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Q: Can you tell me difference between a copyright and a patent? Also is that something I should let a lawyer handle for me?

A: A wise man once said, "The biggest difference between a copyright and a patent is number of lawyers it takes to do paperwork." There is a point to be made there, mainly that if this wise man had paid his attorney to copyright that tidbit of wisdom I probably would have had to pay him five bucks to use quote.

Copyrights, trademarks and patents are similar in that they are designed by law to protect your rights of ownership, but that's where similarity ends. A copyright protects a creative work; a trademark protects a brand or company identity; and a patent protects an invention or process.

A copyright protects rights of anyone who creates an "original work of authorship." A copyright owner has exclusive right to reproduce work; prepare spin-off works based on copyrighted work; and to sell, perform and/or display copyrighted work in public.

Copyright protection is afforded to eight categories of creative works: literary works (the written word); musical works (lyrics, music, melodies); dramatic works (plays, scripts, screenplays); artistic works (pictorial and sculptural), sound recordings (LPs, CDs, audio tapes); choreographic works (dance, pantomime); audiovisual works; and architectural works (blueprints, designs, renderings).

An original work is automatically copyrighted moment it is put into a fixed format such as a paper copy or recording. In other words, once you put your original story in writing or make a recording of an original song, your copyright is automatically secured. From that moment on your work has copyright protection for your lifetime, plus 50 years after your death.

As I was thinking about what to write about for this article it occurred to me that, perhaps, writing about time management for entrepreneurs would be a good topic so here we are.

If you, like me, are feeling a bit crunched by everything you want to do, here are some tips and strategies I've used to help things move along:

1) Do a life assessment and get clear on your top priorities for each day/week/month. I tend to do it daily, and then check it again weekly to make sure I'm on track - you might find some other combination works better for you. In this process, you get clear on where you want to focus your energy and it can help you make decisions more quickly if an event arises that is not a life priority. You can more easily decide how or whether to focus on it right now.

2) Use 80/20 rule to your advantage. By now, you've probably heard something about this principle which states "80% of your success comes from 20% of your efforts" so you, as a small business owner, want to figure out where YOUR most profitable 20% is and spend majority of your time in those activities. For me, my most profitable activities are working with clients, creating multiple income streams and creating time each day to be inspired. What are yours?

3) Ask for help. If you are a person who feels that you need to do everything yourself, this tip might make you uncomfortable. I'd encourage you to try this anyway. I've found that, by hiring assistance, I'm actually able to produce much more in much less time. It's wonderful to feel like my projects are moving ahead without my having to follow up on each and every detail.

4) Automate. As much as possible use technology to your advantage. This might mean getting email access on your cell phone (if you are in car a lot) or taking steps to get your website up and running with important information or it might mean learning how to use autoresponders or packaging your knowledge in such a way that people can purchase it at any time. Whatever it is for you, automation is a great way to multiplying your efforts. The biggest complaint I hear about this is time involved to set it up. However, great thing about automation is that you set it up once and it runs from there.