Startup Business -More than an Idea

Startup Business criteria for the idea-person and the money-person, backing the venture, is always easily skewed toward “what’s the least that it will take to get going”.  Going into the wild of business with the startup entrepreneurial spirit is fascinating and laudable.  Many venture off with the chutzpa without seeking legal counsel  and resort to copying online content from other sites in the related service or product, this even includes copying someone else’s “terms-of use”, cookie policy, and disclaimers, among others. Big mistake.  Many do not think there is an entity called the Federal Trade Commission. Ever heard of the saying, “penny-pinching-pound-foolish”?  Copy cats always pay a price.  Unfortunately, all-too many fall into this criteria and struggle to get ahead and do not get to see the dream venture thrive.

It’s all in the name
A startup business usually starts with an idea before the name.  Getting an attractive name may sound good and many online pundits will tell you about the need for a snazzy name.  But, be on the lookout because someone else may already have it and are using it.  There may be a state level trademark filing, there may be a federal filing. There may even be a domain registry identical to your ideal name. Believe me, litigation is not fun for the plaintiff or the defendant, though as a lawyer engaged in this type of work, its enjoyable.  There are always concerns with cybersquatting, reverse domain name hijacking, and trademark infringement that loom the entrepreneur.  The everyday entrepreneur needs to get beyond the name and address its value and how it identifies the entity to be established.

The novel Idea
Every thought, of course is considered new and never to be thought of before.  However, there are too many ideas bouncing around in conversations in the market place, in incubators, and in co-labs that strike many fancies.  The idea most likely is not novel. Risks are at every turn if not checked accordingly to guard against committing an infringement or begging for one by not seeking to protect your “novel idea”.  Going solo without counsel begs for trouble in many unseen corners in the marketplace.  Being active in your local chamber will quickly make the entrepreneur aware of the novelty of the idea in the surrounding city or the “Internet”.

Process and Information
It is amazing how much information is gathered by businesses about their business process, customers, and services that are utilized.  This information is not even captured to begin to tell the entity if they are doing the right thing for their business and their clients.  Many resort to surveys, but the actual calls and orders will tell a different story about services and your business.
With all that information, there comes the responsibility to store it. Storing information for some future use comes with an obligation to respect customer privacy.   What the entity decides to store is also crucial. It is crucial for business success if handled and learned from to deliver better services.  It is also crucial for maintaining the information management integrity where customers trust your entity with their means of payment information and their personal identifying information (PII).  Carefully thought out platform for managing information is not usually on the top of your everyday entrepreneur’s list of priorities.

Conclusion
As an introductory piece on startup business, in general, this is just to point out some observations from years of advising entrepreneurs and witnessing their mistakes along the way, especially when they return to tell of their saga.  The eagerness at the beginning is productive but it can also get you in trouble fast.  Either money vanishes fast or their idea is already in use.  Careful planning and seeking advice go a long way.  Investing in planning and getting to know what to do, how to do, when to do, and in what order these things need to get done, comes from experience, and there is value with that experience.  Not all free information on the Internet is credible and business advice sought from blogs should be taken with a grain of salt.  In business, venturing off into the marketplace and serve customers and clientele involves more than just an idea. More startup business notions will follow that will shed some light on things all too often overlooked by entrepreneurs.

#business #startups #contracts #Florida
www.lorenzolawfirm.com copyright 2018