ASLU 049: Protecting What You Create (with attorney Andrea Henry)
Most weeks on the podcast we talk about being creative. This week we’re talking about protecting your creativity! Lawyer Andrea Henry of Henry Business Law, a Toronto based law firm, joins us to talk about all the legal “stuff” we have to deal with when we run a business (but really wish we didn’t have to).
Here’s the thing. As creatives, we really just want to create. We want to make the thing, write the words, arrange the notes. That’s our passion. We’d do it for free if we didn’t need to eat.
We can get excited about logos and branding and even marketing to some extent because, while there is science and data and research that go behind those aspects of running a business, we can recognize the creativity that goes into them too.
But accounting, administrative hurdles, red tape and legal matters? They tend to make us clench our jaw or burrow our head back under the covers. Or worse yet (dangerous even), we go to the Facebook or reddit Hive and ask if somebody has a contract we can borrow or can tell us if we can deduct this expense or that.
PRO TIP: We have to get over that. Stop asking Facebook for legal advice. Stop going to reddit to find accounting shortcuts. And here’s just one of the reason’s why:
Our businesses are built on our creativity. The work we create is what we trade in. It makes us money. It provided for our future. Possibly even for the futures of our loved ones. It’s our intellectual property. And people can steal it or abuse it. We can sign away the rights to it without realizing it. We can forget to future proof our contracts or plan for what happens to our work when we shuffle off this mortal coil. In short, we can do a really crappy job of protecting our biggest asset: our creative property.
protect your creative work
It’s the foundation of your business
This week Andrea walks us through how to take better care of our businesses from a legal standpoint. Everything from how to find a lawyer who gets you to what you can do on your own to protect yourself as well as what you should not try to MacGyver or Frankenstein on your own! She also tells us how a lawyer can actually help you grow your business. That’s right! GROW!
And she does it a way that’s not scary, that’s easy to understand and that will get you pumped to find the right legal professional to help you get growing - all while protecting all that lovely creativity that you want to put out into the world so it can work hard for you and keep you thriving!
Andrea isn’t only a Cambridge educated lawyer. She’s also a small business owner and entrepreneur, just like you and me. She has more than a decade of experience working with businesses of all sizes and at every stage of the entrepreneurial journey. When she started her firm, she had $1000, three clients and A LOT of hustle – growing her practice to 6-figures in under a year.
Andrea’s clients come to her passionate about their businesses but unsure about whether they are protected in the next stage of growth. Andrea started Henry Business Law to help ambitious entrepreneurs feel safe and secure in their businesses and enjoy the exhilaration of growing with the confidence that they have the right legal protections in place. And she can help you do the same!
(oh, and Andrea is a Canadian lawyer so this episode is for all us Canadians who struggle to find advice online that isn’t US-centric!)
Special Offer: anatomy of a contract
One of the most common legal matters creatives have to worry about in their businesses are contracts. Whether it’s your own contract that you’re sending to a client or a contract you’re being asked to sign by another party, understanding the basics of a contract is crucial. Andrea has put together a fantastic free guide - Anatomy of a Contract - that you can download. It will help you understand the basics of a contract so you know what to look for next time you’re asked to sign something!
If you just want the links to the resources mentioned in this episode, scroll down to the bottom.
Listen To the Episode
Here’s a direct link to Episode 49 - or you can listen via the players below:
Here’s what we cover in this episode:
Here’s a brief synopsis of what we cover in this episode and the questions Andrea answers for us.
1. When should you have your first interaction with a lawyer in your business?
2. What are some of the business basics a lawyer can help me with?
3. How do you find a lawyer? And more importantly, how do you find the right lawyer who understands what it is you do, particularly in a creative or digital content field?
4. What are some of the questions you should ask a potential attorney?
5. Can you work with a lawyer in a different province from you?
6. How much is a lawyer going to cost me? And what if I’m just starting out and I’m bootstrapping or this is a side hustle and I have no money?
7. Sometimes a lot of us have a legal question but we’re afraid to pick up the phone or send an email because of what it might wind up costing. Are there other ways to work with a lawyer besides hourly?
8. What about using online templates or some of the newer online services who can help with one off tasks like reviewing a contract or creating a privacy policy?
9. My friend had a privacy policy written for her website by her lawyer – can I just copy that and change the name?
10. What things should you absolutely not MacGyver in your business? Can you do your own trademark? Can you incorporate on your own? Should you?
11. What are some early steps you can take to protect your young business?
12. What sorts of things should you look for in a contract that might be red flags (for instance in the food blogging world a lot of brand contracts for sponsored posts try to sneak in that they will own all the rights to the content the blogger creates for that post)
13. What are some steps you can take to protect your Intellectual Property? (podcasts, articles, poetry, photos, videos, original designs or artwork, digital content)
14. What are you options if somebody steals your IP? At what point do you contact a lawyer? What can a lawyer do to help?
15. How can a lawyer help me grow my business?