3-Blazes

Example Legal Services & Pricing

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 EST

I use a Fixed-Fee Pricing model for most projects or subscription-based Virtual In-House Counsel services for clients with ongoing needs. Here are some example projects to give an idea of my services and fees, but I need to know the details of your situation before I can quote your particular project. Regular services include Business Counseling, Patent Services, Trademark Services, Cease & Desist, Contract Preparation & Negotiation, Intellectual Property Licensing, and Venture Formation.

Terms of Service

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 EST

I have open and reasonable terms for helping startup and growth companies, while still making a profit. I trust my clients. So far, that trust has been rewarded. I offer Free Initial Consultations, Fixed-Fee Project Pricing, Virtual In-House Counsel subscriptions, and a Money-Back Guarantee.

Local Resources

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EST

We are building a guide to local resources for people starting and growing businesses in Otsego County and Central New York State. We will provide our thoughts on who they are, what they do, and how they can help your business grow--with a link to their website for you to follow-up if they sound interesting. This project is just getting started, so please watch the Blog for new additions.

About Devin S. Morgan

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 EST

Veteran business advisor, transactional attorney, and U.S. patent attorney with over 10 years of corporate, law firm, and business consulting experience.

I run a law office and a separate service firm for implementing small business innovation
I was an in-house Intellectual Property Counsel for large technology companies
I was a business consulting specializing in intellectual property strategy and management
I started practice working for large law firms in Washington, D.C.
I have degrees from Dartmouth College and the law program that is now UNH School of Law
I grew up in the Finger Lakes, moved around a bit, and ended up in Cooperstown, NY

I Am Not

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 EST

Law is a big field and there is a lot of stuff I don’t do:

Not a litigator—I don’t go to court or file lawsuits
Not a general practitioner—I specialize in business law and don’t do other stuff
Not a large firm—I am the only attorney in my office, so you know who will be doing the work
Not an investor—I offer flexible payment terms, but I won’t invest in your startup
Not cheap—I offer value compared to large firms and keep my overhead low, but my expertise is valuable

For Bootstrap Growth

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST

Looking for Good and Focused- Early revenue is the life blood of a young company. It represents both a source of cash and a validation of the product or service offered. But even as demand and sales increase, it is still unlikely that you will have the surplus resources to fully invest in a mature legal strategy. For a bootstrap growth company, it becomes a question of choosing a few strategically important legal issues and doing them right. This may mean making sure your technology or brand is getting solid intellectual property protection, putting standard agreements in place with customers or suppliers, or making sure you are in full compliance with industry regulations. It can also mean spending critical resources on legal support for a major transaction, such as a key development contract, an IP license, or an investment, to take the company to the next level.

For Startups

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST

Looking for Cheap and Temporary- Starting anything is challenging and there are never enough resources to do everything you want to or should do. You need to be focused on your product or service and getting it in the hands of your customers as quickly as possible. You should spend as little as possible on lawyers. Unfortunately, there are a number of things that need to be done early, particularly when it comes to protecting intellectual property, setting up ownership and employment terms, and forming a company. Unless you have significant personal resources or an investor, your legal strategy probably needs to be one of finding free and cheap resources (often temporary solutions) and delaying costs.

Publications

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST

Contact Me

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST

Please contact me to setup a call or meeting for a Free Initial Consultation to discuss your business and legal issue(s). I am located in Cooperstown, NY, an idyllic village in Central New York State roughly equidistant from Albany, Syracuse, and Binghamton. But my practice is virtual and I service clients throughout New York, nationally, and internationally. Office visits are by appointment only. I love e-mail.

The Firm & Services

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST

I provide legal services to help innovative companies start and grow. I help them protect their technology with patents and trade secrets. I help them protect their brand with trademarks. I help them navigate the challenges of business formation, core agreements (with employees, customers, and suppliers), and complex licensing, investment, joint venture, and other commercial transactions. I am their business counsel and advisor for identifying legal issues, matching their legal strategy to their business strategy, and managing legal and administrative projects to control costs, reduce distraction, and meet business objectives. I am their virtual in-house attorney.

Contact Us

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Sun, 31 Aug 2003 00:30:32 EST

For Funded Growth

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan) — Fri, 04 Apr 2003 16:31:12 EST

Looking for Complete and Effective- The goal of most businesses is to reach a point where the resources available enable truly strategic execution on their business plan—where cash flow and reserves allow the business to choose between profit and reinvestment in growth. At this stage, the business is generally large enough to have continuous legal demands and the goal is to systematically address them in a way that minimizes costs while meeting business objectives. Dedicated legal and administrative resources assist the business with policies, processes, and risk management that enable the business to grow its intellectual property holdings, manage a large and complicated array of contractual relationships, and meet the continuous challenges of compliance, dispute resolution, and major transactions.

Do I Need an IP Strategy for My Startup?

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin S. Morgan) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST

The Situation:
You have a team, an initial product, and either early revenue or some seed funding. Your advisors and potential investors keep asking about patents or an IP strategy. Other early stage companies you talk to are all over the map—from saying that IP is useless for small companies, to writing patent applications themselves, to spending half of their seed funding on their patent attorney. What should you be doing?

What is an Intellectual Property Strategy?
You Need a Plan
IP strategy is nothing more than a plan for how you will protect and leverage various intangible assets of your company, specifically:
Patents and trade secrets that protect your technology
Copyrights and licenses that protect your code and content
Trademarks and domain names that protect your brand
Early stage companies tend to generate intangible assets faster than they create hard assets (or revenue). Understanding your IP and telling a convincing story about its value can strengthen your pitch to customers, partners, and investors.
It Takes a Team
An IP strategy is part of your business planning. It must complement both your high-level business strategy and the day-to-day realities of your operations. It should not be left solely to your Chief Technologist. Budgets, timing, and ROI need to be understood by Finance. Competitive and market knowledge is required to evaluate the perceived risks and value. If it isn’t actionable with your personnel, time, and resources, it’s useless. The entire executive team has a role to play in developing and maintaining a sound IP strategy. It doesn’t come out of a box or from your patent attorney.
Long View
IP has little or no value on its own. It has to be matched to a sustainable business model to generate any sort of return. Even then, the returns on IP investments tend to be slow and sometimes subtle. In the heat of startup, it is easy to ignore IP issues (until they bite you). It is also easy to get caught up in creating IP and forget that selling products and serving customers is your business. An IP strategy is a tool to help you avoid both neglect and distraction (or waste) and make IP investments that serve your business now and create options for the future.

7 Considerations for an IP Strategy
1. Cost and Distraction
How much can you afford out of your operating budget for the development of long term assets? Every dollar and hour spent on IP will be resources diverted from marketing, sales, or product development.
2. Timing and Loss of Rights
Inaction and delay may result in an irretrievable loss of IP rights. IP expenditures need to be prioritized against risk of loss, near term strategic needs, and available techniques for deferring commitments.
3. Secrecy and Communication
Secrecy appears to be an inexpensive way to prevent loss of IP. Unfortunately, it also hampers communication with customers and partners, distracts employees, and risks irrecoverable loss.
4. Competition and Parity
Analysis of common practices in your industry (including competitors, suppliers, and customers) can be a good place to start in considering an IP strategy. Others may be wrong, but parity is a good baseline.
5. Outside In
You do not have to create all of the IP for your product. Consider opportunities to use universities, industry partners, and orphan technology to quickly build your IP position (licenses or joint-development)
6. Inside Out
You may not be able to fully utilize all IP you create. Consider partners for commercializing your IP in products, markets, and geographies that are out of reach in return for revenue or relationships.
7. Where in the World
IP is generally national in scope. International IP is complex and expensive. All of the above considerations apply, but special attention is required if foreign markets or production are part of your plan.

Table Here

Is this it? IP Strategy is a vast and shifting part of business strategy, subject to trends, fashions, and competing “solutions”. This introduction touches only the most common themes as they apply to technology startups. It is a starting point to be expanded on as your team’s priorities and resources allow.

Does Your Business Need Virtual In-House Counsel?

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin S. Morgan) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST

The Situation:
Your business is growing. You and your executive team are increasingly distracted by legal issues, like NDAs, employment concerns, sales contracts, IP development, and a growing list of “things to look into” that may or may not be problems. You now have several outside attorneys that seem to do good work, but the bills are growing faster than your budget. How do you get your legal work under control?

Why In-House Counsel?
Why do large companies have teams of In-House Attorneys?
Because businesses are surrounded by legal issues. The law enables or restricts everything they do. Corporations and LLCs only exist because of law. Contract law governs interactions with customers, suppliers, and investors. Their products, services, brand, and know-how are protected by Intellectual Property law. Government regulation, taxes, and commercial liability shape their daily activities. For today’s companies, business operations require legal expertise.
What do In-House Attorneys do for their companies?
Legal Triage. Issues are constantly arising and In-House Counsel have the combination of business knowledge, legal expertise, and contacts to quickly determine whether there is a quick fix or more resources are necessary.
Manage Outside Legal Resources. Attorneys who specialize in particular areas of business law are expensive but extremely valuable for resolving issues effectively. Managing them and controlling costs is an art that In-House Attorneys are uniquely suited for.
Efficiently Handle Recurring Tasks. Contract negotiation and management, intellectual property development and management, corporate recordkeeping, and employee compliance can all be handled more efficiently by In-House Counsel. In-House Counsel can customize policy, process, and administrative support to the company’s business process and budget to minimize the use of expensive attorney time.
But can you afford an In-House Attorney? Continue to the next page for a possible solution.

In–House Legal Support Customized to Your Needs

How can I afford an In-House Attorney?
Hiring a full-time In-House attorney with moderate experience is likely to cost $150-200K per year, not including benefits and overhead costs. Very few small companies have the legal demand to justify that expense, particularly since they would still require specialized outside attorneys to supplement the work that can be done in-house. And part-time attorney positions are difficult to fill with experienced counsel.
The answer may be a Virtual In-House Attorney who will offer a fixed support package on an ongoing basis (see example engagement below). Virtual In-House Counsel are a hybrid, the consistency of fixed-cost in-house staff with the flexibility and lower maintenance of a law firm attorney.
Will a Virtual attorney be able to support my business?
A good Virtual In-House Attorney relationship is based on fit with your business and can deliver the full value of in-house legal personnel. To be effective, Virtual In-House Counsel should be business focused, strong project managers, and technology savvy. They should be experienced attorneys with in-house and law firm experience. Expertise in commercial contracts, intellectual property, corporate, and/or employment law is helpful and experience within your industry is extremely valuable. Finally, they need to be friendly and responsive—executives and staff need to like working with them to get effective support.
Do I need a Virtual General Counsel?
General Counsel are senior attorneys that guide strategic decision making and manage business critical legal matters as full members of the executive team. Virtual In-House Counsel can fill this role, but it requires a high level of trust and respect from all other members of the executive team. Virtual General Counsel may make sense if your business model involves strategic legal issues.

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How Do I Use My Trademark?

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin S. Morgan) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST

The Situation:
You brainstormed. You searched. You pitched ideas to friends and family. You searched trademark registries, checked the availability of domains, and used multiple search engines to see if others might be using similar names. Now, you finally have the perfect company name, logo, product name, or slogan. Now what?

To Register or Not to Register?

No Registration Necessary
Good news for startups—trademarks are created through use and you can protect your brand even if you don’t have a trademark registration. Unregistered trademarks can be enforced in state courts as common law trademarks. If someone starts using marks that confuse your customers or they attempt to pass off their products as yours, relief may be available at common law without registration. Once you have started using a name, logo, or other identifier for your company and products, they are your trademarks—no registration required, but what you choose and how you use it matters.
When, Not If
Any successful company with a brand recognized by their customers should register their trademarks with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Trademark registrations provide procedural advantages for stopping others from using confusingly similar names, securing domain names, and pursuing foreign trademark rights. Registration is relatively inexpensive and accepted corporate practice for brand protection. However, while $500-$1,000 is small change for an established company, it can be a significant cash hit to a startup. Early on, registration should only be considered if there is a real risk of others adopting similar marks or where brand is a significant part of the business plan Startups need to weigh their available resources against the added protection that registration provides in order to decide what and when to register.
State Registration?
Most states also have registration systems that provide advantages to trademark owners. However, companies generally find the combination of common law and U.S. registration to be more cost effective unless your business is truly confined to a single state (unlikely in the Internet age). State registration is unlikely to be of real value if you qualify for a U.S. registration.

It’s in the Way That You Use It
Customers Matter
The strength of both registered and common law trademarks depends on whether customers associate the trademark with your products or services. So, the way you use your trademarks to build your brand recognition matters. Consider how your trademarks are used on your website, in marketing collateral, on product packaging, etc.
Trademark Notice (TM or R)
As soon as you have decided to use something as a trademark, you should start marking it to let your customers, competitors, and the general public know that you consider it a trademark. Any trademark can be identified with “TM” or ™ to provide notice each time you use the trademark. If you have a registered U.S. trademark, you can use ® instead of TM. Putting little symbols all over the place can be annoying. So, you may want to mark only the first occurrence of each trademark on a package, webpage, or document and/or provide a notice legend in the document, such as:
“The Ubik Store” and “Ubik” are trademarks of The Ubik Store, Inc.
Don’t Be Generic
A trademark can loose its value if customers start to consider it the name of a generic product category. To avoid this, don’t choose a generic term to use as a trademark and make sure that your customers (through your product and marketing materials) understand that your product name is distinct from the type of product it is (iPod is a music player, LEGO is a building toy).
Build a Portfolio
Brands include multiple elements, like names, logos, and slogans. Keep an inventory of all of your trademarks to provide a tool for managing and policing your brand (see example inventory below). Write down each mark, registration status, and when and how you first used it. Maintain copies of product packaging, marketing materials, and website versions as a record of use.

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What if someone is misusing my mark? Start by gathering as many facts as you can about the use and its impact on your business. If it is a sufficient concern, contact a trademark attorney to analyze the use and prepare a cease and desist letter (if appropriate). As always, keep your budget and business objective in mind.

How to Patent and Sell Your Invention

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin S. Morgan) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST

The Situation:
You have a new idea for a product. You are pretty sure that it is new and the prototype you built works like a charm. You have even shown it to a few close friends and family and they think its great. Where do you go from here?

Invention-to-Product Myths

Myth #1: Patents = Money
Many inventors and entrepreneurs are under the misapprehension that investors and large corporations are watching the Patent Office just looking for patents to buy or license. For the vast majority of inventions this is simply not true. A patent alone is worthless. The value of individual patents and small portfolios is entirely based on proven market value from the sales of actual products. There are some areas where investors speculate on future market applicability, such as biotech, but those speculations are still based on the data derived from research and clinical trials. Patents are just a small part of the path to commercializing a new product and making money.
Myth #2: Ideas are Hard
Idea people tend to see invention as the most important part and greatest challenge in bringing a new product to market. They tend to forget the Edison quote, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” In the Information Age, ideas tend to be cheap and plentiful. The challenge is taking something from concept to a product that addresses a market need and can be made and delivered through a viable business model. Ideas are easy, product execution is hard.
Myth #3: You Can’t Do It
So if invention is not an easy path to riches, what is an inventor to do? Give up and let your great ideas moulder on a shelf ? No, if the idea is worth doing, there is a process for pursuing it. It isn’t easy. It isn’t without risk. And it will require that you learn, seize the opportunity, and get the help needed to turn your idea into a business. To quote Edison again, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” You can do it.
Continue to the next page for the Invention-to-Product process.

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Don’t go it alone. The good news is that no one can do all of this on their own. The goal is to find others to support turning your invention into a product. Business professionals, local economic development, friends & family, and others can help—but only if you are willing to be a champion for your idea and recruit the support and resources you need.

How to Setup Your Business for Maximum Credibility

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin S. Morgan) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST

The Situation:
You and your co-founders are ready to start making things happen for your new business. You have a concept and a pretty good idea of who is going to do what on the founding team. Customers, investors, and suppliers have expressed interest, but are waiting for your official launch. How do you setup a new business that demonstrates commitment and establishes credibility with others as quickly as possible?

What Do You Need for a Business?
Pretty much anyone can make, buy, or sell products or services without any formal requirements. The basic needs are:
Name. A business name is necessary for most activities.
Contact Information. A mailing address and telephone number are the bare minimum. E-mail, fax, and other methods are also good ideas.
Bank Account. While cash businesses are possible, it is pretty difficult to conduct legitimate business without the ability to write and deposit checks.
The next level is to add some basic marketing elements, such as:
Business Cards. Plus letterhead, envelopes and other materials that show a business identity.
Website and Domain Name. At least an online brochure.
And then there are the legal considerations, particularly if you are starting a business with multiple founders:
Business Entity. A Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Corporation are the most likely forms.
Founders Agreements. If there are multiple people involved, written agreements that define contributions and ownership are a must.
If you are serious about your business succeeding, consider:
Planning. Not necessarily a formal business plan, but at least some effort at defining your business model, customer, milestones, and tasks.
Professional Advisors. Start with an attorney, accountant, insurance agent, and banker.
Customers. Find paying customers as soon as possible.
Continue to the next page for how to make it credible.

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Consistency is the key. Business credibility is established by creating a distinct entity with a defined team and easy ways to reach you. A tangible presence and independent references help. The list above are inexpensive ways to show consistency to others even while you are still building your real customer value.

Anatomy of a Patent Application

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST

Title: Short and specific name for referring to the invention

Drawings: Several simple line drawings or diagrams with reference numbers are used to illustrate the invention and organize the written specification
Specification: Written description of the background of your invention and the details of how it works (described in reference to the drawings)
Claims: Legal definition of the scope of the patent—the claims are compared against other people’s products or services to determine whether the patent is infringed and can be used to stop their activities
Abstract: Brief description of the invention for the front page of the patent
Filing Documents: The patent application will be accompanied by a Declaration and other required forms

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not replace consultation with an attorney.

© 2011 Devin S. Morgan. Permission is hereby granted to copy and use for any purpose as long as appropriate copyright notice and attribution is provided and, where practical, a link to www.devinsmorgan.com is included. Updated 1/31/11.

Why Listen to an Attorney...

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST

...about working with attorneys.
As an in-house attorney, hiring and managing outside attorneys was one of my primary responsibilities. In fact, most corporate legal departments are responsible for:

Finding the right specialist attorneys
Defining the objectives, scope, and timeline for legal services
Aggressively controlling costs, including deciding what can be handled in-house or by non-lawyers

These management responsibilities are often far more valuable to the company than the actual legal services the in-house attorney provides. In-house attorneys understand the risk and expense of hiring the wrong attorney or not managing them for business results.

Our Beta Client

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin Morgan) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST

We have the good fortune of having a client to test out our services and give honest feedback on how we are doing. My other business, The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan, is our beta client. My legal practice has engaged 3-Blazes for two specific projects: i) developing a low maintenance social media presence and marketing strategy for niche lead generation, and ii) virtualizing operations to allow outsourcing of administrative tasks. So, what is a beta client and how does it help a business get started?

The idea of a beta client is someone who: 1) is paying for your service, 2) has a vested interest in seeing you succeed, and 3) will provide honest and actionable feedback to help you improve your product or service. Paying for the service is important. Not that the beta client necessarily has to pay your full price, but they should be paying something. People are simply more focused and give more thought to your value when they are paying for it--even if it is a nominal amount. Full price is better, since it more accurately tests your value proposition, but a discount is frequently necessary to entice someone to be your beta client.

Interest in your success is also helpful. If someone champions the use of your untested product or service, there is a pretty good chance they will do whatever they can to help you succeed. There are likely to be some bugs, delays, or other problems and you want someone who isn’t going to bail on you at the first misstep.

Finally, they should be willing to provide good feedback. The point of a beta client is to test something with a friendly audience that has no expectation of a polished product. But this is only useful if they provide the feedback you need to start polishing. The hope is that, in the end, you can delight them and make them a reference for your future marketing and sales. But unless you are incredibly lucky with your initial offering, some iteration will probably be necessary to reach that goal.

The Otsego County Chamber; Business Advocate

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin Morgan) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST

We met with Rob Robinson, Executive Director of the Otsego County Chamber, to learn more about what OCC does to support business growth in the area. In many ways, it is a typical local chamber of commerce, offering networking events, small business health insurance, and information resources for members. What sets OCC apart is its focus on government relations. Rob is an advocate for small business in the region and actively engages local, county, and state leaders to help individual businesses and the regional business climate as a whole.

OCC manages a set of legislative priorities that support the business interests of members. It sends a delegation to support small business lobbying efforts in Albany each year. It arranges opportunities for businesses to engage with political representatives. Perhaps most important, Rob maintains a network of personal connections with local politicians and agency staff while actively keeping the organization independent of government strings. It receives no funding from government entities. The organization relies almost entirely on member dues, which leaves the membership in the driver’s seat when it comes to OCC’s legislative positions.

For individual businesses, Rob and OCC can be a great friend and ally. Whether you have a specific legislative concern, have run into issues with a local agency and aren’t sure where to turn, or are looking to make a government connection to help your business grow, OCC may be a good place to start.

How to Select and Work with an Attorney

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST

The Situation:

You are starting or operating your business and someone important:

Tells you “every business should have a good lawyer”
Tells you to have your attorney look at or do X
Has their attorney send you a nasty letter, denies your application for Y, or makes you angry enough to consider suing them

You think you need a lawyer, but now what?

What Kind of Attorney Do You Need?
General Counsel
Every business really should have an attorney who specializes in advising businesses on diverse risks, transactions, and operational issues. The law restricts or enables pretty much everything businesses do Operating a business without a trusted legal advisor is extremely risky and the right kind of business counsel will ultimately save you time, worry, and money. A good general counsel will help you manage legal risks and costs (including their own fees and those of other specialist attorneys).
Litigation Counsel
When it comes to legal disputes and courtroom drama, it pays to seek out a litigator—an attorney who specializes in advocating your side in disputes in and out of court. If you have been served with a law suit or think there is a serious chance you will be, you need litigation counsel immediately. The more specialized the litigator is in your type of case, the better. If you are involved in a dispute, find a litigator who has handled similar cases to help you.
Other Specialists
The law is too big and too complex to be mastered by one person. Intellectual Property, Tax, Government Contracts, Environmental, Antitrust, and many other areas are best handled by specialists. In general, the smaller the niche, the better the attorney is at it. This presents a challenge for business owners in that there is no one-stop-shopping. Even large firms that have specialists in many fields are unlikely to have the best person for your needs in every field. Even when you find a good attorney, he or she will not be able to handle every issue, so you need to learn how to select and manage a legal support team.

How Do You Find a Good Attorney?
Make a List
Once you understand the kind of attorney you are looking for, you need to identify at least three candidates who could meet the need. The best place to start is within your network, talking to professionals and other business owners about lawyers they know. Once you have a few possible referrals, do some internet searches to look at credentials and find other attorneys using some of the many online attorney directories (note that most of them require attorneys to pay for their listing and are not complete).
Comparison Shop
Do not just hire the first attorney you talk to! You need to interview at least three to compare:
Cost: Billable rates can be deceiving, make sure you press for an estimate for your project and understand what is included in that estimate.
Staffing: Will the attorney you are talking to actually be doing the work? If not, who will? Talk to them too.
Communication: Do they have a standard response time? Provide regular status updates? Availability for face-to-face meetings?
If possible, talk to larger regional firms, small firms or solos, and national firms. The best value can often be found in smaller firms, but so can poor quality and unreliable service—be selective.
Don’t Be Intimidated
You are the client. You pay the bills. You call the shots. You deserve to understand what is going on, the services you are receiving, and what to expect. Ask questions and don’t stop until you are satisfied. If the legal issue is critical to your business, do your own research and know what you are looking for.

Tools for Managing Your Attorney
Stated Business Objective	Budgets & Fixed Fees	Timelines & Deadlines	Regular Status Updates	Detailed Communication
Every legal engagement or project should have a stated (written) business objective that you and your attorney have agreed on	Every project should have a budget or fixed fee and the attorney should understand that pre-approval (and explanation) is required to exceed the budget	An estimated timeline for the entire project should be laid out at the beginning. Agree on deadlines for each task and hold one another accountable	For long projects, you should schedule regular updates to make sure everyone knows what is going on and that the project is moving forward.	Communicate early and often. Make sure all new information is shared promptly (online files and workspaces are helpful). Bills should be clear.

Be a good client. Good attorneys fire bad clients. Even if it doesn’t come to that, legal services are a personal and creative endeavor. If you are difficult, you may get competent service, but you won’t get the attorney’s best. You can be demanding, but then you better pay your bills and be honest, responsive, and professional.

Mix and Match; Combining Cloud Applications

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Henry Knauth) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST

Recently I have begun selling on Ebay. While this concept is not new, the ability to outsource data to mobile, third party infrastructure is. Ebay represents a cloud-based storefront, a selling platform that can be accessed at any time and at any location. Utilizing their mobile application, a member can post sale items directly from their phone, eliminating the need for a digital camera or central log in location.

Even with mobile access, Ebay alone may still require significant management consideration. Posting multiple items means multiple transactions, each requiring individual means and attention. Building on the initial cloud premise is Paypal. A subsidiary of Ebay, Paypal offers a secure means of sales transaction for those participating in e-commerce. Functioning as a digital wallet, Paypal allows Ebay purchases to be made instantaneously, as buyers move funds directly to your account with only a password requirement. Once the funds have entered your own Paypal account, they can safely be shuttled into your checking or savings account.

As Ebay and Paypal offer expanded mobile sales capabilities, so do others offer a means to manage them. Applications such as Mint offer intuitive money management options to its users. Directly connected to your own bank account, this includes real time updates on expenditure, allowing you to watch money enter and exit your account right from your phone. When combined with Ebay, Mint allows a seller to view mobile sales as they enter their checking account. By linking Ebay and Paypal to your bank and your bank to Mint, one can manage a complete revenue cycle while paying for their coffee.

Cloud based applications allow us to perform specific functions without the need for individual structure or back-end management. Alone, these mobile programs offer heightened efficiency and functionality to daily life. When combined, multiple applications can quantify to an even greater good, creating a seamless means of information gathering, storage and transfer within your business.

Social Media for Small Business

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin Morgan) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EST

Our attendance was up in Oneonta last week for “Bricks & Clicks, Social Media for Retail”. Social media and what it means for small business is a huge topic and we couldn’t really do it justice in such a short format. For me, there are really two keys to understanding social media: 1) it is constantly evolving with new tools, applications, and entire social networks (like Google+), and 2) it isn’t just about marketing, to be successful it needs to be part of your business strategy, operations, and the fabric of your business. It is more than a new channel for your business’ message—it is a new paradigm for human communication and information access. And it is an incredible opportunity for small business. It takes some of the traditional strengths of small business (personality, individualized service, and unique offerings) and gives them a reach and continuity greater than ever before. So, why are so many small businesses struggling with social media?

New and Getting Newer

The development of social media is fluid and relentless. Barely a week passes without a new change to services of the large social media players, like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, not to mention evolving services like Foursquare, Groupon, and others. No one knows who the next must-have network or service will be and the ease of development of web and mobile applications means that the number will just keep on increasing.

Easy to Start, Hard to Manage

All good web services and applications are easy to get started. Social media has been driven by a Do-It-Yourself ethos. Usability and ease of adoption are keys to their success. But in many cases, this is a veneer. Under the surface are very complex engines that take a lot of know-how to use well. There can even be traps for the unwary in security settings, terms of use, and the way information is aggregated and shared. And even if you do get things setup properly, things change.

High Maintenance

Social media is all about what’s new, what’s current, and who is talking to whom. To really participate means committing resources to fresh content, thoughtful responses, and being part of a conversation that never stops. We’ve always done this through interactions with people who come into our stores, call us up, or send us an e-mail—and that customer service was overwhelming enough. Now we need to manage these other communication channels with instant responses that generate permanent and public records. As if small businesses weren’t already resource challenged. Who has the time or the staff to dedicate to this?

Not Selling

Many small businesses come at social media as just another advertising channel. That is a big mistake. Social media and the relationships built through it are based on what the recipients find useful, entertaining, or otherwise appealing. Very few people find a hard sell appealing. Overselling is dangerous, lying is suicidal. You need to be genuine. You need to be engaging. You need to be open and personable, which can be hard for some business owners. What others say about you is generally more important than what you say about yourself, so you need to be worth talking about (preferably in a good way).

Different for Everyone

Finally, there is no fixed social media strategy. It isn’t a marketing package that you can strap onto any business and have work—in part because it is supposed to be personal and genuine, in part because what worked before may not work again. That isn’t to say that you can’t learn from what has been done and what others are doing, but that you ultimately have to make it yours. On the good side, there are new tools to make managing your social networks easier and plenty of free ideas and guidance out there. But they will still require time and energy to master.

At 3-Blazes, we are still early in developing our social media presence, but I continue to believe that it is one of the most useful things we can do (when not working on client projects). Whatever the future of social media holds, we want to be part of the conversation. What successes and missteps have you had with your business and social media?

How to Get a U.S. Patent

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EST

The Situation:
You have a new product in the works. You have analyzed the market and are confident that your product addresses a real need and there is a business model for making and selling it. You may have even filed a provisional patent application while you worked on your proof of concept. You have a budget for investing in patent protection. Now how do you actually go about getting a U.S. patent?

Preparing to File for a U.S. Patent

Examination System
U.S. patents are issued by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov). They are reviewed by a Patent Examiner through a bureaucratic examination process. The Examiner evaluates whether the invention is new, useful, and compliant with the formal requirements of the patent system. Examiners vary in their diligence, cooperativeness, and disposition toward granting or denying particular applications. Preparation, experience, and patience are necessary to effectively navigate the patent examination system.
Attorney, Agent, or Alone
Should you hire a patent attorney or patent agent to help, or should you just do it yourself? If a patent is worth pursuing, it is worth paying a professional to prepare. Your patent application is part of a business plan that justifies substantial investment (or you shouldn’t do it at all). However, if it is not possible to afford professional help due to the early stage of your business, there are resources to help you do it yourself, such as Nolo’s Patent It Yourself. Agent versus attorney is really a question of individual compatibility and whether you think you might need other legal services agents can’t offer. The most important part is to select and manage your attorney or agent for maximum value, see my How to Select and Work with an Attorney.
To Search or Not
Searching patents and other sources for concepts similar to your invention should be part of building your market awareness and business plan. Adding an expert search to your own research increases your likelihood of finding the closest prior technology. The value of your patent will be based on the technical merit of your invention, its actual market impact, and how well you define and claim it relative to prior inventions. Investing in a patent application without searching is foolish.

Preparing a Patent Application

Make a Record of Invention
The patent laws require that you correctly identify who invented an invention and file your patent application in a timely manner. Much of your initial meeting with a patent attorney will be about the who, when, why, and how of coming up with your invention and what you have done since then to publicize, prototype, or sell your invention. Write down the dates when you first thought of the invention, wrote it down, shared it with someone else, made a prototype, and/or tried to use or sell it. Gather and save any records or other evidence of your inventive process.
Describe Your Invention
Describing your invention is as much art as science. The drawings and written description serve several purposes:
a technical document meant to enable others to understand and use your invention
a legal document that will be used by courts and others to interpret your claims and give legal scope to your patent
a marketing document to help sell the Examiner and others on the novelty and usefulness of your invention
These purposes need to be balanced. The patent application should be clear, concise, and focused on what is new. Detail should be reserved for the operative and novel aspects of the invention, including alternative approaches (or embodiments). The description must support the language and details of the claims.
Claim Your Invention
The claims are the most important part of your application. Developing and understanding your claim strategy (what to claim, what not to claim, and how to claim it) should be your top priority. Claims drive the need for a good search and the assistance of an experienced patent attorney. Each claim should be short and deal with a new, distinct, and valuable feature of the invention. The number of claims is highly dependent on your strategy.

Filing and Examination Process
Step 1: Application Filed	Step 2: Publication	Step 3: Examination	Step 4: Issuance or Appeal
Application and filing documents submitted to the Patent Office	The application will be published after about 18 months	After 2-3 years an Examiner will search, review, and comment on the invention. A series of Office Actions and Responses will be used to negotiate the scope of the patent	The patent will generally issue after 3-5 years, unless an appeal is required

Will you get a patent? If your invention is a substantial improvement over what has been done before, a patent attorney will almost certainly be able to get you a patent. The bigger question is whether the resulting patent provides actual leverage for your business and whether you have a plan realize that value.

The Growth Imperative

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin Morgan) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EST

Last week we ran the first session of the Main Street Seminar Series in Oneonta, “Focus on the Customer and Grow”. The attendance was lower than we were hoping for, but it made for a great open discussion on the challenges of learning from your customers and, more difficult, those who choose not to be your customers. But the part of the session that interested me most was the response to The Growth Imperative—the idea that every business needs to relentlessly pursue growth. In a hyper-competitive, rapidly changing, and connected world, aiming for last year’s business targets is a recipe for disaster. Revenue must increase, people must see new opportunities, business models must adapt. At the session, I saw agreement, but also exhaustion. Small business owners feel like they are running to stand still. How do small businesses pursue growth?

If you aren’t growing, you’re dying. Revenue must increase just to keep pace with growing expenses, shrinking margins, and cost of living, not to mention if you or your team ever want to see an actual raise. Lack of growth also kills small business’ ability to hire motivated, value-adding employees. No growth: no opportunity for advancement, no learning, no new challenges—only mind numbing repetition. That is not a recipe for attracting the best and brightest. And growth is the best motivator to keep you innovating your business model. The world around you is constantly changing. Shifting customer preferences, emerging competitors, and new technologies are constantly reshaping the business landscape. By striving for growth, you will always be looking for new opportunities, ways to stay ahead of your competitors, and the technologies that allow you to do more, reach farther, and spend less.

How to grow:

1) Growth is a state of mind.
It starts from recognizing that there are new opportunities out there—you just need to find them. You need to be prepared to see changes as a doorway to new products, new services, and new ways of interacting with your customers.

2) Growth requires innovation.
You need to allocate time (and probably money) to researching, planning, and doing new things. You need to feed your innovation cycle: capture new ideas, act on them, and keep what works (learn from what doesn’t). Finding staff, other business owners, and support networks that understand and share ideas, successes, and failures is a good place to start.

3) Growth takes focus, diligence, and patience.
Growth is rarely easy. It almost never takes the form we originally expect. It doesn’t come quickly and it never really ends. You need to focus on it for it to happen at all (unless you are profoundly lucky). You need to keep working at it, even when your initial ideas don’t provide the results you were hoping for. You need to be committed and patient while you keep trying for the right opportunities to grow. It is exhausting, but also rewarding. Your business will be stronger and the value you build will be transferable to others who understand The Growth Imperative.

Should I File a Provisional Patent Application?

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin S. Morgan) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EST

The Situation:
You have a prototype of your invention that works. You want patent protection, but you don’t have enough money to file for a full utility patent yet. Your next step is to start talking to potential customers, suppliers, and investors to sound out the market, develop your business plan, and hopefully get some money in the door. Is it worth filing a provisional patent application?

What Are Provisional Applications For?

No Provisional Patents

When people talk about U.S. patents, they are generally referring to utility patents. Utility patents allow the owner to protect an invention by suing others that violate their patent claims. There is no such thing as a “Provisional Patent”. A provisional patent application is a placeholder. It is not examined. It cannot be enforced in court. Its only purpose is to secure a filing date for the invention it describes by creating a formal record in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. A provisional application needs to be “converted” by filing a utility patent application based on the provisional application within one year.

Time and Money

Entrepreneurs and inventors like the idea of provisional applications because they are inexpensive and easy to file. They lack the formal requirements of a utility application and can be completed without an attorney. But provisional applications are only a delay tactic. In the end, they are an additional expense and decrease the enforceable term of any resulting utility patent. If you are reasonably sure you want a utility patent and have the time and money, it is always better to file a utility application without filing a provisional application.

Option Strategy

There are three reasons for filing a provisional application:

1) an immediate filing deadline with no time to prepare a formal utility application;

2) need to delay payment of the utility application attorney and filing fees (for up to a year);

3) need time to evaluate the market and business potential before investing in a utility application.

While a provisional application cannot be enforced itself, the option to file a utility application can deter others. But it’s only good for one year. When you file, you should have a clear plan for making your utility filing decision within a year.

Describing Your Invention

Make a Record of Invention
A provisional application is really a record of invention that you are filing with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The goal of your provisional application is to provide as complete a description as possible in order to: 1) demonstrate that you have an invention that someone could make and use; and 2) maximize the scope and flexibility of what you might ultimately claim as the invention in your utility application. Err on the side of including too much information.

Be Technical
Your provisional application should be all about what your invention is, how it is made, and how it is used. Start from the general, but go into as much technical detail as you can. Provide drawings, measurements, materials, examples, and references. If you have come up with multiple versions, include them all. Try to spew forth everything you know about your invention. Ideally, you will then have an attorney clean it up—in the utility if you can’t afford to have an attorney prepare the provisional. Don’t worry too much about including multiple inventions. That can be fixed when you file the utility (or even several utility applications related to the same provisional). If you can, it is a good idea to add at least a few paragraphs describing the novel features of the invention as they might appear in the utility application claims, but this may be difficult if you are not working with an attorney.

What Not to Include
There are a number of things that seem reasonable to include in the application but will only hurt you. Do not include:

Patent claims (like those in a utility patent)
Background or discussion of the prior art
History of your invention process, especially dates
Personal, financial, or business information

Have a Plan	Use an Attorney	Think Utility	Patent Pending
One year goes quickly. Have specific tasks, milestones, and deadlines for raising money and making decisions before you file.	Have an attorney review your provisional application before you file. He or she can very quickly check for major errors or omissions.	A provisional application does not require the formality of a utility application, but the utility requirements should still be your guide.	You can use “Patent Pending” when talking to potential investors, customers, suppliers, etc.

When do you file your Utility Application? As soon as possible. The earlier you file your utility application, the earlier it will be examined and issued. Putting together a strong utility application takes time, especially if you are relying on a busy attorney. Don’t be forced to rush the utility or miss your deadline.

Share Your Books, Empower Your Team

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin Morgan) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EST

I am a fan of Open Book Management. The basic concept is that by sharing your financial details with your entire team, you both enable them to understand your business model and motivate them to contribute to your profitability in a meaningful way. A company’s financial statements, like balance sheets and profit & loss statements, are often regarded as the company’s crown jewels and something that should be seen only by senior management and your accountant. Open Book turns that around and says that everyone in the company should have access to summary financial data and should be expected to understand how their role in the business contributes to its financial success. The goal is to get everyone thinking and acting like an entrepreneur. So, what are the basics to taking your business Open Book and how can that help you grow?

There are three basic steps to implementing Open Book Management. They are pretty easy to state, but much more difficult to implement—and the larger the company, the bigger the challenge. Like many good management practices, I recommend getting started with it as early as you can in your venture. It is much easier to be Open Book from the beginning, than to try to implement it later.

Step 1: Share all critical financial information with your team on a regular basis. My preference is for monthly, since that is how I run most financial cycles in my businesses. The financial information should almost certainly include your balance sheet showing what’s in your accounts (and other assets & liabilities) and your profit & loss statement that shows how your income and expenses are stacking up over time. Additional information can include sales targets, inventories, service calls, and any other metric for your business performance.

Step 2: Teach your people and give the numbers meaning. Showing people financial information is useless if they don’t understand it and they can’t relate it to what they do on a day-to-day basis. Unless you are running an accounting firm, you will probably need to give at least a little training and thoughtful presentation so that people can understand what you are showing them. Beyond that, you should relate people’s roles back to the financials. It can start with a job description that relates job responsibilities to their impact on income and expenses. Then, whether you use formal or informal goal setting and review processes, goals and accomplishments should always be linked back to the numbers as much as possible.

Step 3: Establish universal accountability and performance incentives. Once everyone has access to and an understanding of the business’s fundamental numbers, it becomes much easier for everyone to feel invested and hold themselves and others accountable. This is, perhaps, the scariest part for senior management. If the numbers start to slip, everyone will know it and accountability starts at the top. But because the numbers and people’s contributions to them are known, it is also easier for people to find solutions and contribute to renewed efforts. This works best if everyone in the company has a substantial stake in positive outcomes. A substantial portion of everyone’s compensation should be based on the performance of the company as a whole. A mix of immediate and longer term incentives can balance short-term engagement with overall growth targets.

Because most startups are small groups with intimate knowledge of what is happening in the business, they frequently start out with a de facto Open Book system. But, that can quickly fall by the wayside as they grow, particularly if they take on outside capital or when finance becomes its own domain. Do you have experience with Open Book Management or how financial transparency can help motivate teams and grow businesses?

Using Business Milestones

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin Morgan) — Tue, 31 May 2011 12:00:00 EST

3-Blazes has hit a number of significant milestones over the past couple of months. We had our logo redesigned, held our first Business Essentials Bootcamp, and launched our new website. Identifying milestones and working hard to make them happen is one of the best tools I know for improving business execution. Milestones represent a great balance of planning and doing. So, what makes a good milestone and how do you use them?

A good milestone has a number of important characteristics:

Significant: The milestone needs to matter. It has to be something that your team cares about and that relates to your mission, business strategy, or the day-to-day challenges of growing your business. It should have a motivational quality. Achieving the milestone should by a moment of pride for your team. Missing a milestone should encourage reflection and a genuine desire to learn and improve.
Actionable: The milestone needs to provide a clear goal to work toward and, most importantly, it needs to help you define the next steps for achieving it. The best milestones allow you to lay out a series of tasks to achieve them. At the very least, they should allow you to look at your to do list and prioritize items that will help move you toward your next milestone.
Measurable: You need to be able to tell whether or not you hit the milestone. The result needs to be something you can identify (it happened or it didn’t) or measure (you beat the target or you didn’t). Ideally, it is something you can put a date on finishing. For example, we launched our new website on May 9, 2011. Milestones that let you test an assumption or provide a learning opportunity (with a chance to adjust) are particularly valuable.
Soon: The milestones you are working on right now should be achievable in the near-term, certainly within the quarter, preferably within the month. Very few people can actually motivate or work effectively toward objectives that are more than a month away. You should always try to have at least some milestones that are doable in the next 30 days.

You can set milestones from two different perspectives and I recommend using both. I like to start from my business strategy, which usually includes a small number of things I have decided to prioritize for the next quarter. For each of my strategic priorities, I consider whether there is a milestone that would help me act on my strategy. The other perspective is more tactical. I look at our active projects, to do lists, and ideas and see what ones aren’t getting the attention they deserve. From those, I can often find a milestone or two to help refocus our efforts. How are you using milestones to guide your business?

Birth Announcement (Work-Life Balance)

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin Morgan) — Thu, 19 May 2011 12:00:00 EST

My second son was born last week. Mom and baby are home and doing well. My older son is adjusting well to the new addition and the support from our family has been wonderful. My wife and I are a bit short on sleep, but otherwise ecstatic. Family is a top priority for me and I want to give as much of my effort as I can to my children, wife, and our extended family. So, how has work faired as I have had to put more energy into this significant personal event?

It has been a challenge. I admit that at times like this I miss my corporate jobs with their paternity leave, paid vacation, and extensive staff and colleagues to pick up the slack. Fortunately, I have been working on building a team around my businesses, so it has not been as disruptive or stressful as it could have been. Henry was able to keep some of our internal development work going. Some of our suppliers with whom we have a strong relationship kept working on other projects in my absence. Perhaps most importantly, the transparency and open communication we have with our clients made it easy to manage expectations and work load. Several of them volunteered to push back projects to give me the time I needed for my family.

As well as it has gone, I am resolved that we need to keep building the team. I look forward to a time when we have grown 3-Blazes to a point where I truly could be absent for a couple of weeks with no disruption to our clients. I love my work, but it is not the only priority in my life. For a business to be sustainable, it cannot rely on one person. Our goal is to reach a sustainable business level that allows each member of the team to both work hard and engage fully with the rest of their lives and responsibilities. Do your business and your team allow you to make room for the other priorities in your life?

Progess vs. Perfection

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Henry Knauth) — Tue, 17 May 2011 12:00:00 EST

With any individual endeavor, progress is often halted by a need for perfection. Viewing your own creation as an extension and representation of yourself, projects may become stagnant, bogged down by indecision and attention to details which may not affect function. To the Entrepreneur, their work is more than just their bread, it is their life's passion, their art. In launching a new venture, there is a tendency to seek perfection in product or service lines. Wanting to fill your niche in the right way, the first time, precious hours are devoted to what may be frivolous detail. What are the costs of this perfection? Can you benefit from imperfection?

In releasing a perhaps imperfect or beta version of your product, you gain crucial market feedback in timely fashion and at a reduced cost. This is not to say that you should sell a model that is less than functional, but a model that is useful and that you’re open to improving. This above all communicates that you are in fact working with and for your customer.

While it's possible that people will immediately love or hate what you've provided, it will more likely be a blend of the two. Allowing for feedback enables you to specify your market and improve your product around your customer's specific needs. A beta release leaves you a reserve of time and capital, preventing the “all in” investment which fails to make a market splash.

Do You Need a Mission, Mantra, or Other Statement of Purpose?

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Devin Morgan) — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:00:00 EST

We all want a quick way to communicate what we are about, a statement of purpose. For businesses, this can be a very effective tool, or it can be a pointless and frustrating distraction. Ideally, we would like our statement of purpose to be short, catchy, and cool. We would like people to remember it and use it. Some businesses call this a mission statement and it can run from a single sentence to a treatise on their corporate purpose. Some folks prefer a shorter mantra—a few words that capture the essence and are easy to remember and repeat. Others jump directly to a tag line or slogan—a purpose statement that customers will associate exclusively with their business. But the point is that purpose can be powerful.

We chose to go with a mantra that is reflected in our tag line. Internally, we use “Help them grow” as a simple reminder of what we are here to do. Everything about our business should be about helping our customers (and each other) grow, through innovative ideas, new people and energy, or training and inspiration. Externally, we use “We Help You Grow” to tell our customers what we are about. I realize that this is probably not the world’s best tagline and some might find it trite or generic. But we mean it. It captures our purpose. And endless brainstorming to come up with something better would be a waste of time—time we could be spending helping our customers grow.

Which brings us to the point, a statement of purpose is a tool to help you focus and grow your business, not an end in and of itself. It needs to work for you and those you are seeking to communicate with. If a formal mission statement works for you, go with it. If you are more into brevity and simplicity, consider a mantra. The important part is that you give some thought to your purpose and how it inspires you and those around you. The “why” of your business matters. Making money, paying your bills, and having something to do are all legitimate reasons to start a business, but they don’t inspire and they are unlikely to attract others or encourage their best efforts. Giving your business purpose and communicating that to your employees, customers, partners, and other stakeholders is a great way to build your team and inspire growth. What is your statement of purpose and is it helping you grow?

3-Question - Henry Knauth

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

What Inspires Me?
Innovation [[in-uh-vey-shuhn] (n) the act of innovating; introduction of new things or methods
I am a person driven by the constant accumulation of knowledge and experience. It is this exposure which causes me to self evaluate, adapt and ultimately grow in function and efficiency. This process is oft intimidating but it is my firm belief that the individual more often than not, will overcome challenge and swim, rather than sink. Disseminating across communities, personal innovation betters society as a whole, nurturing an ecosystem of mutual give and take, challenge and adaptation. To me, entrepreneurship is this challenge.

New ventures come with an energy and tenacity that inspires change. Entrepreneurs are motivated by a dissatisfaction with what is status quo, the living ideal that things can be done differently, better, and in inspiring ways. As an aspiring entrepreneur, I seek innovation so that I may better myself and contribute to the growth of New York State's entrepreneurial community.

How did I get here?
I grew up in Cooperstown, a small town in upstate New York and the home of baseball. As a high school student, I developed an interest in small business, helping to buy price and sell vintage baseball cards for a local proprietor. More importantly, I gained an appreciation for my own local economy and the personal relationships that maintain it.
Post high school, I attended Indiana University, where I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Economics, with minors in both entrepreneurship and psychology. Along the way, it was the people I met who inspired me, fostering a new zeal in and out of the classroom setting. Presented as "creating your own niche", entrepreneurship became as personal endeavor as it is professional. Viewing life through this lens, every experience became an opportunity to grow and improve, a chance to innovate.

Why am I part of 3-Blazes?
Returning home, I now seek to inspire as so many have done for me. In joining 3-Blazes, I seek to further my technical, professional and personal skill sets. In becoming an effective entrepreneur I seek to nurture a growing entrepreneurial community. I have chosen 3-Blazes because of its emphasis on people, and there interaction. Our mission is aid the growth of new ventures throughout New York State, focusing on each individual entrepreneur. Innovation starts with people.

Innovation vs. Invention

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Henry Knauth) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

As a wayward college freshman, entrepreneurship had a vague meaning to me. Scanning the cover of a crisp, new textbook, I knew it represented something dynamic, fresh and exciting, but had no practical or personal implication. As probably many of my classmates, my course enrollment was rooted in the naïve association between entrepreneurship and bombastic success, to be brutally honest, a cool way to get rich.

My arrogance was immediately extinguished upon my professor’s entrance. A segue into his initial lecture, his first words were, “90% of all new ventures, fail.” Silencing any remaining murmur, he pitched entrepreneurship as simply, “creating your own niche.” Extrapolating, he explained that entrepreneurship is not limited to a grand invention or creating a new market, but the ability to capitalize on or change existing ones. While this is broad, it instilled in me an “anything goes” mentality, framing every aspect of life as potential opportunity.

Some would argue this definition is simplistic or worse, obvious, but I believe it to be its biggest strength. Within that second, entrepreneurship became no longer a foreign entity, but an accessible and relevant concept. How can I improve my daily experience? How can I implement what I know to make the world more efficient? A lesson which inspired and helped determine my own path, I encourage the aspiring entrepreneur to remember that innovation doesn’t necessarily mean invention.

3-Questions - Devin Morgan

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

What inspires me?
Entrepreneurship is my passion and fostering innovation and new enterprise across New York State is my personal mission. I love entrepreneurs and the energy and optimism they bring to new ventures. Starting a real business is messy, organic, and difficult—an essentially human endeavor that can bring out the best in everyone willing to challenge themselves with growing something great.

Building a new business is an essentially creative act. I love new ideas, new technology, and creativity in all its forms. But ideas, technology, and creativity are meaningless if they can’t be delivered. Embodiment in a sustainable business model is one of the greatest expressions of human endeavor—to find a need others value and labor to deliver a solution for that need on the basis of mutual exchange. I can think of few things more worthwhile than helping people create and grow businesses that deliver real value for their customers, community, and other stakeholders.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
–Thomas Edison.

I love that entrepreneurship is hard work, that it is fraught with uncertainty, steep learning curves, and day-to-day challenges. Perhaps this makes me a worse business-person, because I don’t look for get rich quick schemes, arbitrage opportunities, or easy returns on investment. I see an arduous climb as one of the best parts of the vista, but I also want to help provide the tools, focus, and team to make sure anyone willing to work for it can get to the top.

How did I get here?
I grew up in a small, Western NY town. My parents owned the local general store and Laundromat and I learned about small business and working hard first hand. Rural New York State and the small cities struggling to reinvent their economies for the 21st century are part of who I am. The natural beauty, focus on family and community, and tension between continuity and change have also had their influences on me.

I have an Engineering and Asian Studies degree from Dartmouth College and a JD and Master of Intellectual Property degrees from what is now UNH School of Law, formerly the Franklin Pierce Law Center. Dartmouth taught me about passion, excellence, and what fully engaged people can achieve. Dartmouth was and continues to be both humbling and inspiring. In law school I focused on patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other areas of law governing innovation and business. My law school was very practice focused and I graduated ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work.

I emerged from school into the first Internet boom. I was immediately thrust into helping startups protect their intellectual property as they competed for venture capital and eyeballs (the only metrics of success in those days). The hours were long and the oversight minimal, but the opportunity to learn by doing was amazing. The bubble eventually popped, but I have spent the rest of my professional life pursuing service to the entrepreneurial dream in one way or another. I have spent time in Big Law, large corporations, and consulting and have started three businesses (that have kept my family fed): a consulting practice that I shut down to become an in-house attorney for Maxtor Corporation, The Law Office of Devin S. Morgan, and 3- Blazes. I have counseled, mentored, and worked for startups and growth companies of all sizes and in a variety of industries (with a focus on technology). I lived in the Boston, DC, and Chicago areas before finally returning to rural NY with my wife and son.

Why am I part of 3-Blazes?
I founded 3-Blazes in 2008 because I wasn’t sure that my legal practice would be enough and ultimately I wanted to transcend my lawyer role and really help businesses grow. It became my way reach out to the local startup ecosystem and support entrepreneurship in Central New York. I have since realized that people are the key to grass roots entrepreneurship and have focused 3-Blazes on the challenge of fostering the innovators needed to build and grow local businesses. I am excited about growing Three Blazes into a sustainable engine for business innovation and growth.

Last Months Article

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

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Members Only Article

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

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Product Review

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

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The article from before that

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article. Sample of an even older article.

Trading Upward; Bartering in the Entrepreneurial Community

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz (Henry Knauth) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

As a currency driven economy, we rely on the dollar not only as a means to an end, but a ruler by which we measure the world. Currency gives our products, labor, services and ideas a tangible value, building a bridge for the exchange of resources. Capital not only creates and defines economic activity, but social demographics as its accumulation becomes synonymous with status and opportunity.

While capital may be the only universal vernacular, is it the most efficient? Most aspiring entrepreneurs and new ventures find their innovations juxtaposed against a crippling lack of fiscal resource, preventing most ideas from ever making it to market. This being said, is currency therefore prohibiting natural innovation?
In an individual’s natural evolution, many children learn to barter before they learn to buy. Children exchange not only lunch desserts or baseball cards, but human skill and resource, as talent is traded on the kick or baseball field. Instilled with an innate sense of what is fair, games are not timeless because of their defined parameters, but by the human ability to create continuous competition.

Building on this premise, is it possible for grassroots innovation to reach critical momentum not by means of cash exchange, but by nurturing an economy of bartering? Payment in kind (PIK) methods are common in many business deals, but rarely define professional relationships. If one were to open a network with the primary purpose of bartering individual skills or service, could it allow financially strapped entrepreneurs to achieve mutual growth? In the age of social networking, I believe such a utopian market to be possible. Assuming Adam Smith’s theory of rational self interest, an open network of skill bartering should allow resources (in this case, freelance skill) to allocate themselves where most efficient, nurturing a mutual growth between entrepreneurs.

Author Bio

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — 12:00:00 EST

Requirements for a Provisional Application

Jesse@BreedWorks.biz — 12:00:00 EST

Title: Name of your invention
Inventor(s): Names and addresses of all inventors
Cover Sheet: Simple, two page form for providing the above information and other administrative information
Filing Fee: $110 for inventions owned by small entities (including individuals, non-profits, and businesses with less than 500 employees)
Description and/or Drawings: There are no formal requirements for the description and drawings. They don’t even need to be typed. However, the value of the provisional application filing date is entirely dependent on the quality and depth of the information provided. In short, if you want to claim it or the information is necessary to teach someone how to make the invention, it better be in there.