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Does getting legal in your business stress you out? It doesn’t have to! I’ve brought in Girja Patel to help guide us through stress-free methods to protect you business (and you).
Listen in as she shares a few steps you need to take as a new business owner or even if you’ve been established for years! She’s diving into what assets will help you protect your business, along with a few that will protect your customers as well!
Girija is a lawyer, a mom, a wife, podcaster, educator, and business owner in Houston, Texas. Her law practice, GBP Law, specifically focuses on helping creative entrepreneurs and online business owners build their business’ legal fundamentals so they can move forward confidently and do what they love. Her goal is to help make legal a line item and not a panic attack!
In 2020, Girija launched Your Contract Buddy (www.yourcontractbuddy.com), an online contract template shop, and also founded her podcast, Law Chat with Girija. From her days of being a prosecutor to now managing her own law practice, Girija’s core value to serve her community remains at the center of all her endeavors.
Making Legal Less Stressful
Getting your business legal is so important for your protection—and your client’s protection! That idea and task shouldn’t be stressful. Girja is on a mission to educate and inform creative entrepreneurs about legalizing their business without the overwhelm.
If her clients aren’t aware or educated, they’ll never understand the importance of being legal in their business. We can take this concept of education to any of our businesses—your client’s don’t know what they don’t know. It’s your job to educate them!
Fundamentals to Legal
When it comes to getting legal, prevention is is key, not the cure. If there is no contract in place, you’re not protected, especially when it comes to big projects, refunds, or scope creep.
Law isn’t scary—it’s part of everyday life. Purchasing items, walking across the street, so many everyday life tasks include law.
This means we should run to it, not away from it when it comes to our businesses. This biggest mistake you can make is “getting to it later.” You’ll never get to it if you continue to put it off and when you need to be legal, it’ll be too late.
Setting Up Your Sole Proprietorship, LLC, DBA, & Assumed Name
This is the very first step to getting legal in your business—you need to understand your entity options and set yourself up for success with the right type. If you’re plunging into making your business a solid foundation, you’ll want to make your business an LLC.
This protects your personal assets, but also set you up as a legitimate business when you approach a bank or investor in the future.
Your DBA & Assumed Names are simply calling your business by another name. This allows you to protect your business even if you’re not ready to commit to a name now.
Get Contracts for Your Business
Contract templates are great for starting your business and having a blanket coverage of protection, but when you decide to create custom services or work with bigger clients, it’s important to understand the value that comes with custom contracts.
Ensure that whoever you’re working with or buying from has a solid contract that aligns with your business.
Copyright & Trademarks
If you have intellectual property within your business that would benefit from a copyright or trademark, it’s important to establish those early on in your business.
Trademark – Anything that identifies your brand.
Copyright – Works that you’ve created that are original works oof authorship that has been put into tangible mediums.
In order to have protection by either of these, you need to register your copyrights and trademarks.
Privacy Policy & Terms of Use
While you want to protect your business, you also want to protect your customers.. Adding a privacy policy to your website is required by law and explains how the information of your website visitors will be used. Additionally, you’ll want to include a Terms of Use on your website, which tells your clients how to use your website.
Keep Moving Forward Boldy
Whatever plunge you’ve been considering in your business—keep moving forward!
Catch the Show Notes
Get to Know Girja (1:47)
Making Legal Less Stressful (3:53)
Fundamentals to Legal (8:42)
Mistakes in Getting Legal (14:00)
DBA & Assumed Name (18:14)
Steps to Getting Legal (20:12)
Default Protection of Common Law (24:45)
Registering Your Trademarks and Copyrights (25:28)
Encouragement (33:44)
RESOURCES MENTIONED
@gbplaw
5 Day Legal Challenge – a self-paced audit filled with tangible and actionable information and tips! https://www.gbplaw.com/5-day-challenge
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Review the transcript:
Bonnie:
Hi, friends and welcome to the brand strategy podcast. A show created to equip you with the inspiration, encouragement, and clarity. You need to build the brand of your dreams. I’m your host, Bonnie Bakhtiari brand designer, strategist, and founder of the Illume Retreat from sustainable strategy to part felt encouragement. Each episode is designed to equip you with the tools you need to chase after your dreams, because you deserve a brand that empowers you to do what you love, connects with your dream clients and offers a deep sense of fulfillment along the way. So grab a cup of coffee and join me on this journey. Won’t you
Bonnie:
Friends. Welcome back to the brand strategy podcast, where today we are having such an incredible conversation about some stress free methods to legally protect your business with gears. I’ve Patel gears. That is a really talented lawyer. Mom, life, fellow podcaster educator, and a business owner based right here in Texas, but a little bit down the road for me in Houston, her law practice GB P law specifically focuses on helping creative entrepreneurs, just like you and me and online business owners build their businesses legal fundamentals so they can move forward confidently and do what they love her goal, which is something that I think we can all get behind is to help make legal align item and not a panic attack gears. I thank you so much for joining me on the show today. I’m so grateful to have you, and I fear for it. I love it.
Bonnie:
If you could tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do and this incredible business of yours.
Girja:
Bonnie, thank you so much for having me on your show and thank you for such a warm welcome. It’s just like, oh, that was so sweet. I loved it. Thank you. Yes, you are living in the most beautiful city of Waco. I actually love it. Um, everything about Waco also and Magnolia and everything, but yeah, so I am in Houston, Texas, and I am a lawyer and I practice in Texas and my goal is we’re actually my audience that I help. My niche are creative entrepreneurs, whether you’re online coaches or online business owners, or whether you are brick and mortar, it doesn’t really matter, but it’s the creative entrepreneur who I am serving in my business. And what I do is I really help make law palatable and digestible in small increments where they can actually take the legal and apply it to their business in such a way where it’s not overwhelming. But in fact, it’s embracing the legal that is already so integrated into your business. So my whole, my whole theory is we can’t run away from it, but we definitely to embrace it and be more confident about it. So, which all boils down to legal should be a line item and not a panic attack.
Bonnie:
I love that. That’s like your tagline because I think panic attack. And at least this is like from, you know, my like nonlegal background. But I think that panic attack is like a lot of the times what people think of when they think about, you know, how to legally protect their business or how to, you know, put together a contract or how to incorporate or something like that. Like, there’s just so many things that the average person doesn’t understand that I, I just really respect that you take your knowledge in this area and are sharing it in a way where people can feel more empowered and more aware of what legal can look like in their business.
Bonnie:
So what does it look like when you’re working with online entrepreneurs or creative entrepreneurs? What are the ways in which you help them kind of make legal a line item and not something that they’re stressed about?
Girja:
Oh, that’s a great, great question, actually. if you were to first see what I do, my, all my platforms, that’s where kind of like where the journey starts. So the experience starts for a lot of my clients is the first time they actually even hear or see me. And that’s usually through some sort of platform, whether it’s a podcast or whether it is my social media, but it’s about education because I really feel like there should be certain legal issues and stuff as we want to call it, that should be already something, you know, it shouldn’t be something where you are trying to find out, pay lots of money for either.
Girja:
And so that is something that this is very important to me. So education is where it all starts for me and for any of my clients. And then once they do, they do call me they’re, you know, getting my free resources on my website or they’re calling me in for a consultation. So that consultation is free because I do believe that sometimes you just don’t know what you’re calling for. Even, you don’t even know where to start and you don’t know what you don’t know. So the conversation is one where a lot of times people are calling me very curious, or sometimes they’re stressed also. So my goal, my first goal is to like listen to them, to listen to what their business is about, listen to why they’re even seeking my help. And then also after that, show them that it’s going to be fine.
Girja:
First of all, you’re going to be fine. And those are literally the words that come out of my mouth. You’re going to be fine. We’re going to figure this out. And then I help them by giving them strategy on the phone and also tangible legal actions that they can take in order to move forward and feeling more confident about the issue and also protecting themselves, but more than everything else, positioning themselves to be more successful in their business.
Bonnie:
Um, I really, really respect that you start with education because, um, especially for newer entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs who maybe haven’t had the, you know, fortunately they haven’t had any like issues legally in their businesses and fire. It might be something that, uh, there’s just not a lot of, you know, kind of like general awareness about, about a lot of those things. And so starting with that education and really pointing people towards solutions that are going to meet them where they are.
Bonnie:
I just think that’s such a fantastic way to structure it and probably such a way that, uh, helps, helps people when they do come to you, when they do hop on that consult with you, they already maybe have at least some idea, or at least more than they might have otherwise because of those free resources, they know a little bit more about, you know, kind of what they’re getting into. Is that, is that about right?
Girja:
Absolutely, I think it’s so important for any business owner, whether it’s me illegal business owner or somebody who’s selling graphic, designing, or website building or anything that you need to educate your consumer. Sometimes they don’t even know they need your help until they’re educated. And also there are certain things that they should just know. And so, yes, you’re right. My platform is really built on education because I truly believe that I’m not here just to make money.
Girja:
I have a bigger purpose. And that purpose is to share the blessings that I have been given in my life, whether that’s through education, finances or anything. And so that’s where I start first. I need to share my blessings before I start asking for anything else from anybody. Hmm. I.
Bonnie:
love that. That just makes my heart so excited because there’s just something so beautiful about doing business in that way. So kind of coming from that place of wanting to show up, serve people well, make legal, feel more accessible and more, you know, hopefully approachable. I know that at least in my conversations with a lot of fellow entrepreneurs over the years, I feel like I hear so many people say, oh, I’ll get to that later. Oh, I’ll set up my business structure leader or, oh, I’ll get a contract later. Or, you know, we just kind of like, we don’t really prioritize it sometimes when we’re in those initial growth stages.
Bonnie:
And so we put it off and we put it off until an issue arises and we have, you know, a client that wants a refund and we don’t have a refund policy clearly stated in any kind of client contract or, you know, there’s so many different like scenarios there. So how important from your standpoint, how important are those legal fundamentals to running a profitable business and how can we start to change our mindset around legal? So that it’s something that we approach proactively and not something that we think of as kind of like a bandaid for a problem.
Girja:
Oh my goodness. just literally asked me the best question. I’m so happy. You asked me that because truly prevention is key, not the cure. And so when you start curing, you’re always reacting when you’re not going to the root of the problem, you’re always going to be reacting and you’re constantly putting new band-aids on the problem.
Girja:
So what we really need to do is be a little bit more preemptive and proactive, and that can be easily done. Of course, there’s certain issues that you have to react to. But when that reaction is coming from a place where you are already have a steady solid foundation, the reaction also won’t be as costly and it won’t be as damaging to your business. And so what I mean by all of that sounds great with those great words, but in practicality, what that means is just like what you talked about. If there is no contract and you are working on a $10,000 project and somebody within $7,000 of your, you know, your services that you’ve given is now like demanding a refund or is saying, I can’t give you any of this stuff anymore. So I’m just gonna, you know, having these extra extraordinary expectations that are not part of that agreement where they’re like, well, we’ve given you so much money.
Girja:
Can you just add on these three more things to the project, which on your end would probably cost you maybe far more than what you’re getting now from them. And so these are situations where you can actually avoid. So I think we call it like scope creep, or sometimes we call it a re you know, even people who are demanding refunds. And so if you have these clearly stated in a contract that you are giving to your client or to a vendor or any other third party that you’re doing business with beforehand, then you are managing expectations, setting the boundaries also. And also if there is a problem that contract should help navigate you through that problem as well. And it’s so important to have those systems in place, because while it looks like illegal, illegal, the thing that you have in your business, but it’s actually a system that you have now planted into your business is a business operations and it’s part of it.
Girja:
And so this is something you just do. It’s not something that you’re thinking about, or you only do for special clients. This is part of your business operations, right? And I am like, one of my friends, bigger missions is now to change the rhetoric and the narrative surrounding law. When people hear law, they get scared when they hear law, they’re thinking, oh gosh, it’s going to cost me thousands of dollars. And I don’t know what I’m going to do. And, you know, my lawyer seems so scary and everything seems so scary to me, but that’s not true. Law is so integrated in our everyday life, whether we are crossing the street, getting in the car, buying something from Starbucks law, is there, you know, the, just the mere fact of exchanging money and buying something from somebody is in class six, example that we use in law school and, uh, have a contract.
Girja:
And so we are constantly dealing in law, but we just don’t realize it. But what we really need to do is sit down and look at our business, see the, that we can actually use law in strategically and then implemented in our business in such a way where we’re positioning ourselves for success. We’re positioning ourselves in a stronger foothold than we were if we hadn’t placed those operations that are legal into our business.
Bonnie:
That makes perfect sense that like that came together. Like, just so clearly in my mind. And just even like your examples of talking through crossing the street, getting them a car, going to Starbucks, like that kind of blew my mind a little bit, because those are such, just everyday occurrences that we take for granted. We don’t think about the layers of what kind of transaction or what kind of experience is happening there. So no completely tracking with you that made so much sense.
Girja:
Yeah. I mean, you know, I feel like why should we run away from the very thing that is needed when we do get into a problem? So why should we run away from law? We actually need to put it into our business operations. And when we start doing that, adding contracts as one part of it, adding copyright protection, trademark protection, as another part of it, adding systems and processes of how we are dealing with our employees or independent contractors that we’re hiring, all of these things require the legal model in it, but we just don’t realize it until we get into a severe problem. And then that severe problem is when we look at law and we’re like, oh my goodness, we’re spending so much money. But if you had just spent money in the, in the front end of it, you wouldn’t have had that much problem when there is when there is an issue that arises.
Bonnie:
Right? Yeah. That, that makes a lot of sense. So I know that I’m sure just in your line of work, you probably see so many people getting tripped up in certain parts of the process or kind of going through that initial process of getting their business legally protected. What kinds of mistakes do you see and are there ways that we can potentially avoid them?
Girja:
I think the number one mistake is like, what you had stated earlier is, oh, I’ll get to it later. Later is always when you are reacting, that is when you get to it later, it is saying that, oh, I’ll, you know, I’ll get to brushing my teeth later. And then 10 cavities down the line. You’re like, okay, I should have brushed my teeth earlier. You know? And so it’s kind of like that situation where later never happens. And when it does, you’re going to be, you know, putting a huge dent in your financials and more than your financials, your peace of mind, that’s at the ultimate.
Girja:
The most important thing is your peace of mind. Our mental health is so important, and this is also part of it, making sure that we are stabilizing ourselves. We are putting ourselves in a place where we don’t have to stress later down the road for things that avoidable. And so I feel like the number one thing is when you are starting, a business is to have a business plan. That’s not a legal thing, but it’s most definitely part of the whole planning thing of your business. And when you have a business plan, you can actually have trajectory. You can have projections and you can see where the risks are in your business, where the liabilities will be in your business. What areas are going to be comfortable for you and what areas are you going to have to stretch yourself and grow? And so when you do that, then, and also another thing is when I talk about projections is where do you see yourself in the next five, 10 years of your business?
Girja:
Are you hanging on to your business? Are you selling your business? Because all of these things will then play into the type of business you are forming. Is it going to be a sole proprietor, or is it going to be an LLC, or is it going to be a corporation or something else? There’s so many other things out there, but we most commonly talk about these three things. And while silver pride or ship is not technically a entity formation is just a default setting for somebody who starts a business. What really is an entity formation is LLC, which is the limited liability company. And so a lot of people talk about that. They don’t know if they should do it. And then they’re like, well, we got a DBA. That’s great. But a DBA, literally just calling somebody who is Robert, Rob, it’s not changing anything.
Girja:
So I feel like the LLC is the first for step you want to take. If you are plunging into really, um, making your business, uh, you know, solid foundation, because what happens is the LLC gives you an extra layer of protection, but it also sets you up for success. And I keep saying that because truly it’s a very, um, strategic move to make your business either an LLC or corporation, because down the lane, when you want to get money from the bank, or if you want to get money from investors, they’re not looking at sole proprietors. They want to see that you have some skin in the game, and they also want to see that you’re serious about your business and that you can protect them if something were to happen. So LLCs protect your personal assets, because if something were to go wrong and somebody was to file a lawsuit against you and the court found you at fault, they can’t run after your personal assets because the LLC is protecting you.
Bonnie:
So that’s another big brownie point of having an LLC. And then of course, taxes on a bigger, higher level of taxes or pastors. You’re not double taxed, meaning, um, like in corporations you would be taxed on the revenue that you’re making the corporation and then any money you take as income for yourself.
Bonnie:
that is such incredible advice. And I think that, um, you know, when we look at it that way, it, it’s such a kind of clear way to think about going ahead, setting up your business, even when you’re feeling like it’s, you know, you’re, you’re still new at this, or maybe it’s something that you have been putting off. And you’re at that point where you’re like, ah, I’ll keep putting off a little bit more when you think about all the ways that that is such an advantageous decision, it just makes so much sense to, to take that step when you know, when you’re ready. [inaudible]
Girja:
yeah, I think it’s really important. I think a lot of times people are waiting and waiting and waiting, and then they create an LLC after something happens, which is fine. It doesn’t mean that you know, what, everything that would be protected by an LLC would be after you file the LLC, it’s not retroactive. And so, you know, a lot of times people are worried that, oh, well, we don’t know if we love our name. We don’t know if we love this. And so what I’ve suggested in the past to some of my clients has been, you don’t have to have an LLC name that you’re going to be using for your business. That’s where the DBA comes in the doing business as, or the assumed name as they call it in the stack in like the legal world. And so you could still have an LLC under a certain under your very generic name.
Girja:
At least you’ve started it. At least you’ve put it out there. It’s part of your business now. And you’re not scrapping around for protection later on when something is to happen. So I, I truly love LLCs. I get a little bit biased with them as well, but there are a lot of times where corporations just might be better for your business. And so it’s very business to business. It is, it varies as well. You know, if you’re a sole proprietor though, and you might not have a very high risk exposure and you might be very comfortable with the way you’re doing things and that’s okay too, but there will come a time when you have to make that decision of whether you need to level your game, like level it up, or if you want to just stay on the same, uh, level at that point. [inaudible],
Bonnie:
uh, that makes a lot of sense. So aside from, you know, getting set up with a legal business structure that works for you, and that keeps you protected, what are some other steps that you would recommend entrepreneurs take, who are ready to really get, uh, get everything together and kind of cover all that assets?
Girja:
Yeah. So aside from the LLC, which you can get on day one, or you can even get in year three, if you want to, I would also start getting proper contracts for your business. If you are a new business, like literally you just started today. I know there’s a lot of DIY contracts that happen that become these big Frankenstein contracts, which worked for a little bit. But once you start getting bigger in your business, once you start getting more clients and you’re wanting to scale, you’re wanting to really level your game up.
Girja:
You have to start getting contracts that are more, uh, customized for your business. I know I sell templates on, I have a template site as well called your contract buddy. So I absolutely, uh, not at all saying, don’t buy a template, but make sure whoever you buy it from, they have a comprehensive template and not just literally a skeleton template, which is bare minimum, protecting you if at all, because you can have a contract. But if that contract is not written in a way that is protective, or it could be contradictory or doesn’t even resonate with the way you run your business and it doesn’t even align with the way you run your business, then there’s a problem. So contracts are necessary. I would, you know, for somebody who might have created a contract or bought a custom, uh, you know, a template always go back and look at your contracts on an annual basis every year, go and look at your contracts, see if they’re still working for you.
Girja:
I always say, you know, have a running list in your, whether it’s a Trello, whether a Sana, whether it’s Google docs, whatever tool you use, have a running list of what your client experiences and a running list of like vendor experiences or any business relationship that is ongoing and pretty consistent in your business and write a list of what things are working, what is not working and what things need to be maybe made a little bit better. And the not working stuff should either be eliminated or needs to be absolutely revisited and fixed. And so, so those things are what you have to go and review on an annual basis every year, in my opinion, and go back and, you know, fix your contracts. If you have to go back and revise them, go to a lawyer and get that revised if you have to, but contracts are very important in our, in the way our business runs and to make it run smoothly and to just have, you know, our operations running, um, better and at a higher level, I think aside from contracts.
Girja:
So there’s many other things that people can do. One of them is copyright and trademark. I know that word, those words are thrown around like left, right, and center like a tennis ball all the time. And people are like, yeah, I use it all the time. And they sometimes use it interchangeably too. And rightfully so because they don’t know any better or they just, you know, are confused about what it means. And so that all is Uncompaghre under the intellectual property umbrella and intellectual property is intangible, uh, property or assets that a company owns. So a lot of times patents are part of that. Your, you know, trace secrets are a part of that as well. Your trademark is a part of that. And your copyright is a part of that as well. So just specifically talking about trademarks and copyright though, trademark is anything that’s identifying your brand.
Girja:
So if we think about, say the Tiffany, you know, the Tiffany jewelry company, so their boxes are blue and everybody knows what kind of box it is. And they see the box, they see those shape of the box. They know it’s a Tiffany box. The way Tiffany is written, the way it is also the color of all of it. Right? So that is, that is all Tiffany. That is Tiffany’s trademark. If someone were to use it, they’re infringing on Tiffany’s trademark. Similarly with copyright though, copyright is works that you have created that original work of authorship that has been put into tangible mediums. So what that really means is your photographs, your videos that you’re putting out into the world, your eCourses that you’re putting out into the world, your digital books that you’re putting out into the world, your blog posts that you’re putting out into the world, right?
Girja:
The websites that you’re creating, all of this stuff is protected by copyright, not everything. And you know, so I’m going to take it my self self back step back. And if you have any questions, please stop me because I feel like I’m just going on. No, no, you’re great. Um, with trademark and copyright, there is a default protection that you have by common law. And what that is is that like, by, just by the mere fact of you using something for the first time that is yours, that nobody else has used, you are trademarking that if you’re using in a public way and copyright is the same thing, the minute you put something into a tangible medium, that is original work of art is protected by copyright. Now you have common law protection, meaning you can stake a claim and say, Hey, don’t use it.
Girja:
It’s mine. But what happens is that sometimes if somebody is infringing, you may not be entitled to money or fines or anything like that, unless you have registered it. So registering your trademark with the U S PTO or your copyright with the us copyright office bolsters that protection that you already have in common law. And now you start getting statutory protection. I know that’s a lot of information. And so it’s so good. Some key, some, some really like quick, you know, uh, actionable items that you can do. If you have not registered, your trademark is one, put a TM next to everything that you are branding your business name, or if there’s a course that you have there, just put a TM next to it. TM is just telling everybody, this is mine, even though they’re, they should already know it, but you’re now like, is our psyche the season we’re like, oh, that’s protected.
Girja:
We can’t use it. So it’s a real, like, it’s a game. It’s not, it’s just, it’s a game that you’re playing. And even with copyright is the same thing, you know, like on everybody’s websites, you see copyright on the bottom or a C with a, with a circle around it, that’s showing copyright. And you’re just giving people notice that this is mine. Don’t take it. All rights are reserved. So these are just some small little things you can do if you’ve not registered it. I do suggest though, if it’s a name that you were pretty committed to, and it, people identify your brand with it, go ahead and try to do the trademark registration on it. Or if it’s a, you know, a product that you were earning revenue on, go ahead and, you know, register the copyright on it. And the sooner you registered the copyright, the better it is for you and your business, that is such incredible advice.
Bonnie:
It was just sitting here like soaking in all of your Lakewood. We go wisdom because, um, those are such practical and action-based steps that we can take in order to make sure that we are really just protected. And it’s, it’s, you know, in such a way where, uh, we are being proactive, we’re not being reactive. And I just really love that. That is something that we can focus on as entrepreneurs so that we don’t find ourselves in crisis mode or managing, you know, fires or anything like that. Instead we can just, you know, kind of put that first foot forward, take that first step. We’re really get set up in the right way. And then just like, kind of operate from that space of confidence.
Girja:
Yeah. I, I really do believe that putting out fires is, I mean, it’s, it’s inevitable in every business it’s inevitable, but what really helps is when we are at a better position to put that fire out.
Girja:
And if that makes any sense, it’s like putting it out with a firetruck versus with a bucket. So what do you want you in the bucket? Or do you want the firetruck? And so it’s like just positioning yourself in a way where you feel stronger and you’re more confident about it. And so that’s, you know, that’s just really important. I know that you were asking me some other and I’m just going to kind of rewind a little bit and talk. I know I talked about LLC and, you know, contracts and trademark and copyright, but another real big thing is that everybody has a website. Our website is our virtual home. It’s our virtual store, it’s the gateway to our business. And we should be very protective of our website, just the way we are of our home. And just the way we are of our, um, you know, retail business, brick and mortar, if you had something.
Girja:
And so you want to have protection there, you want to make sure that you are providing protection for the people coming in, but you are also protecting your business from the users of your website as well. And so you want to have those privacy policies in there, which is required by law to have a privacy policy for every website. And the privacy policy is just telling people how you’re using their personal information, what you’re doing with it, who you’re selling it to and why you’re using it. So it’s very important to have that on your website, plus it’s required for a lot. The second thing is the terms of use for your website. That is also very, very important. It’s not required, but it’s highly recommended because with the terms of use, you’re telling how they’re allowed to use your website. What it’s like telling people, when you, when they come into your house, please don’t play with the ball in my home, or please take your shoes off or no running, whatever, whatever your rules are for your, your home rules.
Girja:
That’s the same thing with the terms of use is kind of telling the people with the rules of the house are for your website. And then again, your intellectual property ownership, just giving them another notice.
Bonnie:
I am so glad that you brought that up because I think that just in my experience with the client work that I do, uh, so often I’m, I’m actually kind of surprised when I get to the website design portion of a custom branding project. And I say, Hey, you know, here’s how you can share the copy of your terms and conditions, policy, or privacy policy, all of that with me, so that I can get that added to your website. I’m always surprised that so frequently I hear from entrepreneurs who are saying, oh, I don’t have that. Where can I get one? Or, oh, do I really need that?
Bonnie:
I don’t, you know, or something like that. And it’s just, it’s so surprising that, you know, at least on my end, it’s probably just because of, you know, the, the industry that I’m in, but I am aware that that’s something legally required. And so it’s just, to me, it speaks to, uh, you know, it’s not, I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault. Like, I don’t think that any of my clients are, you know, like, uh, just unaware or, you know, like they’re, I don’t think they’re like bad business owners by any stretch of imagination. I just think that it speaks to the amount of unawareness and almost like misinformation that’s out there about what we need as creative entrepreneurs versus maybe what like a corporation needs. So I really appreciate that you shared that as such a specific action that people can take.
Girja:
Yeah. I think, I think you’re, you’re, it’s not just the people coming to you. I was just talking to a photographer friend of mine. Every photographer has a website and they are putting their, their content. They’re putting their photographs on this website or their videos. What if someone were to steal it? Not that you have to give them notice that this is mine, but was isn’t it nice to just let people know the rules of the house? So that way they know they already got noticed that if they’re going to steal this photograph of yours, it’s yours, you’ve not given them permission to do it. And you’re going to take action on it. You are letting people know that you’re serious about your business. And I think that is something that a lot of times, business owners forget that when you start in place, when you start implementing legal into your business, properly accounting into your business properly, um, even like having an operations team in your business, you are now, uh, you know, really ma you’re telling the world I’m serious about the business.
Girja:
I’m a professional I’m here to serve, but I also will not let you break my business down.
Bonnie:
I absolutely love how you said, you know, here, I’m here to serve, but I’m not going to let you break my business down. And I think that that is such a powerful way to think about the role that legal and like you said, accounting, or other kinds of like incredible systems like that can play in making sure that we have the ability to use our talents and our passions in order to create an impact in the lives of those we serve. And to make sure that along the way, our businesses are fully protected. So I so appreciate you diving into that and kind of breaking that down for us in a way that really makes so much sense and makes it very clear what steps we can take to protect our businesses in that way.
Bonnie:
But I know we talked about so far, we’ve talked about a lot of really awesome, tangible, practical steps that people can take for tuning in today. But one question that I always love asking with every interview here on the BSP centers around what kind of encouragement or what kind of, you know, little pep-talk or words of affirmation would you want to share with someone who’s tuning in today and who is kind of feeling that fire lit underneath them, they’re ready to take action to get their legal ducks in a row. What kind of encouragement would you want to share in that person? Who’s going to be taking that intentional action.
Bonnie:
So I always say, um, keep moving forward, boldly, God has your back. Like that is literally what I always say. I say to myself every single day. And I believe in a truly, I believe that there are a lot of steps that we have to take in our life that are difficult, whether it is adding legal to your business in a way where you feel overwhelmed or where you feel like, gosh, this might be expensive, or whether it is diversifying your business or selling your business and buying something else, whatever that plunge might be for you.
Girja:
I believe that if it is in your heart to take it, you need to move that you need to move that little step forward. And when you move that step forward, you’re going to get this gusta when that pushes you forward. And you won’t even know how that happened. And it’s so important for us to have that faith in our gut, in our instincts and our intuition, because there is something higher that is speaking to you at that point that is leading you forward and you just need to move forward boldly. That’s such beautiful encouragement. It’s such an incredible idea for us to carry with us today. Thank you so much for sharing that and Kesha. I just love that so much. Oh, thank you. I mean, I could say a lot in many, many other things, but really bad. It’s like my life Anthem.
Girja:
I have it written everywhere because I truly, truly believe in it. Hmm.
Bonnie:
Yeah. I, I think that that’s such an incredible thought to keep close to you. And I’m just so grateful that you share that with us today. And I know that who are tuning in, they’re going to want to know how they can connect with you and follow along. So where can people find you online?
Girja:
Yes. So I am very much active on Instagram at GBP law. And again, my website www.gbplaw.com. I also have your contract buddy, which is the contract template shop. And again, I also have a podcast. We just call it Law chat with Girija. So I’m absolutely check it out. There’s a lot of amazing entrepreneurs that come on there, including you Bonnie, so grateful to have you. And I’m always a message away. I am very accessible and that is the one thing that I want everybody to know that whether you’re my client or whether you’re just part of my community, you’re hanging out with me on Instagram anywhere. I’m just a message away.
Bonnie:
I love that. And friends, if you’re tuning in today and you want to connect with gears as always, I’m going to have all of her links, all this info that we talked about or recap, and all the juicy details in the show notes for today’s episode. So if you just go to brand strategy, podcast.com and click on the link for the latest episode, then you’ll be able to connect with her quickly and easily and kept kind of a recap of what we covered here today. So friends as always thank you so much for tuning into the brand strategy podcast and gears. I thank you so much for showing up and sharing your insight with us so that we know how to confidently move forward and take action to make sure that we are protecting our businesses legally.
Girja:
Thank you so much, Bonnie, for having me. I had such a great time chatting with you.
Bonnie:
Thank you so much for joining me today, friend, before you go, I would be so grateful to receive your feedback on the brand strategy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general has helped you grow your brand and really appreciate it. If you left us a review in iTunes, your positive reviews enable the brand strategy. My camps to continue to grow and reach like-minded creatives. Just like you. Plus I’ll be randomly selecting a handful of lucky reviewers each month to receive a little, thank you. Surprise for me in the mail. Thank you for all your support and encouragement as together. We pursue building brands with purpose and intention until next time and cheering you on from Waco.
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