In Show 138 – Phase 1 – Conception – Training originally broadcast on Facebook Live on Wednesday 10 October 2018.
Download a copy of the workbook for todays show here: 138 – Worksheet
Show Notes
The first Phase of the Business Legal Lifecycle is Conception. At the beginning of your business having a clear idea of what you are doing is critical for success. Today on the show BLL co-founder Jeremy Streten offers some simple advice about how to bring your ideas to fruition. Knowing where you’re going is so important. If you don’t know where you’re going how do you know how to get there? All of the legal aspects of your business are about building yourself to an eventual sale. In order to get there you need really good, cost effective advice.
Buy or startup
There are two ways (usually) to start a business. You can start the operation from scratch or you can buy a pre-existing business. There are pluses and minuses to both. When you buy a business it should come with a client base, intellectual property and systems already in place. That may sound great but you may not like those clients, IP or systems. From a legal point of view it’s really convenient to have a business where the structures are already in place. But there could be some liabilities associated with those structures. That’s where having a comprehensive due diligence process is so important.
Confidentiality Agreements
As the name suggests a confidentiality agreement is a document signed between two or more parties to keep certain information private. If you have a great or unique idea you want to keep that secret. These documents are really important to get right. You need to ensure that they cover the specific things you want to keep confidential. DO NOT DOWNLOAD ONE FROM THE INTERNET! Cut and pasting a CA will ensure that it will not hold up in court. You will use these agreements when talking with consultants or potential partners. If you are buying a business the seller will want you to sign a CA. They will want to protect their client lists, processes and systems.
Planning
If you don’t set goals you’re not going to get very far. A big part of your planning is process is creating your initial team. Key roles that need to be filled include an accountant who can provide tax structure advice. You need to have a lawyer that will help you navigate rules and regulations. And you need a business mentor. There are plenty of dodgy business gurus out there. Make sure you do your research and get the right advice. A good mentor is with their weight in gold.
Name
The name of your business will be synonymous with your success so you need to pick the right one. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are millions of business names all over the globe so you need to create one that is unique to your company. There are a bunch of different ways to do this. Start with a Google search to see whether there are any competitors with the same name. Don’t just look at the first page! Look as far as page 20. You can also go to domain companies like GoDaddy to make sure that the web address is available. In Australia you can go to ASIC to search the names of businesses that currently trading. And you can go to IP Australia to find out if the name has been trademarked by someone else.
Market Research
You’d be surprised at how many people start a business without being sure if there is someone to sell to. To figure this out start by creating your “ideal client”. This is the kind of person that you would most like to work with. The person that will give you the greatest pleasure and the greatest reward. Decide where this person likes to eat, what sports they like to watch and their favourite books. You need to stand out from the crowd and to do that find your perfect niche.
More about this Show
We started Business Legal Lifecycle to create a simple way for you to understand complex legal terms. Most importantly we want to help you to develop a plan to take your business successfully into the future. There’s a startling statistic the underscores the importance of developing a solid plan. The majority of business owners are just seven months away from losing everything. A single aspect of your business that is not set-up correctly can shut down your whole operation very quickly. Legal advice is not cheap and even when you can afford it there is often a divide between lawyers and their clients. We want to close that gap once and for all. We want to put legal knowledge and tools into your hand to prevent the worst from happening to you.
Twice a week we are going to deliver those tools right to your home or office with Business Legal Lifecycle TV. We’ll start the week with Fast Fix Monday, a short 5-10 minute video that will tackle a single issue that businesses have to deal with. Then on Wednesday’s our main show will feature with more fulsome discussions and interviews all delivered in a straightforward and easy to understand format.
