Manage your IP well

One afternoon I was talking to a friend of mine about our Business Processes, Training Processes, and some of the technology that we had developed to help us in our business.

Suddenly he piped up ” I hope you are putting a value to all this. This is your intellectual property”.

That got me thinking. As a startup you dont think about these things. Yet you are unconsiously building up knowledge as you go along. Its this knowledge that helps you do things better the next time, give your customer a better service, or help you do your work faster. That if you think about it, is your Intellectual Property.

Some tips:

1. Document the things that you do however trivial it might seem. These could be quality processes, sample work, customer feedbacks.

2. Keep all the documentation in an easily accessable place. More importantly use it.

3. Listen to your co-workers and employees. Sometimes the best ideas come from them.

Your business is special, so is your knowledge.