by eclewis | Jul 22, 2015 | Business News
Marketing Your Business or Yourself, the Elevator Pitch
Perhaps you’ve heard about this idea before or even told yourself that you would come up with one but haven’t yet. It’s the so-called “Elevator Pitch.” It is all about being able to pitch your business, idea, or yourself to someone in the minute or so that it takes to ride in an elevator with someone. It sounds easy right? It can be harder than you think, but it is time to finally put one together so you are armed with it when the need arises.
The general idea is that you describe yourself or your business in a dynamic way that is succinct but sticks with the listener. Just like with a well-timed pause, less can be more when it comes to making a pitch to someone. When crafting an elevator pitch, you should be thinking about what would be important to the listener. What keeps them up at night? What problems do you solve for people? These are the questions that can prompt you to create a good elevator pitch. However, you want to make sure you include some passion too, to keep it interesting.
So a good elevator pitch would generally cover the following areas:
- What you do and how you do it differently than others
- Explain what problem it is that you solve
- Describe the value that you add
- Close with a call to action (hire me, invest in my business, etc.)
The first part is to try and come up with a catchy way to explain what you do and how it is different from others. However, you should not dwell on the competitors if there are any, remember, this pitch is about you and why you do things differently. This is distinct from just what makes you better than the competition. You can then expand on this by describing a common problem that people face and how you or your business solves it in a way that makes economic sense. Incorporated within the entire pitch is the idea of value. Whether that means that you do what you do more efficiently and affordably than others or if you are adding some new value that others don’t, you just need to make that value clear to your listener.
Once you put together a great elevator pitch, it’s a good idea to think about what you will say next. If you get their attention with your pitch and respond with “tell me more,” you should be prepared for that too. Come up with the “what’s next” part of your pitch. This can include what the next direct steps are in order for them to do what your call to action consisted of (hire you, invest in you, etc.). Another approach is to offer some examples or hypotheticals of how what you do has or can succeed.
All of these concepts can apply whether you already own a business and are trying to get new clients, customers, or investors, if you are seeking out investors or partners to start a new business, or if you are just trying to get hired individually. After all, this type of pitch is a great way to network for a new internship or job too.
If you need legal advice on making a change to your business, or are ready to start a new business of your own, then don’t hesitate to reach out and contact the Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C., home of your Denver Business Attorney, Elizabeth Lewis, at 720-258-6647 or email her at elizabeth.lewis@eclewis.com.
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by eclewis | Jul 15, 2015 | Business News
When most people think about innovation today, they often think about groundbreaking new technology. While this is often what leads to exciting new changes, innovation is about more than the latest technology. Instead, it can be about taking a look back in order to move forward. Older methods and technology have a certain reliability and history to them, which can still have untapped potential.
Take a look at Google’s cell phone service, which was announced just in April called Project Fi. What Project Fi does is allow your smartphone to make phone calls, send text messages, and use data all over Wi-Fi, when you have it, and if you don’t, then it uses one of two different traditional cellular networks (Sprint & T-Mobile). This is a great example of repurposing old technology (Wi-Fi) for a new and innovative solution to modern issues. Cell phone reception can still be weak indoors but Wi-Fi is available in so many places that this can largely solve that problem. Additionally, even the fastest cell phone data speeds pale in comparison to typical Wi-Fi speeds, so why not use that instead and save money in the process?
Project Fi is all about saving money, its plans start at $20 per month for unlimited talk/text + $10 for each GB of cell data you buy. Project Fi’s plans only have you pay for data that you use, and refund you for what you don’t. Seems kind of weird to think that for years the envy of cell phone plans were newer, faster, and unlimited data usage, and now the latest smartphone plan is actually encouraging you to use older tech (Wi-Fi) and reward you for using less data than ever (over cell networks anyway).
Use Google as an example and think about ways that you can find a novel use for older technology, equipment, or methods that are reliable like Wi-Fi. If one of the most innovative companies on the planet found a way to do it, then so can you. After all, if innovation is all about thinking outside the box and being creative, then why limit yourself to only the latest tech?
Today’s tech-centric culture is surprisingly looking to the past more than you might think. Consider the popularity of organic and use of simple/natural ingredients in foods at grocers like Whole Foods, or the demand for handmade goods from sellers at Etsy. Try not to think about new technology as a replacement to older methods, but instead a supplement, just another tool in the toolbox of ways that you can accomplish, build, or make something new.
If you need legal advice on making a change to your business, or are ready to start a new business of your own, then don’t hesitate to reach out and contact the Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C., home of your Denver Business Attorney, Elizabeth Lewis, at 720-258-6647 or email her at elizabeth.lewis@eclewis.com.
by eclewis | Jul 3, 2015 | Business News
This year’s rankings by CNBC for best states for business are in, and Colorado has taken the #4 spot. This comes as a significant, but not surprising, improvement from last year, where we discussed CO’s position at #8 in the CNBC rankings. Take a look at a complete breakdown of the rankings by state and categories here.
The rankings are conducted by scoring each state on 10 key categories including the following (in order starting with the most valuable to the overall score): Workforce, Cost of Doing Business, Infrastructure, Economy, Quality of Life, Technology & Innovation, Education, Business Friendliness, Cost of Living, and Access to Capital. Colorado managed to snag top ten rankings in four categories including: Economy (3rd), Quality of Life (9th), Tech & Innovation (5th), and Access to Capital (8th). Colorado was noted for it’s strong economy with a low unemployment rate of 4.3% and its innovation.
I was surprised to see that the Centennial State only got 9th in the quality of life category, especially since it tied with Iowa for this position. There is so much great outdoor recreation to explore here in Colorado, but you can scrutinize the methodology and rankings yourself with the methodological breakdown available here.
Overall, this news comes as yet another of the growing number of reasons and reports demonstrating that Colorado is a great place to live and a great place to do business. Now could be a great time for you to get started and put your entrepreneurial spirit to work.
If you a ready to start doing business in Colorado, then don’t hesitate to contact the Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C., home of your Denver Small Business Attorney, Elizabeth Lewis, at 720-258-6647 or email her at elizabeth.lewis@eclewis.com.
by eclewis | Jun 24, 2015 | IP Law
Colorado recently passed a law aimed at reducing the amount of so-called “patent trolling.” Generally, “patent troll” is used as a derogatory term to describe non-practicing entities, which are entities that own a patent on something but do not use it themselves (they may license it to others or do nothing at all with it other than enforce their patent rights against others). Such entities may “troll” other companies that are allegedly using that patent without permission by sending them threatening letters that if they do not pay up a licensing fee for the patent, that they will take them to court over it.
There have been various cases where businesses have shut down or struggled after receiving these letters or paying the licensing fees. This has become an issue of particular concern in the tech industry where very broad patents have been issued, that arguably never should have been or at least been more narrow. You can check out these two This American Life podcasts on the subject if you want to learn more: When Patents Attack! Part 1; Part 2. However, more specifically, this law was motivated by cases where businesses have received threatening letters without much information as to who they were coming from or what the basis was for the alleged infringement.
HB-1063 aims to combat this by allowing Colorado’s Attorney General to go after people who send threatening letters in bad faith to companies asking for money over alleged uses of their patents by the company. The act would apply to instances such as where the sender of the letter falsely claims that litigation has been filed against the recipient or related persons, where there is no reasonable basis in fact or law for the allegations (such as if the sender does not own the patent in question or have any authority to license or sell it). The act can also come into play when the sender does not provide enough information to the recipient. Required information would generally include:
- Identity of the person sending the letter
- The number issued by the USPTO of the patent in question
- Factual allegations regarding the specific areas that the recipient’s activities (products/services/technology) infringed the patent in question
Note that this law should not prevent anyone who legitimately has the rights to the patent and/or its licensing, unless you fail to send adequate information to alleged violators or send such letters without a reasonable basis. This means that so-called patent trolling will not cease to exist, but it should make allegations of patent infringement more substantive, clear, and transparent. This should also reduce abusive and more questionable instances of patent trolling.
It will be interesting to see if this law has the desired effect of both reducing the instances of “patent trolling” in Colorado and encouraging technology and knowledge-based companies to begin and grow in Colorado. From a legal perspective, it will also be interesting to see if this law will have any problems with preemption by federal law, basically meaning that this state law could be held invalid by the federal courts because it is incongruent with federal law (this legal concept is based on the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause).
If you have questions about intellectual property issues, please contact the Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C., home of your Denver Business Attorney, Elizabeth Lewis, at 720-258-6647 or email her at elizabeth.lewis@eclewis.com.
by eclewis | Jun 17, 2015 | Business News
On Monday, June 15th, the Colorado Supreme Court issued its ruling in Coats v. Dish, LLC, this was a high profile case in Colorado symbolizing the clash between Colorado law permitting medical marijuana use, Federal law’s criminal approach to all marijuana use, and employers’ anti-drug policies banning marijuana use. All three of these issues came together in this case between Dish Network and Mr. Coats, a former employee of the company.
Mr. Coats is a quadriplegic who tested positive for marijuana while he was employed as a customer service representative by Dish Network. He defended his use by saying that it was done after work for medical reasons and that it was legal in the state of Colorado, and he stated that he would continue to use medical marijuana. He was subsequently fired, and Mr. Coats filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Dish Network, claiming that his medical marijuana use was protected by Colorado’s “lawful activities statute.” C.R.S. 24-34-402.5 full text available here.
The relevant part of this law for this case was a portion of section 1:
“(1) It shall be a discriminatory or unfair employment practice for an employer to terminate the employment of any employee due to that employee’s engaging in any lawful activity off the premises of the employer during nonworking hours…”
This law is a small exception to the general rule that if you are an at-will employee, then you can be fired by your employer for any or no reason at any time without direct legal consequences. This law protects employees from engaging in lawful activities that they engage in off the employer’s premises during nonworking hours. Note however that there are some exceptions even to this exception where employers may still fire for lawful, off duty conduct, but those were not at issue in this case.
Some news reports covering this story have imprecisely framed the issue. They claim that the CO Supreme Court was ruling on whether or not employees of businesses can use marijuana “off-duty.” This portrayal suggests that anyone who is employed and uses medical marijuana can no longer use it because of the ruling. This is not quite right.
What the CO Supreme Court was actually deciding was whether or not Colorado’s “lawful activities statute,” discussed above, protects employees who use medical marijuana from being fired for using it off the premises during nonworking hours. Ultimately, the CO Supreme Court determined that the word “lawful” in the law is not limited to Colorado law only. Instead, they held that it meant that it must be lawful under Colorado and Federal law, and that since all marijuana use is criminal under Federal law, then medical marijuana use would not be classified as “lawful” under the statute and would not be covered by the statute.
You may be thinking about the recent actions by the Federal government not to intervene in states where marijuana use is legal and how that related to this decision. The CO Supreme Court addressed this in a footnote:
“The Department of Justice has announced that it will not prosecute cancer patients or those with debilitating conditions who use medical marijuana in accordance with state law. Similarly, in December 2014, Congress passed the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act that prohibited the Department of Justice from using funds made available through the Act to prevent Colorado and states with similar medical marijuana laws from “implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.” Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, Pub. Law No. 113-235, § 538, 128 Stat. 2130, 2217 (2015). However, marijuana is still a Schedule I substance, and no medical marijuana exception yet exists in the CSA. As such, medical marijuana use remains prohibited under the CSA.”
Ultimately, this case means that if an employer fires you for using medical marijuana, the “lawful activities” statute does not protect you, so it is up to the employer to decide if medical marijuana use is acceptable. In practice, this may mean that, employed persons cannot use medical marijuana, but legally speaking, it is up to the employer to make that decision. As a Colorado business, this means that it is up to you to decide how you want to address medical marijuana use by employees, and it appears that this decision has not restricted your authority to manage employee drug use any differently than before this case was decided.
If you have questions about employment laws relating to your business, please contact the Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C., home of your Denver Business Attorney, Elizabeth Lewis, at 720-258-6647 or email her at elizabeth.lewis@eclewis.com.
