Business Advice – Calico Marketing

Protecting a Product Design With a Registered Design in Australia

September 27, 2026 by Calico UK

You have spent months on a new chair, a handbag or a dress. The shape is right and the finish looks the way you pictured it. Then a copy turns up online at half the price. A registered design is one of the ways Australian law lets you protect how a product looks.

Design rights are managed by IP Australia under the Designs Act 2003. They sit alongside trade marks, patents and copyright, but they do a different job. This guide covers what a design right protects, what it leaves out and the steps to apply. It is general information only, so check the details with IP Australia or a qualified IP attorney before you act.

How to create a cohesive brand identity across multiple platforms

September 22, 2026August 15, 2024 by Calico UK

Alright, brand builders and consistency crusaders, buckle up! We’re talking about making your brand more recognisable than your own reflection, across more platforms than a gymnast at the Olympics.

Avoid These 3 SEO Tactics That Will Flag You As A Spammer To Google

April 16, 2024November 12, 2023 by Calico UK

In the race to get to the top of Google’s rankings, many techniques and tactics can be utilised. The vast majority of them are legitimate and whether it is you who implement them or an SEO agency like SPE, none of them should cast you in a bad light in the eyes of Google. In fact, they are more likely to give your rankings a boost.

Unfortunately, not everyone plays by Google’s rules, and instead of following an SEO campaign that is whiter than white, they instead use blackhat tactics that seek to create a shortcut to high rankings. Frustratingly, some of these underhand SEO techniques work, but only temporarily, and as Google’s algorithms are so advanced, SEO spammers being caught is almost a certainty.

When Google does catch spammers it has several ways of punishing them, ranging from a drop in their ranking to delisting a website from their search results completely. if you are wondering how severe that is, it is the equivalent of a retail store being removed from the mall, or a commercial lawyer’s office being locked permanently, and the key being thrown away.

We must point out that there are occasions when a business will use SEO spamming inadvertently because they were either misinformed or simply were not aware that what they doing was wrong. Unfortunately, as with criminal law, Google’s law means ignorance is no defence, so to enlighten you somewhat, here are three SEO spamming tactics which you must avoid at all costs.

Why Great Content Is Essential For Marketing Family Lawyer Businesses

October 9, 2024December 7, 2022 by Calico UK

Family lawyers have numerous ways to market themselves and their family law practice online. These include social media, PPC advertising, and SEO, to name but three. However, there is one kind of marketing that might not grab the headlines in the same way these do, but which many expert digital marketers believe is not only highly effective but essential.

The marketing we are referring to is content marketing, and it first begs the question, “What is content?”. Arguably, anything you publish online could be considered content which would include everything from a 100-page eBook to a 10-word post on Facebook.

However, when it comes to genuine content marketing, there are specific forms of content that are used, and they are used for different purposes. That being said, your first task is not deciding what content you should use but answering an even more crucial question.

10 Office Chair Types And The Reasons For Buying Each Of Them

July 2, 2026November 3, 2022 by Calico UK

If there is one item of commercial furniture from atama.com.au that gets purchased more than others, and where there is the most diversity in terms of product choices, it is hard to argue against that being the office chair.

Many items of office furniture could be regarded as useful, but not essential, but surely the office chair is one which every business needs, whether that be one chair or hundreds.

We mentioned that the choices surrounding office chairs are considerable, and that applies not just to specific types of office chairs but also materials, sizes, styles, and prices.

Your 10-Step Guide For Ensuring A Successful Office Relocation

7 Office Relocation Mistakes You Cannot Afford To Make

July 6, 2026June 23, 2022 by Calico UK

Regardless of the size of your business, if you decide to relocate, it has significant consequences. Thankfully, the vast majority of those consequences are positive.

However, there can also be negative consequences of relocating, which tend to occur due to mistakes made leading up to the move and on the day of the move.

You want to avoid those mistakes, so here are seven of the most common, which also happen to be the ones that can be the most costly.

How To Turn Ambitious Employees Into Future Leaders Within Your Landscaping Business

September 22, 2026June 21, 2022 by Calico UK

Just like the landscapers who are running their own landscaping business, if you have the goal of growing your business, there are certain key principles that you must follow for those ambitions to be realised.

Many will relate to marketing, enhancing your brand, increasing sales, offering world-class customer service, and taking steps to ensure that the first landscaping business anyone in your area thinks of is yours.

10 Questions You Must Ask Before Entering Into A Franchise Agreement

August 8, 2024January 18, 2022 by Calico UK

Franchise businesses are one of many ways in which commercial law allows someone who has money to invest, to start a business. Some of the most recognisable business names in the world are run on a franchise basis such as McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, and Hertz. Beyond these global giants which require an upfront investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars, there are thousands of smaller franchise opportunities that can be purchased for a lot less.

However, simply because a franchise opportunity does not cost a six-figure sum to get started, it does not mean that every one of them is the right choice for you. even Small franchises will set you back a sizable sum, so you must ensure that before you make your final decision to invest, that you carry out several checks on the franchise. In particular, there are ten questions to which you want answers from lawyers before signing on the dotted line.

What Is The Success Rate Of Franchisees?

Probably the first question you need answering is how well are the current franchisees are doing and what is their success rate. If you can, speak to the current franchisees yourself to learn of their experiences thus far with the franchise.

What are you paying for when you buy a business?

April 13, 2023November 16, 2021 by Calico UK

When you buy a business, you are buying assets of a company but in reality, you are buying a stream of earnings to be earned by those assets. The business assets are a means to make money but if they did not produce a cash flow, you would not be buying those assets.

The assets may have a liquidation value but price that you pay over and above that, the earning power of those assets is the goodwill
of the business.

In order to increase the value of the business, owners will have to have higher income. As a result, there is a possibility that the owner will claim many of the business expenses are personal and do not need to be continued on after he/she left the business and all the family members who are on the payroll are not really needed therefore should be added back in the normalized earnings. Often, owners will state that there is cash sales in the business and that is where the profits can be found.

In my opinion, if you cannot prove the cash sales then they do not exist. If the owner knows that there are cash sales and he knows that he is selling the business, why does he/she not come clean and deposit the cash in the business to prove what the actual sales are?

Your 10-Step Guide For Ensuring A Successful Office Relocation

July 6, 2026October 20, 2021 by Calico UK

An office relocation is not an operation that should be taken lightly. The potential fallout from a poorly planned and executed office relation can negatively impact a business for weeks, or months, and in the worst cases cause a business’s very existence to be jeopardised. Thankfully, those nightmare scenarios are rare, especially if you entrust your relocation to professional.

That is just one of ten steps you should take to ensure that your office relocation goes smoothly, however, while it is probably the most important, it is not the first task you should undertake. Read on, and you will discover all ten, and the order we suggest you follow.

How do you find the right business?

October 15, 2024October 16, 2020 by Calico UK

If you do not know what you want to do, the easiest way to narrow the choices is to determine what you do not want to do. Do you want to go into business for yourself, buy a business, or work from home?

Once you determine what you do not want to do, choose what interests you and what you are good at. From there, decide if you have any contacts in that field. Would they be willing to buy your products or your service?
It is easier to sell to someone you know than to a stranger.

Many people do not know what to do when they want a career change; sometimes, you can look for years before you develop something that interests you. Taking a professional career counsellor’s advice can help you through the process of finding a new career path.

My wife was bored of her job and wanted a change but did not know what she wanted. Her father sold his house, and the real estate agent brought in a home stager to prepare the house. My wife had never heard of this profession before, and she talked to the person staging the house and then decided that was the business for her. That was three years ago, but she took three years to find something interesting. She looked at many different opportunities; many were exciting
but not attractive enough to be in that field daily. She was lucky; a new idea stumbled into her lap when she was not looking.

Is this a good year to sell your business?

April 3, 2023February 10, 2014 by Calico UK

Some businesses are doing very well this year, others are not doing so well. Is this a good year to sell or should you wait another year?

There are many reasons for selling a business, health, retirement, marriage breakups etc. Sometimes you can delay the timing of your retirement but health, finances or marriage split up may require that you sell now matter if this is a good time to do so or not.

If you have time on your side, then you need to look at many factors to determine if this is a good time to sell your business:

Profitability, have your profits been increasing over the last three years? have you received a lot of new business which may be related to the government infrastructure spending? Do you want to enjoy those profits or sell it and give someone else the benefit of those profits? Has your business been struggling lately?

Are your sales being affected by the economy? Are your sales and profits dropping? Do you expect them to improve soon?