WARNING: DO NOT PUT YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND!

Listen up: We’ve got some “asset covering” to do, or as I like to say,”It’s time to dive into the crazy sexy legal part of running an online business.”

Ok, ok, so it’s not sexy. But the legal aspects of running an online business can make you a little bit crazy if you’re not making time to find out what you need to know.

There’s nothing worse that not knowing what you don’t know. 

Your assets include your business’s “property” (your website and its content, your company name and tag line, your products and services, etc., a.k.a., “Intellectual Property,” or “IP”) AND your personal property, like your home, your car, your kids’ college fund, and your retirement savings.

That’s all worth protecting, right? [You should be nodding vigorously here.]

I know, you may still be thinking, “I hate this stuff.”

I get it. In fact, just saying the word “legal” (or, lawyer, for that matter) can make an online business owner go a little crazy and, on occasion, break out into hives. (It’s hard to watch.)

Still, you can’t ignore this stuff, sorry. And here’s how to know if you are: You have an irrepressible urge to do ostrich impersonations by burying your head in the sand.

(Not a good look. It means your “assets” are up in the air.)

Look, this legal stuff happens to be crazy sexy important.

Please take your head out of the sand.

Beware Of Online Hooligans

Hey, need I remind you that your business is your baby? You need to protect it from all those online hooligans, shysters, pick-pockets, and Internet interlopers who are just waiting to catch someone with their pants down.

And by “someone” I mean you, and by “pants down” I mean standing virtually naked and lost in (Internet) space.

Small business owners are most often the ones who finds themselves in legal hot water because they don’t know what they don’t know.

My job as an online entrepreneur who also happens to be a lawyer is to keep you from having to pay a lawyer to do what you can do yourself with a little knowledge under your entrepreneurial belt.

Because, the sad truth is this: bad things can happen when you simply use the “cross-your-fingers” method of covering your assets online, without actually taking a few simple steps that could drastically reduce the risk of those bad things happening. Below you’ll find 5 Crazy Sexy Legal Tips to get you started.

Ready? Pull your head out of the sand, uncross those fingers, and start covering up…

5 CRAZY SEXY LEGAL TIPS 

1. Post a GDPR-Compliant Privacy Policy on your website: It’s the law.

The minute you start collecting someone’s email (or other personal information) you are obligated by law to protect their privacy AND tell them how you will do that.

Any of the following information is considered “personal”:

Name

Email address

IP Address (according to the new GDPR law)

Home or Business Address

Payment information

Social Security Number

Posting a Privacy Policy also builds visitor trust. Believe it or not, people are starting to pay close attention to how websites protect their personal information, and statistics show people are becoming increasingly reluctant to do business with companies who don’t take this privacy stuff super seriously.

The only thing worse than not having a PP (did you just laugh?) is cutting and pasting someone else’s PP. That’s copyright infringement. That’s illegal, and so not sexy.

I recently reviewed a client’s website documents only to find that his Privacy Policy listed the contact information of an entirely different company that did business in another state! Turns out my client’s web developer (obviously not the person you should have taking care of your business’s legal matters) used the same Privacy Policy for all of his clients, no matter what business they were in or where they were registered to do business.

Be careful where you choose to take shortcuts in your business because they could cost you a lot more than you ever would have paid had you taken the right action in the first place.

Need a Privacy Policy, stat? Want to do it yourself without a lawyer? You can do that HERE.

2. Post a Website Disclaimer on your website: This lets people know up front what you’re NOT responsible for.

Sadly, there are some people who like to think other people should be held responsible for their actions. You need to let them know you are not one of those “other people.”

You don’t want to get sued because someone said you promised them something you didn’t.

Think of it this way: a disclaimer is like a contract between you and your website visitors in which you require that each visitor makes a conscious choice (informed consent) to agree to the terms set forth. It must include specific legal language (tailored to your website and your business) that protects you from those who might misuse or misapply the information you provide on your site. 

Along with the Privacy Policy, posting a Website Disclaimer reduces your risk of liability because it’s a lot harder to successfully sue someone whom you told up front that you would not be held responsible for the way they chose to use/misuse the content on your site.

In order for a disclaimer to be effective, it must be prominently displayed on your website and on every page of your site. 

3. Post a Terms of Use Statement on your website:This document adds another layer of protection as you build a virtual electric fence around your online business.

Think of the Website Disclaimer and the Terms of Use statement as the one-two punch you deliver to website visitors who want to enjoy your content. 

A Terms of Use policy lays out the ground rules for participation on your website. You need this doc to let people know the rules of your playground, who’s in charge, who owns the content, and whether or not it can be shared without your permission.

If you don’t tell people that they’re not allowed to  mess with your copyrighted and/or trademarked material, some of them will. Sad, but true. I see it all the time. Not a week goes by that I don’t receive an email from someone who found their content, verbatim, on someone else’s sight.

One client had his entire blog content ripped off and he had little recourse because he hadn’t registered his intellectual property. Without the proper legal docs in place on your site, you give would-be infringers the opportunity to claim “innocent infringement.”

4. Get It In Writing: Ok, look… if you’ve got one-on-one clients you’ve got to have a signed agreement that protects both you and your client.

We’re talkin’ iron-clad contract, baby.

Some people worry that their clients won’t like having to sign a contract because it takes away that “warm ‘n fuzzy feeling” they want people to feel when they work with them. That’s the kind of thinking that is more crazy than sexy because it leaves you exposed!

We’re all grown-ups here. This is business. Covering your assets online doesn’t mean you’re not a trusting person. It just means you’re responsible for your part of the relationship, and you expect your clients to uphold their end of the bargain as well.

Get it in writing, or risk having to hire a lawyer because you’ve just been served.

5. Break up with your Sole Proprietorship: It may have turned into a toxic relationship you need to get out of.

I know, breaking up is hard to do.

But as soon as you decide you’re in business for the long haul, it’s time to form an LLC or an S-Corp.

Having a legal structure in place creates a virtual electric fence between your business and your personal assets, including your home and anything else you own that has monetary value. The good news is, forming an LLC is something you can do yourself.

This list is far from exhaustive, but it’s a good start, right?

There are other steps you should be taking in order to protect your business and your personal assets, but I wanted to give you a heads-up of the ones you should take care of lickety-split.

If you’re ready to get your legal ducks all in a row, check out the DIY Legal MEGA Toolkit, created by a lawyer, so you don’t have to hire one.