Why (or why not) someone should trademark a business name? 

To help you decide whether or not to trademark your business name, we asked successful business owners and entrepreneurs this question for their best insights. From preventing confusion in the marketplace to being time-consuming with high costs and complications, there are several opinions that may help inform your decision about trademarking your business name.

Here are 10 considerations for trademarking a business name:

• Prevent Confusion in The Marketplace
• Sell With Amazon on Their Brand Registry
• Be Protected by The ACPA
• Secure Your Business for Growth
• Assure Consumers of Your Authenticity
• Less Priority if You Are Still Figuring Out Your Brand
• You May Have To Choose Patent Over Trademark
• Trademarks Are Assets
• Protect and Showcase Professional Branding
• Can be Time-consuming With High Costs and Complications

Prevent Confusion in The Marketplace

Trademarking your business name is important for a variety of reasons, but preventing confusion in the marketplace is one big one. You could find that a completely different kind of business has the same name, diluting the association of your business name with your kinds of products. Don’t let that happen. Trademark your business name to prevent confusion in the marketplace, ASAP.

Nick Santora, Curricula

Sell With Amazon on Their Brand Registry

We have our brand and logo trademarked. The main reason I did this is to sell on Amazon with a brand registry. This protects from other sellers selling on your product listing. You need to have your product trademarked for Amazon to allow you to become a member of the brand registry. After your company has passed Amazon’s brand registry you have the extra benefit of adding Amazon A+ content to your listing. You can add extra images and make your listing more of a web page than Amazon’s standard listing.  

Evan McCarthy, SportingSmiles

Be Protected by The ACPA

Under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), you won’t have to worry about “cybersquatters”, or internet trolls, stealing your domain name. This act was created for trademarked names, protecting legally-recognized businesses from digital extortion from ill-intentioned individuals. What these individuals do is create websites using other peoples’ business names, refusing to give them up unless paid a high price. However, under this act you have the rights to your business name, earning you the rights to the website domain without having to buy it out from an extortionist.

David Aylor, David Aylor Law Offices

Secure Your Business for Growth

How do you envision your business 5, 10, or 20 years in the future?  If you are serious about your business and your goal is to grow it into something special rather than to treat it as a hobby or a sidegig, you should trademark your business name as soon as possible. The last thing you want is to put your time, money, energy, and your heart and soul into your new business only to discover that another company or competitor, who may be unaware of your existence, just applied for and got a trademark with your company name.  The only possibility you will get your name back would require you to prove in federal court that you existed prior to your competitor, and it would be very expensive with only a small chance of winning.

Alan Himmel, Florida Allstar Public Adjusting, Inc.

Assure Consumers of Your Authenticity

The one reason you should trademark your business name is to legally secure you the sole right to maximize the value of your own business name. A registered business name is merely protected from being used by another business within the state it’s registered in, but not in another state.

A trademarked business name, however, turns it into a property that grants you inherent property rights of the trademark. This will make it unlawful for another business to use your trademark in whatever way and wherever in the country. Albeit applying for a trademark is much more complicated than registering a name, businesses must think of it as an investment in helping their customers be free of doubts about the authenticity of any goods or service with your business name.

Collen Clark, Schmidt & Clark, LLP

Less Priority if You Are Still Figuring Out Your Brand

The only case in which I would not recommend trademarking your business is if you are not yet ready to make it official. If you don’t have the plan or the money to take it to the next step, it is better to wait until you have it all figured out. Going through the process to trademark your business can be expensive, and requires a lot of paperwork for which you probably don’t qualify yet. It is not a priority if you are still figuring out your start-up.

Once you have trademarked your business you are tied to the name and a certain market. So again, even if trademarking your business is essential once you want to grow and become an official brand, I recommend people wait until everything is decided.

John Cheng, Baotris

You May Have To Choose Patent Over Trademark

If your business is based around a unique service, proprietary product, or new technology, then skip the trademark and prioritize a patent. Securing the unique functions of your products against copycats is essential to companies that thrive on the cutting edge. Trademarks are best used to protect software programming, art, music, and slogans that you don’t want to lose to a competitor. The trouble with trademarks is finding a name that is unique and uncommon — too similar to another Trademark and you’ll get a cease and desist, too common and your trademark will be rejected.

Soumya Mohan, Poised

Trademarks Are Assets

Trademarks appreciate. Over time as your brand grows, the value of your trademark grows as well. Since trademarks are an asset, they can be bought, sold and even used to secure a loan. Bigger corporations down the road may even wish to acquire your business if you desire to sell it to them. In short, trademarks can be valuable.

Erin Banta, Pepper

Protect and Showcase Your Professional Branding

Trademarks are a great way to protect and showcase your professional branding. Some businesses may opt to incorporate their brand name or logo in their advertising and editorial photos for various publications, billboards and other ad campaigns on or offline. Using a protected brand and logo are best for professional branding with traditional and nontraditional marketing methods. The more recognizable your brand name and logo, the more likely you are to benefit from the protections that trademarking provides.

Robert Lowdon, Robert Lowdon Photography

Can be Time-consuming With High Costs and Complications

There are many reasons why someone might want to trademark a business name. A trademark can protect a business name from being used by another business, it can help customers identify the products or services of a particular business, and it can give a business an exclusive right to use the name. If you’re thinking of trademarking a business name, it’s important to consult with a trademark attorney to make sure that the name is eligible for protection. 

One reason why someone shouldn’t trademark a business name is that it can be time-consuming. The process of trademarking a business name can be long and complicated, so it’s important to make sure that you are fully prepared before beginning the process. Additionally, trademarks can be expensive to register and maintain, so it’s important to be sure that you are committed to using the trademark before beginning the process. 

Syed Ali Abbas, Seo Perks

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Why should companies develop and introduce new products?

To help inspire new product development, we asked business leaders and CEOs this question for their best insights. From managing seasonal fluctuations to discovering unrestricted talent, there are several reasons why your company should develop and introduce new products as part of its growth strategy.

Here are 10 reasons why companies should develop and introduce new products:

• Manage Seasonal Fluctuations
• Improve Your Competitive Advantage
• Provide More Customer Value
• Diversify Business Risk
• Increase Sales
• Keep Your Company’s Soul Alive
• If You Don’t, Your Competition Will
• Innovate to Provide More Solutions for Your Customers
• Explore New Markets
• Discover a New Unrestricted Talent

Manage Seasonal Fluctuations

A new product launch can help you manage seasonal fluctuations and maintain your market share. Every year, customers want to see something new, but their attention span is shorter than you’d like. If market conditions dictate a new product launch every year around the same time, you need to take action to keep up with it. That’s the best way to boost your sales volumes and keep pace with or exceed the competition.

Randall Smalley, Cruise America

Improve Your Competitive Advantage

Not improving and innovating? Then you’re not moving forward. The only way you’re going to improve your competitive edge is by changing up your product line. Even if you only make improvements to a current product, you can sell it as new and grab more market share in the process. If all you sell is what you currently have, you risk falling behind, and that’s no risk you want to take.

Stephanie Schull, Kegelbell

Provide More Customer Value

Even if your designs are the most beautiful you’ve ever imagined, you should never take your customers for granted. Creativity has several stages of development, and they’re always in flux. Your development activity needs to keep pace with trends if you’re to provide more customer value than your competitors. As long as you keep coming up with new designs and products, your market share will be safe.

Nataly Vanunu, Boho Magic

Diversify Business Risk

When you only sell one product, you’re increasing the risk to your company’s bottom line. The more products and services you develop and offer, the more you diversify your business risk. If you only have one product and it fails, you’re out of luck. But if you have many products and only one of them fails, you can still dominate the domestic market.

Vanessa Molica, The Lash & Sugar Company

Increase Sales

New products help businesses gain new customers. As your new products address the needs of customers that your older products did not, more customers flock in. Often, a fraction of the newer customers check out your older products and buy them based on their needs. This way, the businesses not only see a sale of the new product but also an increased sale of the older ones.

Nathan Hughes, Diggity Marketing

Keep Your Company’s Soul Alive

You want to keep creating products to keep the soul of your business alive. If you start to care more about profit margins and less about launching new ideas and items, you will lose your sense of adventure. Even worse, you’ll lose yourself in the inertia of running a business. There is nothing more uninspiring than that. Conjuring creative ideas is what keeps the enthusiasm level high for your workforce. You don’t want to see that taper. Keep your focus on product discovery. It will keep things interesting.

Joel Jackson, Lifeforce

If You Don’t, Your Competition Will

I can’t even count the number of times a company leader has come to me and said “we were planning on releasing something just like that, but somehow our competition beat us to the punch!” Oftentimes it seems like they assume there’s been some sort of espionage or trickery, but rarely is that the case. The scope of your industry is fairly small when you think about it, and ideas spread quickly within that tight community. We’re all competing for top talent and trying to generate new ideas. When your process for product development slows, you’ll eventually be overtaken.

David Patterson-Cole, Moonchaser

Innovate to Provide More Solutions for Your Customers

Always aim to innovate and provide more solutions that speak to your company’s mission. For example, TurboTax offers different solutions based on the taxpayer’s needs.

The company took note of the unique tax challenges faced by its users and packaged the solutions into various services. Listen to your customers to find additional mission-related problems and develop solutions for an innovation-forward brand.

Amrita Saigal, Kudos

Explore New Markets

Developing a new product gives companies the added advantage of exploring new markets other than their existing ones. Whether it is a market where the product is bound to take the competition by surprise and leave it behind or one that has customers clamoring for the product, an unexplored market promises several new opportunities for success. Also, the added resources a company garners via its product sales in new markets can be put to work to initiate a spurt of growth for the brand, from expansion of its product line to further exploration of fresh territories.

Mary Jurgensen, Gary and Mary West PACE

Discover a New Unrestricted Talent

Discover a new unrestricted talent. Use the symptoms of burnout as a signal to check in with your employees by asking if they have in mind a new initiative to launch? Burnout is the reason why companies should develop new products to keep employees, grow talent, and keep the financial aspects stronger.

Spend 15 minutes each day of focused but casual conversations by asking members what they want to do with their day, the upcoming week, month, and year. This allows you to rethink new talent in the company’s members and introduce new product.

Liudmila Schafer, The Doctor Connect, LLC

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What is one thing you look for when reading a P&L?

To help you read profit and loss statements (P&Ls), we asked CEOs and finance professionals this question for their best tips. From focusing on the gross margins to looking for any additional income, there are several strategies that may help you read P&Ls in the future.

Here are 11 tips for reading P&Ls:

• Focus On the Gross Margins
• Assess Your Net Income Or Loss
• Calculate Your Gross Profit
• Check Your Budgeted Costs vs. Actual Costs
• Pay Attention to The Period of Time
• Understand Why You’re Reading a P&L
• Ensure The Math is Correct
• Analyze The Seasonality
• Watch For Depreciation On P&Ls
• “Cut Out The Fat” – Breaking Down Your P&L
• Look for Any Additional Income

Focus On the Gross Margins

One thing that is typically looked for when reading a profit and loss statement is trends in revenue and expenses. This can help to indicate whether a company is doing well or not. Additionally, if you want to be a good financial analyst, you should always focus on the gross margins. This number shows how much the company is actually making after subtracting all the direct costs associated with producing each unit of the product/service they sell. Gross margins can vary greatly from industry to industry and business to business. The higher the margins, the better. A company with good gross margins is one that can produce a product at a relatively low cost, or one that can produce a product at the same cost as other companies and sell it for a higher price.

Rachel Hemsley, MakeBreadAtHome

Assess Your Net Income or Loss

Your net income, or loss, is something you always want to see in the black. You need to keep it up if you’re going to be successful in business or hope to expand your operations. You may sometimes see a loss, but if you know the reason, such as more expenses in a particular month, you can make up for it the next. Look at your net income for the clearest picture of where finances stand for your business.

Carey Wilbur, Charter Capital

Calculate Your Gross Profit

Looking at your gross profit can give you a good idea of how your supply and production costs influence your ability to generate income. Gross profits can vary from month to month, so it can be difficult to plan around them. You need to look at this to get a sense of the gross profit margin ratio. Calculate this by subtracting the cost of your goods sold from the net sales to see how efficiently your company is operating.

Brian Greenberg, Insurist

Check Your Budgeted Costs vs. Actual Costs

I like to see the budgeted costs versus the actual ones, seeing where we performed as anticipated and where we missed the mark. Whether the actual was better or worse than expected, determining where and how the business deviated from the budget can help inform our strategy and budget for next year. We can use the P&L to gauge how this year is going, too, so if we need to make a quick pivot to adjust the budget we can do so quickly before a small issue or oversight becomes a bigger one or we lose out on maximizing revenue further.

Stephen Light, Nolah Mattress

Pay Attention to The Period of Time

A profit and loss statement helps you see the general financial picture of your company for a specific period of time. It is important to be able to differentiate between a monthly P&L and an annual P&L. You can compare P&Ls on a month-to-month or year-to-year basis to see and analyze trends. This is important for projections and decision making. By paying attention to the period of time, you can compare apples to apples and avoid simple errors in your financial assumptions.

Allan Switalski, LendThrive

Understand Why You’re Reading a P&L

It all depends on why you are looking at the P&L. Obviously a banker is going to look for different things than say an investor or a purchaser of a company. Or of an IRS examiner, of course. The purchaser of a company will want to look at the value of assets, source(s) of income, and expenses. With respect to expenses, it is important to look carefully at owner and even top employee compensation. Many times an entrepreneur will not take any compensation, or much reduced compensation, in order to plow funds back into the business. It is important to know, if an owner or key employees who will not stay with the company after the purchase are being compensated at the level it would take to replace them. It is tempting to overlook top contributors role in  the success of an enterprise and underestimate the cost of replacing those efforts.

Leo Fischer, Lee Fischer and Associates, Inc.

Ensure The Math is Correct

All too often with P&L statements, the math doesn’t quite align correctly and so, that is why I always ensure to double and triple check the math. It is so important that these numbers are correct in order for your company to properly formulate a proper plan of action. Checking all the math will also give you piece of mind that all the information on the statement is 100% accurate.

Colin Palfrey, JollySEO

Analyze The Seasonality

Seasonality is the fact that things change based on the season—this can be seen in many parts of a business including but not limited to both sales and expenses. I look for this every time when reading a P&L to see what business looks look during each of the four seasons. This is invaluable insight that allows me to adjust marketing efforts and schedule detailed, targeted campaigns accordingly. Analyzing the seasonality of various metrics of my business also allows me to capitalize on times of heightened demand to maximize sales, outreach, and even website traffic.

Datha Santomieri, Steadily

Watch For Depreciation on P&Ls

One thing to always look for on a P&L is depreciation. All equipment, digital or physical, deals with daily wear and tear. This can add up over time, or one massive, sudden problem can eat into profits at a moment’s notice. Always keep an eye on depreciation and stay up to date to stay current and accessible.

Loic Claveau, Prometeus Labs

“Cut Out The Fat” – Breaking Down Your P&L

When scouring through your profit and loss statement, pay close attention to the unnecessary business expenses. Of course, things like insurance costs and certain overhead are unavoidable when operating a business, yet distinguishing which of your expenses are more of a luxury than a necessity is vital as revenue accumulates. Look to cut out the fat. Throw your money towards the main revenue generators and put your energy towards maximizing resources in that area, while minimizing expenses towards lackluster products or services that don’t play as large of dividends.

Ultimately, you want to be able to see the future through a P and L. Don’t think of it as a monthly or quarterly recap, but as a glimpse of where you are headed dependent upon what action you take now. The short-term wins can lead to long-term success the same way short-term losses can spell trouble in the future.

Mitzi Runyan, Lashlette

Look For Any Additional Income

When looking at a P&L statement, you’re obviously going to immediately look at the net sales and overall revenue for your business, but it is important to not ignore any additional income outlined on the statement. This could include donations, fringe benefits, money from stock investments, or any other amount of money procured from outside activities unrelated to the primary purpose of your business. Keeping track of all forms of income keeps your finances accurate, and can give you ideas on how to obtain more extra income in the future. Figure out how you’re obtaining this extra income, and invest more in those financial channels. You’ll see the benefits!

Brett Larkin, Uplifted Yoga

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