Self Employed Success

It’s really important that you DO copyright your work officially through your government channels. Yes, most governments say that the moment you create something it’s copyrighted, but the fact is if someone steals your work, you have to prove you were the first one to create it.

Submitting your materials officially to your government’s copyright office saves you a lot of headaches later on.

What Work Can You Copyright?

• group and training program materials
• forms and worksheets
• book, audio and video programs
• educational exercises you’ve created
• your website/blog
• student guides
• songs/jingles
• photos/images

It’s your material, you should protect it.

If you’re in the USA, you can upload your material via the US Copyright Office website. If you upload your materials, it’s only $35 and it takes a few months for them to process your paperwork; if you mail hard-copy, the fee is $50-65 and it can take 9-12 months for them to process it. (Note: fees change, so check out the Copyright Office website for their current fees.) You’ll also find a Copyright Basics article on this site, as well as a list of Frequently Asked Questions.

Bundling Pays

You have to pay the copyright registration fee for each item you copyright. However, the USA Copyright Office allows you to “bundle” material together and call it a “program.”

For instance, when I copyrighted the Mastermind Group Facilitator Training class, my bundle included my lesson plan, my student guide, all the forms I give to students, etc. I called my submission to the Copyright Office “The Mastermind Group Facilitator Training Program” and uploaded just one PDF file with all the contents.

I also took all my articles from 2010, put them together in one PDF, and uploaded the one bundle entitled, “Karyn Greenstreet 2010 articles.”

If I had sent them as separate PDF files, it would have cost me $35 for each PDF/item I submitted; because I bundled it into one PDF file, I paid just $35 for the whole submission.

Once you get your copyright number back from the government, put it on EVERYTHING: your website (if you copyrighted it), your forms, your student/group materials, etc. Let people clearly know that you have an official date stamp of when you created your materials in case someone copies your work.

This is especially important if you have created a program or system from scratch. You put a huge amount of time and effort into creating your materials and your process. Take the 15 minutes and $35 to protect it.

What about the Poor Man’s Copyright?

There is a concept called the Poor Man’s Copyright where you send a copy of your work to yourself in a sealed envelope, so that the date of copyright is established by the postmark. This is what the US Copyright Office has to say about that:

The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.

What About Other Countries?

Many countries have agreements to honor each other’s copyrighted materials. Some countries do not have a copyright submission process, but recognize outside for-profit and non-profits companies that accept copyright submissions. One hint that a website is the official government website for copyright information and protection is that the URL of their website may have “gov” or “govt” in the name.

• USA Copyright Office
• USA Patent and Trademark Office
• Canada Intellectual Property Office
• Australian Attorney General’s Office
• Australian IP
• United Kingdom (copyrights, patents and trademarks)
• New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development (copyrights, patents and trademarks)

Be careful that you get to your official national government site for copyright information and applications. There are a lot of sites that offer to submit copyrights for you, but it’s not the same as getting the information directly from the government agency that does the work and knows the laws.

The best place to get your questions answered about copyrighting (and patents and trademarks) is your official government website devoted to the topic.

If you find a website for your country’s government office that I’ve not included in this blog post, please leave a comment so that we can all share the resources. Thanks!

Copyright versus Trademark

Note that a copyright is not the same thing as a trademark or a patent. See your countries’ websites to learn the difference. This article from LegalZoom entitled How do I know if I need trademark or copyright protection? may help clarify things for you.

The Final Story

So…what if someone does steal your website text? Read my blog post about Are Thieves Stealing Your Website Text? It includes information about what to do if you find that someone has broken your copyright.

It is well worth the time and money to officially copyright your work and your materials. Put time in your calendar right now to focus on this important task.

I’ll get off my soapbox now. 

Did you find this helpful? I’d love to hear your comments below!

In the 1950s television show, Lucy has one overriding goal: to break into show biz and to get Ricky to put her in his nightclub act. The thousands of wacky and inventive ways she went about trying to achieve this goal is what made the TV show so hilarious.

Here’s what Lucy can teach you about marketing: there are no silver bullets, no magical “one perfect technique” that will help you achieve your marketing goals. (We all wish there was one ideal marketing technique that will send flood of customers your way, don’t we?) I work with clients in 39 different industries and I’m hearing the same story from them over and over again: in this economy, you have to use multiple marketing techniques in a coordinated, integrated fashion, because people will come to you through all those channels.

I had seven prospective client phone calls this week. Where did they come from? Five different marketing techniques! One came because she’d been a subscriber to my email newsletter for several years; another came because our connection on Facebook. One came from an article I was interviewed for, in Entrepreneur Magazine’s November 2011 issue. Two came from Googling “small business coach.” The final two came from word-of-mouth referrals from other clients.

The other thing my successful clients are doing is tracking the results of their marketing efforts and making tweaks along the way. Don’t spend all your time being busy “doing” your marketing that you never step back and look at the big picture. Put on your CEO hat and be strategic about your marketing.

Ask yourself:

1. Have my marketing goals changed, or will they change in the coming year?
2. In the past 12 months, which marketing techniques have brought the most customers?
3. Are there any marketing techniques that used to work well, but now are not as strong?
4. Are my marketing techniques up-to-date, or could some of them use a tweak and a facelift?
5. Which marketing techniques take the most time, and can I delegate some of the work to others to free myself up?

And take a tip from Lucy: if at first the results aren’t stellar, take a step back and look for another creative way to achieve your goals. Above all, never give up on what you really, really want!

P.S. If you’re spending all your time being busy doing work for your business, then you’re not acting like a business owner, you’re acting like an employee. Join my Leap Year masterminding and mentoring program and give yourself the gift of “CEO Time” each month to plan and implement your big goals for 2012. (Plus there’s a 3-day live Retreat Weekend where you can step away from your office, brainstorm with everyone in the program, and get things done! How cool will that feel to check something massive off your To Do list?)