Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins may give you the creeps this Halloween, but those are the least of your worries as a business owner.
There’s something even scarier lurking in the corners of your business if you’re not properly prepared.
During spooky season, I go from The Boutique Lawyer to The BOO-tique Lawyer, but my mission remains the same: to help you avoid legal horrors in your business all year round through simple and easy to implement legal resources.
To help you with that, this Halloween we’re dishing out all TREATS, no tricks with 50% off all contracts in The Boutique Lawyer Contract Shop!
October 24th through 31st you can treat yourself to the contracts that help protect your business from top to bottom and ultimately help you keep more of the money that you make in your bank account. 💸
SAVE THE DATE for the best sale of the year (no really, even Black Friday won’t be this good), and while you’re waiting, keep reading to learn which legal horrors you want to avoid – and better yet, HOW to avoid them. ⬇️
5 Legal Horrors To Avoid In Your Business
- The Contract Curse
Imagine living your best business owner life, selling your products and services online, making the money that you’ve always dreamed of…
Just to later be hit with fine after fine because you didn’t take the time to properly set up legally required legal agreements prior to doing business.
That my friend is what I’m going to call a contract curse because your business is not seen as legit in the eyes of law UNTIL you have certain legal agreements in place.
And trust me – as a business owner myself, I know that you might not always know what you need to have, which is why I’ve dedicated my time and resources to make sure you DO!
Because I want you to have that booming business described above – but I want you to have a legal business more than anything.
Depending on what you sell and how you deliver your offers, your business needs different things, but generally speaking you want to make sure you have 3 main contracts in place:
1️⃣ Privacy Policy (more detail on this one below!)
2️⃣ Terms of Purchase – this legal policy covers refunds, chargebacks, and how they're allowed to use your stuff.
3️⃣ Website Terms of Use – this is a legally binding agreement that covers whether your customers can use your logo, repurpose your blogs, backlink to your website, and more!
- The Copyright Catastrophe
In today’s busy online world, copyright is indeed a catastrophe that many business owners unfortunately have to face and deal with.
As a business owner, your original content and creative works are invaluable, which is why you want to make sure they’re fully protected from theft and infringement by understanding copyright laws, licensing, and fair use.
Copyright laws protect your original works, such as literary, artistic, musical, and other creative works and includes written content, images, videos, and other forms of media.
To obtain a copyright, the content must be original, meaning that ideas, facts or common
phrases aren’t eligible, and the content must be fixed in a tangible form, such as written or recorded.
While copyright protection is automatic once you create your content, it’s recommended to register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office to ensure full protection!
To really enforce your copyright, you need to display a copyright notice on your content, which includes the © symbol, the year of first publication and your name.
Once you’ve taken the steps to copyright your content, if someone infringes on your copyright, you have the right to take legal action to protect your intellectual property, which usually starts with a cease-and-desist letter followed by a lawsuit if necessary.
To fully understand what copyright is, what it means, and where it’s needed, click here for a deeper dive!
- The Trademark Terror
Your brand is your identity, and the trademark terror threatens to undermine it if you aren’t careful! To fully protect your business, a trademark registration is something you may want to consider.
A registered trademark provides exclusive rights to your brand name and logo, guarding against imitators and counterfeiters!
As a lawyer, this is something that I encourage every business owner to do before starting your business, launching a new product, or even hosting an event.
WITHOUT doing this, you could potentially find yourself on the receiving end of a trademark infringement lawsuit and actually face paying back all the money you made operating under someone else’s trademark.
So, how can you avoid paying LOTS of money in the future?
✔️ Run a trademark clearance search when you come up with your business name, product
name, etc.
✔️ Apply for a trademark
✔️ Enforce your brand rights
Does this cost money? Sure! There’s of course a cost to doing legitimate business. But there’s also a cost to NOT. So, pay the money now to avoid paying more later!
- The Privacy Police
The privacy police (aka your government) are always watching, and as a responsible business owner, you must ensure your customers' data is protected! 🚨
If I had to pick one legal agreement to talk about over and over it would be this one because a breach of privacy in any capacity is not cool and I want to make sure that you’re taking all of the necessary steps you need to first, keep your audience safe, but also keep them trusting you.
The easiest and most simple way to do this is to implement a Privacy Policy on your website that will live in the footer of your website, that outlines how your website collects, uses and manages a user’s personal information.
If you are collecting your audiences data through opt-in forms for emails or freebies or are tracking them through ads or other analytics, this policy is a MUST and if you don’t believe me, click here for a deeper dive.
- The Affiliate Apocalypse
The affiliate apocalypse can strike if you're not cautious with your marketing efforts. As a business owner, affiliate marketing can be a powerful tool, but it must be approached carefully!
If you’re going to be an affiliate for other businesses and actively share discount codes or commissionable links on your website or through your social media, make sure that you are taking the steps to safeguard your efforts so that your passive income doesn’t end up costing you!
As an affiliate for another business or brand, you are legally required by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to disclose that information to your audience and it can be simply done by using a copy and paste affiliate disclaimer like this:
(Yes, I’m giving you permission to actually copy and use the following statement!)
“Affiliate disclaimer: Some of the links in this [post/page] are affiliate links, which means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you and helps to support my business.
Please note that I only recommend products and services that I personally use and trust. I will always disclose when a link is an affiliate link, and I never recommend a product or service solely for the purpose of earning a commission.”
On the flipside, if you’re a business owner who plans to have your own affiliate program, make sure you have these two contracts in place!
Legally Protect Your Business From Top To Bottom
During spooky season and beyond, I encourage you to consider these legal horrors and make protecting your business a top priority by investing in the necessary resources you need.
If your business is missing one (or all) of these, take advantage of our scary good deal to get 50% off any contract you need October 24-31, 2023!
With the right contracts and legal strategies in place, you can enjoy a successful, horror-free business journey.
Here’s to making spooky season a little less spooky this year. 🎃