On Youth and Teens Today with Vanessa Van Petten

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(This is part of my “Operation Oprah” series to start a business on my allowance and tell my story through videos and blog posts. By depicting my comic and sometimes exasperating struggles, successes and tactics to get on Oprah, publish a series of teen-parent books as a teen entrepreneur, I want to prove that teens can reach the top from nothing.)I have talked about what it means to be a teen entrepreneur, the pros and cons of starting a business and my mission statements. Last time I discussed my business plan, marketing plan and business areas to develop. Now comes the fun stuff…no actually this is the stuff I dread. I dread it so much in fact that I have procrastinated even writing about it in this post for two weeks.

There is a whole bunch of legal jargon and red tape that starting entrepreneurs must know about and my goal, as many of you already know is to help other young business people overcome their fears and start their own business like I did!

First of all, let me not re-invent the wheel. There exists many great lists and resources for Entrepreneurs, here are a few good term sheets to become familiar with:

About.com Entrepreneur Vocabulary

Entrepreneur.com A to Z Legal Issues

Some good financial/legal Terms

Ok awesome. So I read these term lists and felt really excited about my position as CEO and sole employee of my company. I also realized I needed to become official for the following reasons.

Protect Yourself

Liability. The first thing any entrepreneur should think about is how their business could hurt someone. OK no, first decide how you will help people, and then think about what could possibly go wrong…and what would happen to you if something did. One of the ways to protect yourself is to become an official entrepreneur (see below)

Save-A-Some-Mula

In non-ridiculous terms, the above subheading translates to save yourself money. You will learn very quickly (as my fabulous parents did) that entrepreneurs have a lot of hidden costs. Yet, as an official entrepreneur you can qualify to ‘write-off’ many of these costs and pay less in taxes.

It Sounds Really Cool

You laugh, but having LLC or Inc at the end of your company name is much more legitimate. I mean as a young entrepreneur this is a big deal; a) it makes living at home sound better, see the following conversation:

Family Friend (really a stranger to you): So, Vanessa what are you doing these days?

VVP: Oh, actually I started my own business.

FF (rsty…I dont want to type it again): ohhhhhhhh, thats tough, still living at home?

VVP: Yes, actually you jerk, I just finished incorporating my company and the trademark application is pending.

FF(rsty): In that case, you should talk to…

b) how cool is it to sign your emails Vanessa Van Petten CEO of Lakewood Systems, Inc., c) when I actually started getting paid for some of my business (last week) they asked for my company’s ID number and I had one to give. d) if you ever want to publish anything or make a product it sounds much more high class if it is produced by a company and not just you (even if it is out of your garage).

Now that I have convinced you to be official, what exactly does that mean? This chapter in my business start-up kit book is really long, so I am just going to link you to a better site. You need to decide what type of business you want to be. Here is a basic definition and the first steps to get there.

Trademarking Patents and Copyrighting

You also need to consider whether you have created something that you might want to

Trademark

Copyright

Patent

I got a copyright for my book by simply filling out an application for the copyright office. I filed my trademark using the USPTO website and did not need to patent anything, but included a link for you (I am a writer not an inventor jeez).

Lastly, I became very well read on the top legal mistakes for entrepreneurs

Article: Deadly Legal Mistakes for Entrepreneurs (was the deadly really necessary?)

Conclusion

=My company is Lakewood Systems, Inc

=I have copyrighted my book: “You’re Grounded!”

=I have trademarked “Rrules” which is my pet project.

=I have a really cool email signature and a lot more paperwork during tax season.

For young entrepreneurs/entrepreneurial bloggers and other new business people, the most important thing is to do all of your research before you sign or do anything. Buy a few books, talk to other entrepreneurs (you can email me!) and make every decision an informed one.

P.S 

Every good entrepreneur has a hero or role model.  I was recently asked who I admire most and I am absolutely obsessed with Candice Carpenter, founder of iVillage.  I think she is an amazing innovator and forward thinker.  She has done so much for women in terms of resources, entertainment and building the first real online community for women.  I have been trying to contact her for the past three months…to no avail, anyone have any ideas?