Building your War Chest (Step 4): 365 days to 100K - Your armour and basic weaponry.
Intellectual Property, Business Insurance and VAT - What type of character you wish to be?
To learn how to fight, to engage in battle, one must learn how to protect themselves. They say that the best type of ‘defence’ is ‘offence’. If you plan your attack well and apply pressure into your opponent’s weak areas - in which you have spotted - when the damage is done, the damage is done.
Whatever happens after this point is purely down to what type of fighter, leader, Hunter or character you wish to be. If you are fighting to hunt, to feed, then nothing matter more than your level of execution. You need to be relentless in your pursuits. You need to be borderline obsessive and when you catch your prey, you should never second guess yourself, ever. For, after all, you deserve it, right? You changed the whole composition of your brain, you fought your fears to get here and failed and failed again… Why should you not eat, and eat well?
I say, eat… Eat enough to go again but feed your soldiers more. Collect enough resources to protect yourself and learn the difference between winning a battle over winning a war.
You. Are. In. A. War.
You are a hunter in a war with hunters that turned warlords. All protective of their space, prey and rewards. Some want to win, just because they are bored. Some who don’t care for the actual money, it’s just a number to keep score and others who want to drive value and leave a legacy in the world.
Then there are all that live in the middle, stuck in the ‘middle route’ they take all of the pressure and hardly get any of the rewards. It’s like they can see the promise land but can’t actually get over the wall and they become envious wrapped in really nice words.
Watch out for all of these, I call them pirates. If you remain unprotected, they can legally ‘steal’ what’s yours. Your Intellectual Property. Your name. Your sword, and once it is taking it can ruin your whole world.
Not many people have ‘original’ ideas… To be honest, there is nothing new under the sun - unless you are finding a cure for some new type of disease - anything that is worth anything has already been done. I wrote in Credit scores are so middle class, credit scores are for the 'poor', that the world is essentially split into two, a rule of thumb:
“Those who are idea-rich are capital-poor, those capital-rich are idea poor.”
But there are some people in the middle route that have enough money to get a new idea off the ground and find it easier just to steal yours. Businesses literally created to duplicate what has already been done in one market, they ‘ take the model’ and implement it in a new market, with the hopes to be acquired by the main competitor or to acquire the competition.
‘Friends’ who keep you close to copy your blueprint and try to do more, where one-upmanship is all they truly know. They take your ‘knowledge’ and ‘information’ thinking they can do what you do or even better. They become yes men to learn more and more but secretly are off in a corner working on your idea for themselves, not realising that you, YOU! are the unique selling point.
So how do you go about protecting yourself from these warlords and pirates? You simply have to build your armour up and make some weapons to survive your initial attacks.
Firstly, you need to understand what is Intellectual property:
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.
Types of Intellectual property (I.P):
Copyrights
Patents
Trademarks
Industrial designs
Geographical indications
Trade Secrets
Why register any of these I.P types?
Intellectual property is protected in law by the types mentioned above (patents, copyright and trademarks). They can safeguard your company by stopping others from using your name or company branding likeness as their own - to benefit from your hard work - and they establish who the original creator(s) for the product is - to simplify. This also helps other creators/ inventors feel safe to create and publish their work in the public domain without the fear of their creation being stolen and mass-produced before their eyes.
You can find out more about what is covered under intellectual property here: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/intellectual-property-office or Google ‘IPO UK’ (intellectual property office UK) and you’ll see all that you need to know.
Armour Up!
So, whilst you were writing your original business plan and your agile lean plan, you would have chosen the following:
Your product.
Business model
Planned marketing funnels
Target audience
Created your brand
You would have written down all of that good stuff to help chart your journey to building your 100k War chest, plus more but did you think about safeguarding yourself for the unforeseen? The silly in-game crashes that happen? The little bugs that occur in your personal life that can and will affect your business? I mean, protecting yourself for intellectual property is both a defensive and offensive weapon that can be used accordingly but what about the day to day running of your venture? This is where business insurance comes in:
Did you buy a new laptop or use your laptop for work?
Do you have a mobile phone you use for your business?
Did you make a sample product for your design?
Do you have products stored in your bedroom or somewhere in your house?
Are you sending products by post?
Are you going to a client’s place of work and handling any of their information/data?
If yes to any of the above, you’ll need to protect yourself with:
Public & Product Liability
Legal Expenses cover for internet traders
Goods in Transit
Business Money
Stock Damage
Employers Liability cover
Public & product liability.
Not only do you need to cover yourself with business insurance to protect you from the worst, but the game itself also has its own rules… The ‘Consumer Protection Act 1987’ and the ‘EC Directive on Product Liability’ requires those manufacturing and supplying goods to carry some form of product liability insurance. This covers but not limited to:
Stock Damage cover - this protects the contents you have in storage, it is insured against loss or damages or any risks normally associated with your trade. All your goods are covered.
Goods in transit insurance will cover your goods as they are being delivered, etc.
If you wish to know to what full extent your business can be protected by and what insurance covers are available, you can check out www.simplybusiness.co.uk or go directly to insurance companies.
When the little things happen, that may not seem like anything much, it will all add up. Business insurances protects you.
Once you have business insurance, you’re covered and if you are purchasing goods and selling goods, get VAT registered. You can reclaim any VAT that you are charged when you pay for goods and services. VAT is compulsory if your business turnover is more than £85,000 - which means you have to registert by law. You can also register for VAT voluntarily, if you turnover is below the £85,000. I would say speak to your Accountant, they should be able to help you create a good financial strategy to how VAT can best serve you from a money perspective but here’s a little hint from a business front perspective…
Having a VAT Number when you’re speaking to or invoicing clients - who turnover millions and millions - it puts you in the ‘league’. If you say “Oh, I am not VAT registered” you can look like a novice in the game, you know?
For more info on VAT check here: www.gov.uk/vat-registration/when-to-register or google “VAT Registration” and it will be right on the top.
Good luck!
If you like these posts and/or have further questions, please do let me know.
You can follow me on:
Twitter: @BnBeckford
Instagram: @B.eckford
I am always here to help!
Thanks for reading!
The ‘war chest’ series will be broken down into the following:
Registering a business, Business Banking & Accountants - Preparing your war chest and council.
Your idea & raising startup funding (A business plan) - Understanding your landscape.
Insurance, why register for VAT & What is intellectual property/ copyright/ trademarks (your protection) - Your armour and basic weaponry.
Prototyping your product (MVP) - Your Weapon
Planning your go-to-market strategy & the power of your brand marketing - Drawing first blood in battle.
Personas, knowing your customers & converting leads - learning your opponents.
Creating a Loyal Customer base & scaling your business (additional funding/venture financing) - Building your kingdom.
To keep up to date on all new posts, please subscribe here and share!