Photo credit: Faakhir Rizvi

Looking professional and clean cut is very important if you want people to take you seriously. Showing up to a meeting, a job interview, or even to your regular job looking sloppy and nonchalant isn’t going to give the best first impression to someone who is potentially looking to spend their money with you.

Here’s a list of no-no’s when it comes to professional attire:

• T-shirts, hoodies, spaghetti straps, halter tops, tube tops
• Loafers, flip flops, clogs, running shoes
• Torn jeans, lounge pants, shorts, sweatpants,  mini skirts

Here are some things that are or could be considered professional:

• Khakis, dress pants, dress capris, knee-length skirts
• Button-up shirts (tucked in, and no plaids!), suit jackets, dress shirts
• Dress shoes, high heels (not too high), covered toe flats, dress boots

Alright, I admit, I do on occasion break my own dress code, but only when I know it’s not going to affect me or the person (or people) I come in contact with. For example, my favorite pair of jeans are full of holes and were intentionally purchased that way…and you’ll see me in many of my videos wearing said jeans. Why? Because it’s part of who I am, and the way I dress reflects that my personality. But I also know that if I were to show up to a client meeting or job interview wearing those same jeans that it might look as though I don’t care how I look (and I do).

So think about who you’re dealing with and what kind of impression you want to make, then make your wardrobe decisions accordingly. You don’t have to change your whole appearance to make someone happy, just keep it professional while still maintaining your personal style. Then take a look in the mirror on the way out the door and say out loud, “I look GOOD!”

Pull out that handy-dandy notebook.

Have you ever seen Blue’s Clues? C’mon, don’t be afraid to admit it. I spent many of my teen years babysitting, so I saw my fair share of the guy in the funny green shirt and his little blue dog (appropriately named Blue). How did they track “clues” for Blue? In their handy-dandy notebook! Go get yours right now, because you’re not going to be writing down clues, but you are going to be writing down ideas.  Otherwise, you’ll think of something brilliant only to forget it 10 minutes later. (It’s happened to me, and it’s not fun.)

Gooooooooooogle your heart out.

When you come up with that absolutely incredible fantabulous crazy awesome business name, Google it. Browse through several pages to see if anyone’s using a name that’s even remotely similar to your idea. If not, you might be on to something.

Hit up GoDaddy.com. Like, NOW.

If you plan to have a website – and you’re a stupid-head if you don’t plan to – then you’ll need to see if the domain name you want is available. Yes, I just said stupid-head, get over it. Go to godaddy.com and start typing in your potential domain names to see if you’re able to purchase them. If they’re all taken, your idea may not have been so hot to begin with. Back to the drawing board…

Search the trademark and registered name database.

Now we’re getting into the nitty-gritty. If you’ve lucked out thus far, chances are you really have a great name. But just to be sure that somebody hasn’t already registered your business name as their own, you’ll want to go use this form to search the official USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) database. Tip: If your name is available and you intend to register the trademark, you can legally use the ™ symbol after the name to declare your intent to all who see it even without registering. Keep track of the date you start using the ™ but never, ever, use the ® symbol until your trademark is officially legalized with the USPTO.

Some creative suggestions…

Still stuck? I like to use dictionary.com to help me when I’m stumped. Sometimes I know I want something similar to a word or phrase I’ve come up with, and the thesaurus is a huge help. Another suggestion is to think of the 3 main keywords that you’d use to describe your business. Take those words and come up with something crazy awesome. If it doesn’t feel right, dump it!

Have you named a business before? What are some of the methods YOU used to come up with creative ideas? Share them in a comment!

Step 1:

Log into your Gmail account and go to Settings at the top right corner. Click the Lab tab and enable Insert Images.

Step 1: Enable "Insert Images"

You will also need to enable Canned Responses. Hint: To find these options faster, use your Control+F buttons to instantly highlight them.

You will also need to enable "Canned Responses"

Once these options are enabled, scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes.

Step 2:

Next, go to Compose Mail as if you were going to send someone an email. If you want to format a text signature, you will need to copy and paste it over (for example, you can copy and paste it from Microsoft Word and you shouldn’t lose your formatting). Or you can format it using the limited options that Gmail offers. Now for the image. Click the newly added little image button shown below.

Click the "Add Image" icon now showing in your toolbar

A little screen will pop up like this one:

Make sure the image is on your computer. Using the "Web Address" option just complicates things.

Upload the photo/logo of your choice. If the image is too large, Gmail should give you the option to resize it.

Step 3:

When your image is inserted and your signature is as desired, it’s then time to save it. Select all then go to Canned Responses and click New canned response as shown below. Enter a signature name then save.

Select "new canned response" to save your new signature

You’re done! Discard that old email and click Compose Mail again to test out your new signature. You will need to manually insert it with each email by clicking Canned Response>Insert>Your new signature, but it should show up just as you saved it.

3 things I hate:

1. The charging cord that’s included with the iPad is way too short. C’mon, Apple, really? It hardly reaches from the outlet to the top of my desk. Fortunately I’ve managed to find a position that works alright for now and saves me purchasing the 6-foot long power cord for $29.00. But now I’m stuck charging it while it sits flat because I didn’t buy the iPad dock. You’re probably reading this thinking, Man, this girl is frugal. Well, you’re right, but I think for as much as the iPad costs it would’ve been nice of them to include a dock. They did with my 2G iPhone, after all.

2. Holy crap, does this thing ever feel fragile in my hands. There’s this deep fear instilled in me already that I’m going to inadvertently drop the iPad. This means more money I have to spend on a decent case…and if you haven’t noticed, those things are NOT cheap. I found one that I really like from Happy Owl, but at $65.00 I’m probably going to hit up eBay instead. (Note to the Happy Owl folks: if you want to send one over to me for free to review on my blog, I’m completely down with that idea…or maybe I’ll just have to wait until someone feels like buying me a cool gift.)

3. Some of the apps in the App Store aren’t clear about whether they work on the iPad or not. For example, I downloaded Tweetie 2 app (and PAID for it) thinking it was for the iPad. WRONG. I also had to re-sync the iPad for a second time to iTunes because all of my iPhone apps transferred onto the iPad with the initial sync, and I didn’t want any of them on there. So this can be a bit confusing for users at first, but if you play around with it eventually it won’t be too hard to understand.

Now onto the good stuff…………

3 things I love:

1. It’s quick to grab and throw into my bag on the go, unlike my MacBook. The 3G option is great, even though I’m not yet using it. I think $30/mo for unlimited internet anywhere I could is a super deal. It almost eliminates the need for internet on my iPhone….almost. Really though, when you think about it, if I take my iPad with me everywhere and enable the internet, why would I need internet on my phone??

2. The speakers are just….wow. I was expecting a crappy speaker system like on my iPhone 2G, but not at all. The speakers are loud and crisp. Way to go with that one, Apple! I can’t wait to download a movie and see how it sounds. So far I’ve been pretty impressed with the sound quality of my iTunes library and my music videos, so I’m expecting the movie experience to be incredible too.

3. There are lots of things that I love about my 32GB Wi-Fi/3G enabled iPad, but what I love the most is that it was free. I have TweetShare to thank for that.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I really REALLY want the iPad keyboard too. GAH!