right. So thank you, a million times over, for making this year so wonderful. Hearing all of your stories of success, especially in the face of a poor economy, has made all of our work mean something truly extraordinary.
Small Businesses Everywhere
Politicians always say that small businesses are what drive the American economy – happily, this platitude is true. According to the SBA, small businesses experienced a positive growth during the third quarter of this year, with fewer bankruptcies and more hires. Small businesses are truly leading the way out of this recession, and we cannot begin to tell you how proud we are to have helped so many of those businesses when they were just starting out.
So thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for making 2012 a great year for MyCorporation. We hope everyone has a nice, relaxing holiday, and wish you all the best of luck in the New Year.
Turkey, family, and an inordinate amount of shopping all define the end of November, but there is one more thing that should be tacked onto that list – Small Business Saturday. American Express has been putting on Small Business Saturday since 2010, and for three years they have helped promote local and internet-based small businesses by providing free marketing, free ads, and support for the entrepreneurs and small business owners that drives our economy.
Shop Small on November 24th
And, of course, we couldn’t let Small Business Saturday go by without offering our own support to all of our customers and friends who have made MyCorp the successful business it is today. All day on November 24th, anyone who purchases ANYTHING from our site, whether it be an incorporation package or a simple ‘Doing Business As’ name, gets free access to our MyCorp Vault document storage service, a $50 value. And we are offering free business consultations over the phone from 9 am to 1 pm PST. Just call us up at 1-877-692-6772, and we will help you help your business.
Team MyCorp wishes everyone out there a Happy Thanksgiving, and we look forward to talking with you this Saturday!
First, we want to send out a HUGE ‘Thank You’ to everyone who made our mixer an outstanding success. Our video production was taken care of by the amazingly talented Envision Productions, and our entertainment was very kindly provided by the musical experts at City Connection Entertainment and Productions. Also, if the food in our slideshow makes your mouth water, check out Bella Donna Special Events – their amazing catering left everyone well fed and happy.
And, of course, there wouldn’t have even been a mixer if it wasn’t for all of you who came by to chat, eat, and drink with us. It was a blast talking with all of the local business owners and getting to know our local community of entrepreneurs. We were also elated to give away a free iPad to the winner of our Business Card Raffle – the very lucky David Brauer, husband of our very own Lisa Brauer!
So thank you everyone from the very bottoms of our hearts for all of your support. Of course, if you weren’t able to make it our very talented in-house photographer Heather Madrigal was kind enough to snap a few photos of the festivities:
Thanks again to everyone, and we hope to see you all again very soon!
We here at MyCorporation just want to take the moment to thank everyone who made our Tax Relief Free Day a success. We had a pretty big day at the office with NBC LA stopping by to film a quick taxes segment on us, our awesome affiliates tweeting and using the #myfree hashtag, and our amazing office team waking up early (with Starbucks provided to make it easier) to report to the office at 5 AM!
In particular, we want to thank the support we received from:
December marks the heart of the holiday season. Christmas parties, family gatherings and decking our halls with decorations are synonymous with the season. In the midst of all this merriment, millions of people find that an additional activity goes hand in hand with the holidays: giving. Giving of our time, funds, and resources to others who are less fortunate mark an important part of the holidays. What about businesses? In addition to office holiday parties, do businesses give back to their communities?
The frustrations of the past months put into the spotlight by the Occupy Wall Street protests, suggest that corporate America is one thing: greedy. Chants involving “the 99%” and “wealth distribution” have left a mark on corporate America’s arguably already tarnished image. For many, the holiday season represents a time of giving back to others. Despite corporate America’s blemished profile, many corporations give back millions of dollars each year.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a magazine that monitors the charitable giving industry, tracks donations from the largest corporations in the Untied States from the annual Fortune 500 list. The magazine reported that the most generous donor in 2010 was Kroger, with $64 million. Kroger, the largest grocery chain in America, was the only corporation to give more than 10% of its previous year profits to charity in 2010. The 2nd most generous was Macy’s totaling over $41 million dollars. In addition to hosting the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Macy’s provides over 1,000 grants to organizations in low-income communities where the giant retailor operates. The list continues with Safeway coming in 3rd, Dow Chemical taking 4th and Morgan Stanley taking 5th. So yes, many large companies do in fact give back to their community, quite generously!
Giving is not only important to large corporations, it is also important for 501(c)(3) companies, or tax-exempt non-profits, in a somewhat different way. Non-profit companies rely on donations, or giving, so that they may fulfill their charitable purpose, usually giving back to their community. In order to qualify, the company must be organized to use its revenues for a charitable purpose, rather than distributing them as profits or dividends.. None of the companies’ earnings may inure to a private shareholder or individual.
Most charitable organizations are allowed to receive tax-deductible contributions. Contributions over $75 dollars must be documented. For many non-profits, these tax-deductible contributions keep them in business. Think about companies like the Salvation Army and The Red Cross. They operate mainly on charitable donations and in some cases use social media to further the process. The Red Cross, for example, raised over five million dollars to support Haiti solely through text message!
The business community, both large corporations and small start-ups, are all, in some way, affected by charitable giving. Here at MyCorporation we encourage our employees to give back to the community through local canned food drives, and other seasonal programs. Take some time during your holiday celebrating and consider giving back to your community, or even your favorite non-profit. You know the saying, a little really does go a long way!
December, thanks to its proximity to a wide array of religious holidays, has sort of become the unofficial month of giving. Come Christmas/Hannukah/Festivus/Saturnalia, living rooms across the world will be filled with crumpled wrapping paper, discarded boxes, and happy faces. We absolutely love the Holiday Season because of the level of generosity that seems to radiate from everyone.
Of course, that generosity doesn’t stop at families and friends. Charities typically register record levels of donations during December, and many have events throughout the month specifically to gather as many donations as possible during the “month of giving.” Businesses typically love to do their part as well, holding their own events to try and help sponsor charities. But an all too frequent problem with this has once again been seen, though it was in a place only possible in our highly connected, social media driven world.
The social media community was very recently rocked at the astounding donation that Reddit’s r/atheism community gave to Doctors Without Borders – as of this posting they are at $152,000 being donated, shattering their $75,000 goal and rocketing past the previous December campaigns. Two slightly less active/less subscribed to communities are also holding their own campaigns in solidarity with r/atheism – r/christianity has $14,000 pledged to Doctors without Borders and r/Islam has promised $1,500.
All of this is completely user driven, primarily through the site’s voting system that allows users to upvote the posts they like. Typically, users will make a post saying they will donate X amount for every upvote that post gets to a certain point, and then prove they donated. This system however has some wondering at what point does this stop being generous and start becoming self-serving.
After all, why don’t they just donate the money and stop asking people to recognize what they are doing?
The answer is, of course, that this is all done to raise awareness as well as money. A dollar is great, but a dollar and some free recognition for the charity is even better.
But questioning the motive behind these types of campaigns is always something that comes up. If you are looking at holding your own charity event for your small business, think about the following while you plan it:
1. Is the focus the charity, or your business?
This is a big problem that a lot of businesses end up facing, and one reason why some charities are apprehensive to link their 501(c)(3) status with some companies. After all, how the business presents itself will reflect directly on the charity it is trying to help. While a company or CEO or PR team may have the charity’s best interest at heart, they may also see this more as a marketing opportunity. This in and of itself is not a terrible thing, and some good publicity is always expected when linking up with a charity, but if it becomes clear that the only reason a company is holding some sort of donation drive is to better its image then there will be backlash. The decentralized nature of Reddit allowed its users to individually deal with the whatever allegations against them emerged. A corporation or company that has a single figurehead simply cannot do the same, so if you are going to push for a donation drive, remember to always put the charity before your company.
2. What do you expect to accomplish?
This is key, and helps you deal with the inevitable, “Why not just donate and stop bothering us?” question that, we promise you, will arise. The go-to answer tends to be to raise awareness in the community about the charity du jour. Sometimes, though, that may not be the case. The answer could be much more personal than that, in which a bit of honesty and humanity can go a long way to help your efforts in raising money. You can also find the answer in the other direction. For example, they might have been the only charity willing to team up with you and raise money. While this sounds a little odd, more charities reject offers from businesses to raise money than you would think. But even if that is the case, there is some reason why you made the final decision to go with them instead of continuing to ask around, or scrapping the campaign entirely. Have an answer prepared and know exactly what you like about the charity you are teaming up with. Are they small but effective? Do they have a broad reach? Do you like how local their campaigns are? Knowing what you want to accomplish with them and why will be instrumental in determining the campaign’s effectiveness.
3. Can you handle derision if it comes?
This is the final and most important question. Even if you ensure that the focus is the charity, and even if you have a great personal answer to the question about what you expect to accomplish, you will still be likely hit with some derision. This may take the form of an angry post on your Facebook wall, a phone call, or even some public figure accusing you of trying to profit from charity. Sometimes you just have to smile and let the flame burn- remember, the focus has to be the charity. The more you make it about your business or your motivations, the less the focus is on the campaign and the more you hurt your own efforts. Know when to step back, take a deep breath, and smile!
The entire purpose of any fundraising campaign is to help a non-profit continue its mission. Do all that you can to make the campaign a success while remembering the purpose and be proud that you helped a worthwhile cause.
It’s here! Well almost here anyway- we’re talking about Thanksgiving this Thursday! Most of us look forward to Thanksgiving due to the large amount of food associated with the holiday. However, there are multiple other reasons to put a gobble in your step come Thursday, such as family time, cooling temperatures, changing leaves and football! Here at MyCorp, we want to make sure that you and your family enjoy Thanksgiving to the fullest and we’ve rustled up a a few fun Thanksgiving facts just in time for the holiday.
History
According to the History Channel online, though many competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941. This year, Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 24th.
Travel
As we mentioned, Thanksgiving, for many families, means traveling in order to join their families. In 2010, the American Automobile Association (AAA) estimated that 42.2 million Americans traveled 50 miles or more from home over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. No wonder the day before Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel days of the year!
Turkey
Of course, we all know that turkey goes hand in hand with Thanksgiving, but exactly how much turkey does America consume each year? The National Turkey Federation estimated that 46 million turkeys—one fifth of the annual total of 235 million consumed in the United States in 2007—were eaten at Thanksgiving. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota is the top turkey-producing state in America, with a planned production total of 46.5 million in 2011.
Pumpkin Pie
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2,020 pounds and measured just over 12 feet long. It was baked in Ohio, and included 900 pounds of pumpkin, 62 gallons of evaporated milk, 155 dozen eggs, 300 pounds of sugar, 3.5 pounds of salt, 7 pounds of cinnamon, 2 pounds of pumpkin spice and 250 pounds of crust! Illinois, California, Pennsylvania and New York are the major pumpkin growing states. Together they produced 1.1 billion pounds of pumpkin in 2010. Total U.S. production was over 1.5 billion pounds! That’s a lot of pumpkin!
Whether you are with your family or at home watching football this Thanksgiving, enjoy the holiday! We hope these fun facts inspire the turkey spirit within. Happy Thanksgiving from MyCorporation!
Be sure to use coupon code "MYFREE"
If you haven’t heard (and I’m not sure how you’ve gotten away with that!) we are going to be having our “Free Day” on September 20th. By using our coupon code “MYFREE” you can partake of our free incorporation or LLC services, a copy of Quickbooks and a free domain name. Our promotion will be running all day, starting on 12 AM on the 20th and ending at 11:59 PM PST the same day. So be sure to take advantage while you can. And if you have a family member or friend who is always going on about having the next big idea, be sure to send them some information about the promotion as well!
You can reach us at 1 (877) 692-6772 or tweet us @mycorporation with any questions or concerns. Finally, thank you everyone for all of your support, we look forward to talking with you and supporting all of your business endeavors!
For the entire month of August, we’re giving aid to Joplin, Missouri after the recent devastation of tornadoes throughout the area that occurred on May 22nd. 8,000 homes and small businesses were destroyed and damaged in the aftermath of the natural disaster. Even more tragic was the loss of life that occurred with 160 people killed. Joplin is still picking up the pieces with aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but still needs the help of donors and charities to assist them in mending and beginning life once more.
Despite the fact that we do not see Joplin updates on the news with the frequency that they had a few months ago doesn’t mean that everything has already been squared away and taken care of. Natural disasters leave behind long term and long reaching effects on all involved and even on the lives of those who were not there. Families in other states are stricken with grief and worry at the thought of those they love being affected, young start-up entrepreneurs who invested everything into their new business are sadden by the pile of rubble that did not yet get a chance to be, unemployed workers trying to figure out how to begin again- all under the hot and humid August sun.
MyCorporation is donating $500 to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation to aid Joplin. In addition to our donation, we’re also reaching out on Facebook for assistance- like our Facebook fan page and we’ll donate a dollar to the collection that we have created for each like. Throughout the month of August, we’ll also include news on the latest recovery efforts in Joplin and on how far our own collection has grown.
Many hands make light work and it takes people from all walks of life to make a difference in the lives of others. Join us in helping Joplin this summer- every dollar counts.
