- Hi everyone.
I'm Attorney Aiden Durham with 180 Law Co. in Colorado.
Welcome back to All Up In Yo' Business
where today I'm gonna tell you three little tips,
three little secrets that us business lawyers
may not want you to know,
or at least we'll be hesitant to admit.
Before we get into what those three little secrets are,
if you're new to All Up In Yo' Business, welcome.
Please be sure to subscribe and click that little bell,
so you get notified anytime I post a new video.
Please also keep in mind
that while I am a lawyer, I'm not your lawyer.
The stuff that I talk about in this video
isn't a substitute for actual legal advice.
If you need legal help,
you should consult with a lawyer
who's licensed in your state
and don't just rely on free info
that you get from the internet.
I'd also like to give a huge thank you
to our friends over at Tailor Brands
for partnering with us for this episode.
Tailor Brands is a one-stop shop
for aspiring small business owners.
It's an all-in-one solution
if you've got a great idea for a new business
but you're not quite sure where to start.
If you wanna protect yourself from personal liability,
if you want flexibility
with how you operate and manage your business,
and if you want some increased credibility
and professionalism for your business,
then you may wanna consider forming an LLC.
And Tailor Brands is going to make that so easy,
but they're not gonna stop at just the LLC.
Everything from LLC formation to designing your own logo,
Tailor Brands is gonna have you covered.
You can use Tailor Brands to get a domain name
registered for your business,
set up a business email address,
design your own stunning website,
create digital business cards,
and you can even create your very own branded merch
so you can start promoting your business
and getting the word out there.
You can get your LLC with Tailor Brands
by using the affiliate link in the description
but you can also use my special promo code,
AllUpInYoBusiness20, to save 20% on Tailor Brands plans.
Now, of course,
this is going to exclude the LLC formation tool,
but all of their other plans,
if you use that AllUpInYoBusiness20 promo code,
you'll save 20% on Tailor Brands plans.
And we thank you Tailor Brands
for partnering with us for this episode.
All right, so secret number one
that us business lawyers don't want you to know about
is that there are some pretty cool
free trademark search tools out there.
I've talked before in a lot of my other videos
about the importance of doing a trademark clearance search
before you launch your business
and especially before you start
with the application process
to register your trademark with the USPTO.
I've told you that you should, you know,
search the internet,
and I've done a little demo
on how the USPTO's test search system works.
But there are some flaws with this test search
that you can do on the USPTO website.
Unless you're really well-versed
in some advanced search techniques
and using things like Boolean connectors,
I think I'm saying that word correctly,
B-O-O-L-E-A-N, Boolean connectors,
not like bouillon what you put into soup,
but if you know how Boolean connectors work
and you're good with these advanced search techniques,
then you can use tests to do a very extensive
and thorough clearance search.
But for everybody else, if we're just hitting, you know,
typing in our business name into the test search system,
we're only gonna pull up exact matches.
This is a direct hit search,
so we're only gonna find exact identical matches,
but when we're searching for trademarks
and trying to clear our trademark,
we need to be concerned with not just exact matches,
we need to be concerned
about with anything that might be confusingly similar
to our trademark.
So that includes a lot of different variations,
alternate spellings, you know,
things that could be kind of similar
but not identical to our trademark.
Normally, we have to work with an attorney
to do an extensive, thorough clearance search like this,
or there are some trademark search companies out there
that have like AI
and other kind of automated search techniques
that you can pay for
and you'll get this really big,
extensive clearance search report
with tons and tons and tons of trademarks.
So you can do those things
or you can pay for a search, but if you're not a lawyer,
you may not actually know what you're looking at
when you get that search report.
Though, typically,
it's gonna require at least a few hundred bucks
if you want some kind of extensive search
to be done for your trademark.
But there are a few free resources out there
that are gonna let you quickly and easily do more
than just a direct hit search.
The one that I like the best
is available at trademarkclear.com.
Now, I am not affiliated with this company.
I'm not being paid to mention them at all.
I do, however, use the company
that makes this tool available.
It's called TM TKO.
They have a paid trademark searching platform
and monitoring platform for attorneys that I do use.
So I'm familiar with the company that runs this website,
but we're not affiliated.
I'm not getting paid anything for this,
but it's really easy, you guys.
It's kind of a light version of what I pay for to use,
but you're gonna just enter in your trademark
that you're interested in,
enter in some details about the goods and services
that you're gonna use the trademark with,
and it's gonna give you search results
that are gonna be far more than what you would get
just from that direct hit search on the test website.
Now, it's still not gonna be quite as thorough
as if you had an attorney perform a search
or if you used one of these trademark search companies
to do a full-on comprehensive search.
But again, it's gonna get you a lot further
and be a lot better than just a direct hit search
on the USPTO's test system.
Secret number two that us business lawyers
don't want you to know about
is that some of these online LLC filing services
or formation tools
like the one you can get through Tailor Brands,
they're pretty good options for a lot of small businesses.
If you've watched any of my videos,
I'm sure you've heard me say it,
you've probably heard other lawyers say it,
it's best to work with an attorney
if you're trying to form an LLC,
and sure, yes, that is a good idea.
But for a lot of folks, especially single-member LLCs,
using one of these tools like Tailor Brands
is a pretty good alternative to working with a lawyer.
Maybe you're kind of hovering, you're somewhere in between,
"I could do this myself but I don't really want to,"
or, "I'm nervous about doing it myself.
What if I miss something?"
Or, "I just don't have the time to do it by myself
but I also don't wanna pay a lawyer to do it,"
or, "I don't have the time or the funds
to work with a lawyer."
If you're kind of in the middle of those two,
then using an LLC formation tool
like Tailor Brands is kind of the next best thing.
Of course, you're not gonna get that same kind
of legal counseling and legal advice
that you get with a lawyer
because these companies, they aren't lawyers,
they can't give legal advice.
But if you're just needing some help,
some extra little handholding
in, "What am I supposed to put in this form?
Or what does this word mean?
Or do I need this? Do I need this?"
These services like Tailor Brands
are gonna help walk you through all of that.
They're gonna address
some of those common questions that come up
and they're gonna ask you for the information
in a very clear and easy-to-understand way
to completely simplify the process.
And then of course,
they're gonna take care of all the filing
and all the heavy lifting behind the scenes
so you don't have to worry about it.
And especially with Tailor Brands, they make this so easy.
You just let them know what state you wanna form the LLC in,
tell them the name you wanna use for the LLC,
give them a little info
about what type of business you're operating,
the stage that your business is in.
They'll even help you with getting a registered agent
applying for an EIN for the LLC,
getting your operating agreement together
and even annual compliance requirements.
Now, of course, these aren't gonna be a perfect resource
for all businesses, all business owners.
Now, if you've got, let's say, investors
or if you're gonna have silent partners, maybe,
who aren't gonna be involved in the business
or some kind of organizational or management structure
that is kind of outside the norm,
or if you have some special circumstances
that you're unsure of,
it's, of course, best to consult with a lawyer
to make sure those aren't gonna be impacted
or to make sure those things are taken into account
when you're forming your LLC.
Because sometimes we need to put special language
or special wording in an operating agreement or something,
or use some kind of nonstandard language or forms
when we're drafting your operating agreement
or, you know, preparing some of these documents.
But for everybody else, especially single-member LLCs,
working with a lawyer might just be kind of overkill
and you're gonna get a lot of benefit from using a service
like Tailor Brands instead.
And secret number three
that us business lawyers don't want you to know about.
I don't think this is really a big secret,
but it kind of is.
You guys, did you know
you can find out a lot of information online?
There's this thing called the internet,
and whoo, is there a lot of info on it?
I'll tell you.
Okay, obviously, we know that there's a lot
of info on the internet,
but what you may not know
is some of that info includes laws and statutes
and codes and regulations that tell us
how to form or how to do things or how to deal with our LLC.
A lot of the questions that come up
can be answered by finding the statutes
from our state that address those questions.
Every state has some set of statutes or codes
or regulations that address the formation, management,
and operation of an LLC
and really any other kind of business entity.
Usually, for an LLC,
the states call this like the LLC Act,
or it might be the Uniform Revised
Limited Liability Company Act, something like that.
Usually, they kind of condense it
and call it the LLC Act.
But let's say I am trying to form an LLC in Colorado
and I wanna find out what does that mean,
what does that entail?
Let's look on the internet and see what that entails.
If we Google Colorado Limited Liability Company Act,
there is gonna be a lot of resources
and a lot of websites where we can read
the actual statutes that say,
"Here's how an LLC is formed.
Here's the rights of the members
and the managers in the LLC.
Here's how an LLC is dissolved.
Here's how you convert an LLC from one state to another."
A lot of these statutes are going to address
most of the questions that come up,
and pretty much all of 'em are available online for free.
And guess what you guys,
when you call or email your business lawyer
and you ask them a legal question,
a lot of times the very first thing
that we're gonna do is check the applicable statutes.
If my client calls me and says,
"Hey, I've got, you know, this issue with my LLC,
I'm not sure what to do about it."
I'm gonna pull up the Colorado LLC statutes
to see what they say if they address it
because that's kind of our first guidance
of how do we handle this situation.
And guess what, you guys can do that too.
Pretty much all of this stuff's available online,
and there you have it.
The three secrets that us business lawyers
don't want you to know.
There are some great free trademark search tools out there
on the internet.
LLC formation services and formation tools,
like the one you can get through Tailor Brands,
really are a pretty good option
for a lot of us small business owners.
And secret number three,
a lot of the info that we use to answer your questions
is also available online and you can find it as well.
If you learned a thing or two,
go ahead and give me a thumbs up
and don't forget to subscribe
and click that little bell,
so you get notified when I post a new video.
Thank you again to our friends over at Tailor Brands
for partnering with us for this episode.
Be sure to check the description for that affiliate link
if you wanna set up your LLC with Tailor Brands
and a promo code to save 20% on Tailor Brands plans.
If you're finding yourself
maybe still unsure of if you should take the plunge
and finally form that LLC for your business,
I've got another video
about the five questions that you can ask yourself
before you form an LLC.
You can check that out right here.
I will meet you over there.
Thank you so much for watching.
I'm Aiden Durham, and I'll see you next time.