The Dreaded Copyright Infringement Notice

Image courtesy of Markus Winkler on Unsplash (Yes, this freely usable, in case you were wondering)

There is genuine misuse of images online, but 9 times out of 10, it’s just an honest mistake and the threatening notice comes from a copyright troll.

Talk to any blogger or small business owner who blogs and they will tell you they’ve received a copyright infringement notice. This is because bloggers often use images from free image sites, or Wikipedia that often have cryptic citations that you may not have read carefully. Sometimes it’s from years ago, from a blog you don’t even host anymore, but it is still accessible on the Internet Archive, aka the Wayback Machine – you’d be amazed some of the stuff there. These annoying copyright notices are common, but usually it’s just a shakedown from a copyright troll, so before you call a lawyer, here’s what to do about it.

Do Your Research

First of all, don’t ignore it. Take time to check the sender, the links provided, and any other sources they provide. Search on google for the people, organizations, and businesses mentioned in the notice – if they come up with numerous complaints then you know you’re dealing with a troll. Now sometimes, the notice will come from a legitimate law firm, and they may seem to have a legitimate case, but the way to approach it, is still the same.

Before we start, it’s important to understand why these copyright notices are even a thing. Legitimate law firms represent artists who have a right to compensation. If they believe you have misused their art, and are responsible for paying the artist back, then they will send these notices. However, how much they recover, and how much the artists receives, is usually a balance with how much it costs to recover it in the first place. Law firms charge by time, so if the process will take a long time, it may no longer be worth it for them to continue pursuing it. This can be to your advantage, if you know how to respond.

Trolls have a very different motivation. Sometimes, they put out images on free sites with the express purpose of ensnaring users of those images. Other times, they have no connection to the original artist at all, and they are just trying to shake you down. And sometimes, the whole process is just created with an AI and is just an automated set of back-and-forth steps designed to weaken your resolve to make you pay for something you truly believe you had access to. The important thing with trolls is that time is not always a big deal for them and they can drag it out for a long time at minimal cost. This information is also useful for you.

Don’t Pay the Ferryman

After you’ve done your research, it’s time to respond – not to their automatic payment portal, but to the return address or email. Often, you may never hear anything more after that. You will already have scared them off. The sad reality is that many people just pay through the portal and that is what the trolls hope for. Unfortunately, if they are truly evil, that will tell them they can probably get more out of you and they’ll send more notices. So whatever you do, don’t pay through the portal!

Always Stay Courteous and Polite

Instead, you will send a polite message asking them for clarification. If anything in the original notice wasn’t clear, this is your opportunity to respond. Now, if you receive a response in seconds, then you know you’re dealing with an automated process, ie. a troll. However, if you receive a detailed response several hours later or a few days later, then you are likely dealing with a human being, possibly at a legitimate law firm.

One important note about your response. Make it as short as possible. Don’t try to explain yourself, just ask one simple question, like: “What does this term mean?” Doing this should weed out the majority of trolls, and if it’s a legitimate law firm, it will cost them time. The reason you want this to be short, is because a legitimate law firm will parse out anything you say that may be useful in their case, so you want to give them as little as possible.

It’s All About Time

Make a careful note of the urgency presented in the notice and response. At this stage, a legitimate law firm will see this as marginally urgent. They may include a repetition that they need a timely response, but they aren’t pressing for that yet. On the other hand, a troll response will likely include very aggressive language and urgency.

Also, make a note of any spelling and grammar errors. A legitimate law firm won’t make any such errors, and troll is likely to. This might also be a good time to pass the letters through an AI checker like GPTZero and see if this was an auto-generated response. A legitimate law firm typically won’t do that.

Now if it is AI generated, this provides an opportunity for another response from you: send another polite message telling them that their response was AI generated and that as a matter of policy, you see that as problematic. Don’t say anything definite like you are now stopping all communications. Just say that this is problematic. A legitimate law firm will then respond with an explanation or restatement of the original letter that will definitely not be AI generated. A troll, on the other hand, will respond with more aggressive language, threatening deadlines, and likely another AI generated response.

As you go through these steps, it will become increasingly clear if you are dealing with a troll. This means that you can stop responding at any time after you determine that. They might continue to send a few more notices, but eventually it will stop and you’ll be done. However, if you are dealing with a legitimate law firm, or a very capable troll, you’ll need to continue the process.

If the responses continue in a polite and orderly manner, you are dealing with a more serious person or organization – either a legitimate law firm, or a determined troll who’s done this before. So, once you’ve exhausted all the clarification questions you can think of from their emails, it’s time to step up to the actual content.

You Need Proof!

At this point, you need to ask for their right to represent the original artist. Ask for proof of representation, or proof of ownership. This is where most trolls will balk because they can’t produce it, or they will produce something that is obviously fake. When you receive the “proof” study it carefully for anything that may be suspicious.

If there is something off about the proof, then you have another opportunity to ask for more clarification. If you see more than one problem, raise the first and least obvious detail about this document, wait for a response, ask for more clarification on that specific issue if you can, and only them move onto the next issue. The goal here is to extend the timeline.

Trolls will become exacerbated with this, while law firms will need to consider the ROI of continuing the process. This is typically when they start reminding you of deadlines they initially imposed. Trolls by this point will just start to sound repetitive and more belligerent.

Make Them Prove Their Smarts

Once you have exhausted all possible issues with their proof. It’s time to challenge their knowledge of the art they claim to represent. Tell them that the image you used is not the same as the one they claim to have rights over. Now, if the image is completely identical, then you may not have as many back-and-forth options here, but it will still provide more opportunity to extend the timeline. A legitimate law firm will likely struggle here – they’re law firms, not forensic experts.

However, most people always crop, re-compress, stretch, or change the resolution on images, just because they need to do this for their uses, and most free image sites allow this. I do this as well. So, the image they claim to have an original of, will likely not be identical – at the very least it will be a bite or two different in size or at least one pixel off. This poses a problem for them. They claim to have rights to an image, not the likeness of that image.

Again, this is an opportunity to go back to what their original proof of ownership document specifically states. You can go back and forth quite a few more times over the original document here. If not, just stick to your guns and insist that the image that you used is different from the one from the artists they claim to represent.

All this back-and-forth will force the legitimate law firm to recalculate their ROI on this case. They may just decide to bow out at this point. I have seldom had a law firm continue past this point. That said, I was prepared for the next steps.

Getting Serious

Let’s assume that they have all their ducks in a row and they continue pressing you. Let’s also assume that we are no longer dealing with a troll, and that this is likely a legitimate law firm. This is where it now gets serious. I still think there is more back-and-forth possible at this stage, but YMMV.

For example, this is where I would start with redirecting the law firm to the original source of the image. If you acquired it from Wikipedia, Pexels, Unsplash, Pixabay, or some other free image site, then explain to them that they are the real infringing party. This carries extra weight if the image is still there for others to download freely.

It’s not a strong argument, but it will provide more back-and-forth opportunities. When they insist you are still responsible, ask them to provide legal language that this is indeed the case. If you were still dealing with a common troll, this is where you would finally lose them. A legitimate law firm can provide this fairly easily, but not without more back-and-forth, and consequently more expense for them.

You can extend this new discussion by sending them copy-paste excerpts from the right-usage pages from the original free image site and ask them to explain how their legal documents supersede the language on the site. When they do, tell them you’re not a lawyer and that you need it in plain English. Tell them to clarify things you don’t understand, and keep this going for as long as you can.

If the image is no longer available on the original free image site, tell them that because of that fact, this is no longer a legitimate claim. Of course, they’ll tell you that there is no time limit on copyright infringements, which is true, but it will probably be more legalese. So, you’ll need this in plain English too …with clarifications.

Time to Call in the Allies

• If they are still hanging onto their claim after all this time, then you need to bring in some help. This is when you seek assistance. Here are some organizations that will offer assistance and powerful resources:

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
  https://www.eff.org/issues/copyright-trolls
  They have resources about which steps you should take next and also a large database of known copyright trolls.

• Creator Assistance Directory
  https://copyrightalliance.org/resources/creator-assistance-directory/
  This is a list of expert volunteer lawyers who specialize in copyright troll cases.

• Copyright Claims Board Pro Bono Assistance
  https://ccb.gov/pro-bono-assistance/
  This is another list of organizations, law firms, and individuals who can assist.

• Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
  https://vlany.org/
  They are based in New York, but they have quite a bit of experience dealing with trolls.

• Law School Clinics
  Believe it or not, law students need practice too. Check with local law schools and see if any students there are available to assist you with your specific case.

• Fight Copyright Trolls
  https://FightCopyrightTrolls.com
  This is a blog that covers recent cases involving copyright trolls. There are some very knowledgeable writers here and valuable information.

But what if the allies don’t save the day?

Whenever you need to ask for assistance, you are then at the mercy of those who provide it. I get it. People are busy. The sad fact is that copyright trolls are a plague and there are only so many cases they can pursue. So what do you do then? Well, you are not out for the count yet.

Feign Ignorance or Claim Hardship

This is where you’ll need to get creative. Stay polite and firm, but let the legitimate law firm know that you really had no idea that this was copyrighted. Say that the website where you found the image didn’t have clear instructions. Tell them that you will take the image down, that you’ll never do it again and that you want to resolve this amicably.

If that fails, then tell them that are not a big fish, and that they really should go after the free image website – yes, I know you’ve already mentioned this, but it never hurts to say it again. Tell them you have limited resources, you are just a small operation, you’re a non-profit... trying to do good, you are really broke, and that you can’t possibly pay the fines. If you have a disability, mention that too.

Now if this was still a troll (unlikely, but perhaps), then they will likely offer a lower cost option at this stage. A legitimate law firm won’t. The latter will believe they’ve finally broken you down and insist on the full amount. They may even up the fines because it’s taken this long – that, by the way, is not legally permissible unless they said they would do that from the beginning. If so, then you have more opportunity to extend this out into the future with more discussion. Remember, even now, the legitimate law firm is having to cover costs.

They haven’t broken you though. You just need them to think so. If they insist on payment, tell them that you can’t afford it. This is when they’ll offer various ways to pay it in installments – law firms being expensive, this is always an option for them. Of course, the payments will need to be online…

Distrust the Process

(Note: The next steps involve delaying or avoiding payment altogether, which may or may not be legal. I am not giving legal advice, I am only suggesting how you might proceed. What you do from here on is your own decision and I cannot be legally responsible for any of it.)

At this point, the assumption is that you were indeed partially at fault, that you could not demonstrate that you had a legitimate right to use the image, and that the legitimate law firm has made a convincing case. It is time to consider making actual payment.

This is when you explain that you never pay for anything online. You don’t trust online payments. Then they’ll say they will invoice you by mail and ask for your mailing address if they don’t have it already. If they don’t, then don’t give it to them. Tell them that you don’t give that out. Again, you’re just a small, poor, vulnerable operation, remember? You don’t operate like that. Tell them that you will only meet with someone locally to hand deliver a check. They will balk at that. Whether you pay online or in person the next steps are similar.

They will likely ask you to arrange for a payment transfer through your bank. Tell them OK, but you’ve never done this. When they give you the transfer info, you might not get all the info correctly. More opportunity to extend the process with more back-and-forth. Take your time responding.

Again, every delay costs them more money. The longer it takes, the more likely they are to give up, which is your goal. Find every excuse not to pay, but eventually you may have to, so make that process as painfully slow as you can too.

Actual Payment

When/if you do send payment, send a single dollar. When they complain, tell them you must have made a mistake. Ask for a new total minus what you already sent them. If anything is off about the amounts or other info on that document, question that too.

Send another single dollar. When they complain again, tell them you were just confirming that it worked and that you were familiarizing yourself with the process. You might mention that this was fun and you’re learning a lot. Thank them for this. Then ask for a new total. Then question it.

This time send a smaller amount than requested. When they complain again, tell them that was all you had in the account. You had already told them you would have trouble paying. Ask for another total. Question it also. Rinse, lather repeat.

This time send a much smaller amount than requested. When they complain this time, tell them that is all you had to give this time. Times have been tough for you and you just didn’t have more to give. Ask for another total. Question it.

Again, send a smaller amount. Tell them that now you lost track of the amount owed and that all the amounts no longer add up properly. This is becoming too complicated for you. Ask for a full accounting of what was received, dates, times, and amounts. Dispute the amounts and dates. Ask for another final total. Pay less, and repeat one more time. Ask for another total.

This is about when you should insist on a lower total than what is owed. The reason is that the law firm may start to believe that you’ll never pay it all at this rate or that it will take far too long. If they lower the total (or the next installment total), you may be breaking them down. Even if they don’t give you a smaller total, send another lower payment than requested. Ask for another total. Question it.

This might be a good time to take a break from the whole process. Let a few more letters/invoices come and don’t respond. After a few more, respond again saying you are back from vacation, had an illness, or whatever. Don’t send any payment, just let them know you are back and wait for a response. Then ask for another total. Question it.

When they send another invoice, again send less than requested. Keep doing this. Use the same excuses as before. The hope is that you will wear them down. For them, the only alternative is to take you to court, but for such a small amount, that’s unlikely. They’ll also need to do that somewhere where you can actually travel to that courthouse, so if they are from out-of-state, that’s more expense for them.

Now even by dragging this out as long as you can, you may at some point have to pay all the fines owed, but that is unlikely. Any copyright troll will have given up long ago, while the legitimate law firm will not see a ROI in pursuing it this far. They will give up.

At some point, they will send a letter saying they will not pursue it further and the matter is closed. Take that letter, frame it, and hang it in your office.

Congratulations, you’ve won!

…And no one likes a troll!
Image courtesy of Eleanor Smith on Pixabay.

The Billionaire’s Right Hand

Let’s consider a real-world example of what a humanities-trained professional brings to the table.

Understanding the relationship between people is key to being a good mediator
Image courtesy of Pexels.

Recently, I was part of a meeting to help resolve a catastrophic business and technical problem that had been created over years of neglect. The meeting had quickly become acrimonious, with managers blaming each other for everything from blatant incompetence to outright fraud. Meanwhile the owner of the business, who was clearly not able to follow the deeper technical issues being argued about, seemed just as paralyzed by the anger and frustration at the table. Meanwhile the business was at a standstill.

I had been asked to present a technical solution to this complex problem, but it was clear that feelings and emotions were the priority. I had brought my son along to just listen in and learn a few things. He has been shadowing me this summer while he is home from college. I had not intended for him to take part in the meeting, but at the point when it looked like pens were going to be thrown across the table, he motioned at the owner, as if to ask for permission (without really receiving it), and then he stood up and asked if he could speak.

Now up to this point everyone was still seated, so his decision to stand was a surprise to everyone. Likewise, he was unknown to everyone, much younger than every gray haired expert in the room, tall and skinny but with an athletic built, and wearing a dark blue polo shirt with a bright Cal logo – it was the only “nice” shirt he had brought home. …And for that brief critical moment, the entire room fell silent – I was as stunned as everyone else and ready to usher him out of the room at the first sign of trouble, but that would not be necessary.

After a pause that seemed far too long, he spoke softly and said: “So, what we are all in agreement on is that the previous management team made a grave mistake that resulted in one team receiving more funding and consequent growth than the other team, and this imbalance grew over the past several years…” he then paused again to ensure he had everyone’s agreement; one person even nodded. He then continued: “…then what David here is simply trying to propose is to use this excess to repair the imbalance, and this will require everyone to agree to work together to make that happen.”

At that point, I was more stunned at the fact that he used a first name, than the fact that he had just synthesized at least a month’s worth of bitter communication on this issue, culminating in this contentious meeting, into a single sentence. Now there was quite a bit more discussion after that and my son spent the next hour slowly bringing both sides together, but in the end, everyone walked out of the meeting like they now had a path forward to solving the problem. I even overheard one of the engineers walking out asking: “Who was that guy?”

Who Was That Guy?

My son was a typical teen in high school. He played soccer, worked hard for good grades, and his academic interests were primarily in English, foreign language, history and social sciences. After highschool he attended the local community college, took the requisite STEM classes to get by, but continued focusing on his main interests. He did however, join a competitive debate team and eventually received his associates degree with top honors. This allowed him to enter Berkeley where he is now completing his bachelor’s degrees in history and Dutch language. He is also on the archery team and president of the Dutch club on campus.

To say that we regularly have to answer the obligatory “So what does he plan to do after college?” question at every social event would be an understatement. Here’s what everyone fails to see. As a humanities major he is studying how people get along, in his case, how people have been getting along for centuries. That is something you don’t need to be born with, it is something you can learn. Some do it by studying psychology, some with a foreign language, and some with art. These are all social sciences and they teach skills that are critical in business, government, medicine, and yes also technology.

At those dreaded social events, I could tell them that my son’s true focus is the historical, cultural, and economic history between the United States and Europe and that he is looking to parlay that into becoming the preeminent expert in this field. This could flick on the switch on that lightbulb, but that’s too long of an explanation at a bustling party with alcohol, music, and appetizers too good not to be a distraction. So, we just leave it at: “He’s studying history and Dutch language” and, unless they are truly interested, we move on to the latest soccer scores.

Now, my son knows enough tech and business to stand up in this meeting, synthesize the major arguments down to their core components, and recommend a path forward. He does not, however, have the skills to do those things himself. That is for the engineers and accountants in the room to figure out, but that is not why he was in this meeting in the first place. Actually, he wasn’t really supposed to be there, but even I was too wrapped up in the technical details to see what was needed at that precise point and time. What was needed was someone to break the tension in the room, calm everyone down, speak with authority to move the meeting forward, and then bring everyone in agreement to work together to resolve the problem.

This is not an Indictment of STEM

My late father was a brilliant engineer who worked for two of the top medical systems corporations in the world. He eventually moved into management. In that role, he would be the deciding role in hiring newly graduated engineers hoping for a job at these prestigious companies. He would ask the applicants a simple question: “Can you describe to me how a transistor works?” or the one question he would always ask me: “Can you describe the law of ohm?” Ironically, very few of these engineers with impressive resumes, skilled in the latest bio tech and computer advances, could actually answer this question.

Studying STEM at the university level is not just about numbers and physics. Likewise, studying business and economics isn’t either. Those skills are the basis, but a true education is about how that basis fits into the world. That is something that is learned both inside the classroom and outside of it – it is the ability to bring those two worlds together and do something useful with it. Those are the people that succeed out of college and into successful careers.

The same is true for the humanities. Anyone can go to a university and immerse themselves in Plato’s Phaedo, the origins of the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, or Malevich’s Suprematism in Kandinsky's art. The bigger skill, however, is to be able to take that knowledge and use it in the latest Peloton Marketing proposal, the strategy for JPMorgan Chase’s foray into tokenized blockchain funds, or the campaign to elect James Talarico as the first democratic senator in Texas since 1988. Those humanities graduates who can do that, just like the engineers who can explain a transistor in plain English, those are the ones who will succeed in any field they choose to work in.

What Owners, CEOs and Billionaires Need

The owner of this company didn’t have someone on their management staff with those skills. As with most small tech companies, built up with an amazing idea by a single brilliant engineer who eventually became the owner, the management team was made up of engineers and accountants, all smart and well educated in their own fields. That is what  the owner understood and knew, so he hired people of like mind.

When he started the business, literally out of his own garage, he hired his buddy from college to be his second-in-command. He wasn’t happy with his other corporate gig, so he was more than eager to move over. He worked in this business for another 15 years and then retired to a lodge in Tahoe. Over time, as the business grew and they moved into an office building, the business hired more brilliant people that had the same skills.

For the first few years, the business continued to grow. Everyone who worked there was satisfied and things were good. It grew into a bustling “small” business, the kind that dot all of Orange County, CA where I offer my services. Because everything was looking up, they did not notice the imbalance that grew in the business. After all, everything was going well. Even as the problem slowly became more apparent, everyone just assumed that someone “at the top” was handling it.

That was the way the business ran… until the day it came to a screeching halt. They would like to say it was a surprise, but it really wasn’t. Now they were stuck and they needed something, or someone, to get them unstuck. They needed someone who could see the simplicity of the actual problem, present it in an orderly way, and convince the entire team to work together to solve it. What this business owner needed was a capable right-hand-man (or woman).

Now we just dropped our son back off at college. He won’t be working for this business owner. He might not even work for any business owner. Maybe he’ll pursue a career in an entirely different field. We don’t yet know. What we do know, however, is that he is learning valuable skills, skills that thousands of other students are learning in the top colleges and universities in this country. Even many STEM students could be learning these skills, but these are skills that are primarily taught in the humanities. They are the ability to understand how people get along and to use that ability to get them to continue to get along.

Well, that was my attempt to synthesize this article into a single sentence. Hmmm, maybe I should ask my son for some pointers on how to express that a little better…

An Important Lesson about a Fishing Rod

Sometimes we cherish things so much that we miss the time to enjoy them.

Image by tookapic on Pixabay

I used to love going fishing with my late grandfather, my Opa, in the Netherlands. He would wake me up at the crack of dawn and tell me to get dressed. We would walk to the shed where we would make the bait from wet bread dough that he then stored inside an old metal cigar box. He had a special small fishing rod for kids that I could use, while he used the big heavy one he had always used. We would then grab the rods, a couple of stools, and a small bucket, and then walk, hand-in-hand, for what seemed like miles, to the local pond.

It was a special spot between the reeds where he had come the night before to toss some breadcrumbs into the water to attract the fish in the morning. We would then sit for what also seemed like hours, very quietly, just fishing by the side of the water. It was a time of quite contemplation, but also great excitement as the bobbers bobbed up and down.

We didn’t always catch much, but when we did, it was the pinnacle of the morning. There was commotion and movement as my Opa helped me pull a fish out of the water. Consequently, it was also a moment when I was allowed to say a few words, a happy respite from the long wait. Then when it was all done and my Opa had put the fish in our bucket, it was back to the quiet watching and sitting…

Those were some of the best memories I can remember of my childhood. Fishing with Opa was a special time that every one of my older cousins had enjoyed as well. Even my uncles did it, and my oldest uncle, Uncle Jan, loved it as much as any one of us. By the time he was married and had his own children, he was a fishing enthusiast. He even lived right off a lake, owned a boat, and had many fancy fishing rods. He was a pro, you might say.

Now my Opa’s fishing rod was from before the war. It was old. It had been repaired many times; it was even broken in half once …and repaired. It wasn’t nice or flashy, either, just a dull brown with slightly rusted parts here and there. It was also heavy and the spool was just barely functional (also having been repaired many times).

The Upgrade!

On my Opa’s 76th birthday, and with much fanfare, my uncle Jan gifted his father a brand-new fishing rod. It was shiny, strong but light, and beautiful to behold. Everything worked, including the large spool with gold-tone wire in it. We were all in awe, and a bit envious, too. What a kingly gift. My Opa was also in awe. It was so beautiful and perfect he dared not use it at all.

And that is exactly what happened. That awesome beautiful rod went into the shed, stood right next to the old brown rod ready for use, but it never left the shed. My Opa, the most humble, kind, thoughtful, and deeply protestant man I knew, never used his new fishing rod. After all, the old rod still worked. Why not use that one for now, at least until it breaks again? It was just the practical thing to do.

So, for the next few years my Opa and I continued fishing every summer, me with my little rod and he with his old, trusty, heavy, brown rod. The beautiful new rod remained standing there in the shed all those years, never dipping a line in the water. As my Opa grew older, as I grew older, and all the other cousins also outgrew their fishing right-of-passage with Opa, he too stopped going to the pond to fish. He had grown too old and tired to fish and eventually too old and tired to walk anymore. Eventually he passed on as well.

Other than the time I’ve spent with my late father was he was growing old too, there is little I miss more than those special early morning fishing with my Opa. I never found out what happened to that beautiful fishing rod in the shed. I believe it passed onto my Uncle Jan who now has also passed. I’m guessing his eldest son has it sitting in his shed, but I really hope that he has used it. It was such a beautiful fishing rod and it would be a shame if it was never used by anyone in our family.

It’s Not Just About a Fishing Rod!

So why am I sharing the story of a fishing rod on a blog about small business ownership? Well because we all have our own fishing rod sitting around and not being used. Admit it, we all have something we received or that we bought for ourselves that is just sitting there that is better than what we are currently using.

I know I have a Mobile Fidelity Ultradeck record player that I never pulled out of the shipping box because I still have a perfectly good one on my stereo rack – maybe I’m more like my Opa that I’d like to admit. Maybe you have that special bottle of 15-yr Macallan Double Cask sitting in the cupboard? Or perhaps you received a Massage Envy gift card that is still adding girth to your wallet needlessly (and contributing to your bad posture). Perhaps you have a red 1970 Chevy Camaro that you spent years restoring that is now being forgotten under a cover in the garage.

So maybe this weekend is the time to invite some good friends over take them for a drive down the strip in that beautiful Camaro, then come back to listen to some old school records and crack open that bottle of scotch. Then, the next morning you can go enjoy that full-body massage your aching back has been begging for. YOLO.

This sentiment doesn’t just apply to your personal life either. It can also apply to your business. Perhaps it’s time to toss those old manilla folders with the worn tabs and rip the plastic off the new box of brightly colored ones with the reinforced tabs. Or maybe it’s time to replace that dingy keyboard with the missing J key and the wobbly space bar. While you’re at it, replace that sticky mouse with the coffee stain, too.

Likewise, are you still running an old version of Quickbooks on your computers? If so, take a few minutes to upgrade it. You’ve probably paid for the software already, so there’s no reason not to. Personally, I know I need to set up my shiny new firewall. It is still sitting patiently in a sealed little box, right on top of the energy-hog firewall server computer it will replace.

It’s About Time!

Why we never get to these important upgrades in our lives is perhaps a topic for a future blog. For now, take some time to look around and see it there are things in your life and in your business that you should probably replace, upgrade, or renew. As a bonus, that thing you renew, if it is still in decent condition, can perhaps be re-used by someone else. I know that old firewall server can become a perfectly fine computer for someone who needs it – heck, it has 96Gb of RAM!

The reason you need to do this is because the real tragedy is if you never get around to it. I know that my grandfather would have enjoyed that new fishing rod. I also know that my uncle Jan would really have loved to go fishing with his father using that rod too. Those are moments they will never have.

So, don’t wait for the proverbial rod to break, because that time may never come. Time is something we can never get back. This is of course true for the things around us, but it is especially important to the family and good friends that we can enjoy those things with.

This is just as true for your business. Your employees (or your family, if they work for you), would really appreciate new keyboards and mice. It’s such an inexpensive upgrade, but those cheap ones that come bundled with computers these days just aren’t made for business use. Oh, and having the latest version of Quicken on their computers won’t just put a smile on their faces, it will also improve productivity and probably address a few irritating bugs too.

Image by Jamie Johannsen on Pixabay