I'm looking for a series of tips or links to webpages with general
tips on designing logos. This would be tips that a general business
owner might be interested in before hiring a designer to create his
logo.

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/qt/businesslogo.htm

Logo design or any sort of corporate identity design in today's
context is not done without an overall branding strategy. So strategic
brand management issues are what a graphic designer needs to know
before designing a logo. For any sort of business, branding guidelines
are available at http://www.brandchannel.com .

A great article naming, "15 Trends Taking Shape In Logo Design"
available at http://www.gdusa.com/feature/4_03/trends.php is a must
see.

For any design work reference is very important and
http://www.allthelogos.com/ is the place for logo references.