Arts and Entertainment

 

Ask SCORE
After working for more than 25 years in the publishing industry, the company I worked 
for downsized and I accepted an attractive buyout package. Now I’d like to start my own 
business. What do I do first?
 

 

About the Author

 

This column is brought to you by the Merrimack Valley Chapter of SCORE, with nearly 
70 current and former business executives available to provide free, confidential, one-on-one 
business mentoring and training workshops for area businesses. Call 603-666-7561 or visit 
merrimackvalley.score.org for information on mentoring, upcoming workshops and volunteer 
opportunities. SCORE is a national, non-profit organization and a resource partner of the U. S. 
Small Business Administration.
Q: What are limited liability companies (“LLCs”), and what should businesses know 
about them?
A: LLCs are a new type of business entity that emerged in the early 1990s. They have many important legal and tax characteristics, but the key ones are these:
  • Liability shield. LLCs provide their owners (called “members”) with a statutory liability shield that is essentially identical to the corporate shield.

About the Author

John Cunningham is a N.H. business lawyer whose practice is focused on LLC law and tax. He chaired the N.H. Business and Industry Association committee that drafted the Revised New Hampshire Limited Liability Company Act, a radical revision of New Hampshire LLC law that went into effect on January 1st. LLCs are, by a wide margin, the entities of choice for N.H. business start-ups.

 

Ask SCORE
I’ve recently taken my business plan for a new and innovative consumer product to several banks seeking funding, but have had no success. What are some other financing options that might be available to me?

 

Terry Leigh Britton

Current City: Elizabeth City, NC


Proactive Self-Starter involved in Community Betterment and Affairs:

  • 2011 to Present – Devoting time to creating and disseminating educational materials on marketing, now becoming organized under the banners of http://ncmarketers.com and http://marketingmavens.net.
     
  • From 1997 to 2007 - In a Housing Authority of Winston-Salem (HAWS) building with over 200 elderly and disabled residents, Kathy Salkin of Sara Lee Hosiery and I started the Crystal Towers Computer Club. Through donations, primarily from Sara Lee and from graphic design houses, I personally refurbished and gave away approximately 130 computer systems to elderly and disabled people living on limited incomes, in an effort to bridge the digital divide. (For this effort I received the Bellsouth Good Neighbor of the Year award in 2000. I was also featured in a full
    2-page article in the Winston-Salem Journal in 2007.)
    I have taught classroom and individual computer skills classes to residents of Crystal Towers since the project began. Thanks to HAWS, most Winston Salem public housing now has a space to hold classes and a computer lab.
     
  • 1997 to 2000 - Founder and President of the Electronic Music Consortium of the Triad, a forum for electronic musicians and composers to meet and share music, ideas, knowledge and techniques.
  • In summer of 1993, I created a pilot program later picked up by Junior Achievement in Connecticut that was very successful. It used an entertainment industry based business model instead of the traditional manufacturing model. We produced Dances (loosely called "Raves") for the local teenagers featuring young DJ's and live local bands. This ended a 17-year dry spell in that community of having such things as dances for the teens. The Junior Achievement version of the program was first embraced by the Ridgefield High School and its principle, and that school's Senior Class Economics students earned class credit for their participation.
  • In 1990, I promoted alcohol-free nightclubs in Danbury CT, producing (and paying for) zoning changes that paved the way for coffeehouses and other alcohol-free musical venues, bringing life back to that city's downtown region.


 


 

Work Experience:


Features:

  • 5-years self-employed doing Internet Marketing consulting – email lists, newsletters, SEO, advanced strategies including Google AdWords, copy writing, print integration.
  • 5-years self-employed as a programmer using ExpressionEngine to create dynamic, data-driven websites. Ruralintelligence.com and ncwildflower.org are two large examples.
  • Proficient in computer technologies for both PC and Macintosh platforms
  • 5-years experience as college professor teaching Graphic Arts and computer graphics courses, including entire Adobe Creative Suite.
  • Pre-press document optimization, color correction, scanning, image touch up
  • Website design, PERL, PHP and MySQL programming, content management systems (Xoops, phpNuke, Expression Engine, pMachine) and blogging tools.
  • Hardware upgrading and troubleshooting
  • Freelance computer technician
  • Visual Basic Programming
  • Former ISP’s Telephone Help Desk (solo), for Red Barn Data Center, WS

 

Details

  • Spring 2002 to August, 2006 – Full-time Professor as assistant to Dept. Chair Garry Day at Forsyth Technical Community College, Winston-Salem, NC, teaching beginning and advanced Graphic Arts subjects to students pursuing their Associates Degree in the Graphic Arts and Imaging Technologies curriculum, which covers all aspects of printing technologies.

    I taught classes to both 1st and 2nd year (Associates Degree Program) students, primarily in computer graphics applications (Adobe Creative Suite), but also taught design, printing (lithography, screen and flexography), print estimating, printing math, history of printing, Graphic Arts career overview and others. I taught the Adobe applications from beginning to advanced levels: Photoshop - 3 semesters, Illustrator - 1 semester, InDesign - 3 semesters, and GoLive - 1 semester. Though initially hired as part-time, the duties were as comprehensive as full-time, and I was part-time only because we had to wait for budget approvals, after which I had to go through the hiring process again to win full-time status. Ours was a 5-semester program, so I had a 12-month contract.

    I was the IT person, network tech and computer maintenance tech for our dept. as well, which had 36 Macintosh computers by the time I left.
     

  • From 1990-1991 - Developed and taught several extremely successful hands-on science classes for young people, presented via five after-school programs in four CT. towns, and also through a home-schooling program. I created five very popular classes: Sounds Incredible; Color and Light Magic; The Electric Creator Series; Things you can do with Gravity; and Crazy Machines! I tried reviving this program to provide to children in the Triad area, but with little interest happening here - see http://www.geocities.com/sciencehandson (much thanks goes to Machele Cable, Lab Manager of Wake Forest University Physics for designing and implementing this beautiful website!)
     
  • From 1989 to 1993, I worked weekday evenings and weekends for the Ridgefield Water Supply Company, minding the reservoir and 4 pumping stations. A dream job! Sadly, eventually I was replaced by automation.
     
  • From 1987-1988, I lived and worked in the heart of NYC's SOHO art district, both at Five Eggs (a pre-empire Japanese artifacts shop), and at JD Canvas' toy shop.
     
  • From early 1986 to late 1987, I worked as the maintenance man at an actual Tibetan monastery in Woodstock, NY., Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, where I also lived, studied and practiced according to Tibetan Buddhist methods for two years.
  • From 1985 to 1986 I was video editor and technical director at the White Buffalo Multimedia video studio (now Upstate Media Enterprises) in Woodstock, NY
  • In 1984 I worked for Miller Advertising in NYC, the largest classified ad agency in the world. I placed the ads (mostly with the NY Times) for the CEO's accounts.
  • Since 1982 I have been a certified instructor of the Technologies for Creating® courses developed by Robert Fritz. I have been on staff at Winston-Salem's Sawtooth Center (2001) teaching these courses, as "Create Your Life!" as well as presenting the course in private settings at people’s homes.
     
  • From 1977 through 1984, I performed prolonged stints as a street musician playing flute in and underneath Cambridge, MA (their first "allowed" street musician), where I eventually instigated the "Music Under Boston" program that brought street musicians of all genres into the subway stations of Cambridge and Boston; and in NYC as a regular feature of the SOHO art district, the corner of Wall and Broadway, and at the front stairway of the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art on Fifth Ave. (I was the only street musician ever allowed there - the police would chase the darn mimes away when I arrived!) Have now been playing flute for over fifty years, starting in third grade at age 9.

 


 

Not-For-Profit Work Experience:

  • July 2012 joined SCORE (the Service Corp of Retired Executives, the volunteer arm of the Small Business Administration) and was made a member of the board and named Technology Chair in November, 2012.
     
  • From 2009 to Present, have been a member of the development team for the open-source and free CamStudio screen recording software, an internationally popular program for which I am the primary help-desk moderator. http://camstudio.org/forum
     
  • From 1984 to 1985 - Was co-director with Suzen of the prodigious and prolific Art for the People in NYC, an Arts Events Production group that produced large (massive) scale public art events at World Trade Center observation deck, Port Authority Bus Terminal, Central Park, and the first in history to have a public event on a Staten Island Ferry Boat and in its huge terminal. Shoestring budgets with huge results (and huge audiences involved), thanks to volunteers!
     
  • From 1976 to 1979 - Political interface and public "front man" for The Foundation for the Alliance of the Cultural Arts and Humanities, and Artisphere, in Boston, MA - The Foundation and "working arm" of a multifaceted arts-and-artists support non-profit. Based upon my charter written earlier for Biospheres, we embraced projects such as artist housing, street fairs, craft fairs (very early!), and building conversions, with variable success, but with much support from city and government leadership acquired by said "front man."
  • From 1974 to 1975 - Biospheres, Boston, MA - composed their 'revolutionary' charter, based upon ideas from Buckminster Fuller and others, with a few of my own as well. Biospheres produced warehouse loft "happenings" and located store fronts for people to use for free to give dance lessons, painting lessons, etc., but its charter expressed a much larger scope.
     
  • In 1971 (my senior year in High School), co-brainstormed Aurora Productions to produce "micro Woodstock" festivals featuring local bands, such of which were in abundance at that time. Produced only one show, but it was a good one!

Resume

Education

Education:

Salem College, 2001-2002

Major: Communications, with Science Education emphasis – left to teach at FTCC.

Forsyth Technical Community College , 1999-2001

Major: Associates Degree in Graphic Arts and Imaging Technologies,
Graduated with 3.925 GPA. (One “B” in 7 semesters!)

Winston-Salem State University , 1996-1997

Major: Computer Science, 4.0 average

School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts , 1972-1975

Major: Performance Art and Electronic Music Composition, Honors program

Honors and Awards:

Academic Honors Scholarship Award - Forsyth Tech, 2001

Printing Industries of the Carolinas Association (PICA) Scholarship Award for 2001

Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society, 2000

BellSouth's Good Neighbor of the Year Award, 1999

Extracurricular Activities, FTCC:

Phi Theta Kappa, President 2000-2001

Alpha Mu Beta service fraternity, Vice President 2001

Student Government Association member 2000-2001

A Quick Reference Guide for Start-up and Existing Small Businesses in Austin and San Antonio

Following a number of years in the insurance industry, five years ago I left my job to have a child and be a stay-at-home mom. Now that my son is beginning school, rather than returning to work, I’m thinking about starting a business. What advice can you offer?  Read more...

Bonnie Copeland

Current City: Costa Mesa, CA

Business start up, business plans, financing your buisness, financial projections, cash flow, budgeting, intellectual property, turn-arounds for troubled businesses. Retail, manufacturing, entertainment, the environmental industry and non-profits. I began my business career by starting a retail ski shop, which built to $1 million in sales as the ski industry boomed. When my daughter was born I soldl the ski business and became a stay-at-home mom entrepreneur. I sold custom portraits of children and pets through mail order and specialty shops. Five years later I sold the portrait business and entered the University of Pittsburgh M.B.A. program, majoring in Accounting and Finance. After graduating Magna cum Laude I worked as Assistant Controller and Factory Systems Analyst for a large aluminum foundry and rolling mill in Eastern Ohio. Two very cold winters later I moved to Southern California as Project Financial Analyst for Hughes Aircraft.I moved to Disney to manage the financial affairs for several divisions at the park as well as the construction of Thunder Mountain Railroad. I left Disney to work as a Special Projects Analyst for Shell Oil, then spent 11-1/2 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. At DEC I worked directly with the Western Vice President of Sales, managing the budgeting, reporting, and awards programs for a 300 person sales force. I also served as executive partner to several aerospace and banking companies, wrote the strategic plan for a new $50 million venture, served as national training manager for the Finance and Accounting organization, and as training liaison between Finance and Accounting and the sales group. In 1992 I took early retirement and became a SCORE volunteer. Currently, I work half-time doing marketing, accounting, and financial planning for a small family owned firm. I also work periodically with the Cal State Fullerton School of Business Entrepreneurship program and run three small businesses: consulting for several former employers, art beading and freelance writing

Resume

Education

BA, University of Pittsburgh, Cum Laude -- Studio Art Major, Theater and dance minor MBA, Univeristy of Pittsburgh, Magna Cum Laude, Finance and Accounting. 5 time winner, Chapter Cyber Counselor of the Year Award.

James J Pastore

BUSINESS Consulting Business Development Marketing and Promotion MUSIC Music, Entertainment, Performing Arts, Advertising, Large Retail Operations, Flea Markets, Furniture. Consignments Sales. Pre-owned Vehicle Sales, Skilled in all aspects of Business. Management, Budgeting & Analysis, Merchandise Business Startup, Business Turnaround, Cash Management, Financial Planning / Cash Flow, Human Resources. Inventory Control, Pricing & Promotion, Sales, Strategic Planning. 43 year combined career

Resume

Education
n/a

Robert A Mittelstaedt

Current City: Columbia, SC

University level teaching; consultant to retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and not-for-profit organizations; expert witness in franchising and trademark infringement cases. Written on franchising, intellectual property, marketing research and consumer behavior.

Resume

Education

BS, Economics; MA, Economics; PhD, Marketing

Avrum M Fine

Current City: West Chester, PA
Chapter: SCORE Atlanta

AVRUM M. FINE Over 45 years in Motion Picture and Television Production, specializing in TV Commercials, Low-budget theatrical features, and Industrial films, videos and digital media. He has written and sold screenplays and has knowledge of book publishing and marketing. National & Regional Broadcast Awards Executive Producer of a Film and Television Company Creative Director of an Entertainment Corporation Supervisor of a Major Government Public Information Facility Published Author, Scriptwriter Business Association National Marketing Advisory Council CURRENTLY: SCORE Association Atlanta Chapter; SCORE Association National Marketing Advisory Council; Public Relations Consultant; Media Production and Broadcast Advertising Consultant. PRIOR WORK: November 1969 - November 1998 Executive Producer/Senior Editor, The Editors Center, Atlanta. Film & Video post-production, Motion Picture advertising campaigns. Supervised staff of film editors, artists and writers creating theater and TV trailers, ad art, posters, press kits, media events and promotions. January 1970 - November 1973 Creative Director, Film Ventures International, Atlanta. Motion Picture Distribution Co. Supervised staff of artists, writers, and publicists. Developed marketing strategy, print and television advertising, special promotions. March 1968 - December 1969 Creative Director, Storer Studios, Atlanta. Film & Television Production. Supervised animation & post-production departments. May 1963 - February 1968 Head of Editing, Optical Effects & Animation, WRS Motion Picture Labs, Pittsburgh, PA. Supervised editors, animators, artists, and special effects staff. August 1962 - May 1963 Producer/Director, Frank Willard Productions, Atlanta. TV Spots & Corporate Films October 1961 - August 1962 Commanding Officer, U.S. Army STRAC Photographic Team, Ft. Meade, Maryland. Commanded 40-man photo-reconnaissance team. September 1959 - October 1961 Director/Cameraman, Frank Willard Productions, Atlanta. May 1957 - July 1959 Commanding Officer, Pictorial Division, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Supervised photographic and public relations staff of 66. AVRUM M. FINE Page 2 MILESTONES: 1969 - Opened Atlanta’s first post-production house. 1972 - Developed State of Georgia Film Commission 1988 -1989: President, The Atlanta Producers Association. AWARDS: CLIO - 1970. National award for excellence in television commercial production. ADDY - 1984. Regional award for excellence in television commercial production. ADDY - 1984. Regional award for excellence in radio commercial production. PAPERS/PUBLICATIONS: Author, Code Name: Copperhead, published by Simon & Schuster. Paperback version by Pocket Books. Military Book Club best-seller. Required reading at Army Command and General Staff College. HONORARIA: Guest Lecturer, Louisiana Tech University. Topic: Advertising Design for Television EDUCATION: BA - Mass Communications, University of Miami COMMUNITY SERVICE: 1991: Board of Directors, Genesis Shelter for homeless mothers and newborns, Atlanta. Created fund-raising materials. 1983-1995: Volunteer Supervisor, Temple Zaban Night Shelter, Atlanta. 1977-1979: Troop Committee Chairman, BSA Troop 455, Morningside Presbyterian Church, Atlanta.

Resume

Education
n/a
Syndicate content