Trademark or Not: you decide after reading Cate’s story

Earlier this week, I published an article about copy cat business owners; the one’s who “borrow” your ideas, marketing copy and design.

It invoked several comments, but this particular one I felt deserved it’s own blog post.

With Cate’s permission, I wanted to share with you what she wrote.  And it’s a story I thought you would like to read and learn from!

Cate’s Story

This is the original comment that Cate wrote:

“Hi Karen. I’m going through a similar thing at the moment. When I founded Bambolina in 2006 I thought I had done everything I could to protect the business but my understandings of business names vs trademarks was clearly woolly. Anyway, in 2007 a German company registered a trademark for a range of dolls called Bambolina and their logo was almost identical to my original one – there were even flowers positioned where my daisies were.

A few years went by with me being blissfully ignorant until a customer rang to say that she wanted some clothes for her Bambolina doll. I said that I wasn’t aware of a doll called Bambolina and that I didn’t have clothes to fit them. My search started and I too did an awful lot of huffing and puffing and stomping around!

Bit by bit the Bambolina dolls started to appear in the UK is bargain stores such as TK Max and a cheap gift internet site. In February we went to Nuremberg and found the suppliers stand to see the dolls themselves. They were the very opposite of what Bambolina is all about – cheap looking, nasty fabrics, too pink – just not a quality doll.

And at the end of the day I don’t have a leg to stand on. They are trademarked and Bambolina in the UK isn’t. Had I done something 4 years ago maybe I would have had a case. As I don’t wish to be associated with the company concerned I have two options open to me. I can either fight or change my business name.

As I am a small independent on line retailer in the UK I don’t have the money to fight, so I have been registering a string of prospective business names. Fingers crossed the third one will be my last attempt as I haven’t received an objection yet, and I will only have to change the first 5 letters of Bambolina. Then the hard graft starts to swop over my website, update all my links, create a marketing campaign to let my customers know of the new name etc etc.

And the moral of the story – TRADEMARK!!!!

It is easy to do yourself on line and costs £250 to do so. Before you start a business complete a trade mark/business name search. Again this can be done on line yourself using Companies House and the Business Link Trademark checker.

Or you can pay a business to do the search for you such as Start Biz. This business will also register business names if your business is not a company.

Did you even know there were such things as Trademark Attorneys? There are lots of law firms specialising in this field. I only found out about their existence at a dinner party when I sat by one. If only our friend had held the party 5 years earlier I might have been OK. Wish me luck!”

Recommended Resources for more info

Claire also went on to recommend these two resources to me via email:

“Claire Evans from http://www.fhs.co.uk gave me the advice and I would most definitely go back to her if I need more help in the future and happily pay.

http://www.start.biz/home.htm - register business names here and complete searches, and more.”

What thoughts do you have? Have you had similar experiences that you would like to share?

Photo Credit:  BusinessSarah

Stop with the content! Promote first …

When it comes to marketing workshops, programmes and webinars the number one BIGGEST mistake small businesses make is spending time developing the content first.

I ran a session at the Web Tech Club last month on how to run virtual events – teleseminars and webinars – and this was my biggest rant of the session (and I do like to rant!!)

Typical Small Business Owner

Here’s what happens for most coaches, trainers and consultants:

“I want to run a workshop. I’ve been told this is a great way of making more money in working with more clients.”

Good thinking

“What topic shall I do?  I know, I love talking about growing tomatoes (OK – run me on this one!!).  I could easily run a whole day workshop on growing tomatoes.  I love tomatoes.  I’ve got stacks to say about tomatoes and my clients really need to learn more about growing tomatoes.  I’ve seen how they treat their tomato plants!”

OK – it’s good to focus on what you are good at.  There’s no point trying to promote something that you are not an expert in.  BUT … assuming you know what your clients need is WRONG WRONG WRONG!

“I’ll spend the next couple days planning out what I will deliver during this tomato growing workshop.  After all I want to be confident in what I am selling.  If I’ve got nothing to say then it’s going to be tough to promote it.”

Huh?! You’ve already told yourself you are an expert in tomato growing.  Why do you need to convince yourself first that you’ve got enough to say.  Of course you have!!

2 days later …

“OK, got the content together. Really pleased with the way I’ve designed my workbook.  I could sell that as a separate product.  Glad I spent that £65 on getting a graphic designer to come up with template and front page for the workbook. It looks very professional. I feel ready to sell it now.”

Gulp!! You’ve spent £65 on graphic design already but made no money from the workshop?

4 days later …

“No one is interested!! I’ve emailed everyone I know and no one is in the slightest bit interested in the best way of growing tomatoes.  What a waste of time.  I’m never going to run another workshop again.  I’m no good at this.”

There goes another demotivated, hacked off business owner whose dream was crushed at the first hurdle.

The 3 questions you need to answer first

This is why you must NEVER EVER spend time creating content for a workshop, product, book or anything else until you know these things:

1.  Your target audience – who do you want to work with?

2.  What is their pain – what keeps them up at night?  (What you think it is, is often no where near what it really is!!)

3.  What is it that you can deliver to soothe their pain?

And before you write the content, you promote it!  That’s right.

You work on your sales page, explaining what is your client will come away with and benefit from.  You may well have the course or content outlined as Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 or in chapter headings.

But you DON’T write the actual word for word content.

Sell before you write the content

You go out and sell tickets or pre-launch orders to make sure that your target audience will buy before you spend the time creating the content.

I know it will seem scary at first to sell something you haven’t finished, but I promise you that after the first time of doing it this way, you will never go back to your old ways!

Help! Other people are copying my brand and ideas

Earlier this week, I got an email from a new subscriber to my newsletter telling me that one of the biggest challenges they are faced with was that people were copying their brand and ideas.

Now, I just want to be clear that I’m not a legal expert!  If someone has stolen intellectual or creative property, then there may be a legal case.  Plagiarism is illegal  - but speak to legal expert to be sure; someone like Suzanne Dibble who is a legal expert.

People copy successful people

But the problem with this problem is that this ain’t never going to go away if you ever want to be successful!

I remember getting all hot under the collar in my first year of business when a “friendly competitor” launched a brand new workshop programme that had almost the identical name to mine.  Shock, horror (plus lots of expletives that I couldn’t possibly share here!!) was my immediate reaction.  ”How very dare she!!”

I went in to full scale rage that spread over several days.  I walked around, muttering under my breath, wondering what I could do to put a stop to her plans.

It’s easy to get angry

But what good did this do me?

1.  I didn’t really have a leg to stand on.  My workshop title wasn’t exactly trademarked.  Nor where the words that I used unique in any way.

2.  When I started to work through my anger, I realised that I had actually taken the idea of “my” workshop title from a couple of other workshops I had seen promoted on the web.  Although I thought I was being unique, I wasn’t really.  I had taken inspiration from others to help me in my own creativity.

Every book we read, every advert we see and every person we interact with is going to give us inspiration and ideas.  It’s not stealing when you put it together with your own uniqueness and twist.  If you ask a graphic designer to copy a well known brand’s logo, then yes – you are probably going to get a solicitor’s letter through your door one day.  But take well known logos along to the meeting to show them what you like and what you don’t like, is all part of the creation process.

3. The negative anger that I felt weakened me.  I was incredibly unproductive that week.  Instead of focusing on promoting my own workshop programme (which was doing rather well!), I turned my energies in to destroying my own productivity.  Not good for growing a business, is it?!

4. Did the other person really care about what I thought?  No!  Did she really do a better job of what I was doing? No!  Someone can steal your brand and all your ideas but you can never steal “you”.  And at the end of the day, it’s “you” that your clients and customers buy in to.

Most of the time it’s a mindset battle that’s worth fighting … not a legal one

This was never going to be a legal advice blog post.  And for goodness sake, if you feel you have been legally wronged, then get talking to a legal expert and put a plan in place.

But never stew over this.  Having seen several colleagues of mine over the years get all bent out of shape over other people stealing their ideas, I saw their anger and frustration hold them back on their own plans.

When you are successful, people will always try to copy you.  A compliment, as many of you may say.

But, don’t waste your precious energy and time getting angry with them for it because they can never be “you”.

What do you think?  Disagree or got something else to add?

Personalised Marketing: How up close and personal do you get?

Personalised emails and letters aren’t anything new.  Since the days of mail merge, it’s been relatively straight forward to insert people’s names where ever the magic code gets added.

However, as technology gets cleverer and cheaper, personalisation becomes more accessible for businesses like mine and yours.

Take the huge growth in personalised birthday cards, for example.  Moonpig hit the market a few years ago and now we’ve got sites such as Clintons and Funky Pigeon all jumping in.

Yesterday, I posted a video blog showcasing some clever marketing from Cancer Research that my husband received a few weeks ago.  Technology now even allows us to personalise videos!! Clever, if not a bit spooky.

But personalised videos may be stretching your budget!  It certainly isn’t something that I am looking at doing (yet!!).  So, how can you make your communication more personal?

Your email marketing

Always ask for someone’s name in your sign-up box:  First name is good. There’s no need to ask for surname too unless your business communicates tend to be in a more formal way ie Mr Smith rather than just Tom.  Ask for too much info as sign-up stage and you will create a “hassle factor” which will put people off rather than encourage.

Salutation:  If you send out an email newsletter, then you probably do this already.  But a simple Hi Tom at the beginning of your welcome section sets the tone.

Subject Headings:  Over use and this can be spammy, but sprinkle the odd first name merge code in your subject headings and it can make your email stand out in a bulging inbox.

In the body of the email:  Remember, you can use name merge codes where ever you like in your email.  Again, over use and this can be really spammy.  Think of it as a conversation you have with someone – you just wouldn’t keep using their name when speaking to them.  But use at points where you want someone to take notice, this can be very effective to jump someone in to action.

Your blog

OK, using names when someone visits your blog may be a little trickier if they haven’t actually subscribed anywhere.  But there are a couple of clever WordPress Plugins that help personalise your blog.

What Seth Godin Would Do:  This plugin recogonises where your visitor has come from and whether they have visited before.  You can then set a specific welcome message at the top of a blog post to reflect this.  For example “Hey, thanks for checking this out from Twitter” or even “Welcome. As this is your first time, why not subscribe to our blog feed here”

Thank Me Later:  This clever little plugin gives me the option to send a personalised thank you email to readers who leave a comment for the first time on my blog.  All automatic so no extra work needed once it’s been set up.

Your direct mail

Again, same principles as with your email:  think about your headline, your salutation and the body of your letter.

Personalised postcards & thank you cards: For one off thank you cards, it’s cheap and simple to head on over to Funky Pigeon. Or if you want to order in bulk use someone like Personally Corporate.

The trick to successful personalised marketing

The trick to personalising your marketing without it becoming spammy and dripping with insincerity is in the way that you deliver it.

I’ve blogged many times before about automating your communication without becoming robotic, and the trick is really in the tone and the phrases you use.

Being personal with your clients is a great way of standing out “from all the rest”, especially if you do it with a sense of humour and a smile on your face.   But write the words around that name merge code like you mean it.  Write how you would say it if you could be right there in front of them, in person.

Give it a go and let me know what results you get!

Personalised video marketing: Too clever? Too personal?

There’s nothing new about personalised marketing.  We’ve been able to mail merge for a long time now but this particular campaign from Cancer Research caught my eye the other week.

I’ve been meaning to video it and show you, so here it is.  What do you think?

When good is good enough [rant!]

When you run your own business, it’s easy to get personal about what you do. You care passionately about the images and messages that are used to represent your business. You worry if a spelling mistake or grammatical error causes offence. You worry that the price you want to charge isn’t too expensive to put people off.

You may even go to extremes and worry that the image on your About Us page is 10 pixels out of place and that the letterheads you got printed specially for a direct mailing do not quite match the pantone of your logo.

Your business is a representation of you … and you want it to be perfect!

But the problem with this ideology of this perfection is that perfection causes rot.

Rot in your marketing. Rot in the products you create. Rot in the way you attract clients to your business.

Perfection is a disease that kills your business in a matter of months!

When I first started up in business in 2004, I discovered a coach called Andrea J Lee. One of her catch phrases was “Completion, Not Perfection”. And thank god I saw the light early on.

This is a message that I carry with me day in, day out. I slap it in the faces of my clients when they go on for too long about the detail of wanting to get it “just right”. And it was the BIG message that I got again when I was fortunate to attend Nigel Botterill’s Marketing Madness Day in Bolton this Monday (BTW it was never billed as “Marketing Madness” but what became apparent to the 500 people in the room that day was that it was exactly that – Madness!!)

Nigel and the Entrepreneurial Circle team decided it would be kind of exciting to change the agenda of the normal marketing day planned and launch a business, live to an audience of 500 people. At 7pm Sunday evening, Nigel told us what they were launching and they had just 24 hours to make sales.

Everything was built from scratch: the website, e-commerce platform to enable them to make sales online, the Facebook Fan Page (which incidentally created 62 likes, converting 2 of these Likers to paying customers, proving that when social media is done right … it can be profitable!), email campaigns, voice broadcasts, Google AdWords campaign, SMS texting … in fact there were 16 different types of communications and marketing channels used to set up and promote this business.

OK, they had a team of 4 giving it their all to get this business up and running. But even with that team of 4, none of us where in any doubt that they proved what could be achieved in 24 hours was quite inspiring.

You see they didn’t faff about with image placements. They didn’t change the logo, even when the whole room thought it would look better with a quick graphic change. They made a mistake and missed out a tracking url in one of the email campaigns, but still sent it out anyway.

They were against the clock … and good was good enough.

And that clock clicks for you too! So you may not be under pressure to perform in front of 500 people within a 24 hour time period. But you are under pressure to create that product so you can generate revenue. You are under pressure to get that website live so your potential clients can find you and do business with you.

If you don’t think you are under that pressure, then give up. Just pass all your leads on to your competitor down the road. Your clients aren’t that fussy. They just want their problems solved and they will hand over their hard earned cash to someone who can meet their needs, wants and expectations.

Tough love? Well, that’s what I give. Because good is good enough.

And if I find you moving a website image around by 10 pixels to the right. And then again to the left. Or spell checking an email newsletter for the 3rd time … I will hunt you down.

Get implementing because good is good enough [rant over!]

Warning: social media can make you less social!

As tweeting and facebooking becomes more the norm at networking events and conferences, social media is starting to affect people’s sociability.  I’m sure we’ve all tutted at some point or another at the growing concerns that children spend more and more time glued to some form of screen.  But have you stopped and looked around you at the last networking event or conference you were at?

The adults are all doing it too!

I was an all day event last week.  Drove up to Birmingham and there must have been 50 odd people in the room, all coming from near and far.  We were all there to learn about marketing and come away with business ideas, so it wasn’t your typical networking event.  But networking was still to be had as we milled around, drinking coffee, waiting for the event to start at 10am.

As I looked around the room, I was amazed as I counted a dozen or so people engrossed in their phones.  Whether they were tweeting, checking emails or just adding their Farmville estate – I don’t know.  But these tiny glowing screens where sucking the sociability out of them.

Sure, a few of these guys would have been nervous, possibly one of the first few events they had been to as a business owner. I remember that feeling of “Oh gawd, I feel like a fraud.  No one is going to believe that I am capable of working for myself!!” and hanging around the coffee table, smiling nervously at anyone who would care to glance my way.  But these blessed smart phones are creating the perfect excuse to hide.  To avoid jumping in at the deep end and introducing yourself to someone … who may just be your next client.  Or at the very least, may know someone who could be your next client.

Two years ago, tweeting and facebooking was a novelty at events like these.  The very fact you were on your phone updating one or two of your social profiles created a conversation point.  Others craning their necks to see what you were doing and you were able to share your knowledge on how these tools worked.

But now, everyone has Twitter account (although they may not know what to do with it!!).  I love social media – don’t get me wrong.  It’s now become an integral part of many small businesses marketing strategies.  And tweeting and facebooking during events can be a useful networking exercise … in moderation.

The excuse of being able to tweet from a live event so that you can share with your countless online friends what and where you are, only distracts from the very essence of what you could be doing … interacting with some real, live people.

Look up from your smartphone screens, people!  Don’t play in your virtual world when you have real, live potential contacts and clients right there in that room with you.

Photo credit:  Adam Timworth

7 reasons to include events in your marketing plan

There is nothing quite like a live event – workshop, seminar, launch, sale, product demonstration – to get your marketing working for you and attracting more of the right clients.

Ever since I started up in business in 2004, I have found myself including some kind of live group event in my overall marketing plan. In the early days, back when I was a Life Coach, I fumbled around and offered group Life Coaching workshops

Fumbled was the operative word here as I was lucky if I managed to get more than 4 people to turn up at any one event. After running three such events, I decided banging my head against a brick wall was a more effective way of making money … so I stopped.

But after a long summer of very little in the way of clients, I decided to pull myself together and get back to running events again. It wasn’t the way I was marketing them that wasn’t working; it was what I was offering. People just didn’t want a group Life Coaching session; first big lesson learnt in event marketing success!

Since that summer I haven’t looked back. Live events – virtual and “real-life” – have been part of the CanDoCanBe marketing mix for the past seven years appearing as profitable revenue streams, PR and product launches.

And there is no reason why event marketing can’t work for you.

When I work with small business owners to help them with their own marketing strategies, I often encourage them to include some form of live event in to their business mix.

But I’m not a trainer!

I know that some of you reading this may be thinking “but I’m not a trainer, I don’t want to run a workshop”. Event marketing does not always have to be about selling training workshops.

Event marketing can include product demonstrations, free events to enable you to upsell what it is you offer, networking events, Q&A forums, special sale days, try-before-you-buy opportunities … event marketing can work for those of you who sell products and services.

The possibilities of getting a group of customers together in the same room are only limited to your creativity.

So when done right, why does event marketing work so well for small businesses?

Here’s why:

1. Time sensitive deadlines

If you are offering something all day and every day, there is often very little pressure for a customer to buy from you. They may want what you have to buy, but life gets in the way and it’s easy to put off their buying decision until tomorrow and the next day.

A live event will happen at a specific time on a specific day. If someone wants to attend your event, they are forced in to making a decision and committing to you.

2. Gets you closer to your customers

There is nothing quite like bringing a group of customers together in the same room to get to know them better. And for them to get to know you better. Face to face relationships improve communications and people will buy in to you at a deeper level.

It’s also a great way of getting your customers to meet each other. Social proof that other people like what they like!

3. Instant feedback on what you are marketing

If your live event is not going well, you get instant feedback don’t you? Eyes glazing over, folded arms, snoring(!) are all signs that what you are offering is not of value. But don’t let this put you off. Imagine when things go great. People are straining at the back to see what you doing. They are scribbling notes furiously. The audience is asking lots of questions; showing an interest.

It means you are on the right track and offering stuff that people want. Plus it’s great for your own personal motivation when you realise that people love what you offer.

4. Allows you to upsell your bigger offer

Let’s say you are a website designer. Your average customer spend is £1,000 and you are finding it challenging to find enough of the right people to spend enough of the right amount of money with you. Offering a two hour informal session at your office on how SEO works or how to start your own blog, could be what your customers are interested enough in to express an interest in what you do.

£1,000 may be too much money for them to consider right at this moment, but a £35 workshop that gives them practical advice is an easier buying decision to make. Once they come to see you in action, spending that £1,000 budget on a new website is a whole load easier!

5. Increases your hourly rate and adds a revenue stream

If your business focuses on offering services to 1-2-1 people, then the challenge is often finding enough people to pay you to meet your earning targets. No matter how successful your marketing is, if you are charging your time, your time will be ultimately capped by the number of hours you can work.

But by giving a group of customers an opportunity to work with you in one day, not only do you reach out to more people, you can dramatically increase your hourly rate. For example, you may be charging £125 per person for your legal advice per hour, but how many people are you seeing each day to make up your monthly earning potential?

If you were able to offer a group legal clinic for £95 per person for a three hour workshop and had 10 people attend, your hourly rate has more than doubled. (Simplistic I know as you have to consider preparation time too, but you get the picture don’t you?)

6. Gives you something else to offer to your customers

Flogging the same stuff day in, day out can get rather tedious. For both you and your potential clients. A live event that you run every three months, for example, can be a great way to break up your communications and have something “new and exciting” to tell people.

7. Focus to your marketing plan

This is my favourite reason by far! Because an event is at a specific time on a specific day, you have to pull your finger out and market it! There is no dithering about and dragging your heels. You’ve got to get out there and tell people about your event.

You have to get a plan together: press releases, email promotions, leaflets, personal letters, postcard mailings, adverts, Twitter campaign, radio interviews, website landing pages, pay-per-click campaign … how ever you decide you are going to get the message out there, you have to plan it and DO IT!

And because you are starting with an end date in mind, it makes it very easy to work backwards to help you decide when you have to action certain things. You don’t want to be turning up to an event with a whole load of empty seats, do you? What better focus do you need to get your marketing working hard for you?!

Adds zing to your 6 month marketing plan

So, if you are after just one thing guaranteed to add a rather large zing to your marketing plan for the next 6 months, it’s get two or three events lined up. Make sure these events are what your customers really want (not what you think they need!!), decide on a date and then get to it.

Event marketing done right is a great way to give you that proverbial rocket and help you attract more of the right clients.

Photo Credit: OrangeJack

And they’re off …

Yes! There’s nothing like the start of a new school year to get me going again.  My eldest daughter started “big school” today (cool as a cucumber I hasten to add!) and my younger son squeezed his feet in to school shoes (shoes feel strange after wearing crocks for 9 weeks!!) and made it back for his first day in to Year 5.

And here I find myself, finding that the best way to get my business brains re-engaged is to get writing on my blog again.

It’s good to be back :O)

I’m sure you had your own motivations to starting up your business.  My motivations where my two children, a brain that needing engaging and making sure I had some Me-Time.  And it’s these motivations that all coming spilling out on this first day of the new school year.

So here is it.  Seven years of my children starting a new school year.  Seven years of self-employment and running my own business.  Feeling refreshed (if not a little soggy-brained!) and raring to go.

I’m glad to say that Team Skidmore is up and off again!

How persistent are you?

Hindhead Tunnel now open!

Yesterday saw the opening of the Hindhead Tunnel; a £371 Million road bypass project almost completed. It boosts to be the longest road tunnel in the UK measuring at 1.1 miles and is a most beautifully designed – almost TelyTubby like in appearance – piece of engineering work.

The A3 is a very busy duel carriageway that cuts the village of Hindhead in half and the traffic lights (just 400 yard from the end of our road) have become notorious in causing anything from 30 minutes to 3 hours of delay to both Southbound and Northbound traffic up and down the South East of England.

I moved to Hindhead with my family ten years ago when the plans for the Tunnel were still being debated. Hindhead back then was – in property prices – the poorer sister to the more desirable area of Haslemere. As the Tunnel project looked to be imminent, we decided the house we liked would be a sound financial investment. Once the Tunnel opened, Hindhead would become a village again; the juggernauts and lorries taken away from the centre.

It took some persistence!

But that was ten years ago! We honestly thought that a project like this would be approved much sooner. Campaigning for a new road started back in the 1970’s and yet it took more than 35 years for plans to be approved.

It took years and years of persistence campaigning to find a solution that suited the majority and approval from the Department of Transport.

And finally this week, we will see both Southbound and Northbound tunnels opened.

Your small business marketing activity

What’s this got to with your business and marketing activities?

One of the reasons why so many of you fail at your marketing is because of a lack of persistence.

You may have read some where that it takes on average of 7 times to be in touch with someone before they become ready to buy from you. As the average consumer gets more and more savvy and competition gets more and more competitive, this figure for most of you will actually be far higher!

I have had clients subscribe to my newsletter and receive it for two years or more before they feel ready to invest in business coaching or one of my products to help with small business marketing. It can take ten, twenty or even thirty times to be in touch with someone before they will buy from me.

It’s too easy to give up on your marketing efforts!

But it’s easy to give up. It’s easy to decide that after you’ve left one message for that potential client, if they haven’t called you back within the week, you’ll drop them from your follow up list. After all, you don’t want to appear desperate do you?

It’s too easy to right off that direct mail campaign in which you posted one voucher to a few hundred prospects. You only got one response back so direct mail mustn’t work for you.

It’s too easy to publish a few tweets and start up a Facebook Page only to give up after a month because it’s not generated one spark of interest.

What if the campaigners for the A3 road bypass gave up after ten years? After twenty years? Or even after thirty? Yup, that’s right. We wouldn’t be enjoying a juggernaut free road through our village.

Hang tough. Be persistent and believe that if your proposition was good enough to shout about the first time, it’s good enough to keep on shouting.

You need constant and consistent follow up!

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