Have you ever tried to sign up for an e-mail account, a WordPress blog platform, or a website — and
been frustrated to find that the online username or domain name of your choosing has already been
snatched up by somebody else? For small businesses and start-up companies, this kind of thing is more
than just an annoyance. It can actually pose a threat to your online reputation.

How, exactly, can something so seemingly innocuous become a big problem? Consider the following
example. Guy Fieri — celebrity chef and restaurateur — owns a Manhattan eatery called Guy’s American
Kitchen and Bar. Sadly, Mr. Fieri did not own the rights to GuysAmericanKitchenandBar.com. In early
2013, that domain was snapped up by someone else, who used the domain to launch a vicious parody of
Guy’s culinary habits and outsized personality.

And that, in a nutshell, is where the danger lies: If you don’t own the domains associated with your
brand, that means someone else can snatch them up — and then use those domains to post defamatory
or outright embarrassing content, all in your name! Thankfully, there are some steps business start-ups
can take to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

Storing Up Domains

The best way to proactively prevent this kind of online defamation — long before any online attack
actually comes your way — is simply to make sure that you have the rights to all of the domain names
associated with your branded terms. It’s a simple principle. If you have access to your online domains,
your rivals and your disgruntled employees can never use them against you.

Here is a Quick Checklist of the Domains You Should Buy:

• Make sure to buy all of the domains associated with the name of your company. If your
  company name is Red Bird Hardware, buy the rights to redbirdhardware.com, redbirdhardware.org, and
  redbirdhardware.net.
• Buy the domains for any branded products you have — for example, if you have a product with a very
  distinctive name, like “iPhone.”
• You should also secure the domains associated with the names of your top executives or most visible
  business leaders — on the off chance that their names ever start to receive online defamation.
• If your company name is something that could very easily be misspelled, you might buy the domains
  associated with alternate spellings. If your company is called Online Leadz, you should assume that some
  users will try to find you as Online Leads.
• For business names that are somewhat generic of common, it can help you include some geographic
  signifiers — AceToolsTennessee.com, for instance.
• Finally, remember that it is not just about Web URLS. You will also want to secure the exact-match
  account handles on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. If at all possible, make all of
  your social media handles and vanity URLs match your primary website domain.

Using Your Domains

You do not necessarily have to use all of these domains, proactively; simply keeping them secure is
really all it takes to ward off potential reputation threats. You will probably use one of these domains
to host your main, corporate website. You can redirect all of the other domains to point back to that
main site, ensuring that anyone who finds any one of your domains will ultimately find your company’s
primary online presence.

Snatching up these domains will require a small investment, but this is ultimately a cost-effective
approach to online reputation defense. The alternative to securing these domains is seeking to undo the
damage of online attacks, well after the fact — something that could prove exhaustively expensive and
time-consuming. The best approach for small business start-ups is to ensure that these domains are all
locked down — and that potential reputational crises are fully averted.

Mike Zammuto is the President and COO of www.reputationchanger.com. The company offers online reputation repair and other reputation
management services.

>How Start-Up Companies Can Protect Against Online Defamation

Have you ever tried to sign up for an e-mail account, a WordPress blog platform, or a website — andbeen frustrated to find that the online username or domain name of your choosing has already beensnatched up by somebody else? For small businesses and start-up companies, this kind of thing is morethan just an annoyance. It can actually pose a threat to your online reputation.

How, exactly, can something so seemingly innocuous become a big problem? Consider the followingexample. Guy Fieri — celebrity chef and restaurateur — owns a Manhattan eatery called Guy’s AmericanKitchen and Bar. Sadly, Mr. Fieri did not own the rights to GuysAmericanKitchenandBar.com. In early2013, that domain was snapped up by someone else, who used the domain to launch a vicious parody ofGuy’s culinary habits and outsized personality.

And that, in a nutshell, is where the danger lies: If you don’t own the domains associated with yourbrand, that means someone else can snatch them up — and then use those domains to post defamatoryor outright embarrassing content, all in your name! Thankfully, there are some steps business start-upscan take to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

Storing Up Domains

The best way to proactively prevent this kind of online defamation — long before any online attackactually comes your way — is simply to make sure that you have the rights to all of the domain namesassociated with your branded terms. It’s a simple principle. If you have access to your online domains,your rivals and your disgruntled employees can never use them against you.

Here is a Quick Checklist of the Domains You Should Buy:

• Make sure to buy all of the domains associated with the name of your company. If yourcompany name is Red Bird Hardware, buy the rights to redbirdhardware.com, redbirdhardware.org, andredbirdhardware.net.
• Buy the domains for any branded products you have — for example, if you have a product with a verydistinctive name, like “iPhone.”
• You should also secure the domains associated with the names of your top executives or most visiblebusiness leaders — on the off chance that their names ever start to receive online defamation.
• If your company name is something that could very easily be misspelled, you might buy the domainsassociated with alternate spellings. If your company is called Online Leadz, you should assume that someusers will try to find you as Online Leads.
• For business names that are somewhat generic of common, it can help you include some geographicsignifiers — AceToolsTennessee.com, for instance.
• Finally, remember that it is not just about Web URLS. You will also want to secure the exact-matchaccount handles on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. If at all possible, make all ofyour social media handles and vanity URLs match your primary website domain.

Using Your Domains

You do not necessarily have to use all of these domains, proactively; simply keeping them secure isreally all it takes to ward off potential reputation threats. You will probably use one of these domainsto host your main, corporate website. You can redirect all of the other domains to point back to that
main site, ensuring that anyone who finds any one of your domains will ultimately find your company’sprimary online presence.

Snatching up these domains will require a small investment, but this is ultimately a cost-effectiveapproach to online reputation defense. The alternative to securing these domains is seeking to undo thedamage of online attacks, well after the fact — something that could prove exhaustively expensive andtime-consuming. The best approach for small business start-ups is to ensure that these domains are alllocked down — and that potential reputational crises are fully averted.

Mike Zammuto is the President and COO of www.reputationchanger.com. The company offers online reputation repair and other reputationmanagement services.

Howard Thurman wrote, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is morepeople who have come alive.”  This is good advice when you are thinking about your startup business, about your career, and about most aspects of your life.  It is also good advice when you are in sales.

When you are enthusiastic, when you show your passion for your startup’s product or service, your excitement is transferred to your customers, and they become enthusiastic about what you are selling, too.  This doesn’t mean you have to be loud, or boisterous, or pushy.  In fact, real enthusiasm is often manifested more with a whisper than with a roar.  For example, the Australian naturalist Steve Irwin (“The Crocodile Hunter”), who was famous for his outsized personality and charisma, was always quiet and focused when he was describing the wildlife he found most fascinating.  In fact, the contrast of these quiet, intense moments with his usual screams of “Crikey” made you want to lean in and listen all the more.

Similarly, your enthusiasm is often more easily conveyed when you hone in on just one or two of the benefits of your startup’s product or service, rather than reciting a whole litany of features.  Remember when Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air?  The entire presentation focused on how thin the MacBook Air is, with a dramatic presentation of how it fit into an envelope.  All the rest – the processing speed, how lightweight it is, and so forth, was left for later – because what had his audience gasping with excitement was the incredibly tiny width of this new computer.

The need to sell with enthusiasm is true whether you sell face-to-face, on the phone, online, or through the printed word.  However you are engaging your customers, be sure that your message is simple, focused and full of enthusiasm.

This week, entrepreneur and owner of Amsterdam Printing, Christopher Wallace fills us in with a guest blog post about how to go about selling your business. For many Wicked Starters, the prospect of selling a company is way down the line. But think of this #foodforthought you can ruminate on now as you plan your startup journey. Read on…

Many entrepreneurs are now building their startups with the expressed intent to sell them to another company. This has been fueled by the astronomical offers some startups have recently received in their infancy. One of the latest examples was Instagram. This company, with only 13 employees, received a $1 billion offer from Facebook and ultimately closed the deal for over $700 million.

If you are in the enviable position of receiving an offer for your startup, you are probably wondering whether you should take the money now or hold out for more. Well, in the immortal words of Dirty Harry, “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”

In all seriousness, there are many issues to consider in making this decision. Every situation is unique and there are no easy answers. However, below are a few questions you may want to ask.

1. If you reject the offer, do you have sufficient funds to continue to grow?

If not, will you continue to require investments from private investors? Are you certain this funding will continue to be available? Even if you can secure more funding, the higher price you hold out for will be offset by further equity dilution.

2. Will the acquirer become your biggest competitor if you turn down the offer?

Are you willing to play David to the acquirer’s Goliath? For example, Zappos, an on-line shoe retailer, accepted a $1.2 billion offer from Amazon. Had they not accepted the offer, it’s likely that Amazon would have pursued another avenue to dominate this segment. Path, on the other hand, rejected a $100 million offer from Google for their startup. Google has already introduced a competing product, Google Circles.

3. What other options are available to you as an exit strategy?

As discussed, you can hold out for a better offer. If you are profitable, you may be able to continue without additional investment or even file for an initial public offering. Google is an example of a very profitable company that could have remained independent, but chose the IPO route. Of course, you can try to go public if you are unprofitable too. However, this can be rough going, as evidenced by Groupon. They went public and subsequently failed to generate profits. As a result, their stock has now fallen over 80% to under three dollars per share.

4. If you have founded a startup, you are probably already somewhat of a risk taker.

However, turning down a good offer for your unprofitable startup can be akin to playing the lottery. Be sure to take a step back and be honest with yourself. What are the real chances you will become the next Twitter or Facebook?

5. Is “quality of life” important to you?

While it is certainly fulfilling to build your own company, live on the edge and spend your time asking for cash infusions from private investors, the details can certainly take some of the fun out of it. How much longer are you willing to do this?

The good news is that many acquirers would like the founders to stay on and help run the company after the acquisition. In some cases, the founders can even continue as the CEO in the new subsidiary. For many, this is the best of all worlds. You can stop worrying about money and concentrate on building the business with the additional resources the acquirer has to offer.

Of course, you may also have less stress and more time to spend with your family and friends. What’s not to like?

Christopher Wallace, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Amsterdam Printing, has more than 20 years experience in sales and marketing. At Amsterdam Printing, a leading provider of custom pens and other promotional items such as custom USB drives, Christopher is focused on providing quality marketing materials to small, mid-size and large businesses. He regularly contributes to Promo & Marketing Wall blog.

You may have found some of these connections at earlier steps, but any you’re missing must be filled in now. This is the place to find that online sales platform, that commercial kitchen in which to create your cupcakes, or to find the right manufacturing partner to make your widgets.

I’m currently consulting with several startups, in addition to Wicked Start, (and always writing about Start-ups over here), and there are lots of ways to think about the operations of your business. For example, I’ve covered Outsourcing Storage and Shipping and Cleaning Up Your Logistics, which discuss the way you can work with a vendor to receive products, store them, and have them picked, packed and shipped. While this service can cost a good amount per unit, it might cost less than having your own receiving department, software, employees and their benefits.

For those running an online site, there are costs in customer service. If you think about Online Help Systems, or  Using Cloud-Based Software for a Small Business you might be able to save time and money, and launch your business faster.

Once you’ve got the basics of your operations thought through, an excellent idea (covered in Wicked Start step 9.2) is to create a diagram of how your business works. Visually mapping your processes gives you an excellent way to “walk through” your business end-to-end before you actually run it. The mapping can also show you places where you’re missing steps, or places where you might have vulnerabilities.

For example, you’ve picked a particular vegetable supplier. What if they have a driver’s strike or their source was hit hard by this past summer’s drought? Think about back-up suppliers, alternate vendors and other items that will make your business more ‘bullet-proof.’ The time to plan this out is now, as you operationalize, and not later, when you’re up and running.

Anything we didn’t cover? Ask questions in the comments or in the community.

Branding helps your business create an identity. Once you know that identity, it is easier to figure out who your customers are, and where you can find them. Are you the “high quality for a premium price” option like Apple, or are you “Quality at a bargain price” like Target? If you’re a “high quality” brand, you may advertise in more high-end publications, provide catalogs with thicker, glossier paper, or put ads on websites that attract a more affluent audience.

It is your job to define your brand, or hire a consultant or firm that specializes in branding. As John Williams notes in this piece in Entrepreneur, you have to answer these questions:

• What is your company’s mission?
• What are the benefits and features of your products or services?
• What do your customers and prospects already think of your company?
• What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

These items are only determined by doing customer research, and that’s a key step to take before you lock down your branding. Note also that there is a difference between creating a brand, and branding. Creating a great brand can be an asset, according to that article, but having a confusing brand can be a huge liability. The article cites RIM, who has 4 different models of “Blackberry Bold.” Which one is which? Who knows? The company’s sales are down for many reasons, but a confusing brand can’t help.

As a user of Wicked Start, you can jump over to Section 10 on Marketing, and under item 1 for branding you can download our white paper on Branding. That will help you get started with asking and answering some of the key questions that will help your company achieve brand success.

Time to get educated about what you need to know to do the payroll correctly. SurePayroll’s blog has some handy articles like “10 Quick Tips to Think About When Looking for Payroll Services.” Inc. has a guide to automating payroll. About.com has a guide to your responsibilities as an employer relating to payroll.

Now that we have that cleared up, there are a lot of choices in the marketplace. From really big companies like ADP, Intuit’s payroll system that works with your Quickbooks, SurePayroll (now a division of Paychex) there are lots of choices. The IRS even has a list of approved payroll services.

All of these services have sales forces, so you can contact them, ask questions, figure out costs, and decide what’s right for your business. It is also worth talking with your accountant and maybe some other businesses in your area to see which services others have been using with success. I know my accounting firm actually performs payroll service for other companies, so that would be a consideration as well. Services with a local presence who can answer questions and help you set up your accounting system to work with a payroll processing system may be an extra bonus.

What did you decide? Share it with others in the comments.

We discussed hiring and documentation in my last column. But hiring employees at a start-up is probably the most important step of any business’ growth. The people you hire are the eyes, ears, hands, and mouth of the company. They will create the products and perform the services, listen for feedback and customer complaints, respond to problems and more. They’re the people who sell, and everyone from the receptionist to the stock clerk has the potential to connect with your customers in a positive or negative way.

In addition to thinking about employees as the key parts of a company, it is important to think about team dynamics. Make sure that you hire people you want to work with, and who believe in the vision of your company. There’s an old saying that “A people hire A people, and B people hire C people.” If you hire the best people, when its their job to hire, they’ll also hire great people. I recently saw Dennis Crowley of foursquare speak on the challenges of being a CEO. He spoke about hiring a programmer, and eventually promoting him. The programmer then had to realize that he could spend a week fixing a problem, or spend a few days and hire people who were better at the problem to code for him. If you teach employees to hire for great skills and not to be afraid to hire people better than them, you’ll constantly improve your company with each hire.

The legal aspects of hiring are many and varied. It’s important to know the restricted information you can’t ask  in a job interview (things like race, height, weight, and more.) This piece called “Don’t ask an applicant these questions” does a good job of summarizing, but a chat with your attorney is a good idea. These issues should be discussed with other employees, board members, or advisors if they’re helping you vet candidates since anyone acting on your behalf could open you to a legal issue.

That brings up another point – don’t “improv” in a job interview. You should know the questions you want to ask, and how you want to ask them, before a candidate arrives. If you’re being deliberate and have a list of qualifications, qualities, and skills you want in an employee, writing them down first is critical. Have a mentor, advisor, lawyer or other trusted person look over your list.

The Wicked Start roadmap has some great resources and example files for hiring, questions and more. Good luck hiring the best people for your company!

Hiring at a a start-up is probably the hardest task of anything we’ve talked about. It may be harder than deciding how much equity to give up to investors, or deciding on product features. There are two factors here – one is hiring the right people, and the second is hiring them legally, with the right documentation, taxes, and paperwork. Let’s address the second issue this week, and the other issues in a future column.

It would be nice to just “hire” someone smart and have them start working. Don’t do that. It is wrong, and you will be in a huge amount of trouble. Before you hire anyone, talk with an attorney or personel consultant. In addition to tax forms like an I9 form (a US Government form that must be signed by any employee), you want to make sure you have an employee handbook and an employment agreement. If you’re running a business that has secrets such as technologies, methods, or other confidential information, you would want to make sure you have the right agreements in place. Your attorney, consultant or experienced HR professional can help you get set. On the Wicked Start roadmap we have example employee handbooks, legal handbooks, and additional information. But having all of these looked at by a pro before you make a hire is critical to your future legal compliance.

There are items you may not consider relevant at a small company, but they can come back to bite you. One start up I worked for hired a young woman, and she promptly seduced her manager, then sued the firm for sexual harassment. (A background check after the fact found that this was not the first time she had done this.) Suddenly, everyone at the company was going for sexual harassment training with an expensive firm. Something that could have been avoided if the company had a policy in place when employees started.

Lots of start-ups are tempted to bring in people as contractors instead of employees. This can make sense since you save on taxes and other legal issues. However, there are reasons that people are considered consultants or employees. There are  several tests the IRS applies to determine if someone is an employee or a consultant.

A basic test is “behavioral” – does the employer dictate when, where and how the work is done? If you dictate what work needs to be done, but only look at the end result, you likely have a consultant. If you’re dictating every step of the way, you’re probably managing an employee. If you’re not sure, ask a lawyer or professional for help.

When you start a business, it is always useful to create a board of advisors. A board of advisors is a group of business people who can help you with your company, by providing advice you may be missing from key roles or staff. Such a group may include accountants, lawyers, marketers, or other entrepreneurs in later stages of company development. Don’t confuse a board of advisors with your board of directors and investors. These folks are there because they want to see you succeed, but they typically don’t have an investment in your company.

A good piece of advice about advisors from Entrepreneur magazine:

When recruiting advisors, look for the holes in your business. Kocialski says to focus on the jobs not already being done by an expert on your payroll. “Advisory boards are for whatever you don’t have,” she says.

It is important to be clear with an advisor about why you’ve asked them to help. Maybe you need their advice on legal matters, but can’t afford them as a full time lawyer or general counsel. Perhaps a top salesperson, now retired, can help you establish some contacts in the industry where you’re trying to break in.

Some companies award advisors small blocks of stock, typically in the less than .5% of the total company, doled out over time as a thank you and additional incentive to continue to advise.

As I wrote recently in my Inc. column, many start-up CEOs need advice, but feel that they can’t ask for that help since they’re “in charge.” Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley discussed the stress of being a CEO and admitted to using not only investors as advisors, but also having a CEO coach. There’s a difference between a mentor and an advisor,” Crowley said. “An investor may be an advisor. We tell them our strategy, and they try to help us. I get emails all the time from people who want me to advise their company. But typically that person has skin in the game. On the other hand there are mentors or coaches like Jerry [Colonna, his business coach] who help me solve management or personal problems with my job. These are different discussions than the business model problems. I get different feedback from those types of people.”

In addition to having formal advisory boards, a group of women entrepreneurs I know in NYC acts as a feedback group for each other. They meet monthly for coffee, trade business challenges, hold each other accountable, and pass on contacts and generally work towards the success of the non-competitive companies in the group. Mastermind groups exist in the same vein.

Face it – there are a lot of tough challenges to starting a business. Having an additional set of  intelligent minds to support your success is a smart plan.

You may be tempted to set up your company with “loose” roles. There may be a few core people who are capable and willing to “do what it takes” to succeed. These kind of people are great, and often invaluable. But it is critical to “organize your organization” with an organizational chart and a list of roles and responsibilities.

Defining roles can be a key focus moment for your developing business plan and your business in general. Knowing who does what may leave you with gaps – needs that you see are not being filled. This gives you an opportunity to define additional roles, or to have open and honest discussions with your team about the gaps and the people who will fill them in a temporary way until permanent help can be found (or afforded.)

As Bryan mentions in his Wicked Start roadmap article about the org chart , it is important to have only one person as the CEO. If you have a co-founder, this is the time to determine where the buck really stops. Speaking from personal experience, one start-up that I was involved with had unclear roles at the top and it was a terrible mess. The two friends involved both had great skills and good reasons to “be in charge” but it is so rare that you find two people who can share the responsibilities easily.

Find a way to clarify the roles and to put various departments or functions under the CEO’s purview. Make sure that you’re drawing from the correct strengths of your team mates (and your co-founder, if you have one).

It may be worth discussing the final org chart with your team to get buy-in and ensure that everyone is clear as to roles and responsibilities when the time comes to start operating. This can ensure a smoother launch and fewer questions at that critical “go time.”

What org chart suggestions do you have? Let us know in the comments below.