“Imitation is the best form of flattery” or so they say. When setting up a business or even if the business is established, it’s easy to get excited about a new idea or something innovative, so much so that there is a temptation to share it with the world before the idea is launched.

Remember those school days when copying someone’s work was frowned upon? Or lifting text word for word at University was an act that could end a student’s career? Plagiarism, copying ideas, using similar branding colours or logos, taking advantage of a director’s goodwill and stealing a database of clients or even copying and pasting text from a competitor’s website, happens every day in business but they are all unethical ways of trying to get ahead!

So how important is your Brand and Goodwill to your business? The reply should be “Extremely”

So how do you protect your Brand and Goodwill?

Lets start with the Goodwill element, the client loyalty you have built up over years. You can’t force the customer to stay loyal, yet they do for many reasons- exceptional customer service, quality of the product, price, dedicated staff - all this and more adds value to your business and allows you to build up a valuable clientele. But how do you protect your database? We recently published an article by Mint Insurance which focuses on Cyber Security. What does this have to do with your database? Your data has value and therefore for a member of staff hoping to leave and set up in competition, it’s useful to know how that data is protected, who has access to it and if it’s being “downloaded”. The details of landlords are precious to any agent, so think carefully about passwords protocols and security. Check your employment contracts in relation to data protection and theft of the database. Employers place restrictions on their employees for a reason.