Essential Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

SaleHoo – The Essential Elements of Establishing an Online Business

There are so many hopefuls today that are entering the business world. Some of them are catering there services in different ways like the internet as their tool. A lot of people have proven that the Internet is a powerful tool for accomplishing all their endeavors. One kind of business is the wholesale business that is also brought now in the World Wide Web.

In this kind of business, a computer system and an internet connection are the primary and sometimes what is only needed in order to do online wholesale business. You need to establish your online business well. It is very hard to manage and establish your online wholesale business especially if you are starting in this kind of field. In this article, I have some tips on how you can unravel some of the facets facing the online business.

In this career, it is very essential to choose the right products to sell. Products are very vital since it will be the ones that will get attention and generate your customers. There are a lot of points to remember when choosing the right product to sell such as the price, quality, demand etc. Those are factors that affect the selection for the product.

It is also vital to have a reliable dropshipper. You do not have to find the best one but you have to choose the suitable one for your kind of business. Thus you have to make sure that these people will deliver quality products. They must be reliable enough to handle the tasks you will not have to such as packaging and delivery of items to the clients.

To obtain such essential elements like these two, it is very appropriate and necessary for you to visit SaleHoo. SaleHoo offers reliable dropshippers and great products available at lower costs. It is a directory of suppliers, manufacturers etc. and different quality goods as well. They are legitimate and has a good name. They are verified and evaluated thoroughly.

Now, you have to find or practice how you will be marketing your products. Marketing strategy is such an essential factor in order for you to gain income. You can provide websites or even join eBay. Just make sure your customer will be satisfied and impressed with what you offer and having a good reputation in the career path you choose is significant.

Internal Communication: 12 Essential Elements

There are 12 essential elements of a successful internal communications strategy:

1. Effective employee-directed communications must be led from the top

Effective communications require the active commitment and endorsement of senior managers. It is not enough simply to develop a ‘vision statement’ or formulate in general terms the values by which the company lives. Behaviour is what counts. Managers must be seen to behave in a manner that is consistent with the ethos they are promoting.

2. The essence of good communications is consistency

At all costs, avoid following fashion and tinkering. If you try to improve communications and then fail–because your messages are inconsistent or are ‘good news only’–things will not quietly settle back into the way they used to be. You will inevitably have created expectations, and may have to live with the consequences of having disappointed those expectations.

3. Successful employee communications owe as much to consistency, careful planning and attention to detail as they do to charisma or natural gifts

We might not all be another Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins or Bill Clinton. But even such communication ‘giants’ slip up if they fail to plan, fail to pay attention to detail and fail to project a consistent message.

4. Communication via the line manager is most effective

‘ Line Manager to employee’ communication is an opportunity for people to ask questions and check that they have understood the issues correctly. However, be aware that business urgency and reality may dictate the need, on many occasions, to inform employees directly rather than relying entirely on the cascade process. (Though managers will still need to answer people’s questions and listen to their views.)

5. Employee communications are not optional extras, they are part of business as usual and should be planned and budgeted for as such

An employee communications plan–key themes, targets, objectives and resources–provides a context in which to deliver initiatives that arise at short notice.

6. There must be integration between internal and external communications

There must be a fit between what you are telling your people and what you are telling your customers, shareholders and public. (By the same token, there must be a fit between what you are telling your people, and what the external media are telling them.)

7. Timing is critical

However clearly expressed and well-presented your message may be, if it arrives at the wrong time you might as well not have bothered. Old news is often worse than no news. Consequently, it is important to ensure that the channels you use can really deliver at the time you need them to.

8. Tone is important

Expressing overly-gushing enthusiasm about a technical change of little real significance to your staff or public at large is scarcely calculated to make people take your message to heart. If they don’t take that message to heart, why would they take the rest of what you say to their bosoms?

9. Never lose sight of the ‘what’s in it for me?’ factor

We are self-interested creatures. I may have invented the most amazing gadget ever, but unless I get you emotionally involved you are never likely to listen to my message about it. But if I can show you how my gadget will revolutionise your life, add dollars to your wallet, free up your time, fix your smelly feet, wash your car for you, stop your kids arguing with you, bring peace with your spouse, bring world peace…

10. Communication is a two-way process

Employee communications are NOT a one-way information dump. Capturing feedback is of critical importance, and if you are not seen to be listening and acting on what you are told, why should people bother telling you?

11. A single key theme or a couple of key themes is a means of giving coherence to a range of diverse employee communications initiatives

In recent years, the overriding theme of many corporate employee communications has been the impact on the business of competition, regulation and economic forces. Many messages and initiatives can therefore be evaluated according to the light they shed on one or more of these key themes.

12. Set your standards and stick to them

Determine which channels should be mandatory and which should be optional; establish quality standards for all channels and review these at least annually.

5 Essential Steps For Launching A Life Coaching Business

What is life coaching?

It’s motivating people to change something in their lives so they can experience greater joy and less pain. It can be in any area of a person’s life, and different areas of life overlap and influence each other. A relationship problem can affect finances, and vice versa. A health problem can affect a career issue, and vice versa.

So, probably he first thing to consider once you’ve decided to become a coach is:

“Do you want to be a general life coach, or do you want to specialize in one area?”

The main areas of a person’s life are:

· Health

· Relationships

· Personal Development

· Career

· Finances

· Spiritual Development

If you have experience in one area of life where you solved a problem that many others have, then you might want to specialize in that area. For example, if you taught yourself some ways to get through a divorce amiably, you could coach others on how to do that. Or, if you developed a technique for recovering faster from cancer treatments, you may want to share that with others.

Or you may have training in a specific area. For example, you took a training in how to help someone change their diet by using specific techniques you are now certified to teach. Then you may want to use a specific title for your coaching, such as “Massey Method Coach.”

But if you want to coach a person in all areas of their life, then you may want to call yourself a “General Life Coach,” a “Personal Growth,” or a “Personal Development” coach.

No matter what you choose, your job as a life coach is to motivate people to take action to change their lives for the better. You do that with methods, processes, accountability and inspiration to do the work. The problem is that most people want change, but they don’t want to do the work. So they hire a life coach to help them stay motivated while they do the hard work.

In fact, about 90% of people pay for life coaching just to hold them accountable. But they also want you to be an expert in the area they are working on. So it’s important for you to get proper training.

Notice I didn’t say get “certified.” There are many certification programs for life coaching. But there are also courses that aren’t for certification but may be helpful. So just be aware of that.

What’s important is that you get the necessary training, so you know how to deliver life coaching to clients. And, if it’s a certification program, that will just add to your credibility. Or you may be someone who has had a lot of experience in coaching already, and that in itself may be enough credentials.

Most people won’t ask for your credentials, but if you have them, it’s good to display them on your website and in your email signature.

Launching Your Coaching Business

Starting any kind of business can be fulfilling, but it also can involve hard work, difficulties and challenges. Having an awareness of where the obstacles in the road lie in a life coaching business, gives you an advantage. So I’ll share some basic information you need to know when launching.

There are several components that need to be in place in order to start and run a life coaching business:

1. An entrepreneur mindset

2. A coaching process/program to offer

3. Basic bookkeeping skills

4. Business systems

5. Tools for running a business online

Let’s dive a little deeper into each one of these.

1-Mindset is half the battle.

When starting any kind of business, you need to have an entrepreneurial mindset. That means making decisions based on statistics and not on emotions. It definitely means doing income-producing activities such as, market research to determine the needs of your audience, rather than only doing easier and more fun activities.

Most of the entrepreneurs I’ve met who are not having the kind of success that they desire, have a problem with their mindset. I can sense it when I hear them talk about their business. Unfortunately, they aren’t aware of their mindset, so they don’t know that it’s the problem. Before their finances improve and their business thrives, their attitude toward business needs to improve.

Mindset is something quite intangible. You can’t just say, “Oh, you’re spending too much money; that’s your problem.” Or “Your conversion rate isn’t high enough to justify your advertising expenses.” Those are tangible problems. Mindset is illusive, and harder to pinpoint.

One way to discover if your mindset is aligned with your business is to try to uncover any hidden beliefs that are holding you back. Beliefs that don’t support your desires are the main culprits that can keep you stuck in an undesirable situation. But beliefs are just thought patterns that are habitual. This is good news because habits can be changed. The best way to change a belief is to substitute a new one that’s more in alignment with your desires.

Just like being in any long-term relationship, as an entrepreneur, all of your issues will come up and need to be dealt with. One common issue is your relationship with money… how much you think you deserve, how much you can ask for, how much you can keep, and how you treat money in your personal life.

Another major issue that comes up is lack of self-confidence. The best way to handle this is to coach 10-20 people. It doesn’t matter if it’s a practice session or a 6-month program. You will learn a lot from your first coaching clients and it will also give you the potential for referrals, more confidence, and possible revenue.

A third issue that can come up is in how you handle stress. Do you stay calm and strong when a client is venting on a stressful experience, or do you get caught up in their drama? Do you leave the office and your business behind you at the end of the day and relax with family/friends, or do you tend to “take your business with you” and think and strategize too much on your off time?

One thing that happens when running a life coaching business is that you find you must adapt and evolve with it. Things happen that force you to either change something in your business or change something in yourself in order to move forward. And it’s helpful to know how to keep a positive attitude.

2-Your Life Coaching Program

Besides developing the right mind-set, you need to develop a program to offer clients. It may be the process you developed when you solved the problem that you now can help others with. It may be a method that you got training on. Or it could be a combination of the two.

Planning out your program in advance is necessary in order to have something concrete to offer in enrollment conversations (discovery calls). And you need to plan out what results your clients can expect to have from your program.

Here are some steps to consider:

· How long your program will last? One-to-one coaching programs range from a few weeks to a year or more, depending on the depth of the information and the outcome clients will achieve.

· What steps does the client need to go through to achieve the desired results?

· What tools will need to be included in your program?

· How will you connect with your clients, and when and where will the contact happen? Will you deliver via phone calls, zoom calls or email support?

The bottom line here is:

What will make your clients feel supported, without causing you to burnout?

Pricing your services

Perhaps the most difficult decision to make when it comes to your private coaching program is pricing your services. That may take market research.

Beginning life coaches might charge as little as $97/month, while top business coaches can easily command $40,000, $50,000 or even $100,000 per year. Where will your program fit? It depends on a variety of factors:

· Niche

· Duration

· Outcome

· Your experience level

Once your coaching program is planned out and priced, you will be ready to market yourself.

3-Bookkeeping

Every business owner needs to know how to determine whether they can stay in business, i.e., if they are making a profit. Life coaches are no exception. That’s where basic bookkeeping skills come in. Keep track of both expenses and income on a spreadsheet, or (I suggest) in a simple software program such as, Quicken . Quicken is inexpensive and is all you need for a small business.

Then you need to keep accurate records and track where your money is going and how much you are actually earning. Income always starts slowly, and you may have more expenses than income at first. But there are so many low-cost or even free tools available that you should be able to keep operating costs to a minimum.

4-Tools for running a business online

The Internet has opened up a “world” of opportunity for life coaches. You can coach anyone anywhere in the world. But that means knowing how to use online tools to market and run your business. Fortunately, there are many helpful tools, resources, and software to make your business life easier. Earlier, I mentioned having a bookkeeping tool.

Here are 5 other essential ones:

a) Website

b) Scheduler

c) Autoresponder

d) Delivery Platform

e) Documents

Website

Some coaches have asked me if they need a website. You don’t necessarily need a website—I have members in my life coaching association who don’t, and they have other ways of getting clients—but it does look more professional to have a website. A simple one is a WordPress site. You’ll need to get a domain name for it and a hosting service. You can start out with a one-page site that just has information about what you do, and your contact info.

There are a number of tools associated with a website. For example, if you want to track how many people come to your site, you can install Google Analytics. There are also a number of WordPress plug-ins that make the operation of your site more efficient. Your webmaster will know what you need.

Scheduler

You’ll also need a way for clients to book appointments with you. Don’t get caught in the “email tag” game! Get a scheduler with a link that you can send to any client or prospect. Basic free tools include Calendy, Setmore, and Squareup.

Autoresponder

If you are running an online business, and are sending traffic to your website through your marketing, not everyone who comes to your site will be ready to hire you. So, you need a way to stay in touch with those people. An easy way is with an autoresponder, such as MailChimp or AWeber. It’s a tool that sends out emails automatically to people who sign up on your website. You write up the emails once, and they go out without any more work on your part. Usually, you’ll need to offer some kind of “freebie” (or “lead magnet”) to get people to sign up for your emails.

Delivery Platform

If you have materials such as PDFs, templates, checklists, or recordings, you’ll need a way to deliver them to your clients. For documents, it can be as simple as using Google Docs. You upload the document and give the link to your clients. But if you want something fancier, you can use a platform such as Teachable, LearnDash, Kajabi, or OptimizePress Member. Using one of these software programs ensures that your materials are only available to people you designate (password-protected).

Coaching Documents

You will also need some coaching documents such as a client agreement, client feedback form, Wheel of Life chart, intake session form, invoice form, client action sheet, and client info form. There may be others that you’ll need depending on your topic.

5-Business systems

You will need to set up several systems so your business runs smoothly.

Here are the ones I recommend:

a) Content Creation system

b) Lead generation system

c) Social media marketing system

d) Sales conversion system

e) Onboarding clients system

f) Client retention system

g) Follow-up system

Content Creation system

The first system you will need to set up is content creation for your business. That means creating valuable content that educates people, tells them what you do, and how to hire you. As you market your business, you will always be creating content. This includes content in your branding, your blogs, your website pages, and your email campaigns, and it all supports lead generation. You will always be creating content to keep your name in front of the people in your audience.

Lead generation system

How will you find prospects to talk to about your services? That’s what we call “lead generation.” Leads are potential clients who are attracted to your content. So you need to have a system for attracting them.

There will be people who are attracted to your content and consume it, but aren’t ready to hire you yet. And if you don’t have a system for staying in touch with them until they are ready, you’re leaving money on the table. That’s where your autoresponder comes in—you can use it to build a list of leads that you can keep in touch with.

It’s helpful to have a gift of some kind to offer potential leads, so they get on your list. Called a “freebie” or “lead magnet”, this is a small piece of content that your audience wants and needs so much that they are willing to give you their email address, knowing that you will be sending them more content.

The lead magnet leads them to an email series that you have on your autoresponder. These emails educate your leads more about the problem they face and how you can help them solve it. Your autoresponder email series leads to an enrollment conversation, a free consultation or “discovery call,” where you enroll them into your coaching program.

This system also may include using ads to re-target people who clicked on your links to encourage them to connect with you.

Social media marketing system

A necessary part of lead generation is marketing on social media. It’s a whole system in itself! You will need to make social media posts, which include content and graphics, to distribute to the platforms you are using. Part of this system involves having a regular time for engaging with people on social media who are potential clients. You will have to do more market research to find out where to find your ideal leads on social media.

This system can also include advertising on various platforms. Each one is different, and, to stay organized, you should focus on one platform at a time, so you can get a steady stream of leads from it before you start working on another one. Also, there are ways to automate your social media marketing.

Sales conversion system

Once you get a lead into a free sales conversation, you need to have a set of steps to take them through to see if they are right for your program or service.

Here is a sample conversation formula:

a) Warm Up Questions – icebreakers

b) Setting Expectations – your agenda for the call

c) Making the Promise – what they will get out of the call

d) Qualifying Questions – their ability to invest

e) Personal Questions – their reason for consulting with you

f) Offer – your solution

g) Close – your call-to-action

h) Technical Questions/Objection handling – help them make a decision

There are many courses available on sales conversation techniques and formulas. Know that salesmanship is an acquired skill that anyone can learn.

Onboarding clients system

Once you have enrolled a new client, there needs to be a procedure or onboarding process that they go through. This can include a welcome letter or welcome package, registration on your delivery platform, getting their personal information, or filling out a questionnaire.

Client retention system

It’s a lot easier to reenroll a current client than to find a new client, so it’s a good idea to have a client retention system. Current clients have already been sold once and they know and trust you. So it doesn’t take as much work to convince them to buy again. Part of this system is how you treat your clients while they are working with you. The other part is keeping in touch with them after their program is over and introducing them to the next step or another program. This can be done through an email series or phone calls.

Follow-up system

One more system a life coach needs is for following up with people. There are 4 follow-up series that you need to create:

a) People opting in for your “lead magnet

b) Prospects you meet on social media platforms

c) Current clients who are in one of your programs

d) Past clients who need the next step

The thing to keep in mind is that people are more likely to buy from you if you follow up with them regularly with courteous, helpful, non-pushy contact via email or phone calls.

In Conclusion

Becoming a life coach can be as exciting as it is formidable! And as a life coach you may run into some unique challenges. But there are ways to deal with it. We discussed what life coaching is and the 5 steps that need to be in place in order to launch a coaching business.

There are other things you can do too. You can hire a coach to help you. You can take extra trainings. And you can become a member of a life coach association, such as the International Association of Professional Life Coaches®. Membership will give you visibility, credibility, and business and marketing training. Visit the website to see if it’s a good fit for you!

4 Essential SEO Strategy Elements for Service-Based Businesses

Unique Elements Required for a Service-based Business to Rank Properly in the Search Engines.

While big multinational companies employ SEO strategies to gain clients and customers from all over the world, a small business who deals only with customers in its geographic region only wants local leads.

This article looks at what you must have in your SEO strategy if you’re one of those smaller businesses and you’re trying to gain visibility with clients local to you.

1. Your website

Look at your website and see if you can tell where your business is located and who it services.

Your target area should be prevalently noted in the Home page copy, your contact page, as well as in the footer. You can even incorporate it into your business name or URL.

The idea is of course to make sure that when someone gets to your website looking for what you provide, they are also affirmed you service their area.

Put these terms in your META data too. It makes a difference in reaching local customers doing specific searches for your city or business service area. Additionally, when you create individual pages for each service you provide, work the locations serviced into the headlines and copy.

2. Google My Business

If you haven’t already done so you should create a Gmail account for yourself, so you can easily log into all of Google’s apps and products.

Google My Business is one such tool available for free that gets your business pinned on Google Maps and if Google sees the right signals you’ll show up high in the local rank results too. The local rank results are those results you’ll see when Google has understood your search query to be location specific.

Try typing ‘plumbers near me’ into Google and you’ll likely see a few ads and some localized listings before you see the organic search results. This could be 1 – 3 ads or 3 or 4 local listings depending on how competitive the market is.

Those local listings are valuable to your business and by creating and verifying your business with Google you’ll have at least initiated the steps it takes to get listed in those local listings.

Once you have the account, fill in everything you can. Provide photos and use your service and locality keywords in the description and anywhere else you see a sincere opportunity.

3. Local Citations

Local citations are when your business is listed in local directories. You’ll likely only ever need to do this once and it’s very easy.

Just look up your location with the word ‘directories’ after. There are some obvious ones like Yelp but you may find some niche directories for your locality as well as your service too.

Don’t ever pay for these as those paid directories will have already been flagged by Google when it reviews their site. Paying for links or citations will always harm your ranking efforts.

4. Reviews

When it comes to local customers, reviews are golden. They’re testimonials that other potential clients can trust. Requesting these from previous customers is totally fine; however, falsifying them is not.

Don’t have them log into their Gmail account from your computer to leave a review or Google will see that your reviews all come from the same IP address and the reviews then won’t help your rank.

There are plenty of other things you can do as well but those 4 points are staples in any local SEO strategy and if you’re a service-based business you’ll need them in order to get the right traffic.

Of course, if you’re looking to really dominate the rank results and ensure you’ve got a solid strategy you’re going to want to hire someone providing professional search engine optimization. They can take things further as well as actively maintain the efforts needed to let Google know you provide what you do, where you do it, while you spend your time actually providing your service!

Startup Law 101 Series – Ten Essential Legal Tips For Startups at Formation

Here are ten essential legal tips for startup founders.

1. Set up your legal structure early and use cheap stock to avoid tax problems.

No small venture wants to invest too heavily in legal infrastructure at an early stage. If you are a solo founder working out of the garage, save your dollars and focus on development.

If you are a team of founders, though, setting up a legal structure early is important.

First, if members of your team are developing IP, the lack of a structure means that every participant will have individual rights to the IP he develops. A key founder can guard against this by getting everyone to sign “work-for-hire” agreements assigning such rights to that founder, who in turn will assign them over to the corporation once formed. How many founding teams do this. Almost none. Get the entity in place to capture the IP for the company as it is being developed.

Second, how do you get a founding team together without a structure? You can, of course, but it is awkward and you wind up with having to make promises that must be taken on faith about what will or will not be given to members of the team. On the flip side, many a startup has been sued by a founder who claimed that he was promised much more than was granted to him when the company was finally formed. As a team, don’t set yourselves up for this kind of lawsuit. Set the structure early and get things in writing.

If you wait too long to set your structure up, you run into tax traps. Founders normally work for sweat equity and sweat equity is a taxable commodity. If you wait until your first funding event before setting up the structure, you give the IRS a measure by which to put a comparatively large number on the value of your sweat equity and you subject the founders to needless tax risks. Avoid this by setting up early and using cheap stock to position things for the founding team.

Finally, get a competent startup business lawyer to help with or at least review your proposed setup. Do this early on to help flush out problems before they become serious. For example, many founders will moonlight while holding on to full-time jobs through the early startup phase. This often poses no special problems. Sometimes it does, however, and especially if the IP being developed overlaps with IP held by an employer of the moonlighting founder. Use a lawyer to identify and address such problems early on. It is much more costly to sort them out later.

2. Normally, go with a corporation instead of an LLC.

The LLC is a magnificent modern legal invention with a wild popularity that stems from its having become, for sole-member entities (including husband-wife), the modern equivalent of the sole proprietorship with a limited liability cap on it.

When you move beyond sole member LLCs, however, you essentially have a partnership-style structure with a limited liability cap on it.

The partnership-style structure does not lend itself well to common features of a startup. It is a clumsy vehicle for restricted stock and for preferred stock. It does not support the use of incentive stock options. It cannot be used as an investment vehicle for VCs. There are special cases where an LLC makes sense for a startup but these are comparatively few in number (e.g., where special tax allocations make sense, where a profits-only interest is important, where tax pass-through adds value). Work with a lawyer to see if special case applies. If not, go with a corporation.

3. Be cautious about Delaware.

Delaware offers few, if any advantages, for an early-stage startup. The many praises sung for Delaware by business lawyers are justified for large, public companies. For startups, Delaware offers mostly administrative inconvenience.

Some Delaware advantages from the standpoint of an insider group: (1) you can have a sole director constitute the entire board of directors no matter how large and complex the corporate setup, giving a dominant founder a vehicle for keeping everything close the vest (if this is deemed desirable); (2) you can dispense with cumulative voting, giving leverage to insiders who want to keep minority shareholders from having board representation; (3) you can stagger the election of directors if desired.

Delaware also is an efficient state for doing corporate filings, as anyone who has been frustrated by the delays and screw-ups of certain other state agencies can attest.

On the down side — and this is major — Delaware permits preferred shareholders who control the majority of the company’s voting stock to sell or merge the company without requiring the consent of the common stock holders. This can easily lead to downstream founder “wipe outs” via liquidation preferences held by such controlling shareholders.

Also on the down side, early-stage startups incur administrative hassles and extra costs with a Delaware setup. They still have to pay taxes on income derived from their home states. They have to qualify their Delaware corporation as a “foreign corporation” in their home states and pay the extra franchise fees associated with that process. They get franchise tax bills in the tens of thousands of dollars and have to apply for relief under Delaware’s alternative valuation method. None of these items constitutes a crushing problem. Every one is an administrative hassle.

My advice from years of experience working with founders: keep it simple and skip Delaware unless there is some compelling reason to choose it; if there is a good reason, go with Delaware but don’t fool yourself into believing that you have gotten yourself special prize for your early-stage startup.

4. Use restricted stock for founders in most cases.

If a founder gets stock without strings on it, and then walks away from the company, that founder will get a windfall equity grant. There are special exceptions, but the rule for most founders should be to grant them restricted stock, i.e., stock that can be repurchased by the company at cost in the event the founder leaves the company. Restricted stock lies at the heart of the concept of sweat equity for founders. Use it to make sure founders earn their keep.

5. Make timely 83(b) elections.

When restricted stock grants are made, they should almost always be accompanied by 83(b) elections to prevent potentially horrific tax problems from arising downstream for the founders. This special tax election applies to cases where stock is owned but can be forfeited. It must be made within 30 days of the date of grant, signed by the stock recipient and spouse, and filed with the recipient’s tax return for that year.

6. Get technology assignments from everyone who helped develop IP.

When the startup is formed, stock grants should not be made just for cash contributions from founders but also for technology assignments, as applicable to any founder who worked on IP-related matters prior to formation. Don’t leave these hangning loose or allow stock to be issued to founders without capturing all IP rights for the company.

Founders sometimes think they can keep IP in their own hands and license it to the startup. This does not work. At least the company will not normally be fundable in such cases. Exceptions to this are rare.

The IP roundup should include not only founders but all consultants who worked on IP-related matters prior to company formation. Modern startups will sometimes use development companies in places like India to help speed product development prior to company formation. If such companies were paid for this work, and if they did it under work-for-hire contracts, then whoever had the contract with them can assign to the startup the rights already captured under the work-for-hire contracts. If no work-for-hire arrangements were in place, a stock, stock option, or warrant grant should be made, or other legal consideration paid, to the outside company in exchange for the IP rights it holds.

The same is true for every contractor or friend who helped with development locally. Small option grants will ensure that IP rights are rounded up from all relevant parties. These grants should be vested in whole or in part to ensure that proper consideration exists for the IP assignment made by the consultants.

7. Protect the IP going forward.

When the startup is formed, all employees and contractors who continue to work for it should sign confidentiality and invention assignment agreements or work-for-hire contracts as appropriate to ensure that all IP remains with the company.

Such persons should also be paid valid consideration for their efforts. If this is in the form of equity compensation, it should be accompanied by some form of cash compensation as well to avoid tax problems arising from the IRS placing a high value on the stock by using the reasonable value of services as a measure of its value. If cash is a problem, salaries may be deferred as appropriate until first funding.

8. Consider provisional patent filings.

Many startups have IP whose value will largely be lost or compromised once it is disclosed to the others. In such cases, see a good patent lawyer to determine a patent strategy for protecting such IP. If appropriate, file provisional patents. Do this before making key disclosures to investors, etc.

If early disclosures must be made, do this incrementally and only under the terms of non-disclosure agreements. In cases where investors refuse to sign an nda (e.g., with VC firms), don’t reveal your core confidential items until you have the provisional patents on file.

9. Set up equity incentives.

With any true startup, equity incentives are the fuel that keeps a team going. At formation, adopt an equity incentive plan. These plans will give the board of directors a range of incentives, unsually including restricted stock, incentive stock options (ISOs), and non-qualified options (NQOs).

Restricted stock is usually used for founders and very key people. ISOs are used for employees only. NQOs can be used with any employee, consultant, board member, advisory director, or other key person. Each of these tools has differing tax treatment. Use a good professional to advise you on this.

Of course, with all forms of stock and options, federal and state securities laws must be satisfied. Use a good lawyer to do this.

10. Fund the company incrementally.

Resourceful startups will use funding strategies by which they don’t necessarily go for large VC funding right out the gate. Of course, some of the very best startups have needed major VC funding at inception and have achieved tremendous success. Most, however, will get into trouble if they need massive capital infusions right up front and thereby find themselves with few options if such funding is not available or if it is available only on oppressive terms.

The best results for founders come when they have built significant value in the startup before needing to seek major funding. The dilutive hit is much less and they often get much better general terms for their funding.

Conclusion

These tips suggest important legal elements that founders should factor into their broader strategic planning.

As a founder, you should work closely with a good startup business lawyer to implement the steps correctly. Self-help has its place in small companies, but it almost invariably falls short when it comes to the complex setup issues associated with a startup. In this area, get a good startup business lawyer and do it right.