Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Nequosha Anderson. Nequosha is a business and intellectual property attorney who assists primarily women creatives who want to legally protect their income producing ideas. We talk all about where to start when it comes to the legalities of your business whether you are just getting started or want to grow your business.
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- 95% of people do not think about the legal aspects of business
- We have to think about when things go wrong and have a plan for this
- You need to have a strategy/goal in place to run a business that includes the legal stuff
- Having a business is more than just having a logo and photoshoot!
- It is better to be proactive than reactive – being reactive will always cost more
- You don’t need a lot of clients or customers to make lots of money – you need raving fans
- Turn your clients/customers into raving fans by giving them the best customer experience
- Having the right legal cover and protection in place makes you a better business owner, provide better service and it sets expectations for people who work with/buy from you
- Make an environment where everything is a given – set expectations from the start
- Authorise people – enable people to handle things whilst you’re not around
- At the very least you should separate your personal assets to your business assets
- You have to have contracts and policies in place so there is a mutual understanding in place from the very start.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…
Be proactive, not reactive!
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS
- How Nequosha became a business attorney
- How to plan for when things go wrong
- The cost of consulting an attorney
- What legal cover do you need for your business?
- Protect before you share!
- What is the minimum you need to do?
CHECK NEQUOSHA OUT:
RESOURCES MENTIONED
My Dream Business Club doors are open! Join here
TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast.
The Club doors are open. Woo. I'm so excited. I am so excited. Um, it's been a long time coming. Uh, they've been shut for a long time while we've been behind the scenes, sorting everything out, changing everything. Making the whole new thing come to life and I am so, so glad that I can finally welcome you into the Club.
It has been so much fun. So let me explain the levels of the Club, because I know that, uh, now there's three levels. I just wanna make sure that you, you get what's at each level and, and also explain to you what you get at each level as well. So the three levels of the Club are the Club, the Club Plus and Executive Club.
The Club is $19 a month. The Club Plus is $97 a month and the Executive Club is $197 a month. So let me explain to you what you get in each. Okay. Let's start with the Club $19 a month. So you get access to level one of the Dream Business Growth Path, so that amazing growth path that I've put together all of level ones, lessons you get.
You also get all the training courses that are attached to level one. So for instance, let's say in level one, I, I talk about social media and I tell you to focus on one or two platforms and you are brand new to it. And you think actually Instagram is my thing, but I dunno how to use it.
Then there's an Instagram course that then teaches you how to use it. So for a, each area of the growth path, there's normally some extra training that I've got. So you also get access to that. You have a monthly live Q and A. Now this Q and A is a Facebook live in the Facebook group. You can submit questions beforehand.
And I will answer them on the live and you get that for about an hour every month. And you also get a recording of that. So if you can't attend live, but you have a question then by all means, put the question in the group and I will then come back to you and say, I answered it and it'll be on the recording.
The other thing that you get as a Club member, which is so important, and I debated about whether this was in at this level, but it's so important. And actually one of the big reasons people join my world is you get the monthly mindset sessions. So the monthly mindset. Oh, gosh, careful. I would say that monthly mindset sessions.
You get these on, um, once a month. They're on zoom. So you are on camera. I'm on camera, obviously, as always, you don't have to be on camera, but most of my members do cause we're very friendly. Uh you're on camera. And then basically in those mindset sessions, I walk you through a mindset exercise, varying different ones through varying different levels of your business and different challenges that you might foresee.
So we've done things on limiting beliefs. We've done things on, on imposter syndrome. We've done things on time management and we've done stuff on meditation. We've done stuff on journaling. So lots of different things around mindset, just to help you really get confident with your mindset. Then you also get monthly content hours.
So this is not with me. This is with the amazing Becci McEvoy from BeHeard Social and she will take you through a content hour session where she will answer your questions. She'll give you tips and advice. She'll help you plan some of your content. So the thing that you've always gotta do every month, that social media content, you can come to a content session and you can help get help with that.
You also get bi-monthly challenges. So every other month we do a challenge in the group. So we've done things like Instagram challenges. We've done LinkedIn challenges, we've done content challenges. We did mindset challenge, but basically for that week, every single day, I give you a task. At the end of the week, I pick a winner and you get a prize.
Um, so they're really helpful and really good to keep us focused. You also get the Facebook groups. Obviously you have access to the Facebook group with everyone else in the Club and in Club Plus and in Executive Club. And you also within that group get weekly inspired actions. So every single week I put an inspired action in there of one small thing that you can do that week.
So for $19 a month, honestly, it's a steal it's so, so good value. And as with everything, you can either sign up for the year and get a discount or you can sign up for the month and see how you feel and, you know, see if it's for you. So that's what you get in the Club. So let me talk to you about the Club Plus.
So the Club Plus is $97 a month, and obviously you get access to everything I've just said, but on top of that, you get all levels of the dream business growth path. So you get level two and level three stuff and you get. All the trainings within the membership. So all the trainings that relate to level two and level three and above you get access to them. On top of the $19, the, the key thing here is that you get the monthly zoom coaching calls.
So these are calls where bit different to the Q and A that you come along, but you are on camera and you, I ask you to unmute yourself because often what I find is when someone is having a question, I normally have a few questions back. So it enables me to dig a bit deeper into your business. So basically those coaching calls are available on the Club Plus. And you get them every month for, I say an hour. It's not an hour. They're normally about two, to be honest, depending on how long, but I normally answer everyone's questions and people come on and just listen, cause they normally learn so much good stuff. You also get so I'm just scanning down the list.
You also get monthly team co-working. What I mean by team co-working is it's not with me. It's one of my team. However, what they do is they give you the space to co-work. So we open up my zoom room and you come in. And at the beginning of the zoom, it's a two hour session. We ask what you're gonna be working on, you all quietly work together, and then we keep your accountable at the end to see how you got on.
So that's part of plus. You also get free access to the online version of the SOAR event. We have an event called SOAR and, um, you get free access to that. The online version. You also get the members only podcast. So all the coaching calls are and all the Q and A's are put onto a members only podcast, and you get access to that.
So if you can't make a Q and A, or you can't make a coaching call, then you can listen to it afterwards on a podcast app, uh, as a private podcast in the car when you're doing things, whatever, whatever. Cause I know it's not always easy to have that on your computer watching it.
Uh, and then the other thing you get on top of the other stuff that I've already said in, in the Club is you get quarterly goal setting and bonus coaching call. So in the Club Plus I get you to set quarterly goals and then I give you a call halfway through the quarter to see how you're getting on with them and see how I can help you do any better. Uh, if you need help, but you may not, you may be amazing.
Okay. So that's the Club Plus $97. So what are you getting for the $197, which is quite a jump. I get it, but believe me, the support is a jump too. So. Everything I've already mentioned in both those two levels you get access to in the Executive Club, though, what you get in addition is you get two extra co-working sessions with me.
So you've got your one co-working session with lovely Becci and you get two extra co-working sessions with me, which I do with you. So I co-work alongside you. So I ask you again, what you're working on. Halfway through I normally do a check in and then at the end, I check how you got on. You get two extra coaching and accountability calls.
So the difference in these coaching calls to the ones you get in the Club Plus is that you on these calls, I tend to go make sure I speak to everybody. And I literally have your quarterly actions up in front of us. We do it on a spreadsheet. So I look at your actions and I go, how are you getting on with X, Y, Z?
And I ask you for dates and I keep you very accountable. So those coaching calls, like I said, two extra months. So you then get three in a month if needed, you get all that extra accountability. And I know exactly what you're working on. You also get a quarterly high half day goal setting. So once a quarter, at the beginning of the quarter, we get together for a whole half day online.
And we look at what you are planning for the next quarter, we put together the quarterly goals. We focus on where we are. We look at any problems we might got. We do a bit of mastermind various different things. We tweak and change them as we go. Um, but they're really useful. You get private challenges.
So one of the private challenges we've just done is a money making challenge. And the goals that people set for themselves are really impressive. And some of them exceeded them by five times. So we did a, you know, we did some activities. I got on a call every single morning with them saying, okay, what money making activities are you doing today?
What are you gonna sell to who? Try this, have you done this? Have you done that? So again, that accountability is so key. You also get VA access to the Club Plus, so you, one of your team members can have access to everything in Club Plus, so they can see all the trainings. They can do all the courses. They can go through the pathway.
They can watch the mindset stuff anything's in there, they've got it. As an Executive Club, you get an extra online day for SOAR so we get our own private day and you also get a private telegram group with me and the other members. So sometimes we chat about what we've done on the weekend and niceties.
Sometimes we cheerlead, sometimes we moan, uh, you know, it's there we are your family business network. So those are the three levels. That's the difference between them. My hope is that there is something there for everyone, and that basically you will fit somewhere within that. And then as you grow through my help, you'll then grow into the different levels.
If you start on some of the lower levels. So I'm really, really excited about the Club being open. Please do go take a look. If you haven't it's fab. I've had so much good feedback. I'm, I'm loving it as always. I have. Okay. Anyway, on with today's. Oh, I should probably tell you where to go. teresaheathwareing.com/theclub and it'll be in the show notes. On with today's episode, as I just spent 10 minutes telling you about the Club.
So today is an interview with the lovely Nequosha. Now let me get her bio in front of me. So. Nequosha is a business and intellectual property attorney for the last eight years who assist primarily women creatives who want to protect their income producing ideas. She safeguards business with brands, assets ensures their intellectual property is secure and not stolen.
Allowing the business owner to creatively operate in their genius and not be robbed of what's the rightfully theirs. She serves clients in the space throughout the United States. So. This was such a good conversation. Now, if you sat there thinking, oh, legal, like that's a bit how I think about this stuff.
And I had to, I've had to really kind of kick myself to, to look at it and to kind of focus on it and make sure we've got everything in place that we need, but she says some really good advice. If you're just starting off, where to start. If you are growing few other things you need, she's so good. I really enjoy chatting to her.
So I will just leave you to see what you think, enjoy this interview.
Okay. It gives me great pleasure today to welcome to the podcast Nequosha Anderson. Nequosha how are you doing?
Nequosha: I am well. How are you?
Teresa: I am good. I'm actually, I do have a slight croaky voice. I did my first in person talk, which I haven't, I wanna say my first, not my first, ever as in, since the lockdown.
And I think the excitement of being on stage and seeing people again.
Nequosha: People.
Teresa: Yeah. like, I've come home and I'm a bit like, oh, my voice. So if I do sound a bit funny to my audience, you hear me all the time. That'd be why. Anyway, I'm super excited to have you on because as I was saying to you before we jumped on, I've wanted to bring someone on to talk about this subject for a while.
And it never quite came to fruition for whatever reason. Obviously the universe had its plan made a decision and here you are, which is perfect. So before we go into all of that, I always start the same way. And I ask you to introduce yourself to my audience and tell 'em how you got to do, what it is that you do today?
Nequosha: Okay, well again, thank you for having me. Um, my name is Nequosha the sound Q sound as in quote, I'm a business and intellectual property lawyer. So I typically work with people who have goods or services that they wanna provide to the market. And oftentimes my niche is creatives and who utilize the internet to service to provide their goods or service to of their consumers.
So I became a business lawyer. Based upon my experience with business, uh, since I was about 13 or 12, both of my parents are entrepreneurs and they are, have professional businesses. My mom's an accountant, my dad's in, um, transit, uh, transportation, logistics. Mm-hmm so he's having a fun time right now with the supply chain.
Teresa: Oh my goodness. I could never imagine.
Nequosha: And, um, So I have been integrated in business since from a very early age, but then I also had a desire for technology. So in my undergrad, uh, in my undergrad time, I took a, uh, contracting for technology class and fell in love with the law. So I figured I can blend the two and here I am today.
Teresa: Amazing. So first off, when I think like when you say, so what's your, what would you say your official title is?
Nequosha: My official title is business and intellectual property attorney.
Teresa: Attorney. Like that just sounds really serious. Like how many, how many years did you have to study to get to this?
Nequosha: So in, uh, in the states, our typical plan is you have to have an undergraduate degree.
You don't have to have a master's degree. So you technically could go from undergrad to law school. Um, so that's four plus an additional three years of education in law school. Then you have to take what we call our bar. Our bars are divided by your region or your state. So you have state bars and you'll have to take your particular state bar in order to assume the title of an attorney or Esquire that will afford you, the ability to get the letters behind your name.
Now you can go to law school and you can say, Hey, um, I have a Juris doctorate degree, a Juris doctorate degree, and I am educated in the aspect of law, but you are not authorized to practice law. Until you have passed a bar.
Teresa: Okay. It just sounds crazy intelligent, like honestly.
Nequosha: Well, thank you.
Teresa: You sound so super smart with letting you do this and it's well, you it's big. It's a big thing. Isn't it?
Nequosha: It is a huge thing, especially for being a woman of color, um, in the United States, less than 5% of the, uh, practicing attorneys are people of color, black Americans.
Teresa: Sorry, let me just get that clear in my head. And for people listening, people of color, not females. It's people. So an agenda 5%.
Nequosha: 5%. Um, so black, black, black practitioners are 5% of the profession in the United States of America. We make up about 13 to 14% of the population in general of millions of people, 13%. So and only 5% of us are authorized to practice the law. And that number is even decreased when you start subjecting it to women.
And then you go further down business even uh, science based laws like patent attorneys. One of my great friends, uh, from law school, she makes up 0.2% of black women patent attorneys in the United States of America. Not even a whole percentage point.
Teresa: Can I just like touch on this, this wasn't why we brought you on, but I'm interested. To kind of talk and just go into this a little bit. Like when you decided this is what I want to do, how did you feel? Or how, how was that? Because obviously if you are going into education to learn to do that. And you are that small percentage that must have been really either intimidating or, well, what was it? Like? How did it feel?
Nequosha: It didn't feel like any other place for me, because I'm so used to being the only, and the spaces that I go into, unfortunately, that is the honest, the God truth. Um, I'm usually the only, and you adapt to that role accordingly. It is isolating. It is stressful and it is disappointing and it's a lot of pressure.
And it's one of those things where if I fail my entire group of people fail and that's a lot of pressure to put on one person. So you learn to do the best you can do and go with that. If you continue with the mindset of, if I fail, then people behind me are going to fail. It's a little bit too much.
And my therapist says that I don't represent the entire, uh, group of black women or black professionals in the space. So I only represent the crosure and that's how I have to maintain my sanity.
Teresa: I love that. I love that. That's, that is a great way to protect yourself, because like you said, that feels like a ridiculous amount of pressure that any one person could put on themselves, you know.
Nequosha: It's a lot.
Teresa: Being the first of anything in any part of the world, you know, so, yeah. Huge. Okay. So what I brought you on to talk about and it's, I know, right. You're gonna talk about this stuff and I'm gonna sit here and think, oh, I haven't done that. Oh, I don't do that. Right. Because.
Nequosha: I promise you, I won't slap your hand.
Teresa: Okay. That's good. That's good. I mean, I will do it to myself. I'm sure. But we wanna talk about. Like the legal side and obviously bearing in mind, if you listen to this, we're talking very generically and I'm assuming that Nequosha is gonna say, if you have any questions, you take legal advice.
Nequosha: Yes. You took, you took it right outta my, yes. So I was just gonna say, before we get into anything, I have to give a disclaimer to say that nothing we talk about here today, couldn't be constricted it as personalized lew advice.
Nothing I say is intended to create. And your listening does not mean that we have an attorney client relationship. So let's get back into these beautiful messages.
Teresa: You've done that before.
Nequosha: Just a little bit.
Teresa: So one of the things I wanted to talk about first, like, And I did. I alluded to this while we were chatting beforehand that when people start a business and I hold my hand up, that this is me included.
You're like, right, I'm gonna start a business. Mine was a very quick decision. So what do I need? Oh, I need a website. I need to marketing. I need to set up. I'm gonna sell. I need to like, probably get a brand. Nowhere at any point, does anything legal ever or ever came into my head. Do you think that's the case for most small business owners, most entrepreneurs when they're starting out that no one thinks about this stuff?
Nequosha: No, I would say this is just a statistic that I came work with based upon the people that I've interacted with 95% of you don't think of that. 95% of you are not thinking about what entity, if I should even create an entity, should I operate under? Most of you are not thinking I need to create a business account separate from my personal assets to conduct this business.
Most of you are just saying, I need a website. I need photos. And people need to come see me cause I'm on a branding shoot. I need this logo and I need to get with a graphic artist so I can get this flyer out. I can get this out. I can do this and this and this. You wanna go to the, the sexy bits? The naughty parts.
You wanna go there first? Right? You wanna get really sexy and naughty because this is fun. Right? The naughty bits are fun, but that's not going to sustain you. That's only going to give you a quick little. Just like, you know, so it's like as quick as fast as dirty as over. And now you're left for feeling like now what.
Right. Yeah. You know, afterwards, you're now feeling like now, what do I do? And that's where you get the consult with me or a practitioner where you live and we sit you down and we actually develop a real strategy. That's going to be a sustaining business. And what I always tell people is we gotta think with the end in mind, no business is forever, unless you really intend for it to be family legacy.
And that is a goal that your family has not a goal that you have for your family.
Teresa: Good point, good point.
Nequosha: Because a lot of times people say, oh, I want a business. That's gonna surpass me. I wanna be like Johnson and Johnson and Coca-Cola and Sam Walton or Jeff Bezos. We never hear of Jeff Bezos children, or we never hear of ELAM.
You know, like we don't hear about their family members who are gonna take this on. So you need to be real with yourself, real with your family and real about what goals we can actually accomplish for our business. Right? So I think we should begin with the end in mind. So that's what, what is our goal?
Teresa: That's really interesting because again, I'm thinking like, You know, if you said to me, what's the end in mind for the business, I'd be like, “Well, I'll probably just do it forever.” Like, and obviously that's not the case I'm not gonna to do forever, you know? Cause hopefully at some point I may wanna retire, but like what, you know, but yeah.
What, what would I do? What am I doing with it? Like, and especially for someone like me where I am my brand, I am, I'm the reason people work with me cause it's me, you know, and I speak on stage and I create the content and you know. Yeah, I think, and that sounds like a scary thought to have. Do you find that people are a little bit like eck I don't know.
Nequosha: Yes. Most definitely. Because they're just like, “But Nequosha I am just trying to make some money, girl.” Yeah. Ain't nobody thinking about that. Yeah. I need to make this sale and I'm like, I understand that. And I want you to go out here and make a sale because it's definitely gonna change your mind set about how you feel about how you feel about your business, how you conduct your business.
All you need is one. So when I tell my consulting clients and they come to me and they say, Hey, Nequosha I'm struggling. Blah, blah, blah. I've never made a sale. I've never done this. All I tell you is we only need one person to say yes,
Teresa: Okay.
Nequosha: Once we have that one person that said, yes, it was going to change everything for you, because then you're gonna activate client journey.
Then you're gonna activate how I'm gonna deliver what I said. I'm gonna deliver. Then you're gonna activate, how can I get another person to say yes. Cause I like that. I like the feeling I'm having when you heard that person and said yes. I like seeing that Stripe. Uh, alert, go off, call alert. that you, you like seeing your bank statement go from zero to whatever comma or whatever's amount of zeros you can change, right?
But we gotta think about if something goes in the opposite direction of where I want it to go, what's going to happen? And when I say that, I mean, if I have a physical good and I put it in the mail and it didn't get to the person in the way it left me, what do I do? What if that person opens it and has an allergic reaction?
If it's a cream, what if that open it and something. Uh, explodes or it, uh, does something in the box. What do I do? These are all the things that, that photo shoot you, weren't thinking about. When you wanted that logo, you weren't thinking about. And then that person is, is injured to the point where they say, I'm gonna sue you.
Or I want some money from you, or I want you to pay my medical bill, but I don't, you don't have that. What do you do? This is where you sit down and develop strategy. Do you really think that. Everyone wants to use that analogy that Amazon was created in, in Jeff, um, Jeff Bezos, garage. Or Microsoft was created a go.
You really think they just sat down in front of a computer and said, we're just gonna start typing code, or we're gonna start developing this without actually having our strategy or goal. I'm sorry. You can believe the illusions from that photo as much as you want, but that is not the accurate. Everybody has to have some form of a goal or a strategy in place.
And then you branch it off into smaller sectors. That's life, if you get that framework down, if you get that framework down in your lead time, how you gonna get the people to you? If you get that framework down in onboarding, what does that feel like? If you get that, um, that. That's going to trigger you to have certain agreements in place, certain, um, methodologies, mindset, all of that is, is one big bubble. Right?
So when you enter the sphere of business, understand that it's a little bit more and having a logo and taking a photo.
Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. And it, so you, so the, you know, some of the stuff you said there, which is so right first off, starting from a process, that's really good because then you can identify the steps and then.
And then you can see the potential on each step. Do you find that like, so when you were saying, you know, what, if this happens, I'm like, like literally sat here and a little hotseat but I don't have a physical product. What is it because people don't wanna think about what could go wrong. Nobody does. Is it almost like we bury our head in the sand and think let's just not think about that.
And that might be the reason why, or is it that we just, we just don't think about it full stop. Most people don't think about it because it's scary. And we don't wanna go to the scary view. Nobody buys a ticket purposely to go to Garyville, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's not a fun place. There's not attractions.
They don't have the snack. So why would I go there? Yeah. But it's that scary feel? Most people are familiar with lion king. Right. Right. And I use this analogy a lot. And when Mufasa told Simba everything, the, the light touches is our kingdom. Mm-hmm . But what about that dark, scary place over there? Yeah, we must never go that Simba
So it's one of those things where that dark, scary place, where scar was, nobody wants to go there, but it still existed. And hyenas came up every now and again, right? Yeah. The hyen came and approached where the light touches. Yeah. So when the hyen is coming your business, hi, mofos, not always gonna be there.
We saw that. Unfortunately. Mm-hmm mm-hmm . You gotta have a plan in place on how you're gonna deal with the hi. Yeah. Yeah. So let's think if you are starting a business and you don't have these things in place, because as we've already identified, probably lots of people don't no. And they're thinking, what do I need?
I think what comes into lots of people's heads and what probably comes into mind is to go and find someone who knows what they're talking about is gonna cost me a lot of money. Nope. Nope. Okay. Nope. Let's, let's scratch that myth right now. You're gonna spend more defending than you would if you were on.
It's better to be proactive than reactive being reactive, always costs more. So your perspective or the people you're consuming information from will tell you, oh my God, it costs me this amount of money and I had to pay this and I had to be that, but zoom out a little bit and figure out where they being reactive or were they being proactive?
Mm-hmm so we have to, to consider the source of the information. What type of, where were they in the journey when they consulted with the lawyer? Are they trying to get me to do something that they did or do it before they had to do it. And I say that because oftentimes, oh, most people's experiences with lawyers is negative.
They'll say it's a negative experience. I didn't like it. I feel icky. Nobody wants to feel icky. Right. But I tell people being a business lawyer, I don't want you to feel you like IY and I is your jam.
I want you to feel educated and now I'm learning most practitioners. Aren't educating their clients on why we're doing what we're doing. They're just doing it. It's a done for you service. Hey, here's your entity articles here. Go set up your bank account here. Go do this here. Here's your trademark protection here.
Here's your contract for your independent contractors here? But you have no idea why you have it. You have no idea when you're supposed to use it. You have no idea what it says and why. So, so you resent paying for it because you don't get it. You don't get it right? Yeah. So what I like to do, and I know some other practitioners and we are changing the landscape of law, and I'm hoping that with this pandemic season and the integration of more technology, more practitioners are sitting down and actually taking the time.
To learn about the different learning styles of people, the way you can map information for those particular learning styles, because that is going to change how people interact with you in your business period. And number one, you don't need a whole, this is a, this is a mini rant. You don't need a lot of clients to make a lot of money.
You don't need a lot of customers to make a lot of money. You need raving fans, you need raving fans. And how do you do that? By having the best client experience you can ever have by having the best client journey you can ever have that learned, you learn a specific group of people, you learn how they do, they do, why they want what they want and then your product or your service.
And you serve the heck out of them. Yeah, that's how you change. And when you get into situations and you have to consult your lawyer, your lawyer will have already educated you on. I need an independent contractor. If this person is not gonna be my employee, mm-hmm , I need to make sure I have the proper insurances to if I'm shipping product and making sure I'm doing the right tariffs and following the right trade pie policies.
If I'm shipping my product outside of my country, I know why I have to do this because it's a regulation and this regulation says this, and because I'm under this category of practice or candles or whatever you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. You know why you need an independent contractor agreement and basically it's a Bible between you and that person it's outlining the basic instructions on how you're going to operate in this business.
Yeah. And I think something you just said there, which is really important, we often have a very, when it's things like accountants or lawyers or anything like that, it's like, it feels really heavy and it feels like it's from a negative point mm-hmm and it feels like it's nothing to do with the thing that we do.
Like. Do you see what you know, for me? I think the way I would look at it, it's like, well, well, the accounting bit that's over there and any legal stuff that's over there. And that's nothing to do with the thing that I physically do every day. But what you just said, which was so key was the fact of by having these things in place, it makes you a better business owner.
It makes you provide better service. Mm-hmm it makes. And I talk about this all the time. Really interesting and on very basic. It's setting expectations. Yep. Early that's that's all it is. Isn't it. But in a, in a more smarter, more formal, I guess mm-hmm, a more protective way for you and them. Yeah, because it's where everybody.
Yeah. It's where everybody let's take. Uh, you know, an independent contractor. I work with freelancers. I only have, have freelancers. Mm-hmm I don't employ anybody full time in the business other than me. And. I trust those freelancers with a lot of my business. Like a lot of my business. Mm-hmm, you know, I trust that they're not gonna go and steal the stuff I create.
I trust that they're not gonna, you know, go and give it to someone else I trust, but they do. Yeah. What do I do? Exactly. I haven't got a late standard. So that's what it feels like. So you need to have a standard in place that outlines that in the event of a disclosure, you are liable and this way, and it was, it was brought up.
At the beginning, it's sort of like a dating experience, right? It's like, I like to be hoarded in the words of my grandma is coded . We are coat they over there coating. That's what my grandma calls me. But it's one of those things where you set the expectation. If you know, you're not gonna receive phone calls after 9:00 PM, am.
And you take that call at nine fifty eight. You broke your yeah. Your boundary with that person. If you know your office hours are from nine to five, then you answer that call at five 30, you broke a boundary. You have to set the expectation. If your policy is all orders have to be received by this day in order to get next day and they didn't do it.
I mean, it is what it is. You can't have the expectation that you're gonna get next day. If you didn't meet the standard. If my independent contractor is out here using the logo in a way or brand standards in a way that, that, that I don't approve of, if I don't have anything written down to guide that individual.
Yeah. I can't get upset. No. No. So let's say someone sat there thinking, oh, okay. You've, you've kind of made me think about this and it's hard, isn't it? Because I'm sat here thinking I nearly used the words of like, okay, you scared me. And, and that's the way sometimes it comes across, but it's not, I don't wanna scare you.
I it's not that. Bring to your attention and do it in a way that maybe make you consider, like right now, you're probably thinking, do I have things in place for my freelancers? Right? Mm-hmm and this is what is so important because you don't want, you wanna be a leader in your business to not saying, pull the levers.
But you understand how the levers need to be turned? I didn't say you had to be the one to pull. 'em just need to know how what's going on, right. And why we're doing what we're doing. And good leadership will trickle down because you have a goal in mind and your people, your followers, your tribe will follow you because they want to meet that goal with you.
They believe that they can help achieve that one particular goal. People love having metrics to me. Is it, it excites us. It delights us. It makes us happy. So if you have parameters on how that's going to happen, meaning you're an independent contractor, you are not an employee. You're not getting benefits.
However, I will compensate you in this way and then form a compensating. You will do these certain things for me. And by doing me, certain things for me is you may create something for my business, but understand if you create it for my business, my business is going to own it. Not you and understand that if you operate outside of these confines, I'm going to have to let you go, but understand everything you did before you got, let go stays home here, the business.
So just think of it like that and be clear and make, but make an environment to where that's not even something that people are thinking about. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's just a given isn't it it's just a given, right? If you do good to your people, your people will do good for you when you ain't even around speak your name, do awesome, amazing things.
And one thing I always try to encourage business owners to do that they don't do is authorize people. Mm. You need to authorize people, be able to handle things when you are not around. If you don't wanna be burnt out and you don't wanna be stressed out about stuff, authorize certain people to say.
Handle this up until this level, if it gets to this level, activate me. Yes. Yeah. How to change the dynamics of your business and it'll change the way you may not have to incorporate legal with some things, because you have happy people, happy people will talk to other happy people and you will have a conglomerate of happy people.
But there's gonna be some, one off chances where people not gonna be happy, but if you authorize people and understand why they're getting authorized and when the confines of what they can and can't do, it'll change things. Yeah. It was funny. You saying that years and years ago, I was at a networking thing, you know, when you did in person stuff a long time ago.
And there was a guy there that owns a shoe shop and the shoe shop in, in the UK called Timson. It's a well-known shop. Mm-hmm it's when I say it's a shoe shop shoe. Or is it like it, they reheal shoes and he's a car, you know? Yeah. Like a car. Yeah. So he was basically saying that they had used to have this big customer service center in their head office, where if anything went wrong in any one of the shops, it all came back through there.
And there was a lot of paper, a lot of stuff. And what happened with him is he changed his and suddenly gave that authorization. To a higher level to all of his store managers and basically said, you can now pay out to, I don't know, 500 pounds or something. In order to fix anything that you feel needs fixing mm-hmm in order for it not to go to head office.
And they literally like skimmed it down to nothing that was coming through them because they gave people that authority to make that decision themselves. Mm-hmm rather than each tiny little thing had to then go up the chain, go through the whole process and be a pain, whereas it could have been dealt with like that.
And exactly they have the authority and the more things move up the chain, the worse is gonna be. Yeah. The worse, the response is the worse is cause it's more time brewing. The problem is cultivating more. It's sort of like a big storm, right? Yeah. The more time maybe if the, the, we have hurricanes right here in Florida, the more warm water and the more time that storm can get around that warm water, the worse it is going.
And that's the same thing with a problem or a CLO in your business side note, business owner, you might be the hurricane in your business. love you mean it, but most people don't understand that they're creating a lot of problems yeah. From their inability to let things go. From their inability to authorize people from their inability to delegate from their inability to actually write down and take from their brain, how to operate the business.
I always tell people this pandemic was the try and true season. What I mean by that is if you didn't have things in place and you were the only one who knew do what it needed to be done, you're failing you fail miserably. Because nobody was activated, there was no written policies. You didn't know how to handle things and your business probably imploded.
Yeah. Yeah. And like all this stuff that you're saying, it just makes so much sense. And the other thing that's really coming across is that this isn't with you can correct me if I'm wrong on this, this knowledge that you come from. Isn't just because is you did your. Law school? No, heck no. like, obviously this comes from the importance of bringing on someone who specifically can talk about this stuff because you're not just shouting law terminology and you need this contract and that contract, you are understanding someone's business, how they operate, how the business works and areas that.
Wouldn't necessarily be seen as an area. You need to bring a legal aspect into. And that is, that is what separates me from a lot of business. Just practitioners. I'm one of those I wanna get in to see what we're doing, how we're doing it, because we, my job is to project as much as I possibly can for future.
Instances, right. I want to be able to, oh, they're not O they got a launch coming. Hmm. That means they're gonna have a photographer, a graphic artist. Boom. I need to make sure those independent contractor agreements are on point for that project. Hmm. That's a new project. Oh my God. That's a new product.
We need to make sure we're protecting it before we release it to the public. Have we trademarked it? Have we copyrighted the materials? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Oh my goodness gracious. They are having a new employee. We got a new person in marketing. Hey, new person. We need an employment agreement. I need to make sure that they have this boom, boom, boom, boom.
You see how I did that? That's all legal, but that's all business stuff related. Yeah. This is what happens when you cultivate a relationship with someone who can understand what is going on and project, what you see, you didn't even think about any of those types of agreements. All you talking about is launching.
Yeah, course you do. You're just like, I'm gonna do this thing. Let's get out there to the world. And my framework is this. We need to create, we need to protect. Then we share. Yeah. Create yeah. And protect, then we share, now we can protect and share though. They can go parallel together. Yeah. But we need to protect before we share.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So let's say someone's listening to this and I think, okay. I need to, I need to like. Think about this mm-hmm what are your thoughts on cause, cause I'm thinking some of these business owners they might have literally just started, they might feel like I haven't got the money to invest.
I, you know, so how. Good or bad is you as a business owner sitting down and writing some terms of business yourself. I just, you could see what I just saw. Like literally the eye roll was brilliant. I? So, so I'm guessing that's a, uh, had go ahead and do that.
asterisk. Starting with the basics. Like what, what is the minimum you want someone to do? What's the, like, if someone is sat there going, yeah, this is really well and good, but actually money is really tight. What, what would you say the minimum is that they need to do, how tight would it be if you got sued?
Wow. Yeah, exactly. How tight would it be? How tight would money be in the event that a customer complained and said that they wanted all their money back. Yeah. Can you afford to do that? If you answered no to those questions, then you really need to sit down and think about how your business is going to operate.
And I get it. I, I started this business with $20 in my pocket. I didn't have all of this. I didn't need all of this. Yeah, yeah. Until you had that first complaint until you got a government letter, because you didn't file the proper taxes until you got notice from your local. Government saying you didn't have the proper business license until it's always up until isn't.
It was never, you were able to make X amount of dollars for this amount of period. It was always up until. Yeah. And yes, there are business owners who have been in business for years and have skirted the system, but it's up until they find you up until this happens. Mm-hmm , your behavior will change. So one of the key things I can always say from the very beginning is insulate your personal assets from your private.
Your business assets. So straight two separate accounts. If you can't do anything else, if you can't write, uh, first terms of conditions or whatever, at least start here with separating and creating a separate, distinct way of life from your personal assets and your business assets. That's all I can say.
That's I wanna say some more, but at the very least, at the very least separate your personal from your business assets, because that is so important because prime example, you say, whoa, what should I write down? What should I do? Well, if I get, if you have a service provider, your service for writer, right?
You're a consultant. Yeah. And. You tell me, oh, well OCIA, if you pay me $10,000, I'm gonna come in and analyze your business, talk to your people and motivate and blah, blah, blah, blah. But there was no written contract on what you were gonna do. How you gonna do it when you gonna come? How long this gonna be?
Blah, da mm-hmm because there are people I it's scary that may sound $10,000 and says a lot of money, right? Yeah. And there are people who are doing business right now. With no written for that of money. Yeah. And it just blows my mind. I'm like, what? Yeah, anybody home don't do that. um, it's so like, I love you mean it, it's just one of those things where it's like, let's just create some standard things.
So if something goes wrong, we are on the same page. You cannot tell me you are on the same page with spending X amount. Even if the cost me $5, right. You can't tell me we on the same page when I don't know when the thing gonna get shipped, I don't know what is involved in the thing. It's just basic.
Understanding. I wanna be, have some baseline of an understanding in any business, whether it's a $5 transaction, whether it's a 10 plus thousand dollars transaction, I wanna have some baseline, have some baseline. You're gonna get X on this day. Yeah. X will be shipped on this day. I will commence services on this day.
I will do X for you. You will do X for me. If you don't do X for me, this will hack. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And like I said, that all it is, is a very defined set of expectations on everyone's part, what a few legal mumble, jumble things that are important. Yeah. So consult with a lawyer, but I know a lot of people like, well, I can just go get a template on the internet.
Yeah. Okay. You can get a template, our internet, but that template is probably not gonna address a lot of core things for your business. And you can go in there and plug and play. But as a practitioner, I can definitely see when someone, something is reading in one way and then boom, something that is like, correct.
Uh, that, that was a copy paste. Oh my God. They pulled this from somewhere don't even flow. It is just, yeah. Yeah. How oftentimes practitioners in the beginning are a lot cheaper versus when we have to clean up. So you may think, oh, it's gonna cost me thousands of dollars. I know business practitioners who will draft basic agreements anywhere between 300 and 500, $700.
Think about that. And if you had to split that up multiple two payments, that's not a lot of money. That's not a lot of money. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yes. Yeah. But of course I never made even my first sale and I'm only selling $10 widgets. Well, if we're only selling $10 widgets and you haven't sold a $10 widget, we add props that we need to talk about in some other things, but it is one of those things.
How your strategy, what I talked about in the beginning, it all comes back. In the brewing pot, we have to develop that in the beginning and then we integrate accordingly. But at the very least separate the personal and the business assets. That's a long answer to say no, that's great. That is great. So I, funny enough, I was just thinking that the other day we are in a mutual group that we're both in the same group.
Yes. Someone posted in the group. I didn't whether you saw this because I'm sat here thinking, I wonder if people are thinking, well, if I have a contract, it seems really official and really serious. One of my very best business friends does websites. He, he does my website for me and he does various other website things and he always has a contract.
Like, and I look at the contract, I read the contract, I signed the contract. He has payment terms. He has all the good stuff. And that doesn't bother me in the slightest. And I know some people might feel that if they're the one having to give the contract out, that it feels a bit heavy and a bit serious, and I'm only doing social media, or I'm only selling a widget for $10 like that.
They might worry about that. But funnily enough, someone in our, in our mutual group posted a few weeks back that basically they have a contract in terms of agreements and they sent it to someone and this person came back and basically said, I've never had to read or sign anything like that before. This is ridiculous.
I'm not going to do it. Did you see that post? I believe I did. And one of the key things is that is not your, I, that is not your ideal client. Exactly. That is not who you want to work with. Run as fall far away as you can. Yes. If you're familiar with the movie forest Gump and the words of forest Gump or run for run for you need, I do a lot of movie quotes.
Um, It's a good way to relate and, um, tie things together. Can you imagine Forres with braces just as running as fast as I was running and it's like, you have got to run that is not think about it. If they are booked, if they are challenging you on your contract, just imagine what they're going, want to do with the deliverables that you give them.
Oh, a nightmare point, draining experience will then interrupt you from delivering with your other clients who make you happy, who pay on time, who signed your contract with no questions who are, do see how that's going to trickle down. So this is why we have to develop that strategy and the beginning to, to know who we're going after.
And there may be people who get in our funnel or ours. System who may not be the ideal fit, but their red flags will definitely get them out immediately. Yeah. This is one of those things where you say thank you, but no, thank you, please, sir. Ma'am. Absolutely because there's nothing gonna be written in any of those things that is like trying to do one over on someone.
It's just Le like literally clearly stating this is what I do. This is what you do. And, and like I said, even when you know, Ben is a very dear friend of mine, mm-hmm and I trust him implicitly. He trusts me implicitly. But that doesn't matter. This is business and this is his business, how he makes money.
And this is my business, how people find me and I'm paying out a considerable amount of money for him to do something. So I have no problem with him or anyone giving me a contract, not at all. So do you get people who are nervous about that? Like that they think people are gonna, but it is one of those things where you get presented with contracts daily.
It's in the transaction. It's in the experience. When you say at a hotel, when you it's a, it's a terms and conditions. When you get a cell phone, when you get on Al Gore's internets with your internet service provider, there are terms and conditions. Everywhere because people need to have some fun to fall back on to say, when we entered into this particular relationship, we both had a mutual understanding of what was going to occur.
So obviously we have to go back to what our mutual understanding was. If something goes different and it just sets the tone. I wouldn't wanna work with a web designer who didn't have a contract. Yeah. I wouldn't wanna work with a photographer or social media manager, because how are you can, if you don't even have that in place for me, that scares me about my deliverables and yes, you can paint a pretty picture as much as you want with your social media and your portfolios and make me it appear that you know what you're doing, because there are a lot of things that are shiny syndrome, but you get on the other side of that object, maybe it is lenti, it is dirty.
Ain't seen a mop or a broom or anything. It's just. Chaotic. So it's one of those things where I wanna make sure that when I engage with a service provider or I'm getting goods or services, they are of quality and I'm going to get what I, you advertise that I would actually get. Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, I think from my point of view, if I'm kind of trying to think of everyone else who's listening, it feels scary.
It feels serious and heavy and concerning, but I guess it only feels that if something goes wrong and you do not have that protection in place. Yes. Remember proactive react active. Yeah. If we are proactive, it will definitely make it less icky. Weaky. If we are being reactive, you now have to deal with the problem.
So we have to deal with the problem. Then we have to fix to make sure this problem doesn't happen at the same time. And then until we get a resolution with that problem, we have multiple fires to put out as a result of us having to be in a reactive phase. Versus if we were proactive, we could just sprinkle a little water on it.
And it's gone. It's gone, honestly, NAIA. This has been so, so good. You make me feel very. At ease with this whole process. And I can only imagine that's what you do for all of your clients. I try my best to make sure the client journey is one where you, I don't take on a lot of clients. Mm-hmm so that is one.
So I can provide exceptional service two. I want to make sure that my client experience is one that I would want to have coming from pan parents who had businesses when I was at an early age and is seeing the experiences that they had. My father, like I told you was in transportation, logistics. So he was afforded opportunities with fortune 100 companies and those experiences weren't always the greatest, but that wasn't, it was one of those things where I vowed in having that exposure at such an early age.
I tell you right now, exposure kids, even if they don't take on business, they're watching, they are listening. They are Bunes. And seeing the things that I saw with how to have a good. Uh, client experience was so profound. My mom started off in healthcare and her bedside manner transitioned when she went to her accounting practice and my mom always had a thing for numbers and, and her nickname is sunshine because that is how she interacted with her patients is how she interacts with her clients now.
And so that exposure to me made me always want to have. A great client experience and educate. I worked in education before I went to, uh, law school. Okay. So I worked there and worked with the teachers who provided the curriculum for our district and those women, and then provided exceptional service to the thousands of teachers that they had to service.
And my director who was over curriculum arm told me the value of creating an exceptional experience. Mm. Say again, it just trickled down. So I had experience in government. I had experience in private practice with my parents. I had experience just being a consumer and how that made me feel. So I'm projecting how I want people to feel.
Yeah. And, and in a subject like this is so key, you know, I have a really good accountant who is great to deal with talks to me and the level and how I need it. Yeah. And, and that's what you need. Cause otherwise you just. These things are very much out of our comfort zones for most of us. Yes. You know, unless you're a lawyer and our accountant, they're really at your comfort zone.
So you need to work with someone who you are going to be like, oh, thank goodness. I can ask those questions. Mm-hmm I can bring them into the business. They understand what I do and how I do it. And yeah, I honestly, this has been so, so good. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Obviously, we are gonna link up to everything in the show notes, but is there somewhere that you hang out that you would like people to come and find you on?
You can find me on Instagram. I'm, I'm very active there. My, um, name on Instagram is Esquire 44. Um, if you want to book a console or any of those things, the link is in my bio. Uh, but my website is Anderson. Fl.com and I have a form where you can fill it out and we can go that process and get you started.
And we can discuss as much as we need to, to try to figure out so how we can be proactive instead of reactive. Love it. Thank you so, so much for your time today. It's been brilliant. Yes, I enjoyed it. Thank you. There we go. That was the lovely Natia. That was really good episode. I really enjoyed it. Um, okay.
Don't forget to go check out the club. If you haven't already three wearing.com/the club, and I will see you next week for solo episode. See you then. Thank you so much for listening to your dream business podcast. And if you loved this episode, then please feel free to go and share it in your social media or head over to iTunes and give me a review.
I would be so very grateful.
