Starting a Business? A Blog of Free Plans and Ideas

BookFresh.com's blog about starting and running your own business

• Small Business Guide to Intellectual Property

  August 17, 2009, by Staff Writer

  For many small business owners, intellectual property and other complex legal topics only bring fears of expensive lawyers and other fees. Because of this, many owners tend to ignore such topics, which can be detrimental to your business in the long run.

  In a recent article in the New York Times, common fallacies about intellectual property were addressed and corrected. Because the Internet allows international commerce and competition so easily, it is imperative to understand intellectual property.

  Here are some of the myths (and corrections) about IP from the New York Times.

  1. “For small-business owners, it’s not worth the time or effort to secure intellectual property rights.”

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  Posted in Small Business Screw Ups, Tips and Tricks | 0 comments
• Common Website Mistakes and Errors Small Businesses Make

  July 30, 2009, by Staff Writer

  Many small to medium businesses invest a lot of time and money into their websites. Their wise investment to establish a virtual home for their business where customers can find information at all times can be a waste if simple mistakes are overlooked.

  In a great article from “Small Business Trends” common website errors in small businesses are discussed. Below are the highlights from the article. The full article can be found here.

  No Design= No Credibility

  “Building a professional looking Web site is one of the most powerful ways to gain instant credibility with visitors. When someone lands on your site, they’re going to take one glance and immediately use it to determine whether or not they can trust your business. If your site looks too standard or like you just threw it together in an hour with things not in their proper place, they probably won’t find you trustworthy enough to do business with. And they’ll leave for a competitor.”

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  Posted in Advertising Your Small Business, Small Business Screw Ups, Tips and Tricks | 1 comments
• Customer Reviews- Don’t Fake It

  July 21, 2009, by Staff Writer

  Fresh off my last blog post about trustworthiness and credibility, it was disappointing to read about the plastic surgery company that was forced to pay $300,000 for publishing fake customer reviews online. According to the New York Attorney General, internal emails prove that employees were given explicit instructions to post fake customer reviews on their website. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo called their practice “cynical, manipulative, and illegal”.

  Like the plastic surgery company, all small businesses will eventually face a bad customer review or lack of them at all. Instead of breaking the law or at the very least risk losing your customers’ trust, make it easy and effortless for customers to leave reviews. BookFresh’s Customer Reviews feature makes it easy for customers to leave reviews and can send automated review requests to clients. The feature also allows the merchant to re-order the reviews to their approval.

  

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