Small Business Trends has a great article detailing all the various challenges in choosing the perfect name for your business.

The article covers legal aspects, domain names (which factor into your e-mail addresses) as well as Twitter and social media. Because so many .com domains are taken, you will likely have to get a little creative, perhaps using a company slogan.

It’s an iterative process fraught with setbacks. And you only have one chance to get it right! Be sure to work with a branding specialist, or at least a handful of brand-savvy colleagues.

fusion IT clients and creative colleagues may be interested the the following events. Contact us (info in footer) or leave a comment to suggest other events which inspire, connect & equip creative businesses.

Wednesday June 9th

10AM – 12PM Rule Learning Labs “Monitor Solutions for Field Shoots” (no info on web site. RSVP to [email protected])

6:30 – 9:30PM Boston Avid User Group Meeting at CDIA, Waltham.

Next Week
Wednesday June 16th, 10AM – 12PM Rule Learning Labs “HD-SLR Cameras” (no info on web site. RSVP to [email protected])

Last week of June – Forget about working!!!:
Tuesday June 22nd, 5PM – 9PM Rule Boston Camera 1st Annual Tech Expo

Tuesday June 22nd, 6PM – 9PM Pecha Kucha Boston 18 (a fusion IT favorite!)

Thursday June 24th Ad Club of Boston presents The EDGE Conference: Branded in Boston.

Friday June 25th 1st Annual Boston SuperMeet! fusion IT is a Media Sponsor of this event. Click HERE to get FREE admission.

Friday June 25th Mass. Production Coalition presents the Premiere of Knight and Day (filmed here in Massachusetts!) Tickets must be purchased in ADVANCE.

Take a look at this comical chart that measures your computer skills based on your e-mail address*. It’s funny because there is a grain of truth to it, as most people use one of these services or those of their home Internet Service Provider (ISP). Unfortunately, many freelancers, sole proprietors, and small business also fit into this category.

So what’s wrong with using your home ISP/Yahoo/AOL/Hotmail/Gmail account for business? Two things.

First, you are forfeiting a  branding opportunity, whether it is your ”personal brand” or your company’s brand. Second, and closely tied to your brand, is trust. If you do not have your own domain name (something.com or .org or .net) for your e-Mail (and website!), your business seems temporary or amateur.

Quoting Nine Essential Trust Indicators for Your SMB Web Site:

It’s a lot easier to trust someone who has clearly invested in their business over someone who simply stumbled across a free Yahoo or Gmail account… It’s a very simple trust cue that packs a big punch.

In other words, people are less likely to bring you their business. More bluntly, you are turning away money.

Chances are, getting a domain name for your business is one of those things you’ve thought about, but put off because of the hassle. Perhaps you couldn’t find a domain that you liked. Perhaps you bought a domain and got overwhelmed by all the choices and technicalities at the domain name “registrar”. Maybe changing your e-mail address seemed like a huge headache.

Whatever your reason, it’s time you gave the issue some serious thought.

fusion IT has helped numerous professionals and business set up new domains (along with their web sites and e-mail accounts) and we have overcome every possible obstacle. We can confidently guide you through any domain name, web site, and/or e-mail transition. And we are streamlining the process to keep it simple and affordable. Contact us today for fixed price domain name registration (or transition) packages. (Contact info is below in the footer.)

(*Unfortunately, the chart leaves out Internet provider address such as @comcast.net or verizon.net, which we, if forced, would have to rank below Gmail.)

fusion IT clients and creative colleagues may be interested the the following events this week. Contact us (info in footer) or leave a comment to suggest other events which inspire, connect & equip creative businesses.

Thursday June 3rd
9AM – 5PM (Every 2 hours) HB Communications will be demoing AutoDesk Smoke for Mac OS X. Sign up for private sessions to be held in Downtown Boston. 11AM Session might be full. Ask about 9AM/1PM/3PM.

3PM – 4PM (two half-hour sessions) fusion IT Open Office Hours. Big picture (Mac) IT, Pro Video, and technology advice, without cost or obligation.

6:30PM – 8:30PM Mass. Innovation Nights at the Waltham IBM Innovation Center.

Friday June 4th
6PM – 8:30PM Boston Final Cut Pro User Group Final Cut Fridays at Apple Store Boylston Street featuring Taz Goldstein of HandHeldHollywood.com

8PM – 11PM Fritz Lang’s original vision of METROPOLIS, newly restored, opens Friday for 1 week ONLY at Coolidge Corner Theater http://bit.ly/dCEOTe Film buffs, you know how big this is!

plan ahead…

Next Week:
Wednesday June 9th Boston Avid User Group Meeting.

Last week of June – Forget about working!!!:
Tuesday June 22nd, 5PM – 9PM Rule Boston Camera 1st Annual Tech Expo

Tuesday June 22nd, 6PM – 9PM Pecha Kucha Boston 18 (a fusion IT favorite!)

Thursday June 24th Ad Club of Boston presents The EDGE Conference: Branded in Boston.

Friday June 25th 1st Annual Boston SuperMeet! fusion IT is a Media Sponsor of this event. Click HERE to get FREE admission.

Friday June 25th Mass. Production Coalition presents the Premiere of Knight and Day (filmed here in Massachusetts!) Tickets must be purchased in ADVANCE.

We’ve been attending the annual MacWorld and NAB Final Cut Pro User Group SuperMeets for years and we are HUGE fans. Hundreds (sometimes more than a thousand) Final Cut editors, great vendors, excellent presentations from the stage, and raffles featuring tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear! What’s not to love!?

Well now, you don’t have to travel to SF or Vegas to attend, because the SuperMeet is coming to Boston.

The best news of all? Because fusion IT is a Media Sponsor, we can get you in for FREE!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to the SuperMeet Registration page.
2. Click on “Enter Discount Code”
3. Enter “fusionIT”
4. Click on “Apply Discount”
5. Click on “Register” to register yourself (and your friends!) for FREE.

Register now before the code expires!

Visit the SuperMeet Website for all the details. We’ll see you there!

We are pleased to announce that fusion IT is officially a reseller!

We offer this service for the sole purpose of offering our clients a simple way to purchase products not available in Apple Stores.

We avoided reselling for years to avoid even the possibility of a conflict of interest, though we’ve come to realize that this stance was causing unnecessary difficulty for our clients.

Let us be clear – we resell only to our clients and in situations where we recommend, install and configure what we sell. The products we sell are either one-of-a-kind products, or the only brand we recommend.

We do not keep inventory. We are never pressured to “move product”. We do not have quotas. We recommend, then sell, and only if it is in your business’ best interest. And we won’t even insist that you buy it from us.

At the moment, we offer the following three brands:

Cache-A
We spent a lot of time at Cache-A’s NAB (2010) booth and they are now one of our favorite companies. Nobody has a better, more cost-effective, more complete solution for archiving tapeless media.

AJA
We’ve installed enough AJA Kona cards and called their tech support enough (about our mistakes) to realize that AJA is a top-notch company.

Telestream
While we love Compressor (sold with Apple Final Cut Studio), everyone who posts video to the web should have the additional tools offered by Episode. And if you need to provide clients with Windows Media files (we’re SO sorry!), then you simply must have Flip4Mac.

Be sure to check our product page from time-to-time for updates.

fusion IT will attend all the the following events. Be sure to say, “Hello”. Contact us (info in footer) or leave a comment to suggest other events which connect businesses in the Creative Economy.

Wednesday May 26th
10AM – 12PM Tapeless Workflow Organization Learning Lab at Rule|Boston Camera – Info
6PM – 9PM Massachusetts Production Coalition Meeting  at WGBH – Register

Thursday May 27th
7PM – 10PM Boston Final Cut Pro User Group Workflow Mixer at Autodesk (Waltham) – Register

Do you have a creative Mac-centric business? Is technology or another aspect of business hindering your team’s creative output? Have you grown quickly and now realize you could use some organization and strategy? Are you looking for ways to better collaborate? You’ve heard about fusion IT and/or follow us on Twitter – would like to meet in person?

Now through the end of July, fusion IT is offering Open Office Hours in the WorkBar Boston conference room every Thursday from 3:00 – 4:00 PM. We will offer two half-hour sessions to offer big picture advice, without cost or obligation.

(UPDATE-SEPT 2010: We plan to resume Office Hours in October)

We first read about Open Office Hours last Fall at 37 Signals and loved the idea. Then Scott Kisner wrote this article last December detailing a few local (to Boston) experiments. (Be sure to scroll down to “Open-Door Policy). Now fusion IT is following the lead of our WorkBar Boston colleagues New Leaf Legal.

Here’s a list of the types of questions we can answer:

• How can we make our network faster?
• Why do we need our wireless to be secure?
• How can I stop using my aol/hotmail/comcast/rcn e-mail to use my own branding and appear more professional?
• We know we should back up, but how do we start?
• How can we make our web videos look better?
• Why is our Final Cut editing system so slow?
• Should we upgrade to Snow Leopard? Should we upgrade to Adobe CS5?
• Why does it take so long to export video? Can we make it go any faster?
• We have dozens of hard drives. Is this a safe way to store our video footage?
• What’s the difference between Avid and Final Cut Pro?
• I have dozens of passwords (or passwords on post-its). How can I manage them safely?
• Is there any way to reduce the amount of Spam we get?
• How can we improve the productivity in our office?
• We need a new web site, and have no idea how to start. Can you help us?
• We have X video camera, Y editing software, and we need to put Z on the web. How?
• What is a codec? What is “uncompressed”. What’s better, 720p or 1080i?
• Should I buy a new Mac now, or should I wait?

Ask any of these, or bring your own. Contact us to inquire about the next available time slot. We look forward to chatting!

We recently passed an important landmark – doin’ about 80 MPH!

There’s been little time to rest, as we revamped our web site, adding this blog to it, passed a certification exam, transitioned the MPC to a new web site, and are gearing up to launch an e-Mail newsletter. In addition to networking, blogging and tweeting.

None of this is merely busywork. Our purpose is to inspire, connect and equip the Massachusetts Creative Economy to do great things. We hope that you are inspired to do the same!