Category Archives: MyCorp Tips

R is for Registered Trademark and Copyright

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This week’s letter-based-topic might seem like a stretch since, really, the subjects are trademarks and copyrights – neither of which begin with an r. But putting registered in front of those terms is not just a cop-out that a lazy writer has used to fit with a weekly theme. There are actually very important distinctions between registered and unregistered intellectual properties.

Technically, you do not have to register trademarked or copyrighted property. An unregistered trademark simply needs the little ™ symbol next to it and, voilà, the property is unofficially trademarked. You can even establish a proprietary right to the mark by using it in the market.

The same general principle is also applicable to copyrights. When the United States signed onto the Berne Convention in the late 80′s, it effectively agreed to see an author copyrighting his or her work as an automatic right. That means that, thanks to the Berne Convention, no registration is required to copyright something in the United States.

However, it would behoove anyone looking to protect their intellectual property to register a trademark or copyright with the United States government. Though you, technically, do not have to register, doing so really bolsters the legal protections afforded to you as the creator of whatever intellectual property that needs protection.

An unregistered trademark, for example, may afford you a small area of geographic protection, ensuring none of your local competitors will be able to rip-off your intellectual property. That protection, however, is limited, which means that your mark could be used somewhere else in the country or, depending on how far apart the two parties are, the same state. The extent to which you can pursue litigation for trademark infringement is also limited, unless you register. To make matters worse for those who forgo registration, the United States typically prefers a first-to-file system, rather than a first-to-use, meaning if someone beats you to the USPTO, they may be able to claim the mark as their own as they registered it first.

Registered and unregistered copyrights have similar distinctions. As mentioned above, you do not have to register a copyright – there is an international understanding of an artist’s natural right to own their work. However, if you want to pursue litigation, you have to register with the United States Copyright Office. In fact you cannot even claim statutory damage unless you registered for a copyright before the infringement took place so, just like with a trademark, make sure you register your intellectual property.

It is all too easy to rationalize not registering a trademark or copyright. You are, after all, afforded some protection for unregistered intellectual properties, and pursuing registration can be costly and time-consuming. But seeing your property used for someone else’s gain and not being able to do anything about will be far more distressing than the registration process ever could be. So when you begin to use intellectual property that can qualify for a trademark or copyright, begin the registration process immediately and protect those properties.

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Business Basics: Registered Agent Services

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Welcome to our weekly Business Basics post! This week we decided to explore a service that nearly every Corporation and LLC uses – registered agents. If you are thinking about forming an LLC or incorporating your business, you will need to find a registered agent. But what exactly do they do again?

What is a registered agent?

A registered agent is the person, or in some cases the company, that a business designates to receive service of process if there is a summons or a lawsuit. Since incorporating or forming an LLC helps to separate your personal and professional lives, and provides fiscal and legal liability protections, the state cannot simply serve you with legal paperwork. LLCs and corporations are, after all, their own, separate legal entity. So a registered agent acts as the impartial receiver of those legal notices. States will also sometimes send renewal reminders and notices to your registered agent, helping you to stay on top of what you need to file to stay compliant with state regulations.

Do I need one?

Nearly every, single state requires that LLCs and corporations doing business within its borders designate a registered agent, so yes it is very likely that, legally, you must have a registered agent. But, beyond the legal considerations, having a registered agent also helps you to maintain a bit of privacy. Having legal paperwork delivered directly to your place of business can wind up raising some eyebrows. There are considerations to be made for office-morale as well – after all, if you are working for a corporation that keeps getting notices and letters from attorneys, you might not have much confidence in the company. A registered agent helps create a sphere of privacy, so that you and your attorney can handle any pressing legal matters without causing a panic.

Can I act as my own?

It all depends on where you do business. As we mentioned above, having a registered agent that is separate from your business will provide a bit more privacy. However, some states do allow members of LLCs, or directors of corporations, to act as the business’s registered agent. Minnesota, as an example, does not require any business formed in the state to name a registered agent, though the company does have to list an address where a person who represents the company can be found. However, all fifty states have registered agents offering their services so, if you do want to name one, you are always able to.

Where can I find one?

Most states actively maintain a list of registered agents who are allowed to provide such a service within their borders. Just look up your state’s secretary of state or department of corporations – chances are that there is a list of active registered agents somewhere on the site. MyCorp is also happy to provide you with our own registered agent services, and we are able to do so in all fifty states!

Having a registered agent is extremely useful, and even if the state you do business in does not require you to have one, it is still a good idea to contract somebody as your registered agent, just to help maintain a bit of privacy. Just make sure that whoever you do hire stays in contact with you, as any and all important paperwork from the state will likely come to them first. The last thing you want is to miss a deadline because your registered agent never got around to calling you!

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O is for Operating Agreement

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This week on the ABC’s of MyCorp, we’re focusing on the letter “O” for operating agreement. State laws are fairly lax when it comes to operating agreements – a handful of states require that an operating agreement be drafted, and even fewer require that Limited Liability Companies hold onto written copies of it. So, typically, LLCs choose to either forgo creating an operating agreement, or simply say that their operating agreement was agreed to orally.

However, the lack of government oversight for operating agreements does not make them any less important or valuable. Even if your LLC was created in a state without laws governing operating agreements, it is still a good idea to draft one and keep copies of it on hand for a few important reasons.

First, it cements your company’s status as an LLC and protects your, and your partner’s, personal liability. Yes, filing the paperwork and making your business an LLC in the eyes of the state does separate your assets from the business’s, but if debtors push you into court, having an operating agreement on hand will help to ensure that the court will see your company as a legitimate LLC.

It also helps to protect you if a business partnership turns sour. Oral agreements are all well and good when everyone likes one another, but how do you prove something was agreed to orally without a tape of the conversation? It is better to be safe than to be sorry, and putting all of the agreements between the members of an LLC into writing will help protect the interests of each and every member.

You should also be sure to clearly outline how ownership of the LLC is distributed amongst its members. Usually the percentage of ownership corresponds to how much investment capital a member gave to the LLC, but LLCs can divvy up ownership percentages on its own terms, and putting those terms and the corresponding percentages in an operating agreement is extremely important, especially if percentage of ownership is not directly influenced by investment.

The same concept is applicable to how an LLC distributes its profits and losses, especially if the LLC chooses to create its own system for its distributive share scheme. Profits and losses for an LLC are normally recorded as income for the LLC’s members as an LLC typically has a pass-through tax structure, and so the operating agreement should outline the system for, and frequency of, the distribution of profit and losses.

Finally, in the case of a member’s death, any agreement on the re-distribution of ownership should be made explicit in the operating agreement. An unexpected death or severe illness can cause a lot of turmoil within an LLC, and the last thing you want is for your business to be torn apart from internal bickering or threats of lawsuits. You can also take steps towards protecting your LLC from being dissolved by specifying specific conditions under which dissolution would be acceptable.

Clearly, an acceptable, comprehensive operating agreement is an essential part of forming a Limited Liability Company, even if your state’s government does not require LLCs to have one. Operating agreements are a great way to protect your assets and your interest in the company, so when you begin preparing to form an LLC, take the time to draft an operating agreement, or have one prepared for you. You’ll be happy to have that extra bit of insurance if things get a little rocky down the road.

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MyCorp Presents: Your 2013 Small Business Tax Guide

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2013 started with a bit of a bang – with the looming fiscal cliff threatening tax hikes and benefit cuts, Washington scrambled to pass a budget that would allow the USA to continue trying to climb out of the recession. However, many small business owners are wondering what this means for tax laws in 2013. Is anything going to change? Do they have to do anything special? To help sort through the chaos, MyCorporation has prepared a list of important items and small business tax advice for owners to be aware of when filling out their 2012 returns.

2012 Returns and Deductions

One of the biggest concerns that business owners have is how the fiscal cliff discussions will affect their 2012 returns. The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which was passed on January 1st 2013, was the piece of legislation that averted the fiscal cliff. And for many businesses, its contents will not affect their 2012 return. However, it did retroactively affect a few things, most importantly Section 179 and the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit.

  • Section 179 – The deduction limit for Section 179 was raised to $500,000 back in 2010 in order to help businesses continue to invest and grow through the recession. That $500,000 limit was supposed to shrink to $139,000 in 2012, and then to $25,000 in 2013. However, the American Taxpayer Relief Act extended the $500,000 through 2013, retroactively upping the 2012 limit as well.
    • What is Section 179? -  If your business purchased equipment or off-the-shelf software and put that purchase into service in 2012, you can deduct the cost of those assets. Now certain things do not qualify – “Real Property,” which is typically defined as buildings, land, permanent structures, and improvements to permanent structures, do not qualify for most businesses. Neither do things like air conditioning or heating. There are other limitations as well – total equipment purchases exceeding $2 Million will lower the amount of the deduction, and the total amount of deductions cannot exceed total taxable income for the year they are being claimed. However, if you bought anything that can qualify for a Section 179 deduction – computers, office furniture, software, equipment – and the limitations of this law do no affect you, fill out Form 4562 and file it with your tax return.
    • Depreciation Bonus – If your total new equipment purchases exceeded $500,000, you can claim 50% of the remaining amount as a depreciation bonus, provided you installed this equipment in 2012 and the final amount does not exceed your pre-tax profits. Software and used equipment do not qualify for the depreciation bonus.
  • R&E Tax Credit – This tax credit, originally passed in the 1980’s, has once again been extended. Though it expired in 2011, recent legislation retroactively allows businesses that can claim R&E Tax credit to do so for 2012.
  • Start-Up Deductions – If you started your business last year, you most likely took on a bit of debt before you even had the chance to open your doors. Luckily for you, the IRS allows you to deduct qualifying costs up to $5,000. These include:
    • Money spent analyzing potential markets, workers, transportation, products, or facilities.
    • Wages that you paid employees who were being trained,
    • Travel expenses incurred while securing distributors, suppliers or customers
    • Fees paid to consultants or for other professional services.
  • Health Insurance – If you are self-employed, you can deduct the amount you paid for medical and dental insurance in 2012 for you and your family. Remember though, that you can only deduct the amount you paid for that year – even if you paid for two or three years’ worth of premiums, you can only deduct 2012’s share.
    • If you run a business with fewer than 25 employees, paid average annual wages below $50,000 per full time employee, and pay for employee insurance premiums, you can fill out Form 8941 and claim tax credit – typically between 25-35% of premiums paid.
  • Home Office – Though home office deductions have been simplified in the 2013 tax code, we unfortunately still have to deal with the slightly confusing jumble of regulations applicable to 2012. To qualify, your home office must be the primary place that you do business – there should be no other, fixed location where you conduct business or engage in administrative work. If you do qualify, you need to figure out what percentage of space your home office takes from the total area of your home. Then you use that percentage to determine how much of certain expenses – things like rent, deductible mortgage interest, real estate taxes, utilities, and home depreciation – that you can apply to the deduction. Keep in mind that if your gross income is less than the total amount of business expenses you are claiming, your deductions will be limited.
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How to Approach a Negotiation: Preparation and Honesty

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About two weeks ago our CEO Deborah Sweeney was featured over at Mike Michalowicz’s great blog with her tip on negotiation tactics. The actual topic was ‘How to Win a Negotiation’ and Deb had 500 characters to distill her philosophy regarding negotiation into an easily digestible blurb. We liked the topic and all of the tips provided so much that we decided to take negotiation topic (sorry Mike!) and give Deborah a chance to expand on her quick little answer through a longer post. Plus it’s her blog, so she can use as many characters as she wants.

Can't we all just get along?

So we don’t have to re-print the answer, you can either go read all of the responses over at Mike’s blog (which you should, because it really is a useful site and psst, Deborah’s tip is number 28), or you can settle for the quick and dirty version – when approaching a negotiation, be honest, be prepared, and be willing to compromise.

Honesty
There is an old saying that honesty begets honesty. If you’re honest with someone, they’ll be honest back because lying takes a lot of effort and causes too much additional stress. A negotiation shouldn’t be spent trying to dissect the truth out of the mounds and mounds of… less than truthful material being spewed from the mouths of the negotiators. Know what you want to take away from a negotiation, and be honest about it. All manipulation will get you is a room full of suspicious people and suspicious people don’t like to compromise.

Preparation
Ah, preparation. So simple, and yet so few people actually take the time to adequately prepare themselves before walking up to a negotiation table. A quick list on which you scrawled the main things that you want does not count as preparing yourself for a negotiation. You want as much information as possible about every single variable that is going to be in the room. The person you’re talking to, the subject matter being covered, how what is being negotiated can influence either party – take the time to find the facts. Not only will doing this help you know exactly what you want, but if you do end up having to argue for or against something, you’ll have strong reasons to back up your opinion.

Compromise
One of the problems with Mike’s choice of a title was that it seemed to indicate that negotiations should have a winner and a loser. Sometimes one party may leave the room feeling like the loser (especially if they didn’t prepare or were dishonest, as we just went over in the above topics) but negotiations can, and should, be a positive experience for both parties. Why would anyone negotiate anything if they felt like they would end up losing out? Don’t act like a spoiled kid, throwing a tantrum because you didn’t get everything that you wanted. Know what you want, and be willing to compromise on the details. A negotiation is not a boxing match – you shouldn’t be out for blood. If both parties walk away from the table satisfied, then the negotiators did their job well.

Now learning how to “win at negotiations” is big business for a lot of people. There are ton of books and websites filled with negotiation tactics and tips, and there is undoubtedly some writer out there whose three main tips are to be manipulative, impulsive, and uncompromising. But in a world where people treat other people like they are actual people instead of brick walls protecting a pot of gold, it’s better not to tear down everyone you talk to and burn bridge after bridge. So, if you’re interested in negotiating well AND maintaining relationships, stick with the advice above. It’ll take you far and help you to gain the respect of others with an honest and firm reputation – win win.

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F is for Filing Deadlines

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Deadlines are definitely a necessary evil – no one likes to feel the pressure of a deadline on their back but without them, we would procrastinate. And procrastinate. And procrastinate. This week on our ABC’s for small business blogging segment, F is for filing, and meeting, deadlines.

We need a bit of a push if we ever expect to get anything done. And, for many, that “deadline” is the end of the year. It’s a simple enough deadline, and gives you 364 days of wiggle-room. We hear from a lot of people that say they want to start a business by the end of the year. They have an idea, they have a plan, and they just need to actually get that paperwork filed and their business opened. So they put it off, month after month, because they gave themselves until the end of the year.

And here we are, in October. Two months until the end. And you may be asking yourself, “Is it worth spending the time to file what I need to file for just two months of business?”

Probably not.

Opening up your business two months before the end of the year will give you two more months of sales and growth, but with them comes end of the year taxes and filing fees. It may not be worth the headache, and hit to your wallet, to get going so late in the year.

So, around this time, we typically recommend that new businesses owners look at the ‘delayed filing’ option when sending in their paperwork to the state. You can still get your business paperwork filed before the end of the year, just like you wanted, but the state will hold off on recognizing your business until January. You get two more months to prepare to open, have a set date for recognition, and can still keep that promise you made to yourself to get your paperwork in by the end of the year.

Also, if deadlines are something that you’re consistently worried about, you should consider checking out our new service, the MyCorp Vault when sending in your business filings. With it you can keep track of everything you need to keep your business in good standing with the state, and know when a deadline is approaching.

After all, preparation is key when it comes to deadlines, and staying on top of your paperwork is a great way to avoid scrambling around when deadlines loom.

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Making Sure Your Brainstorm Isn't a Brain Fart

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People either love brainstorming, or they hate it. There seems to be no inhabitable middle ground when it comes to that type of group work. But, more often than not, those who hate brainstorming have had to live through session after session of forced meetings, with managers who shoot down any idea that doesn’t fit in with what the executive order has already thought up. What other option remains to a bored employee have in that type of a meeting than to try and beat their high score on Angry Birds?

However brainstorming CAN actually be useful – those in charge just have to structure their sessions properly. So if you’re planning on getting everyone in your department together for a little session, remember to:

1. Keep things nice and cozy.

One of the biggest problems with brainstorming sessions is that they are, well, too big. Size matters, and when you stuff a room with fifty people, there just isn’t much impetus for the sole employee to contribute. Even if they have some huge, money saving idea, they’ll keep quiet because there are forty-nine other people to compete with. People will always take the path of least resistance, and the one that is less likely to embarrass them. So when if you’re in management and you’re calling people together, keep things nice and cozy. Divy things up between groups of about five or six people. The employees that are put into these groups can be more personable with one another and, since they can actually talk to one another, they can build on good ideas to make them better.

2. Give everyone some time to think.

Ugh, the “surprise meeting” – is there anything more middle-management than a company wide e-mail, instructing everyone to gather in the conference room for a meeting? The whole idea is born out of some ill-conceived business school notion that spontaneity is the father of great ideas – don’t let your employees think too much about their ideas, or else those ideas may stagnate. Please, for the sake of everyone’s sanity, don’t buy into that. Give everyone some time to think, to jot down a few ideas. A morning before a meeting, a day, a weekend; you don’t want to stress everyone out. Just give them some time to write something down before the ball gets rolling – it will help them be more confident in their ideas, more willing to share, and better equipped to discuss what they do bring into the meeting.

3. It’s okay if you don’t find a solution to the problem.

Stress can kill innovation – lock everyone in a room and say that no one can leave until a problem is solved, and you can bet your bottom dollar that no one will suggest any answer that either hasn’t been brought up already, or has been used before. The best way to end a meeting is with a solution to the problem that inspired the little office get-together, but if no one can find one then those in charge need to be willing to say ‘Okay, well we can always try again later.’ People can only focus for so long, and their minds will fry if they are forced to churn out idea after idea after idea after idea. You can always re-visit a problem after everyone has had some time to recharge.

Just remember to always thank anyone who was willing to take time away from their work to help solve a business-wide problem. Brainstorming can be thankless work, and if people feel like their ideas are worthless, and thus the whole process is pointless, morale is going to stink and nothing will come of the meetings. But if you keep the groups small, and give your staff the breathing room they need to think and re-think an issue, brainstorming can actually be a positive exercise.

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How to Select the Right Social Media Service For Your Company

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There are a ton of social media sites and services out there. Nearly every major network has a handful of tiny competitors, who all hope that they can attract even a small percentage of the unique visitors checking out their behemoth counterparts. Understandably, this can create some confusion for new businesses. Which networks should you focus on? Do you need to have a profile on every single one? Or can you just hit the big guys and skip the little ones? Well the answers aren’t a simple yes or no, but there are some questions you can ask yourself to help figure out where you should focus your resources, and who you can ignore.

1. What is the size of the service?

This one is pretty darn important – after all, if no one is using a website then it isn’t worth your time. But there are some services that sort of fall in a grey area – an odd limbo-esque state wherein there is a sizable, core group of users but not much interaction outside of them. Google+, for example, is one of those sites. You should always make a profile for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Those are the major players in the social media world, and are where most of your customers are going to be. Then start to look at the smaller guys. Google+ enjoys a very large core group of tech aficionados so if you’re a tech company, you should be on Google+. But if you don’t see much of your target audience on the smaller sites, then feel free to ignore them. You should cast as wide a net as possible when it comes to social media, but sometimes it’s just impossible for new businesses to devote that much time and effort when first starting out.

2. Why am I using this site?

A pretty basic question. Why are you devoting your time and energy to this particular social media site? Is it to get people to read the articles you put on other outlets? If so, you should consider looking into services like StumbleUpon and, as long as your articles weren’t only written to sell something, Reddit. StumbleUpon is a little bit more relaxed and simply guides traffic to any articles filed under a particular broad heading, like business or sales. Reddit is trickier, and requires that the user-base positively reacts to your submission. If they don’t, no one will read anything you submit.

But maybe you aren’t writing anything for anybody, you just want a place that customers can find and follow. In that case, stick with Facebook and Twitter. Keep in mind, though, that you have to give your customers a reason to follow you. Typically that reason is pretty basic and doesn’t change from the time-tested formula of ‘If I follow them, they will give me discounts’ but it’s up to you to figure out if you want to expand your profiles beyond being another source of coupons.

3. Can I honestly maintain this outlet?

This question is key. There is nothing more damning to a potential customer than an outlet that hasn’t been updated in three months. Going off of your Twitter account alone, they may even wonder if you’re still in business! You need to be able to dedicate at least an hour a day to updating all of your social media outlets – especially for services like Twitter that expect constant updates. Anything less and you’ll be doing more harm than good. And remember that your updates shouldn’t just be a constant stream of updates and tweets that essentially say ‘Buy stuff from me because I’m the best!’ Like we said above, you have to give your followers a reason to follow you. Post news about your industry, updates from the office, pictures of cats (if you think that they are appropriate). And never forget to talk with your followers – social media is about opening channels of communication, giving your customers a bit more of that all-too important human element.

Starting and maintaining a presence with social media sites is more complicated than people think. It requires an enormous amount of creativity to keep from stagnating, and it is very easy to put off updating your feeds to focus on things you consider more important. If you don’t think you have the time to update eight different sites every couple of hours, that’s fine – you just need to remember to pick the ones that both fit your needs, and that you enjoy using. Social media shouldn’t be a chore, so don’t get in over your head and just start out with whatever you think you can handle. You can always sign up for more accounts later!

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Three Ways to Follow the Olympics from the Comfort of Your Desk

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The Summer Olympics come but once every four years, and social media has evolved fast since 2008′s games. Facebook had only just cracked 200 million active users, overtaking MySpace for the first time. Twitter was also really beginning to grow with six million users, and many of us often spent hours staring at the infamous ‘Fail Whale’ wondering how the heck this service was going to make money. YouTube, though well established, had only just begun to make a name for itself as a source of Olympic coverage as people who had never used the service began passing links to the outstanding opening ceremony at Beijing.

And now, in 2012, most of these services have matured. Social media is the number one activity on the internet, and the International Olympic Committee has decided to release (some very strict) guidelines on social media to its athletes. But despite the muzzle, there are still a few great ways for you to get your Olympic fix, even from your work desk.

Make use of that Google+ Account you signed up for

Now that Google+ account you were dying to get but have sadly neglected after absolutely no one made the transition from Facebook can get some much needed love. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced that they’ll be utilizing the Google’s native social media service and fans of Google+ are ecstatic that they haven’t been overlooked. Of course they’re also running coverage on Facebook but the Google+ feed has shown a much more aggregated approach to its coverage of the pre-game festivities, at least so far. Compare the two pages and you’ll see blurbs from major news outlets filling up the Google+ page, while Facebook is relegated to a few pictures posted by the IOC. Of course we’ll be following both, but if you really want to stay on top of things it looks like Google+ may be the go-to outlet for updates.

Check out the IOC Hub

The IOC has accomplished something wonderful for us Olympic fans – it’s centralized its social media campaign. The IOC hub lists the twitter feeds of thousands of athletes, offers its own coverage, and even has a cute little community with rewards and tiers for those who want to try and connect a bit more closely to the action. If that doesn’t suit you, you can always just sit back and let the news updates/tweets roll in after merging your account with the Hub. The whole idea behind the Hub is actually quite astonishing, as putting all that information into one place is a fairly behemoth undertaking, but it seems to be working, and we’re all the happier for it.

You can still follow your favorite athletes on Twitter

Don’t let that IOC muzzle scare you away – many analysts are guessing that the IOC won’t be chasing down athletes who post pictures of themselves warming up or tweet about their joys and disappointments on the road to Olympic gold. Really, they’re just trying to make sure that an athlete sponsored by Coca-Cola doesn’t tweet about how much they enjoy Pepsi. The involvement of advertising dollars sort of sullies the experience, but at least the tweets won’t have to pass an IOC committee before being sent out. It is still a great idea to follow the athletes, if for nothing else to connect that much more closely to the men and women representing your country. And how else would you know that Michael Phelps isn’t a fan of the new Team USA swim caps?

At the end of the day, social media is about enjoying yourself online. It allows you to connect with other people – people you may never have had a chance to connect through any other medium. And while we’d never recommend loafing on the job so you can scan pages of tweets and status updates, following all of these wonderful outlets is a great way to stay up to date while at work.

Just remember to go back and look for what you missed once you get home!

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Four Kind of Crummy Mission Statements

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Mission statements are one of those holdovers from the domineering American corporate culture of the eighties, and while they can be extremely useful to focus a new business, most of the time they’re bland, and lack any sort of creative touch or impulse. Normally this wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but business schools have a terrible habit of taking the most inoffensive, uninspired mission statements from major corporations and printing them out as an example to which our future entrepreneurs can aspire.

So many thoughts, such little creativity

So we decided to go through a list of multi-national companies and found four odd/funny/not all there upstairs mission statements to help future entrepreneurs reading our blog avoid being the butt of a small time business blog’s jokes.

Dell: “To be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve.”

This one got a collective “Lol, what?” from the Social Media team. It’s like a marketer filled their mouths with business jargon and the word ‘computer’ and then just let it all spill out into a nearly incomprehensible sentence. We understand what Dell is trying to say, that they want to be the top dogs of the computer world, a company that gives customers a technological experience that they simply cannot get anywhere else. But the statement is so poorly constructed! This is the statement that you’ll be using to represent your company, to give it direction – please make sure that it makes sense.

Sony (Europe): “Sony is committed to developing a wide range of innovative products and multimedia services that challenge the way consumers access and enjoy digital entertainment. By ensuring synergy between businesses within the organisation, Sony is constantly striving to create exciting new worlds of entertainment that can be experienced on a variety of different products.”

Ugh, synergy. Is there any business buzz word so widely hated and vilified? Don’t ever use the word synergy in your mission statement. It makes it sound like you’re out of touch and grasping for straws. The first half of the statement is actually pretty good. It’s clear, understandable, and is a lofty goal Sony can aspire to. But the second half is just a white-hot mess of corporate nonsense. ‘Exciting new worlds?’ Really? Avoid falling into the trap of playing up some kind of corporate culture that likely does not exist, and make sure your goals are always clear.

And never use the word synergy. Ever.

Enron: “Respect, Integrity, Communication and Excellence.”

Enron’s statement wasn’t necessarily bad. It was a little silly, and very vague, but those four things were goals that could reasonably guide a business’s development. The reason we’re giving Enron a place on our list, however, is because they didn’t follow their mission statement. At all. It’s hard to respect your customers and shareholders when you hide your debts and cost people their pensions and livelihoods. Your mission statement shouldn’t just be a collection of nice sounding words. It should help guide your principles, and form how the outside world views your company.

Hershey: “Undisputed Marketplace Leadership”

That’s it. Undisputed. Market. Leadership. That type of statement would fit better on a propaganda poster used to prop up a tottering military regime. It’s clear, but it’s vague and leaves a bad taste in your mouth – not the best affect when your flagship product is chocolate. Even if your goal is total market annihilation, you shouldn’t make that your mission statement. How do you even achieve that? Send a man named Slugworth to steal secrets from your competitors? Make sure your mission statement actually relates to what you sell, and that it puts your company in a positive light.

Just remember that a good mission statement will not make up for a bad business plan. A mission statement simultaneously gives a business something to strive towards, and helps introduce it to the rest of the world. Your customers and employees aren’t idiots, and they’ll know if you just slung a bunch of pointless buzzwords together. Just be honest… and make sure your syntax makes sense.

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