Senior IP counsel, acquiring first-hand experience in the entertainment industry, business, and branding as founder of several successful start-ups. Prolific trademark filer, currently ranked #5 in the world with over 9,000 USPTO applications/registrations, representing clients in all fifty states and internationally. Thought leader, pioneering the field of Branding Law and authoring the only casebook of its kind. Advising creative business clients, both established and early-stage tech, graphic designers, advertising agencies and other attorneys/law firms, while offering innovative legal strategies, quick response times and reasonable flat-fee billing.
What is Goldman Law Group all about?
“Representing Innovation.” is both our mantra and mission statement as we provide creative legal solutions for creative business clients, serving startups and entrepreneurs in all fifty states and worldwide. Pioneering the field of Branding Law, we are the only business and branding IP law firm of our kind, offering leading-edge advice on both legal protection and strategic marketing.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I’ve had quite an interesting career path, discovering a true passion for creating new business ventures back in college while setting up an event production company. Further growing the business during law school, I then started working for a firm while formally organizing the other company into a serious part-time business, decades before anyone even thought of the term ‘side hustle’. Fully self-financed, it finally grew to the point where the ‘day job’ was no longer needed, and I was then able to leave that law firm in order to begin forming my own.
For a long, while I had envisioned a brand new type of legal practice focusing on serving the specific needs of startups and entrepreneurs, and it was an instant success. In order to take everything to the next level though, I then sold off one division of the events promotion company, keeping just the talent management component as that would tie-in better with representing our creative clients. Since the reorganization, I’ve been able to devote much more time creating new marketing initiatives with another spin-off entity now planned for 2021 as the true entrepreneur is always dreaming and forever creating.
What are your plans, how do you plan to grow this company?
Our firm is planning on several major marketing initiatives in 2021, including posting original articles on several blogs, with syndication, to further establish our SEO backlinks and thought leadership; podcasts, interviews and other media appearances; releasing our own informational content through the development of a new Youtube channel; and building out a social media presence in support of the upcoming second edition of “Branding Law Cases and Materials”.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
Realizing early on that the pandemic would affect various geographic areas and economic sectors in different ways, we decided to expand our focus globally, also reaching out to a wider range of industries. As a result, when certain parts of the U.S. and particular regions of the world would see a spike in COVID cases, any consequent declines in demand for our services would be offset by increased demand elsewhere, thus ensuring a consistent flow of business and no interruption of workflow during these challenging times.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
Recognizing the need for a new type of law firm for startup clients, we set out to create a brand new business model, bridging the gap between the non-lawyer legal service provider companies and the more traditional law firm structure. Eschewing hourly billing in favor of predictable, flat-fee payment is appreciated by bootstrapping founders and entrepreneurs. Limiting our practice areas to those legal fields most relevant to emerging companies helps keep overhead costs down, allowing us to provide more reasonable rates. And offering attorney access twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week enables us to serve early-stage businesses worldwide.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
Constantly seeking out new business opportunities and developing new concepts.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
Establishing a compelling online presence is key; then taking the necessary time for building backlinks in order to gain high page rank and SEO. So I’d spend the majority of that budget on vetting/hiring a talented web designer/developer, most-likely freelance, for maximum value.
What are the top 3 legal mistakes entrepreneurs make launching their new business and how to avoid it?
Besides failing to properly clear and/or assign intellectual property rights, the other major mistake is when companies fail to select an adequately ‘strong’ brand name. While suggestive or descriptive trademarks typically require less marketing effort, they are much more difficult to enforce. So that’s why we always instruct our clients to take these key legal considerations into account during the brand creation process. Fanciful or even arbitrary names will better serve a business long term. Because at the end of the day, why invest resources in something as essential as brand development when competitors could potentially begin using something highly similar as well?
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Advance planning and market research are both key in order to fill a specific niche while also developing a unique selling proposition.
What is your favorite quote?
Vince Lombardi’s “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity” has always resonated on a personal and professional level, driving important business decisions and success over the past thirty years.
How can we get in touch with you?
Please reach out via our website contact form at goldmanlawgroup.com or directly through email: wsg@goldmanlawgroup.com
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