Business Law Before you start a business, legally, you need to obtain any business licenses or permits required by law. Doing so will identify your business, protect public health and safety and help you keep track of your finances for tax purposes. The application for an employer identification number (EIN) is available at the IRS website; an EIN is required for corporations, LLCs and partnerships, as well as any sole proprietors who will hire employees. Unless your company’s service or product is regulated by a federal agency, you probably won’t need any federal licenses or permits. However, things like public transportation, investment advice, or producing drugs or firearms, require supervision by a federal agency and you will need special licenses. If, for example, you will become involved with environmental regulations at the federal level, you’ll need to deal with the EPA.

State Business Licensing Laws States license people in certain professions, such as lawyers, doctors, and accountants. Your state might also require a license for certain other businesses such as barbers or real estate agents. You should check with your state to find out if your business requires a state license or permit. Selling certain products including alcohol and lottery tickets might also require a state license.

Your municipality might require a license or permit for your business. Check with your city or town to find out about zoning laws to ensure that you are allowed to conduct business in a particular building like your home or the storefront you rent. If you are involved in retail sales, you will also have to pay state and local sales tax. Depending on your city, this could be done at the state level or both the city and state levels.

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“Some of the most talented people in our society are in trouble with the law. Some are serving time in federal and state prisons. Some are waiting to be sentenced for crimes of which they have been convicted in courts of law.

From my experience, those who succeed temporally in life started from a spiritual base. They were raised in good homes and benefited from neighborhood, church, and school leaders. Many were Little Leaguers and good Boy Scouts. Now they are in trouble and their families are humiliated.

What went wrong?

Sarbanes-Oxley Act

I extracted and shortened the following from a website

In the wake of the Enron/Arthur Anderson scandal, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, mandated the separation of auditing and consulting businesses in an attempt to restore public confidence in the investment market.

“The Act created a number of new Federal crimes (i.e., document destruction and tampering, securities fraud, certification of false financial statements, and attempt and conspiracy), many of which apply to both public and private companies, their directors, officers, and employees.

“The Sarbanes-Oxley Act also significantly enhances penalties applicable to a host of existing white collar crimes.

“A number of Federal agencies including the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Secret Service, U.S. Customs, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, participate in the enforcement of Federal white collar crime legislation.

“In addition, most states employ their own agencies to enforce white collar crime laws at the State level.”

All Corporate Crimes are Not Prosecuted

At website is posted the report: Crime Without Conviction: The Rise of Deferred and Non Prosecution Agreements and I quote:

“This report finds that prosecutors have entered into twice as many non-prosecution and deferred prosecution agreements with major American corporations in the last four years (23 agreements between 2002 to 2005) than they have in the previous ten years (11 agreements between 1992 to 2001)…And it raises the question – are these companies too big to indict, to big to convict?”

See also this website

Top Corporate Criminals

At website are listed the top 100 corporate criminals of the 1990s. I quote:

“The 100 corporate criminals fell into 14 categories of crime: Environmental (38), antitrust (20), fraud (13), campaign finance (7), food and drug (6), financial crimes (4), false statements (3), illegal exports (3), illegal boycott (1), worker death (1), bribery (1), obstruction of justice (1) public corruption (1), and tax evasion (1).”

Without going into details, the above report states that corporate crime damages far exceed that of street crimes both in cost to the public and in deaths.

The list comes in two versions. The Brief List simply states the corporation and the crime. The Annotated List gives more details. You will find some of our finest corporations on these lists.

Dumping: The Corporate Crime of the Century

We read this at http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1979/11/dowie.html

“News: It’s called dumping:

“When the U.S. government forces a dangerous drug, pesticide or other product off the domestic market, the manufacturer then sells that same product–frequently with the direct support of the State Department–throughout the rest of the world.”

In an associated article at a website Where Are They Now? we read:

“”News: What ever happened to those dumped products–and their dumpers? Eighteen years later, the MoJo Wire investigates.”"

The bottom line is that the restrictions placed by our government to protect our people do not apply to other peoples of the world.

It’s okay if a person dies from faulty drugs or medical machinery in Podunktoo.

Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: Exodus 20:16

As Martha Steward will testify, bearing false witness to our government is a major crime. She spent five months in the slammer because of that law.

Bearing false witness to the public is a crime that our government is exempt from. That is a law we need to fix. Public officials should be held accountable for what they say.

I think that Martha should have been fined $1000.00 and required to spend two weeks in public service sweeping the streets of Manhattan and passing out cookies to vagrants in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Her silly lies were just a miner crime in my opinion.

News Flash: Corporate Crimes are People Crimes

Corporate crimes are performed by people, the employees of the corporation. Often they are not intentional.

Joe Blow opens Valve Number 609 and closes Valve 906 instead of the opposite.

Ten zillion tons of gung then flows into Little Bear Creek killing the fish, the frogs, and twelve butterflies.

The Corporation is fined and the corporation must clean up the mess to boot.

Other crimes, especially those involving money, are intentional. Corporate Fat Cats full of greed want to pad their retirement funds.

These same Fat Cats were once good citizens who grew up in good homes, went to good Universities (where some say they learned how to cheat), and were Pillars of the Community. Now they are jailbirds or disgraced.

Help for Those Corporate Biggies Not Now in Trouble but May Soon Be

There is a rule once used by some in our country. It is Honesty is the Best Policy.

Have that framed and put on your wall.

Another one is Integrity is Doing the Right Thing when No One is Looking.

Frame that too.

For light reading go to this site and read the Scout Oath and Law.

If you were not a Boy Scout, go there and read it anyway. It can’t hurt.

copyright©John T. Jones, Ph.D.

John T. Jones, Ph.D., a retired college professor and business executive, Former editor of an international engineering magazine. To learn more about Wealthy Affiliate University go to his info site. If you desire a flagpole to Fly Old Glory, go to the business site.

Click here for more info

Or visit his business website

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Tags: ethics, laws, public, medical, media

How you treat and respond to reporters, editors and analysts can greatly effect how your company is perceived in its marketplace. The relationship between “you” and “them” is so important it has its own name (media relations), its own experts (PR pros and firms that specialize in media relations) and its own set of rules. Following are 12 laws of media relations. Follow them, and you’re well on your way to gaining your company the positive visibility you desire. Break them at your own peril.

1. Every reporter is a “key” reporter. Reporters change jobs. I’ve seen local weekly reporters go on to work for publications such as the Wall Street Journal. If you make the mistake of blowing a reporter off because they don’t work for an influential publication, you may pay the price for it down the road.

2. Don’t ignore online publications. Online publications are often looking for news. In addition, many offline publications also have an online presence (Time, Wall Street Journal, Inc., for example). If you pitch a story to an offline version when their online counterpart just published a similar story, you’ll end up with egg on your face.

3. Respect deadlines. Reporters are in a critical, time-sensitive business. Nothing will kill your chances for positive coverage faster than ignoring deadlines or not being responsive enough. If you can’t make their timeline, tell them quickly so they can get what they need elsewhere; or, if it’s information for your company, try very hard to get them someone to speak to who’s been advised on how to speak to the press.

4. Make/show your news to be newsworthy. Just because your company came out with version 2.1.5 of its product doesn’t mean it’s newsworthy. Try to find the “news” in your product or press release and lead with that.

5. Humanize your quotes. If you’re giving an interview or writing a press release, think quotable. Don’t come off sounding stiff and formal and rehearsed, though. Think in human terms, and try to find an analogy that will be broadly understood.

6a. Know the publication and its target audience. It’s important to do your research before pitching a story or giving an interview. Read back issues of the publication if you’re not a subscriber; find out about its readership demographics. This will tell you the approach the publication will most likely take, and will help you gear your materials appropriately. Be sensitive to the publications that emphasize the different points of view or product differences of you and your competitors.

6b. Don’t trade one magazine against another. Find a way to get different articles for each magazine – a different angle, a different aspect of the same story. Pit one against the other, and you’ll end up losing the goodwill of both.

7. Think long-term. Don’t expect reporters to be there for you, printing your company’s news at your bidding, then ignore them when you don’t have news to push. Return the favor by supplying them with industry reports, new sources and articles pertinent to their area of expertise. Be a resource the media finds credible and helpful and you will greatly aid your company when future opportunities in your industry arise.

8. Share your sources. Give your reporters referrals for background information. Make your clients and customers available. Make your key personnel available. Create an automatic “request and OK” of your clients and customers to be referred for editorial contact. Offer guidance and media training to your clients and customers. At the very least, always provide a “cheat” sheet with pertinent information to them if you will be referring a reporter to them.

9. Know your competition. Know what your competition is saying about themselves, and about you. This will help you frame your answers and prepare your materials to combat any negative perceptions a reporter may have about your company or its products or services. Never say, “there is no competition,” to a reporter. Suggest you have researched the competitive area and today cannot find a competitive product, but perhaps some company large or small is working on a similar concept confidentially.

10. Follow up intelligently; don’t be a pest. If an interview or press release requires a follow up, by all means, do so. But don’t call to find out if your press release has been received, or when news might be forthcoming. This is a major turn-off to reporters and editors alike.

11. Prepare all of your press materials according to the magazine’s and reporters’ requirements. If in doubt, ask. There’s nothing worse than learning, just before press time, that your story was cut or compromised because of incorrectly supplied content.

12. Be ethical. This is true for all your public relations activities, not just media relations. Don’t compromise your core values for short-term gains. It’s just not worth it in the long run. You will be found out, and you will compromise the reputation you and your company are trying to build. (If you occasionally make a mistake, admit it and apologize for it.)

Yvonne Meacham Buchanan is a public relations instructor for PR Essentials, an online public relations course available through Careers in Public Relations.

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Tags: media, media relations, firm, laws, pr

Whenever there is an election many politicians will insist upon minimum-wage laws to help the poor people so they can make an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. This makes sense on the surface and people who are employed at minimum wage would certainly like to make more money and if they vote they will most likely vote for a politician who insists on minimum-wage law increases.

Unfortunately, many people do not understand that by increasing the minimum wage law we actually decrease the number of people employed by small businesses. Small businesses on average employee 75% of the workforce in America and if they lay off people because minimum wage is more now, then in fact fewer people will work and therefore economic downturn times will come to the region which has minimum-wage laws.

Of course if someone loses their job rather than making minimum wage that is an individual disaster for their personal economics, checkbooks and bank accounts. It is too bad we do not educate the citizenry that minimum wages actually hurts America and our economic vitality. Free markets will have to pay the prevailing wage if they are to have their businesses remain viable.

If a business fails to pay what their employees are worth those employees will go work somewhere else in the business will not be able to function. Free markets and free enterprise are the basic leveling fields for labor economics and this should be considered before anyone goes and raises the minimum wage law simply to get more votes to get elected. Please consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance’s Web. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

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Tags: political, public relations, laws, wage, politician