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Money conversations need structure, not spontaneity. Holistic Guide to Wealth Management By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™ For CPA Trendlines Go PRO for members-only access to more Rory Henry. View the full article

Money conversations need structure, not spontaneity. Holistic Guide to Wealth Management By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™ For CPA Trendlines Go PRO for members-only access to more Rory Henry. View the full article

PPC advice in 2025 leaned hard on AI and shiny new tools. Much of it sounded credible. Much of it cost advertisers money. Teams followed platform narratives instead of business constraints. Budgets grew. Efficiency did not. As 2026 begins, carrying those beliefs forward guarantees more of the same. This article breaks down three PPC myths that looked smart in theory, spread quickly in 2025, and often drove poor decisions in practice. The goal is simple: reset priorities before repeating expensive mistakes. Myth 1: Forget about manual targeting, AI does it better We have seen this claim everywhere: AI outperforms humans at targeting, and manual structures belong to the past. Consolidate campaigns as much as possible. Let AI run the show. There is truth in that – but only under specific conditions. AI performance depends entirely on inputs. No volume means no learning. No learning means no results. A more dangerous version of the same problem is poor signal quality. No business-level conversion signal means no meaningful optimization. For ecommerce brands that feed purchase data back into Google Ads and consistently generate at least 50 conversions per bid strategy each month, trusting AI with targeting can make sense. In those cases, volume and signal quality are usually sufficient. Put simply, AI favors scale and clear outcomes. That logic breaks down quickly for low-volume campaigns, especially those optimizing to leads as the primary conversion. Without enough high-quality conversions, AI cannot learn effectively. The result is not better performance, but automation without improvement. How to fix this Before handing targeting decisions entirely to AI, you should be able to answer “yes” to all three of the questions below: Are campaigns optimized against a business-level KPI, such as CAC or a ROAS threshold? Are enough of those conversions being sent back to the ad platforms? Are those conversions reported quickly, with minimal latency? If the answer to any of these is no, 2026 should be about reassessing PPC fundamentals. Do not be afraid to go old school when the situation calls for it. In 2025, I doubled a client’s margin by implementing a match-type mirroring structure and pausing broad match keywords. It ran counter to prevailing best practices, but it worked. The decision was grounded in historical performance data, shown below: Match typeCost per leadCustomer acquisition costSearch impression shareExact€35€45024%Phrase€34€1,48517%Broad€33€2,11618% This is a classic case of Google Ads optimizing to leads and delivering exactly what it was asked to do: drive the lowest possible cost per lead across all audiences. The algorithm is literal. It does not account for downstream outcomes, such as business-level KPIs. By taking back control, you can direct spend toward top-performing audiences that are not yet saturated. In this case, that meant exact match keywords. If you are not comfortable with older structures like match-type mirroring – or even SKAGs – learning advanced semantic techniques is a viable alternative. Those approaches can provide a more controlled starting point without relying entirely on automation. Myth 2: Meta’s Andromeda means more ads, better results This myth is particularly frustrating because it sounds logical and spreads quickly. The claim is simple: more creative means more learning, which leads to better auction performance. In practice, it far more reliably increases creative production costs than it improves results – and often benefits agencies more than advertisers. Creative volume only helps when ad platforms receive enough high-quality conversion signals. Without those signals, more ads simply mean more assets to rotate. The AI has nothing meaningful to learn from. Andromeda generated significant attention in 2025, and it gave marketers a new term to rally around. In reality, Andromeda is one component of Meta’s ad retrieval system: “This stage [Andromeda] is tasked with selecting ads from tens of millions of ad candidates into a few thousand relevant ad candidates.” That positioning coincided with Meta’s broader pivot from the metaverse narrative to AI. It worked. But it also led some teams to conclude that aggressive creative diversification was now required – more hooks, more formats, more variations, increasingly produced with generative AI. Similar to Google Ads’ push around automated bidding, broad match, and responsive search ads, Andromeda has become a convenient justification for adopting Advantage+ targeting and Advantage+ creative. Those approaches can perform well in the right conditions. They are not universally reliable. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. How to fix this Creative diversification helps platforms match messages to people and contexts. That value is real. It is also not new. The same fundamentals still apply: Creative testing requires a strategy. Testing without intent wastes resources. Measurement must be planned in advance. Otherwise you’re setting yourself up for failure. Business-level KPIs need to exist in sufficient volume to matter. This myth breaks down most clearly when resources are limited – budget, skills, or time. In those cases, platforms often rotate ads with little signal-driven direction. When resources are constrained, CRO is a better use of your resources: Review tracking. More tracked conversions improve performance. Improve the customer journey to increase conversion rates and signal volume. Map higher-margin products to support more efficient spend. Test new channels or networks using budget saved from excessive creative production. The pattern is consistent. Creative scale follows signal scale, not the other way around. Myth 3: GA4 and attribution are flawed, but marketing mix modeling will provide clarity Can you think of 10 marketers who believe GA4 is a good tool? Probably not. That alone speaks to how poorly Google handled the rollout. As a result, more clients now say the same thing: GA4 does not align with ad platform data, neither feels trustworthy, and a more “serious” solution must be needed. More often than not, that path leads to higher costs and average results. Most brands simply do not have the spend, scale, or complexity required for MMM to produce meaningful insight. Instead of adding another layer of abstraction, they would be better served by learning to use the tools they already have. For most brands, the setup looks familiar: Media spend is concentrated across two or three channels at most – typically Google and Meta, with YouTube, LinkedIn, or TikTok as secondary options. The business depends on a recurring but narrow customer base, which creates long-term fragility. Outside that core audience, marketing is barely incremental, if incremental at all. In those conditions, MMM does not add clarity. It adds abstraction. With such a limited channel mix, the focus should remain on fundamentals. The challenge is not modeling complexity, but identifying what is actually impactful. How to fix this The priorities below deliver more value than MMM in these scenarios: Differentiate clearly from competitors. Increase margins, even basic budget planning can move the needle. Build a solid data foundation, including tracking, CRO, and conversion pipelines. Diversify channels or ad networks. Lock creative execution to real customer pain points. Fix marketing execution wherever it breaks. MMM – like any advanced tool – becomes useful once complexity demands it. Not before. Used too early, it replaces accountability with abstraction, not insight. The reality behind the myths The common thread across these three myths is not AI, creative, or analytics. It is misuse. Platforms do exactly what they are asked to do. They optimize against the signals provided, within the constraints of budget and structure. When business fundamentals break, AI cannot fix the problem. 2026 is not about chasing the next abstraction. It is about business and ops focus, paired with disciplined execution, to scale profitably. View the full article

Late last year, Meta confirmed it would effectively be abandoning the metaverse, a nebulously defined project that spurred the company’s 2021 rebrand and has cost it over $70 billion since. At a strategy meeting at Mark Zuckerberg’s Hawaii compound, Reality Labs, the division responsible for the metaverse, was told to cut its budget by 30%, versus only 10% across the rest of the company. Reality Labs’ fate was arguably a long time coming: The division has never turned a profit, with cumulative losses these past five years totalling $73 billion. Wall Street reacted positively to the news, adding $69 billion to its market capitalization. You remember the metaverse, don’t you? The next stage of the internet’s evolution: a virtual reality full of legless avatars, sprawling, lifeless, digital malls, and nausea-inducing headsets. Upon the inception of the metaverse, its enthusiasts looked at vast swaths of the economy—gaming, online retail, digital advertising, compulsory Zoom meetings—and said: Imagine we did more of this, but on virtual reality platforms, mediated by micro-transactions and facilitated by cryptocurrency-backed assets. Relabeling the digital economy as the “metaverse” was a simple, elegant move—as well as a deeply cynical effort to rebrand already existing digital markets as the next internet—that allowed forecasts to assume an air of inevitability. Until it wasn’t. Perhaps more urgently now, the metaverse should also be understood as a dress rehearsal for today’s AI boom: The former was to succeed the mobile internet, while the latter now promises to be “more profound” than electricity or fire. Perpetually inflating definitions. A single-minded focus on profit that identifies but fails to address egregious harms. Manufactured narratives about inevitability and technological progress. Burning eyewatering sums on infrastructure for a product nobody wants. Any of this sound familiar? Talking it into existence At the heart of the metaverse derangement was the persistent inflation of its definition. McKinsey & Company proclaimed in June 2022 that the metaverse could generate “up to $5 trillion in impact by 2030—equivalent to the size of the world’s third-largest economy today, Japan.” McKinsey also estimated that e-commerce would comprise $2 trillion to $2.6 trillion of that share. Of the 3,400 consumers and executives McKinsey surveyed, 95% of “business leaders” expected positive impact from the metaverse in five to ten years, while 61% expected moderate changes to their industry’s operations. Incredibly, McKinsey’s was among the more conservative estimates. A few months before, Citigroup predicted the metaverse would become “the next iteration of the internet, or Web3.” While it would be “community-owned” and governed and guarantee “privacy by design,” it would also have a total addressable market (TAM) between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030, with some five billion users to boot, the bank estimated. And one month before that, Morgan Stanley sent an investor note anticipating that the metaverse represented an $8-trillion market opportunity in China alone. In an essay analyzing Web3 and the metaverse, tech critic Evgeny Morozov observes that a great deal of what was going on at this time was a performance aimed at conjuring new realities into being through language that, itself, spun up visions unmoored from reality. “The advocates of Web3 are quite explicit about this, we’ve got this beautiful map on our hands—all that’s missing is the territory it is supposed to refer to . . . if there’s no reality, we’ll create one by talking it into existence.” A mass hallucination Why was this mass hallucination indulged for so long? Part of it was because profit-driven surveillance and enclosure were core ambitions of the metaverse pivot. When it came to labor, the best-case scenario resembled employers’ platonic ideal: bypassing labor laws through remote work, misclassifying full-time workers due protections and benefits as contractors, paying arbitrage wages across borders, all while subjecting workers to cold, algorithmic overseers. As for consumers, they would be enlisted into digital sharecropping. Take Axie Infinity, the “play-to-earn” game once hailed as a crown jewel of Web3 and the metaverse. “Managers” in wealthy countries bought expensive NFTs, or non-fungible tokens (remember those?), then rented them to “scholars” in the Global South, who grinded for hours and hours in the game for a few pennies an hour, all in hopes of earning enough to one day become a manager with their own scholars. Was this a new economy? The future of the internet? Or the same old bitter taste? At the same time, a land grab for virtual real estate broke out. Speculators poured millions into Decentraland, The Sandbox, and other virtual worlds where “land” should, theoretically, be limitless and abundant. Yet the speculators imposed artificially limits, in hopes of inflating valuations of the digital real estate. This would allow investors to realize eyewatering returns on fundamentally worthless assets, like a slice of land in an abandoned virtual world. It would be akin to “buying property in Manhattan, but in a world where anyone could feasibly create an infinite amount of alternative Manhattans that are just as easy to get to. Which means the only reason for users to buy into this Manhattan is if it offers a better service than the others,” as Wired put it. The humbling Still, the emptiness did not deter Facebook, which rebranded as Meta on October 28, 2021, during Connect 2021, its annual developer conference. During the October announcement of Facebook’s pivot to the metaverse, Zuckerberg offered that “the last few years have been humbling for me and our company in a lot of ways.” That’s one word for it. That year, whistleblower Frances Haugen testified that Facebook products had harmed children, torched our democracy, while reaffirming its complicity in genocide in Myanmar and in “literally fanning ethnic violence” elsewhere. On another front, Apple changed iPhone privacy settings so that users could opt out of being tracked for personalized ads—Meta told investors the changes would cost it $10 billion of revenue in 2022. The impact may have been so steep that the firm is currently accused of “deliberately bypass[ing] privacy rules on Apple iPhones in a bid to boost revenues.” Amid all this came the metaverse Hail Mary: A transparent, desperate rebrand to sell the promise of “presence” in a virtual world. The pivot was about building a “total service environment”—a closed garden where consumers spend all day exclusively using one firm’s goods and services, a new world where Facebook was not seen as a parasite, but understood to be the landlord—the benevolent god watching over everything. “We should all be concerned about how Facebook could and will use the data collected within the metaverse,” warned Bree McEwan, a VR researcher. The physical world was becoming increasingly hostile to Meta’s relentless profit-seeking. Before Zuckerberg preached democratization, Meta spent the past few years busy at work on patents aimed at optimizing ad delivery through eye-tracking, gait analysis (to identify users by how they walk), and haptic feedback suits monitoring heart rate and emotional arousal. Parents and children were raising concerns about its impact on mental health and social relations. European regulators and American competitors were implementing changes that thwarted data extraction. Rise and fall Yet within a year of the rebrand, there was already trouble in (digital) paradise. By October 2022, Meta’s flagship virtual-reality game, Horizon Worlds, proved so buggy and unpopular that it was placed on “quality lockdown.” There was a time when Horizon Worlds claimed to have 200,000 monthly users (walking back claims of 300,000) and hoped to hit 500,000 by the end of the year. But by August 2023, it wasn’t even clear if there were more than 1,000 daily active users. Other virtual worlds like Decentraland and The Sandbox appeared to fare even worse. Some may insist that we can’t learn too much from the rise and fall of the metaverse—that it and Meta, more generally, are rogue mutations, aberrations from normal technological development or even from capitalism itself. But Meta is, actually, a more straightforwardly boring company than some critics might have you think. Facebook enthusiastically became Meta, and patented surveillance tools were adopted as a means to an end: making more and more of the rhythms of human life legible to markets. This is old wine in new bottles. From its earliest days, surveillance has helped minimize capitalist dysfunction by regimenting labor, stimulating consumer demand, satiating Wall Street’s hunger for reliable returns, and indulging the security state’s demand for total information awareness. Meta has been on a vision quest for business ventures that might rival (or bolster) its core advertising business ($51.2 billion Q3 ‘25, up 26% year-over-year). It tried and failed to take on the global financial system with a cryptocurrency called Libra, before stripping it down and selling what remained. It tried and failed to enter hardware with Building 8, which became Portal, which became nothing. Lacking his own currency or device, Zuckerberg made a bet that he could graft a virtual interface onto the digital and physical world (while pocketing a few more advertiser bucks along the way). Aberration vs. symptom If you are reading this in the year 2,025 A.D., you may have noticed there are many similarities between our former inevitable future (the metaverse) and our current inevitable future (generative artificial intelligence). While the word “metaverse” was not uttered once on Meta’s most recent earnings call, executives gushed about generative AI and anticipated “notably larger” growth in capital expenditures in 2026 than 2025—driven primarily by the AI infrastructure overbuild. The company expects to lose $72 billion on artificial intelligence through 2025. Reality Labs is expected to reallocate some metaverse funding to Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses—pitched as a new AI hardware product—that have seen huge growth in sales, even as the public galvanizes against the return of glassholes. There is the matter of narrative. The metaverse was hailed as “the successor to the mobile internet,” whereas artificial intelligence is “the next general-purpose technology” that will revolutionize human civilization. Just as the metaverse’s future was so obviously entwined with surveillance and enclosure, so too is the project of remaking the digital world for AI agents—regardless of whether they will ever exist, let alone work. There is the tiny problem of the numbers. The metaverse got multitrillion-dollar TAMs by reclassifying all digital activity; artificial intelligence gets multitrillion-dollar GDP contribution estimates by assuming unprecedented productivity improvements and sidestepping questions about the $2 trillion in revenue it needs by 2030 to justify capital expenditures on AI infrastructure. There is also the burning question of demand. In the metaverse era, startups offered crypto-tokens and complicated (Ponzi) schemes to artificially inflate demand. Today, tech firms are “investing” billions in AI startups but requiring those dollars be spent on the investor’s own cloud compute. Subsidizing your own revenue growth to impress Wall Street and create the illusion of organic demand is a tale as old as our tech sector’s origins. How will it go this time? And then there is the question of the fate of our physical world. Intel estimated the metaverse might have required a thousandfold increase in computing capacity, powered by data centers whose energy and environmental costs would be excluded from glossy demos and deks. The metaverse also prominently featured cryptocurrency, which itself demanded substantial amounts of energy. One White House report notes that “from 2018 to 2022, annualized electricity from global crypto-assets grew rapidly, with estimates of electricity usages doubling to quadrupling” landing somewhere between 120 and 240 billion kilowatt-hours per year—on the lower end, that’s more than the entirety of Argentina, but on the higher end this would rival Australia’s electricity usage. Had Meta succeeded, we would’ve built out much more energy-intensive computational infrastructure with a growing ecological cost. But we also would’ve fleshed out supply chains to extract and deliver critical minerals—meaning we would likely intensify child and slave labor that already prominent figures into these enterprises. A good thing, then, that Meta abandoned this path. Ironically enough, Nvidia offers a bridge between the two worlds: the fusion of the dead metaverse and the living generative AI hype in the “Omniverse.” In The New Yorker‘s 2023 profile of Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, he shows off “Diane,” a hyper-realistic avatar with blackheads on her nose and an “uncanny shimmer” in her eyes. “We’re working on that,” the specialist shares with the reporter. The goal is to speak “whole universes into existence.” The writer “felt dizzy” and shared that “I thought of science fiction; I thought of the Book of Genesis.” If that reaction is any guide, Nvidia may well succeed with its proselytizing where Meta failed. It would be a mistake to simply celebrate the death of the metaverse. Instead, we should understand why such a delusional fervor took hold so that we can inoculate ourselves as the next one spreads. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...View the full article

Hi there, As we look at the year ahead, perhaps the most liberating realization is this: many of our future successes are, in fact, up to us—shaped by our current actions and the choices we make along the way. Today’s reads reflect exactly that. While a bit of luck is always welcome, we hold significant power over how things unfold. If there’s one New Year’s resolution worth keeping, it’s this: the readiness to roll up our sleeves and work toward the things we want. -Maja Our Favorite Articles 💯Try to Take My Position (Andrew Graham-Yooll)A sharp reflection on ownership, accountability, and why actively claiming responsibility is often the fastest path to meaningful progress. 👉 ​Read more​. How to Make New Year’s Resolutions Stick (Lifehacker)Simple behavioral cues can turn good intentions into lasting habits—and help resolutions survive well beyond January. 👉 ​Keep reading​. What It Really Takes to Build a Business (Inc.)Behind every “overnight success” is disciplined execution, persistence, and a willingness to do the unglamorous work. 👉 ​Learn more​. What Actually Gets You Hired (Wellfound)A grounded look at modern recruiting realities, and what actually matters when reaching out to recruiters today. 👉 ​Find out more​. This Week's Sponsor 🙌Work From Quiet Rural Spain, 10% OffWork-ready stays in Spain for people who already work remotely. Housing included, reliable Wi-Fi, and a welcoming community. Great for your first remote-work trip. Keep your routine, upgrade your surroundings. Flexible dates, no membership. See Spain stay options now Remotive Jobs 💼Let's get you hired! This great company is hiring now: 💻 Engineering 👉 ​iOS Developer at nooro​ (USA Only) Free Guides & Tools​Premium Job Board​We curate 90 000+ fully remote jobs so you don't have to. ➡️ ​Find your remote job​ ​Job Search Tips​Looking for a remote job? Here are our tips to help you work remotely. ➡️ ​Check it out​​ Join the Remotive newsletter Subscribe to get our latest content by email. Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. Email address Subscribe Powered by ConvertKit View the full article

Federal Reserve chair says the probe relating to a $2.5bn renovation of HQ is a ‘pretext’ to rein in central bank’s independenceView the full article

The Wi-Fi optimisation experts at 7SIGNAL are opening up for the popular use of network AI Ops. The post 7SIGNAL is making networking AI Ops available to anyone – with integration to Claude, ChatGPT, & Copilot appeared first on Wi-Fi NOW Global. View the full article

New jobs trend signals painful pivot for accounting firms. By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

New jobs trend signals painful pivot for accounting firms. By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

I teach AI to editorial and PR teams for a living, and if there’s one thing that excites and engages them more than any other, it’s vibe coding. The highly visual and interactive projects my students create with vibe-coding tools often turn me into the person taking notes. Vibe coding is definitely having a moment. It’s arguably the most impactful thing to come out of the field of generative AI in the past year, at least as far as applied AI goes. Broadly, vibe coding is the practice of using AI to create not just “content,” but webpages, apps, and experiences—software people can actually do things with. And you don’t need to know a lick of code: The AI will take your plain-language prompts and do all the programming for you, whipping up pages or even entire websites in minutes. The thrill of the first click The feeling you get the first time you vibe-code something is similar to what you probably felt the first time you asked ChatGPT to write an essay. You feel incredibly empowered, and maybe even a bit fooled. “It can’t be that easy,” is a common thought. And you’d be right: Vibe-coded experiences are visually and technically impressive, but they are almost always one-offs: Turning them into stable tools you can use on an ongoing basis typically requires a wider set of software and developer skills. Nonetheless, vibe coding has the potential to be transformative for storytelling, newsrooms, and the media at large. At last, the people crafting content are no longer constrained by the tools forced upon them by their organizations. I remember the publication I worked at in the early days of blogging didn’t even have a gallery tool for readers to quickly scroll through images. Today, even absent AI, there are many platforms and plug-and-play tools to choose from, but they rarely have all the features you want. In any case, incorporating new software is typically a lengthy process in organizations. With vibe coding, creators can now build experiences that are tailored to the content, not the other way around. Like I mentioned at the outset, this often ignites an enthusiasm in storytellers and domain experts, which is leading to a fantastic uncorking of creativity as more journalists dabble with vibe coding, like an interactive explorer of Newark’s municipal service data or a webpage that turns wildfire point data into Datawrapper-ready hexagon maps. The challenge for media organizations is to translate that enthusiasm into deeper audience engagement, and to do it in an ongoing way. That, however, requires an approach that goes beyond simply giving reporters and editors permission to experiment. It requires new skills, specialized tools, and above all a culture shift. Turning vibe coding into a team sport sport The skill of vibe coding isn’t that different from “normal” AI skills, which is to say structured prompting and understanding how to collaborate with AI will get you a long way. But to get the most out of vibe coding, it helps to think first about what inputs you need (beyond your story) and find examples of other interactive experiences that are similar. Most importantly, think about what your audience wants and how you expect readers to interact with what you’re creating. Data journalists will probably have an advantage here, but it ultimately comes down to thinking a bit more like a product manager than a writer. You can technically vibe-code in the same platforms where you’re probably already using AI, such as ChatGPT and Claude, but software tailored to vibe coding can generally get you from prompt to product much faster. That said, the services that hew most closely to the familiar chat interface, such as Lovable and Base44, will be less intimidating to non-enthusiasts. For teams, the goal is to have a go-to platform where anyone can experiment with stories in a safe and private way. Given that the whole point of this software is to create web experiences for pushing out to audiences, that can be tricky, but most vibe-coding platforms have controls for keeping things secure by default while still enabling publishing to a public-facing site when you want to. To really take advantage of the interest in vibe coding, however, will often require a shift in culture. Many media organizations have rigid structures around product and editorial. AI has already begun to chip away at the wall separating creators and coders, and vibe coding essentially takes a sledgehammer to it. That can be unnerving to product teams used to roadmaps, strict QA, and defined KPIs. The teams that get this right will properly balance the desire to allow their creative teams to experiment—sometimes publicly—without turning their sites and strategy into the Wild West. Collaboration is key, and doing it successfully means various teams need to be fully aligned on the end goal: creating a pipeline from creativity to new, polished, and highly engaging experiences. As we move closer to “Google Zero” in 2026, media brands need to do more with the audiences they have, and vibe coding provides a means by which the entire team, not just product managers and engineers, can play a role in crafting that future. The future favors the flexible Vibe coding doesn’t need to replace existing newsroom workflows to matter. Its value comes in giving non-coder domain experts like journalists room to test ideas and think beyond the constraints of the CMS without waiting for an opening in the roadmap. Some of those ideas will remain one-offs, and that is fine. Others will point toward new formats worth formalizing. The organizations that benefit most will be the ones that encourage vibe coding as legitimate editorial exploration, support it with light structure rather than heavy oversight, and accept that the path to stronger audience relationships now runs through experimentation as much as execution. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Among OLED gaming monitors, the Odyssey G8 is in the top tier, offering a 32-inch 4K QD-OLED panel with 3840 x 2160 resolution, a blistering 240Hz refresh rate, and near-instant 0.03 ms (GtG) response time. But previous models were held back because of its Tizen OS—while marketed as a monitor, Odyssey was really a TV in disguise. With the new G81SF model, Samsung has finally fixed it, returning the G8 to a proper monitor setup. And Woot is currently offering the 32-inch model at a deep discount: $769.99, $540 off the $1299.99 retail price. The removal of the Tizen OS means no software bloat, and no waiting for the TV menu to boot up before shifting to your desktop. You do lose out on the built-in speakers, but it's a worthy sacrifice. The monitor features an RGB ring at the back, with its CoreSync feature creating an ambient lighting effect by projecting the on-screen colors onto the wall behind the monitor. There's also fan-less cooling via a pulsating heat pump, which allows it to run completely silently and without a fan, while reducing burn-in risk. These are critical features in high-end QD-OLED displays. (You also get a large array of ports. Two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, USB-A hub, and a headphone jack.) In its review of the earlier model with the Tizen OS, PCMag gave it a 4-star "Excellent" rating, and the display panel and specs remain the same in the model currently on sale. According to PCMag's expert review, "Rocking a full 4K resolution (3,840 by 2,160 pixels) at a maximum 240Hz refresh rate, the monitor looks fantastic and plays even better... [It] excels for gaming and does everything else to a very high standard too." It's a good buy, especially at this price. View the full article

Where success is concerned—in whatever way you choose to define success—effort matters. So does skill. Experience. Perseverance. A willingness to do what others will not. And a little bit of luck: A study published in Physics and Society found that while some degree of talent is necessary to be successful in life, “almost never do the most talented people reach the highest peaks of success, being overtaken by mediocre but sensibly luckier individuals.” Outworking, outthinking, and outlasting other people will definitely improve your odds of success, but still: You need a little luck. Fortunately, all luck isn’t necessarily random. According to neurologist James Austin in his book Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty, there are four basic types of luck, and three of them you at least partly control: Blind luck. Opportunity, or outcome, without effort. Unforeseen, and more important, uncontrollable. Counting on blind luck? Good luck with that. Luck from motion. Taking action. Trying things. Doing things. Like when I cold-emailed someone to tell them I admired their work. (Which, although I couldn’t have predicted it, nor intended it to happen, wound up landing me one of my most lucrative and fulfilling ghostwriting gigs.) You can’t luck into meeting the right person unless you meet a number of people; the more people you meet, the more your odds of getting lucky increase. “Lucking” into meeting the right person is just one form of luck from motion. Because luck is often found, but it’s almost never found on the literal (or figurative) couch. Luck from awareness. Spotting—and then seizing—opportunities. Being lucky enough to recognize an opportunity is one thing; you’re only truly lucky if you also possess the skills, experience, resources, etc. required to take advantage of the opportunity. While I was lucky enough to live next door to a cofounder of Rosetta Stone, I didn’t have the foresight—or money—to invest. Even so, according to an experiment described by Richard Wiseman in The Luck Factor, people who consider themselves lucky tend to spot and seize more opportunities than people who consider themselves unlucky. Oddly enough, simply believing you’re lucky is causal. In the experiment, people who saw themselves as lucky spotted an opportunity much more quickly—in some cases, people who saw themselves as unlucky never spotted it—and were also quicker to believe it actually was an opportunity, and act on it. The difference was self-perception, not access to opportunity. The key is to pay attention, and believe that paying attention will make a difference. Because it will. Luck from uniqueness. Austin says this involves “distinctive, if not eccentric, hobbies, personal lifestyles, and motor behaviors” (think actions). Keep in mind you don’t have to be a little wacky to be unique. I’m decidedly average in all things. But the fact that I know a lot about Formula 1, and Australian rules football, and construction, and Henry VIII’s six wives turned a chance meeting in an airport lounge into an hourlong conversation that sparked a decades-long, mutually beneficial professional and personal relationship. It was partly blind luck I ran into that person. But I was also in motion. And I did quickly realize he was a fascinating conversationalist. And the fact that we share a fairly esoteric blend of interests made us both distinctive, at least to each other. Bottom line? If you want to get luckier, meet more people. Do more things. Try more things. Try more unusual things. Be generous, especially with congratulations and praise. And when you see an opportunity, don’t be afraid to ask. Luck sometimes results from the right person saying yes: to your idea, to your startup, to your pitch, to your proposal, to your request. But no one says yes unless you ask. As Steve Jobs said, “Most people never ask, and that’s what separates, sometimes, the people who do things from the people who just dream about them.” You can’t control blind luck. But you can, to some degree, control the other forms of luck. What you can control is how you respond to chance or circumstance. And, most important, how often you put yourself into a position to be lucky. —Inc. View the full article

Iranians have suffered years of inflation, devaluation and stuttering growthView the full article

Paul Thomas Anderson’s ragtag revolutionary saga “One Battle After Another” took top honors at Sunday’s 83rd Golden Globes in the comedy category, while Chloé Zhao’s Shakespeare drama “Hamnet” pulled off an upset over “Sinners” to win best film, drama. “One Battle After Another” won best film, comedy, supporting female actor for Teyana Taylor and best director and best screenplay for Anderson. He became just the second filmmaker to sweep director, screenplay and film, as a producer, at the Globes. Only Oliver Stone, for “Born on the Fourth of July,” managed the same feat. In an awards ceremony that went almost entirely as expected, the night’s final award was the most surprising. While “One Battle After Another” has been the clear front-runner this awards season, most have pegged Ryan Coogler’s Jim Crow-era vampire thriller as its closest competition. But “Hamnet,” a speculative drama about William and Agnes Shakespeare based on Maggie O’Farrell’s bestseller, won in the dramatic category shortly after its star, Jessie Buckley, won best female actor in a drama. It was a banner night for Warner Bros., the studio behind “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners.” Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to be sold to Netflix in an $83 billion deal. Paramount Skydance has appealed to shareholders with its own rival offer. In his speech after winning best director, Anderson praised Warner co-chief Michael DeLuca. “He said he wanted to run a studio one day and let filmmakers make whatever they want,” said Anderson. “That’s how you get ‘Sinners.’ That’s how you get a ‘Weapons.’ That’s how you get ‘One Battle After Another.'” The final awards brought to, or near, the stage a handful of the most talented filmmakers together in Anderson, Zhao and Coogler — plus Steven Spielberg, a producer of “Hamnet.” Regardless of who won what, it was a heartening moment of solidarity between them, with a shared sense of purpose. Zhao fondly recalled being at Sundance Labs with Coogler when they were each starting out. “As students, let’s keep our hearts open and let’s keep seeing each other and allowing each other to be seen,” said Zhao, while Coogler smiled from the front row. “Sinners” won for best score and cinematic and box-office achievement. The win for box office and cinematic achievement, over franchise films like “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” was notable for Coogler’s film, a movie that some reports labeled a qualified success on its release. Yet “Sinners” ultimately grossed $278 million domestically and $368 million worldwide, making it highest grossing original film in 15 years. “I just want to thank the audience for showing up,” said Coogler. “It’s means the world.” Coming off years of scandal and subsequent rehabilitation, the Globes and host Nikki Glaser put on a star-studded ceremony that saw wins for the streaming sensation “KPop Demon Hunters” (best animated film, song), a meta triumph for Seth Rogen’s “The Studio” and an inaugural award for podcasting that went to Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang.” Many of the Oscar favorites won. Timothee Chalamet won his first Golden Globe, for “Marty Supreme,” after four previous nominations. The 30-year-old is poised to win his first Oscar. Fellow nominees like Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney stood to applaud his win. “My dad instilled in me a spirit of gratitude growing up: Always be grateful for what you have,” said Chalamet. “It’s allowed me to leave this ceremony in the past empty handed, my head held high, grateful just to be here. I’d be lying if I didn’t say those moments didn’t make this moment that much sweeter.” Glaser comes out swinging The Globes, held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, got underway with a pointedly political opening from host Nikki Glaser and an early award for the night’s favorite, “One Battle After Another.” Emceeing the show for the second straight year, Glaser kicked off the show with self-aware satire. “Yes, the Golden Globes, without a doubt the most important thing happening in the world right now,” she said. In a winning, rapid-fire opening monologue that landed some punch lines on the usual subjects — the age of Leonardo DiCaprio’s dates, Kevin Hart’s height — Glaser also dove right into some of her most topical material. For the on-the-block Warner Bros., Glaser started the bidding at $5. Referencing the Epstein files, she suggested best editing should go to the Justice Dept. The “most editing,” however, she suggested deserved to go to Bari Weiss’ new CBS News — a dig at the Paramount Skydance-owned network airing the Globes. Globes mix glitz and gloom Political tension and industrywide uncertainty were the prevailing moods heading into Sunday’s awards. Hollywood is coming off a disappointing box-office year and now anxiously awaits the fate of one of its most storied studios, Warner Bros. Following the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, several attendees wore pins reading “Be Good.” The Globes, formerly presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, have no overlap or direct correlation with the Academy Awards. After being sold in 2023 to Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions, a part of Penske Media, the Globes are voted on by around 400 people. The Oscars are voted on by more than 10,500 professionals. But in the fluctuating undulations of awards season, a good speech at the Globes can boost an Oscar campaign. Winners Sunday included Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”) for best female actor in a comedy or musical, and Wagner Moura, the Brazilian star of “The Secret Agent,” for best male actor in a drama. Kleber Mendonça Filho’s period political thriller also won best international film. “I think if trauma can be passed along generations, values can do,” Moura said. “So this to the ones who are sticking with their values in difficult moments.” Other winners Sunday included the supporting actor front-runner, Stellan Skarsgård who won for the Norwegian family drama “Sentimental Value.” It was the first major Hollywood movie award for the 74-year-old, a respected veteran actor who drew a standing ovation. “I was not prepared for this because I, of course, thought I was too old,” said Skarsgård. ‘The Studio’ and ‘Adolesence’ win In the television awards, “The Pitt” took best drama series, while Noah Wyle won, too, brushing past his former “ER”-star Clooney on the way to the stage. Netflix’s “Adolescence” won four awards: best limited series, and acting awards for Erin Doherty, Stephen Graham and 16-year-old Owen Cooper. Other winners included Rhea Seehorn for “Pluribus” and Jean Smart for “Hacks.” But the most comically poignant award of the night went to “The Studio,” the best comedy series winner. Seth Rogen’s Hollywood satire memorably included an episode devoted to drama around a night at the Globes. (Sample line: “I remember when the red carpet of the Golden Globes actually stood for something.”) Rogen also won best male actor in a comedy. “This is so weird,” Rogen said, chuckling. “We just pretended to do this. And now it’s happening.” For more coverage of this year’s Golden Globe Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/golden-globe-awards —Jake Coyle, AP Film Writer View the full article

Former deputy national security adviser in Donald The President’s first term served on tech company’s board last yearView the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. When you're working out or running, finding secure-fitting earbuds is a challenge. JBL has a solution in the form of their JBL Endurance Peak 3 earbuds, and Amazon is discounting them to $59.95 (down from $99.99), the lowest price we've seen. JBL Endurance Peak 3 $59.95 at Amazon $99.95 Save $40.00 Shop Now Shop Now $59.95 at Amazon $99.95 Save $40.00 The JBL Endurance Peak 3 is the antithesis to the AirPods. They feature a "Powerhook" design that loops over your ear to keep them in place, no matter how intense your movements are. The earbuds also have a long battery life. You get 50 hours of total playtime, and the buds themselves last 10 hours each charge cycle. And being a fitness focused earbud, they aren't just sweat-resistant; they are fully waterproof. Thanks to the IP68 rating, they can survive submersion in salt or fresh water up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes, making them durable enough for surfing or rinsing off in the sink. The JBL sound is also tuned for workouts. The 10mm delivers, rich, bass-heavy sound to keep your adrenaline up. And they are a lot safer to wear while running outdoors. JBL has an Ambient Aware feature that lets background noises in, and you can speak with people without taking them off. PCMag gave the Endurance Peak 3 a 4-star "Excellent" rating and an Editor's Choice award, praising them specifically for their rugged utility. According to PCMag, "JBL's Endurance Peak 3 earphones are a fantastic option for fitness fanatics. Their bass-forward sound signature makes them ideal for motivating your workouts, their in-ear fit is exceptionally secure, and a best-in-class IP68 rating means you don't have to worry about dust and water exposure." Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $229.99 (List Price $249.00) Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 46mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant — $329.00 (List Price $429.00) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — (List Price $24.99 With Code "FTV4K25") Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 — $279.99 (List Price $349.99) Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ 10.9" 64GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Graphite) — $149.99 (List Price $219.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

A criminal investigation of Jay Powell is the latest in the reworking of the world’s most important financial institution View the full article

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Sunday the Department of Justice has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations. The move represents an unprecedented escalation in President Donald The President’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans. The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project that The President has criticized as excessive. Powell on Sunday cast off what has up to this point been a restrained approach to The President’s criticisms and personal insults, which he has mostly ignored. Instead, Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates. “The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President,” Powell said. “This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions — or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.” It’s a sharp departure from the Fed’s understated response to The President this year. The central bank has attempted to placate the administration by dialing back some policies, such as efforts to consider the impact of climate change on the banking system, that the administration clearly opposed. The renewed attacks on the Fed’s independence, and Powell’s full-throated defense, reignite what had appeared to be a dormant battle between The President and the chair he appointed in 2017. The subpoenas will renew fears that the Fed’s independence from day-to-day politics will be compromised, which could undermine global investors’ confidence in U.S. Treasury securities. “We expect the dollar, bonds and stocks to all fall in Monday trading in a sell-America trade similar to that in April last year at the peak of the tariff shock and earlier threat to Powell’s position as Fed chair,” Krishna Guha, an analyst at Evercore ISI, an investment bank, wrote in a note to clients. “We are stunned by this deeply disturbing development which came out of the blue after a period in which tensions between The President and the Fed seemed to be contained,” Guha added. In a brief interview with NBC News Sunday, The President insisted he didn’t know about the investigation into Powell. When asked if the investigation is intended to pressure Powell on rates, The President said, “No. I wouldn’t even think of doing it that way.” Powell’s term as chair ends in May, and The President administration officials have signaled that he could name a potential replacement this month. The President has also sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, an unprecedented step, though she has sued to keep her job and courts have ruled she can remain in her seat while the case plays out. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case Jan. 21. At the Senate Banking Committee hearing in June, Chairman Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, said the Fed’s building renovation included “rooftop terraces, custom elevators that open into VIP dining rooms, white marble finishes, and even a private art collection.” Powell disputed those details in his testimony, saying “there’s no new marble. … there are no special elevators” and added that some of the controversial items are “not in the current plan.” In July, Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a letter to Powell that his testimony about changes to the building plans “raises serious questions about the project’s compliance” with previous plans approved by a planning commission. Still, later that month, The President visited the building site and, while standing next to Powell, overstated the cost of the renovation. Later that day, The President, speaking to reporters, downplayed any concerns with the renovation. He said, “they have to get it done” and added, “Look, there’s always Monday morning quarterbacks. I don’t want to be that. I want to help them get it finished.” When asked if it was a firing offense, The President said, “I don’t want to put that in this category.” The Justice Department in a statement Sunday said it can’t comment on any particular case, but added that Attorney General Pam Bondi “has instructed her US Attorneys to prioritize investigating any abuse of tax payer dollars.” Timothy Lauer, a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office, said they don’t comment on ongoing investigations. With the subpoenas, Powell becomes the latest perceived adversary of the president to face a criminal investigation by the The President administration’s Justice Department. The President himself has urged prosecutions of his political opponents, obliterating institutional guardrails for a Justice Department that for generations has taken care to make investigative and prosecutorial decisions independent of the White House. The potential indictment has already drawn concern from one Republican senator, who said he’ll oppose any future nominee to the central bank, including any replacement for Powell, until “this legal matter is fully resolved.” “If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the The President Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none,” said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who sits on the Banking Committee, which oversees Fed nominations. “It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question.” Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Eric Tucker, Michael Kunzelman, and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report. —Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer View the full article

Last week, Boris Cherny, the creator and head of Anthropic’s popular Claude Code programming agent, posted ​a thread on X​ about how he personally used the AI tool in his own work. It created a stir. “What began as a casual sharing of his personal terminal setup has spiraled into a viral manifesto on the future of software development,” explained a ​VentureBeat article​ about the incident. As Cherny explained, he runs five different instances of the coding agent at the same time, each in its own tab in his terminal: ‘While one agent runs a test suite, another refactors a legacy module, and a third drafts documentation.’ He cycles rapidly through these tabs, providing further instruction or gentle prods to each agent as needed, checking their work, and sending them back to improve their output. One user, responding to the thread, ​described the approach​ like playing the famously fast-paced video game Starcraft. The VentureBeat article described Cherny as operating like a “fleet commander.” It all seemed like a lot of fun. But here’s the thing: If I were a software developer, I would be wary of any such demonstration. In his 1974 book, ​Labor and Monopoly Capital​, the influential Marxist political economist Harry Braverman argued that the expanding “science-technical revolution” was being exploited by companies to increasingly “deskill” workers; to leave them in “ignorance, incapacity, and thus in fitness for machine servitude.” The more employees outsource skilled activity to machines, the more controllable they become. It’s hard not to hear echoes of Braverman’s deskilling argument in something like Cherny’s AI programming demo. A world in which software development is reduced to the ersatz management of energetic but messy digital agents is a world in which a once important economic sector is stripped down to fewer, more poorly paid jobs, as wrangling agents requires much less skill than producing elegant code from scratch. The consumer would fare no better, as the resulting software would be less stable and innovation would slow. The only group that would unambiguously benefit from deskilling developers would be the technology companies themselves, which could minimize one of their biggest expenses: their employees. Boris Cherny is a senior technical lead at Anthropic who manages a large team and likely owns a significant amount of stock options in the company. Of course, he’s excited about the idea of agents replacing programmers, but that doesn’t mean we have to share his enthusiasm. — P.S., I don’t mean to deny the value of AI tools for programmers. I’ve talked to many developers who have found great utility in using AI to help (​apparently​) speed up programming tasks. What makes me suspicious is the claim that shifting to a world in which you just assign agents work is somehow just the natural next step in programming productivity. It might seem cool in the moment, but something more profound and dark might be lurking beneath these gee-whiz demos. The post Be Wary of Digital Deskilling appeared first on Cal Newport. View the full article

Last week, Boris Cherny, the creator and head of Anthropic’s popular Claude Code programming agent, posted ​a thread on X​ about how he personally used the AI tool in his own work. It created a stir. “What began as a casual sharing of his personal terminal setup has spiraled into a viral manifesto on the future of software development,” explained a ​VentureBeat article​ about the incident. As Cherny explained, he runs five different instances of the coding agent at the same time, each in its own tab in his terminal: ‘While one agent runs a test suite, another refactors a legacy module, and a third drafts documentation.’ He cycles rapidly through these tabs, providing further instruction or gentle prods to each agent as needed, checking their work, and sending them back to improve their output. One user, responding to the thread, ​described the approach​ like playing the famously fast-paced video game Starcraft. The VentureBeat article described Cherny as operating like a “fleet commander.” It all seemed like a lot of fun. But here’s the thing: If I were a software developer, I would be wary of any such demonstration. In his 1974 book, ​Labor and Monopoly Capital​, the influential Marxist political economist Harry Braverman argued that the expanding “science-technical revolution” was being exploited by companies to increasingly “deskill” workers; to leave them in “ignorance, incapacity, and thus in fitness for machine servitude.” The more employees outsource skilled activity to machines, the more controllable they become. It’s hard not to hear echoes of Braverman’s deskilling argument in something like Cherny’s AI programming demo. A world in which software development is reduced to the ersatz management of energetic but messy digital agents is a world in which a once important economic sector is stripped down to fewer, more poorly paid jobs, as wrangling agents requires much less skill than producing elegant code from scratch. The consumer would fare no better, as the resulting software would be less stable and innovation would slow. The only group that would unambiguously benefit from deskilling developers would be the technology companies themselves, which could minimize one of their biggest expenses: their employees. Boris Cherny is a senior technical lead at Anthropic who manages a large team and likely owns a significant amount of stock options in the company. Of course, he’s excited about the idea of agents replacing programmers, but that doesn’t mean we have to share his enthusiasm. — P.S., I don’t mean to deny the value of AI tools for programmers. I’ve talked to many developers who have found great utility in using AI to help (​apparently​) speed up programming tasks. What makes me suspicious is the claim that shifting to a world in which you just assign agents work is somehow just the natural next step in programming productivity. It might seem cool in the moment, but something more profound and dark might be lurking beneath these gee-whiz demos. The post Be Wary of Digital Deskilling appeared first on Cal Newport. View the full article

After seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2025, Ohio-based retail chain American Signature Inc. (ASI) now says it will close all of its Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture stores. Here’s what you need to know about the first major home retail store closings of the year, and why some of the chain’s customers need to beware. What’s happened? As Fast Company previously reported, home furnishings retailer American Signature Inc. announced in November that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Ohio-based company was founded 78 years ago in 1948 and grew to become one of the country’s largest regional home furnishings chains. Its two retail furnishing brands are Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture. The company saw rapid growth during the COVID-19 years, as more people stayed home, thus spurring the desire for in-home upgrades. But in the years since the pandemic, Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture have seen their fortunes decline. When ASI filed for bankruptcy in November, the company cited several factors, including rising interest rates, inflation, and President The President’s tariffs, which have hit furniture makers hard. All this was exacerbated by “one of the most severe housing market declines in recent history,” the company noted at the time. How many stores are closing? At the time of its November bankruptcy filing, ASI said the company had a combined 120 Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture stores across 17 states. It immediately started closing some of those stores across 11 states, while ASI’s strategic advisor, C Street Advisory Group, noted at the time that its future store footprint would ultimately “be determined by the outcome of the sale process.” Unfortunately for the store’s customers and employees, American Signature Inc. did not find a buyer willing to keep the chains open. As a result, all remaining Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture stores have now begun going-out-of-business sales, which will see all locations permanently close. In a press release announcing the closure of all stores, the company’s liquidators, Gordon Brothers, and advisors, which include Hilco Global and SB360 Capital Partners, said that all of American Signature Inc.’s 89 remaining stores will shutter. Customers should beware When a retail chain holds going-out-of-business sales, customers are normally advised that all sales are final and that no returns will be accepted. That is the case here, too. But Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture customers who had previously placed deposits on items and not yet received them should take special note. On an FAQ section posted on the company’s website, the chain says that if a customer had previously placed a deposit on an order they have not yet received, the company will do its “best to fulfill customer orders for products that are currently in stock.” However, these order fulfillments are not guaranteed. And if an order that a customer placed a deposit on cannot be fulfilled, the company notes that “We are not offering refunds at the time.” Instead, customers will have to file a claim to apply for a refund on their deposit. However, this claim may not be granted as bankruptcy procedures dictate that the company’s creditors must be paid back first, with any remaining funds the company has. Customers owed money are the last in line. Full list of closing Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture stores ASI has a list of all its remaining stores that are currently running going-out-of-business sales before they shutter for good. However, it should be noticed that this list, generated by the company’s store locator tool, currently lists 94 locations as having going-out-of-business sales. This is five more stores than the 89 remaining stores the company cited in its press release. Before you make the trip to any closing store, it’s best to contact the store directly to see whether it is still open. According ot the company’s store location tool, below are the remaining American Signature Inc. stores, which will close once their going-out-of-business sales are complete: Closing American Signature Furniture stores Delaware 301 Governors Place, Bear, DE 19701 Florida 150 S SR 434 #1080, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714 161 Brandon Town Center Drive, Brandon, FL 33511 13711-2 South Tamiami Trail, Fort Myers, FL 33912 9400 Atlantic Blvd, Suite 100A, Jacksonville, FL 32225 6001 Argyle Forest Blvd, Jacksonville, FL 32244 7463 West Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32818 730 Sand Lake Road, Suite #100, Orlando, FL 32809 15018 North Dale-Mabry Highway, Tampa, FL 33618 5455 University Parkway, University Park, FL 34201 Tennessee 2821 Wilma Rudolph Blvd, Clarksville, TN 37040 1770 Galleria Blvd, Franklin, TN 37067 2130 Gallatin Pike North, Madison, TN 37115 2075 Old Fort Pkwy, Murfreesboro, TN 37129 Closing Value City Furniture stores Illinois 4380 East New York Street, Aurora, IL 60504 8310 South Cicero Avenue, Burbank, IL 60459 2100 159th Street, Calumet City, IL 60409 2536 N. Elston Ave, Chicago, IL 60647 1508 Butterfield Rd, Downers Grove, IL 60515 10705 Lincoln Trail, Fairview Heights, IL 62208 3355 Mall Loop Drive, Joliet, IL 60431 49 West North Avenue, Northlake, IL 60164 15770 South La Grange Road, Orland Park, IL 60462 1015 E. Golf Rd, Schaumburg, IL 60173 Indiana 5330 East Indiana Street, Evansville, IN 47715 811 Northcrest Shopping Center, Ft. Wayne, IN 46805 1218 US 31 North, Greenwood, IN 46142 5450 East 82nd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46250 2580 East 79th Avenue, Merrillville, IN 46410 2437 East Main Street, Plainfield, IN 46168 Kentucky 8032 Burlington Pike, Florence, KY 41042 3220 Nicholasville Road, Lexington, KY 40503 2321 Sir Barton Way, Suite 170, Lexington, KY 40509 3426 Preston Highway, Louisville, KY 40213 4623 Shelbyville Rd, Louisville, KY 40207 Maryland 5840 Baltimore National Pike, Baltimore, MD 21228 559 Baltimore Pike, Bel Air, MD 21014 5500 Buckeystown Pike, Ste 800, Frederick, MD 21703 22 Mountain Road, Glen Burnie, MD 21060 1581 Wesel Blvd, Hagerstown, MD 21740 8301 Annapolis Road, New Carrollton, MD 20784 1260 Smallwood Drive, Waldorf, MD 20603 5240 Campbell Blvd Suite E, White Marsh, MD 21236 Michigan 42595 Ford Rd, Canton, MI 48187 4577 Miller Rd, Flint, Flint, MI 48507 4375 28th Street SE, Kentwood, MI 49512 2780 Tittawabassee Road, Saginaw, MI 48604 33377 Van Dyke Avenue, Sterling Heights, MI 48312 23859 Eureka Road, Taylor, MI 48180 1775 Oak Hollow Dr, Traverse City, MI 49686 45350 Utica Park Blvd, Utica, MI 48315 8300 N Wayne Rd, Westland, MI 48185 Missouri 13961 Manchester Rd, Ballwin, MO 63011 970 Northwest Plaza, St. Ann, MO 63074 202 Mid Rivers Mall Drive, St. Peters, MO 63376 North Carolina 2320 Sardis Road North, Charlotte, NC 28227 9527 South Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28273 8101 N. University City Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28213 New York 3160 West Ridge Road, Greece, NY 14626 1000 Hylan Drive Suite 206, Henrietta, NY 14623 Ohio 2675 Fairfield Commons Blvd, Beavercreek, OH 45431 443 Boardman-Poland Road, Boardman, OH 44512 7500 Brookpark Road, Brooklyn, OH 44129 5577 Dressler Road NW, Canton, OH 44720 6067 East Main Street, Columbus, OH 43213 4300 W. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43228 3700 West Dublin Granville Rd. Columbus, OH 43235 1091 Gemini Place, Columbus, OH 43240 3740 Easton Market, Columbus, OH 43219 790 Howe Ave, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221 1301 E Mall Dr, Holland, OH 43528 7767 Mentor Avenue, Mentor, OH 44060 4700 Great Northern Blvd, North Olmsted, OH 44070 202 East Market Street, Sandusky, OH 44870 94 West Kemper Road, Springdale, OH 45246 50471 Valley Plaza Drive, St. Clairsville, OH 43950 4475 Monroe Street, Toledo, OH 43613 4095 Richmond Road, Warrensville Heights, OH 44122 Pennsylvania 20111 Route 19 Suite B, Cranberry Township, PA 16066 5047 Jonestown Road, Harrisburg, PA 17112 3801 William Penn Highway, Monroeville, PA 15146 451 Clairton Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15236 1400 Park Manor Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15205 South Carolina 240 Forum Dr, Columbia, SC 29229 140 Columbiana Dr, Columbia, SC 29212 Virginia 1412 Greenbrier Pkwy, Unit 100, Chesapeake, VA 23320 4300 Portsmouth Blvd, Suite 200, Chesapeake, VA 23321 5516 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041 1731 Carl D Silver Parkway, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 1250 Huguenot Rd, Midlothian, VA 23113 2720 North Mall Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23452 2500 Prince William Parkway, Woodbridge, VA 22192 West Virginia 1423 Roby Road, Route 60, Huntington, WV 25705 400 Lakeview Center, Parkersburg, WV 26101 View the full article

A company legal name is the official title under which your business operates, and it plays a critical role in establishing your entity’s legal identity. This name appears on fundamental documents like articles of incorporation and must include a corporate identifier such as LLC or Inc. Additionally, it must be unique within your state to guarantee compliance with legal requirements. Comprehending the nuances of a legal name can greatly impact your business’s operations and protection against infringement. Key Takeaways A company legal name is the official identifier for a business, appearing on essential documents like articles of incorporation. It must include a corporate identifier and be unique within the state to avoid confusion and legal issues. The legal name is crucial for contracts, tax filings, and establishing the business as a separate legal entity. Legal names ensure compliance with regulations and protect against unauthorized use of the business’s trade name. Understanding the distinction between legal names and trade names aids in effective branding and legal navigation. Definition of a Company Legal Name A company legal name serves as the official identifier for a business, appearing on essential documents like articles of incorporation or articles of organization submitted to the state. This legal entity name must include a corporate identifier, such as LLC, Inc., or Corp, which indicates its business structure. According to business name law, the legal name must likewise be unique within the state to prevent confusion with other entities. This uniqueness is critical for legal identification in contracts, tax filings, and official communications with government bodies. If you ever need to change your legal name, you must follow a formal process by filing the appropriate documents, ensuring that no other business can adopt a name already in use. Importance of a Legal Name for Businesses A legal name is crucial for your business as it establishes your legal identity and guarantees that you’re recognized as a separate entity under the law. This name is fundamental for the validity of contracts, allowing you to enter agreements confidently as well as complying with various regulations and requirements. Legal Identity Establishment Establishing a legal identity for your business hinges on selecting an appropriate legal name, as it serves as the foundation for your company’s official recognition. Your legal name, often referred to as the entity name, must comply with state regulations and include a corporate identifier like LLC or Inc. This unique legal name is crucial for formal activities such as signing contracts, opening bank accounts, and filing taxes. It safeguards your trade name business from unauthorized use by others, ensuring it remains distinct in the marketplace. Legal Name Entity Name Trade Name Business Official name Registered name Marketing name Includes LLC/Inc Distinct identity Brand representation Required for contracts Legal compliance Consumer recognition Contractual Validity Assurance In relation to business transactions, using your legal name in contracts is fundamental for guaranteeing that those agreements hold up in court. This legal name clearly identifies the parties involved, which is significant if disputes arise. Without it, you risk invalidating contracts, leading to financial losses and legal complications. For American Express company names, it’s imperative to distinguish between your legal name and trade name examples, as the latter may not suffice in legal matters. Comprehending what an entity name is can help clarify this distinction. Always confirm your legal name is used in all formal agreements to establish credibility and trust with clients, suppliers, and financial institutions, as well as meeting your tax obligations. Compliance With Regulations Using your legal name correctly in business operations extends beyond ensuring contractual validity; it moreover plays a significant role in complying with state regulations. Your legal name must be included in formation documents to establish your business entity officially. This compliance isn’t just a formality; it likewise affects your tax obligations, as accurate tax filings hinge on using the correct legal name. In addition, contracts should be signed under this name to maintain their validity, safeguarding your business from potential legal disputes. Including specific identifiers like LLC, Inc., or Corp is necessary to clarify your business type to the public. Neglecting these naming requirements can lead to registration issues, fines, or even the inability to operate legally in your state. Legal Names for Corporations, LLCs, and LPs When you’re forming a corporation, LLC, or LP, you need to choose a legal name that meets specific requirements outlined in your formation documents. This name must include an identifier like “Inc.,” “LLC,” or “LP” and should be distinct from all other registered businesses in your state to avoid confusion. Moreover, you can reserve your chosen name for a limited time before filing, ensuring it remains available for your use. Formation Document Requirements Establishing a legal name for your business is vital, as it both represents your organization and fulfills state requirements for formation documents. For corporations, LLCs, and LPs, your legal name must include a corporate identifier, like “Inc.” for corporations or “LLC” for limited liability companies. This name appears on all formation documents filed with the state, distinguishing your business from others in the same jurisdiction. States require that your legal name be distinct to prevent confusion and misrepresentation. To officially establish your legal name, you’ll need to file articles of incorporation or organization. This name will be critical for legal contracts, tax filings, and official communications, ensuring that your business operates smoothly and within legal boundaries. Name Reservation Process Once you’ve determined your business’s legal name, securing it through the name reservation process is a strategic step. This allows you to temporarily hold your desired name, preventing others from using it as you prepare your registration paperwork. Here’s how to navigate the reservation process: Check Name Availability: Conduct a name availability check to ascertain compliance with state regulations. Submit Application: Fill out the name reservation application required by your state. Pay the Fee: Include any applicable reservation fee with your application. Duration: Most states offer a reservation period of up to 120 days, giving you time to finalize your formation documents. Distinctive Name Necessity Choosing a distinctive legal name for your corporation, LLC, or limited partnership is essential not just for compliance but equally for establishing your business identity. Your legal name must include a corporate identifier like “Inc.,” “LLC,” or “LP,” which clearly indicates your business type. Furthermore, it must be unique to avoid confusion with other registered businesses in your state, ensuring legal recognition. States often allow you to reserve a name before filing registration paperwork, giving you a temporary hold on your choice. This distinctive name appears in formation documents like Articles of Incorporation, helping you comply with business entity laws. A unique name protects you from infringement issues and promotes a strong identity in the marketplace. Legal Names for Sole Proprietorships The legal name of a sole proprietorship plays an essential role in defining the business and its operations. Typically, this name is the same as your personal name, making your business legally indistinguishable from you as the owner. Here are some key points to remember: In some states, you can add descriptive details (e.g., “Joan Smith Crafts”) to clarify your business nature. If you want to operate under a different name, you’ll need a “doing business as” (DBA) name for compliance. No formation documents are required to establish your legal name, but you must follow state regulations. Your legal name is important for contracts, tax filings, and obtaining business licenses, providing legal identification for your business. Legal Names for General Partnerships Legal names for general partnerships are crucial as they establish the business’s identity and legal standing. Typically, these names combine the legal names or surnames of the partners, like “Smith & Johnson Partners.” In some states, a general partnership can use a different legal name if specified in a Statement of Partnership Authority. Furthermore, a partnership agreement may outline alternative names distinct from the legal name. If you choose to operate under a name different from the partners’ legal names, you’ll need to register a DBA (Doing Business As). Distinction Between Legal Names and Trade Names Comprehending the distinction between legal names and trade names is crucial for any business owner. Here’s a breakdown to clarify: Legal Name: This is your business’s official name registered with the state, found in formation documents like articles of incorporation. Trade Name: Often referred to as a “Doing Business As” (DBA) name, it’s used for marketing and public engagement. Identifiers: Legal names must include specific identifiers (e.g., LLC or Inc.), whereas trade names offer more flexibility for branding. Usage: Legal names are required for contracts and tax filings, whereas trade names focus on advertising and customer interaction. Understanding these distinctions helps you navigate legal requirements and improve your brand effectively. Understanding DBAs (Doing Business As) DBAs, or Doing Business As names, offer businesses a way to operate under a brand that differs from their official legal name. This flexibility can improve your branding and marketing efforts, making it easier for customers to recognize and remember your products or services. Typically, you’ll need to register your DBA at the state or local level, which usually involves a simple application and fee. On the other hand, keep in mind that a DBA doesn’t grant exclusive rights to that name, so others may register similar names unless they’re trademarked. Furthermore, your DBA mustn’t include legal designations like LLC or Inc., and it should comply with state regulations regarding name availability and any prohibited words. Trademark Basics and Their Relevance When operating a business, protecting your brand is just as important as establishing it. A trademark serves as a recognizable sign that distinguishes your products or services from others, providing essential legal protection. Here are some key points to reflect on regarding trademarks: You can register trademarks at the federal level with the USPTO for exclusive rights and nationwide protection. A trade name can function as a trademark if it’s distinctive enough. Conduct a thorough search before registration to avoid infringing on existing trademarks, which can lead to costly disputes. Remember, registered trademarks need periodic renewal; failure to maintain them can result in losing your rights. Understanding these trademark basics can help you secure your brand effectively. Name Availability and Reservation Processes Before you settle on a legal name for your business, it’s essential to check its availability to guarantee it’s unique and not already taken by another entity in your state. You can often reserve a name temporarily, typically for about 120 days, which gives you time to complete formal registration without the risk of losing your desired name. Keep in mind that the reservation process varies by state, so you’ll need to follow specific procedures, which may include filling out forms or paying a fee. Name Reservation Procedures How can you guarantee that your chosen business name is protected during the initial stages of your entrepreneurial expedition? Utilizing name reservation procedures can help you secure that desired legal name for a specified period, typically ranging from 30 to 120 days. Here’s how to navigate the process effectively: Check Availability: Conduct a preliminary check to verify your name isn’t already taken. Submit Reservation Application: Many states offer online applications for quick processing. Pay Required Fees: Be prepared to pay any associated fees for reserving the name. Understand Limitations: Remember, although the reservation offers temporary protection, you still need to formally register your name for long-term rights. Following these steps can pave the way for your business’s successful launch. Checking Name Availability Securing a distinctive name for your business is a crucial step in establishing your brand identity and ensuring legal compliance. Before you register, you should conduct a name availability check to confirm that your desired legal name isn’t already in use by another entity in your state. Many states provide a searchable database through their business filing office or website, making this process straightforward. If you find an available name, consider using the name reservation process, which allows you to temporarily secure it for up to 120 days as you prepare your formation documents. Nevertheless, keep in mind that reserving a name doesn’t grant exclusive rights; only forming a business entity with that name provides legal protection against others in the same industry. Importance of Distinct Names Choosing a distinct name for your business is vital not just for branding but also for legal recognition. A unique legal name helps avoid confusion with other entities and guarantees compliance with regulations. Here are key aspects to keep in mind: Name Availability: Conduct checks to confirm your desired name isn’t already taken. Reservation Process: Most states allow you to reserve a name for up to 120 days, preventing others from using it. Compliance Rules: Follow specific regulations regarding required and prohibited words when reserving your name. Timeliness: Act quickly; failing to reserve your name before filing can lead to losing it to another business. These steps are fundamental for establishing a solid foundation for your new enterprise. Protecting Your Legal Name Through Trademark Registration When you establish a business, protecting your legal name is imperative, as it serves as the foundation of your brand identity. Trademark registration provides significant legal protection for your company’s name, preventing others from using a similar name that could confuse customers. Once registered, you gain a presumption of validity nationwide, giving you exclusive rights to use the mark throughout the United States. To qualify, your name must be distinctive and not overly similar to existing trademarks, so it’s important to conduct a thorough trademark search beforehand. Infringement Issues and Legal Remedies Infringement issues can arise unexpectedly, especially if your trade name closely resembles an existing trademark, leading to potential legal conflicts over consumer confusion. To avoid these problems, you should take proactive steps: 1. Conduct thorough trademark searches before adopting a trade name. 2. Register your trade name as a trademark to gain exclusive rights. 3. Be prepared to respond to infringement claims with appropriate remedies, such as: Sending cease and desist letters. Negotiating licensing agreements. Taking legal action for damages or injunctions. 4. Understand that defending against infringement claims can be costly, including legal fees and settlements, which emphasizes the importance of careful name selection and trademark registration. Taking these steps can help safeguard your business from potential disputes. Maintaining and Enforcing Trademark Protection Maintaining and enforcing trademark protection is crucial for safeguarding your brand’s identity and ensuring its continued success in the marketplace. Regular filings, like renewals and declarations of continued use, are imperative to keep your trademark registration active. Remember, trademark rights can be lost through abandonment, which happens if you don’t use your mark in commerce for an extended period. It’s equally important to monitor for potential infringement; if someone uses your trademark without permission, you must act to protect your rights. Sending cease and desist letters is a common strategy to notify infringers. In some cases, legal action might be necessary to address improper use, reinforcing the need for vigilance in maintaining trademark protection. Navigating Naming Complexities in Business Steering through the intricacies of business naming can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to establish a strong identity for your company. To simplify this process, keep these key points in mind: Legal Name Requirement: Your legal name must be officially filed and include specific terms like LLC or Inc., signifying your business structure. Name Availability: Always check if your desired name is distinct from others to avoid conflicts with existing businesses. Name Reservation: You can reserve a name temporarily, protecting it from being used during your preparation for official registration. Legal vs. Trade Name: Understand that your legal name is used for formal documents, whereas your trade name is for branding and marketing. Navigating these intricacies will help you create a solid foundation for your business. Frequently Asked Questions What Does a Legal Company Name Mean? A legal company name refers to the official name registered with the state for your business entity. It typically includes a corporate identifier, like “LLC” or “Inc.,” indicating your business type. This name is crucial for legal identification, tax obligations, and formal contracts, ensuring your business operates smoothly without confusion. Additionally, it must be unique to avoid conflicts with other registered businesses, complying with state regulations throughout its existence. What Is the Purpose of a Legal Name? The purpose of a legal name is to provide a unique and official identity for your business. It’s crucial for registering your entity, entering contracts, and opening bank accounts. By using the legal name, you guarantee compliance with state regulations and protect your brand from being used by others. Furthermore, it helps in filing taxes and communicating with government agencies, establishing your business’s legitimacy in legal and formal contexts. What Is the Significance of the Company Name? The significance of a company name lies in its role as the primary identifier for your business. It sets you apart from competitors, helps customers recognize your brand, and influences their perception of your products or services. A well-chosen name can convey your business’s mission and values effectively. Furthermore, it’s crucial for legal and financial transactions, as it establishes your identity in contracts, tax filings, and official communications with government entities. What Is the Purpose of a Company Name? A company name serves multiple purposes in the business world. It identifies your business legally, helping to distinguish it from others. You’ll need a unique name to comply with state regulations, which often require specific designations like “LLC” or “Inc.” This name is crucial for opening bank accounts, filing taxes, and entering contracts, as it establishes your company’s legal standing. Conclusion In conclusion, a company legal name is crucial for establishing your business’s identity and ensuring compliance with regulations. It serves as the official identifier for contracts, tax filings, and legal protections. Comprehending the nuances of legal names across different business structures, such as corporations, LLCs, and partnerships, is fundamental. Furthermore, protecting your legal name through trademark registration helps prevent unauthorized use and infringement. By maneuvering through these intricacies, you can safeguard your business’s interests effectively. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is a Company Legal Name and Its Importance?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

A company legal name is the official title under which your business operates, and it plays a critical role in establishing your entity’s legal identity. This name appears on fundamental documents like articles of incorporation and must include a corporate identifier such as LLC or Inc. Additionally, it must be unique within your state to guarantee compliance with legal requirements. Comprehending the nuances of a legal name can greatly impact your business’s operations and protection against infringement. Key Takeaways A company legal name is the official identifier for a business, appearing on essential documents like articles of incorporation. It must include a corporate identifier and be unique within the state to avoid confusion and legal issues. The legal name is crucial for contracts, tax filings, and establishing the business as a separate legal entity. Legal names ensure compliance with regulations and protect against unauthorized use of the business’s trade name. Understanding the distinction between legal names and trade names aids in effective branding and legal navigation. Definition of a Company Legal Name A company legal name serves as the official identifier for a business, appearing on essential documents like articles of incorporation or articles of organization submitted to the state. This legal entity name must include a corporate identifier, such as LLC, Inc., or Corp, which indicates its business structure. According to business name law, the legal name must likewise be unique within the state to prevent confusion with other entities. This uniqueness is critical for legal identification in contracts, tax filings, and official communications with government bodies. If you ever need to change your legal name, you must follow a formal process by filing the appropriate documents, ensuring that no other business can adopt a name already in use. Importance of a Legal Name for Businesses A legal name is crucial for your business as it establishes your legal identity and guarantees that you’re recognized as a separate entity under the law. This name is fundamental for the validity of contracts, allowing you to enter agreements confidently as well as complying with various regulations and requirements. Legal Identity Establishment Establishing a legal identity for your business hinges on selecting an appropriate legal name, as it serves as the foundation for your company’s official recognition. Your legal name, often referred to as the entity name, must comply with state regulations and include a corporate identifier like LLC or Inc. This unique legal name is crucial for formal activities such as signing contracts, opening bank accounts, and filing taxes. It safeguards your trade name business from unauthorized use by others, ensuring it remains distinct in the marketplace. Legal Name Entity Name Trade Name Business Official name Registered name Marketing name Includes LLC/Inc Distinct identity Brand representation Required for contracts Legal compliance Consumer recognition Contractual Validity Assurance In relation to business transactions, using your legal name in contracts is fundamental for guaranteeing that those agreements hold up in court. This legal name clearly identifies the parties involved, which is significant if disputes arise. Without it, you risk invalidating contracts, leading to financial losses and legal complications. For American Express company names, it’s imperative to distinguish between your legal name and trade name examples, as the latter may not suffice in legal matters. Comprehending what an entity name is can help clarify this distinction. Always confirm your legal name is used in all formal agreements to establish credibility and trust with clients, suppliers, and financial institutions, as well as meeting your tax obligations. Compliance With Regulations Using your legal name correctly in business operations extends beyond ensuring contractual validity; it moreover plays a significant role in complying with state regulations. Your legal name must be included in formation documents to establish your business entity officially. This compliance isn’t just a formality; it likewise affects your tax obligations, as accurate tax filings hinge on using the correct legal name. In addition, contracts should be signed under this name to maintain their validity, safeguarding your business from potential legal disputes. Including specific identifiers like LLC, Inc., or Corp is necessary to clarify your business type to the public. Neglecting these naming requirements can lead to registration issues, fines, or even the inability to operate legally in your state. Legal Names for Corporations, LLCs, and LPs When you’re forming a corporation, LLC, or LP, you need to choose a legal name that meets specific requirements outlined in your formation documents. This name must include an identifier like “Inc.,” “LLC,” or “LP” and should be distinct from all other registered businesses in your state to avoid confusion. Moreover, you can reserve your chosen name for a limited time before filing, ensuring it remains available for your use. Formation Document Requirements Establishing a legal name for your business is vital, as it both represents your organization and fulfills state requirements for formation documents. For corporations, LLCs, and LPs, your legal name must include a corporate identifier, like “Inc.” for corporations or “LLC” for limited liability companies. This name appears on all formation documents filed with the state, distinguishing your business from others in the same jurisdiction. States require that your legal name be distinct to prevent confusion and misrepresentation. To officially establish your legal name, you’ll need to file articles of incorporation or organization. This name will be critical for legal contracts, tax filings, and official communications, ensuring that your business operates smoothly and within legal boundaries. Name Reservation Process Once you’ve determined your business’s legal name, securing it through the name reservation process is a strategic step. This allows you to temporarily hold your desired name, preventing others from using it as you prepare your registration paperwork. Here’s how to navigate the reservation process: Check Name Availability: Conduct a name availability check to ascertain compliance with state regulations. Submit Application: Fill out the name reservation application required by your state. Pay the Fee: Include any applicable reservation fee with your application. Duration: Most states offer a reservation period of up to 120 days, giving you time to finalize your formation documents. Distinctive Name Necessity Choosing a distinctive legal name for your corporation, LLC, or limited partnership is essential not just for compliance but equally for establishing your business identity. Your legal name must include a corporate identifier like “Inc.,” “LLC,” or “LP,” which clearly indicates your business type. Furthermore, it must be unique to avoid confusion with other registered businesses in your state, ensuring legal recognition. States often allow you to reserve a name before filing registration paperwork, giving you a temporary hold on your choice. This distinctive name appears in formation documents like Articles of Incorporation, helping you comply with business entity laws. A unique name protects you from infringement issues and promotes a strong identity in the marketplace. Legal Names for Sole Proprietorships The legal name of a sole proprietorship plays an essential role in defining the business and its operations. Typically, this name is the same as your personal name, making your business legally indistinguishable from you as the owner. Here are some key points to remember: In some states, you can add descriptive details (e.g., “Joan Smith Crafts”) to clarify your business nature. If you want to operate under a different name, you’ll need a “doing business as” (DBA) name for compliance. No formation documents are required to establish your legal name, but you must follow state regulations. Your legal name is important for contracts, tax filings, and obtaining business licenses, providing legal identification for your business. Legal Names for General Partnerships Legal names for general partnerships are crucial as they establish the business’s identity and legal standing. Typically, these names combine the legal names or surnames of the partners, like “Smith & Johnson Partners.” In some states, a general partnership can use a different legal name if specified in a Statement of Partnership Authority. Furthermore, a partnership agreement may outline alternative names distinct from the legal name. If you choose to operate under a name different from the partners’ legal names, you’ll need to register a DBA (Doing Business As). Distinction Between Legal Names and Trade Names Comprehending the distinction between legal names and trade names is crucial for any business owner. Here’s a breakdown to clarify: Legal Name: This is your business’s official name registered with the state, found in formation documents like articles of incorporation. Trade Name: Often referred to as a “Doing Business As” (DBA) name, it’s used for marketing and public engagement. Identifiers: Legal names must include specific identifiers (e.g., LLC or Inc.), whereas trade names offer more flexibility for branding. Usage: Legal names are required for contracts and tax filings, whereas trade names focus on advertising and customer interaction. Understanding these distinctions helps you navigate legal requirements and improve your brand effectively. Understanding DBAs (Doing Business As) DBAs, or Doing Business As names, offer businesses a way to operate under a brand that differs from their official legal name. This flexibility can improve your branding and marketing efforts, making it easier for customers to recognize and remember your products or services. Typically, you’ll need to register your DBA at the state or local level, which usually involves a simple application and fee. On the other hand, keep in mind that a DBA doesn’t grant exclusive rights to that name, so others may register similar names unless they’re trademarked. Furthermore, your DBA mustn’t include legal designations like LLC or Inc., and it should comply with state regulations regarding name availability and any prohibited words. Trademark Basics and Their Relevance When operating a business, protecting your brand is just as important as establishing it. A trademark serves as a recognizable sign that distinguishes your products or services from others, providing essential legal protection. Here are some key points to reflect on regarding trademarks: You can register trademarks at the federal level with the USPTO for exclusive rights and nationwide protection. A trade name can function as a trademark if it’s distinctive enough. Conduct a thorough search before registration to avoid infringing on existing trademarks, which can lead to costly disputes. Remember, registered trademarks need periodic renewal; failure to maintain them can result in losing your rights. Understanding these trademark basics can help you secure your brand effectively. Name Availability and Reservation Processes Before you settle on a legal name for your business, it’s essential to check its availability to guarantee it’s unique and not already taken by another entity in your state. You can often reserve a name temporarily, typically for about 120 days, which gives you time to complete formal registration without the risk of losing your desired name. Keep in mind that the reservation process varies by state, so you’ll need to follow specific procedures, which may include filling out forms or paying a fee. Name Reservation Procedures How can you guarantee that your chosen business name is protected during the initial stages of your entrepreneurial expedition? Utilizing name reservation procedures can help you secure that desired legal name for a specified period, typically ranging from 30 to 120 days. Here’s how to navigate the process effectively: Check Availability: Conduct a preliminary check to verify your name isn’t already taken. Submit Reservation Application: Many states offer online applications for quick processing. Pay Required Fees: Be prepared to pay any associated fees for reserving the name. Understand Limitations: Remember, although the reservation offers temporary protection, you still need to formally register your name for long-term rights. Following these steps can pave the way for your business’s successful launch. Checking Name Availability Securing a distinctive name for your business is a crucial step in establishing your brand identity and ensuring legal compliance. Before you register, you should conduct a name availability check to confirm that your desired legal name isn’t already in use by another entity in your state. Many states provide a searchable database through their business filing office or website, making this process straightforward. If you find an available name, consider using the name reservation process, which allows you to temporarily secure it for up to 120 days as you prepare your formation documents. Nevertheless, keep in mind that reserving a name doesn’t grant exclusive rights; only forming a business entity with that name provides legal protection against others in the same industry. Importance of Distinct Names Choosing a distinct name for your business is vital not just for branding but also for legal recognition. A unique legal name helps avoid confusion with other entities and guarantees compliance with regulations. Here are key aspects to keep in mind: Name Availability: Conduct checks to confirm your desired name isn’t already taken. Reservation Process: Most states allow you to reserve a name for up to 120 days, preventing others from using it. Compliance Rules: Follow specific regulations regarding required and prohibited words when reserving your name. Timeliness: Act quickly; failing to reserve your name before filing can lead to losing it to another business. These steps are fundamental for establishing a solid foundation for your new enterprise. Protecting Your Legal Name Through Trademark Registration When you establish a business, protecting your legal name is imperative, as it serves as the foundation of your brand identity. Trademark registration provides significant legal protection for your company’s name, preventing others from using a similar name that could confuse customers. Once registered, you gain a presumption of validity nationwide, giving you exclusive rights to use the mark throughout the United States. To qualify, your name must be distinctive and not overly similar to existing trademarks, so it’s important to conduct a thorough trademark search beforehand. Infringement Issues and Legal Remedies Infringement issues can arise unexpectedly, especially if your trade name closely resembles an existing trademark, leading to potential legal conflicts over consumer confusion. To avoid these problems, you should take proactive steps: 1. Conduct thorough trademark searches before adopting a trade name. 2. Register your trade name as a trademark to gain exclusive rights. 3. Be prepared to respond to infringement claims with appropriate remedies, such as: Sending cease and desist letters. Negotiating licensing agreements. Taking legal action for damages or injunctions. 4. Understand that defending against infringement claims can be costly, including legal fees and settlements, which emphasizes the importance of careful name selection and trademark registration. Taking these steps can help safeguard your business from potential disputes. Maintaining and Enforcing Trademark Protection Maintaining and enforcing trademark protection is crucial for safeguarding your brand’s identity and ensuring its continued success in the marketplace. Regular filings, like renewals and declarations of continued use, are imperative to keep your trademark registration active. Remember, trademark rights can be lost through abandonment, which happens if you don’t use your mark in commerce for an extended period. It’s equally important to monitor for potential infringement; if someone uses your trademark without permission, you must act to protect your rights. Sending cease and desist letters is a common strategy to notify infringers. In some cases, legal action might be necessary to address improper use, reinforcing the need for vigilance in maintaining trademark protection. Navigating Naming Complexities in Business Steering through the intricacies of business naming can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to establish a strong identity for your company. To simplify this process, keep these key points in mind: Legal Name Requirement: Your legal name must be officially filed and include specific terms like LLC or Inc., signifying your business structure. Name Availability: Always check if your desired name is distinct from others to avoid conflicts with existing businesses. Name Reservation: You can reserve a name temporarily, protecting it from being used during your preparation for official registration. Legal vs. Trade Name: Understand that your legal name is used for formal documents, whereas your trade name is for branding and marketing. Navigating these intricacies will help you create a solid foundation for your business. Frequently Asked Questions What Does a Legal Company Name Mean? A legal company name refers to the official name registered with the state for your business entity. It typically includes a corporate identifier, like “LLC” or “Inc.,” indicating your business type. This name is crucial for legal identification, tax obligations, and formal contracts, ensuring your business operates smoothly without confusion. Additionally, it must be unique to avoid conflicts with other registered businesses, complying with state regulations throughout its existence. What Is the Purpose of a Legal Name? The purpose of a legal name is to provide a unique and official identity for your business. It’s crucial for registering your entity, entering contracts, and opening bank accounts. By using the legal name, you guarantee compliance with state regulations and protect your brand from being used by others. Furthermore, it helps in filing taxes and communicating with government agencies, establishing your business’s legitimacy in legal and formal contexts. What Is the Significance of the Company Name? The significance of a company name lies in its role as the primary identifier for your business. It sets you apart from competitors, helps customers recognize your brand, and influences their perception of your products or services. A well-chosen name can convey your business’s mission and values effectively. Furthermore, it’s crucial for legal and financial transactions, as it establishes your identity in contracts, tax filings, and official communications with government entities. What Is the Purpose of a Company Name? A company name serves multiple purposes in the business world. It identifies your business legally, helping to distinguish it from others. You’ll need a unique name to comply with state regulations, which often require specific designations like “LLC” or “Inc.” This name is crucial for opening bank accounts, filing taxes, and entering contracts, as it establishes your company’s legal standing. Conclusion In conclusion, a company legal name is crucial for establishing your business’s identity and ensuring compliance with regulations. It serves as the official identifier for contracts, tax filings, and legal protections. Comprehending the nuances of legal names across different business structures, such as corporations, LLCs, and partnerships, is fundamental. Furthermore, protecting your legal name through trademark registration helps prevent unauthorized use and infringement. By maneuvering through these intricacies, you can safeguard your business’s interests effectively. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is a Company Legal Name and Its Importance?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s the next phase of expansion planned by Walmart and drone company Wing. The companies plan to roll out additional locations for drone delivery in metropolitan hubs like Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Miami this year in what they call “the next chapter of the world’s largest drone delivery expansion.” This expansion adds to the 100 stores already planned in metro areas like Orlando and Houston. The drones are expected to start flying in the latter city this week. The expansion will increase Walmart and Wing’s network to more than 270 locations across the country in 2027. “Whether it’s a last-minute ingredient for dinner or a late-night essential for a busy family, the strong adoption we’ve seen confirms that this is the future of convenience,” said Greg Cathey, senior vice president of digital fulfillment transformation at Walmart, in a statement. “By expanding drone delivery to new major metro areas, we are helping more customers solve for their last-minute needs faster than ever before.” New heights In the first two years of Walmart and Wing’s partnership, their delivery service was available in seven states. With this planned expansion, more than 40 million shoppers across at least 10 states will have the option of drone delivery. The rapid expansion is “a sign that customers find real value in getting what they need when they need it, in a matter of minutes,” Wing’s new Chief Business Officer Heather Rivera, tells Fast Company in an email. “Adoption of drone delivery is quick, and it makes a real difference to customers.” Walmart and Wing first partnered in 2023 to bring drone delivery to customers with a few simple steps. Shoppers order with Walmart, Wing’s marketplace, or even a third-party service like DoorDash. They select drone delivery and specify an exact delivery location. Then, the drone is loaded up and takes off with the order. This airborne delivery is faster than other methods, especially in car-dependent metropolitan areas, since the drones can avoid traffic and other obstacles in the sky. As the partnership continues to expand, Wing leadership has their eyes on the sky. “This expansion elevates Wing from a regional success to a truly national delivery service,” Rivera says in an email. “It’s no longer a question of if Wing drone delivery will come to your city, it’s when.” View the full article