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Hi !

When it comes to blogging, almost all mistake can be can fixed.  I’ve made tons of them, and I mean tons.  Don’t sweat the small stuff.

But, when it comes to legal or tax stuff…well that’s a totally different story.  This is where mistakes can be VERY COSTLY. And, I’m going to share my very expensive story below.  It’s been a 15 month journey.
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Before I get to that, just a quick reminder that my new course, Journey to the Center of Amazon is still on sale until Friday night.

This course is all about how to earn more with Amazon Associates based on my experience over the last 5 years.

And, I do believe that my success and learning from Amazon Associates has enabled me to be an even stronger marketer, and many of those tips can help you with other affiliate programs.

I usually make 3-4x what I make on Amazon in total affiliate commissions.

So far, this has been my most successful product launch. Thank you everyone for having faith in me.  You can check out the new course here.
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…Now, getting back to my story.
Don’t make the same mistake I did.  This was VERY costly.
You will see that sometimes, the cost of inaction is way more costly than just doing things correctly from the start. This is especially true for all things legal and tax related.

I’ve had to keep this to myself…until it got resolved last night. (Yay)


So last August, one of my favorite bloggers and subscribers (Katie Emery) messaged me to let me know she found a website with a very similar name to mine.

It was the same except it did not contain "The" at the beginning.

I was shocked and kind of sick to my stomach.

And, of course this came at a bad time as I was literally sick in bed for a month (auto-immune disease, fine now).

So, I figured it was time for me to finally get my name trademarked and then go after the person and shut down their site. 

I really did not want to spend the legal fees, but at least I was finally making some money ($22,000 that month).  While I still had $140,000 in debt, I was moving in the right direction.

I figured I’d pay the $1,500-$2,000 to get the trademark (that was an approximation) and that I should have done it a long time ago.

But alas, nothing in life is ever simple…

No, as luck would have it, this "blogger" who owned a local flooring store and had 3 blog posts, already trademarked the name!

Say what?!?!?!?!?!?!

Yes, she took my trademark!

And, you better believe I was pissed!

And, stressed…because there was even a slim possibility that I could lose my site…you know, my main source of income that was earning $20,000 a month and enabling me to get out of debt.

I was so upset and upset with myself because I should have done it sooner.  Talk about stupidity on my part.  I had a huge asset and I didn’t protect it.

And, I had a major problem on my hands.  Double ugghh.

Don’t be like me. I was pennywise, pound foolish.

Now, thankfully for me, I knew a bit about trademarks (having taken a couple of courses on this in business school and being the daughter of a lawyer) and filing for trademarks when I worked at P&G. And, I knew enough to hire a trademark specialist.

My dad taught me at an early age that the "man who represents himself had a fool for a client."  We watched an old movie (I forget the name, but it was black & white and maybe someone like Henry Fonda or Jack Lemmon was in it). 

I think it was based on a true story and how it was so unfair that this innocent guy couldn’t defend himself nor afford an attorney. (Some laws changed after this.)

Anyway, the lesson was, hire a professional…and hire a specialist. So, I did.

And, thankfully, she didn’t!!!!

Yes, it was very clear from the beginning that she filed for her trademark herself, using something like LegalZoom (Note: never do this).

Any attorney would have found my website in half a second and would have told her that she was wasting her time and money.

Any trademark attorney would know that conjunctions (e.g the, a, an, etc.) or singular/plural is not a separate trademark.

I knew I had Common Law on my side.

I hired a true expert (hats off to Tracie Fobes for the great attorney recommendation).

After talking to him, I knew we had a strong case and that it was 95% a matter of time and money.

Money which I HAD to spend.  I had to invest and protect my business.

At this point, I had my 6 months savings for emergency funds, and this classified as an emergency for me.

So, I let the professional expert do his work…while I concentrated on doing my own work…including making more money on my blog to pay for this and delaying several projects and courses I had planned.

And, voila!  15 months later (and around $10,000 in legal fees), I got my trademark!

Yes, it was a bit delayed (maybe 4-6 months) due to world events. But, it’s mine!

Phew!

Oh, and of course she lost her site and her trademark (even though she had paid for it).

Okay, now what are the lessons for you?

No, I’m not telling you to file for trademark…unless that’s the right thing for you. But, if/when it is…do it.  Don’t delay on legal things like I did…it probably would have saved me over $8,000 if I had done it years ago (and avoided this stress).

What I am advising you to do is invest in the proper legal and tax professional and tools.  It’s worth it to avoid headaches like this.

And as the year is coming to an end, it is time to get your ducks in a row on all things legal and tax.

Why?

Because one of my other biggest expenses came from the IRS years ago. I got audited. 

I thought I had done everything right. But, apparently not and it was 100% my fault as I wasn’t using Quickbooks.

I made mistakes.  I didn’t even realize it.

They were very costly, because in the end I had to pay my CPA a lot of money (worth it), pay the IRS money that I rightfully owed them, restate my New York state taxes and restate my sales tax in 2 states (and penalties). 

All together it cost $20,000.  Yes, a good portion of that was money I would have had to pay, but I it was a painful series of bills.

Don’t be like me!

I now do my best to do everything correctly.  I hire professionals (worth it), I use Quickbooks (worth it), and I ask lots of questions up front, so I avoid mistakes.

I make sure I know when things are due (e.g. quarterly taxes) so avoid painful surprises like these 2 costly mistakes.


Some quick tips/resources to help you avoid problems:
·     If you still need legal templates for you blog, I recommend Mariam Tsaturyan’s.
·     If you start a new site, make sure you avoid all risk with names that may be trademarked…or could become trademarked later.
·     If you don’t have Quickbooks yet, you can get it here. (and no, I have never earned a commission on this…and I used to have an aversion to QB…but now love it as it prevents errors and oversights).  And, keep up w/ it once a month.  Don’t leave it all to be done last week of the year (I used to do this. Don’t.)
·     If you need a CPA who specializes in blogging, I recommend Ben Watson. (He’s not my CPA, but he’s awesome and reasonably priced. He really knows his stuff (and yes, I met him and he’s the real deal).  And, LOL you prob would not want to pay my CPA’s prices as I live in NY (expensive here)…and worth every penny.  Having a CPA actually saves you money.
·     If you need assistance with Trademark stuff, Mariam Tsaturyan now has a specialty in this and she recently opened her new law practice.  She also takes care of LLC’s in California.

Carry on and move forward. But, avoid stupid and costly mistakes like I have.  Learn from my mistakes.

PS: Don’t forget…less than 2 days if you want to grab my new Amazon Associates course at a discount.

Blog On!
Debbie, The Flooring Girl

PS: Don’t forget…less than 2 days if you want to grab my new Amazon Associates course at a discount.

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