Just a reminder that TODAY is that last day to email us your trademark and copyright questions to be answered by legal veteran Scott Schwartz. You can also post them in the comments here.

Hey there Bakers! We have an exciting opportunity. Over the past few years, as the rise of Internet artist and designer portfolios, we have also seen the rise of copyright infringement and what we might want to call “copycat” art. We have seen friends’ work taken and reused by large retailers for profit without permission. So how do you go about protecting yourself from falling victim on this great big place called the Internet? Well, we wanted to get you the best advice possible, so we teamed up with legal veteran, Scott Schwartz who hails from major law firm Cozen O’Connor.

Scott has agreed to answer selected questions regarding protecting your work, dealing with copyright issues, and what to do when you find  someone using your work (Scott calls that infringement). So, email us your questions or put them in the comments on this post and he will answer them in an upcoming post.

Scott reminds us that his responses should only be read as general legal comments about copyright and trademark law and they are not a replacement for attorney advice from an attorney that you hire and that is familiar with all of the facts and circumstances of your situation. Scott is really looking forward to responding to the selected questions but his answers do not create an attorney/client relationship.

Here is some more information about Scott:

Scott has a practice focused on all aspects of  trademark, copyright and unfair competition law and related  litigation. He represents clients in a wide range of industries and  at different stages of their corporate development helping them  identify and protect their intellectual property rights and assets.  Scott routinely counsels clients on branding issues such as clearing  and registering their trademarks and addressing enforcement issues. Scott joined Cozen O’Connor’s Philadelphia office in June 2002 and  is a member of the Intellectual Property Department. Before joining Cozen O’Connor, Scott was in-house counsel at Intel Corporation for  more than three and a half years as a senior attorney responsible  for implementing and managing global trademark enforcement and  protection strategies for marks including the Pentium® and Intel  Inside® trademarks. He also served as an associate at the  intellectual property law firm Woodcock Washburn. He is a regular speaker on the topic of trademark and copyright law. In addition to appearing on local news programs discussing issues  from the iPhone trademark to the Wal-Mart “Smiley Face”, Scott has spoken at multiple International Trademark Association programs and  CLE courses put on by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Associate of Corporate Counsel. He has been quoted on intellectual property issues in BrandWeek, Best’s Review, and California Lawyer Magazine. In addition, Scott previously chaired the U.S. Legislation and Regulations Subcommittee  and New Regulations Subcommittee of the International Trademark  Association. Scott is an adjunct professor at Drexel University in the  Entertainment & Arts Management Program of the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design where he teaches Copyrights and Trademarks for  Entertainment & the Arts. Scott also proudly serves as a board  member of Federation Early Learning Services. Scott received his bachelor of arts degree from American University and his law degree from the University of Buffalo School of Law. He  is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New York and Washington, D.C. Scott is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild, having  appeared in his youth in various commercials as well as more  recently in an independent film.

Our third BAKERY’s Half-Dozen: 6 Weeks to A Tastier Business course is now open for new students — register here! The class will begin on April 19, 2010, but be sure to register soon because space is limited and there are only 18 days to register.

The Half-Dozen course is an introductory course for small business owners, artists, and designers who would like to learn more about the fundamentals of running a successful business in the age of the Internet. Over the span of six (pretty intense but fun) weeks, you’ll gain an understanding of the following key business components: business plans, marketing plans, media kits, press kits, public relations, networking (both social and offline) and advertising.

This course is great for:

• New/startup businesses
• Young businesses
• Procrastinators (ha! you know who you are — this is your kick in the pants to get moving!)
• Offline/brick and mortar businesses looking to expand or market online
• One-person businesses
• Artisans, designers, and crafters
• New bloggers

You can learn more about the course schedule and read the FAQs on the Half-Dozen website.

image credit: flickr, jereitman

“There is a difference between being arrogant about yourself as a person and being confident that your work has some value. The first is unattractive, the second is healthy and natural. Some people respond to the one as if it were the other. Don’t confuse them. Marketing is not bragging, and touting one’s wares is not evil. The baker in the medieval town square must holler ‘fresh rolls’ if he hopes to feed the townfolk.”

–Jeffrey Zeldman, Zeldman.com

This week is your last chance to sign up for the second BAKERY’s Half-Dozen: 6 Weeks to A Tastier Business, which will begin on Monday, February 1, 2010 (that’s next week!).

There are only a few spots left, so register now.

Then, stay tuned later this week for a recap of our exciting time in Salt Lake City at Altitude Design Summit. We’ll recap what we talked about, what we learned from our peers, and some great info from a few really influential and successful bloggers.

Hey guys! Long time no blog — we’ll be back next year with some great new posts. But before we bid adieu to 2009, we wanted to let you know about a great event happening very soon: the Altitude Design Summit. It aims to bring together designers, design and lifestyle bloggers, stylists, photographers, artists and creatives, social media companies, and design companies to get together and talk, well, Design.

The first one is January 21-23, 2010 in Salt Lake City, UT, that just so happens to coincide with the Sundance Film Festival. This year’s summit will focus on growing communities, marketing and monetizing. What’s working and what’s not. Check out the amazing schedule of topics, speaker list, and keynote panel (did someone say DOOCE?). Yep, and Erin and I will be there speaking as well — so come join us and talk shop.

Who Should Attend Alt?

• People that love talking about design in all its iterations. What it is. How it’s changing. Why it’s important.
• Design or lifestyle bloggers who want to (finally!) meet their fellow design and lifestyle bloggers.
• People from across all the design disciplines: graphic, industrial, fashion, interior, product, textile. Plus illustrators and photographers too.
• Business Owners who make pretty things and want to figure out how to get their products on design sites.
• Advertising Agencies and Marketing firms that want help creating social media campaigns for their design-minded clients.
• Employees who would love to get credit for working while actually hitting the slopes.
• People who create inspiration boards and people who look at inspiration boards.
• Star-struck film fans obsessed with the Sundance hype who want to spend a weekend celebrity sighting.

image credit: anna betts

Great news, bakers! Holly Neitzel, an accounting goddess and Accounting SPOT writer is joining us today to share some helpful techniques to learning the ropes of accounting. I can’t wait to use these tips for myself, as I’m one of those horrible business owners that doesn’t have an accountant. Eek!
Introducing, Holly’s 10 Tips to DIY Accounting for Indie Business!:

1) Know the very basic.
It might go without saying…but then again it might not.
Income – Expenses = Profit

2) Separate your business funds from your personal funds.
Bank, PayPal & credit cards. The books are SO much easier to balance when there are only related transactions to deal with.

3) Downloading detail is your friend.
Etsy, PayPal and probably your bank and credit cards have the option to download transaction detail in to excel and/or QuickBooks. USE THIS OPTION! The less data entry you have to do, the more time and accuracy you gain.

4) Keep your paper (and computer files) organized.
You don’t need to enter your transactions in to an accounting program daily. But, if you keep all the information organized in between entry points, entry will go much smoother.

5) Accounting software: Start simple…& free.
Start with the free versions and work your way up as your business grows. Some of the options I endorse (and work closely with, so feel free to contact me if you have questions):
Spreadsheets HERE
QuickBooks HERE
Outright HERE

6) Use the Schedule C as a guide for your expense categories.
It is not the end-all, be-all of expense categories, but it is a great starting point. Use these categories and then add in your own subcategories as necessary for your business. View HERE

7) Reconcile your accounts.
Doing this assures you know what is coming and going from your bank/PayPal accounts.

Don’t do your bookkeeping FOR the IRS.
Many owners do their bookkeeping ‘for’ the tax man. This is backwards. You do your bookkeeping for YOU and as a result, can easily share the required info with the tax man.

9) When in doubt, research the answer.
Just be sure you are using a reliable resource when doing your research. Some that I use often are:
The QuickBooks Community Forum (answers to many questions beyond just QB) HERE
The Small Business Administration HERE
Business.Gov HERE

10) Review and use.
After taking the time to create accurate financial reports, be sure to USE them! Financial reports are the basis of sound business decisions. Knowing the health of your business allows you to make good choices for your business’ future.

image credit: eeva

Justine from The Etsy Business Blog is joining us today, as Jaime and I have our hands full with our first BAKERY e-course (which is going swimmingly, by the way! If you missed the registration deadline, shoot us an email and we’ll fit you into the next class!). Anyway, Justine is a social networking goddess and I’m thrilled to share her foolproof Twitter/Facebook tips with you all. Ready? Here she goes!!!

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Running a business is only half the program when it comes to success. Social networking sites allow you to be everywhere your potential clients are and at no cost to you but time.

Here’s a basic how-to guide for Twitter and Facebook Pages, which are essential to use in order to promote yourself and drive new business in your direction…

TWITTER
Concept:
In 140 characters or less, answer the question “What are you doing?”

That may sound silly, but “tweeting” your website, business, special links and tidbits about what you are up to is a very effective way to drive traffic to your business. Etsy shop owners find that when they add a link to a new shop item, their views go from zero to twenty in less than a minute.

Set up time:
Signing up to Twitter – Under a minute
Filling out your profile – Under a minute

How to use:
Once you have your profile set up you will need to start following users. My recommendation is to follow people who follow a similar minded business. For instance, Etsy sellers should follow those who follow Etsy. If you run an entertainment business, follow anyone that follows verified celebrities.

Tips and tricks:

• You can bulk follow users with Twitter APIs such as Buzzon and TwitSeeker. These sites also give you the chance to put in keywords so you end up following only those who would be useful to you.
• Reply to tweets (using the reply arrow) in order to get users to remember you and your business.
• A new feature rolling out slowly is the “retweet” button (two arrows) which allows you to broadcast a tweet from another user. Again this builds relationships and gives you extra content to talk about.
• Do not constantly bombard your followers with links to your business. Yes that’s what this is all about but if you make it seem that way, people will get turned off. Talk about your morning coffee and grumpy toddler too!
• You cannot follow more than 2000 users unless you have that many users yourself. What you should do is when you have followed 2000 followers, wait a few days, then unfollow those who are not following you. It will purge a large number of ‘disloyal’ members and allow you to start following fresh people.
• Asking questions to your followers is a good way to get people talking back to you!
• You can drive traffic to your business on the go with mobile updates.

FACEBOOK
Concept:
Create a Facebook page and any site user can become a fan of your business and get updates from you about new products, services, promotions and events directly from you. (You have to be a Facebook member to create the page.)

Set up time:
Signing up to Facebook: About five minutes if you want to add a photo of yourself and fill out the basic information.
Creating and filling out your page: Anywhere from 2-10 minutes depending on how much content you’d like to add to your page.

How to Use:
Once you have your page set up you will need to Publish your page so it can be found in the Facebook search bar.

Tips and Tricks:

• Use the Suggest friend button on a weekly basis to increase your fan base. A lot of times people miss the first few notifications and are happy to oblige when they finally see it. The current fans will be blacked out so you will not have to spam them again.
• Post a link every day. As long as it’s relevant, people will be interested and remain a fan of your work,
• Take your page link and plaster it everywhere including your websites and other social networking avenues.
• Try installing a widget on your blog or website to visually entice new fans to your page.
• Host a giveaway where participants must become a fan of your page to be eligible to win.
• Offer exclusives to fans only with special codes in order to see if sales or new business opportunities came directly from facebook.
• Visit fan pages of similar businesses and become a fan, write a friendly wall message and include a link to your own fan page. Their fans will see it and be intrigued.
• Approach other fan page owners for cross-promotions helping you both gain new fans.

image credit: charlie engman

Wow. I was perusing the comment section of an older post a few weeks ago and Alexandra wrote in about the lack of business advice for visual artists, as in gaining entry into gallery shows, etc, etc.

Not one to sit around and wait, Alexandra began a series on her blog entitled Art and Business, and although I’m no artist, I can attest to the fact that this is good, good, GOOD advice.

Go now. Hurry up. Your business is waiting…

image credit: plakka

A story from Liz Strauss that’s definitely worth repeating:

My father listened more than he talked. After a large sit-down at our house, a friend once remarked, “That meal was over an hour. The only word I heard your father say was bread. He didn’t even ask for the butter.”

When I told my dad, his reply made me laugh. He said, “I don’t like butter much.”

My dad left home and school in 1919. He was 12. Everything he knew about business and life he learned from paying attention to the world around him.

It was my dad who taught me to view the world as a lifelong business school.

Each morning when he drove me to school, my dad would point out people we saw and tell me what he observed. When we got the place where he dropped me off, we had a small ritual — a sort of script we would go through. I can’t say quite how it started, and I no longer remember it word for word. But it went something like this . . .

Dad would park the car, turn to me, smile, and ask, “What’s the score?”

I would answer the same every time, with words I had learned from him — bits at a time — over the years. To this day it’s the best business advice I’ve ever heard:

Learn your business from your customers. Understand their minds, their hearts, and their lives. Do what you do to make their lives easier. When a problem comes, leave them a place to stand and stand tall beside them. . . . And remember, everyone is your customer, even your dad.

Then his eyes would light with smile. He’d offer his huge, work-worn hand, shake mine, give a nod, and say, “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.”

I’d answer something like, “Oh dad, you’re too cool.”

All I would add is to cherish the rituals and traditions. They make moments remarkably unforgettable.

Your turn: Readers, what’s the best business advice you’ve ever heard? Share it in our comments section below…