Are you confident about the legal aspects of your business and website?
Over the 11 years I have been in business, my business model and services have evolved. I have transitioned from offering services priced with an hourly rate to not offering services at all. My business model is now based around selling my online courses, with some consultancy and mentoring for those who prefer to work 1-2-1.
I have written this post as a diary entry I suppose. Sharing my evolving business journey. I have a few more of these planned, as well of course, more 'how-to's', tips and advice around online course creation.
Anyway, when I started in business back in 2010, I didn't really give legal issues much thought when it came to my business. Actually it was rather difficult to get accurate AND affordable legal advice back then, that was relevant to a purely virtual service provider who was working with global clients.
But as my business evolved I knew I needed to get key legal protections in place.
GDPR arrived in 2018 and caused us all a massive headache trying to comply when no-one was really sure what that actually looked like from the perspective of a sole trader / small business.
And since I am now only selling online, to businesses, not consumers, then I knew I had to ramp up the attention to key legal protections. That meant learning about what was needed then putting suitable contracts and policies in place. Where to even start???
Thankfully I discovered Suzanne Dibble. I can't rave on about her enough!
She is a former corporate lawyer, and renowned data protection expert, who specialises in supporting UK small businesses with legal education and templates through her Small Business Legal Academy. She is also the author of the excellent 'GDPR For Dummies' book. In the run up to GDPR becoming law in May 2018, she did a detailed Facebook live every day for about 90 days if I remember right, to help all the panicking small business owners too. An epic effort to help us.
I have been a member of Small Business Legal Academy for a couple of years and just pecked around the sidelines in terms of getting my legal protections updated and upgraded. Let's face it... it's one of those dreaded jobs that we can easily put off to another day!
But this year, there was no more putting it off. I had taken this website offline months ago, so was operating without a useable site for absolutely ages. In the late summer I turned my attention to getting all legal protections up-to-date so I could get my online course business properly online, and then get my website re-built.
Luckily, the stars were aligned, and right on time, Suzanne launched her new legal membership club, called The Savvy Shay Business Club. The whole point is to help us with the practical application of her legal templates and to provide a way for us to affordably ask questions around the legal issues and documents that we need support with in our small business. Help us to get legal savvy-ness!
I joined straight away, and it's excellent. And since the end of November 2021, full disclosure, I have also become an affiliate for Suzanne. I've always recommended her stuff, now when I do, if someone buys through any link I share, then I will get a commission, but it won't cost you any extra. I'll do a little happy dance however 'cos you will be getting legal support in your small business, and I'll get a commission payout into my small business. Win Win.
I'll be blogging more about SBLA and Savvy Shay Club, but if you want to check it out, these are my affiliate links
GDPR For Small Business Owners
OK. What legal protections have I been working on with the support of Suzanne?
Phew! I've still got other stuff to do, but the key elements are in place now. YAY
There are a few more GDPR things to finish off, but I feel soooooo much better now this job has been tackled, and done.
One of my goals for this year, and my main goal for Q4 2021, was to get the legal stuff done so I could get my website re-build finished before the end of 2021.
I'm just about there, and can't wait to crack open the champagne to celebrate a very important year in my business development.