No Limits Ladies.com

So where did Jason get the idea for Docstoc.com?

“While I was completing my JD/MBA, I started a consulting company in Los Angeles with some alums of my MBA program. Between our need to share documents in graduate school, and the amount of time I personally spent on Google looking for docs for my clients, I realized there could/should be something like YouTube for Professional Documents. I wanted to create the most robust repository of free professional content for a wide variety of purposes.”

And what will be the future of Docstoc?

“I’m a big fan of linkedin.com and consider is (as most do) the premier online community to share professional contacts. It’s where most folks go online to find professional contacts. Similarly, docstoc will be the premier online community to share professional content. Anytime, anyone needs a business or legal document their first thought will be to go to docstoc. With this as the foundation of the company, we’ll add the ability to connect users with additional information, resources, and services to serve their professional needs. Looking for a document is just a starting point; WHY do you need that document. Those are the problems that we’ll help solve over time.”

But why would professionals give away their beloved templates (my precious)?

“Professionals upload their content for three main reasons. 1.) Its Free Marketing – it’s an avenue to attract business by sharing stock templates, forms, and documents that may be difficult to find. It’s no cost lead generation for professionals. 2.) Feedback and Viewership on your Professional Portfolio of Content – users upload their documents because they can get thousands of people seeing their work, leaving comments, ratings and feedback that is valuable to the content creator. 3) Reciprocity – there is a large ethos of reciprocity on the internet and many times we share because we want to add to the community and help it grow. Like most User Generated Content sites, only a very small percent of user typically ever share content, but for example in the case of YouTube, that <1% has contributed hundreds of millions of pieces of content – and documents are much easier to share than videos because we ALL have them.”

Yeah, yeah (looking down at my feet), those are great reasons. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on Docstoc.com as it grows.

I am a document freak. I love having my templates and my checklists. I fill binders full of hard copies and directories full of versions.

So when I ran across Docstoc.com, I glimpsed a little bit of heaven (yes, I am that sick). How can I use Docstoc.com ?

I’ll let Founder and CEO Jason Lawrence Nazar explain…

“You can easily find high quality, free legal and business documents.

You can get thousands of people viewing your documents and giving you feedback about the content that you have created.”

Tomorrow, I’ll “talk” with Jason about how he came up with Docstoc.com and where the company is headed.

Yesterday, Kara Lennox shared how she got the idea for Memo-Pause, a wearable notepad (don’t you love those “creation” stories?). But did she always have entrepreneurial tendencies?

“I was born wanting to be an entrepreneur. When I was about ten, my dad planted some tomatoes, and he ended up with so many seedlings he was going to throw a lot away. Instead, I put them in my wagon and dragged them around the neighborhood door-to-door, selling them for fifty cents apiece. I cleaned up.

I knew pretty soon after college graduation that I did not want to "work for the man." I hated punching a time clock and wanted to be in charge of my own fortunes. So I've been a self-employed writer since then, writing everything from advertising copy to magazine articles to romance novels. (My latest novels are published by Harlequin American Romance.) But because writing income is sometimes sketchy, I've done other things over the years to earn money. I was an antiques dealer and I ran a clipping service. I've always thought that if I could just come up with the right idea I could make millions. I'm hoping Memo-Pause is that idea.”

What have been her greatest challenges?

"I've never actually manufactured anything before. Working out the bugs in the process has been a long and arduous education (and I still don't have it totally worked out!). I've lost some sleep over the stupidest stuff, like figuring out where to buy the correct size of eyelets, and what kind of paper cutter to use, But Memo-Pause is such a new business that I'm sure I'll have lots more lessons to learn as I go along. The cool thing is that I'm having so much fun! I have an artistic side, and creating all the different covers and the beaded necklaces feeds that side of me."

To check out Kara’s latest novels, visit http://www.karalennox.com/ .
Those lovely notepads are at http://www.memo-pause.com/ (I like the green one).

There are two groups of people I find interesting, actually three groups, writers, entrepreneurs, and everyone else so when I “met” Kara Lennox, Harlequin Author and Inventor of Memo-Pause, a functional yet fashionable notepad, I knew I’d have to drain her brain.

How did she get the idea for Memo-Pause?

“Whenever I'm under a lot of stress, I can't seem to remember anything without writing it down. So I tied a notebook around my neck. That way I can jot down a phone number or an item for my shopping list, and later can actually find it.

The notebook was functional, but ugly. At lunch one day, my stylish friend Becky told me I should "tart it up." "Make it pretty," she said. "You could hang it from a beaded necklace, and even have a different color notebook for every outfit. I might even wear one if it was pretty enough." She even suggested I could make the notebook/necklaces and sell them to other forgetful women. We decided to call this mythical product Memo-Pause, and we laughed until iced tea came out our noses. (If you're a woman of a certain age, you probably get the joke.)

I blogged about this incident simply because it was amusing, but I received an outpouring of interest from my blog readers--lots of comments and e-mails from people I didn't even know, saying that if such a product were available, they would buy it. That is what pushed me from the "thinking about it" stage to actually building a prototype. Once I started wearing it around, everyone wanted one. So I decided, what the heck, and I went into production. The venture just mushroomed from there.”

Yeah for grassroots marketing! Build a good enough product, show it off, and the sales will come.

To take a peek at samples (gorgeous), go to http://www.memo-pause.com/ . Note: If you have your eye on one, order sooner rather than later. The designs switch up with available material.