4 Powerhouse Programs for Montreal Entrepreneurs, Jamie Benizri

Business Tips from Grandma, Serial Entrepreneur Carlos Zappien

Q&A: Do I Need A Trademark? David Kynan, Marketing Director at Legal Logik

Introducing Logik TV

IN THIS ISSUE

October/November 2016

Jamie Benizri

If you’ve seen the news over the last few months, you’ve likely heard that Montreal is consistently rated as the worst city in Canada for starting a business. While we all know there are a few barriers to business in Quebec, and specifically Montreal, such as construction season (all year long!), there are also plenty of perks in Montreal you won’t find anywhere else.

While Montreal might not have done well in the rankings, the list of Montreal startups that have crushed it gets longer everyday. Just think of homegrown startups like Aldo, Luxury Retreats and Frank & Oak - all Montreal companies that made it big. Then

there’s the mobile app BusBud, which just raked in $9 million from its round of Series A funding, Seevibes, which got $1 million in seed funding (and presently ranks as one of the best of such platforms in its industry niche) and reelyActive, voted the “World’s Best Startup” at Startup World 2013.

I chose to dedicate our very first issue of Legal Logik Monthy the state of business in the city. As an attorney by trade and passionate entrepreneur at heart, helping the business community has always been dear to me, and it’s become essential objective of the entire team at Legal Logik.

In this issue, we outline 4 unique resources you can benefit from as a Montreal entrepreneur, alongside a feature article from my good friend and serial entrepreneur, Carlos Zappien, in which he reveals solid business tips that have helped him build more than 4 companies.

Next, Legal Logik’s marketing director, David Kynan, will provide an entrepreneur’s perspective to a common question we get: Should you register a trademark?

Finally, discover Logik TV, our brand new initiative to offer bite-sized legal education that fun, instructional and entertaining!

As always, we welcome your questions and comments. Email us at:logikgram@legallogik.com

4 Powerhouse Programs for Montreal Entrepreneurs

Parcours Innovation PME Montreal entrePrism

Want a boost for your startup or business? Checkout these 4 powerhouse programs unique to Montreal.

Created by the City of Montreal in Collaboration with C2MTL, the Parcours Innovation PME Montreal accepts 30 companies each year who are offered free trainings, mentoring and coaching to achieve their most important business objectives. Legal Logik was accepted as a participant in the 2015 edition and let’s just say it was a year of insights, learning, ideas and action!

Apply at ville.montreal.qc.ca/parcoursinnovation/

HEC Montréal, Polytechnique Montréal and Université de Montréal have teamed up to create Campus Montreal, a unique initiative to raise funds to fuel entrepreneurship in Quebec. But one thing that stands out is Campus Montreal’s new entrePrism program. entrePrism offers up entrepreneurship as a tool for social and economic integration, helping immigrant entrepreneurs start up new businesses and grow existing ones here in Canada offering a co-working space, trainings and courses, funding. mentoring, networking events and more.

Get involved at entreprism.hec.ca/

Q&A: Do I Need A Trademark?

entrePrism

Réseau MInstitute for Entrepreneurship National Bank | HEC Montréal

Offered by the Fondation de l’entrepreneurship,Réseau M provides high calibre mentoring from accredited mentors to over a thousand mentees.

Find your mentor at http://www.entrepreneurship.qc.ca/mentorat-pour-entrepreneurs

With a $10 million dollar donation from National Bank, the Institute for Entrepreneurship National Bank | HEC Montréal was launched, devoted to entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial takeovers and business families. It will give students and the business community access to tools, events, networking, event spaces and an ideaaccelerator.

and what you have is a molecule of meaning. This molecule is made up of sensory cues - words, colours, sounds and designs - that signify to the buyer certain qualties, characteristics, emotions and experiences.

To create a powerful brand takes massive investment of time, effort and money, but when you succeed, your brand can command premium prices, drive loyalty and build brand equity - every entrepreneur’s dream.

As an entrepreneur, I learned the value of a brand early on. The world’s greatest companies conquer consumers the world over by creating unique, memorable and meaning-laden brands that come to symbolize particular qualities and experiences.

Through branding, a brand becomes a shortcut in the mind of the consumer, acting as a “buy button” so that when a consumer sees a certain combination of words, colours and designs, a buy button is pushed, circumventing rational conscious thought. Consumers benefit because they don’t have to go through a long, drawnout thought process just to choose a brand of gum. Companies benefit by earning a priviledged place in the mind of buyers.

But the world’s most valuable brands - Apple, Google, Coca Cola, Walmart - are not just brands, they are trademarks.

Take any brand - Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Xerox-,

As Director of Marketing and Communications at Legal Logik Inc., David Kynan blends his background in consumer psychology and services marketing with innovative applications of technology to realize Legal Logik’s mission and help make legal services more accessible, convenient and affordable.

But would you invest so much in a brand if it didn’t really belong to you?

That’s where trademarks come in. A trademark is like “brand insurance”, whereby you are granted exclusive legal rights to the use of your brand mark (product or business name, logo, slogan, jingle etc.). When you register a trademark, no one else can use your mark in that particular jurisdiction without your express permission.

This makes your brand more valuable because copiers are dissuaded and if anyone tries to use the same, or a similar mark, the law will be on your side. Second, it opens up the potential for new revenue streams, such as licensing and franchising.

As a marketer or entrepreneur, it’s easy to focus on branding without realizing the importance of trademarking, but we can learn important lessons from the world’s greatest brands. For world-class brands, intellectual property is a fundamental element of their business strategy, completely intertwines with branding.

They create winning brands, concepts, and designs, register them as trademarks so they are protected, and then fire them out into the marketplace to drive revenue.

DAVID KYNANMarketing Director, Legal Logik

By Carlos ZappienGrandma’s Advice in Today’s Business

Growing up I saw my grandma, mom and many family members start and develop businesses. Grandma in particular comes from a family of business people and all of her life she had stores, ranches and different kinds of investments. She is now 99 years old and to this day she continues to manage her money, keeps busy in her garden and is treasurer of the senior center she goes to in New York. She started her last business at 70 and closed shop a few years later when Grandpa’s Alzheimer’s

became a full-time job.

She has never stopped and to this day she continues to push me in the right direction. Ever since I started my first business at 16, she has always given me her pieces of wisdom on how to run a business the right way with no nonsense. But in today’s business environment, how can I apply that wisdom? She called me a few weeks ago and we discussed this and here is what I got from it:

This is the toughest lesson of them all to sell to many startup-oriented entrepreneurs I know, with everybody focused on getting investment, burning it and then go back for more, burning it, then start a new business to do the same thing. Grandma’s advice goes against that. Her point is this: if you create something that you can sell for a profit, and if people pay for it in enough quantities so you can pay for rent, then you’re in business. If you’re not selling enough to pay for rent, maybe it’s time to rethink your business.

This was valid before and now. So it’s important to go out there and get clients, via good advertising, marketing and then make sure to keep them happy and returning for more. You can either keep track of them with a pencil and a piece of paper, spreadsheet or use bigger and better tools like a full blown Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and by using tools like Google Analytics to understand how to respond better to your customer’s needs.

Actually her saying was “If you don’t speak up, God won’t listen”, but for all sense and purposes the meaning is: you need to let people know you’re there and you’re ready for business. Gone are the days when a plain newspaper advertisement and word of mouth were enough to grow a business. Now it’s essential to properly market and advertise online via: online ads on Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

After that you need to ensure you track where your potential clients are coming from and target advertising specific to their needs, which is entirely possible with today’s online advertising services. And that’s not all, you need to provide added value with blogs and newsletters so that you can experience organic growth. A good online and social media strategy will definitely help you increase your sales without spending your kids’ college fund in order to achieve it.

This sounds simple: you set up shop, you got to be present during business hours and give the best service possible. But in today’s business environment you need to be present online and ready to provide good service.

To be present you need an updated website with clear ways for your customers to contact you, a way to subscribe to your newsletter and if possible, eCommerce set up and ready to be able to let your clients pay you as soon as they’re ready. If you don’t have a website, maybe it’s time to reconsider your business strategy.

These are only a few of the lessons from Grandma. Till next time.

is a Montreal Entrepreneur, Musician and Boxer who writes a weekly column for the Montreal Times Saturday Edition.

CARLOS ZAPPIEN

By Carlos Zappien

1. If you have clients, you’re in business

2. If you have a shop,be there

3. Speak up to get what you want

LOGIK TV: NOW PLAYING ON A SCREEN NEAR YOU

What to Expect from Logik TV

Where can you turn - as an individual or business owner - for simple, straightforward legal information in bite-sized chunks? Logik TV!

After much planning and brainstorming, our brand new YouTube show, Logik TV, is live! Designed for the busy person who needs fast and clear information, Logik TV aims to make it fun and interesting to learn about legal topics.

Call it law-tertainment!

Each episode of Logik TV zooms in on a specific concept so you can get the essentials of a particular topic in just a few minutes. Borrowing a bit from the science of learning and memory, we’ve worked to make the content easy to grasp and remember with bullet lists, quick facts, tips, coles notes and questions you should be asking in various situations.

And so you can learn not just from a lawyer, but also from other legal professionals, entrepreneurs and people just like you, you can expect to find expert interviews, discussions with entrepreneurs, and live legal consults with a range of individuals.

Why Logik TV?

While invisible, the law is inseparable from every aspect of life. From behind the scenes, it dictates how we are to behave when operating a business, driving a car and even when posting on the internet! Yet no one got Law 101 in school (unless you lucked out and got some in university!) and few business owners attended legal boot camp before launching.

The result of this is a lack of what I call legal literacy. Lack of legal literacy causes a ton of problems for people who only know what they need to know in hindsight.

Now Logik TV is in the mix!Have legal questions or suggestions for topics you’d like to be tackled in a future episode?

Send your ideas to logiktv@legallogik.comCheck out www.legallogik.com/logiktv

Legal information and education is so crucial, but tends to be complex and boring… So how could we change that and actually make legal content interesting, fun and engaging and while being educational and informative? Logik TV!

Our aim for Logik TV is that it be a source for clear, simple and straightforward answers to help busy people get answers to their legal questions, on demand, and a few laughs along the way.

Disclaimer

Information made available In this newsletter in any form is for information purposes only. It is not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. It is not in any circumstances a substitute for the advice or services of a notary or lawyer. You should not rely on, or take or fail to take any action based upon this information. Never disregard professional legal advice or delay in seeking legal advice because of something you have read on this website.Contact our team at Legal Logik to get tailored advice for your specific legal issue.

About Legal Logik

Voted Most Innovative Law Firm in Canada 2015, Legal Logik offers legal services for the modern era with fixed-pricing, innovative online service packages and an expert team of industry-leading attorneys.

Find essential services for business available 24/7 from Legal Logik’s online store such as No-Fee Business Incorporation and trademark registration alongside traditional legal services such as civil

Legal Logikwww.legallogik.com Montreal7575 Route Transcanadienne (Suite 407)Montreal, QC, H4T 1V6info@legallogik.com 514-419-4069

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precedent, earning him a reputation as a creative legal thinker and leading professional. Both in the court-room and outside, his extensive experience with entrepreneurs, start-ups and corporate clients has made him an expert in helping businesses large and small meet their objectives and protect their interests.

About Jamie Benizri,Attorney and Founder at Legal Logik

An attorney by trade and an entrepreneur at heart, Jamie Benizri continues to challenge industry standards and develop innovative service models that make it easier for individuals, and businesses to meet their legal needs.

As a corporate and civil litigator, Jamie has created several cases of

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