Trademark International Class - Class 35 - Advertising and Business Services

All goods or services are categorized within International Classes (IC hereafter). Goods run from classes IC 1-34, while Services are in IC 35-45. Let's take a closer look at one of these trademark classes - class 35.

What is International Class 35 All About?

Each class has a short title heading that gives a snapshot of what that class is all about -- IC 35's short title is advertising and business services. Pretty vague, eh?

Trademark International Class - Class 35 - Advertising and Business Services

The first part of IC 35's description, advertising, is straightforward. If it's advertising, marketing or promoting services that are being offered, then this is the class. Now there are going to be some exceptions, as with anything related to trademarks.

Tangible advertising goods, such as signs, flyers, brochures, are NOT going to be in IC 35 as those items are not technically a service though are definitely part of a service; tangible paper-based advertising goods are in IC 16. Training, coaching, educating, etc. about advertising, marketing or promotion is NOT going to be in IC 35 but rather in IC 41, which is the educational class.

The second part of international class 35's description, business services, is not straightforward at all. Semantically, all services could be considered as business services, yes? No way says the trademark powers that be; at least no way if those services can fit within a different international classification.

The USPTO has about 1500 accepted descriptions that fit into IC 35; check them out here.

So What Business Services are in International Class 35?

Ooh this is a tough nut to crack as there are definitely some discernible patterns within this class but there's a whole lot of slap-dash in here too. Here's a general breakdown:

o If your services consist, in part, of the word business, you're likely in trademark class 35. This includes consulting, advising, administration, management, development, information, organization, research, planning, etc.

o Employment services are in this class, which includes hiring, recruiting, placement, staffing and career networking.

o Retail services selling ANY products under the sun, which means a brick and mortar store, online retail sites, mail order, catalog, wholesale, etc.

Trademark International Class - Class 35 - Advertising and Business Services
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Shannon Moore is the General Manager for TradeMark Express. Since 1992, TradeMark Express has met the needs of their clients with comprehensive research, application preparation, attorney referrals and trademark consultation. For further details, please visit us on the web at TradeMark Express or call Shannon directly at 800.340.2010.

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How Are You Handling The Five Biggest Challenges Facing Managers and Business Owners Today?

There are ten fundamental premises that will determine your overall management success. Before we get to the five biggest challenges facing managers I thought I would give you the ten since thet are closely related.

1. When you have an issue, problem, failure, dysfunction or whatever - any -
where in the organization - look up the ladder for the cause and down the ladder
for the solution.

2. Everything that happens in an organization is the direct or indirect result of
that organization's culture, philosophy and core beliefs.

How Are You Handling The Five Biggest Challenges Facing Managers and Business Owners Today?

3.You get the behavior you reward.

4. Effective management is not about the latest fad or philosophy. It is about a
fundament trust and respect for people and treating them accordingly.

5. Growing a business is not hard and it should be fun for everyone.

6. Integrity and ethics must be the foundation for all of your decisions and
actions.

7. If you want effective and productive employees you must see employee
development as an investment and not a cost

8. What employees want to be motivated and performance driven
is appreciation, recognition, validation and to feel important and to feel like they
belong.

9. The job of management is not to motivate employees but to create a positive
motivational climate where employees take responsibility for their own motivation
and performance.

10. You are responsible to your employees and not for them.

Here are the five biggest challenges today. They are;

·Corporate culture. Corporate, organization and department culture all flows from the top down. The written and unwritten rules, policies and philosophy of a manager or the organization all eventually find their way into the attitudes and performance of almost everyone in the organization. One of the critical things to remember when dealing with people is: you get the behavior you reward. If the culture directly or indirectly rewards a certain type of attitude or behavior, you are, by your actions or inactions, probably reaffirming that these are acceptable. If you want to change behavior, you must first evaluate the culture that is in place that may be rewarding the type of behavior you are getting but don't necessarily want.

·Communication style. Rumors, hearsay, memos, emails, meetings, individual counseling sessions and bulletin boards all have one thing in common - they communicate information - some more effectively and timely than others. If communication in an organization is all top-down, you can be assured that you are not in touch with the realities of your organization, the marketplace, your customers or suppliers.

·Organization direction. One of the biggest challenges managers face today is effectively communicating corporate direction with clarity and consistency to all employees who have a right and need to know. Most organizations do a poor job of this at best. One way to find out what your people believe is to conduct an anonymous survey of attitudes, perceptions and opinions.

·Decision making. Many managers make decisions that other employees will either have to implement or that will affect them. If these decisions are made without bottom-up feedback, you can guarantee that the outcome of the decisions will be less than desired or expected.

·Feedback mechanisms. Employees want to know how they are doing - whether poorly or well. Failure to give them the feedback they need is to keep them in the dark regarding the assessment of their performance and how and where they need to improve.

Are management roles changing?

There are a number of conditions that are impacting the roles of managers today. A few of them are;

- Greater cultural diversity.
- Several very distinctive employee age groups.
- Increased impact and use of technology.
- A growing international market place.
- Ethical standards that are unclear or inconsistent.
- Greater stress levels among all employees.
- Corporate direction and strategy is under fire by consumers.
- The desire of employees for greater independence and autonomy.
- Increased consumer choices for products and services.
- Fewer specifically skilled employees.
- Relentless and accelerating change.

There's more, but I don't want to be responsible for ruining your day.

With all these factors, again I ask you, are the roles of managers, supervisors, executives and business owners changing today? You betcha. Here are just a few that I have observed during the past few years coaching and consulting with many of my clients in a variety of industries worldwide.

1. Many managers are responsible for increasing numbers of remote employees.

2. Some managers are finding that they are spending more time 'doing' rather than 'managing'.

3. Some managers are spending increased time coaching employees on personal issues.

4. All mangers are faced sooner or later with position openings that they can't fill.

5. Mangers in general have less time for their own personal development.

6. Most managers are having to learn to deal with a variety of different employees culturally, gender wise and age wise.

7. Managers in general are spending more time communicating via email than in person or by telephone.

Again, there are many more I could have included, but the essence is, that if you are still using management techniques and behaviors that you used more than five years ago I guarantee you are going to be less effective as a leader, coach and manager in today's changing world.

The fundamental roles, attitudes or responsibilities of managers have not changed and a few of them are;

1. The need to trust your employees and your employees to trust you.

2. The need to respect their uniqueness.

3. The need to communicate openly and honestly.

4. The need to give them recognition and appreciation that is deserved.

5. The need to have a clear future career path available to them.

6. The need to compensate them fairly.

If you will do just these six consistently you will go a long way in successfully addressing many of the above listed factors.

How Are You Handling The Five Biggest Challenges Facing Managers and Business Owners Today?
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Tim Connor, CSP is an internationally renowned sales, relationship, management and leadership speaker, trainer and best selling author. Since 1981 he has given over 3500 presentations in 21 countries on a variety of sales, management and relationship topics. He is the best selling author of over 60 books including; He can be reached at tim@timconnor.com, 704-895-1230 or visit his website at http://www.timconnor.com

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Importance of Technology in Business

Technology plays a vital role in business. Over the years businesses have become dependent on technology so much so that if we were to take away that technology virtually all business operations around the globe would come to a grinding halt. Almost all businesses and industries around the world are using computers ranging from the most basic to the most complex of operations.

Technology played a key role in the growth of commerce and trade around the world. It is true that we have been doing business since time immemorial, long before there were computers; starting from the simple concept of barter trade when the concept of a currency was not yet introduced but trade and commerce was still slow up until the point when the computer revolution changed everything. Almost all businesses are dependent on technology on all levels from research and development, production and all the way to delivery. Small to large scale enterprises depend on computers to help them with their business needs ranging from Point of Sales systems, information management systems capable of handling all kinds of information such as employee profile, client profile, accounting and tracking, automation systems for use in large scale production of commodities, package sorting, assembly lines, all the way to marketing and communications. It doesn't end there, all these commodities also need to be transported by sea, land, and air. Just to transport your commodities by land already requires the use of multiple systems to allow for fast, efficient and safe transportation of commodities.

Without this technology the idea of globalization wouldn't have become a reality. Now all enterprises have the potential to go international through the use of the internet. If your business has a website, that marketing tool will allow your business to reach clients across thousands of miles with just a click of a button. This would not be possible without the internet. Technology allowed businesses to grow and expand in ways never thought possible.

Importance of Technology in Business

The role that technology plays for the business sector cannot be taken for granted. If we were to take away that technology trade and commerce around the world will come to a standstill and the global economy would collapse. It is nearly impossible for one to conduct business without the aid of technology in one form or another. Almost every aspect of business is heavily influenced by technology. Technology has become very important that it has become a huge industry itself from computer hardware manufacturing, to software design and development, and robotics. Technology has become a billion dollar industry for a number of individuals.

The next time you browse a website to purchase or swipe a credit card to pay for something you just bought, try to imagine how that particular purchase would have happened if it were to take place without the aid of modern technology. That could prove to be a bit difficult to imagine. Without all the technology that we are enjoying now it would be like living in the 60's again. No computers, no cellular phones, no internet. That is how important technology is in business.

Importance of Technology in Business
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International Business Risks Or Risks of Doing Business Overseas

Anytime businesses decide to operate or expand internationally, they face certain and specific risks. These international business risks can be determined by a number of different factors including country history, cultural values, mores, geographical traits and of course legal precedents of chosen international location. The company or firm must consider all of these factors before making a solid and final decision to move abroad. The firm must always keep in mind their competitive advantage at home and compare that standing prior to entering the international business realm. They must keep in mind that risks are always relative to the size and stability of the firm's competitive advantage.

Basically, there are six primary international business risks which are most often faced by firms considering entering the international business realm. Again, they are always tied closely to the firm's competitive advantage. A firm's competitive advantage is broken by "type", "scope", "transferability", and finally "translate-ability". All of these factors break into degrees of low risk to high risk and must always be considered in the plan.

When doing this risk analysis, S.L.E.P.T. comes in very handy. SLEPT stands for Social, Legal, Economic, Political, and Technological. In this case, the firm would have to look at the inherent risks in the firm being a wholly owned operation, a joint venture, a franchise, licensing issues, and export ability. On the other side of the coin, they would also need to look at marker risks, ownership risks, intellectual property risks, currency risks, and finally political risks.

International Business Risks Or Risks of Doing Business Overseas

I've decided to break this international business risks post into separate posts in a series to make it easier to follow and to make it more concise and to the point. You can click on my author link and find the rest of the posts in the series which will include all factors discussed in greater detail. They will include everything from political risks of corruption, unstable institutions, and red-tape. I will also be looking at currency risks, intellectual property risks, ownership risks, and finally market risks and all that they involve.

In the end it should be understood that these risks are not the only risks that a firm may face when considering, expanding, and beginning to do business internationally. There are certainly other risks that absolutely must be analyzed by the firm. The firm must be extremely thorough in doing their due diligence analysis before entering any country with the intent of establishing themselves there. Before making any major and "life-altering" decisions, the company must understand the amount of risk that is currently and already present there, and most importantly, how much of that inherent risk is the firm willing to take upon it and assume.

In closing I would like to simply state possibly the obvious but some that needs to be stated and restated many times so that it's importance really sinks in. And that simply that deciding to enter a country is always a very, very serious decision that can and will make or break a firm and so it's imperative that the decision makers do not skimp on the analysis involved. Due diligence is of utmost importance here.

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Barriers to International Business

Firms desiring to enter international business face several obstacles; some are much more severe than others. The most common barriers to effective business are cultural, social, and political barriers, and tariffs and trade restrictions.

The first one to effective business is the cultural and social barriers. A nation's culture and social forces can restrict international business activities. Culture consists of a country's general concepts and values and tangible items such as food, clothing, and building. Social forces include family, education, religion and customs. Selling products from one country to another is sometimes difficult when the cultures of the two countries differ significantly. For example, when McDonald's opened its first restaurant in Rome, it was met with protest. The people of Rome objected to the smell of hamburgers frying. McDonald's overcame this objection by changing the exhaust system of the restaurant.

The second barrier is the social forces that can create obstacles to international trade. In some countries, purchasing items as basic as food and clothing can be influenced by religion. In many nations, individuals do not have the same choices in food, clothing, and health care.

Barriers to International Business

The third one is political barriers. The political climate of a country can have a major impact on international business. Nations experiencing intense political unrest may change their attitude toward foreign firms at any time; this instability creates an unfavorable atmosphere for international trade.

The last one is the tariffs and trade restrictions. Tariffs and trade restrictions are also barriers to international business. A nation can restrict trade through import tariffs, quotas and embargoes, and exchanges controls.

Barriers to International Business
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How to Do Retail Company SWOT Analysis

Why do SWOT Analysis

As a retail owner or a manager you need to learn more about your company. There is a powerful tool called SWOT (Strengths; Weaknesses; Opportunities; Threats) Analysis that will help you to do this research. What are your company's strengths and weaknesses? Are there opportunities in the future? Is the company facing any external threats?

Why is it good to do? Because all successful businesses build on their Strengths, need to improve their Weaknesses, use Opportunities and be aware about Treats. You can use SWOT analysis for business planning or strategic planning, competitor evaluation, marketing, business and product development, etc.

How to Do Retail Company SWOT Analysis

You can be more specific and evaluate only one area:
1. Product (what are we selling?)
2. Process (how are we selling it?)
3. Customer (to whom are we selling it?)
4. Distribution (how does it reach them?)
5. Finance (what are the prices, costs and investments?)
6. Administration (and how do we manage all this?)

SWOT Analysis Advantage - free and fast!

The great advantage of using SWOT Analysis that it is free! You and your team could also generate new ideas about how your company (store) could use strengths to defend against threats in the market in a very short period of time. You will analyze how you could maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses, use internal and external opportunities and overcome threats. It is also a great team building activity.

How to use this technique

You will need to organize a brainstorming (40 min to 1 hour) meeting with your team. If you have a large team, you can divide it into groups of 5-6 people. Explain to your team the purpose of the meeting and the rules of brainstorming activity. They are: do not no criticize or judge, welcome any ideas, respect others point of view, focus on quantity not quality, and record ideas and thoughts.

Provide the details of the SWOT Analysis. Give each group a prepared flipchart. In order to make it, just draw two lines to make 4 squares. Write the titles for each square. A square on the top left will be Company Strengths; the square below it will be Opportunities, the square on the right - Weakness, and the last one - Threats. Let your team brainstorm and write down all the ideas they have.

You will be very surprised about how active and creative your employees will be during this meeting. I recommend that at the end of this meeting each group makes a presentation and has an opportunity to ask questions and have a discussion.

Strengths

Strengths are resources and capabilities that can be used as a basis for developing a competitive advantage. Think about what do your company (store) does well. Use your customers' point of view - how do your clients see and describe your strengths?

Examples

• Good reputation among customers

• Excellent customer service

• Superior product performance vs. competitors

• Cost advantages

• Direct delivery capability

Weaknesses

The absence of certain strengths may be viewed as a weakness. Is it anything you could improve? What are the areas for improvement? List the areas that are a struggle. What do your customers complain about? What do your customers see as your weaknesses?

Examples

• Poor reputation among customers

• Customer service staff needs training

• Large administration component

• Lack of following-up procedures

• Small market presence

Opportunities

Try to uncover areas where your strengths are not being fully utilized. Are there new opportunities that will arise soon for your company? How can you turn your strengths into opportunities? Is there a product/service area that you could do well in but are not yet competing?

Examples

• New technologies

• New market niche

• Loosening of regulations

• Removal of international trade barriers

• Local competitors have worse products

Threats

Look both inside and outside of your company for things that could damage your business. Can your weaknesses become threats? Internally, do you have financial, development, or other problems? Externally, are your competitors becoming stronger, are there new trends?

Examples

• Shifts in consumer tastes

• Change in market demand

• Emergence of substitute products

• Environmental effects

• New regulations

How to Do Retail Company SWOT Analysis
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Nina Telpoukhovskaia is a President of Be Best Professional Development Centre, bestselling author of 5 books in Russia and Canada, including Retail Sales. 6 Steps to Double Your Profit. She is an inspiring workshop leader, sales coach and consultant, dynamic and knowledgeable public speaker with 22 years of unique international teaching experience.

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Univera MLM Business - Opportunity Or Scam?

Univera Life Sciences is a network marketing company that provides a variety of nutritional supplements and services. They have established themselves as a leading network marketing company, and are quickly becoming known for their business opportunity.

However, there have been some concerns about the Univera business opportunity. In this article, we will go through and give an unbiased review of the pros and cons of promoting a Univera business, and see if Univera is truly a great business opportunity...or a great scam.

1. Univera - The Good

Univera MLM Business - Opportunity Or Scam?

Univera was founded in 1998 by YunHo Lee, a Korean businessman that had long-suffered poor health. As the story goes, Mr. Lee tried all the tonics of conventional medicine with no results. One day, a friend gave him some juice from an Aloe vera plant, and made a "miraculous recovery".

In fact, Univera is one part of the ECONET conglomerate, which consist of

Univera Unigen Aloecorp / Russia Biomass NatureTech

The flagship product for Univera is their AgelessXtra nutritional supplement. They are also have a well-structured compensation plan for their associates. As a network marketing business, you earn up to 15% on direct signups, and up to 5% on your downline, depending on what rank you achieve. They also have a 2% profit sharing program for distributors that reach a certain rank. They also have a BMW car program that allows their reps to bank an additional ,600 per month toward the payment of a BMW. Not too shabby.

2. Univera - The Bad

The Univera business opportunity looks really good at first sight; however, flags start to appear when we see their marketing plan. Like many network marketing businesses, Univera recommends that you grow your business with "relationship" marketing, i.e. selling product to friends, family members, and others that you know. Their program focuses on leveraging your "warm market" to grow your business which worked really well...50 years ago.

We live in a very different society today than we did in the 1950's, when network marketing first got started. These days, most people do not have large warm markets, and even if they are large, most people do not like to be sold items from their friends and family members.

3. Univera - The Ugly

Another issue is the concept of marketing the business first, the product second. Like many compensation plans, Univera gives out the most generous bonuses for the recruitment of other associates, so form a distributors standpoint, they are compensated for finding distributors first, product-users second.

The problem comes when a new distributor (who is not making any money yet) approaches their warm market with a business opportunity to make money. There is a credibility issue that arises when someone who is making no money is telling other people how they can make a whole lot of money. Many network marketing companies try and resolve this issue with "3-way calling", where the distributor calls their upline (who is supposedly making money) to talk to their prospect. Unfortunately, this only positions the distributor as a gopher instead of a legitimate business builder.

Growing a Univera business can be a great opportunity. They appear to have some good products, but there are plenty of companies that have great products, and many people that market great products never make a dime. There are also plenty of terrible products that generate millions of dollars in revenue (anyone remember the pet rock?) The difference is the marketer, and their ability to target their market effectively.

In closing, I would say that starting and developing a Univera business is lucrative if you know how to use the telephone, the Internet, and other effective marketing tools to grow your business. It is not a scam, but like any business, success will be determined by the skill-set of the marketer. Univera is definitely not a lottery ticket or a stock option - meaning, you do not just buy in and wait for a payout.

If someone does not have the first clue on how to market effectively, then I would suggest they either learn how to be an effective marketer, or else just use the Univera products as way increase personal health.

This article can be freely published on a website as long as it is not modified in any way including the author bylines and active hyperlinks.

Univera MLM Business - Opportunity Or Scam?
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Joshua Fuson is a professional marketer, and has marketed dozens of different products and services. He has participated in the generation of over million dollars of revenue in network marketing in past 4 years alone. To find out how, you can go...here

To learn more about growing a Univera Business, you can get the Univera Success Blueprint

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International Business Success

There is a lot of talk today about being "global". What does global mean? A person of the world? Every country is as different. So is every locality and city or town. The skills a business person needs to be successful in international business go beyond being global. While not comprehensive, this list based on over a dozen years of international business experience should help.

Travel

For the international business person, travel is a way of life. Long distance air travel can be especially brutal. The best advice is to arrive one day before any important meetings or conferences to adjust to any time difference. In the air, eat, sleep, work and read but do all in moderation. Air travel gluttony is common among international travelers. The on thing you cannot do is exercise on an airplane.

International Business Success

Lodging

Stay where your host, whether a local office or a client recommends. While cost is a consideration, so is safety, convenience to meeting locations and services provided. This is the home away from home so chose it with care.

Meals

Eat in moderation. Business travel is not the time to make up for every diet that one has ever been one. There is the temptation to eat more than usual. On the other had, when with people who live locally, whether colleagues or clients, ask what they recommend when dining together. Apart from allergies, one should be open to eating local cuisine.

Drinking

Some cultures drink more than Americans. Some drink less. And some not at all. The best advice is to drink in moderation or not at all. Similar to eating, international business travel is not the time to beat ones college drinking record. It is not healthy and it is insulting to clients and colleagues.

Dress

Most American business people, even after the business casual trend, still dress much more casually than business people internationally. Find out from local colleagues or even clients what attire is appropriate. If you do not know, dress in traditional business attire (suits for men and for women). This can always be dressed down if appropriate. Dress like you mean business but more importantly, dress appropriately. The same applies to evening dinners and functions outside of business hours.

Meetings

Be at meeting early. Do not leave until the meeting is over. Even if others leave to take calls, do not do so except at scheduled breaks. Eat in moderation if lunch is brought in. Do not drink too much coffee but bottled water is good. Clean up after yourself after the meeting. And do not sit in the meeting with your laptop and read your email. That is rude. Do make sure you bring plenty of business cards. Introduce yourself to everybody. Do not interrupt, raise your voice or swear. If you have other calls, schedule them for the evening when not meeting with the clients or your colleagues.

Recreation

In the evenings it is common to have dinner with clients or colleagues. After dinner is often a time to relax, exercise and catch up on some work before the next day. If staying over a weekend or taking a day off, visit local historical sites, museums, cultural events and also shops and restaurants. Staying in the hotel doing work is not healthy and it does not make one more internationally-minded or cultured.

Communication

Find out how your clients and colleagues prefer to communicate when not face-to-face. E-mail is common today. Conference calls are important too. Video conference calls can be very effective. Snail mail and faxes are less and less common today but are still necessary from time-to-time. Keep all communications clear, crisp and to the point. On international conference calls, listen more than talk. And do not interrupt. Ever. Take notes or minutes and make sure they are distributed within one business day of the call. Never e-mail jokes, gags, anything obscene or off-color. Do not swear or raise your voice on calls or video calls. Listening and patience are valued in most non-US cultures.

Language

While most non-US business people speak 2-4 languages most from the US speak 1 or perhaps 2 and not well. To this end, speak clearly in English. Be patient if asked to repeat or explain. This is especially true on conference calls. It is acceptable to pick up local words or phrases. Make sure they are appropriate and that they are pronounced flawlessly. Do not make a joke out of local words or phrases. This is insulting to clients and local colleagues.

While business has a lot to do with finance, technology, human resources, research and development and law, it has more to do with people than anything else. To that end, doing business internationally is about people. By traveling and working with dignity and respect for customers and local colleagues, one is taking the first step toward the extensive skills needed to be successful in international business.

International Business Success
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George F. Franks, III is the founder and CEO of Franks Consulting Group, a Bethesda, Maryland based management consulting and leadership coaching practice. He is a member of the International Coach Federation and the Institute of Management Consultants (USA).

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