Starting and Maintaining a Business Using Sustainable Strategies

Melissa Wick’s passion lies in helping budding entrepreneurs think about how they can use their business to have an impact on the community.

Although she understands we’re all looking to monetize our ideas and bring products to life, she knows that it’s important to have a strategy embedded into the business to showcase what motivates you - a cause that’s important to you.

Throughout the pandemic, Melissa has seen a shift in consumers being more aware of where they’re spending their dollars. This is where a small local business can shine. They can be selling a product and committed to the community at the same time. With her firm, Melissa seeks to provide new entrepreneurs with points to think about when developing the strategy and helps them think further out into creating an impact. 

Why should making an impact on the community even matter to business?

Melissa believes that a lot of entrepreneurs start their businesses with aspirations of doing something that makes an impact, and yet, it gets lost along the way. “My focus is to make sure my clients are legally protected, and things are set up the right way.” She wants them to feel confident that the details are handled while keeping the strategy and goal of doing good while growing a business. 

What should a small business owner think about when trying to make sure their business is legally covered?

Essentially, you want to protect your business assets and protect yourself from personal liability. You also want to think of your partners and ensure everyone is aligned.  Finally, you want to stay out of court. 

Diving a bit deeper, you want to understand and protect your intellectual property. Those are your business assets. 

You also want the formation to be done well. Although it’s pretty easy, Melissa says there are aspects where you might want a lawyer to support you, such as an operating agreement if you have partners, what type of entity you want to be, or the tax considerations. 

Finally, it’s about contracts and understanding how to use them. 

Are downloadable contracts and forms ok to use in business?

“...the biggest thing about that is you need to make sure it's compliant with Ohio law,” says Melissa. A form that fits into just about any subject or industry won’t support you in what you specifically need. It doesn’t take into consideration the state or your particular business.

How can businesses choose an entity?

“A sole proprietor is the default in Ohio law.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t really protect your personal assets. Usually, small businesses will form an LLC because they want that layer of protection if there is ever a dispute or lawsuit. 

If you’re an LLC, it might be beneficial to be taxed as an S Corp. That would be determined by an accountant. Theoretically, an S Corp would avoid certain taxes but for other businesses, it wouldn’t provide many benefits.

What can we protect in our business?

Start with your intellectual property, aka your business assets.

Patents

“A patent is a pretty complex process to get one and that involves if you've kind of invented something that is unique, and different from other things,” says Melissa. You would record what makes your product or process unique with a patent lawyer. 

Copyrights

Melissa explains copyright as just the way you protect your invention. “It can be a photo, it can be music, it can be something you've written, it can be your blog content. Any expression that you've created, is something you can copyright.” 

You don’t have to register it but it’s important if you ever have a dispute. Registering it enforces your rights. “So it's just sort of a cost-benefit analysis if you want to spend the money and time registering this, or do you think that it's probably not, you know, it's not something that anyone would take from you to us.” 

Trademarks

This is kind of like your logo. That would be something that somebody would see and identify with your business. Those are like copyright in that you don't have to register it for it to be yours. It's yours if you're using it. Again though, to enforce your rights, you have to register it in order to stop someone else from using it.

Trade Secrets

Probably one of the most important things would be your customer lists, or your marketing strategy, any deals that you have with your vendors, or any deals you have with particular clients. You have to protect those things. 

Melissa mentions that if you have employees or independent contractors, and they have access, just by virtue of doing work for you, to these items, you probably need to have an attorney draft you something that will protect that. “And that can be in the form of adding restrictive covenants or, you know, confidentiality forms to your documents, like to your independent contractor agreements, or to your employer agreements, or those agreements can also stand alone.” 

When it comes to sustainable methods, how can small businesses compete?

“...you want to understand your particular company and think of your [business], in the sense of ‘what does my company do well.” Know what cause you care about and then how can you use the business to further that particular cause. And one way of doing it is just finding the nonprofit you want to support. 

Think of your relationship with that nonprofit as an associate. You’ll want to form a strategic partnership to make sure expectations are aligned.

How do we embed sustainability models into our small businesses?

Cut Cost Model

One example of a business that adopted a cut cost sustainability model is Bake Me Happy in Columbus, Ohio. They have very little waste, they reuse, if they have leftover dough, they create something else with it.

Another example is Nike, who uses scraps from its shop floor to create whole other products that were very successful. Customers love it and it's sustainable while profitable. 

Raise Price Model

“...if you're going to devote yourself to sustainability and quality, you know, you can charge more.” An example that Melissa gives is Jenni’s Ice Cream. People will pay extra for it and they’ll be happy to do so. “And if you go to Jenny's website, you will see why it costs what it costs,” says Melissa, “...you'll understand that she's making an impact down the line, every one of her suppliers is practicing certain practices that matter to her and sustainability and it’s quality.” 

Increased Market Share

This one is a strategy where you have to be thinking down the road. Lipton tea adopted some sustainable practices, and they elected to keep their price the same because they didn't think they could compete if they raised it. And it worked. They showcase that they care and are supporting a variety of sustainability initiatives and keeping their prices the same. So people are happy to pay because of it.

Last tip to entrepreneurs:

Get to know what you care about first, then go ahead and find a partner in the community that aligns with that. “And that's how you will understand how you can use your business to help a cause, you know, I think it is, it's like every other thing, it's about communication, and it's about relationships, and then learning how to sustain those relationships and make an impact.”

Find Melissa Wick, owner of Wick Law Offices, LLC on her website and LinkedIn. Melissa spends her days helping new entrepreneurs hit home runs and helping existing business owners and clients evolve to build even brighter futures. She uses her knowledge and experience to think through, structure, and form businesses, agreements, settlements, deals, contracts, and she advocates for my clients in court when there is a dispute. Melissa's experience includes both litigation and transactional legal work.