Thoughts on small business or entrepreneurship

So if you’re making something for someone and it sits in their house it’s probably fine. If it’s in a public space it really depends and it’s easy to protect yourself. When I did websites I had in our contract that we were executing the designs under the direction of the client and any licenses, rights, or claims were solely the responsibility of the client. Now, if you stole a logo design and the client didn’t know it could blow back on you.

If you’re by yourself stay a Sole Proprietor for a bit until it gets “real” then do a LLC. Investors prefer you to stay an LLC/S-Corp. until your series A (generally). The downside is as a partner you’re directly responsible for the income tax which gets super confusing at tax time. When/if you go C-Corp go Delaware C. Just save yourself the hassle otherwise your first big investors will make you do it anyway.

Copyrights in the US are inherit for created works. As soon as it exists it’s copy written to you but it has to be a creative work, not just a grocery list. Often it takes being published to firmly establish dates, and the “mail yourself a letter” thing doesn’t hold up in court. Although I have heard a github commit has held up… Here’s a link with a bit more on copyrights.

@DennisSmolek I would love to chat with you face up about your experiences. I have some things I am looking at, and some (a tiny bit) of funding, and I just NEED to vet these ideas. And I want to pump you for input on how things went for you, as it applies as to how realistic are my nut job aspirations.

Has anybody put together this interest group yet? Is anyone planning to?

Related to this thread - I’d like to know if anyone is interested in attending some classes / discussions on the business side of inventing. I am working on an article series for an online publication so getting some feedback during a presentation would be helpful. The topics would be:
• Marketing – Who needs it, why and at what price?
• Business Structures & Protecting Intellectual Property
• Funding your company / product
• Accessing sales channels
• Promotion and Packaging
• Social Media and Adwords
• From Prototype to Production – how to build in scale
• Other topics as desired

If you have knowledge or experience in any of these topics or related ones, let’s get together for the class. Really thinking more about a group discussion rather than lecture.
“Classes” would be about an hour during evening hours. Message me or post here and if there is interest I’ll submit something to leadership for consideration.

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I created an #classrooms:interest-check thread for you:

(I’ll edit the title and make you the owner of the thread in a few minutes…)

I am interested. I’m sure others will chime in.