The Business Growth Lawyers

If you’re looking to grow your business, then a BLOG is a great tool to add to your tool chest. In this article we will discuss BLOG basics and how you can use them in your business.

1. What’s a BLOG?

What’s a BLOG you ask? Well, let me tell you. According to Wikipedia.com:

A blog (short for web log) is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order [newest entries are at the top].

So, its really just an online journal or diary that is written by anyone who wants to tell the world what’s on their mind. (Side note: When I say “the world” I really mean it, so be careful what you write.)

Ok, so how can this help you grow your business? Great question. To understand the answer you have to know just a bit about how search engines work.

2. BLOGs and Search Engines

Search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and all the others use what they call “spiders.” Spiders are software programs that “crawl” the internet looking for new content, and rank it based on its contents and its relevance to a certain topic. This is all done by some very complex math, but the important thing you need to know is that if you write often and/or discuss topics that are getting searched online a lot (i.e. topics in the news), the search engines will consider your site “relevant” and if you include “key words” (popular search terms) in your content, that you know your potential customers are searching for, there is a much better chance that they will actually be able to find you.

So to recap, my 3 Principles of BLOGging for Search Engines are:

1) Write Often
2) Write Relevant
3) Write Using Key Words

3. What makes a good BLOG?

This is a rhetorical question. The only thing that really matters is the opinion of the audience you are trying to reach. So here are a few tips that will help you stay on track.

1. Know who you are writing for

a. If your audience is 13 year olds, writing about retiring next year probably isn’t going to get you a lot of return visitors

2. Keep it short and to the point

a. 100-300 words is all most people will have the time to read, so keep your articles short and to the point. Over time this will build a great deal of credibility with your readers.

3. Write actionable content

a. “How To’s” and “Top 10” lists are great. It gives your readers action steps they can take to use your content in their everyday lives. Think about ways to use these to point out how you are different from your competitors.

4. Don’t be afraid to tell some of your secrets.

a. People love to hear about how to make something happen, then they love to pay someone else to do it. Let’s be honest, even though you just told me how I can edit my html code on my website to make it stick out like neon lights in a search engine, that doesn’t mean I want to do it myself. Just give me a way to contact you to hire you. After all, you just showed me that you are the expert.

5. Allow Comments

a. Consider allowing people to post comments about your BLOG. In fact, you should be the first one to post a comment after each blog, pose a question or comment to simply getting a discussion started. If visitors are interacting and writing comments about your BLOG, they are actually adding relevant content that the search engines are going to like.

Well, there you have it, BLOG basics. If you would like help you creating a BLOG that will grow your business, don’t hesitate to contact us:

Dedicated to Growing Your Business,

Jack & Nick
The Business Growth Lawyers
www.DicksNantonLaw.com
800-981-1403
info@DicksNanton.com

3 Critical Steps to Take Your Idea from Concept to Cash Flow

We have all had them, those great inspirational ideas that wake us up in the middle of the night wanting to come alive and make us money. Many of these ideas even look good later in the light of day. Unfortunately, all too often as the days and weeks move on, the idea becomes lost in the daily grind. What could have been a profitable thought is all too soon forgotten because it wasn’t acted upon. Do not let that happen to you again!

Ideas that come to us in the night as we sleep are frequently some of the best because they have been conjured up by our subconscious mind while our conscious mind takes a rest. These are the creative ideas that have been rolling around in your head waiting to be discovered when you slow down. The difference between success and failure is simply acting on the ideas you believe to be the most relevant in the current climate and that offer potential reward.

Here are three steps to follow to make the most of your idea.

1. Protect it.

Protection for your idea will generally fall under one of four categories: patents, trade secrets, trademarks and copyrights.

Some of the protection for your idea can be accomplished easily by yourself such as copyrighting an article, like this one. A copyright does not protect the idea, but it does protect the manner in which the idea is expressed. These expressions may be in the form of writing, music, art, computer programs, photographs and other tangible forms of artistic expression.

Trademark law protects your right to exclusively use a name, logo or slogan that identifies and distinguishes the origin of your idea. This concept extends to the “trade dress” of the idea, which means its appearance and how the idea you have ultimately becomes packaged or configured.

Trade secrets are the information used in the implementation of your idea, which gives you an advantage over your competition. The key to this protection is that you must treat the information with secrecy. If you make a public disclosure of the information, then others will be free to use it.

Patents are the intellectual property right that protects inventions. For all practical purposes, and outside the field of botany, patents fall into two basic categories. On the most basic level, design patents protect how the invention looks and utility patents protect how the invention works. Patents are the most complicated protective device to secure, but they offer strong protection once you are awarded them.

2. Market Your Idea.

Great ideas are plentiful, but getting the idea to market and making money with it is what separates the casual inventor from the profitable entrepreneur.

Marketing your idea takes two basic roads. You can do it yourself or you can license someone else to do it for you. Which road you should take depends on your own skill set and the amount of money required to get the product to market. If you have neither the skill set to market nor the money to do it, then you should consider licensing your idea or product to someone who does.

A license is the grant of rights for your idea/invention to someone who is willing to spend the time and money to market it for you. As you might imagine, there are big companies that license products and there are entrepreneurs who make their living licensing ideas of others. This classic paring of two different skill sets (creating and marketing) has resulted in many successful projects. In some cases, the inventor takes a royalty for his ideas and does nothing but collect checks in the future. In other situations, the inventor remains involved in the projects. The combinations of how to structure license agreements are seemingly endless, and the answer as to which is best for you is determined by what you and the person who gets your license (licensee) are able to agree to.

A well-structured license agreement can be extremely profitable for both licensor and licensee and is big business today in everything from character licensing to sports licensing of naming rights and apparel. Licensing is a terrific way to make passive income for the rest of your life and offers true rewards for the creative person with a great idea.

3. Enforce Your Rights.

While enforcing your rights is not as exciting as the thought of creating or marketing a hot idea, do not forget that you will have to be vigilant and enforce your rights to keep them.

Music and movie piracy are only two of the more-common forms of intellectual product theft that is all too prevalent in our culture, especially overseas. Anytime there is big money to be made in something, there will be others ready to take what is yours. While this means you may have to one day spend money to enforce your intellectual property rights to protect your ideas, that is not a reason to miss out on the opportunity to gain from your ideas. A considerable body of law has developed in the area of intellectual property rights and protection and the creator who has exercised care in legally protecting his rights should feel comfort that his rights will be enforced.

To get more information or to review other free special reports, go to DicksNantonLaw.com.

Attention: Database Owners/Users

Two more states have adopted laws requiring database owners (and in some cases, businesses that just store and maintain database lists) to notify everyone on their list of a breach to the database. Additionally, you must notify the attorney general of your state or appropriate consumer agency.

In most cases the Database Breach Notification laws apply to personal information containing name and one of the following: Social Security Number, Drivers License Number, State ID Card, Passport or Financial Account Information with password or security code information. A breach is an unauthorized acquisition or use of the data.
The following states have laws now on the books: AZ, ARK, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, MA, ME, MI, MN, MT, NB, NV, NH, NJ, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, TN, TX, UT, VT, WA, WS.

More states are expected to add laws if they don’t have them and federal regulation is likely. Penalties for non compliance are calculated per name so they can be expensive.

Steps to take:
1. Maintain a control data security policy
2. If you have a breach, immediately determine if your state has a law
3. Contact your attorney for specific step by step procedure in your state for compliance.

If you have a coaching group or you are considering having one this question has very likely crossed your mind. It certainly has for our clients.

The answer of course is that it depends. The good news is that you can, with reasonable care, keep your area exclusive operations away from the classification of a franchise if that is what you want to do. We say “if you want to,” because there will be times when a franchise may be the very thing that you do want to structure. If you decide to incorporate franchise elements into your business then naturally you will then want to make sure you comply with the franchise laws. The reason you may want to look at structuring your program as a franchise is because you will open the door for larger revenue streams.

To gain insight into the proper legal structure for your growing business we want to start at the beginning.

What is a franchise?

There are three elements that make up a franchise. If you have the three elements present you have a franchise whether you call it that or not. To be clear, calling your business system an area exclusive, coaching group, license, or distributor won’t help you a bit if you have all three of the required elements that qualify you as a franchise. You will be a franchise. If you haven’t prepared for that, then such classification could be a disaster.

The law is clear and the courts will rule you have a franchise if you have these three elements:

1. You grant or license the use of a trademark or trade name

2. There is a payment of a fee

3. There is the existence of a community of interest between the parties such as a marketing plan, control, assistance or area exclusivity.

If you can eliminate one of the three “legs” of the franchise “stool”, you do not have a franchise. But make sure you do a good job of kicking the leg out.

In most cases you will want a payment of a fee so this leg stays in. Sometimes people try to hide it in the form of some “other type of payment,” like training fees, but the courts have been pretty adapt at finding that payments are payments no matter what you try and label them. Name classification does not change the reality. A continuity fee, royalty, or residual income would all be considered a fee payment.

In many of the coaching businesses or area exclusives there is an element of community of interest for sure. The “Done 4 You Services” that are often accredited to build value of the sale fall into this class. If you promise to help build your clients’ business using your marketing system you have crossed the line and have community of interest.

The exclusion of granting the use of trademark or trade name is usually where you can avoid the franchise tag if you so desire. But what if you have loosely tied an Association to your group or operations system that your group uses to market with. Does that put you back into the franchise mix? To us, the answer would be yes and the “rule of common sense law” governs. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck no matter what you call it. It won’t matter that you haven’t formally filed a trademark application, you may very well be deemed to have a common law trademark. It is ironic that what you might have wished to be able to prove, that someone was trying to steal your material, actually comes back to bite you with a regulator or opposing attorney making the same argument.

So do you want to be classified as a Franchise?

An important question you may want to ask yourself is whether you really want to avoid the franchise tag, even if you can. One reason is that a franchise can bring legitimacy to your operation that other methodologies, such as area exclusive licenses, simply can’t. Franchises are now recognized as a respected form of operation and a buyer may feel more comfortable with the franchise label and even feel he is getting more value from your system if it is a franchise.

Some people want to avoid the franchise tag because the cost of documenting the franchise structure is more expensive. This is true in the beginning of the business but remember what you are doing is creating a disclosure document which tells the prospective buyer of all the potential risks of your business. Having the disclosure document in place is precisely one of the things that will protect you if something goes wrong. Not having a disclosure document will bring a law suit down to a “he said she said” issue on what you did or did not tell the buyer and in almost all consumer cases, the seller loses without the correct documented disclosures.
Creating your own “franchise network” may also give you more value if you ever decide to exit your business. Trying to sell a coaching group is a lot harder than try to sell a franchise network. In fact, franchise networks also go public and sell for “multiples” of the income stream. What are commonly referred to as “earnings multiple” sales prices are not yet commonplace, in the more recently devised National coaching or “Area Exclusive” business structures.

The Business Opportunity Dilemma

Sometime in the next 12 months, we expect the FTC will pass a totally new Business Opportunity Rule that will address business systems like we have been discussing that are not franchises. When they do, we also expect that they will come to require some sort of disclosure document for business opportunities like those of franchises. If this occurs, and it seems certain that it will, your business system will be one or the other: franchise or business opportunity and you will have to comply with the rule of that business label. From a marketing position alone you may prefer to be a franchise because business opportunities have always had a sort of tainted reputation and it will take some years to change the image.