Social networks can be dangerous if you are someone who owns a small
business. It's far too easy to give important information away, details
about your company that your competition can use against you. I am
always amazed at how many small business owners list their clients, and
have their customers come and post information about themselves on their
profile page. As soon as they do that, they just alerted the
competition that they are a buyer of those types of goods or services,
therefore the competition might try to "friend them" and steal them
away.
Of course, this is not the only thing that business owners
and entrepreneurs do that can hurt them in the competitive world of
business. Often business owners talk too much about their future plans,
and what they are doing to their vendors, customers, employees,
government inspectors that come in, and even their law firm. Oh, now I
have your attention. You probably thought that lawyers have a strict
code due to the "client privilege rules" well, I would suggest to you
that you shouldn't kid yourself.
Lawyers and law firms often brag
about their client lists and even if your lawyer personally never
mentions that you are a client, someone else at the law firm might
mention it. They know things about your business that you don't want
your competition to know, and they are liable to spill the beans in
casual conversation at the bar, the local watering hole that is, if not
the actual bar. And they do it all the time. In fact, I noted that one
of the law firms I used when I was in business, often bragged about its
client in its brochures, even listed a few on the website.
They
were actually using the brand names of larger corporations which they
represent as proof that their law firm was worthy of taking on new
clients. Perhaps even worthy of charging you increased legal fees for
services. This can be a real problem in a competitive world, and I would
submit to you that loose lips sink ships, and it is often people you
don't suspect that are giving away your company's most important
information and intellectual property.
A lawyer at the law firm
you use could discuss a negotiation with a new vendor, and upcoming
merger, or any of a number of things that can hurt you competitively in
the marketplace. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and
think on it.
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