Digital technology provides great opportunities to amplify the impact of your business activities and practices.

Gone are the days where you need to do everything manually within your practice like ordering, logistics, payments and receipts, marketing, HR, motor vehicle log book and so many more.

Every month, Harris Black will showcase a digital tool that will surely improve awareness, knowledge management, communication, and productivity within your business practice.

In this issue, we give you BRiN.

Source: BRiN Youtube

Brin is a personal advisor app which uses artificial intelligence to provide personalised education and human like support to millions of business owners, all at the same time.

The app uses a simple chat interface to understand and pinpoint your business problems better than most humans can and give you solutions and recommendations within seconds.

The other side of the app is education. The app provides thousands of recorded online course and training videos on every area of business from over 250 experts around the world. Showcasing the teachings and advise covering the topics of strategy, Marketing, Human Resources, social media, Management, business operations and many others.

When you use BRiN, you are accessing the information any other business coach would charge thousands for. This incredible app has the power to change your business, from your pocket.

Developing your intellectual property (IP) strategy is vital in order to protect the value and future of your business.

IP is any original idea or work that has been created by your business. These valuable intangible assets assist your business in remaining competitive, boosting your profits and value of your business as an investment and providing potential for future growth. Consider the following tips so your business can reap the market benefits of your creative work.

Perform an intellectual property audit

Whether your business is just starting up or has undergone a change in ownership, an intellectual property audit will help you determine what steps you need to take to protect your ideas and remain compliant. This process referred to as “due diligence” may include checking public registers for patents, trademarks, designs and any infringement notices. When you identify your IP assets think about the key products and services in your business, what legal rights you possess concerning those products or services and what market advantages are gained from those rights.

Register your IP

Once you have identified your intellectual property assets, formally register them with IP Australia. Although this process incurs costs and takes time, it provides the most significant legal protection. If you do not register your assets, you will have to rely on case law and undergo court processes to prove ownership rather than producing your registered trademark or patent.

Get staff to sign a confidentiality agreement

Your staff, associates or contractors can pose a risk to revealing your intellectual property to others. Consider drafting a confidentiality agreement to protect you if you need to prove a breach in IP. Ensure your contract is concluded before work starts, defines which ideas fall under the business’ ownership and outlines damages in the event of a breach.

Valuing your IP

Building your IP portfolio can be vital in boosting your business value and convincing investors to finance your enterprise for growth. You can value your IP on a cost basis or fair value basis and might consider values from royalties, profits differential, brand strength or incremental cash flows. In the valuing process keep in mind the following assets:

• Patents, trademarks and brand names

• Industrial designs

• Franchises and licences

• Distribution agreements

• Secret processes and formulae

• Information databases, computer systems and software.

Take action for infringements

If there is a breach of your intellectual property, your business should take it upon itself to enforce legal rights. Violations will be determined on the relevant legislation although you may make a complaint about an infringement that is not defined in law. You may only be partially protected depending on what part of your work has been registered. When developing your infringement strategy consider:

• Detection methods like data seeing can quickly identify misuse of your IP

• Plan at what court or tribunal you will turn to consider your legal budget for enforcing your right

• Set clear goals for the outcome of your legal process.

Your business must be independent of any one individual if you want your business to thrive in the marketplace on a long-term basis.

The most effective way you can grow your business is by removing yourself from the daily operations and focusing your time on developing strategies to elevate and move your brand forward. However, you cannot step away from running your business until you have strong systems in place, a dependable and knowledgeable team, and a stable customer base.

To help you develop a business that can run on its own, consider the following:

Test your business

The best way to test how well your business will perform without you is to go on a holiday. Ensure you are unreachable during the entire period. In this way, you can come back and assess what went wrong or where your issues lie, for instance, you may find your staff are not comfortable calling the shots if they are used to being micromanaged.

Build strong systems

Putting strong systems in place is the only way you can remove yourself from the daily operations involved in running your business. You must establish clear requirements for all business activities, including how to manage your social media and content calendar through to the processes used for handling customer complaints. By having clear guidelines in place for every aspect of your business, you will no longer need to be there to save the day.

Become replaceable 

When you reduce your responsibilities, you must have a reliable and qualified team who can run your business efficiently in your stead. There must be team members employed who are capable of speaking to clients or suppliers and have the relevant industry knowledge to make important decisions on behalf of your business. You need to ensure there are also effective training protocols set up so that every employee understands the business policies and procedures, and what is required in their individual roles.

Perks of a stable customer base

Having a steady customer base provides a reliable and regular source of financial security to take time out to strategise your business’ future or tweak any issues in your branding image. For instance, you may want to put your time and effort into perfecting or redeveloping your service or product to attract a broader target market. Stepping away also allows you the freedom to take time away from your business altogether.