OK - I promised myself I was over this - For 10 years I have been bitching and ranting over the "borrowers, copycats and duplicators." Not only has it happened to me time and time again, but to so many of my colleagues.

It is such a creepy, stomach turning event when you go to a site, read a brochure, see a business name - That has been "borrowed" from yours.  Words sucked out of your mouth, ideas from your brain, materials that took you day and days to write - POOF THEY'RE SOMEONE ELSES. The real creepy part is most of the time when confronted they're like OJ - They're so delusional that they've convinced themselves that they didn't do it.  "Really, I didn't know - OMG.  It must have been my Webmaster, Marketing person, brother-in-law..."

Now we have GOOGLE ALERTS and can run COPYSCAPE.  Most of the time it's from your own research or we are tipped off by another.  There is nowhere to hide.

Why or why would you invest so much money in training and business start-up costs to only pick a name that someone already has, or "borrow" someone else website layout, text or business philosophy?  Part of starting a business is researching and developing your brand.  If you can spend the time borrowing, take the same time to be creative, develop and research.

Just a week ago, I was GOOGLE ALERTED, and it wasn't a sentence, a word or two, but 266 words from my site on their front page!!!  The "borrower's" excuse was the Webmaster did it! This is the same as "The dog ate my paper."  

My favorite of all time was my X-Client that at the end of my consultation for her revealed that she actually wants to do this for a living, proceeded to take local training, and then name her business Change of Space Interiors (hopefully she got some accessorizing education...)  She lives around a mile from me. - Clever!  Hmmm... Can you say brand confusion to local prospects? 

Trainers should be ashamed of themselves not to educate their students!  Word-up!  Please give them a ½ hour lesson about branding.  And since this was a local training, I have no respect now for the trainer for not mentoring this poor lady and guiding her to be creative and smart.

A recent email from an education trainer says that she is going to now offer stock monthly newsletters that you can buy from her - The sales pitch is, no time, or just in case you're not a writer." WHAT!  So someone else writes about how creative and innovated your business is, and what happens when someone takes you up on your ideas (Which are not your own?) There is also a national training company that has a generic website format - Each one looks exactly the same.  So if you're a prospect, and you see site after site just the same - Wouldn't you be confused? 

So here's the confusion - We try to make homes stand out from rest, enhance the best features, and set the home apart from the others?  If you also offer decorative services, you're creative, innovated and have the business skills to help them with their interior design projects - And your website looks like 10 others in the same area?

In such a creative and very small niche business - YOU HAVE TO BE SMART, CREATIVE & INDIVIDUAL - Please don't be lazy, borrow, be inspired, or creatively change 10% of what someone else already has?  Take the time and effort it took us to create your own materials.

"What took you days, weeks, months, years to create - Takes them mire minutes to copy."   "What's easier ?" 

HERE'S THE DOMINO EFFECT for being a "borrower."

•·         IN terms of clients and prospects: We live in a world of GOOGLERS.  Now more than ever,  people are comparing, dissecting and in-depth researching before they hire someone. 

•·         IN terms of fellow associates and the press, GOOGLE Alerts, CopyScape and smart business owners look at other sites all the time. What happens is you get letters from attorneys, disrespect from peers in the industry, and a bad reputation.

•·         As far as the press, they're even savvier - They seek out the unique and different rather than the same old same old. -They can spot a "borrower" instantly, they're wordsmiths.

•·         As far as our Industry - We as a whole bitterly complain all the time about "bad staging," and how it lowers the standards in our field.  It is the same when people see the same text, same ideas, and same names over and over again - IT BRINGS THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY A KNOTCH DOWN.