Legal Forms

This is a list of links to legal forms. Some of the forms are free and some require a fee.As with all legal documents, use at your risk and consult with an attorney before using.

Free Legal Forms

Free Legal Forms from All About Law

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Free Legal Forms . Net
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Lawyers.com Do It Yourself Personal and Business Legal Forms
Bills of Sale, contracts, consultant agreements and more. Includes a customized General Contract of Services form by state.

Nolo Paid Legal Forms

Amendment to Contract
Attachment to Contract
Choose the Best Legal Entity For Your One-Person Business
Confidentiality (Nondisclosure) Agreement
Contract for Manufacture of Goods
Contract With Independent Contractor
How to Do Business Outside Your State
How to Safely & Legally Hire Independent Contractors
License & Merchandise Creative Art
Market Your Invention
Nolo's Online Trademark Application
Offer of Employment
Protect Your Artwork
Trademark Basics for Naming Your Small Business

Episode 40 – Planning Your Business Part 4

Today we are going to continue our discussion with Tim Berry, a business planning expert who developed an application for use as a guide in business planning, learn how it works and find out how it can help you create a plan for your business. Part 4 of a four part series.

TechPodcasts Promo Tag :10
Intro 1:16
Billboard :27

News and Comment segment 7:21
OnForce released their Services Market Index for the fourth quarter of 2009 January 25. The company also released The 2009 Year End Report, which contained data compiled from service transactions performed throughout 2009.

The Force Field The State of the IT Industry Contest winner announced.

Sponsor: Try GotoAssist Express free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.GotoAssist.com/techpodcast.

Seagate announced February 9 that it is shipping the world’s most reliable hard drive.

MacWorld 2010 opened last week without Apple. Can Mac fandom survive without Steve Jobs and Apple?

Commercial Break 1:00
Get Great Web Hosting at GoDaddy.com and save 10%! Listen for the discount code in the show. GoDaddy.com 1:00

Intro to Topic 1:58
Today we’ll continue our discussion with Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software and learn more about Business Plan Pro. We’ll find out what it does, how it does it and how you can use it as a guide to create solid a business plan that will work for your business. Part 4 of a four part series.

Interview with Tim Berry 17:50

Wrap up and Close :46

Comments, questions or suggestions? Send them in to comments@theforcefield.net. Feedback on this topic will be read by the host and included in future episodes of the show. Visit us at http://www.theforcefield.net!

©2010 Savoia Computer. All rights reserved.

Episode 40 – Planning Your Business Part 4

Today we are going to continue our discussion with Tim Berry, a business planning expert who developed an application for use as a guide in business planning, learn how it works and find out how it can help you create a plan for your business. Part 4 of a four part series.

TechPodcasts Promo Tag :10
Intro 1:16
Billboard :27

News and Comment segment 7:21
OnForce released their Services Market Index for the fourth quarter of 2009 January 25. The company also released The 2009 Year End Report, which contained data compiled from service transactions performed throughout 2009.

The Force Field The State of the IT Industry Contest winner announced.

Sponsor: Try GotoAssist Express free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.GotoAssist.com/techpodcast.

Seagate announced February 9 that it is shipping the world's most reliable hard drive.

MacWorld 2010 opened last week without Apple. Can Mac fandom survive without Steve Jobs and Apple?

Commercial Break 1:00
Get Great Web Hosting at GoDaddy.com and save 10%! Listen for the discount code in the show. GoDaddy.com 1:00

Intro to Topic 1:58
Today we'll continue our discussion with Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software and learn more about Business Plan Pro. We'll find out what it does, how it does it and how you can use it as a guide to create solid a business plan that will work for your business. Part 4 of a four part series.

Interview with Tim Berry 17:50

Wrap up and Close :46

Comments, questions or suggestions? Send them in to comments@theforcefield.net. Feedback on this topic will be read by the host and included in future episodes of the show. Visit us at http://www.theforcefield.net!

©2010 Savoia Computer. All rights reserved.

 

http://media.techpodcasts.com/theforcefield/media.libsyn.com/media/theforcefield/The_Force_Field_40.mp3

Survey Results

I would like to thank all Association members that took time out to fill out the survey. The results have now been published in the Fourms “IT Industry” section.

Again Thks Much!

Read more:

Seven tips to help techs learn sales

When I first opened my computer store, I envisioned myself behind a desk or workbench and building, selling and repairing PCs, but not necessarily in that order. To be honest, I mostly thought about building and repairing them. I really didn’t think much about the selling part at all. In fact, the whole concept of actually selling the computers was limited strictly to the part where they give me the money after I built or repaired the machines. There was no initial sales or marketing pitch included in my little fantasy.

Imagine the rude awakening when I finally realized that when I opened my store, I had to be a salesman and that my first and primary job in my business was not fixing stuff, but actually selling it.

I was not a salesman. On the contrary, I was someone who was typically put off by salespeople or the notion of sales as an actual, serious career. I didn’t consider myself particularly gifted for it and the fast-talking, classic used car salesman stigma I attached to the word when ever it was applied to any industry (or, worse, think Mr. Haney from the TV show Green Acres) was somewhat distasteful to me. Yet I knew that if I wanted to build computers, I had to sell them first.

So I did.

I never had any formal training in sales and the mistakes I made were many. But I realized that if my business was to survive at all, I had to learn how to be a salesperson and I had to learn to not only to accept, but embrace that role as a vital part of the operation.

This is one reason why a lot of techs don’t make it on their own. They are techs. Sales requires social networking and people skills. The personality of the typical tech isn’t geared for that type of interaction with others. The typical tech (think geek) is more analytical, more aloof to many of the social skills that others may master. This isn’t a slam on techs (or geeks) of course; I consider myself a member of that tech group as well. It’s just the way it is. It’s simply who we are.

It doesn’t mean those skills can’t be acquired or learned, either. Take Bill Gates, for example. He’s a classic symbol of geekdom, yet he built a software empire and is one of the wealthiest and most successful men in the world today. He sold the world on Windows. Now his software is another window to the world.

Then there are those who are born with a little of both. Is Steve Jobs a tech geek or a marketing genius? I guess it depends on how you look at him. Yet the story of Apple speaks for itself. When Jobs speaks, he’s speaking for Apple, and it seems like one big sales pitch. That’s Apple. It develops technology, but it’s really a marketing machine.

These skills can either be born within or they can be learned. The key is that they must be developed and utilized. Techs in the tech business must be techs, but unless they have their own sales staff, they must be salespeople too. As the tech needs tech training and, where necessary, certification, they need sales training as well. Without sales savvy you won’t have many sales and without sales you won’t have a business.

I know many in the business who are techs and don’t like playing sales person and don’t want it. But they need it. I did. We all do. But where can we find sales training on the fly without having to retrain ourselves for something completely different from what we learned as techs and without investing a lot of time, money and effort to do it?

Here are a few tips and resources for learning and channeling sales skills without sacrificing a lot of time and energy away from your workbench:

1. Vendor reseller and partner programs.

You know I am very pro-partner, and this is one reason why. Aside from the marketing tools, spiffs and product support vendor partner programs offer to resellers, Many of them offer sales support and training as well. A lot of it is FREE training.

For instance, Microsoft has a partner program and offers free sales kits, tools and training for its partner members. Trend Micro has a sales certification program that involves only a minimum of study and testing. It is free. I became a Trend Micro Certified Sales Representative in their TSEP (Trend Micro Security Education Program years ago. I completed the course in a couple of hours and not only learned specifics about the products, I learned a few things about selling security software to SMBs that came in handy later.

2. Online vendor sales seminars and podcasts.

I’ve attended many of these over the years. They are generally free and provide tips on selling vendor products to specific target markets as well as offer insight into industry sales and market trends. Some of them give out free prizes for attending the video seminars. You can’t beat that.

3. Trade publications.

You’ve heard me promote them ad nauseum, but amid all the ads and self promotion inside industry trade publications, there are some good articles in many of them, including tips on selling in the IT marketplace as well as case studies of other successful IT companies and how they sell products and services to their customers. Learn by example. They are free too. Here is a list of FREE trade publications you can subscribe to.

4. White papers.

Like trade publications, white papers geared toward the reseller often contain strategies or “best practices” for selling specific lines of products or services to clients in targeted markets. Like trade publications, white papers are usually FREE. You can sign up for free white papers here .

5. Books about selling.

Okay, these are generally not free, but books are one of the oldest resources available. A good book on sales by a qualified author is a tried and true resource that you can keep handy to read at your leisure or keep just for reference. No time to read long books? Buy them as audiobooks and listen to them en route to or from the job or on your mp3 player.

6. Organizations.

Join your local Chamber of Commerce. Many will offer sales training seminars, networking opportunities and other events to help you gain education and experience. There are many small business organizations on the net that offer similar resources. Join NASBA , ASCII , ACRBO and  any others you can find and utlilize their resources. ASCII isn’t free, but the others mentioned are.

7. The Force Field.

Hey, we can’t forget where we are now, can we? Listen to The Force Field podcast, join the site, browse the IT Business Resource Directory and join the forums. You can enjoy yourself and perhaps learn something along the way.

Inkjet Cartridges: The Great Conspiracy

Awhile back my Canon MultiPASS printer stopped printing and the print head needed to be replaced. I put off ordering a new one simply because I didn’t want to pay the $50 for it. Since I had a couple of other printers I could use, replacing the print head really wasn’t a priority anyway so I let it go for awhile with the idea that I would eventually get around to ordering it.

Unfortunately, one of the backup printers, an Epson, became a problem- not because it didn’t work, but because the rate of ink consumption was more than I bargained for or was willing to accept. The entire family was using it to print whatever they needed and it was constantly nagging me to replace ink cartridges- even if though they still contained plenty of ink.

I liked the Canon printer because it used four individual ink tanks for each individual color. Since they were simply tanks, using third party ink cartridges was not an issue and I saved hundred of dollars during the last six years that it worked.

Keep in mind the Canon print head did not go out because I used ink from third party manufacturers (which I did for years), but because this is a nine year old printer and I used it to print everything from invoices to marketing materials on hundreds of reams of paper and, occasionally, other materials as well. In other words, it just plain wore out.

Like the Canon printer, the Epson has individual ink tanks, but these are circuited cartridges, allowing the printer more control of them. This also empowers Epson to play games with me as a consumer, giving them more control over when and where I would buy more ink. I don’t like that.

My wife was aware that I wanted a new printer, so this weekend, for my birthday, she went out and purchased one. It was an HP.

Now, my wife knows how to shop. She is a very shrewd buyer. She can sniff out bargains in places you wouldn’t expect to find them and can negotiate with the best salespeople out there. However, like most consumers, she is not a tech, and the printer manufacturers know this. She, like millions of others, think cheap printers are a great deal. Instead she bought into the Great Conspiracy.

HP knows the printer business, and for the most part they make very good printers. There’s no doubt printers are their specialty and the quality of the printed pages proves it.

However…

HP knows the printer business.  Unfortunately they know it all too well. They know how to play consumers, even those as savvy as my wife. This is why I don’t buy HP printers. After graciously thanking her for her love and consideration, I explained to her why HP printers and I were not a good fit and why buying the HP printer was not a very good deal at all.

Techs who know consumer printers know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s the Great Ink Jet Cartridge Conspiracy.

Let’s be honest here. The inkjet printer business is rigged. These manufacturers sell printers cheap because they can lock you into their ink cartridges and they are in total control of your ink purchases. You are completely at their mercy.

It’s no secret the stuff is grossly overpriced. Forget the excuses that the circuitry in the cartridge costs more and you get a fresh print head with every new cartridge. The packaging costs more than the cartridge and ink combined. It’s price gouging, pure and simple. Since all the manufacturers do it, you could even suspect collusion, although that may be a little harder to prove in a court of law.

Remember that not all of the circuited cartridges even include print heads. Epson cartridges are merely ink tanks with circuits and no print heads at all. Their sole purpose, as far as I can determine, is to detect the level of ink in the tank so the printer can nag me constantly to recharge the heads and buy more.

That brings me to the next annoyance – the need to “clean” and “recharge” the printer with ink. Granted, the print heads do get clogged and occasional cleaning may be necessary, but what’s with the constant recharging of every ink cartridge every time a cartridge is replaced? Is this really necessary, or is it another gimmick used by the manufacturer to artificially use up more ink in every tank in order to hasten the next ink purchase?

I remember a customer who used buy a new printer whenever she needed to purchase a new ink cartridge. Why? Because it was a $49 printer and a set of replacement ink cartridges cost around $60. She could buy a new printer with fresh ink and come out even – or, if she sold the slightly used printer for about half the price of the new one, even way ahead in the deal. It just made more sense.

Apparently after awhile HP and Lexmark caught on to this type of “circumvention” because they eventually began stocking new printers with “starter” cartridges containing less than a full measure of ink. There was just no way they were going to let the consumer get one over on them.

Then there was the after market inkjet debacle. The mere existence of third party inkjet manufacturers who could aid the consumer and risk exposing the Great Conspiracy was just not acceptable, so companies like HP and Epson moved quickly to stop the insurgence. Inkjet cartridges were rigged to shut down when empty to prevent refills. (they were already rigged with phony “expiration dates” to stop working after a certain period of time. Hey, ink isn’t food. It doesn’t go bad after a year on the shelf.) Lawsuits and lobbying ensued to use the rule of law to protect the conspirators and punish those third parties who stood in their way of complete domination of the proprietary inkjet cartridge market.

Today the only sanctuary the consumer has from being totally ripped off by the Conspirators is to hold on to older printers with true plain old “dumb” ink tanks like the Canon BJC series that don’t know what year it is, much less how to turn themselves off. Those cartridges sell for about one third of what the manufacturer’s brand costs and it’s the same stuff, so the fear mongering instigated by the manufacturer about the dangers of after market ink is just another tactic to perpetuate and empower the Great Conspiracy.

I am not a fan of HP. I really do not like Lexmark. I wouldn’t recommend a Lexmark printer to anyone if they paid me to do it. Now my Epson is telling me the yellow ink tank is low. It told me the black was empty last week and I spent almost $20 for a new one, only to find out the old one was still half full.

I don’t want a new HP printer. I don’t like Epson so much anymore. I want my Canon MultiPASS. I plan to order a new print head for it, perhaps tomorrow.

The Great Conspiracy lives on.

Request Service

We have added a new menu option and it’s called “Request Service”. This is for all consumers, businesses and nationals that would like to have work performed or requested from an Association member.

This is one way to make it easy on the consumer and that is for them to submit the problem they are having, the requirements they are looking for or just general information and we will put them in contact with correct Association member.

Read more:

Survey Results

Hopefully within the next week will be getting the recent survey that was conducted all put together and online for all members to review.

So far a great response to the survey and some valuable input. Appreciate all the input and if you have not had a chance to fill out the survey yet you still have a few days.

Read more:

TPN Weekly #42 – Who is that tech at your door?

From the Things You Always Wanted to Tell Your Customers But Couldn’t Department:

How many times have you done contract work for another company and found yourself in a situation in which servicing the customer properly involved some procedure, information or disclosure that was in violation of some part of your service contract? There you are, onsite and on your own, in front of the customer and on the spot, trying to come up with a work around to accommodate him or her without breaching a confidentiality clause in the work order agreement?

Okay, forget for a moment that there are service technicians out there who don’t think twice about breaking a contract to circumvent the national that sent them and simply don’t care. I’m not talking to them.

I’m talking to those who take their relationships with their clients seriously and uphold their end of the service contract – not just so they will get paid and receive more jobs – but because it’s the right thing to do for both the nationals and their customers.

For the most part we don’t worry about it much. We show up, perform the work and leave. However, there are a few times where we’re put on the spot by the customer for work or information that the customer should receive or know but the work order contract prevents us from providing.

There are also times when a demanding or difficult customer could be easily satiated by educating them on the operation on the back end, but which we generally can’t do, even when they ask.

It’s happened to me a few times and wasn’t an easy thing to dance around, yet I wanted to be honest and not lie to them. Now I have the chance to be upfront and open about it and without violating any contracts.

As most of you know, The Force Field Podcast is a member of The Tech Podcast Network , a  podcast network of family-friendly shows that cover just about every aspect of technology from the latest news, business and tutorials to digital photography, amateur radio and gaming.

The Tech Podcast Network has an official podcast of its own called TPN Weekly . This weekly podcast is hosted by various podcasters on the network who take turns producing and guest hosting the show.

This week I am the guest host of TPN Weekly podcast Episode #42 . Since the show is primarily aimed at the general public, it was a perfect venue to reach the other side of the service provider-user relationship, that of the user and potential customer. With that in mind, it is a unique opportunity to tell the customer everything we’ve wanted to tell them about the relationship from our perspective. The end result is to educate the customer as to what we go through to servicing them so they will better understand the overall process and hopefully increase their trust and improve their perception of their service provider – without violating any contracts.

Here are the show notes for TPN Weekly #42 with Rick Savoia – The Force Field: Who is that tech at your door? :

I will introduce myself and give listeners some inside information about the computer repair business they need to know as a well informed consumer.

Topics of discussion:

I will tell you a little about my experiences starting small tech businesses that were too far ahead of their time.

We will find out how and why I created The Force Field podcast and portal.

Most importantly, we will talk about the field service technician who shows up at your door to fix your PC, who he really works for, how much money he really makes when he shows up to service your computer, whether or not he is even qualified to perform the work and your rights to such disclosure as a consumer.

If you want to know more about starting and managing a computer or IT service business, give The Force Field podcast a listen. Questions, comments or feedback? Visit us at http://www.theforcefield.net, visit our forums or email comments(at)theforcefield.net.