How to Form a Business

Deciding on the most appropriate legal structure for your start up business is a critical step, as it could impact the degree of financial risk you are exposed to, the control you maintain over your business and the level of expected daily administration activities.

Having made your decision to start a business, you must look into some legal requirements for the start up, such as the kind of ownership you are looking for, the name / title of the business organization and your relationship with your partners.

The Legal Form to Be Adopted

The following are the main choices you can consider for the legal form that can be adopted for your business.

• If you are the sole proprietor of your business, you are self-employed and have no legal structure to adhere to.


• In the case of a partnership, two or more business partners will work with you and will share the profits and losses equally.


• There is also a limited company type, in which the business is a separate legal entity. In this, the business is distinct from its directors, shareholders and employees. Unlike the other two, in this type the business can sue or be sued separately from its owners.


• A limited partnership liability could be said to be a mixture of a partnership and a limited company. In this type, the partners have a limited liability and the business can run even with the resignation or death of its partners.

These days, other forms of business such as Co-operative Societies and Company Interest Societies have also become quite widespread. However, once you have adapted a certain legal form, it is still possible to change it although it will require a lot of investment in terms of time and finance. If your business has re-registered with VAT, you must inform your local VAT office within a 30 day time period. The other legal requirement for the change can be checked with your legal and accounting departments.

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is when the business is owned and managed by a single person. Many new start-ups prefer to have a sole proprietorship as it comes across as the best and most feasible option.

The advantages of a sole proprietorship are as follows:

• Setting up the business is very simple and can be quickly done by just registering your business with the VAT, tax and other concerned authorities.


• Your gross tax payments will be lower compared to other forms of business; this is, of course, if your earnings are not very high.


• Your National Insurance will be low.


• You can maintain simple, unaudited accounts.

Later on, you can also form a limited company and merge your business with it by paying some stamp duty.

The disadvantages of a sole proprietorship are:

• As a sole proprietor, your financial options are quite limited and you are entitled to fewer social security benefits.


• Your assets are at a high risk, as you are personally responsible for all your debts.


• Also, it will be difficult to sell or pass on your business to others.

Partnership

A partnership form of business shares the same advantages and disadvantages as a sole proprietorship. However there are a few other aspects as well:

While forming a partnership, you must first have an agreement drawn by a lawyer and agreed upon by all partners in order to avoid future disputes.

In a partnership, each member is liable for the losses or debts suffered, even if caused by other members.

There is more scope in a partnership to raise money as all the other partners could contribute financially as well.

Limited Company

The advantages of a limited company have a propensity to increase as your business develops. The following are the advantages:

• In the case of a limited company, the liability of the members is restricted to the amount they have invested in the company by buying the shares. Personal liabilities may arise in rare circumstances of company fraud or security on company borrowing etc.


• In terms of financial stability, it is easier to raise money or to sell the business when need arises since a limited company enjoys more credibility.


• High earners can enjoy tax advantages by keeping their money in the business or pension payments.

The few disadvantages are:

• Annual accounts are usually more complicated. Also a high turnover requires for regular audits. If your turnover climbs above £ 5.6 million, an independent audit is compulsory, costing you at least £ 2,000.


• There are greater costs and obligations involved. Ceasing the business is a lengthy and expensive procedure.


• The National Insurance payments are higher as you have to pay the directors', employers' and employees' National Insurance contribution on salaries.

A limited company must be registered at Companies House and so setting up a limited company involves some red tape. Here you can adapt one of these methods:

You can ask your solicitor or accountant to buy you an off-the-shelf company and to provide advice on all the details (costs will be from £ 200 upwards).

You could use a reputable company registration agent (cost will be around £ 60 - £ 200).

You can also undertake the registration process yourself after seeking professional advice and guidance.

Like the partnership agreement, in a limited company, a shareholders agreement helps all the people involved in a business considering their credibility and share in the business. The agreement covers the key issues concerning the business and possible 'what if' scenarios, such as:

How much money the members will contribute in the initial investment and for what amount of reward in return?

If need be, how will you raise money for the capital in the future?

If in the future a member needs to take out extra money, how will that situation be deal with?

How will the dividends and salaries be distributed to the directors and shareholders?

Who will take all these crucial decisions?

How fast will the business expand and who is responsible for each business area?

If the company disbands, will the members buy each other out or will the company be sold?

Having a sound shareholders agreement before starting a limited company is essential as it minimizes the risks and gives the members a clear idea of ​​what rewards to expect in terms of financial investment.

Limited Liability Partnerships

Despite the name, a limited liability partnership is not a partnership per se. It has the following features:

It is a corporate body with its own legal identity and faculty; different from partnership in its organizational flexibility.

Tax is charged for all profits, distributed or undistributed.

Members can limit their liability in case of losses.

Annual accounts must be prepared and filed in strict compliance with filing requirements and time limits.

There must be a confidential members' agreement which should be accepted by all.

A limited liability partnership must be registered at a Companies House. Your accountant or solicitor can help you with the registration details.

If the limited liability partnership is declared insolvent within two years, then the withdrawals may be clawed back.

Tips

• Keep your company name short and simple if you're a consumer-facing company.


• Your company name should give you the freedom to expand into other activities.


• Aim to secure the domain name for your trading name early on, irrespective if you are planning to sell over the internet or not. Your customers would rather be reassured to see a professional presence online, particularly if they are checking out your business.


• Take professional advice on the best way to set up your business - do not assume that you need to form a company.


• Before going into any partnership, reflect on the likely business relationship and how it is going to work in practice


• As circumstances change, consider if your business structure is still the right one for you. You do not have to stick with the structure you chose when you started up.

The full version of the "How to form a business" ebook, available from most book stores, helps you learn how to:

• Choose the right business legal form


• Maintain working relationships


• Select a name for your business

Enterprise Development With Flex

Adobe Flex has become one of the best platforms to develop Rich Internet Applications for different enterprises. This is what keeps developers around the world busy adding the much-needed graphical excellence to your websites. Flex development, which many call a rebirth of illustrious Adobe Flash (formerly owned by Macromedia), pushes the websites to next level where they are not mere representation of a business' online presence but serve as a potent marketing tool.

What makes flex a preferred choice of many enterprises is the presence of many hundreds of offshore development centers around the world where you can easily outsource your custom development projects. These firms employ developers who have expertise over the platform and can easily deliver customized solution to serve all your business needs. Here you not only get your Rich Internet Applications developed, but also get suggestions to make your website more pleasant and interactive for your visitor to turn them into your customers.

Developers can easily integrate efficient in-context interactivity due to the video, audio, streaming and messaging components onto your website. This helps businesses add to their brand value and increase revenue earned from online sale of products and services. These developers have mastered several frameworks and tools available for RIA development. They can easily create elements such as photo galleries, transitions without page reload, reports and interactive graphs among others.

Tips To Hire Flex Developers for Enterprise Development

• Flex is relatively new platform compared to many others, which are being used to develop Rich Internet Applications. This is where expertise of the developers comes to the picture. For your custom development projects, you should try to hire the best in the industry.
• Know your business needs and hire the developers accordingly. There are many offshore development centers, which give you the flexibility of hiring developers on hourly, daily and monthly basis. See which kind of hiring gives you maximum value for money and opt for it.
• If you are planning to integrate components like CRM and ERP systems, ecommerce solutions, video and audio messaging solutions into your website you should discuss the scope with the projects with developer beforehand, as these things need specialization.
• The heart and soul of Flex lies in Adobe ActionScript and is a must for developers. This language helps in adding interactivity to the applications developed. If the developers are not competent in using Adobe ActionScript there is very little that the developer can achieve.
• The developers must also know how to build component libraries in Adobe Flex. This is a must for ecommerce solutions and multi-media websites.

These tips will help you find the best Flex developers for your enterprise development projects like at http://www.evontech.com/flex-developers.html . Remember this is a very powerful platform and sky is your only limit when it comes to success.

How to Play All Video Files by The Pioneer AVH P4200DVD

When buying a Pioneer AVH P4200DVD, you suppose you can watch all format video in this DVD player. But after installed onto your vehicle, you know if you can play a DivX format video only. So, what can you do?

Do not waste your time by whining and complaint. The firstly you must do is dig deaf information about all video formats out there. Rathermore focusing your effort on how to make them run into the DVD player. Lets go.

DivX
DivX is a video codec released by DivX in 2001 and extracted since 1998 by French hacker Jerome Rota at Montpellier. The DivX is distinct from DIVX or Digital Video Express. The last stable version is 7 and released in 2009. Then in September 2010, the DivX Plus Web Player (beta version) were introduced. In HTML5 video format, this version support for embedding video codec format others like DivX, AVI, MKV, MP4 and MOV video. Additional file format container also support for H264 video in MP4 or MOV.

AVI
AVI or audio video interleaved is a multimedia container format produced by Microsoft as part of its video for Windows technology in November 1992. Recently the original AVI specification could not anticipating the fastest growing of new computer video techniques. This format has several problems within like can not contain certain specific types of VBR data reliably, does not provide a standardized way to encode aspect ratio information, and is not intended to contain variable frame rate material.

Matroska
Matroska or The Matroska Multimedia Container (filename extension is MKV for video, MKA for audio, and MKS for subtitle) is an open standard free container format that early created in December 2002. Google in 2010 sponsored to development WebM, a multimedia container format that would be based on a profile of the Matroska by VP8 format in video and Vorbis in audio. This means a Matroska will be bigger and important than today.

QuickTime
QuickTime File Format (filename extension is MOV) is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework produced by Apple Inc. MOV capable to handle several formats of sound, picture, digital video, panoramic images and interactivity. QuickTime is integrated with MacOS X and downloadable for Windows as a standard installation.

The four is a famous video format and else many others available out there. But the problem about DVD player in AVH P4200 is it is only suitable with a DivX file. So, what can you do if you own a MKV or MOV file?

You have three options. First, do not buy a AVH P4200 and find out car video others which supported your files. Second, do not watch your movies which can not be played by this Pioneer. Third, convert your files to DivX format. This is a best choice.

So, how to convert a MKV or AVI file to DivX format? Find out a video converter software. Do not worry, many free version software downloadable out there, one of them is DivX Plus Converter. Pick up one movie file to convert as sample and play onto your AVH P4200. If you are satisfied with the convert result, you can convert more files. But free version of the DivX Plus Converter and DivX Plus Codec Pack is available only for 15 days. After that you can purchase a Pro version and get a 30-day money-back guarantee.

By DivX Pro version, you can create a DivX file by unlock the pro features. You can easily convert MKV, WMV, AVI, MOV and MP4 files to DivX. You can create DivX file in your favorite video application like VirtualDub or Sony Vegas. You can also use pre-set profiles to make high-quality DivX videos for DivX HD, DivX home theater, or DivX wireless devices.

You can keep the new files into a USB flash drive or burn into a blank DVD. After that connected the file in the media to the AVH P4200 DVD player. And voila, you can watch the action of Megan Fox or enjoy the performance of Justin Bieber.

Global Ecommerce - Trends Involved in Ecommerce Business

Internet use has grown and spread during the last decade. With the fame and widespread usage of Internet this new trend in ecommerce business is spreading like wild fire and has a pivotal role in global economy. Businesses these days are rising in all realms. Ecommerce has changed the way people do business. These days, ecommerce business is at its boom. From big corporations to cottage industries, businesses are online, opening up their products and services to new groups of people worldwide.

What is ecommerce? Ecommerce is generally associated with purchasing and selling things over the internet. It is a technique of selling your products on the internet. To put your products over the internet, you need an attractive website and an ecommerce storefront for your business products.

These days, the use of other media trade, such as the telephone, television, fax, and electronic payment, has been also grown. These play also an important role in the boom in ecommerce business because ecommerce has been an integral part of the global economy. The WTO has begun to consider how it fits into the multilateral trade framework, and what rules or regulations should apply.

With the emergence of ecommerce business during the last decades, a number of ecommerce business solution providers have also grown. No one can imagine a successful ecommerce business without the assistance of a reliable ecommerce business solution provider. Ecommerce service provider processes many useful jobs for your business, such as doing market research, getting traffic for your ecommerce storefront and online ordering system.

Today, ecommerce is the latest mantra in increasing your sales. This is because instead of selling your goods and services through a local store, you can sell online and gain a greater customer base. Apart from providing shipping services, you will need an online ecommerce merchant account to accept credit card payments to make your venture a success.

These days, even a restaurant is running under ecommerce system. Ecommerce solution provider procedures Many jobs for the Restaurant, such as, they put online restaurant menu, online restaurant ordering systems and bed and breakfast booking system. There are many ways to get your products and services online, from a simple brochure site to a high-end database driven site.

In this way, we see that ecommerce has changed the people to do the business in a different way. Every thing in this world has been globalize and of course business is no exception. Global ecommerce business has been new trends in ecommerce business and plays a pivotal role in global economy. Also the role of ecommerce business solution providers can not be ignored because you can not imagine successful and fruitful ecommerce business without their assistance.

Snow in Alaska? - You're Be Surprised

Does it snow in Alaska? Of course it does. But the reality of the snowfall amount that Alaska receives may be far different from the popular concept of snow in Alaska.

Many people conceive of Alaska as a barren land where it snows constantly in massive amounts and where everyone lives in igloos. Such a concept makes Alaska sound like a cold and white land.

In reality Alaska has more lakes, rivers, and green trees than does any state in the US The state is intensely green and rich much of the year. But the rainy total and the snowfall total may be much less than you may think.

Alaska Snowfall Totals

Here are some average annual precipitation and snowfall totals for a cross section of Alaska.

Anchorage --- 15.37 "precip ---- 69.0" snowfall

Barrow ------- 4.67 "----------- 28.0"

Fairbanks ---- 10.37 "----------- 68.0"

Homer ------- 24.93 "----------- 58.0"

Juneau ------ 52.86 "----------- 101.0"

McGrath ----- 16.18 "----------- 93.0"

Nome -------- 15.64 "----------- 56.0"

Valdez ------- 61.50 "----------- 320.0"

By comparison Buffalo, NY, receives an average of 80 "to 100" of snow per year. Some sections of upstate New York, simply affected by their abundance to the Great Lakes, receive an average of 150 "to 200" of snowfall annually. Hooker, NY, received 466 "of snow during the winter of 1976-1977.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, received their heaviest seasonal snowfall total of 98 "during the winter of 1983-1984.

As you can see from the Alaska totals above, most of Alaska is reliably dry, receiving less that 20 "of precipitation annually.

Far northern Alaska receives precipitation totals typical of a desert. Notice Barrow's annual total of only 4.67 "of moisture. Of course, most of that total falls in the form of snow. not a dry desert despite the small amounts of precipitation.

Alaska Snowfall Records

It's always interesting to hear about extremes and they can certainly be found in Alaska. For example, Thompson Pass, a popular extreme ski and snowboard area north of Valdez, once received a record 974.5 "of snow during the winter of 1952-1953.

Thompson Pass recorded 62 "of snow during one single 24 hour period in December, 1955. During February, 1953, Thompson Pass received a record 297.9" of snow. That's almost 25 feet of snow in just one month!

The deepest recorded snow pack in Alaska, and the deepest in all of North America, occurred at Wolverine Glacier on the Kenai Peninsula during the winter of 1976-1977. The depth was 356 "That's packed, condensed snow. Almost 30 feet deep!

By comparison, Barrow, in the dry north, received a record minimum amount of snow during the winter of 1935-1936 of only 3 ".

Here are a couple of other extremes for total precipitation. Montague Island in 1976 received a record 332.29 "of precipitation. That's almost an inch of rain per day! On the other hand, Barrow received only 1.61" of precipitation during all of 1935.

Alaska stores an immense amount of fresh water in its glaciers. An amazing 75% of the world's fresh water is held in glaciers worldwide and Alaska holds more than its fair share.

Alaska has more than 5,000 glaciers, covering in excess of 100,000 square miles. Alaska has more glaciers than the entire rest of the world combined, excluding the ice fields of Antarctica and Greenland.

Valdez, the Switzerland of the North

Valdez lies on the southcentral coast of Alaska and receives an average of over 300 "of snow annually. Typically, there are 6 foot drifts of snow on city rooftops. The canyon a few miles north of Valdez is home to several frozen waterfalls and makes Valdez a world-class destination for ice climbers.

Thompson Pass, further north of Valdez, boasts some of the best helicopter access extreme skiing and snowboarding terrain in all of North America. No wonder Valdez has been called "the Switzerland of the North."

Each year Valdez holds a Winter Carnival. During the period of the 1990 Winter Carnival the year's snowfall passed the 500 "mark. As part of the winter celebration the city showed the movie" Back to the Beach "on a 20 foot by 18 foot" screen "which they had carved from a snow bank Talk about an outdoor drive-in theater!

What is Snow?

Snow is crystalline frozen ice and the size and shape of the crystals depend on the temperature of their formation and the amount of water vapor present during formation.

Pure snow crystals are hexagonal, six sided. The basic water molecule consistants of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen and forms a triangle of three equal sides. During crystallization each new ice crystal bud is formed at a 60 degree angle. Crystallization continues until 6 of these triangles are complete. As the crystal falls through the atmosphere it becomes larger and bigger and its six sided structure becomes the framework for more complex snowflakes.

Common forms of snowflakes include stars, needles, flat planes, columns, capped columns, dendrites, and irregular groups. Some snowflakes can be as large as 1 "in diameter.

For one of the most interesting human stories about snowflake research, consider that of Wilson Bentley. He acquired the nickname, "Snowflake" Bentley because he was the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885. He studied over 5000 snowflakes and declared that no two snowflakes are exactly alike, a quote that has been passed on from generation to generation anonymously ever since.

In 1931, the year that Snowflake Bentley died, he published a book entitled, Snow Crystals . The book contained over 2400 of Snowflake Bentley's images.

How Many Eskimo Words Are There For Snow?

It has been said that there are 52 words in the Eskimo, Inuit, or Yupik language for snow. It's also been said that there are 21 words, and it's also been said that there are over 400. Where does the truth lie?

The idea that since snow is so important in the lives of northern native peoples that there must be a multitude of words to describe it has attained the level of a myth. The truth of the matter is that there are probably about as many Eskimo words for snow as there are English words for snow.

Alaska Climate Changes

According to Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, "Alaska is harder hit by global climate change than any place in the world." Global warming has been a trend for many years, but very few places show as many consequences of the trend as does Alaska. The average temperature has risen nearly 7 degrees in the past 30 years.

The changes due to a warming climate mean, for example, that the permafrost in Fairbanks and other towns is no longer permanent. Land has been slipping due to the melting permafrost and hydraulic jacks are needed on many buildings to keep them level. Further north, in Barrow, there are now mosquitoes where there once were none.

At the coastal village of Shishmaref increasingly higher water has been eroding away the land benefit the village buildings. The village may have to relocate further inland.

Spruce bark beetles have killed 4 million acres of white spruce forests on the picturesque Kenai Peninsula, the largest destruction due to insects ever experienced in North America. The beetles have been able to reproduce at twice their normal rate due to the higher summertime temperatures. The dead trees represent a huge fire hazard around numerous populated areas and prime recreational sections are threatened.

Glaciers have been receding at an incredible rate. Portage Glacier, south of Anchorage, has retreated so much in the past 20 years that it is no longer visible from the visitor's center. Columbia Glacier on Prince William Sound is currently the world's fastest moving glacier, retreating 80 to 115 feet per day. It has receded more that 6 miles since 1982.

There are still plenty of glaciers and significant snow in Alaska, but changes are occurring at an increased rate and will have worldwide effects.

Ethics in Legal Billing

Some attorneys, particularly the ones who have no paralegals and / or secretaries, tend to bill every task at their own attorney billable rates. For example, "Going to court for filing the motion 1 hr @ 300 / hr." The ratione being that the attorney does not employ anyone else and the attorney actually went to the court to file the motion. This may not be the best example but such practices are prevalent. There are ethical issues with this type of billing practices. These delegable tasks requires no particular legal skills and can be performed by just about anyone.

Solo attorneys that do not employ support staff should include billable rates of secretaries, support staff and paralegals in their fee agreements anyway and bill their clients based on the characteristics / nature of individual tasks rather than those performed these tasks. Attorney billable rates should be applied only when the task in question requires legal skills of the attorney.

Many attorneys are still not using helpful tools to manage their time tracking and billing. Reliance of paper notes and spreadsheets may lead to duplicate billing (or missed billable hours). It is prudent to organize time and billing using one of the several online tools. A legal time and billing software may make your practice more efficient and reduce opportunities of billing errors and disputes with clients over bills.

There are many choices these days in terms of both internally hosted and online software systems. In this day and age, it is becoming less and less prudent to have an in-house installation of software to manage your legal practice and billing needs. In-house installations require constant maintenance, backup, software / hardware upgrade, software licenses, and routine monitoring of systems. While big law firm may have IT resources to handle these tasks, solos and small firms would waste valuable time and resources on these IT tasks.

Cloud based legal time and billing systems are becoming more and more popular among these days because these systems take away all the issues of running in-house IT installations. These systems is mostly subscription based and typically cost much less than in-house software installations. Monthly subscription may range from around $ 10 / month to hundreds of dollars per months based on number of users and / or cases or clients. There are a few online time and billing software that do not charge based on the number of users (law firm staff members).

When selecting a right solution for your practice, select the one that provides, at the minimum time and expense recording and easy invoice generation from the entered time / expenditure data. Many billing systems do not have time tracking features. A good time and billing software should let you track your time, provide various options to automate calculating the billable cost based on your negotiated fees with each of your client. The time and billing software should also allow your staff members to use their own login to enter their own time and expenses. A role based user management would be a desired feature for a right time and billing software, even if you do not have any staff members right now. Consider if you hire a contract attorney for a case. A role based user management would allow you to create a separate "limited access" login for your contract attorney so you do not end up entering his / her time in the system yourself.

Check to see if the time and billing software allows trust accounting and case notes / document management. Not all solutions include all these features. it would be prudent to select a solution that include more features so that you do not end up using multiple software solutions to run your practice.

The Advantages of Online Mobile Poker

The recognition of mobile poker games has shot up substantially recently. Prior to this, internet poker games could just be enjoyed at online casinos on the net. But, in these modern times it's within your capabilities to have fun with playing poker games while you do not possess connection to a pc. Individuals can now sit back and play mobile casino games on their cellular devices. On the internet you can find a variety of mobile poker sites where online players possess the option to transfer poker games straight away onto their mobile phone and have pleasure with playing them separately from anywhere they may be. Ultimately with the help of your cell phone you might just get one or two awesome rewards.

Currently mobile poker games can be conveniently played even though you happen to be out and about. It is possible to acquire a bit of mobile poker games excitement on your route to work or even when you're sitting around waiting for companions. As long as you use a mobile phone that is primarily the most suited for mobile casino purposes, you should get terrific fun playing poker games on your phones.

It is essential to take into consideration that a great deal of mobile device vendors are still perfecting the compatibility of software. Several cellular phones will not be equipped to operate games or the games independently might not be prepared to work without problems on a cell phone. If your game crashes it will spoil any poker playing session, therefore go online for review articles of several websites and then judge the ones that play successfully with smartphones. Wireless zones will in addition put less pressure on the battery life, which is certainly critical simply because software applications are notable for their power draining ways. Locate a wall outlet in order to be safe.

A good number of online casino internet sites or mobile poker rooms provide you with all the vital pieces of information you would want to grasp when it comes to gaming with your smartphone. This info is rather helpful to many people.

It's amazingly simple to browse through a mobile casino gambling internet site to test poker. A large number of mobile casinos will give you a huge spread of mobile poker games you could potentially go for which will be made for your smartphone. To download the poker games onto your cell phone devices simply just submit your mobile number and you should be sent a website link for you to install the games. Mobile casino poker websites make sure it is much easier for one to set up games of poker.