Wikihow.com:

Have you always wanted to leave the world a better place than you found it by starting a nonprofit corporation?

Here’s a simple, straightforward guide on how to successfully establish a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

1. Understand what a nonprofit is: an organization whose primary objective is to support some issue or matter of private interest or public concern (such as the arts, charities, education, politics, religion, research, or some other endeavor) for non-commercial purposes.

2. Formulate a mission statement.

3. Form a Board of Directors.

4. File Articles of Incorporation.

5. Draft bylaws.

6. Develop a budget.

7. Develop a record-keeping system.

8. Develop an accounting system.

9. File for 501(c)(3) status.

10. Apply for a federal employer identification number.

11. File for state and local tax exemption.

12. Fulfill charitable solicitation law requirements.

13. Apply for a nonprofit mailing permit.

It is important to file your 1023 within 27 months of the date when your organization was established, or when your Articles of Incorporation were filed. Although the IRS may approve an additional extension under certain circumstances, missing the deadline may result in your charity or foundation not getting 501(c)(3) recognition retroactive to its incorporation date.

For more information on each step, go here.

(via Business Opportunities)

Though we do not file non-profits ourselves, we have created an informational page about non-profit corporations.

From BizzBangBuzz:

1. What’s your business idea?
2. How does your idea address a need?
3. What model suits you best?
4. What’s so different about what you offer?
5. How big is the market and how big will you grow?
6. What’s your role going to be?
7. Who’s on your team?
8. How will customers buy from you, and how much will they pay?
9. How much money do you need, and how much will you make?
10. Where’s the startup money coming from?
11. How will you measure success?
12. What are your key milestones?

Don’t forget to read our content on business plans.

Though often incorrectly attributed to Bill Gates, these “Rules of Life” are once again getting around the internet:

RULE 1: Life is not fair; get used to it.

RULE 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accompish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3; You will not make $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.

RULE 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

RULE 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it an opportunity.

RULE 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parent’s fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes. Learn from them.

RULE 7: Before you were born, your parents were not as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try “delousing” the closet in your own room.

RULE 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the answer right. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you “find yourself”. Do that on your  own time. 

RULE 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and to to jobs.

RULE 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.