December 15, 2010
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Question:
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Ken,
I have a situation where an existing customer wants us to install a camera WITH audio on the outside of his house to record the activity of his hunting dogs in their fenced in kennel. He has neighbors complaining about the dogs barking. He says they are not barking and wants video and audio to prove it at a town meeting. Does this fall under the same laws in NJ for audio recording?
Barry
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Answer:
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You know, dogs are apt to do some pretty disgusting, or amazing [depending on your point of view] things when alone and expecting privacy [and more often just right out there in the open], so I am not so sure they have any expectation of privacy. I also doubt they fit into any of the civil right statutes that are designed for two legged primates.
You are permitted to install CCTV on your property but it should not extend coverage into other property where privacy is expected. So if your camera captures a piece of your neighbor's front lawn it's not likely an invasion of privacy. If your camera focuses on his sun deck off his bedroom, that's probably not going to be allowed, and if you capture video data showing your neighbor doing anything on that sun deck, and publish or circulate that data in any way, you are going to be in trouble. Now if your data captures data on the dog up there, not so sure it's protected.
Audio is a little harder to control. You can set up audio in the kennel area. I am not so sure that the recordings are going to have the definitive effect intended in the event there is a legal dispute. If the neighbor complains of barking the audio will either confirm barking or will be silent, which does not necessarily mean that barking didn't take place at other times. Another thing to be careful with is that the audio cannot be so sensitive that it picks up the neighbor on the adjoining property, even if they are talking about the dogs.
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comments on What's a Name Worth
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Ken
A professor at NYU has a formula for the value of a brand name
http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/lectures/brand.html
One concern I would have is that the value (whatever it is) will be diminished as the company that is selling it and remaining in business goes in to less and less active mode. In other words as the customers of the current company become less satisfied by lack of service from a company with no staff - the value of the brand will go down. So whatever they pay now will not be valuable in 2,5 or 10 years. Also I would make sure the contract to by the name deals with what happens when the confused customers call the new company for service.
Brad Shipp
NESA
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Ken
One thing to be aware of when buying a name, is there a lawsuit pending or in place for that company name. Any employee suits? We usually buy accounts and not the name, vehicles, property or other merchandise from the seller. Another thing is are there any accounts that get service/monitoring free? (father in law, brother in law etc) We do free monitoring/service for the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and get listed as a friend so some name presence there, but no money.
While a name can be an asset, it can also come with some baggage. Have an attorney check out the company's legal status.
John Elmore
Security By Elmore In
**************** John - don't confuse buying the name with buying the corporation or other business entity.
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Ken:
One thought on the value of a company’s name would be to look at the historical attrition rate. A company with an attrition rate higher than the industry average probably has a name with little or negative value. A company with low attrition rate may have a name worth a premium price. Another thought would be to commission a survey to track the name recognition within the business sector you want to penetrate. High name recognition with positive feedback should be worth a premium, low name recognition or negative feedback should detract from the value.
Thanks!
Tony Orso | Regional Sales Manager
Sonitrol Pacific, a Sound Security, Inc. company
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If you're getting no accounts, the value would be related to the draw of the name and logo. How many unsolicited calls come in during the average month? What is a typical sale? Will all referral calls come to you? Is it copyrighted? Have they been proactively selling, if so how? A significant component may be the sales staff, can they be hired and promote the same brand. What marketing has been done?
And the biggie, is the brand truly valuable or has your competition with them led you to ascribe a high value to it?
Paul Victor
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Ken,
The valuation of intangible assets is subjective, but the best way to put a value on a trade name is to determine what a franchisee would pay for the ability to use the name. Larry’s situation would be similar to that of a franchisee who is paying (or giving up a percentage of revenues) to use a name. Franchise agreement fees can run from .5% to 10% of revenue depending on the value of the name (and other services provided). My suggestion to Larry would be to enter into some sort of earn out agreement predicated on additional future sales that can be correlated to the name. Of course this is not legal advice and Larry should first consult an attorney before negotiating the agreement. Larry could devise a way to track the leads generated from the new name by using a specific phone number, or other method.
Mitch Reitman
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Ken
Name is like collectable item. I don't care for painting of Mona Lisa, but there are people who would pay big bucks to hang it in their house. If you expect the name to bring you business, then it is worth some proportional value - just like an RMR account, but the minute you stop advertising it, the name starts fading away. Basically you're buying a plant you need to water and take care of. Today is more common to create a really weird name - like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Ebay, etc.
Most likely you will target 30-something generation who can actually operate alarm or camera from cellphone. These people may not remember company name that was here before they were born. Look at the "dealer programs". You sell and work your butt of to preserve their name - not the other way around.
Dusan