September 2011

Understanding how to protect one’s intellectual property can be essential for Canadian businesses. It can prevent competitors from using and selling your business' products or services; help differentiate your offering and support your business’s expansion into new territories. Understanding intellectual property can also help you protect your ideas and prevent you from accidentally violating someone else’s. Here’s a primer on some of the things you need to know.

Patents:
Through a patent, the government gives an inventor the right to stop others from making, using, or selling a particular invention for a maximum of 20 years after the day the patent application was filed. A patent can cover a new invention, a process, machine, manufacture, composition, or any new and useful improvement of an existing invention.  It does not need to be a product that you sell, but could be any innovation that adds value to your business (for instance, a process that you use in production). Because the rights to a patent are transferrable, you can profit by selling it, licensing it or using it as an asset to negotiate funding. If your business has patented processes or systems, it can increase the sale value of your enterprise.

Trademarks:
A trademark is often defined as a word, phrase, a design, or a combination of these, that can be used to identify goods or services and to distinguish them from others in the marketplace. A trademark can include your company name, logo or the branding of a particular product or service.  It is not always necessary to formally register your trademark, as evidence of prolonged use can demonstrate ownership. However, for extra protection you can register a trademark in Canada for 15-year renewal periods. A trademark can help create value for your business or brand – whether it is a farm, legal practice or other service.

Businesses also have to be alert that they do not violate the patents or copyright of others. This often happens inadvertently, when enterprises don’t have a full understanding of the law. You need to ensure, for instance, that you have the legal right to use a photo in a brochure, so if you want to produce pamphlets or advertisements for your professional practice, consider this as you create these pieces. If you own a shop or restaurant that plays music, it will need to acquire a license from the Society of Composers, Authors and Musicians of Canada (SOCAN) to do so. Use only licensed software and make sure your employees are cautioned or prevented from storing unlicensed works on office computers.

By knowing the rules about patents and copyright, you can protect your own works and innovation as well as shield your business from legal difficulties. If you are seeking to protect your innovations or require further clarity on intellectual property matters, remember to consult with a legal professional for advice.

Unless you are a one-person business, you will ultimately have to deal with workplace conflict. The types of conflict that you may encounter will vary on a situational and personal basis, and your means for successfully resolving a conflict may also be dependent on the stage of your business. Here are some tips for workplace conflict resolution for enterprises at various growth stages.

Start-Up:
At the start of your business, you do not want workplace conflicts to distract you from the hard work of getting your enterprise off of the ground. Dealing with problems early will help prevent them from getting out of hand and distracting you from growing your business. In a start-up, the small staff may allow you to tend to the personal needs of your team, but you don’t want this to be your full-time job… so, it will be necessary to set ground rules.

Startups generally don’t have enough employees to warrant a dedicated Human Resources staff. As such you will want to have clearly delineated guidelines detailing such things as employees’ job duties, entitlements (overtime, vacation, etc…), mandatory standards of conduct (toward the business, customers and fellow employees) and procedures for discipline or dismissal. You may not need to invest too much time – or need to develop a full employee handbook – but you should make sure all staff understands the rules of your workplace and rules of behavior (including legal rules such as those governing harassment).

Growing:
As you enter a growth stage, you likely have a larger workforce. With more staff there is also more opportunity for tension between employees and you will have less time to personally intervene and mitigate conflicts. Grow your conflict-resolution strategy as you grow your business. If you are building teams in specific areas – sales or procurement – you will want to ensure that your managers can manage people as well as their areas of business. Also, try to be proactive and consider areas where conflicts may emerge. For instance, would one employee have a problem if they were passed up for a promotion? Having rules in place can help you explain decisions.

Mature enterprise:
With a mature business, your workforce may now be big enough to support one or more HR professionals. These professionals can help you bring training and conflict-management tools to your business. They should be able to guide you in establishing a system of best practices in conflict resolution suiting a larger enterprise. As your staff grows, you may inevitably find it difficult to maintain a personal relationship with people on your payroll. This means you won’t always be able to discern who is in the right in a conflict. HR staff will help you remain above the fray and save you from getting drawn into conflicts. You will want a conflict-management system in which fairness prevails. Ideally, HR staff will be able to ensure that all parties in a complaint are given a fair hearing and deal with matters fairly and without bias.
As well as dealing with conflicts, an HR team should be able to help you with other functions vital to your business: hiring, team building and internal communications.

In our upcoming Get Growing for Business blog entry we will look at some of the challenges faced by businesses in an ownership transition period, including some of the workplace conflict situations that can emerge if transitions are not handled smoothly.

You can also learn Human Resources management skills through our on-line Small Business Human Resource Management Certificate (SBHR) program. Scotiabank customers are eligible for discounted rates on this and other e-courses developed by the E-Learning for Business Coalition, a group of leading business organizations who support life-long learning as an important factor in building success.

Have you experienced any major workplace conflicts? If so, what were they and how did you resolve them? Leave your insights in the comments.

Even though all the experts say that the most critical first step in starting a business is to have a business plan, it’s amazing how many budding entrepreneurs don’t heed this advice. A good plan lays out what your business does, how it can compete successfully, and how it will be managed and run, and also includes financial information like income and expense projections. It should be professional, complete but concise and easy to read.  Check out the Scotia Plan Writer for business to guide you.

Another way to help ensure and even accelerate success when starting a business is to find a trustworthy mentor.  I hear many successful women entrepreneurs say they wish they’d had the benefit of a female mentor when they launched their businesses.  Perhaps research expert in women’s enterprises Dr. Barbara Orser, Deloitte Professor, University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management, says it best. “Mentoring is an important tool that can help women gain information and access to powerful networks, obtain feedback and receive objective assessments of marketability. The research shows that mentoring works.”

In one of her studies, Dr. Orser found that women were significantly more likely to be mentored by a female mentor, whereas men were equally likely to be mentored by male or female mentors. Is the gender of the mentor important for the success of the relationship? The same study found that men and women seek mentors for different reasons. Men were more likely looking for mentors to help them achieve autonomy, while women sought development support.

Why should gender matter?
In male- or female-dominated industries, the prospect of the mentee having access to a good role model might come into play. A woman being mentored by a woman in a male-dominated sector is likely to gain networking benefits, too. Or, because men and women tend to seek mentors for different reasons, it’s logical to assume that a stronger bond of understanding between mentor and mentee will be more likely to develop with the same gender. 

Regardless of the reason to be mentored, at the end of the day a good mentor is a good mentor. Here are some qualities of good mentors that I have observed:

• Acts as a counsellor/teacher/guide willing to share skills, knowledge, expertise and resources
• Focuses on the mentee’s goals
• Invests time and energy in the relationship
• Provides guidance and constructive feedback – but doesn’t make decisions for the mentee 
• Motivates others by setting a good example

Mentoring is not a one-way street. Without being committed to the relationship, mentees will not benefit from the best of mentors – female or male. If you want a successful relationship, you should:

• Be clear and realistic about your development goals
• Be open to feedback and willing to try new things
• Respect the opinion of others but be able to make your own choices and decisions
• Be respectful of the time constraints of your mentor

Both women and men can possess these attributes. So, when it’s all said and done, does gender in mentoring really matter? Many accomplished women entrepreneurs have told me there is something unique about being mentored by other women, especially when they understand the challenges of raising a family while starting and growing a business.  As a long-time participant in the Step Ahead One-on-One Mentoring Program  for women entrepreneurs, I often hear mentors say that they wish they’d had access to women as mentors when they were starting out. I believe that single-gender mentoring relationships are more likely to bear fruit. What do you think?  Can you share the benefits of any mentoring experience you’ve had?