Fail Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

10 Good Reasons Why Small Enterprises (Small Businesses) Fail

You’ll agree with me that there are so many small businesses which have contributed a lot to the growth of economy. They have created employment opportunities for many families although some remain to be small throughout their operational life.

It is obvious that those who are starting new ventures have objectives to achieve. And to mention each business has got its own objectives to achieve such as maximization of profits and sales, minimize costs, maintain a certain level of production and labor force etc.

Failing of a business opportunity is what an entrepreneur won’t want to happen. Inasmuch as we agree with the fact that there are firms which have succeeded, we should also accept the fact that a good number of them have failed even before two years lapse after they commence business.

If aspiring entrepreneurs addressed the reasons why small businesses fail, then they will not fall to be victims of the same causes of failure. This is because they’ll be in a position to identify these causes and fix them before it’s too late.

Now you may be asking yourself as to why some businesses remain to be small throughout their operational life despite some of them making profits or are capable of growing.

4 Reasons Why Small Business Remain to be Small

1.) The owners of these businesses prefer not to expand their businesses. Some sole proprietors do not want to be bothered with the challenges of managing a big business. They don’t want to employ people to assist them in running their businesses but instead they prefer to be assisted by their family members.

2.) The nature of the product/service the business is involved in doesn’t allow expansion. There are people offering products/services which make it difficult for their business to grow.

3.) Lack of capital for expansion. There are small businesses which are viable and have the potential of growing but they lack enough capital. Such businesses have the challenge of securing funds from financial institutions. Lack of capital plays a negative role in hindering the growth of small businesses.

4.) Very low demand. If the business has a very low demand for its product or service, then at the end of the fiscal financial year/trading period the business won’t realize profits, and if it does, it’s very low, therefore the chances of it expanding are very minimal. Just to mention, realization of inadequate profits as a result of very low demand hinders the growth of small businesses.

However, there must be a starting point and as such, every business starts as a small entity and it gradually grows to a medium entity and eventually it becomes a big business entity which is either a private limited company or a public limited company. Note that a partnership business can also grow to become a big business.

Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail

1.) Wrong Reasons For Commencing Business: People who start a business for wrong reasons haven’t succeeded. Just because another person is making high profits in a certain line of business doesn’t mean that you will also make the same amounts of profits as him/her if you start the same business.

2.) Poor Business Management: When there is poor management of the business it becomes difficult for such a business to succeed in its operations. Finance, marketing, purchasing and selling, planning, hiring and managing employees is what most new business owners fail to execute effectively thus making their small businesses to fail.

3.) Lack of Commitment: Starting a business requires someone who is committed in ensuring that it succeeds. Neglecting the business will cause the business to fail. Many small businesses have failed because the owners didn’t take their time in monitoring performance and in marketing them. Some business owners leave their businesses to be managed on their behalf by incompetent people who lack book keeping knowledge and the knowledge of managing a business.

4.) Lack of Finances: Small businesses have failed because of lack of adequate finances. Some of the owners underestimated the amount of capital required and as a result of this underestimation some ended up running out of operating capital thus ending the operation of their businesses.

There are those who have no reserves which has led them not to be able to take care of loses and disasters when they occur thus making them to quit business.

5.) Over-Expansion of the Business: This has led to failure of many small businesses. This happens when there is borrowing of too much money beyond what the business requires so as to expand the business. Moving to markets that are not profitable is also over expansion of the small businesses.

An ideal expansion is the one that is driven by customers due to their high demand for the products and services which leads to high sales thus the business experiences good cash flow.

6.) Location: The place where the business is located is critical in determining its success. Small businesses have failed because of them being located in areas that are not ideal for business. They should be located in areas that are accessible, populated with people and has demand for their products and services.

7.) Personal Use of Business Money: This is the biggest challenge facing many small business owners. They withdraw money meant to operate their businesses to meet their personal wants and needs. If they continue to withdraw money from their businesses without returning it, their businesses will eventually run out of finances therefore forcing them to end the operations of their businesses.

8.) Lack of Delegation: Small enterprises have failed due to owners not delegating some of the duties to their employees. They think that if they delegate them, then their employees will not perform these duties as they would personally perform them. When such owners fall sick or are away from their businesses, then the operations of some tasks will be paralyzed till they resume to work.

9.) Not Diversifying: Small enterprises which have only one product/service to offer are prone to fail easily compared to those that have a variety of products/services.

10.) Procrastination and Poor Time Management: Postponements of tasks which the small business owners feel to be unpleasant to perform has made the small businesses to fail. An example of such tasks include following debtors to pay their debts (debt collection).

Time management remains to be a challenge for many people who own small businesses. If important tasks like delivering products to customers, purchasing stock etc are not handled in the appropriate time, then the business will lose its customers.

The above are not all the reasons why small businesses fail, there are more reasons.

Business Failure Rate – What is the Real Business Failure Rate and Why Businesses Fail

Ever wondered what the business failure rate is? Between 75% and 90% of all new businesses fail within the first 10 years. If we also take most dotcom startups into consideration, 9 out of 10 new businesses won’t make it to their third year. The actual figures vary according to the source, but it looks like the overwhelming majority of startups end up failing.

In my opinion, in most cases startups don’t fail, they just run out of money. Let me explain.

When they start a business, the first thing that most people do is write a business plan explaining how you are going to promote your business, how you are going to find your customers, and what you are going to offer them. You come up with sales projections and make a lot of assumptions.

If your startup capital is $20,000, maybe you will spend $10,000 to launch the business and promote it. But here is the problem. When you start a new business, no matter how much you think you know about it; you have no clue. Most businesses have to change their business models at least five times during their first year.

Maybe you thought that your target market was stay-at-home moms but they are not buying your products; high school girls are! What are you going to do about it? Are you going to start thinking what is it that you are doing wrong and how to get stay-at-home moms to start buying your stuff? Or you are going to understand that the market defines your business, not the other way around, and change your business model to start selling to high school girls?

Flexibility and observation are two of the most important qualities an entrepreneur should have.

What happened with your target market will happen with almost every aspect of your business. The promotion methods that you thought were going to work actually don’t, you need more employees, and your expenses are higher than you anticipated.

Socrates lived a long time ago, but something he said still applies: “all I know is that I know nothing”. Planning is very important. Making assumptions and forecasts are vital. But don’t think for a second that you are going to get it 100% right, especially if this is your first business.

I said earlier that the main reason why businesses fail is because they run out of money. And they run out of money because they expect everything to work as planned and when it doesn’t they have very few resources left to keep the company alive.

I believe that 90% of the companies would become successful if they could make it through the stage when they are trying to figure out their business model. It is just a matter of surviving until you can learn what works for your business and what doesn’t.

Be humble, you don’t have all the answers. The market is going to teach you what works and you have to keep your eyes open and learn. Instead of investing all your marketing money at once in huge newspaper ads targeted to stay -at-home moms, use that money to test 10 different promotion methods and two or three different target markets. Learn from the experiment. Now you have a much better idea of what you need to do more of and what you need to stop doing.

They say that entrepreneurs have to love risk. That’s not true. You have to minimize risk as much as you possibly can. Isn’t testing, learning, and putting your money where it is proven to work a lot smarter than guessing what’s going to work for you and betting all your funds on it?

Remember, one of two things will happen to your business: you can run out of money before succeeding or you can succeed before running out of money. Take care of every dollar as if it was your own life. Test a lot before putting all your eggs in your basket. You will eventually figure out the perfect business model. Just make sure your money lasts long enough.

Business Planning – Fail to Plan – Plan to Fail

All businesses start with brilliant ideas. Most of these brilliant ideas sound great, too, and you may be excited to take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

Hold on- you need a business plan.

“Another report? More paperwork?” Yes, indeed, and the need for a business plan is well worth the time and effort it takes to write up.

But a business plan isn’t just another report. A business plan is your ideas, vision and goals on paper. It’s where you want to be and how you are going to get there. A business plan shows who your competition is, what obstacles you might face, and how you plan to overcome them.

A business plan shows that you’re serious about your ideas and have a clear path from A to Z. It shows that your ideas are viable ones for a business that earns money. It also helps you determine whether it’s worth putting energy into your ideas or making investments in your visions.

Sometimes, people have great ideas but when they start to write them down, they see that the long-term predictions aren’t that attractive. They may uncover points they never considered or reveal a major stumbling block that will take thought and careful planning to overcome. They may discover new opportunities or a simpler way of earning money.

There are other reasons for writing a business plan, too. Banks and investors want to know what your business is all about before they will offer loans, grants or funding. You may need to take a loan to buy equipment for your business startup, but if a bank can’t see that you have the potential to pay back the money, chances are they won’t lend it to you in the first place. A good business plan shows a bank that their risk involved in lending you money is very low.

You can use your business plan to, as a way to concentrate on what you need to do to reach your goals. It’s very easy to forget important steps when you’re new in business or stray from the path of your main objectives. Another good idea is to remove the financial information from a business plan to leave a guide for employees that helps them to know what your business is all about and to maintain focus as they work.

A business plan is generally about ten pages long. These ten pages cover topics such as:

Your business description

The operations of your business

The marketplace and competition

Sales, marketing and promotion

Financial information

The first half of your business plan is all about your business in the physical aspect. What does your business do? What is its past, its present and its future? Who are the major competitors? Where do you predict your business to be in five years? How will you get there?

Sales and marketing is an important part of your business plan. What is the price of your product or service? What is the cost of goods sold? How will you promote your business and increase your client base? How will you make sure that customers buy from you and don’t go shopping from the competition?

This is important. It isn’t good enough in business to know where you are now and how you’ll make money now. You have to be a little bit of a visionary and try to see down the road. With a clear plan of where you’d like your business to be and what you need to do to reach that point, you have a better chance of success – and attracting investors!

The second half of your business plan is all about the number crunching. This is where you’ll need to put in facts and figures, where you’ll need to lay out your financial information, your current situation and the health of your business, as well as your predictions for its future health.

It’s very important that your numbers show solid backup to all the information you’ve provided in the first half of your business plan. Do the numbers reflect the business you’ve described?

There are plenty of free online tools to help you build a solid, well-constructed business plan. It’s vital that you take the time to write up your business plan, too- don’t wait. You never know when you may need to produce this written document, and if you don’t have it handy, you may end up missing out on opportunities.

Why 90 Percent of Entrepreneurs’ Businesses Fail

Entrepreneurship has become the general dream work for both the employed and unemployable. Business opportunities are springing up everywhere, enticing and calling you to make the leap of destiny into the wealth and affluence you’ve often dreamt about. It is also notable that 9 out of every 10 businesses collapse within 2 years of starting. Even the best of well-read gurus collapse in the face of numerous tests that would have heralded the enthronement of a celebrated business idea.

Despite the numerous complaints about the challenges of building businesses in Nigeria, some are still transforming themselves into formidable forces of repute. It is therefore important to know the necessary factors that affect the entrepreneur, his idea, and his growing business.

Not considering pests!

Pests are crazy little creatures that cause immense damage to food and materials in a house, shop or office. Ok, I am not talking about local pests, but in business parlance means Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological environment; factors which are not necessarily within your control. Some other standard business books give their own academic variations.

PESTLE/PESTEL: Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental.

PESTLIED: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, International, Environmental and Demographic.

STEEPLE: Social/Demographic, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, Ethical; and

SLEPT: Social, Legal, Economic, Political, and Technological.

This considers external factors, which if not well considered, can suck life out of any aspiring business. I remember Sokoa Chair Center (Nigeria)’s story for which they explained how the National Government’s ban on importation almost ran them out of business. Her ability to navigate her business out of the murky waters of challenges became the foundation for the world class enterprise she manages today.

Political: political stability, security, freedom of press, regulation and Tax policy, and trade and tariff controls

Economic: Stage of business cycle, economic growth, inflation and interest rates, unemployment and employee turn-over, impact of globalization (Global Financial Crises)

Socio-Cultural: education and social mobility, market demand, public opinion, social attitudes trends,

Technological Environment: Impact of emerging technologies, (automation, internet, e-commerce e.t.c.). Compaq recently launched a 24hr laptop battery, while DELL was busy putting finishing touches to launch their 16hr laptop battery, if DELL were a run off the mill company, they are grounded!

Eating your investment, and not profit

No sooner than a small business begins to level up in terms of income, our wonderful entrepreneur begins to think of changing levels and status. He buys a new car, wardrobe, changes office space, all from the proceeds of the business which is actually the capital and not profits. When spending, it pays to separate personal funds from the business. The business pays you your money, and you must learn to live within that means. Problems occur when initial deposit is given for business only for our aspiring business man goes to celebrate the huge success of his business.

An entrepreneur seeking to build a business must understand the separation and marriage between business and personal life.

Mismanaging reality

When entrepreneurs venture out, they are usually motivated by a deep passion-either for themselves, their idea, getting rich, an opportunity or some other object of enthusiasm. Armed with such passion, they take risks and set sail against unexpected signs of reality.

Yet passion tends to distort reality. The ability to succeed in business depends on the skill of adjusting the plans and dreams to the prevailing conditions. The idea that the challenges will bow to your plans and dreams will burn the drain the entrepreneur’s time, energy, and money pursuing an ill-defined endgame without a realistic path. And when the issues start pouring in… expenses not turning into expected results , potential customers are not that crazy about the product, missed deadlines, shortfalls in sales,- objectivity and reason become even further blurred by the mind-bending distractions of doubt, fear and disappointing replies to investors. Entrepreneurs are found to cave in under these kinds of pressures not knowing it is a bend towards the shining light of achievement.

When personal failures affect business

The personal faults, habits and failures of an entrepreneur are usually obvious especially when he has a lot of people under him. Inability to manage funds, not being detailed and bad people management skills are some indirect factors responsible for the high rate of business failures. Entrepreneurs, like any pioneer, have their own lapses, but must be able to manage them extensively. I know an entrepreneur who does not negotiate price but leaves it to his financial manager because he never succeeds in negotiating a beneficial deal. Many entrepreneurs are successful in spite of themselves. The key is in working well, and enjoying, full understanding of their weaknesses and mitigating the likely risks.

Good at starting business, bad at running them.

This is very true of many entrepreneurs, since most of them are powerful initiators, but terrible managers. Most are more interested in making money than it is to build a business. Most technicians think because they understand their product or skill, they will automatically transform those ideas into business. Most of them have this great obligation to run their businesses and become a great manager. Working on a business and working in a business are two different worlds. While the entrepreneur works on his business, the technician works in the business. He feels if he gave in more, worked harder, profit will come. How untrue!

These are some of the factors I have considered and will love if you ponder on them while thinking, planning, starting and managing your business. Don’t forget also, out of the first 20 richest men in America, only 4 are employees.

Four Reasons Why Small Business Fail To Plan and Why They Need To Think Again

It is so widely acknowledged that a robust business plan is one of the key ingredients in small business success, it seems remarkable that anyone serious about their business could considerable it optional. For example, Business Link say, “It is essential to have a realistic, working business plan when you’re starting up a business”. A recent survey showed that small businesses were twice as likely to be successful with a written business plan as compared with those without one. The Times in their annual round up of 100 up and coming UK businesses suggest that “poor business planning” is a key reason for failure. Indeed, it’s almost impossible to find an authority that would advocate the opposite idea, a clear signal that this idea is accepted wisdom. Despite this, a recent survey shows that two thirds of small business owners run their businesses on gut instinct alone.

I had a very interesting discussion about this a couple of days ago with a good friend of mine who has run several successful small businesses in which he posited the idea of a “planning gene”. He felt that the only possible explanation for the lack of proper planning in small business was genetic.

According to his theory, the majority of people are born without the “planning gene” and this explains why so many people don’t have any written business plan, despite the overwhelming evidence of a high correlation between a robust and vigorously implemented business plan and business success. The majority of us are simply not biologically and genetically wired to plan.

This is certainly one explanation, although I have to say I have a few reservations as to the validity of his theory. I talk with small business owners about planning every day. I’m part of a small business myself. I’ve owned several small businesses over the last ten years each with varying degrees of success. In all those conversations and all that experience, this was the first (semi) serious discussion I’d had about the planning gene.

If I was to aggregate the results of the conversations I have had with actual and prospective customers on this topic, four distinctive strands emerge explaining why small business owners fail to plan. Whilst I have heard a few other explanations for the lack of effective small business planning, I am treating these as outliers and focusing on the most significant.

I’m Too Busy To Plan – More often than not, the small business owners we talk to tell us that proper planning is a luxury that only big business can afford. For them, business planning, if done at all, was a one-time event that produced a document for a bank manager or investor which is now gathering dust in the furthest recesses of some rarely opened filing cabinet. There just aren’t enough hours in the day and if forced to choose, they would do the real, physical work and leave the mental work undone, which seems to be the poor relation at best, if it is even dignified with the status of work at all.

Traditional Planning Doesn’t Work – The “I’m too busy to plan” excuse is often supplemented with this one. I’ve heard the stories of the most legendary construction overrun of all time, The Sydney Opera House, originally estimated to be completed in 1963 for $7 million, and finally completed in 1973 for $102 million, more times than I can remember. Sometimes, this idea is backed up with some actual research, such as the fascinating study by several eminent psychologists of what has been called the “planning fallacy”. It seems that some small business owners genuinely believe that mental work and planning is a bit of a con with no traction on physical reality.

My Business Is Doing Fine Without Detailed Planning – A minority of small business owners we speak to are in the privileged position of being able to say they’ve done pretty well without a plan. Why should they invest time and resources into something they don’t appear to have missed?

Planning Is Futile In A Chaotic World – Every once in a while, we hear how deluded we are to believe that the world can be shaped by our hopes and actions. This philosophical objection to planning is perhaps my favourite. It takes ammunition from a serious debate about the fundamental nature of the universe and uses it to defend what almost always is either uncertainty about how to plan effectively or simple pessimism. This is different from the idea that planning doesn’t work as these business owners have never even tried to form a coherent plan, but have just decided to do the best they can and hope that they get lucky as they are knocked hither and thither like a steel ball in the pinball machine of life.

As with all of the most dangerous excuses, there is a kernel of truth in each of these ideas and I sympathise with those who have allowed themselves to be seduced into either abandoning or failing to adopt the habit of business planning. Most small business owners feel the same dread in relation to business planning as they do to visits to the dentist, so it’s unsurprising that so many simply don’t bother. However, by turning their backs completely on planning, they are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Taking each idea outlined above in turn, I’ll attempt to show why business planning is critical, not just despite that reason but precisely because of that reason.

I’m Too Busy Not To Plan – Time is the scarcest resource we have and it is natural that we would want to spend it doing those things that we believe will have the greatest impact. Of course, we want to spend most of our time producing, but we should also invest at least some time into developing our productive capacity. As Stephen Covey pointed out in his seminal work, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, we should never be too busy sawing to sharpen a blunted saw. Planning is one of the highest leverage activities we can engage in, as when done effectively it enhances the productive capacity of small businesses, enabling them to do more with less. Nothing could be a bigger waste of precious time than to find out too late that we have been using blunt tools in pursuit of our business goals.

If we as small business owners weren’t so busy and time wasn’t so scarce, then we wouldn’t have to make choices about what we did with our time and resources. We could simply pursue every opportunity which presented itself. However, for the busy entrepreneur, the decision to do one thing always has the opportunity cost of not being able to do something else. How can we be certain that our business is going where we want it to go without pausing regularly, scanning the horizon and making sure not only that we are on track but also making sure that we still want to get to where we are heading? I believe more time is wasted in the single-minded pursuit of opportunities that are not right than is wasted by over thinking the opportunity of a lifetime.

In short, small business owners are extremely busy and their time is precious. So much so that to waste it doing the wrong things with the wrong tools would be tragic. Small business owners that cannot afford the luxury of making expensive mistakes simply must regularly sharpen the saw through continuous business planning.

Traditional Planning Doesn’t Work, So We Need a New Approach That Does – There are some fairly large question marks over the effectiveness of traditional business planning techniques. In an age where business models are becoming obsolete in months rather than years, a business plan projecting five years into the future cannot be viewed as gospel. Nobody has a crystal ball and if they did, they probably wouldn’t be writing business plans but using their remarkable predictive powers to some more profitable end.

Dwight D Eisenhower said “plans are useless, but planning is essential”. Whilst producing a document called a business plan is far from useless, the real value lies in the process by which the plan is created in the first place. If this process can be kept alive in a business then the dangers associated with traditional planning can be minimised or avoided all together. In an environment of continuous business planning, small businesses can be flexible and adaptive to the inevitable changes and challenges they will face. Rather than quickly becoming obsolete, their plan will simply evolve with the changing circumstances.

Accepting that the plan is a living thing that will evolve necessitates a change of approach to business planning. An effective business plan is the response to the repeated asking of the questions what, why, how, who and how much. It is not a 20 – 30 page form to fill in for the benefit of a bank manager or some venture capitalist, who will probably never fully read it. A business plan should help you, not hinder you, in doing business. If traditional business planning doesn’t work for you, it’s time to embrace the new paradigm of continuous business planning.

My Business Could Do Even Better With Effective Planning – If you are one of the lucky few whose business has thrived despite an absence of traditional business planning, then I say a sincere well done. I hope that you can say the same thing in five years time.

Business life expectancy in Britain and across Europe and indeed the world are in rapid decline. A study done at the end of the eighties and then again as we marched into the new Millennium showed that life expectancy had more than halved for British businesses in those ten years, from an average of 9.7 years to 4.1 years. Just because a company once enjoyed market leadership does not mean that its future is assured. Many high street institutions have fallen victim to the recent recession. Five years ago it was inconceivable that UK retail institutions like Clinton Cards, Game, Borders, Barratts, T J Hughes, Habitat, Focus DIY, Oddbins, Ethel Austin, Principles, Allied Carpets, Woolworths, MFI and Zavvi/Virgin Megastore would all be either out of business or teetering on the brink of oblivion in 2012. Yet that is exactly what has transpired.

Any business from the smallest to the greatest is not impervious to the winds of change. A new competitor, a technological breakthrough, new laws or simply changes in fashion and consumer preference can all re-write the future of a company regardless of how bright that future once seemed. It is precisely because these risks exist that business planning is critical. To survive in business is extremely hard, but failing to effectively plan for the future or adapt to current realities surely makes it impossible and failure inevitable.

Of course, it is not necessarily the absence of plans that did for these companies but the quality of their plans and most especially the quality of their implementation. Even a poor plan vigorously executed is preferable to the finest planning and research left to rot in a drawer. Continuous business planning is effective business planning because it emphasizes implementation and regular reviews of real results as part of what should be a continual process of improving company performance rather than simply attempting to predict the future and wringing our hands when our prophecy fails to come true. We believe, like Peter Drucker, that the best way to predict the future is to create it.

Planning Is Essential In A Chaotic World – We sometimes feel small and insignificant as we try against all odds to translate our dreams into business reality. It’s easy to feel all at sea when we consider some of the challenges we face. However, whilst it is true that we cannot control the direction of the wind, we can adjust our sails and change the direction of the rudder. Difficult and challenging circumstances may come in our lives, but we can control the outcome of these circumstances by choosing which path to take.

The truth is that we are fundamentally achievement orientated as human beings. When this is taken away, we lose much of the energy and motivation that propels us forward. There have been numerous studies carried out on life expectancy rates after retirement, which show that when clearly defined goals and daily action moving in the direction of those goals are removed from our lives, the result is literally fatal. The individuals studied who failed to replace their career goals with a new focus for their retirement simply shriveled up and died. The implications for small business owners are clear. Those business owners with clear goals who take action daily that propels them in the direction of their goals are far more likely to thrive and survive than those who take any old goal that comes along or move from day to day with no defined objective other than survival.

It seems to me that precisely because life is so chaotic and challenging that effective planning is essential. Without continuous business planning, our businesses and the small business owners that work in them may find that bit by bit they are atrophying and on their way to becoming another business failure statistic.

There undoubtedly exists an antipathy for business planning felt by many small business owners. Clearly, this cannot be fully explained by the lack of a “planning gene”, but it equally cannot be fully justified by the reasons most commonly put forward by small business owners to not engage in the business planning process. These reasons must be critically re-evaluated and a commitment made to a continual and never ending process of improving the condition of their small businesses. Without such a commitment, the future for small businesses in the UK is uncertain.

How Copyright Laws Fail Us When We Need Them Most

I used to worry about other people stealing my work. I do lots of different kinds of things so there is plenty to steal. In 35 years of being in business, I have produced plenty of exceptional photos, illustrations, graphic design, ads, websites, printed collateral material, logos, music and writing, to name just a few. And of course, I also have plenty of clients for all my competition to try to steal away from me as well. This is normal. If you are talented in any way, or in business of any kind, people steal from you.

What about copyright laws? Unless you want to waste lots of money hiring a lawyer to chase after every thief and take them to court only to get a judgement against them which they probably will never pay, what is the use? And that’s if you’re lucky. Most of the time in cases of Internet violation, you can never even locate the person responsible, let alone convict him of the crime. But it’s not money I’m after. If I were, why in heaven’s name would I be writing articles for Internet article directories who don’t pay for use of their articles? I write for such sites to get the benefit of linkbacks for my website and blog. What are linkbacks? They are a vital component of SEO (search engine optimization), as links back to my website from highly ranked, popular websites, which contributes to my achieving page one search results for my own website when appropriate keywords are searched on Google. It’s complicated but it works.

I recently was searching for some javascript code I could use to do something clever on my website. When I found what I wanted to adapt, I checked to see what the terms of use were. The writer of the code very humbly asked for a mere $5 if you wanted to remove his name from the invisible credits that would only appear where other code seekers would see it. Otherwise, it was free. How can you not respect a request like that? I happily left his name even though I needed to spend many hours tweaking the code to work in my situation but felt a certain kinship with this skilled individual that engendered the utmost in admiration and obedience. I treat others the way I wish to be treated myself.

It certainly was upsetting when I first realized that my articles were being used improperly and published as if written by someone on the website where I happened to find them. I checked the usage policies of the article websites to which I had submitted my articles which stated that it was required that articles be published with a signature line (meaning, author’s name) along with a link to the author’s website.

After reading that, I thought, “Oh, great! Maybe they will help me enforce their policies.” But after further reading I quickly learned that it was my responsibility to do any policework, notifying offenders of what they so innocently had overlooked. Once such violations are brought to light, these well-meaning publishers will be eager to correct their ways. Ha! That’s a laugh!

Not only do these offending websites have no way to contact anyone, they are enshrouded in secrecy by unknown hosts who ironically invite you to “report abuse,” only to inform you that they cannot accept responsibility for any individual blog publisher’s offenses. If you want to try posting a comment to communicate the violation, you usually need to register and log in, divulging all your own personal information, so your comment will ultimately get picked up by Google associated with a less-than-reputable website in some future search that will follow you to your grave. (Is this where we’re headed, as members of this Google-dominated culture we live in?)

As I was searching the title of my article which is how I discovered the stolen usages, I saw something else which made me realize what a tangled web we weave on the Internet. One instance of my article used my title verbatim, but what followed in the body of the article was what appeared to be an error-ridden, broken-English, horrendous translation from some other language, which suggested that this article had gone full circle. I imagined someone publishing my English-language article in say, Chinese, for example, and someone translating it back into English to use it on the website where I found it. Let’s just say I wasn’t a bit unhappy about the lack of attribution in this situation!

But this is sad… a very sad state of affairs, wouldn’t you agree? Or isn’t it, rather, “Wake up and smell the coffee! This is reality, so get over it”? Hence, my resignation. As a person with wavering self-esteem to begin with, I accept having someone pirate my work to call his own in the same way I accept someone cutting me off in traffic, or cutting ahead of me in line at the grocery store. It’s gotten to be so commonplace that what else can you do but just shrug your shoulders about it? Sure, you could make a scene but ironically in today’s society, you would be running the risk of getting arrested for breach of peace and instigating a public disturbance. That would be a perfect example of today’s justice. No thanks. I’d rather just look the other way and be glad that they’re not hauling me off as the real criminal for publishing interesting articles that tempt others to steal them.

But… just a minute! Isn’t that a website that has actually included my name as the author? And included a link to my picture and website as well? Well, now. Isn’t that nice of someone, to be so kind! Funny how abiding by the rules we’re all supposed to be following is the new supernatural, worthy of reverence usually reserved for the divine or the immortal.

Are we so jaded that merely obeying the law of the land has been elevated to an act of sainthood, and deserving of the grand prize awarded only to superhumans? I guess it follows then that telling the truth, showing respect, offering help and being fair are also beyond expectation for normal individuals, and anyone exhibiting such behavior should be honored with recognition as one of today’s superheroes. Never mind that many religions teach “Thou shalt not steal”; in fact, raised as a Catholic, I was taught not to even “covet” my neighbor’s goods, let alone go so far as to steal them. It was wrong to even “lust” after them, to use a term made famous (or would it be “infamous”?) by Jimmy Carter in a Playboy interview back in 1976. And certainly in civil law, everyone knows it is a punishable offense to take something that doesn’t belong to you. But this is more than that. It is not only taking it, but gaining glory from it as well! And in some instances, it is even gaining revenue from it because of advertising that appears as a result of its saleability and magnetic appeal, drawing cybertraffic to fulfill promised ad viewership. That should fall under a more grievous category and worthy of an even bigger punishment.

And if I were inclined to contact a copyright lawyer, I would be advised of my many rights in such a case. I would also be informed that I would be responsible for payment to the lawyer to represent me whether he was successful in apprehending the guilty party or not. Another case of divine justice gone bad. My rights are violated and I pay as a result. No pain, no gain, right? The pain being my shock and awe at having been so flagrantly ripped off; my outrage at having someone else impersonate me as the author; and my disgust at needing to pay a lawyer to defend my rights. The gain? Obviously all in the thief’s court, so to speak.