Atty. Liza Ann Esqueda knows how hard it is to launch and run a business, since she owns an enterprise herself. She also knows that part of running a successful business is rounding the huge learning curve of being an entrepreneur, which includes protecting your brand from other people stealing your trademark.
Through her services, Liza Ann Esqueda will tell you everything you need to know about protecting your trademark, so that you only need to worry about the actual operations of your business. After all, she’s a business owner herself, so she understands the challenges of running a company. You don’t have to do everything yourself!
Link up with Liza Ann Esqueda to share in her knowledge, and she’ll also give you care and information in an individualized way, which differs from owner to owner. She will also help you lay out a solid business foundation, upon which you can build a lasting and sustainably profitable business.
Liza Ann Esqueda’s unique experience as a business owner and her legal expertise should make her a “trusted legal expert and partner” for you, who will work with you through every stage of your business.
If you’re a passionate business owner, then you can be sure that Liza Ann Esqueda shares your own passion for success.
Check out more interviews with passionate business experts here.
Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Liza Ann Esqueda: I’m currently a trademark and small business lawyer, but I was actually a stay at home mom for 20 years prior to deciding to attend law school at age 41. Being a lawyer is something I always wanted to do when I was younger, but then life interrupted — marriage, kids, etc. And the years flew by! Once my youngest was in school full-time, I had an epiphany that I should go back to school. It was not something I thought about in years, it felt like a sign end and I immediately acted on it. I studied for the LSAT for about 5 months, then shortly thereafter applied to law school.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
Liza Ann Esqueda: There have undoubtedly been some rough times. Being a boss, and owning my own firm is the most challenging thing I have taken on. When you’re a business owner everything falls to you. You are the human resources department, the accounting department, you handle the front end and the backend. And, in my case, none of this has to do with practicing law! Initially, it felt overwhelming. I was given the best advice I can recall at that time when someone told me, ”if you are learning an entirely new industry, that’s your sign that you need to hire someone for that task.” Hiring help, whether you think you are ready to have employees or not, is usually the best way to keep your company moving forward and growing.
I have had moments when running my business felt incredibly overwhelming and felt like an uphill battle. I do not know that I can say I’ve had moments when I felt like quitting.
I get a lot of the drive for my business from watching colleagues. I have friends and well-respected colleagues in my industry that I see succeeding and giving back to the community in the way that I do. Seeing them succeed gives me that drive of knowing that I can succeed at their level, as well.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Liza Ann Esqueda: There are plenty of mistakes made when starting a business and they sure do not feel funny at the time! As we learn and grow, we can hopefully look back on and laugh later. I am a stickler for procedures. Being a new lawyer, lawyers know the law, but it is impossible to know procedure without actual work experience. For me, walking into a court room and not being certain if the plaintiff sits on the left, or the defendant sits on the right, who speaks first — the plaintiff or defendants counsel? Can I approach the bench? Can I walk up to the court clerk when proceedings are going on? I once had a client who was an informant and I could not say that and I also could not lie, so I was stunned and not sure what to say. So, when asking for rescheduled court date, I had to think fast and come up with a neutral, true, reason, but one that had nothing to do with the real reason WHY my client wasn’t in court that day. The judge knew the client was an informant and he was giving me a knowing look like he was sending me telepathic reasons for me to provide. All of this nearly made me sick to my stomach!
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you please share your “Five Things You Need To Know To Delegate Effectively and Be Completely Satisfied With the Results?” Please share a story or an example for each.
Liza Ann Esqueda: In order to delegate effectively, you must have very specific instructions for your employee to relate to. Your employees need to know exactly what you want to be done, how you want it done, and when you want it done. Standard operating procedures accomplish this role. Take the time to think about and write down everything related to particular projects and tasks. What are some questions that an assistant may ask of you about these? What are some bumps in the road that they may run into? Write all of these down in your standard operating procedures. I personally like to make videos for my assistants. I will make a quick video of the task I need them to accomplish for us, like a video recording of my screen while I run through the assignment, for example. The visualization of the video goes a long way in explaining and clarifying what needs to be done.
Jerome Knyszewski: One of the obstacles to proper delegating is the oft quoted cliche “If you want something done right do it yourself.” Is this saying true? Is it false? Is there a way to reconcile it with the importance of delegating?
Liza Ann Esqueda: It is not necessarily true that you’re the only one that can do something effectively. I think as business owners we all have fallen into that trap at one point or another. Quite often, it feels easier to get something done yourself, rather than hire someone and then have to train them to accomplish the same task. The fault in this thinking is that it’s shortsighted. While it may be true that it will only take an hour to accomplish an assignment, look to the future and recognize all of the hours that you will have to take out of your day to accomplish this on an ongoing basis. Is that really the best use of your time as a business owner? Are there other tasks and duties that an employee cannot handle but would fall exclusively to you? Your time is best spent focusing on those items.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Liza Ann Esqueda: Readers can follow me online at social media handle @LawyerLizaAnn. My website is www.lawyerlizaann.com
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
