What’s in a Business Name? Ask Kayne West, Suing Coinye

What’s in a Business Name? Ask Kayne West, Suing Coinye
Immigrant Lender Nominated as New SBA Administrator
Calling All Small Businesses! Be Featured in New Spotlight Series
Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram
Offline Business Owners: What’s Your Content Strategy?

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 04:00 PM PST

suing coinye

Singer, songwriter and rapper Kayne West has filed a trademark infringement suit against an unnamed group of developers. West claims the developers of a digital currency called Coinye are attempting to trade on his name and image.

The digital coins bear the likeness of a fish with a human head wearing sunglasses that does bear a resemblance to West. The name and logo may also be a play on a segment from the animated Comedy Central series South Park which lampooned the singer.

In fact, many in the tech press originally suggested Coinye might not be a real business at all, but a joke, The Verge reports.

West doesn’t seem to be laughing. Excerpting from the suit filed by West’s company, The New York Post quotes:

"Defendants have willfully and admittedly traded upon the goodwill and notoriety of Kanye West, one of the most famous entertainers and brand names in the world. Without hesitation, defendants have usurped Mr. West's name and likeness for the sole purpose of propping up the perceived 'value' of the defendants 'digital coin mine' and its 'cryptocurrency.’”

Whether a real business or not, the company seems to be no more after West’s legal action. Messages on both the Coinye site and a thread setup on Reddit seem to indicate developers have moved on. West also targeted some exchanges ready to work with the mysterious digital currency in his suit.

The new-age currency company tried to evade the issue by moving from a .com domain to a domain in India (.in), but even that couldn’t save them.

The moral of this crazy story is: Get your own name!

You can’t profit off the trademark, or name and likeness of a rich and famous person — no matter how clever the infringing name might be (and it was pretty catchy, we have to admit).

Before choosing a name for your business, be sure to research it to make sure you are not infringing on anyone else’s trademark. And understand the basic issues surrounding trademarks to better protect your business in the future.

Image: Coinyeco

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Immigrant Lender Nominated as New SBA Administrator

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 01:30 PM PST

SBA Administrator nomine

Maria Contreras-Sweet, who founded a community bank in Los Angeles, was nominated today by President Barack Obama to become the next Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

She founded ProAmérica Bank, in Los Angeles in 2006. The bank’s website says it:

“… was formed to serve the Los Angeles business community and ultimately to become the leading financial services provider of Latino entrepreneurs. As the first Latino-formed business bank to debut in downtown Los Angeles in the past 30 years, PROAMÉRICA BANK is dedicated to building family wealth by empowering entrepreneurs with the requisite financial services and capital infusion for the success of their small to mid-size businesses.”

According to BizJournal, it’s a small bank at $148 million in assets and has done a small number of SBA loans (just 4 in the most recent quarter).

Highlighting her experience in banking, President Obama observed:

“So not only did she start small businesses, but they were her customers. She understands the needs of small businesses…. She knows the important part they play in the community.”

Contreras-Sweet was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. She was the secretary of the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency from 1999 to 2003.

Her nomination has been met with cautious optimism by small business advocacy groups.

Katie Vlietstra, vice president of the National Association for the Self Employed (NASE), said,

“We are optimistic that with the announcement of Maria Contreras-Sweet to lead the Small Business Administration, President Obama and his Administration will be focused on fostering and encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit of this country, including for the 23 million self-employed who are working tirelessly each an everyday to achieve the American Dream.”

Karen Kerrigan, President & CEO, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, was even more positive:

“Finally! The nomination of a new SBA Administrator has taken far too long, but it appears that Maria Contreras-Sweet is well-suited for the role. Hopefully, upon confirmation, she will reach out and more actively engage with entrepreneurs and small business organizations to listen to their ideas and concerns. For the past year or more, the SBA has gone dark in terms of outreach. Beyond effectively managing the core functions of the SBA, it is equally important that she convey to President Obama and his economic team, small business concerns about the new health care law, the state of the economy, regulatory overreach and access to capital issues. Small business owners need better policies from Washington….”

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) through its President and CEO Camden R. Fine, praised Contreras-Sweet’s commitment to small business lending:

"Like thousands of community bankers across the nation, Ms. Contreras-Sweet has dedicated her career to helping small businesses, consumers and local economies thrive. As a passionate supporter of small businesses, she would be an excellent SBA administrator."

House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) added:

"Many of us hoped the President's decision to elevate the SBA Administrator to Cabinet level was a sign that this White House would value small businesses, but the 11-month timespan between Karen Mills' resignation announcement and a successor being nominated showed us that small businesses really aren’t valued much by this Administration. Small businesses have been bombarded with a flood of regulations, a health care law that stifles growth, and a constant fear of tax increases during the past five years. I hope the new SBA Administrator will give a voice to small businesses in this White House and redirect the SBA to focus on its core missions of capital access, contracting, and counseling, while reducing duplication, overlap, and wasteful spending. If she is confirmed, I will look forward to working with Ms. Contreras-Sweet to do so."

The SBA Administrator position has been vacant ever since the resignation of Karen Mills, President Obama’s first SBA Administrator, in February of 2013.

A trial balloon proposal had been floated by the Obama administration to consolidate the SBA under the Commerce Secretary. Unfortunately, something similar has been proposed by a Republican, Senator Burr. It is a terrible idea, because small businesses need a very visible agency. It seems to be a solution in search of a problem. We hope that terrible idea dies.

Updated post-publication to add remarks of Karen Kerrigan and Camden Fine

Image: White House video still

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Calling All Small Businesses! Be Featured in New Spotlight Series

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 11:00 AM PST

icims

We’re delighted to kick off a new series of articles called the Small Biz Spotlight. As the name suggests, we’ll be putting small businesses in the spotlight on a regular basis.

And we’d love to consider YOUR business to be covered in the series.

Each article will be a profile of a small business. For our purposes, that means having fewer than 100 employees. It can be any type of business, in any industry.

What’s the catch? No catch, except that we’re looking for businesses that are interesting to other business owners, or where you as the owner have a lesson or two to share with other business owners. You have to have an interesting story behind the scenes. Perhaps it’s the story of how your business got started. Or maybe it’s about a challenge you faced down, or an opportunity that changed your business. Or it might even be the unusual nature of your industry or what you do in your workday. It could even be your interesting work space.

Don’t get all lacking in confidence, however. We find lots and lots of businesses to be fascinating, and love to cover them.

We’re able to do this series through the generous underwriting of series sponsor, iCIMS. iCIMS is the leading provider of talent acquisition software solutions for growing businesses. And they are just as excited as we are.

So how do you throw your hat into the ring, to be considered? Just fill out our short form. We’ll contact you and we can conduct a phone interview to gather the details.

Apply here to be featured in the Small Biz Spotlight.

* * * * *

iCIMS is the leading provider of talent acquisition software solutions for growing businesses. iCIMS’ Talent Platform, the industry’s premier candidate management solution, enables organizations to manage their entire talent acquisition lifecycle from sourcing, to recruiting, to onboarding all within a single web-based application. With more than 1,700 clients worldwide, iCIMS is one of the largest and fastest-growing talent acquisition system providers with offices in North America, UK, and China.

Stage Photo via Shutterstock

The post Calling All Small Businesses! Be Featured in New Spotlight Series appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

vine-instagram2

While YouTube faces challenges from competitors like Vimeo, competition is also fierce in shorter video formats online. Vine and Instagram seem to be locked in a fight for supremacy after Instagram introduced video clips last summer.

Businesses may see benefits in using both platforms to boost their brands and engage their online followers. But if you’re trying to choose one or the other, it’s still a little early to figure out which one will wind up on top.

Vine is not only one of those social apps to which younger users seem to be gravitating. It was also the fastest growing app of 2013, expanding its audience by an estimated 403 percent, Global Web Index reports.

But since the introduction of video on Instagram about halfway through last year, its growth seems to have slowed.

Vine Has Fewer Members Total

When judged on sheer numbers, Instagram comes out on top. For example, as of August, two months after Instagram introduced video, Vine had only 40 million members.

By contrast, as of December, Instagram had about 150 million, according to the official Instagram Blog.

But Vine continues to grow and added 27 million members just since Instagram introduced its video feature, Venture Beat reports.

Registered Versus Active Users

Another of the things that makes comparing the two platforms even more confusing is that both describe their audiences in different ways.

Vine talks about the number of registered users it has. As you can imagine, this could mean quite a few people who have signed up for an account but don’t hang out very often on the platform.

Instagram gives its numbers in term of active users. Some seem to feel this gives a better idea of the audience on a social platform. This is because it refers to the number of people who are actually engaging with other members and might be viewing and sharing your content.

Of course, even with these terms, it’s hard to know exactly how active each member is. For example, suppose 80 percent of Vine users view and share video everyday. By contrast, suppose 80 percent of the “active” Instagram users only look at or share video once a month.

In fact, you may remember that back in June, Vine surpassed Instagram in the amount of content members were sharing on Twitter.

Both Are Different Communities

In the end, businesses deciding which platform to be active on must realize both communities are different. For example, Vine is a video only platform while Instagram users are sharing and viewing both photos and video.

Also, Vine videos are only 6 seconds, though the Vine team has been looking at experimenting with longer formats and other changes, Recode reports. Instagram videos are 15 seconds and also include filters and other features. Both communities also presumably have different kinds of members. So you need to decide which one is the best fit for your business.

Images: Vine, Instagram

The post Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Offline Business Owners: What’s Your Content Strategy?

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST

your content strategy

If the answer to your content strategy is "I don’t know," or "It’s still in the development stage," then you’ve got some work to do. Your competition, if they’re smart, is using the fundamentals of "Data Science" to formulate a content marketing game plan long before the new year settled in.

Very few businesses in this day and age can avoid the profitability power of having online content available to customers to help promote their business. If people can’t do a simple search for you from the comfort of their home or while browsing on a portable gadget, they’ll find another company that does instead.

What Your Customers Aren’t Telling You

If you own a strictly online-based business, you already understand the importance of being available to your customers. It’s a crucial part of your business model.

For the rest of you who have offline businesses and very little online presence – what’s holding you back?

Several reasons could be:

You’re retiring soon.
Competition isn’t a problem because you’re based in a small town with a loyal following.
You don’t need more customers (really?)
You don’t know anything about all this new computer technology.
You don’t trust anyone to build/manage a site for you.
You don’t go online.
You believe that people don’t buy things online.
You own a coffee-shop.
You don’t have the patience.
Phone book adverts still work just fine to bring in new customers for you.

Customers dictate why and how they’re going to become your next customer. If they say they want to check out your business online, then give them what they want. And chances are, that’s what they’re saying. This is a global reality folks. Don’t rely on what one or two regulars tell you. Just because it isn’t important to some of your regulars doesn’t mean it isn’t important to the people who haven’t bought from you yet.

Here’s an article from 1995 to read. It’s funny how it’s still relevant today. Some things never change. It’s been updated with a few current facts, but the core of the article was written nearly two decades ago.

If you don’t know anything about content marketing, then I’ve got some homework for you. Register on Copyblogger and download their free eCourse. It’s factual and to-the-point (i.e., no fluff whatsoever.)

All you need to provide is an email address. Copyblogger’s an authority on everything to do with content and you get to keep the eBooks forever. This material is the unofficial "online content bible" as far as I’m concerned.

3 Tips (Not Necessarily New) for Your Content Strategy

Now that we’ve established the importance of online content for marketing your business and building your brand, and you now have a resource to learn the basics if you don’t already know them, we’ll finish things off by briefly discussing 3 emerging strategies that you need to be in line with for the future. These tips assume that you either know about common forms of content, or that you downloaded and read the free copyblogger course or other content-development-related material.

1. Think outside the box and stop saying that your specific industry or business can’t benefit from content marketing.

Let’s look at an obvious example: Say you’re a convenience store owner and maybe you think there’s no way you can get online content out to the people who aren’t already coming in your doors. Take out paper adverts, or send a small paper flyer out with the postman once in a while – and tell people to add you to their social media for a chance to win a cash prize, small shopping spree in your store, or even an iPod.

Once you get some followers, you’ve just easily and cheaply opened the door for you to get your content in front of them indefinitely. This is just one great idea that can be adapted to any business model.

2. Exploit the heck out of paid advertising methods, even if you’re a local business.

Learn and understand how to work with the data science that companies like Google Adwords and Facebook have spent billions to develop for you. These platforms are far from being used only for online businesses or big corporations. Everything is going "ultra-local" this year, with more tools to make it easier for small businesses to laser-target their advertising to people in a small locale.

3. Build personas.

No, we’re not talking about creating your own unique Firefox or Chrome persona here. This refers to how you’ll develop ways get inside the minds of your customers, so you can tailor your content to their needs and wants. Figuring out who they are inside: Their hopes and dreams, what they do in a typical day, things they most value, and their most common objections to buying your product or service. Check out this Persona Development Worksheet (PDF), courtesy of Hubspot, for more details.

Now over to you – what’s your content strategy for the future?

Content Photo via Shutterstock

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