You’ve invested time to create a stellar product, you’ve set up a website, and now you’re excited to launch! As you release your product into the marketplace, it’s important to protect your business from copycats who may exploit your hard work and profit from it.

As you hustle to build your brand, take the following steps to protect your business:

• Use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to safeguard your business ideas, secrets, and processes. Request employees or freelancers you hire to go through and sign an NDA before revealing any sensitive information to them. This deters existing or former employees from revealing trade secrets to competitors.
• Focus on building brand loyalty by providing quality products and good after sales service. Once you establish a good rapport with your customers and gain their loyalty, they’re less likely to jump ship when a copycat competitor pops up.
• Confront the copycat. Before jumping to legal action, notify the copycat that you have a copyright/trademark/patent for your work and if they continue profiting from it, you’re left with no choice but to sue. Let them know that you mean business!
• If all else fails, consult a lawyer and discuss taking legal action against your copycat competitor.

Of course, intellectual property rights and NDAs can’t always prevent copycats from emerging, but they do give you a better chance of protecting your creative work and business. You put in a great deal of work to launch your business. You owe it to yourself to go the extra mile and take legal steps to protect YOUR brand.

Let’s soar,