Daniel Greene

Category: Business

My experiences in business and as a customer of businesses

  • My Photos at Blur Concert in Hyde Park

    I got a couple of comments on my original greyhound photo from concert-goers who let me know how my photo had been blown up huge for Blur’s Hyde Park concert on July 3rd. I did a bit of Googling and found this person’s photo of the concert stage, where you can see my greyhound image looming large on both sides of the stage. How exciting!

  • My photos on Cabela’s t-shirts!

    Yes, that’s me standing in Cabela’s store in Glendale, AZ, holding up two of the t-shirts my photos were used for– and I’m standing right in front of the taxidermy specimens I photographed! I was so excited to see the fruits of my labor that I bought two of these t-shirts for myself and one for my mom and one for my dad. Not bad that I earned $600 for selling four photos for use on graphic tees, either!

    Here’s my photo of the African Lion:

    Cabela's 21.JPG

    And here’s General Sports Apparel‘s design using it: (more…)

  • Send in Your Estimated Taxes!

    Just a reminder to my fellow freelance interpreters: send in your estimated tax payments due on September 15!

  • Is Canadian Diamond Traders a Scam?

    I suspect so. Consider what the FBI says about pyramid schemes:

    Pyramid schemes, also referred to as franchise fraud, or chain referral schemes, are marketing and investment frauds in which an individual is offered a distributorship or franchise to market a particular product. The real profit is earned, not by the sale of the product, but by the sale of new distributorships. Emphasis on selling franchises rather than the product eventually leads to a point where the supply of potential investors is exhausted and the pyramid collapses. At the heart of each pyramid scheme there is typically a representation that new participants can recoup their original investments by inducing two or more prospects to make the same investment. Promoters fail to tell prospective participants that this is mathematically impossible for everyone to do, since some participants drop out, while others recoup their original investments and then drop out.

    Some Tips to Avoid Pyramid Schemes:

    • Be wary of “opportunities” to invest your money in franchises or investments that require you to bring in subsequent investors to increase your profit or recoup your initial investment.
    • Independently verify the legitimacy of any franchise or investment before you invest.

    —Federal Bureau of Investigation: Common Fraud Schemes

    Related post: Canadian Diamond Traders wants to silence me?

  • Legal Requirements for Self-Employed Persons

    Please note I wrote this in May 2001. Facts may have changed.

    I did some researching lately on the requirements of self-employed status in San Diego, California (laws may be different elsewhere, of course!), and I found out a few things that I thought you might like to know. Some of these facts you probably already knew, and some may surprise you. First of all, did you know that every self-employed person doing business in the city of San Diego is required by law to own a Business Tax Certificate (BTC)? Yes, they haven’t done a very good job at getting the word out about this one, and I’ve never heard of anyone enforcing it, but apparently, anyone could walk up to you while you’re doing your freelance work and demand to see your BTC. The good news is that this BTC (formerly known as a Business License—ah, we’ve at least heard that term before, eh?) typically costs only $46 a year. You may find out all about the BTC, and download the necessary application forms in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), at http://www.sandiego.gov/treasurer/btax.shtml

    Second, some of us have had, at one time or another over the past several years, certain agencies or individuals tell us that, in order for us to claim independent contractor status, we were required by law to have to have a fictitious business name, incorporated status, a FEIN (Federal Employer ID Number), Worker’s Compensation Insurance, California State Disability Insurance, malpractice (professional liability) insurance, etc. Here is what I found out, by making several phone calls to local and state agencies and by looking up information on government web sites, one of which was (ref #1) http://www.sandiego.gov/economic-development/business/starting/tenkeysteps.shtml: (more…)