In the latest episode of Hourly to Exit, I’m delving into the crucial first step to scaling your expertise-based business - the audit of your intellectual property. Here are three key takeaways from the episode:

1. Ownership of Intellectual Property is Key: Owning intellectual property is essential for scaling your expertise-based business. Understanding what you currently own and control is the initial step towards leveraging your assets for growth.

2. A successful audit involves both a quantity (i.e., an inventory) and quality assessment of your assets, helping you recognize the relative value of each.

3. Auditing your intellectual property assets sets the foundation for creating scalable, recurring revenue sources. Ensuring you own the rights to your assets and have strong legal foundations is crucial as you transition from one-on-one services to one-to-many offers.

Tune in to the full episode to learn more about the vital role of audit in scaling your business by leveraging your intellectual property assets. Remember, #IPisFuel.

Connect with Erin to learn how to use intellectual property to increase your income and impact. hourlytoexit.com/podcast.

Erin's LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinaustin/

This week’s episode of Hourly to Exit is sponsored by the NDA Navigator. Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are the bedrock of protecting your business's confidential information. However, facing a constant stream of NDAs can be overwhelming, especially when time and budget constraints prevent you from seeking full legal review. That's where the NDA Navigator comes to your rescue. Designed specifically for entrepreneurs, consultants, and business owners with corporate clients, the NDA Navigator is your guide to understanding, negotiating, and implementing NDAs. Empower yourself with legal insights and practical tools when you don’t have the time or funds to invest in a full legal review. Get 20% off by using the coupon code “H2E”.  You can find it at www.protectyourexpertise.com.

Think Beyond IP YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVztXnDYnZ83oIb-EGX9IGA/videos

Music credit: Yes She Can by Tiny Music

A Team Dklutr production

Here is a fundamental

truth that you will hear

me repeating ad nauseum

owning intellectual

property is required to

scale your expertise based

business, period, drop Mike.

Now I could stop right there

for emphasis, but I persist.

There are three steps to

getting to the promised land.

They are audit,

protect, and leverage.

So this week we're

going to talk about

that first step audit.

You start with audit

because we want to make

sure that you understand

what you own right now.

And I guarantee, you unless

you are an IP lawyer that

you will be very surprised

by what you find out.

In other words, you might not

own what you think you own,

and you probably own a lot

more than you think you do.

So the audit step consists

of two measurements.

First, quantity.

This is just a straightforward

inventory of the assets

in your business.

In other words, it's

just a list of all the

assets in your business.

The second step is quality.

So this is an analysis of

the value, the relative

value of the assets.

Those you own and control

exclusively are more valuable

than those that you have

non exclusive rights to use.

for instance, the training

materials that you created

that you own completely

and that no one can use

without your permission

and paying you are more

valuable to you than some.

Tool that you license

from a third party.

It may still provide value.

It's not that it's not

valuable, but it's not as

valuable as those things

that you own exclusively.

why do we want to

do our audit again?

Because ownership of

intellectual property

Is required to

scale your business.

So if you're wondering,

well, what assets do I have?

I provide services.

Here's the measure.

The assets in your business

are whatever use to create

value for your clients.

So it's not just, computers

and software, anything that

you are using to create

value for your clients.

Is an asset.

So whether you provide high

touch custom services, or

if you have a proprietary

methodology, or if you have a

standard training program, or

even if you're selling your

time, those are all assets.

Now, here's a list of assets.

The assessment tool that

you use to orient your

proposals and asset the 50

page strategic plan that

you deliver to your clients.

That's an asset

secondary research that

you use as a basic for

strategic plan and asset.

An original DEI training

program that you developed,

worksheets that you required

during a IFC certification

or IMC certification,

templates that you may

have gotten from a business

coach, web design that your

contractor created for you.

Or for an end client,

those are all assets.

And even the work product

that you complete at a

client request based on

their specifications,

that is an asset.

They're all assets

because they provide

value to your clients.

Some of them are

assets that you own.

Some of them Are assets

that you do not own.

What we want to focus on,

of course, are the assets

that you own, because the

assets that you own, the

intellectual property you own

will be the foundation for

creating a scalable business

and creating assets that.

can provide recurring revenue.

So after we create our

inventory of assets, so

that's just our inventory.

Then we go to the

qualitative part where we

evaluate them to see the

relative value of them.

Do we own them?

Did we create them ourselves?

do we have control over them?

Have we permitted

other people to create

derivatives from them?

that will tell us the relative

value of those assets.

Do I own it?

If I don't own it.

What rights do I

have to use it?

do this because when we're

building recurring revenue

assets, it's a whole

different ball game than

providing one on one services.

I like to say, you with

increased visibility

comes increased scrutiny.

So when you're growing

your business by leveraging

assets, including intellectual

property assets, it's like

adding Another floor to your

house, so the foundation

that's good enough for

a 1 story building might

not be good enough for

a two-story building.

So we want to make sure

that the legal foundation

for creating recurring

revenue assets is.

Strong whether you've been

using that intellectual

property internally, or if

you've been using them with

your one-on-one clients.

I will call that, your

first floor use of the

assets internally or

with one-on-one services.

And that now using those,

assets in a one to several

or a one to many environment.

would be that second floor.

And we want to make sure

that we have a strong

enough foundation for it to

support the second floor.

So we add a second floor.

Here's a sample of some of

the foundational cracks.

You might, that might

appear that didn't appear

in your one on one work

first with your contractors.

Do you have a written

agreement with the contractor

for every deliverable

that they provided to you?

Certainly, if it's included

in anything that you're going

to be using in your one to

several or one to many offers.

even if you paid the

contractor, even if you

told them and gave them

directions about what to do,

if you don't have a written

agreement in place, you

don't own that deliverable

the contractor does.

So we want to make sure that

we are checking all of the

assets, that we're going

to use for our recurring

revenue assets to make sure

you own all those rights.

With your past employers.

Most of us are corporate

refugees or survivors, right?

So if we took something

from a former employer.

Is that theirs?

Even if you wrote it

as the employee, your

employer owns everything

that you created for them.

So if you've incorporated

that in some of your one

on one services, probably

no one's going to notice.

But if you incorporate

some of that in a one to

several or one to many

that increased scrutiny.

Could get you in

trouble and same thing

with your employees.

If you have employees, they

came from a former employer

and they brought this

great resource with them.

Where'd it come from?

Did it come from

their former employer?

If it did that former

employer owns that neither

you, nor that employee owns

that and cannot use it.

With your clients, if you're

signing services agreements

provided by your clients, nine

times out of 10, they'll have

language in there that says

they own 100 percent of the

rights in any deliverable.

Well, what if you have

some of your preexisting

work in that deliverable?

Have you granted rights

in your preexisting

work to your clients?

So

we want to make sure we are.

Aware of that and then 3rd

party materials, like we

mentioned things you may

have gotten from as part of

a certification program or as

part of a coaching program.

know, with your business

coach, sometimes people

provide resources that you

can use, which are intended

to be used either internally

or with your one-on-one

clients, but not to be,

used in a one-to-several

or one-to-many environment.

So we want to make sure

that we are aware of the

rights you have in those

third-party materials.

So in sum, we audit because

you don't want to be on the

receiving end of a cease

and desist letter from the

owner of materials that you

don't have the right to use.

at best you're wasting

money and momentum.

At worst, you'll incur

legal fees and permanently

damage your reputation.

We audit because it lays

the foundation for the next

step, which is protection.

You don't want to find out

too late that you failed

to put the protections in

place to prevent clients,

subcontractors, and

facilitators from using

your materials without you.

So in the next episode,

we'll talk about that

second stage, protect how

to protect your expertise.

Thank you ladies.

And remember.

I.

P.

is fuel.