Ladies Who Launch

Get Over Your Obsession with Your IP & Build a Community

Is intellectual property ("IP") the only "product" we create now in America?  Before I get a barrage of emails from US manufacturers, that is a rhetorical question. I ask it primarily to get your attention and because sometimes I feel the focus on IP and its value is extreme. I suspect this is because people don't truly understand it. So, they "err on the side of caution" and preclude others from using anything they think is "theirs." It may be a color, a shape, a word, or an idea. It may even be something that the alleged owner blasted via email. 

An author I know recently hit me with such a preclusion. I used to subscribe to her email newsletter because I thought she had good business insight that might be valuable to my clients. I have promoted her openly and at no charge for several months. I have even given her books as gifts at times. Needless to say, she has gotten a lot more value from me than the $15.00 or so I spent on her book. That's why I was surprised to see her request to remove my blog posts referencing her book and newsletter. I included links to her website, her book and her contact information, intending to help her drive more traffic. I mistakenly thought she, too, was a believer in the power of collaboration and connection. 

I am saddened by her attitude, but I again chalk this up to misunderstanding of IP law. I presume she believes I have plagiarized her work and worries this somehow reduces the value of her purported IP. She apparently forgot her days of writing term papers and why we use citations in our writing. Still, considering the bulk of bad information in the world, I can understand. I will follow The Four Agreements and take nothing personally. (By the way, Don Miguel Ruiz, I hope you don't mind me referencing your book and promoting you FOR FREE.) 

In short, if you're obsessing over excluding others from sharing your work with potential customers you might not otherwise reach, perhaps you should reconsider. Exclusivity excludes, and you may exclude someone who would otherwise be among your greatest fans and advertisers. I know one author who has lost me.

Mommy Millionaire Discusses "The Revolution"

More from Mommy Millionaire Kim Lavine:

The word “revolution” may be one of the most overused words of the last year. Watch TV for a half hour and you’re probably going to see it mentioned in at least one commercial. Everybody wants to deliver a revolutionary idea that is going to capture a huge segment of the population and drive them into some kind of suddenly self-conscious social group, so that marketers can market to them. But out of all the people claiming a revolution, this one is for real and it’s flying just under the radar of the nation’s consciousness, about to explode.

As I pointed out in my book MOMMY MILLIONAIRE, there are 11 million women entrepreneurs in this country. That’s 40% of all businesses. That number never fails to shock whatever media person I’m talking to. But what is perhaps more shocking, is that women are starting businesses today at two times the rate of men. The US Census Bureau predicts that by 2025, 55% of all businesses in the US will be owned by women.

It’s not just that these numbers are revolutionary. It’s the social conditions behind them that are driving this sea change where the real revolution lies. According to a recent poll by Oprah, out of 38 million women with children in the US, two- thirds of the working moms who responded said they would quit work and stay home with their kids if they could. Among the stay-at-home moms, more than one-third wished they worked outside the home. The truth is, the technology of the 21st century is changing our daily lives in new and revolutionary ways, radically transforming the 9 to 5 workday and family world. Fed up with the corporate world, women are taking their own destinies into their hands and following their dreams in record numbers. Never before has it been so distinctly possible for women to have it all!

But this isn’t a women’s revolution. It’s a family revolution.

It’s not a political revolution. It’s an economic revolution.

It’s not a technological revolution. It’s a communication revolution.

Many of my “Daddy Millionaires” have written to me lately to remind me how they’re part of this revolution too. One of them is Dan Gosling at http://www.chopsaver.com . Visit Dan’s site and you’ll realize how he deftly he’s used this new communication revolution to launch a grass roots campaign that has taken his product into distribution across the world. To hear more about my definition of the “New Grass Roots” and how to launch your own successful campaign, tune into The Good Life Radio Show with Jesse Dylan on September 26th at 2:45 when I will be interviewed.

http://www.tglshow.com

As we lead this revolution across the world, let’s make sure we focus on substance, not image, on detailed resource, not the promise of information, on inspiration and support, and not an impossibly-high standard that only a few gifted with exclusive educations and career choices can attain. Let’s make sure to support each other with hope, honesty and faith. There’s enough for everyone to go around.

To join the revolution, log on to

http://www.mommymillionaire.com, where you can now join our brand new Message Board, featuring a new topic: Kim, Help Me Get On TV! For everyone who signs up, you will receive a beautiful Green Daisy FREE inspirational note card to download and print however many times you want, to send to your other friends in the revolution.

Kim is the President and Founder of Green Daisy, Inc—a lifestyle brand focused on balancing life with love ™--and the best selling author of Mommy Millionaire. Kim has appeared on The Today Show, Rachel Ray, NBC & ABC news, CNN, CNBC's "The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsch, LifetimeTV.com, and has been featured in USA Today, Country Living, Guideposts, Women's World, American Baby and on NPR and Oprah & Friends Radio Network. Kim is on a mission to encourage women to follow their dreams, inspiring them with hope, honesty and faith.

"Everything begins with a search for something better--a dream, an idea, the courage to face a challenge, and the passion to get it done.

You can do it.

Believe in yourself.

Change the rules.

Join the revolution."

Crocs Patent--The Stuff Legends Are Made Of

From Mommy Millionaire, Kim Lavine:

Just what exactly is a patent worth? How Crocs shoes anticipated competition and created a strategy to head it off, is the stuff that legends are made of! I explain how in response to a question today from one of my readers Michelle, who asks: 

“Many companies like Crocs Shoes come up with an idea and put it on the market like you did, well what about the Crocs knockoffs? My question is how can a company that does the Crocs knockoffs get away with it? Do they have to pay the founding company? I would be one of those people who would be afraid of being sued. I could go on and on comparing items that we use everyday and that can be a long list.” 

I remember when I was just starting out, perhaps the scariest moments for me involved putting my ideas out there in the marketplace, worrying about somebody knocking them off. Since then I’ve learned that the idea is only 5% of a product’s success—and this may include the patent! The other 95% is sales and marketing. You can find a whole section in my book MOMMY MILLIONAIRE on patents, and I would suggest everyone read it to find out the absolute basics for going forward, including when to pay and attorney, and when not to.

When it comes to patents, some of the best advice I’ve ever been given was that “Martha Stewart doesn’t own the patent on sheets and towels,” which is evidence that trademarks and brands, in my experience, can be more valuable than patents. In theory, a patent is only as valuable as your capacity to defend it in the marketplace, which usually means a lot of money spent paying lawyers. Unfortunately, you don’t usually have the revenues to support paying an attorney to defend your patent when you’re starting out, so it’s always been my advice to take your idea to the marketplace as hard and as fast as possible, so you can generate the revenues necessary to defend your patent. The United States Patent and Trademark Office anticipated this problem, allowing inventors to sue patent infringers for triple damages, which goes a long way to keep people from wanting to steal your idea, if they have to pay three times the money they make off of it to you in damages.

http://www.USPTO.gov. Despite this, patents typically defend a narrow technical parameter, which a lot of competitors usually manage to find a way to get around. 

Crocs journey began in 2002 in a Canadian plastics company, when a Crocs founder discovered a version of the funny-looking shoes being used in day spas. In 2003, the founders of Crocs, after seeing initial success selling their unique and admittedly ugly shoes at boat shows—and after being rejected by venture capitalists in their attempts to raise start-up capital to take their idea big time—raised $5.2 million dollars from friends to fund their company! The first thing they did with that money was to buy up its suppliers and manufacturers of the unique resin that Croc shoes are made of, called Croslite. This same supplier also owned the design patent on the resin. Crocs began selling first to small shoe stores, then went into national distribution at Nordstrom and Dillards. To meet the need, Crocs founders employed contract manufacturers in China, Italy and Romania. In 2006, Crocs expanded overseas from Singapore to Austria. 

The people who founded Crocs had serious business backgrounds, including a President at a national branding company, an exec at a national sandwich chain, a hardware sales executive and a President of an electronics manufacturer. With a motto of “Think Huge,” and after selling only 1,000’s of pairs in 2002, they pooled extraordinary management talents to write a business plan that raised them $5 million for launch from friends and business associates alone. In Feb of 2006, Crocs raised an additional $239 million in the largest footwear IPO (Initial Public Offering) ever, valuing their market share at $1.09 billion. Yes, there are competitors nipping on their heals now, no doubt with some slightly different resin formulation for their shoes on which their patent is based, but they are the innovators with all of the market share and they have the resources to keep their competitors at a permanent disadvantage. 

There are a couple of lessons here:

Why aren’t women’s companies getting this kind of money to fund start ups?

Why do only a tiny percentage of women-owned companies generate revenues of a million dollars or more annually?

Why, though there is $20 Billion in Angel Capital every year for start-up businesses, does only 4% of it go to women-owned businesses, when 40% of all businesses in the US are owned by women? 

Is it just a lack of confidence that keeps us from formulating five million dollar business plans? Is it because there is still a attitude of male chauvinism in the business world that won’t see beyond our sexuality? Or is it that we haven’t given ourselves the permission to dream this big, and the tools to go after it? As a very inspiring woman I met this week told me, Molly McDonald of The Pink Fund, http://www.thepinkfund.org which provides financial aid to those suffering with breast cancer: “We don’t need brass balls, we need brass boobs.”

The Book Is Here

We’ve written about you in our book and now are thrilled to meet you in person! Our book LADIES WHO LAUNCH: Embracing Entrepreneurship & Creativity as a Lifestyle (St. Martin’s Press; May 1, 2007; $24.95) has come out and we are coming to New York to celebrate you, women who want to say yes to their dreams by launching a business, project or life! We’ll be at Barnes & Noble, New York, NY on Thursday, May 3, 2007 and we would be honored if you would come out and meet us and the extraordinary ladies of the New York Ladies Who Launch Incubator program. We have invited several special guests including Maternity Designer Liz Lange (recently on Oprah), Tina Hedges and Beth Ann Catalano ( Founders Twist.New.Brand.Ventures and regular guests on Bravo's Blow Out) who will talk more about how to launch, and, why launching, whether for entrepreneurial reasons or just for fun, leads to a happier, more fulfilling life. Being around like-minded, inspiring women is one of the best ways to get you moving toward your goals and dreams.

Give It Up!

 

Excerpt from Give it Up! My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less by Mary Carlomagno

Published by HarperCollins/William Morrow Copyright 2006

Like most people, Mary Carlomagno was stressed out, overscheduled, and tripping over the clutter of her days—until she decided to take control and simplify her life.  Each month she renounced one thing: alcohol, shopping, elevators, newspapers, cell phones, dining out, television, taxis, coffee, cursing, chocolate and multitasking.  During the course of the year, Mary took stock of her life, discovered what was really important, and gained a deeper appreciation for the world around her. 

Give it Up! chronicles Mary’s life-changing experiences and provides a commonsense blueprint for anyone looking for a fresh start and a new outlook.  It’s about simplifying your life, cherishing every moment of it, and celebrating what is truly important.

We must be the change we wish in the world.

--Mahatma Ghandi

When I set out to write this book, my intention was to eliminate unnecessary facets of life; in essence to determine what I could live without.  Accustomed to the frantic pace of the world around me, I had a nagging feeling that something was missing.  Each day was much the same, providing the everyday routines all dependent on the same rituals.  Reading the entire newspaper was out of habit, not out of need.  Habitually checking voicemail and cell phone was more than just a convenience, it had become an obsession.   Shopping had reached an all time high, where multiple versions of the same item were purchased again and again without my realizing that that item already hung in my closet at home in other colors.

I was in need of a change.

One morning, while trying to decide which pair of shoes to wear, I was behind schedule and was clearly going to be late for work.  To make matters worse, while reaching for my black sling backs, an avalanche of designer shoe boxes hit me squarely on the head.  For some people, a subtle signal can lead to a change in life; others need a stronger message.  In my case, it was being literally hit over the head with my own shoes. 

This was my wake up call. 

Later that morning, I plunked down $4.20 for a mocha grande at my local coffee shop.  I reached for my cell phone to check voice mail and made a mental note of the meetings planned for that day; I wondered how my life got so complicated, with too many distractions; too much stuff and too much technology demanding my attention and taking my focus.

Would it be possible to live without the designer coffee, the Kate Spade bags, the technology that were a part of my everyday existence?  Could stripping away some of those items and habits make me appreciate what I have?  I created a plan.  Each month for one year, I would choose one of my favorite things and give it up, cold turkey, for one month.  This would become my year of learning to live better with less.