Personal Finance Blog

Tips And Stories To Help You With Managing Money

How To Apply For A Government Grant

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Washington Capitol, DC
Image by Francisco Diez via Flickr

There are many different types of grants. The United States Government offers over 1,000 grants and a total amount of $500 billion dollars is available for these grants. Grants are awarded to people who have demonstrated that there is a public benefit for their project or research.

There are twenty one different categories that government grants fall into. There are environmental grants, educational grants, energy grants and many others. For a full list of the categories, you can go to www.grants.gov.

Grants are available to companies or organizations and to individuals. There are more grants available to organizations than there are to individuals. The government website lists 27 grants for individuals and hundreds of grants available for organizations.

One example of a grant for individuals is offered by the United States National Fish and Wildlife Service. They want to promote interest in conservation, and ecology. There is $5,000,000 available to be awarded for this project and they will give 40 awards out. The highest amount awarded can be up to $500,000 and the lowest amount awarded will be $1,000. So what does this grant require you to do?

They are looking for people interested in natural resource careers and would like to provide individuals with guidance and training by professionals. You will be working in wildlife refuges, fish hatcheries, and ecological services offices as an intern. You will be assigned seasonal work sometime between June 1 and Sept. 30. Award recipients need to be willing to administer a program for identifying and recruiting people for assignments at various stations in the United States.
How to apply for a Government Grant

After you have found a grant that fits your expertise and interest, you will need to go through an online application procedure at www.grants.gov. There are multiple steps involved in applying,  however there are videos to help you walk through the entire process.

You first will need to register with the website and then you need to apply for the grant you want. This procedure can take time to do, so plan on several weeks for this process.

Writing a successful grant proposal can be very challenging and competitive. You have several options. One is that you can hire someone to write it for you or you can train yourself to write a good proposal. There are classes you can take that can prepare you for this.

If you are going to write the grant yourself, you will need to summarize your project in two or three paragraphs. You will need to communicate important information about your organization that shows that you can be trusted to use their funds wisely. You’ll need to state what your organization’s track record is with similar achievements. One  thing to remember when writing your proposal is to describe the problem you are attempting to solve with the same magnitude as the solution you provide.

Although the procedure for applying is lengthy and requires you to write a very good proposal, you should try your best and see if you qualify. A federal grant could be just what you need.

How To Register A Trademark

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If you are in business for yourself, you might be interested in learning about trademarks and possibly registering a trademark for your company.

Owning a trademark is appealing to people because they hope that one day, their particular brand may receive universal recognition. This universal recognition can make your company become more profitable than you may have imagined.

Historically, famous trademark names like Levi Strauss Jeans, Dutch Boy, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have made life long impressions on millions of people. There are trademarks on other things that you may not have thought of like sounds. In 1924, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer registered the sound of a lion roaring. When you go to the movies today, you’ll hear that sound and associate it with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie productions. Even the design of buildings can be trademarked. The famous McDonald’s golden arches are trademarked.

Images can be trademarked and they have powerful effects on consumers. The most reproduced image in the world is that of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse. There are over 7,500 items that have that image on it. The second most reproduced image is that of Jesus. Surely you’ve seen thousands of products with his image on them. You may be surprised to know that the third most reproduced image is of Elvis Presley and he “ain’t nothing but a hound dog.”

Order Mickey Mouse Checks

The average person knows what these symbols, sounds and words mean and generally that is good for business because of their universal appeal. So how does that affect you and your new business?

Suppose you have been dreaming of a new product or already have a great product and a very unique name for that product. You will want to make sure that you and your company are the people who benefit from your brilliance. You don’t want other people using this name to generate profits for themselves which will ultimately diffuse your profit making efforts. The best thing to do is to get a trademark for your name, idea or product.

Cost of Trademarking

This is perhaps the first question on your mind. It has a complicated answer. There are fees involved in getting a trademark and they vary. You may be able to complete the process for as low as $325.00 or if you have a lawyer handle it for you, you could be looking at several thousand dollars in fees.

How To Trademark

The government has a special procedure for you to apply for a trademark. Perhaps the easiest thing for you to do is to call them at 1-800 786-9199. If you want to be a bit more prepared to talk to them, you’ll need to find out if the idea you have is already trademarked. You can use a trademark search at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

You can apply online for a trademark, but you must be able to provide information in a timely fashion. They have strict deadlines that must be met to process your application. You will need to provide the name of the applicant, name and address for correspondence, a clear drawing of your symbol or  the words you want trademarked, the goods or services you intend to provide and a filing fee.

Once you submit that information, a lawyer will research it and decide whether it will be approved. This procedure may take up to two months. Once it is approved, they will print a public notice in the the Official Gazette. The public is given 30 days to issue a protest against your filing if they can prove that your trademark will be damaging to their business. If you make it through that step, then within 3 months you will be issued a NOTICE OF ALLOWANCE. Then you have six months to notify them of your intended STATEMENT OF USE plan. Once that is sent in and approved, you will be issued a REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE.

Do you think it’s worth your time and effort to register a trademark? I’m sure Levi Strauss did!

Control What You Can To Improve Your Life

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I have been to my local gym to exercise, swim and use their public steam bath many times. One of my favorite things about this experience is to enjoy ten minutes of sitting in the steam bath. The heat and moisture make me feel good and more energetic during the rest of my day.

One of the things I hate about the steam bath is that many many times I’ve sat in the steam bath when there is barely any steam at all. I’ve watched people use various methods of trying to get the steam regulator to cool down, thus triggering the release of more steam. The small regulating device is strategically placed at a height of 6 1/2 feet and must be all of about 3/4 of an inch wide. Some people are successful at getting it to restart the steam. They were either taller than I was or had a better water bottle.

If you have ever tried to actually squirt water out of a drinking container, you’ll know that the water doesn’t go very far and accuracy is difficult to obtain. I have thought many times in the past as I was sitting in the steam bath that I should buy a cheap water gun and see if that would work. I had the idea months ago, but today I actually went to buy the water gun  and make it part of the necessary piece of equipment for my exercise routine.

I walked into the steam room. There were about six people sitting there and the steam looked like it was on its way to fizzling out. I sat down and inquired about the steam. I was told that it had just stopped but had previously been fine. I took my little water gun, filled with tap water and proceeded to take aim at the regulator. My first few attempts seemed to miss the bulls eye, but I continued until I could see that it was hitting it and felt that it had been sufficiently soaked. I walked to the seating area and within ten seconds the steam started coming forth with vigor. It provided the group with the best steam bath. In fact it got so hot in there that several people left.

What I learned from this experience is that if there is something that you can control to improve your life, do it. Don’t just think about it. Do it. The next time I go to the gym, I feel confident that I will be able to enjoy the best steam bath possible at the time that I want it to and it cost me 99 cents. That is really sweet.

When you work on the Internet and devote your days to building your business, many things that you choose to do can grow your business. However there are a slew of things that you can do that will not help you in the least. You have most likely already spent hours and hours getting distracted from your main Internet goals in the past.  Choose to do something that you know will help. Are you offering people better information? Are you offering them a reason to link to your site? Are you improving anything about your services and letting people know?

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her. But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. ~ Voltaire

Expect the Unexpected With Internet Startups

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Great Expectations

I have cut, sliced and diced hundreds of onions. So many that when I cut this onion open and saw these funny faces smiling back at me, I had to laugh. I was amazed at how perfect these images seemed. To refresh my memory of what onions normally look like, I cut into another onion and found the look I usually find – one center and concentric circles. This onion produced two smiley faces. Totally unexpected! Sometimes it is better to expect the unexpected.

In any business people try to predict their success and  rely on statistics to back up their predictions. With the Internet this method doesn’t always work.

Many people start Internet businesses and plan to be successful. They’ve got a great business idea and they invest money and time towards building the business. They literally do everything they can do. What sometimes happens is that they don’t get enough traffic to sustain the business and they stop trying. This is not what they expected.

The Unexpected

On the other hand there are people who start an Internet business and have no expectations of being wildly successful, but they enjoy trying new things and testing different methods of getting their business to work. They actual stumble upon little ideas and little tricks that end up making their business earn more money. Repeating this as a regular work habit can make the site profitable.

Think about your expectations of your Internet business. Is it going well or is it a project that you have abandoned?

In a search for “websites that fail” an article was listed called The number 1 Reason Why Most Websites Fail. You would expect this site to tell you about reasons sites fail, however this site was an example of failure. Mistakes on the page were causing major errors that failed to pull in the correct information in five different areas. This is the advice they give.

Websites do fail. Lots of them fail. You will see many of them every day. Some of them fail to inspire or enthuse. Some fail to get found at all. Some fail to get completed. Some fail to understand the needs of the people visiting them. But there is an underlying common reason for all these failings..

This site expected to be an authority on why websites fail, but lost credibility because their own site was failing. That wasn’t what was expected.

Finding Success With Internet Start Ups

In 1969, Honeywell International Inc. developed a computer that sold for $10,600. It was advertised as a kitchen computer because back then, the engineers decided that the only reason people would want to use a personal computer at home was to store recipes. That was what they expected people to wanted to do. Not one of the computers they designed sold. Did they expect that when developing this product? I’m quite sure they didn’t.

When you start your business on the Internet remember to expect the unexpected. It will give you  patience while you work on your site and build it and continue to build it. Success for you may be right around the corner.

As Alexander Smith, a Scottish poet

In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place to-day, it is vain to seek it there to-morrow. You can not lay a trap for it.
~ Alexander Smith, Scottish poet

Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience.
~Masaru Ibuka, co-founder of Sony Corporation

Sometimes it is better to expect the unexpected.

Organize Your Financial Life

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Organize Your FinancesKeeping your financial life in order is one way to get yourself on the pathway to being wealthy. When you have a pile of  bills and paper work cluttering up your office, it is likely that you don’t know what is coming in and going out. You have relinquished control when you are in that state. If you have one huge plastic bin that you throw all your mail in you’ll want to update your system.

If someone needed your tax returns for the past year, could you locate them easily? If you needed your social security card, birth certificate or will, would you know where they are?

Have you left instructions for your family members to retrieve important financial information in case you passed away? Do they know where your life insurance policies, bank accounts or your property deeds are located? Dealing with the death of a loved one is difficult enough without putting the burden of locating your important information on the shoulders of your children, relatives or friends.

Create a filing system that will be easy for you to use and tell your family  where you’ve put your important papers. A filing system is important for keeping tabs on your investments, your tax returns, your will, your insurance information and other legal documents. Is your system going to help you locate the important papers when they are needed? Most people understand how helpful a filing system is once they have it working for them.

What do you do with your mail? There are so many advertisements and junk mail that accumulate. It’s best to deal with this trash on a daily basis. If you have mail that you want to get rid of, be sure to use a shredding machine. Important information can be on unwanted mail. There are people who make a point of rummaging through trash to get this information and that can put you in serious risk for identity fraud. You don’t want that to happen to you.

What about bills that come in? Where do you put them before you pay them? With the online banking services available you can simply take the bill and set up a scheduled payment for it that will be sent out when you choose it to be sent. Then destroy the bill if you don’t need it for any record keeping. If you can keep up with the mail and bills coming in  with a system that is orderly, you’ll avoid a lot of late payment fees and be able to use the money you earn more effectively.

No plan is going to work for you if you don’t actually do it and with money matters, some people just hate dealing with organizing this information. Even looking at a credit card bill can feel devastating. If you’ve had spending sprees that you regret, you won’t even want to open your credit card bills.

It may be difficult for you to imagine what is going to get you back in control of your financial life. The most important thing to do is to have the courage to create a good system that works for you. Get rid of the large bin that you toss your mail into and forget about for weeks on end. Get back on the pathway to wealth by creating a system that works for you. You’ve done much harder things in the past. Organizing your finances is one way to treat yourself well and gain back a feeling of peace in your life.