Twenty-Five Years of Service and Thriving!

by Josh Pike

Published on this site: March 2nd, 2006 - See more articles from this month

Local company Harvard Business Services, Inc. (HBS) http://www.delawareinc.com is celebrating 25 years in business, forming Delaware companies for its customers and supporting every step in the life of that company, all across the USA and around the world.

Since Lewes residents Rick & Paulise Bell formed Harvard in 1981, the company has formed more than 50,000 Delaware companies for everyone from southern truckers to Swiss lawyers. Last year alone, Harvard formed 5,500 new Delaware companies and continues to grow and expand it's products and services. Harvard currently offers formation services for incorporations and LLC's, foreign qualifications, mail forwarding and much more.

Harvard has grown from a corner in the Bell's basement, to a 10,000 square foot state of the art facility on Route One in Lewes with a team of 19 dedicated and friendly people who know how to make the details easy when it comes to forming and maintaining Delaware companies. Amy Culver, Office Manager of the headquarters facility says, "We have experts in Formation, Franchise Tax, Accounting and Taxation and every other aspect of forming and maintaining your Delaware Company, and we want to help you!"

"We're one of the oldest and one of the largest Incorporating Companies in Delaware," said Rick Bell, "which really means 'in the world', because the incorporating business started in Delaware and doesn't exist in all places. In fact, Delaware incorporates more new companies every year than most countries." Additionally, over 60% of all the Fortune 500 companies in the United States have formed their entities in Delaware.

The world is just where Mr. Bell decided to promote Delaware companies and since Mr. Bell had gone to high school in Switzerland, he envisioned the European market as a fertile place to promote the advantages of Delaware companies. During the Castle and Carper administrations, Mr. Bell was an active member of the Governor's International Marketing Committee that sponsored seminars in European financial capitals on the "Delaware Advantage". This experience led to an ongoing seminar series Harvard sponsors for international lawyers and accountants. Mr. Bell gives seminars globally on a regular basis and has spoken at the Learning Annex in New York, the Moscow Law School, the University of Turkey and Franklin College in Lugano Switzerland. Recently, Mr. Bell even produced a seminar in Shanghai China on the "Delaware Advantage".

Harvard began and will always be a community dedicated company with roots in Sussex County. Controller Cherie Wilkins, of Lincoln, says, "We are all so blessed to have this source of revenue which is enough to give support to local charities and community projects. We have a charitable budget of over $50,000 per year."

One of these projects, initiated by HBS employee Laurie Morgan, is to send "care packages" to local military personnel serving in Iraq. Under the program HBS sends a huge care package (including hundreds of items the troops have requested) four times a year, until the day they all come home. "I'm happy to have initiated this program for the company, and the troops are certainly happy about it too!" said Morgan. "It's something we can do to say 'thank you' , and to make every soldier feel appreciated."

Harvard is also focused on the future of business formations (Incorporation & LLC) and is constantly updating and installing state-of-the-art electronic equipment to compete globally in the services business. Harvard's President & CEO Jack N. Berberian, who moved to Delaware from Los Angeles, CA last year to take Harvard into the future says, "we're just at the beginning here, the future holds tremendous growth for Harvard. We have an excellent team at Harvard with a track record that boasts an impressive 25 years of success and a growth plan that will propel HBS to greater heights." Mr. Berberian comes to Harvard Business Services as a leader in the online legal formations industry.
Mr. Berberian was previously the Director/Senior Vice-President of LegalZoom and Proxilaw in Los Angeles, CA. where he is recognized as one of the core group of executives that helped lay the foundation for both companies.

The true essence of Harvard is walking customers through the start-up phase of forming a corporation or an LLC in Delaware. "These are the most interesting people in the world" says Brett Melson, Harvard's U.S. Sales Manager, "and they have the World Wide Web at their fingertips. We are at the top of a very competitive and global market place because we are friendly and we know how to make the process easy for these interesting and entrepreneurial people. They are the people who are supercharging the U.S. economy." he said, noting that Harvard has its share of "famous" clients who want to remain anonymous, one of Delaware's key advantages. You can also visit HBS at http://www.delawareinc.com to see why so many companies, attorneys and accountants consistently use Harvard's services.

Twenty-Five years later as Mr. Bell reflects on his own success, and the success of his customers, Bell says, "People tell me all the time that they envisioned success when they started their business, but that they could never have envisioned how tremendously successful they later became, just because they were in the position to take advantage of growth opportunities beyond their original dream, by diligently working at what they love doing, whatever it is! It constantly amazes me how many millionaires we have known as start-up companies."

Josh Pike is a co-founder of Rock Coast Media, a Boston-Area search engine marketing firm.Rock Coast Media is a boutique Search Engine Marketing firm that plans, executes and delivers custom search solutions. We know search and by listening to your needs and objectives, we will make it work for you. http://www.rockcoastmedia.com