The Trademarkroom has been providing trade mark protection services for over 15 years. In this time, our Clients have achieved amazing success in their chosen areas.
It is important for aspiring business owners to see success while they are working hard to build their own businesses, therefore we would like to shine the spotlight on some of the Trademarkroom’s success stories and delve deeper into the thoughts and story of the brains behind these businesses.
Today’s spotlight is on Alison Price of Glow with Aliso who was kind enough to reflect for us.
Please tell us about your business and the background on how it all started!
I am the Alison part of my business, Glow with Alison. I’m a Hair Extensions and Hair Loss Integration Specialist based in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Having spent 25 years running my own business as a Graphic Designer and Brand Consultant, and following a forced break whilst I was treated for cancer, I decided a total change of career was in order and set about retraining and building a new business.
I always had an interest in hair and have done some styling and up-dos for events in the past, so pursuing this made sense to me. It was also a business I could do from home, so it ticked the boxes in many respects. I feel that giving people the gift of hair, whether that’s to enhance or replace, is my purpose in life and I am excited to grow the business and see where it goes.
Why did you feel filing your brand as a registered trade mark was important enough to make it a priority?
Having always worked B2B (business to business) in the graphic design industry with a very niche set of clients, I didn’t feel that trademarking my business name previously was a priority. However now that I had decided to move into the B2C sector (business to consumer), trademarking my name and logo was at the top of my list. With so many brands popping up everywhere, especially online on social media, I didn’t want to have spent time, money and effort building my brand only for someone to come along and trademark the name for themselves and force me to change mine. I wanted the safety of having a legal document that protects my name and image.
Did you have any goals when it came to trade mark protection?
My goal was to protect both the name and the logo I use for my business. I needed the classes to be broad enough to include all of the areas of the business both now and in the future, so that was also an important consideration.
What did you learn during the application process?
I learnt that there’s a fair bit of waiting (nervously!) for objections to come in. Two months feels like a long time when you are eager to get on with building your business, but I got there in the end! There are also a lot (and I mean a lot!) of classes that my products and services fall under.
How did the Trademarkroom help you with the process?
I wasn’t 100% confident in applying for the trademarks myself – I probably could have muddled through but with something so important and fundamental to my business, I didn’t want to get it wrong and either not be protected in the way I needed to be, or end up having to hire a lawyer to help me out of a situation that I had created! So for me it was a no-brainer to get a professional involved from the outset to make sure it was done correctly. The Trademarkroom took me through the process and dealt with all of the paperwork so I didn’t really have to get involved very much in all the administration.
Do you have any advice for fellow business owners when it comes to trade marks?
I think it’s a personal choice as to whether you decide to trademark your business, but I would urge people to imagine how it might feel if you had put your heart and soul into your business for someone to come along and start riding your coat-tails with a similar (if not identical) name and unravel all your hard work. Branding is everything, it’s way more than just a logo and colours. It’s your reputation, tone of voice, purpose and ultimately your authenticity. I am now safe in the knowledge that my brand is protected.
https://www.glowwithalison.co.uk/
