A Vital Tool for Entrepreneurs!

This image was downloaded from WikiMedia Commons, and is royalty free. It's very important that you know where your images come from and what the allowed usage is.

I received a call from a friend of mine a while ago. He's a fellow entrepreneur. He was being harassed by a lawyer who went from website to website to determine whether they were legally using the pictures that were posted on their sites. He was told that he owed thousands of dollars for the images he was using, and it didn't matter if he offered to take them down or not.

It's important to understand that you can't just find a picture on the web and use it on your site. There are copyright issues, and there are lawyers that make a living from intimidating small business people who don't have the means or the savvy to fight back.

So it's important to know where your images come from and what the copyright statements of these images are. I am very careful where I get my images from.

I use two sources for my images. The first is Pexels.com. They have very good pictures, and the license for using them is very simple and clear. You can also go to WikiCommons, which is a place you can find millions of images that are in the public domain. Most aren't high quality, but some definitely are, such as the image above.

As an entrepreneur, you need to protect yourself from the predators that are out there wanting to steal your money. So take my advice and know where your images come from and whether they are free to use.