On Wednesday, June 23 during #StartupChats, we talked about Growing and Protecting Your Business with Mastercard Canada.
We were joined by three online store savvy experts;
Kayla Isabelle, CEO of Startup Canada
Cydney Mar, Product Development Strategists
Naina Kansal, Entrepreneur Success Manager
We kicked off the chat by identifying why protecting your business is necessary;
A1 There are many considerations for protecting your business. From legal protection, security solutions, incorporating your business, etc. All businesses are different, so it is important to research & speak to a business or legal advisor. #StartupChats
— Mastercard Canada (@MastercardCA) June 23, 2021
A1 Liability, insurance for theft, you need to protect your IP, trademark infringement, patents, hackers on your websites, you need to ensure that you don’t fall for any scammers & leave your financial accesses open, so triple verifications are needed.@Mastercard
#StartupChats— 🌸Cydney Mar (she/her) Product Business Consultant (@CydneyMar) June 23, 2021
A1 – we have some great @MastercardCA resources on the Startup Global portal! Protecting yourself as you scale globally is mission critical! Sign up here: https://t.co/nVSiLOQa56
— Kayla Isabelle (@Kaylamisabelle) June 23, 2021
We also found out that protection is always a good idea…
Protection is always a good idea.
As we are learning, there are many areas to protect and we work hard on our businesses, so opening them up to fraud, or theft or hackers doesn’t feel right.
What do you think, which areas would be OK to leave unprotected? #StartupChats
— Kayla Isabelle (@Kaylamisabelle) June 23, 2021
Intellectual property is a big one especially if their charging too much to the point people manufacture their own of a Given product #startupchats
— Tim Postma (@TimPatAlPostma) June 23, 2021
A3. ½) It depends on your business domain and size. I think small businesses can get away without online business review, cybersecurity protection or employee social media protection clauses initially. #StartupChats
— Naina Kansal (@kansal_naina12) June 23, 2021
And talked about the risks that come with not protecting;
A4 Huge risks, loss of websites, loss of inventory, reputation, ability to grow your business.
One of my companies is vitamins & supplements, which means I need proper liability for vitamins and the risk assessment. I document ALL the lot # per client @Mastercard
#StartupChats— 🌸Cydney Mar (she/her) Product Business Consultant (@CydneyMar) June 23, 2021
The biggest is that your business and ideas can get stolen. That will hurt your overall competitive advantage. If someone else files for IP protection before you, that can risk your business, so invest in protection ASAP. #StartupChats
— Naina Kansal (@kansal_naina12) June 23, 2021
If you would like to see the entire #StartupChats conversation, you can see the transcript here.