As a professional services provider, your most valuable asset is your expertise.

Do you know the number one way we lose control of our most valuable asset? Contracts. Well, I should say, not using contracts or not understanding the contracts we sign. These are self-inflicted wounds.

Huge fan of contracts here. 🙋🏾‍♀️

Contracts provide the foundation for building a business that can scale. It is through contracts that you will own and control the intellectual property rights that flow in and out of your business. The client deliverables, the subcontractor's work product, and the licensed materials.

Copyright infringement and plagiarism are often used interchangeably. These terms can be confusing, but it is important to understand the differences as they represent distinct forms of legal and ethical violations…and have varying consequences.

You consistently use your Expertise to create deliverables, workshops, graphics, newsletters, and more. What, if any of it, is protectible from the sticky fingers of competitors?

If there is only one thing you’ve learned from me, I hope it is knowing that signed agreements with your clients and your contractors are essential to protecting your IP and expertise.

When you are an expert, your most valuable asset is your expertise.

However, unlike physical assets, you can’t lock your expertise in a vault or store it in a display case. Anyone who has access to your expertise can copy it.

So how do you make sure that competitors and former clients aren't stealing your stuff?

I have lots of ideas. Some I even refer to as Big Ideas. 🧠

As an expert, you have lots of ideas too, both big and small.

Is it possible to protect your ideas?

You know intellectual property (IP) and contracts are essential elements to smart growth, but you aren't sure where to start. In other words, you don’t know what you don’t know.

This is how experts lose control of their expertise.

I was reading an article on Forbes.com about the growth of freelance management consulting marketplaces. Catalant is one of the larger platforms that corporations use for buying professional services (think Upwork for corporate consultants).