In the digital-first economy of today, setting up a home-based business can provide you with flexibility, low fixed costs, and instant access to your customers.
However, it does come with its own set of risks. If you have created an online presence for your business, you are likely faced with more vulnerabilities, particularly those concerning your brand. For this reason, we believe that online brand protection should be a part of your home business strategy right from the start, and not a privilege for multinationals.
Your Brand Is More Than a Logo
If you own a small business or work from home, chances are your brand is your company’s most valuable asset. It is the identity of your business, your credibility, and the influence behind customer loyalty. But once your brand is on the “map”, you are an open target to scammers who want to leech on your hard work and sap you of your customer base. These scammers can replicate your logo, construct phony websites, hijack your domains, or forge social media profiles, derailing unknowing customers from using your real and legitimate services.
You’re Not Too Small to Be a Target
It doesn’t matter if you’re running your business from your kitchen table or a spare room in your house. If you’re on the internet, you’re on the world stage. Plus, as an online business owner, someone can launch an online attack against your brand from pretty much any other place in the world. The problem for those business owners whose home-based or micro-business is being attacked is that most of them believe that it is too hard to protect their brand online. Plus, they probably think it is too expensive as well. But not protecting your brand or monitoring third-party brand usage could end up costing you much more.
Domain Squatting: A Silent Threat
We live in a world of digital growth. The rising tide of e-commerce and digital marketing has opened new avenues of exploitation. One such attack is domain squatting. Domain squatting is the act of registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name that is confusingly similar to a trademark or famous name. Rather than using domains in harmful ways like phishing or malware to direct traffic to malicious sites, a domain squatter makes money from their actions. This “silent” attack can leave you completely unaware it is happening until a client asks why a certain site isn’t the one they were looking for, or worse, you lose a potential client.
Social Media Impersonation Is on the Rise
Social media impersonation is a more recent threat to emerge. It’s relatively easy for scammers to set up phony pages that look like your own brand’s, and then start running ads or contacting your followers pretending to be you. This creates confusion, muddles your messaging, and exposes you to potential liability. If a scammer is ultimately able to dupe one of your followers and the follower realizes it’s your brand that exposed them to that scam, there can be serious fallout.
Protect What You’ve Built
At this point, it’s not a matter of if your home business needs brand protection, but how quickly you can implement it. With more and more consumers looking for trust and reputation when making a purchase, accurate brand representation online is a must. Whether you sell handmade goods, consult with clients, or have an e-commerce store, your brand’s identity needs to be protected in order to see long-term success.
Find a Home-Based Business to Start-Up >>> Hundreds of Business Listings.
