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Top 3 Ways to Build Your Interior Design Business

Growing a successful business is often riddled with trial and error—from attracting the right clients, developing a unique brand identity, to narrowing down service offerings. Unfortunately, there are no set guidelines when it comes to leading an interior design business, but these three legal strategies will support your firm’s growth and longevity.

Form Strong Foundations

As a business owner, it is your responsibility to limit your risk and liability to keep your business running smoothly. Interior design businesses that regularly update their formation documents and corporate records ensure their business, reputation, and personal assets are protected at all times.

Perhaps the most important choice interior designers face when starting their business is choosing which type of entity to operate under. The right business entity will protect business owners from liability, save money on taxes, create structured business operations, and build a professional foundation that clients can trust.

It is risky for interior designers to operate as sole proprietorships or in general partnerships because they offer no protection from creditors, and the owners are personally liable for business debts. Corporations (Inc.) and Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) are popular business entities because they shield business owners from personal liability while establishing a professional presence.

Additionally, as a business develops and expands, its corporate records require professional maintenance to keep updated with the status of the company. All corporations are required by law to maintain detailed corporate records. LLCs require less record-keeping, but important decisions should be memorialized and recorded. From a legal perspective, it is important to maintain organized, detailed records because it protects businesses should an audit ever occur. Having organized and complete records also helps businesses achieve bank loans and lines of credit, attract investors, have better negotiating power with suppliers, and ultimately sell for a profitable margin.

Protect your Branding

Interior designers are artists. They use their creative talents to completely transform spaces into masterpieces for their clients. They invest time, energy, and resources to fashion original designs, so the last thing an interior designer (or their clientele) wants to see is another designer imitating or exploiting their signature design concept.

To stay distinct and competitive in the industry, interior designers must protect their design plans like any piece of artwork or creative product. Each creative work, or derivative (such as plans, sketches, drawing, artwork, photography, or renderings) are individually protectable pieces of intellectual property – not to mention the brand name, logos and website design. Properly protected intellectual property provides the owner with the exclusive right to use it, alter it, and profit from it. Without the right intellectual property protections in place, interior design businesses risk having their original design concepts stolen by competition.

The best way to keep your brand identity and designs unique is to protect your rights to the intangible property developed by your business. With design concepts firmly protected by filing the necessary trademarks or copyrights, interior designers can post and share their design portfolio without worrying about their competition copying and profiting from it. They also have the right to license their work to others at their discretion. As a result, they have the opportunity to expand the reach of their brand by forming profitable collaborations with businesses who want to use their designs.

One of the most overlooked pieces of intellectual property is your business’ client list. The cost of losing your client list to a competitor is incalculable. Non-compete agreements (NCAs) are useful for businesses to protect their intellectual property from employees. Interior design businesses should have their best designers on staff sign an NCA to keep valuable designs and client lists secret and prevent former employees from using those signature designs or client lists should they start a similar business or work for the competition.

Pay Attention to Suppliers

The interior design industry is driven by connections. Whether the designer is finding new clients or establishing partnerships with suppliers, forming strong relationships is essential. Interior designers depend upon furniture, artwork, paint, flooring, carpets, and other creative elements to transform spaces and exceed client expectations. Each interior designer is only as good as the elements they can bring together, so ensuring supplier relationships is key to the success of interior design businesses.

Once vetted for reliability, quality, cost, and efficiency, a new supplier company and the interior design firm should enter into a well thought through agreement to establish the terms of the relationship and the responsibilities of each party. Well-drafted supplier agreements will protect both parties from miscommunications in the future; as they should include a comprehensive description of the goods or services provided, acceptable payment terms, payment methods, returns and refunds, shipping costs and responsibilities, warranties, delivery timelines, and more.

When using a template for this type of agreement, interior designers run the risk of leaving out key legal terms and clauses that protect their business’s interests. Poorly written supplier agreements can result in major miscommunications, such as materials not arriving in time, partial deliveries, or payment terms that are unreasonable – all of which can put interior designers in a bad position with their clients. When agreements are vague or overly broad, your business could end up wasting time and resources back-tracking instead of moving forward with new opportunities. When properly executed, supplier contracts can help interior designers derive the most value from these relationships.

Next Steps

If you would like to learn more about any of the topics mentioned here, please call or text 484-801-0021 or reach out to Cassandra Ortner at cassandra.ortner@peytonlaw.com. We proudly support the nation’s business owners.

*Janelle Peyton is the CEO and Managing Partner of Peyton Law, a leading boutique law firm designed to provide the highest quality branding, business, and legal services to companies via quarterly subscription called Strategic Legal Solution. Peyton Law offers brand building strategies through corporate and intellectual property law, including business entity formation, buy+sell, contracts, joint ventures, trademarks, patents, licensing, and other growth-related transactions.

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EMPLOYER NOTICE: COVID-19 Policy Required by OSHA

EMPLOYER NOTICE: COVID-19 Policy Required by OSHA

Fines imposed beginning Monday, January 10, 2022

Do you have a COVID-19 policy in place? OSHA will start to fine businesses who do not have a policy in place beginning Monday, January 10, 2022.

Employers have two compliance options: (1) enforce vaccination of all employees, or (2) a hybrid approach.

Employers have only a week to put this policy in place. We can help, click here to schedule a consultation immediately: https://calendly.com/jpeyton/20-minute-complimentary-consultation.

Be prepared to implement the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination or testing.

After multiple court rulings, on December 18, 2021, OSHA gave notice that it will resume implementation of the ETS. More information is available on OSHA’s website FAQs: https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/ets2/faqs.

Next Steps

If you would like to learn more about OSHA’s requirements regarding COVID-19 Policy, the topic, please call or text 484-801-0021 or reach out to Cassandra Ortner at cassandra.ortner@peytonlaw.com. We proudly support the nation’s business owners.

*Janelle Peyton is the CEO and Managing Partner of Peyton Law, a leading boutique law firm designed to provide the highest quality branding, business, and legal services to companies via quarterly subscription called Strategic Legal Solution. Peyton Law offers brand building strategies through corporate and intellectual property law, including business entity formation, buy+sell, contracts, joint ventures, trademarks, patents, licensing, and other growth-related transactions.

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Are Electronic Signatures Acceptable in Business?

Many small business owners believe that traditional ink signatures are the only way to go when it comes to legal documents—but that’s not the case anymore.

Electronic signatures (e-signatures) have been legal in the United States for over 20 years now. Once considered a luxury to use, e-signatures are now considered the standard way to authenticate business and legal documents. E-signatures and electronic records carry the same legal weight as their pen-and-paper counterparts. In fact, if an e-signature were challenged in court, it would be easier to authenticate than a written signature due to its digital audit trail. The data captured with an e-signature, such as IP address, location, date, and time, would all serve as concrete evidence to establish the signer’s authenticity. As a result, many consider e-signatures to be more secure than ink signatures.

E-signatures are a valuable business tool that more businesses are harnessing as remote work increases in popularity. Although more people are working from home, e-signatures have made it possible for businesses to continue their operations as normal.

E-signatures have significantly simplified and accelerated signing legal documents, such as employee agreements, leases, mortgage contracts, financial documents, non-disclosure agreements, consent forms, and more. Business owners can also include electronically signed documents in their corporate records. With e-signatures, virtual collaborations are more feasible and efficient, allowing businesses to form successful partnerships that help them thrive.

What are Electronic Signatures?

An electronic signature (e-signature) is a legally binding way to sign and approve legal documents virtually. Signers can simply check agreement boxes, type their full name, provide their email address, or use a stylus on a touch screen to mimic their handwritten signature. E-signatures can replace and fulfill a handwritten signature for virtually all signature requirements. In 2000, the E-SIGN Act assigned e-signatures the same legal status as handwritten signatures in the United States and all of its governing territories. It defined an electronic signature as:

“Any electronic sound, symbol, process that is attached to or somehow associated with a record or contract and executed by a party with intention to sign.”

The E-SIGN Act allows for any signature requirements to be fulfilled by e-signatures. Specific exceptions include: wills, codicils, and trusts, family law matters like divorce, certain court orders like eviction or foreclosure notices, product recalls, and documents accompanying the transport of hazardous materials.

E-signatures can be presented as evidence in court and their legal validity cannot be denied solely because of their digital form. In addition, e-signatures can still take place even when a notary is required. Remote online notarization (RON) is legally authorized in all states by E-SIGN. In states that permit RON, the signer appears before the notary via online audio-visual technology to satisfy the notarization.

E-signatures carry the full legal weight of traditional wet signatures. However, for an e-signature to be considered legally binding, it must meet certain conditions.

What Makes Electronic Signatures Legally Binding?

Intent to Sign

Intent to sign refers to the signer’s intention to enter into a legal agreement, and it is traditionally signified by the traditional pen and paper signature to be legally binding. E-signatures to be legally binding, signers must show the same willingness to enter into a legal agreement. Signers can fulfill this by checking agreement boxes on electronic forms, typing their full name and email address, or drawing their signature with a computer mouse or a stylus on a touch screen. Any of these would clearly show a signer’s intent to accept the terms of a contract and could be used as evidence in court.

Identification of Parties

For e-signatures to be secure and legally binding, the identity of the signing parties must be known and proven. E-signatures can satisfy this step by asking the signing party to confirm their email address or by requiring the signing party to login to an existing system. A more secure but tedious method to authenticate the signer’s identity would be requiring the signer to obtain a digital certificate, which is essentially an electronic credential acquired from a trusted service provider.

Disclosure and Consent

Before completing an e-signature, signers must be clearly informed of the contract’s terms, conditions, and intended use. In most cases, there is an appropriate notice disclosing this information and a “click to accept” checkbox for signers to show their consent to the agreement’s terms. If dealing with international parties, it may be necessary to provide disclosure language in multiple languages.

Electronic Capture

After accepting the terms of agreement, the e-signature system must provide an “electronic sound, symbol [or] process” that unmistakably attaches the signer to the agreement. Normally, signers will type in their full name and email address or mimic their handwritten signature with a stylus or computer mouse.

Agreement & Data Secure from Tampering

The digital system used to sign the contract electronically must have security measures and technology in place that encrypts the data and secures it from tampering. In addition, any tampering that may occur must be detectable by the system and apparent to the signers.

Record Retention and Signed Copies

Finally, the signed document must be retained and available to all involved parties. Usually, this is achieved by emailing the electronically signed document and allowing each individual to save the electronic document in their preferred method.

Why Do People Use Electronic Signatures?

E-signatures are more convenient and less time-consuming than traditional pen and paper contracts. Coordinating and faxing handwritten signatures for legal documents can quickly become a tedious, back-and-forth process. If clients or business partners are unable to meet in person, e-signatures make it easy to complete dealings in one place—without the need to synchronize schedules or handle physical documents. Employing e-signatures is also a cost-effective way to reduce paper use and to reduce overall clutter. In addition, electronic access to signed documents makes it easy to find and access relevant documents in the future.

Next Steps

If you would like to learn more about any of the topics mentioned here, please call or text 484-801-0021 or reach out to Cassandra Ortner at cassandra.ortner@peytonlaw.com.

We proudly support the nation’s business owners. Peyton Law would like to encourage everyone to reach out:

*Janelle Peyton is the CEO and Managing Partner of Peyton Law, a leading boutique law firm designed to provide the highest quality branding, business, and legal services to companies via quarterly subscription called Strategic Legal Solution. Peyton Law offers brand building strategies through corporate and intellectual property law, including business entity formation, buy+sell, contracts, joint ventures, trademarks, patents, licensing, and other growth-related transactions.

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This Single Thing Could Harm Your Business [TRADEMARK UPDATE 2021]

Registration of a trademark can be a tricky business, especially given recent USPTO delays.

At Peyton Law, about 50% of our work for entrepreneurs and small business owners (ESBOs) is general counsel and business law, but the other half of our time is spent in intellectual property protection – and much of that work is in trademark registration and renewal.

As all entrepreneurs know, a great idea is an important asset, and it must be treated as such. You wouldn’t leave your front door unlocked, just as you wouldn’t leave your brand unprotected; and you wouldn’t hand over the keys to your house without compensation, so why would you share your intellectual property without a royalty?

We spend a great deal of time in the intellectual property world, focusing primarily on protecting proprietary processes, trade secret protection, licensing, copyrights, and trademarks. Last year, we helped many businesses trademark their names, taglines, and logos by leading them carefully through the process with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to achieve a certified trademark registration for their brand.

In our experience, the USPTO has taken an average of 3 months from the date the trademark application is filed, until we hear a response from the USPTO Examiner assigned to the application. To achieve complete registration, the entire process used to take an average of 8-12 months, depending on the individual circumstances.

However, recent delays in the government offices have resulted in an over 6-month wait just to hear from the assigned USPTO Examiner. This pushes our average registration timeline to a year or more. As attorneys, we are curious, so we decided to do a little research to find out why.

As it turns out, according to a World Trademark Review article (written in April 2021 by Tim Lince), over the last couple of years, there has been an influx of trademark applications based out of China. The USPTO has addressed this issue, changing the regulations to state that a “home base” for an application must be in the United States. After these rules went into effect, it was noted by the USPTO that many similar applications to those seen from China and seemingly based in the United States were still flooding in. To circumvent the new regulations, foreign applications would use a Unites States address for the submission, and quickly update the point of contact to an address in China or other foreign companies.

It was also discovered that many of the United States addresses either did not exist, or worse, was the theft of the identity of actual U.S.-based attorneys – just to avoid further examination into their applications. This deeper sophistication of China-based trademarks has resulted in fraudulent applications becoming more difficult to flush out. In turn, the USPTO has become severely backlogged.

Closures and work-from-home requirements due to the pandemic have also contributed to the delays. Currently, processing time of initial applications has increased upwards of three months. This increased wait time is damaging to entrepreneurs and business owners who rely on and expect a quicker turnaround time. With market trends always changing, entrepreneurs and business owners have to decide to risk launching a next new product or service without waiting for the name, tagline, or logo to be protected; or wait and risk losing the market opportunity.

At Peyton Law, we understand that risks must be weighed against the availability of your resources. We start each new client and matter with a strategy session to explore the opportunity at hand and to collaborate on the best avenue for growth and development. With increase waiting times on trademark registration, and no certain end in sight, we suggest moving quickly to do a preliminary search and file your trademark application as soon as possible (at the point in time your trademark application is submitted electronically to the USPTO, you have priority status over future applications). Email us, give us a call, or click here to schedule your complementary consultation today.

 

Next Steps

If you would like to learn more about any of the topics mentioned here, please call or text 484-801-0021 or reach out to Cassandra Ortner at cassandra.ortner@peytonlaw.com. We proudly support the nation’s business owners.

*Janelle Peyton is the CEO and Managing Partner of Peyton Law, a leading boutique law firm designed to provide the highest quality branding, business, and legal services to companies via quarterly subscription called Strategic Legal Solution. Peyton Law offers brand building strategies through corporate and intellectual property law, including business entity formation, buy+sell, contracts, joint ventures, trademarks, patents, licensing, and other growth-related transactions.

 

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Celebrating the New Brand; Snyder Law is now Peyton Law

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Radnor, PA – Peyton Law, a boutique provider of legal services to business owners of small and mid-sized privately held companies, launched an updated name and new brand that aligns with the firm’s identity and supports the firm’s unique business proposition.

“We are now positioned to serve business owners in a way that no other law firm does,” said Janelle Peyton, the CEO and Managing Partner. “As we continue our commitment to the businesses that are the backbone of the U.S. economy, we have found a way to serve common legal needs with a proprietary quarterly offering that supports their growth while encouraging open communication. We are celebrating with a new look.”

Peyton Law supports businesses with entity formation, contracts, partnership agreements, trademarks, licensing, franchise opportunities, review of commercial leases and real estate, employee agreements, and a host of other general business matters.To learn more about their offering – Strategic Legal Solution, click here.

The new brand identity includes the new name “Peyton Law.” When asked about this, Mrs. Peyton smiled as she replied, “I’ve been using my married name [Peyton] for 6 years now, I guess I’m finally ready to commit to it.” Snyder is her maiden name. The website has moved to www.peytonlaw.com, and updates are currently in process.

The logo reflects a scallop shell where a registered trademark symbol ® might appear. When asked about the significance of this, Mrs. Peyton explained that the scallop shell is a symbol used to show the path or “The Way” along the ancient pilgrimage called the “Camino de Santiago.” The scallop shell is symbolic of the journey of business ownership; from start-up to proven model to business growth. Peyton Law guides its clients through these stages, smoothing the way for uninterrupted growth.

The team at Peyton Law has also grown, and they’re happy to answer any questions about the new look, and about legal services for business owners. The firm has also launched a private Facebook Group called “Legal Lab for Business Owners,” which holds a free quarterly lab to guide members through the process of preparing for and hiring outsourced general counsel. The next class starts soon; request membership here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/legallabforbusiness.

Peyton Law would like to encourage everyone to explore its new look and reach out:

Next Steps

If you would like to learn more about any of the topics mentioned here, please call or text 484-801-0021 or reach out to Cassandra Ortner at cassandra.ortner@peytonlaw.com. We proudly support the nation’s business owners.

*Janelle Peyton is the CEO and Managing Partner of Peyton Law, a leading boutique law firm designed to provide the highest quality branding, business, and legal services to companies via quarterly subscription called Strategic Legal Solution. Peyton Law offers brand building strategies through corporate and intellectual property law, including business entity formation, buy+sell, contracts, joint ventures, trademarks, patents, licensing, and other growth-related transactions.

 

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The Recipe for Success? Why Content Creators Need These 3 Intellectual Property Protections

Intellectual property is the lifeblood of many businesses, and this is especially true for content creators. Professionals such as coaches, consultants, strategists, leadership trainers, authors, and bloggers rely on their creative works to drive their business and set it apart from competition. They work diligently to create original content that provides exceptional value, enhances their service offerings, and ultimately grows their business.

Such professionals excel at researching and creating unique content that makes their brand and services stand out from the competition. Content creators put in long hours to perfect their materials and gain competitive advantages in their market. In fact, the value of their intellectual property can far exceed any physical assets and often accounts for more than half of their business’s value.

And yet this painstaking labor goes to waste when their inspired content is left legally unprotected. Content creators risk their creative works being copied and freely used by other businesses for profitable purposes. By filing and securing the necessary copyrights, trademarks, or trade secrets, content creators unlock valuable opportunities to generate revenue from their content, expand their audience, and protect their business to grow securely into the future.

What intellectual property do I have and how can I protect it?

Every business possesses valuable intellectual property, whether the business owner realizes it or not. Content creators’ intellectual property can include: training programs, webinars, online courses, workshops, blogs, articles, how-to guides, eBooks, manuals, and other educational materials or creative works. A copyright would give the content creator control of any reproductions, adaptations, or translations.

Another form of intellectual property content creators possess are slogans, logos, designs, phrases, symbols, or brand names associated with their business. Trademarks specifically protect branding materials to ensure businesses can remain distinct from competition within the same industry.

Trade secrets are another type of intellectual property content creators may possess. A trade secret is any valuable information that gives a business a competitive advantage. Examples of trade secrets include recipes, formulas, client lists, business processes, proprietary algorithms & calculations, apps, internal documents & worksheets, and affiliate programs that give the business a distinct advantage. In order for intellectual property to be considered a trade secret, businesses must make a reasonable effort to actively secure the information internally and externally – i.e. they have to try to keep it a secret.

How can I leverage my intellectual property with copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets?

At the most basic level, protecting intellectual property with copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets improves your competitive advantage and keeps your content unique. But more importantly, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets open the door to new profit-making enterprises that grow your business.

Copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets transform your content for commercial use. Just like any other form of property, once you secure the rights to your content, you can sell, transfer, or license it to others. Through licensing, content creators can negotiate a profitable royalty either as a percentage of the income the client generates from the content or as a fixed fee. As a result, content creators build a reliable passive income that grows and sustains their business long-term.

Licensing copyrighted works, trademarked brand materials, or part of a trade secret effectively monetizes content, but it also functions as a valuable marketing tool. By distributing original content to others, businesses expand their reach, gain new audiences, drive new traffic, gather leads, and convert sales. Neglecting to copyright, trademark, or establish a trade secret for your original brand materials and content can result in: the loss of a new revenue source and new avenue for growth, the devaluation of the content when competitors freely copy and distribute it, and the major loss of potential profits.

Case Study: The John Maxwell Company

The John Maxwell Company is a corporate leadership training service that offers extensive solutions, including: leadership workshops, executive coaching, training, assessments, and keynote speaking. They also engage their online audience with their blogs, podcasts, and webinars. The John Maxwell Company has registered at least 18 trademarks and likely hundreds (if not thousands) of copyrights to protect and leverage these products and services.

As a result, they form profitable partnerships with other companies, in which other business will represent and sell their training programs. The company that sells their program benefits from the high-quality content while The John Maxwell Company sells more of their product and services long after the content was created. This company is a great example of how content creators can make their content work for them full-time through copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.

Final Thoughts

Filing and maintaining copyrights and trademarks and forming trade secrets are effective, long-term investments for content-related businesses’ success and growth. It sustains, transforms, and advances the business and its services to new heights. If you have worked hard to create your content, give it the protection and importance it deserves to maximize its value within your business.

Next Steps

If you’re interested in how protecting your intellectual property can benefit your business or discussing any of these topics further, set up a 20-minute meeting with Peyton Law to discuss your business’s needs and to find the best options for your business’s success. Please call or text 484-801-0021 or reach out to Cassandra Ortner at cassandra.ortner@peytonlaw.com. We proudly support the nation’s business owners.

*Janelle Peyton is the CEO and Managing Partner of Peyton Law, a leading boutique law firm designed to provide the highest quality branding, business, and legal services to companies via quarterly subscription called Strategic Legal Solution. Peyton Law offers brand building strategies through corporate and intellectual property law, including business entity formation, buy+sell, contracts, joint ventures, trademarks, patents, licensing, and other growth-related transactions.

 

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Legal Lab – Free Workshop for Business Owners

Legal Lab for Business Owners

Be prepared to up level your company’s legal matters. This 5-day Lab is designed to take you through step-by-step preparations to meet your business attorney with purpose and confidence. Legal help doesn’t have to be confusing or expensive, we’ll help you prepare.

 

This is a LiveStream Event on FB. Click here to register.

 

Legal Lab Session 1: BUSINESS ENTITY – START WITH A STRONG FOUNDATION

Session 1 is all about starting strong. We’ll cover the basics on entity types and build your confidence in your business. Pivots and new offerings are covered; as well as common risks and adding/subtracting partners.

Legal Lab Session 2: CONTRACTING – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR SUCCESS

Session 2 will cover the basics types of contracts you will encounter in your business; and whether or not you can draft and edit them successfully. Grow your confidence with your agreements before you sign on the dotted line.

Legal Lab Session 3: BRAND BUILDING – IDENTIFY IDEAS AND GROW YOUR BRAND

Session 3 will dive into your intangible property like trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, licensing, patents, etc. Do you have a client list? Then you have something worth protecting.

Legal Lab Session 4: HIRING LEGAL – HOW TO HIRE COUNSEL WITH CONFIDENCE

Session 4 will build your confidence and provide you with the best questions to ask before hiring your attorney – and what to ask to get the most value out of your current counsel. Don’t hire a business attorney or outsourced general counsel until you’ve attending this lab.

Legal Lab Session 5: BONUS + Q&A

Session 5 is a surprise along with plenty of time to answer your questions.

 

Next Steps

To join us in this amazing event, click here: http://snyderbusinesslaw.hubspotpagebuilder.com/legally

If you’re interested in outsourcing your legal services, set up a 20-minute meeting with Snyder Law to discuss your business’s needs and to find the best options for your business’s success. Click here.

If you would like to learn more about any of the topics mentioned here, please call or text 484-801-0021 or reach out to Cassandra Ortner at cassandra.ortner@peytonlaw.com. We proudly support the nation’s business owners.

*Janelle Peyton is the CEO and Managing Partner of Peyton Law, a leading boutique law firm designed to provide the highest quality branding, business, and legal services to companies via quarterly subscription called Strategic Legal Solution. Peyton Law offers brand building strategies through corporate and intellectual property law, including business entity formation, buy+sell, contracts, joint ventures, trademarks, patents, licensing, and other growth-related transactions.

 

 

 

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Hire a Pro: How Outsourcing Can Grow a Business

One of the biggest setbacks preventing a business’s growth is a pile-up of back office and operational work. Owners expanding a company love and excel at their particular area of expertise; however, there are always tasks that they do inefficiently, are not experts at, and do not especially enjoy doing.

As a result, their core business activities are prioritized while less urgent tasks fall behind, which can seriously harm a business’s productivity and potential to grow. At one time, outsourcing tasks to service companies was considered a popular strategy only for large corporations; but today, businesses of all sizes can realize the benefits of outsourcing.

What is outsourcing? What are the benefits?

Outsourcing describes the relationship where a business obtains a product or service from an outside provider rather than handling it in-house. When business owners delegate certain tasks to professional service companies, they alleviate the need to manage the work, procure the resources needed to perform the work, and remain diligent as to the quality of the work. Generally, an outsourced provider can accomplish more with less hassle because they are set up to complete the outsourced projects efficiently and profitably. Projects are completed on time and in budget without the costly, time-consuming process of recruiting and training a new team member.

If a business lacks certain resources required to complete a job, then outsourcing is a great option to gain an advantage in a specialized area. Acquiring mutually beneficial partnerships can lower prices of labor for faster turnaround time and better services. As a small business, outsourcing work to trusted professionals regulates costs, increases efficiency, and gives the business more time to focus on its products or services.

Most importantly, outsourcing eliminates the dilemma of adding a high cost, full-time position. Choosing to outsource allows companies to focus on the core mission of their business—it immediately improves efficiency, productivity, and focus. As a result, the business increases its competitiveness within its industry.

Common Roles and Trends

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

The CFO is a senior executive responsible for managing a business’s financial decisions. An outsourced CFO brings an unbiased perspective to the company. Their duties may include financial forecasting and reporting, managing income and expenses to ensure profitability, cost-benefit analysis, and proposing strategic solutions. They are able to complete in-depth internal assessments and unique competitive strategies; and help business owners break their goals into measureable steps. When a CFO handles a company’s financial management, they put a system into place to ensure compliance, avoid errors and fraud, and manage important private information.

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

The COO functions as the CEO’s second-in-command. An outsourced COO can bring a wealth of new knowledge, experiences, and indispensable resources to the table. The COO focuses the company’s business plan as well as designs and implements operational strategies. They oversee daily administrative tasks and operational functions of the business, such as vendor management, inventory management, warehousing, shipping strategies, and more. In addition, COO’s can bridge communication between the CEO and the employees.

Chief Legal Officer (CLO) or General Counsel

The CLO is responsible for the legal foundation of the business, including keeping the business free of unnecessary risks and preparing the business to jump on potential opportunities. Outsourced legal work can include contract negotiation, drafting sound legal documents, legal research, intellectual property portfolio management and protection, review of company formation as well as new business entity formations, and corporate governance and compliance.

Legal outsourcing is a great way for business owners to handle complex, time-consuming projects on an affordable basis. Outsourcing takes a load of administrative work and complex legal work off a business’s plate, leaving them the free time to focus on what they do best. Outsourced general counsel also gives businesses the opportunity to have necessary conversations about legal protection and new avenues for growth. Outsourcing legal work has been a growing trend over the past few years because it is such an essential and involved sector for every business.

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

An outsourced CMO functions as the head of marketing for a company, and their main role is to advise how to best increase brand awareness, expand markets, drive leads into sales, and enhance customer engagement to grow company revenue. The CMO is responsible for performing market research and analysis to further refine and develop the company’s brand message or its products and services. The CMO will then create clear advertising strategies or initiatives that may include areas such as: content, social media, website design, search engine optimization (SEO), or other branding materials. An outsourced CMO brings fresh perspective, specialization, and sophisticated marketing tools to overall improve a business’s ROI and accelerate business growth.

Legal Considerations

When planning to outsource professional services, business owners need to implement legal safeguards to ensure confidentiality of private information and to protect competitive advantages. Contracts are the building blocks of a business. Well-written, specific contracts create solid foundations for a business to grow securely. Poorly-constructed, generalized contracts can put a business in jeopardy. Contacting a trusted legal professional to draft and negotiate important business contracts ensures the company is protected.

An essential contract that comes to the forefront of outsourcing is the non-disclosure agreement (NDA). This agreement creates a confidential relationship between the parties involved. As a result, private information like trade secrets, business plans and strategies, product development, new technology, and client lists is protected from the public. In addition, implementing professional service agreements and quality control agreements presents clear standards for successful working relationships between parties.

Success in business is a team effort. It’s crucial to recognize when outside support is needed in order to take your business to the next level of growth. By contracting services of a trusted professional, business owners invest in a support system that helps build stronger foundations for their business.

Next Steps

If you’re interested in outsourcing professional services or discussing these topics further, please call or text 484-801-0021 or reach out to Cassandra Ortner at cassandra.ortner@peytonlaw.com to set up a 15-minute meeting with Snyder Law to discuss your business’s needs and to find the best options for your business’s success or click here. We proudly support the nation’s business owners.

*Janelle Peyton is the CEO and Managing Partner of Peyton Law, a leading boutique law firm designed to provide the highest quality branding, business, and legal services to companies via quarterly subscription called Strategic Legal Solution. Peyton Law offers brand building strategies through corporate and intellectual property law, including business entity formation, buy+sell, contracts, joint ventures, trademarks, patents, licensing, and other growth-related transactions.

 

 

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Ready to P.I.V.O.T—Consider These 5 Legal Points When Pivoting Your Business

Business models are always subject to change, but pivoting is an especially common occurrence within today’s environment; businesses must constantly innovate and change to find a model that helps them thrive and grow. Pivoting means changing direction or reinventing an essential part of a business to improve revenue or stand out in a competitive market. Pivots could include changing platforms, focusing on a new audience, employing new revenue models, or using new technology. Rapid shifts in a small business’s model are often what differentiate successful growth from stagnancy.

Pivoting isn’t just for emerging businesses. Even the most established businesses need to change direction when they hit plateaus in development, are swamped with competition, or receive lukewarm customer responses to their products or services. Even established businesses looking to sell may want to update their business model to increase the value of their business. Pivoting is a natural form of evolution in every type of business.

The acronym P.I.V.O.T. covers the 5 legal points every business must consider when preparing for a change.

 

P = Presence

Intellectual property is often a business’s most valuable asset—but who really “owns” it? Whether the business is an emerging venture or a well-established company, identifying new intellectual property assets the business has developed or may develop during a pivot is critical to protecting the company’s unique presence and brand in a competitive market.

In a pivot, businesses may develop new procedures, products, or services, create new technology, or design new logos and brand materials during the reinvention process. Securing all ownership rights and registering trademarks, service marks, patents, or copyrights protects and defends these assets from competitors.

When a business compiles, protects, and grows its portfolio of intellectual property assets while pivoting, they give themselves the ability to profit from them later. When new possibilities or potential problems arise, the business is legally prepared to partake in profitable ventures as well as defend its assets. In many cases, what initially appears to be a problem can be turned into an opportunity with the right property protection.

 

I = Innovation

Innovative ideas allow many businesses to surge ahead of the competition and succeed. Creating a new and better alternative to what the market already offers secures that business a distinct advantage over competitors. However, before diving into the development of a new product, service, or technology, a business must determine if their new idea is protectable.

Determining whether or not an idea will be protected as a patent, trademark, copyright, or trade secret can be complicated, especially when a business wants to confirm that no other form of protection has been previously registered. Seeking professional help to determine the best protection that both fits the company’s needs and secures the idea will provide confidence that the legal process is done correctly. The aid of a firm experienced in all facets of innovation can provide extreme value at the strategic level. Whether or not protection is warranted, the cost of protection versus the value of going straight to market are just a few strategic considerations.

 

V = Ventures

Negotiating and creating new deals with potential joint venture partners can open businesses to entirely new, lucrative audiences. A joint venture approach is perfect if a business has already built an audience and established authority because it can then leverage the professional relationship to expand its audience exponentially. The business’s audience naturally grows because its joint venture partner presents them as a trusted resource to its own audience. Profits will grow once a trusted relationship is established with this new audience, and the business offers them a viable solution to their problems. Joint venture partners can market together, create distinctive bundles, or even offer co-produced products or services.

There are many benefits of starting a joint venture, but it is important to start with an airtight legal agreement that clearly spells out the duties of each partner as well as terms for terminating the relationship. Joint venture agreements can be lengthy and complicated depending on the nature of the new business venture proposed. Having a trusted legal team to help clearly define the details of how profits and losses will be divided, the contributions of each party, and exit strategies sets the venture up for success and protects both businesses from potential risk.

 

O = Others

Joint ventures aren’t the only way to grow a business fast. Creating new customer and client relationships by building agreements with vendors, suppliers, and independent contractors creates competitive pricing, reduces overhead costs, and provides long-term quality and stability.

Vendors, suppliers, and independent contractors can be critical to the success of a business. They can drive the growth of the business and ensure the business meets its revenue goals. However, it is important to effectively manage these relationships.

Negotiating and creating clear contracts at the start of these relationships will mitigate risks in terms of operations, costs, and compliance. With a contract on hand, a business can then track and measure the performance of the vendor, supplier, or contractor against their written terms to determine if the relationship should continue.

 

T = Terms

Different business needs naturally require different entity formations, and if a business dramatically reinvents its foundations when pivoting, it will need to reevaluate its business entity. Entity formation is an essential way a business can protect itself from liability, save money on taxes, create structured business operations, and build a solid foundation for future success. Choosing the correct type of business entity can significantly affect a business’s success and its ability to meet future needs.

As a business owner, it is critical to know these needs in order to select the right entity for your business. How important is it for you to be protected from personal liability? How much flexibility do you want as an owner? Do you plan on having investors? How important is tax protection?

It can be risky for small business owners to operate as sole proprietorships or in general partnerships because they offer no protection from creditors. As a result, the owners are personally liable for business debts. Corporations and LLCs are popular business entities because they shield business owners from personal liability and have similar taxation codes.

However, what works for one business might not be the best fit for another. There are endless pros and cons to every business entity; and as a business pivots or changes over time, the wrong entity could restrain its growth and hinder its success. Consulting a professional to find the business entity that best suits its new needs ensures it can grow unrestrained.

By simply changing focus, a company can transform their revenue and success. Experimenting with different approaches brings new life; and a fresh perspective protects against becoming stagnant in the market. The strategic use of pivoting is essential to keep business growing and thriving.

 

Next Steps

If you’re interested in pivoting your business or discussing these topics further, set up a 15-minute meeting with Snyder Law to discuss your business’s needs and to find the best options for your business’s success. Schedule here.

If you would like to learn more about any of the topics mentioned here, please call or text 484-801-0021 or reach out to Cassandra Ortner at cassandra.ortner@peytonlaw.com. We proudly support the nation’s business owners.

*Janelle Peyton is the CEO and Managing Partner of Peyton Law, a leading boutique law firm designed to provide the highest quality branding, business, and legal services to companies via quarterly subscription called Strategic Legal Solution. Peyton Law offers brand building strategies through corporate and intellectual property law, including business entity formation, buy+sell, contracts, joint ventures, trademarks, patents, licensing, and other growth-related transactions.

 

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