Covering all your legal and financial bases?

tealily

Hi pro readers,

I'm the process of setting up shop. The web and marketing stuff is the easy bit - the harder bit is wading through all applicable laws and financial decisions. For example, here are some of the things I've crash-coursed in the past 24 hours:

1) Should I operate as a sole trader or open a company and act as director/sole employee? (US terms: Sole proprietorship Vs LLC)
(the latter separates from other business trading under my existing business number - of which we're only permitted one in my country - however has higher startup costs and a loooot more paperwork).

2) If I exclusively offer online services but need to specify a geographical state to 'base' my operations in for registration purposes, how do I decide which state is best?
(apparently you want to look at which state has more supportive laws in favour of small businesses... but ALSO look at which state has the more favorable Statute of Limitations)

3) If I buy stock images and want to use it as a 'header' of sorts on a website page rather than an in-text image, does that legally constitute as part of a website template, meaning I'd have to pay more to use the stock image?
(checked with a lawyer - it doesn't. Phew!)

4) Why doesn't Squarespace - an ecommerce platform - offer Paypal?
(Actually, as of two days ago they did release PayPal via beta-trial for online stores. Their web design has a crazy learning curve but if it's your gig, read on. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206545517)

5) Why might I need to seek advice from a lawyer specialising in intellectual property (IP)?
(Lawyer friend says it's because terms and conditions - those groovy things protecting your a** from coming out the wrong end of a lawsuit or lengthy customer dispute - are a contract, and therefore falls under intellectual property law. Though most lawyers are pretty familiar with contacts such as legal wills in event of a death, a Terms and Conditions contract isn't super-standard fare.)

And that's just a snapshot of today... -_-

In particular, I'm spending a lot of time on my Terms and Conditions (I'm choosing to assume I'll get sued - or threatened to be sued - by a crazy person at some point) and looking up things like whether applicable Fair Trading laws allow me to refuse services at personal discretion, what my national Consumer Law states I need to abide by etc.

I'm fortunate to have a lawyer friend helping me out here and there, but I'm fast approaching the point where I really need a lawyer AND accountant (or other professional business advising body) on hand to check my decision-making process and all my paperwork/contracts before I launch for real. There's a lot to know and not screw up... and I'm out of my league!

For anyone else who started out - were you able to do it all yourself, did you end up outsourcing advice/services prior to launch (and how much did it cost you?), or did you choose to work it out as you went along?
 

uraszz

Hi pro readers,

I'm the process of setting up shop. The web and marketing stuff is the easy bit - the harder bit is wading through all applicable laws and financial decisions. For example, here are some of the things I've crash-coursed in the past 24 hours:

1) Should I operate as a sole trader or open a company and act as director/sole employee?
(the latter separates from other business trading under my existing business number - of which we're only permitted one in my country - however has higher startup costs and a loooot more paperwork).

2) If I exclusively offer online services but need to specify a geographical state to 'base' my operations in for registration purposes, how do I decide which state is best?
(apparently you want to look at which state has more supportive laws in favour of small businesses... but ALSO look at which state has the more favorable Statute of Limitations)

3) If I buy stock images and want to use it as a 'header' of sorts on a website page rather than an in-text image, does that legally constitute as part of a website template, meaning I'd have to pay more to use the stock image?
(checked with a lawyer - it doesn't. Phew!)

4) Why doesn't Squarespace - an ecommerce platform - offer Paypal?
(Actually, as of two days ago they did release PayPal via beta-trial for online stores. Their web design has a crazy learning curve but if it's your gig, read on. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206545517)

5) Why might I need to seek advice from a lawyer specialising in intellectual property (IP)?
(Lawyer friend says it's because terms and conditions - those groovy things protecting your a** from coming out the wrong end of a lawsuit or lengthy customer dispute - are a contract, and therefore falls under intellectual property law. Though most lawyers are pretty familiar with contacts such as legal wills in event of a death, a Terms and Conditions contract isn't super-standard fare.)

And that's just a snapshot of today... -_-

In particular, I'm spending a lot of time on my Terms and Conditions (I'm choosing to assume I'll get sued - or threatened to be sued - by a crazy person at some point) and looking up things like whether applicable Fair Trading laws allow me to refuse services at personal discretion, what my national Consumer Law states I need to abide by etc.

I'm fortunate to have a lawyer friend helping me out here and there, but I'm fast approaching the point where I really need a lawyer AND accountant (or other professional business advising body) on hand to check my decision-making process and all my paperwork/contracts before I launch for real. There's a lot to know and not screw up... and I'm out of my league!

For anyone else who started out - were you able to do it all yourself, did you end up outsourcing advice/services prior to launch (and how much did it cost you?), or did you choose to work it out as you went along?

I just thought this blog-post might help you (now or in the future)

https://benebellwen.com/2016/10/27/spiritual-service-professionals-how-to-win-every-refund-dispute/

I hope everything goes well for your business!

Sincerely

-uraszz
 

tealily

THAT LINK IS AMAZING

HOW HAVE I NOT HEARD OF THIS CHICK BEFORE?? (Even if my country's consumer law is very different from US according to my lawyer pal - but hopefully the basic principles will be similar)

I am so impressed!!! Thank you so much!
 

uraszz

THAT LINK IS AMAZING

HOW HAVE I NOT HEARD OF THIS CHICK BEFORE?? (Even if my country's consumer law is very different from US according to my lawyer pal - but hopefully the basic principles will be similar)

I am so impressed!!! Thank you so much!

Oh God you have to get on top of Benebell Wen's blog ASAP. It's unlike antyhing I've ever seen (so is she). She's also the author of the Holistic Tarot so you might have heard that?

Sincerely

-uraszz
 

CrystalSeas

She's a lawyer. And does Tarot. And wrote a book about 1,000 pages long that is one of the most recommended Tarot books in decades. Her lawyer advice for Tarot is the best you can get in the US.


If you're starting a business, you absolutely need to have your accountant advising you from the very start. They are often well-versed in the legal issues you need to pay attention to and they know when to send you to a lawyer.
 

Barleywine

I was the Purchasing Manager for a mid-sized electric utility company for many years. Although I was involved mainly in purchase of goods rather than contracted services, I can see that Benibell has most of the bases well-covered. Another formal one I might add would be something along the lines of "no expressed or implied warranty of suitability for any particular purpose is provided," probably coupled with a statement that nothing received should be considered "advice." I think I would broaden it beyond the legal, medical, financial and business arenas, although those are certainly the major ones. If a client should misconstrue or misuse your insights and suffer injury of some kind, you want to be protected as much as possible. The "entertainment only" clause probably isn't strong enough for that.

You can also become a master of the "weasel-word" in how you phrase your interpretations, with "suggests, implies, indicates or favors the possibility" high on your list of non-actionable pronouncements.
 

AnemoneRosie

So for me... I've been self-employed as an independent contractor under various guises for over a decade. Some things I just sort of know without needing to consult with a lawyer.

But since you're not in my country, that's not very helpful.
 

tealily

I was the Purchasing Manager for a mid-sized electric utility company for many years. Although I was involved mainly in purchase of goods rather than contracted services, I can see that Benibell has most of the bases well-covered. Another formal one I might add would be something along the lines of "no expressed or implied warranty of suitability for any particular purpose is provided," probably coupled with a statement that nothing received should be considered "advice." I think I would broaden it beyond the legal, medical, financial and business arenas, although those are certainly the major ones. If a client should misconstrue or misuse your insights and suffer injury of some kind, you want to be protected as much as possible. The "entertainment only" clause probably isn't strong enough for that.

You can also become a master of the "weasel-word" in how you phrase your interpretations, with "suggests, implies, indicates or favors the possibility" high on your list of non-actionable pronouncements.
I'm really enjoying hearing how other readers are involved in legit managerial positions in other industry. I'm sure a lot of the skills cross over.

And yeah - I saw a lot of those 8-10 dot point T&C's with the "for entertainment purposes only" clause. My draft T&C's are currently 6 pages long, have an entire paragraph outlining that I cannot be held liable for any loss of revenue or personal injury, that there is no warranty that any information provided is accurate, complete, reliable etc, and that I disclaim any liability for inaccuracy or error etc. I like how you phrased yours and agree, it should relate to personal areas as well - there's always going to be THAT crazy who can't handle the fact that they blew it with their love interest, etc.

@CrystalSeas -
Started looking up accountants today, especially those that specialise in small business and 'microbusinesses' (because if it's just me, I'm a microbusiness, right?). Cheers! :)

re: Legal governance for international clients - This is high on my list of things to double-check with my lawyer, but if I'm in Country A and unhappy customer is in Country B, I'm assuming the applicable laws - as outlined in my T&C's - are those of Country A?

Hoping no-one has ever had legal issues with their clients but would love to hear if you have. Ditto for any stalker issues, I'm currently constructing all my barriers (eg PO box address, not listing my personal phone number, making sure my whois website details are either made up or business-specific eg business email only)

re: Sole trader/proprietorship vs company/LLC
Amazing. Just saw http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=4600186&postcount=8 which seems like very good advice. I would be keen to keep my personal assets separated from my business.

But also, in my country, you can only operate as a sole trader if you income is below 18K (presumably for that business), meaning that if you hit the big league in any sense of the word, you have to upgrade to a company sooner or later anyway.