Key Idea #1: Value your intellectual property.

Most small business owners don't think about the value of their brand, their logo, their customer list or even their unique products and services. For example, Eric Rose builds homes, but not just any home. His homes are called smart houses because they are wired to "talk" to the owner. While there are plenty of builders around the country who build smart houses, Eric has a unique approach. We argue that his techniques, which are all stored on a server in his office, could easily be stolen by a disgruntled employee, a competitor or even a customer. The programming he developed to make his houses "smart" is intellectual property.

Topic for Discussion: What is intellectual property?

Answer: The people we interviewed for this episode all gave us their definition of intellectual property. George Borkowski said it is, "Intangible creativity. It's either ideas or it's manifestations of ideas, often concepts. It is not something you can see, feel or touch usually. You can see the expression of it often but the thing itself is often almost invisible and I think that's one of the problems sometimes people have understanding it." He went on to say, "Fundamentally it really is the creative impulse or creative idea that's manifested somehow and once it's manifested, the challenge to protecting it becomes important."

Mark Litvacksaid, "People often say intellectual property is the driving force of this country. Be it software, imovies, games, or music. It is really your creative thought process. Something that you own because you have taken ideas and either put them to words, music, art. It's not like real property or personal property. It's not a chair; it's not my house. I can share it with the world."

Steve Weinstein said, "Intellectual property is either copyrighted material or works of art that people determine that they own and they want to license it or permit people to use it under certain conditions."

You think about it: Can you define and articulate the intellectual property your company owns? If not, should you find a mentor or intellectual property attorney to help you define it?