Welcome to the third blog post of many where I go into each and every interview from the 2019 Empowered Petpreneur Interview Series, where I chatted with pet industry experts and business owners all about how to feel at ease while confidently running and growing a successful pet business.
For those of you who missed the series, I still wanted to share with you some of the important takeaways I learned from each interview and some other things you can learn by watching the rest of the interview!
This blog post will go into Shahrina’s interview on protecting yourself and your pet business.
This post is part of Pet Marketing Unleashed’s Blog Series on The Empowered Petpreneur Interview Series. Click here to access the full interview series.
Interview 3 - Shahrina Ankhi-Krol From Ankhi-Krol Law On...
How To Protect Yourself & Your Pet Business
Shahrina founded Ankhi-Krol Law with the goal of providing legal representation to small business owners. She noticed that small business owners are often uninformed or ill-informed of the law, resulting in the attempt to solve their own legal problems on their own or do nothing at all. This, obviously, is not a solution and can be dangerous (and more expensive than hiring the lawyer to begin with). She works with many pet business owners, which is why I asked her to talk with us about how to protect yourself and your pet business.
DISCLAIMER: All of the information written in this blog post is written by me and NOT Shahrina, which means (since I am not a lawyer) this is not legal advice, nor should anyone take this advice without speaking to a lawyer first.
The Major Takeaways
1. Trademarking is a BIG deal
There are so many pet businesses popping up all over the world, so it’s more important than ever to distinguish yourself from the others. Not only that but if you don’t, that’s where you can run into copyright and trademark problems.
Did you know that someone can register the name for your product and then come after YOU if it’s not protected?? That’s right. Scariness. That’s why I interviewed Shahrina - now you have a resource for someone you can talk to in order to avoid this situation in the future.
2. Start with the lawyer
First things first when it comes to starting a new business (or if you already have one), you need to hire a lawyer. And hey, you’re hearing from the web designer here. It’s better to invest in a lawyer first before you invest in a logo, branding, and web design.
Can you imagine if you’re almost done with your website or your website has been live for months and THEN you run into these problems!? Not only do you have to change everything in your business, potentially lose some brand recognition, but you also have to spend the money on lawyer fees anyways and then invest in a brand new web design.
Therefore, waiting until the problem arises will most likely end up costing MUCH more than just investing upfront.
3. Legal Work is all about reducing worry upfront
There is NOTHING better than peace of mind. I mean, most of the dog walkers or pet sitters (or other pet care businesses) will tell me what they are selling to pet owners is peace of mind. So, as petpreneurs, you should all know the importance of what you’re selling and the stress you’re reducing in pet owners.
So, now’s the time to act on your own advice/business proposition. You need peace of mind, too. The legal work is there to reduce your worry. It’s there to provide peace of mind that you’re protected, no matter what happens.
I hope you know that this blog post is not meant to scare anyone or stress you out. It’s here to potentially avoid VERY scary and stressful situations in the future. It would be much worse than just investing in it upfront - but you know that might now!
The rest of this interview goes into:
The most important areas of law for the pet industry
Recommendations on picking a lawyer for your pet business
How to even know what to Google when it comes to finding a lawyer for your pet business
If you want to watch this interview AND the other 19, click here.
Give Shahrina a follow at @ankhikrollaw. While you’re at it, I’d love to connect, too at @petmarketingunleashed!
