Business Success

Many small business people don’t realize it but they may be throwing some of their most valuable assets into the bin! Worse still, their competitors may be scouring through the apple cores, banana peels, discarded tea bags and other rubbish to discover valuable information which could cost these business people their competitive advantage or even their whole business.

 

 

When I was growing up, my parents often said: “there’s money in rubbish!” From time to time my father would take me along when he dropped steel and other metals into the scrap yard. I noticed that even though the owner of the scrap yard was often covered in dirt and grease, he had a beautiful, expensive car parked at the back of the yard. Even though his office was a mess and the phone covered in dirty fingerprints, he lived in a very affluent suburb. My father often said to me: “son if you are prepared to do what most other people are not, you’ll make a lot of money.”

 

 

So it is with the private detectives and corporate investigators who sift through untold rubbish bins in search of someone else’s secrets. In some cases these might be trade secrets which are vital to your business. In other cases it could be your employees and business associates who could be the potential thieves.

 

 

A friend of mine once had an idea to produce an audio tape series of interviews with prominent sports people and to market this through schools. He wanted to inspire young people to strive for their dreams and to help them find role models for their lives. He wanted them to discover their personal purpose and passion and to do what they really loved.

 

 

Trevor (not his real name) was a great ideas person and a very effective business networker. He often spoke about his idea and the vision he had for this project. Through various discussions I was able to help him fine tune his concept to a point where he was ready to implement it. Several times I advised him to register the trade name he intended to use for this audio series. Trevor was short of cash at the time and he said he would do so once the project was up and running. Then, one day he rang me up angry and frustrated. He said he had just seen an article in a local newspaper which announced the exact same project he had been working on with the exact same name. What’s worse is that he had actually told the thief about the idea at a business breakfast. He knew who had stolen his idea but there was nothing he could do about it. It was gone. Someone had stolen his idea and all the work that he had put into developing it was now wasted.

 

 

The reason this happened is that Trevor did not appreciate the value of his intellectual property. Ideas are worth money. Sometimes they can be worth BIG money. In this case, someone else realized that the idea had potential and was willing to steal both the name and the concept because it had not been protected. The lesson therefore is to appreciate that your ideas, information, systems, inventions, designs, names, graphics, procedures, inventions, tunes, lyrics are actually intellectual property assets that have a value. Secondly, if you consider them to be valuable then you should protect them.

 

 

So how do you protect them?

 

 

There are a number of avenues open to you and each type of intellectual property requires a special type of protection.

 

 

The first rule however is that you need to demonstrate that you value your intellectual property. To do this you would keep copies of what you value either in hard copy or electronic format. These would be stored in a safe and preferably on another site away from your business. You would also get your staff and/or business associates to sign confidentiality agreements with you before you disclose any of your business secrets to them.

 

 

In my office, all my staff are required to sign a confidentiality agreement before I will employ them. This immediately sends a message to them that they will come into contact with confidential information which they must not disclose to other parties or to use for their own purposes.

 

 

I had a situation recently where a person I had employed received a call from one of my suppliers advising that some materials which I regularly collect from them were available for collection. For the supplier, the materials are a waste product which he is happy to get rid of for free. For me, those same materials are a resource which I use on our farm. Instead of asking me whether she could have some of those materials, this staff member tried to build a relationship with the supplier for her own ends and tried to get the materials for herself. She did not respect the confidentiality of the information she came into contact with through my business and even though I let her take the materials she wanted, I discontinued our working relationship because she demonstrated that she did not respect my intellectual property.

 

 

All our business procedures are properly documented and our most valuable and critical information is stored in a safe. We also have a display cabinet where all our trade mark and business registration certificates are displayed. This clearly demonstrates to others that we value these intellectual property assets.

 

 

The next step is to ensure that you seek formal registration of your intellectual property rights where this is possible.

 

 

Trade Marks, special designs, patents, graphic designs and logos, business names and unique slogans can all be registered with IP Australia or the intellectual property organization in the jurisdiction where you desire to protect your intellectual property. If you want to organize global protection this can be done as well. There are specialized patent and trade mark attorneys who can help you achieve this.

 

 

The other two important areas are to register your domain name and to register a company so that no one else can operate using your chosen business name.

 

 

There is no formal registration process for the registration of copyright material in Australia. You claim copyright by using the copyright symbol and attributing your name and a date to your writings.

 

 

Often people say to me: “I can’t afford the cost of protecting my intellectual property”. In my view, if you have a bigger vision for your business and/or if you may want to sell it one day, you can’t afford NOT to protect your intellectual property. It all comes down to the way you think and the value you place on time and thoughts. Aren’t your ideas worth protecting?

 

 

As I discuss in my books Financial Freedom . . . starting now! – An Action Guide, the psychology of wealth is just as important as the strategies and techniques that you apply to build your wealth. The way you think and the manner in which you treat your ideas and other intellectual property will have a direct influence on your wealth. The person who doesn’t value a dollar is rarely a person who builds substantial wealth. A person who doesn’t value the intellectual property of their business is unlikely to build a large and lasting business.

 

 

For more information about how you can achieve a prosperity mindset and to value yourself and your ideas more highly, you might like to read the books, How To be Rich & Happy On Your Income and Financial Freedom . . . starting now! – An Action Guide.

 

 

 

 

About Hans Jakobi

 

Hans Jakobi is an educator, author and public speaker. He is the author of five best-selling books including, How To Be Rich & Happy On Your Income and the presenter of the Super Secrets to Wealth® do-it-yourself real estate investment home study course.

 

 

His educational materials are available from: Wealth Dynamics International Pty Ltd, PO Box 167 Portland NSW 2847 Australia

 

Telephone: (02) 63 555 800 Fax: (02) 63 555 855 Email: wealth@supersecrets.com

 

Website: www.supersecrets.com

 

 

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