Do you like DIY? Obviously I do, my business is built (no pun intended) on it. Flipping houses is part of my long term vision. Back in Charleston, I had a garage full of power tools and there wasn’t a square inch of my house I didn’t do something to. The results were mixed; you should have seen this wallpaper up close. I can’t cut straight, and the wallpaper glue wasn’t sticking so I filled in all the gaps with blue Sharpie 😆 Looks great from a distance, though!
Here’s what legal you can and can’t DIY in your business:
YES:
✔️ Starting your LLC, DBA or sole-proprietorship if you have patience and know the right steps (we go over this in Back Pocket Legal)
✔️ Getting your EIN (see my post on getting your EIN)
✔️ If you’re in the U.S., trademarks (although I would highly, highly advise against it unless it’s in the context of a course like Back Pocket Legal where I’m walking you through the steps, otherwise you’ll likely miss something important and costly)
NO:
❌ Contracts: Free/borrowed/cobbled together contracts will at some point in time cause you monumental issues. Whether it’s forced refunds, late or default payments with no remedies, unfounded liability/lawsuits, content theft, scope creep, clients ghosting, etc. Our contracts are obviously lawyer-drafted and allow you to get as close to a custom contract as possible.Even if you haven’t gotten your first client yet, don’t skip this. I promise you’ll regret it. 😬 Likewise, you shouldn’t sign someone else’s contract without having a lawyer review it first. You have no idea what you’re binding yourself and your business to (this doesn’t end well either. I have stories…)
❌ Partnerships: There are so many legal issues to consider when forming a business with someone else. No one wants to think about worst case scenario before they’ve even started, but you have to. And if you’re starting a business with a friend, likely you’re unable to view things completely objectively. This can be dangerous.
❌ Collaborations: Did you know if 2 people contribute their own original work to a collaborative work, both people own joint rights in the collaborative work? The impact for you here is this: you form a group program. You front all of the expenses. You do all of the marketing. The program is built on your reputation and name recognition. You ask a guest expert to do a masterclass for your program. You need an agreement upfront between you and the expert dictating who owns what, especially if, as I’ve seen recently, that expert will be paid in program profits.What happens if you want to sell the course? Stop offering the course? Market the course in a different way? These are all circumstances that might be hard to imagine when you’re first creating your collaboration so it’s so important to work with a lawyer who is experienced in drafting the right agreements.
If you need help with partnership or collaboration agreements, book a Power Hour to work with me 1:1. And if you need to start an LLC, get a DBA and/or trademark your brand and you don’t want to risk DIY, you definitely need to check out Back Pocket Legal. Not only will we walk through each step-by-step, you’ll have access to all of my contracts and ongoing support via biweekly live Q&A’s. Enrolling now!