- Hi everyone.
I'm attorney Aiden Durham with 180 Law Co. in Colorado,
and you're watching All Up In Yo' Business.
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On this episode of All Up In Yo' Business
I'm gonna tell you guys
about a couple of huge mistakes that I see so commonly,
so many people making
when they're trying to start a new business.
And why some of these things that we think we might need
to start a business are just complete
and utter wastes of money.
But first, don't forget to like, subscribe,
and share, and check the description for links
to additional information and resources.
All right, so I cannot begin to tell you guys
how often I see this in emails that I receive,
or I'll see this in the comments.
People will say something along the lines of,
hey Aiden, I am trying to start a new business
and I really need help with getting my LLC set up,
or getting my trademark registered
for my new business name, or my logo.
And they'll go on to say, but,
you know I'm on a really tight budget,
I'm living paycheck to paycheck,
I lost my job recently,
barely putting food on the table, whatever the case may be.
And they'll explain to me
that they're on a really tight budget,
and can't really afford my help, or the help of a lawyer.
Which listen, I totally get it.
I completely understand that lawyers, myself included,
we are not cheap.
It costs a good deal of money to work with a lawyer.
I get that not everybody can afford to work with a lawyer.
Especially now, a lot of people lost their jobs,
or their income was cut because of COVID,
and the pandemic and everything.
So I get it.
But my response 99% of the time
is why are you wasting your money on an LLC,
a trademark registration,
all these things that you don't need
if you're trying to start a business.
Or just recently, I got an email from someone
who had filed a trademark application
with the USPTO on their own,
and there was some issues that came up with the trademark
so they reached out to me to see if I can help
with resolving these issues
with their trademark application.
I responded and said, yeah I'd be happy to help,
gave him an idea of what the cost was going to be.
And their reply to that was again,
I'm living paycheck to paycheck,
I'm barely able to afford my bills as it is,
I wish I could hire you, but I just can't afford it.
And so what really gets to me
is that if you are barely paying your bills,
if you're barely able to feed yourself,
feed your family, barely making ends meet.
Why are you putting money into a trademark application?
Even if you're doing it on your own without a lawyer,
filing a trademark application
is going to cost at least 250 bucks.
It could be a few hundred more than that,
it could be a bit more than that,
but the application filing fee
at a bare minimum is gonna be 250 bucks.
Why in the world would you waste $250
on a trademark application
if you're not even able to pay your own bills?
Listen, I will be the first to say
it is a great idea to form an LLC
if you're trying to start a business.
And registering a trademark is a great way to secure
and protect your business name,
or your logo, or whatever it is.
But you do not need an LLC to start a business.
And you do not need a registered trademark
to start a business.
If you need to make money, start making that money first,
and then use that money to invest
in other things like an LLC, or a trademark,
or whatever else that you think you might need.
But I mean, do the bare minimum that you need,
spend the bare minimum that you need
in order to start operating your business
and generating an income.
Don't let the fact that you can't afford an LLC,
or afford a trademark prevent you from starting a business
and earning money.
I personally believe that some people
put these pretend barriers in place.
Like I can't afford to form an LLC,
or I can't afford to do this trademark registration.
And they create these pretend barriers as an excuse
for why they're not launching their business yet.
Whether it's out of fear of failure,
or just not being quite ready
to go full in on their business.
I think a lot of people use this
as an excuse for why they're not doing it yet.
And I understand that, that makes a lot of sense.
But these things that you don't need,
an LLC and a trademark registration, you do not need,
and you shouldn't let those prevent you
from launching your business and making an income.
Now I get with an LLC,
the point is that we wanna protect our personal liability,
we don't wanna be at risk of something happening.
And that's why a lot of us wanna form an LLC
when we're starting a business.
That's great, but there are a lot of other ways
that you can protect yourself for a lot less.
I mean, depending on the cost,
it's different in every state.
Some states are pretty cheap to form an LLC.
In Colorado it's only 50 bucks.
But for a lot of people 50 bucks
can feed you for a whole week.
And in some states it's a few hundred bucks,
and then you have additional annual fees on top of that.
Use that money instead
on something else that you actually need.
If you wanna protect your liability, get insurance,
general liability insurance for a sole proprietorship
is, of course it's always going to vary,
but you could probably get that for around 20 to 60,
maybe, it's gonna depend, but a monthly cost
that's going to be a lot less than filing it for an LLC
in a lot of the states.
A trademark registration on its own
isn't going to make you any money.
Certainly if you're operating a business,
if you've got a brand to protect,
if you've got a brand recognition,
then a trademark registration
can increase the value of your business,
but it's not going to generate any income for you
if you don't have a business
that's already generating income.
Now with the trademark, if you're worried
that someone's going to steal your business name,
or steal your logo, first of all,
I hear a lot of people worry
that someone's going to steal their logo.
No one's gonna steal your logo.
Even if they do, as soon as you start using your logo
in commerce with your business, it's protected.
You have some level of trademark protection
over your business name and your logo
as soon as you start using it in commerce.
Which means as soon as you start selling your product,
or selling your service,
that's the other thing to remember
is that if you're investing this money
into a trademark application,
the trademark's not even going to be registered
until you've launched your business,
until you're actually selling your thing.
So if spending that $250 on the application
is going to prevent you from spending money
on something else that you actually need
to launch your business,
then the trademark isn't gonna do you any good,
because it's not going to be registered
until you've actually launched your business.
And with a trademark application, again,
that's gonna cost at least 250 bucks.
There are so many other things you could do with $250.
Maybe you wanna start some kind of an online business.
Use that 250 bucks to get a domain name
and start your online business.
Maybe, maybe, what I would suggest
is instead of the trademark registration,
if you've got 200 somethin' bucks to blow on something
and you're worried about your business' name,
or your logo or something,
spend that 200 bucks
on a trademark clearance search instead.
So at least you know that you're not infringing
on somebody else's trademark
before you launch your business.
But going through the process of filing the application
if you can't even pay your bills
is a complete waste of money and time, frankly.
Same with things like copyright registration.
If you're worried about launching or selling your thing
because you can't register a copyright,
don't worry about it, just do it,
and start making the money first.
Don't worry about forming your LLC,
operate as a sole proprietorship,
get some cheap general liability insurance coverage,
or an umbrella insurance policy.
Some insurance to protect yourself if something does happen.
And then, once your business is actually making money,
once you're actually generating an income,
then invest in forming that LLC.
I'd even go so far to say as most businesses
don't even need a website,
certainly don't need to hire some fancy web designer
to create a whole multi page,
super glamorous, beautiful website.
Get a free website through a lot of these
online website things, use YouTube,
spend a weekend figuring out
how to design your own website for free,
or for very little money.
You don't need fancy programs, and fancy software.
There's a lot of free things out there
that you can use to start your business,
start marketing your business.
Social media is free.
Instead of a website, start your social media accounts
to start marketing your business
and getting customers that are paying you.
Don't waste money on getting a fancy logo designed.
You don't need a logo at all to do business.
You don't need a fancy receptionist service.
You don't need an office,
I don't think a whole lot of people
really worry about offices anymore, I certainly don't.
You certainly don't need a business coach
that's gonna cost you thousands of dollars.
You don't need fancy marketing materials.
I already said you don't need a fancy website.
You don't need a fancy business card.
You don't need any of that.
Get a free Canva account,
and if you need a logo design it yourself.
Maybe there's some kind of equipment,
or some tool that you need for your business
but it's really expensive to purchase.
Look at some other ways
that you can get that thing without fully buying it.
Maybe you can rent it,
maybe you can borrow it from somebody,
maybe you can do some kind of a trade for it.
There are a lot of ways to get the things that we might need
without having to spend a ton of money on them.
You wanna know what I did when I started my business?
I didn't have a whole lot of money,
I had a little bit that I could invest into it.
I had enough that I did form an LLC
for my law practice right off the bat.
I bought a domain name,
I ordered some cheap ass business cards online,
and I had my brother design a website for me.
When that one got a little bland
I spent a weekend hibernated in my room, in my home office,
at my tiny little desk and computer,
and watched tutorial after tutorial
of how to design a website on WordPress.
I didn't have money to pay for online advertising,
or paid ads, or Google ad words, or anything like that.
So I started a YouTube channel because that was free.
And I already had a laptop with a web cam
so I actually just started a YouTube channel for marketing.
YouTube exists for a reason.
There is so much free information,
free education that we can get to teach ourselves things.
If you don't have a job and you don't have any money,
use your time watching YouTube tutorials
on how to design your own website, design your own things,
how to start a business,
use that time and what little resources you might have
on things that are actually
going to cause you to launch your business
and start making money.
Don't let the lack of all of these things
prevent you from starting.
So what are a few things
that you might actually need to spend your money on?
Like I said, maybe you need a domain and a website
if you're gonna operate a business online.
Make sure you actually need a website
and you can't market well enough
on social media for free.
But okay, fine, get a domain name
and sign up for a website on Wix, or Squarespace,
or one of these platforms
that are either free or very inexpensive.
You might actually need a business permit,
or a business license depending on where you're located.
Even if you're operating as a sole proprietorship
some cities or counties, some jurisdictions might require,
legally require that you need a permit, or a license.
And sometimes those cost a little bit of money.
Sometimes they're free,
but those things you might actually need,
so spend your money on those.
I would even go so far as to say
if you have 250 bucks to spend on something,
spend that in a consultation with a lawyer,
instead of on an LLC.
Because at least a lawyer is gonna be able to let you know,
here's where you're wasting your money,
here's the things
that you don't need to worry about right now.
Here are the things that you really need to worry about,
and here's where your money
is gonna be more wisely invested.
The point is, I mean, really the point is
you don't need an LLC to start a business,
and you don't need a trademark registration
to start a business either.
In fact, it's the opposite,
that you need a business to get a trademark registration.
But, the greater point is that you don't need to spend money
on unnecessary things in order to start a business,
and start making money.
Start making the money first, and then use that to invest
in these other things that will benefit you,
and benefit your business.
Whatever it is,
just don't let the lack of being able to afford something
prevent you from generating an income.
Do the bare minimum of what you need
so you can start putting your thing out there
whether it's a service, or a product, whatever it is,
do the bare minimum of what you need,
start making money first.
That's all for this episode folks.
Drop a comment below, let me know what you think.
And again, don't forget to check the description
for links to additional information and resources.
Thank you all so much for watching.
I'm Aiden Durham, and I'll see you next time.
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