I met a business woman who got a call from a lawyer. The lawyer told her that she had to pull down her web site and change her business name. She had been using her business name for quite some while. I believe someone else saw her name and realized that they could take it from her, because she had not protected it. Long story short, she had to rename her business and start from scratch on the web. All the Google love, gone down the drain.
Don’t let this happen to you. Please make sure you register your small business with Joint Stocks and do what you can to make sure your business name can not be taken by others. There are some people out there that are not ethical in business. They will take advantage of your hard work so that they can grab your gravy, so to speak. You should claim your business name every where you can online as well. Whether it is Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare and so on. Get it done before someone else takes it.
Use trademarks and patterns where possible as well. Look at the example of Facebook going after the name “Face”. They are going after the trademark for it. Facebook does not want any other “Face whatever” setting up shop and stealing off all their hard work. I registered my company name here in Nova Scotia, and after a while, I saw another business using the exact same name in another province. By using my name, the reaped the benefits of all my hard SEO work. They are first page Google, just by using my business name. What really disturbed me about this company was this: the owner had no problem doing business in Nova Scotia. My wife emailed him to see if he would provide online training for her. He could hardly wait to get started. Maybe online is different than actually setting up a sign in Nova Scotia. It still made me wonder.
I knew also of a restaurant owner who did not register his business name right away. Someone else liked it more than he did and registered it. Then that business owner made the first owner put the business name down. So watch out. Whether is is a business name or any of your web presences, make sure you protect them. Some one could possibly steal all your hard work and leave you in the dust.
