The Business You’re Building Is Worth Protecting
We spend a lot of time talking about how to grow our businesses.
How do I find more customers? — How do I market what I do? — Should I wholesale? — License my work? — Collaborate with someone? — Hire help? — Open a shop? — Create a course? — Sell online.
Those are exciting questions. But there’s another question we probably don't ask often enough: Am I protecting what I’m building?
That’s the conversation we’re going to have at Women for Women with Angie Avard Turner, J.D., LL.M., an attorney whose practice focuses on creative entrepreneurs.
And one of the reasons I’m particularly excited for W4W members to meet Angie is that she understands our businesses from a very different perspective. She has actually built one.
Before focusing her legal practice on creative businesses, Angie spent years as a designer, artist, and entrepreneur herself, with experience in retail, wholesale, and licensing. She knows what it feels like to create something, put your name on it, sell it, grow it—and then discover that there are all kinds of business and legal questions that come along with success.
That combination of creative entrepreneur + attorney gives her a perspective I think is especially valuable to women like us.
Your Lawyer Shouldn't Just Be Someone You Call When There's a Problem
I love Angie's philosophy that an attorney should be part of your business resource team—just like your accountant, banker, or other trusted advisors. That's a very different way of thinking about legal help.
Most of us probably think: I'll call a lawyer if I ever need one. But what if the greater value comes from having someone help you before you need one? Someone who can look at what you're doing and say:
Have you thought about this? — You may want something in writing here. — Do you actually own the rights to that? — Before you sign this, let's look at it. — You might want to protect this. — Here's what this agreement really means.
That kind of guidance isn't about being fearful. It's about being smart.
Creative Businesses Have More to Protect Than We Realize
When you're a creative entrepreneur, so much of the value of your business may be something you can't physically put your hands on.
Your artwork. — Your photographs. — Your designs. — Your writing. — Your brand name. — Your logo. — Your original content. — Your courses. — Your processes. — Your product concepts.
Those things are your intellectual property, and they can become some of the most valuable assets your business owns.
Angie's advanced law degree is in Intellectual Property, with her work encompassing areas such as copyright, trademark, licensing, e-commerce, and social media law.
Think about how many of those areas touch what we do every single day.
We post our work online. — We create logos and brand names. — We collaborate with other businesses. — We hire photographers and designers. — We sell through retailers. — We wholesale products. — We license images. — We create content for social media. — We work with clients.
Legal issues aren't some separate category that only applies to "big businesses." They're woven into the ordinary decisions we make as small business owners.
"But I Trust Them."
I think this is an especially important conversation for women and creatives because so many of our businesses are built around relationships.
We collaborate with friends. — We work with people we like. — We make introductions. — We refer business to one another. — We often start arrangements with a conversation and a handshake.
And that's wonderful.
But a contract doesn't mean you don't trust someone. It means everyone understands the agreement.
Who is doing what? — How much will be paid? — When will it be paid? — Who owns the finished work? — Can it be reproduced? — What happens if someone cancels? — What happens if the scope changes? — What happens if the partnership ends?
Putting those things in writing can actually protect the relationship, because everyone begins with the same expectations.
Success Can Create Legal Questions Too
Here's something else worth thinking about. We tend to associate legal problems with something going wrong. But sometimes legal questions arise because something is going right.
A retailer wants to carry your work. — A company wants to license one of your designs. — Someone wants to collaborate with you. — You're hiring your first employee or contractor. — You're expanding your online business — Your brand is gaining recognition. — Someone wants to reproduce something you've created. — You're presented with an opportunity you've never encountered before.
Those are good problems. But they're also moments when having the right professional guidance can make a tremendous difference.
We Don't Know What We Don't Know
This may be one of the biggest reasons to develop relationships with professionals who understand our businesses.
You've lived your business. A lawyer who works with creative entrepreneurs has seen many businesses. She's seen the contracts. She's seen the partnerships. She's seen the collaborations. She's seen the licensing agreements. She's seen what happens when things go beautifully—and what happens when they don't. She may see a potential issue that would never have occurred to you.
And sometimes one good question at the beginning can prevent a very expensive problem later.
Treat Your Business Like Something Worth Protecting
There's a shift that happens somewhere along the entrepreneurial journey.
At first, we may think: I paint. I design. I make jewelry. I photograph families. I decorate homes. I sell products.
And then one day we realize: I've built a business. It doesn't matter whether that business generates $5,000 a year or $500,000. You've created something. You've invested your time. You've built relationships. You've developed ideas. You've created intellectual property. You've established a reputation. You've built something that has value. And something valuable deserves to be protected.
That's why I'm so excited to have Angie join us at Women for Women. I don't want us to walk away worried about everything that could go wrong. I want us to walk away asking better questions about the businesses we're building.
What should I have in place? — What am I overlooking? — What should I protect? — When should I call an attorney? —What questions don't I even know to ask yet?
Because growing a business isn't only about creating more. Sometimes it's about taking good care of what you've already created.
You worked hard to build it. It's worth protecting.
