Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / Avoiding Legal Pitfalls in Small Business with EB Yarnell

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Avoiding Legal Pitfalls in Small Business with EB Yarnell · The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Today we welcome into the studio EB Yarnell.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Eb is an accomplished professional witha diverse background and commitment to community service.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Graduating with a bachelor's degree in international relations from Shawnee State University, she then decided to go into AmeriCorps, establishing a volunteer program at her alma mater prior to pursuing her jurist doctor from Valparaiso University.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I hope I got that right Valparaiso, it's right, right, yes.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Valparaiso, valparaiso, yes, all right, yes.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: She has been an entrepreneur, venturing into various business sectors, including restaurants, real estate and even retail.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: She currently serves as the CEO of Sunlight Home of Collier County, which is a shelter for abused and trafficked pregnant women.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: She felt a calling to utilize her talents for the betterment of our community.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you for that Well.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Thank you, it's a pleasure and an honor.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Wonderful.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I'm so happy to have you on here today because, having been an entrepreneur yourself, you understand what a lot of small businesses face, and a lot of us and I say myself included make a lot of mistakes, especially in the very beginning of owning their business, and legal mistakes, things that we could have avoided if somebody had told us hey, don't do these five things.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: So we're here to talk about those five things, and you may even have more than five things, I don't know, but we're going to talk about them.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I'm so happy to be here and be able to advise people on these five things More probably than five we'll get into.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I bet, we will.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: But, having practiced law and worked with businesses that made these mistakes, it's such a great opportunity for others to learn from those mistakes and not make them themselves, and they are things that can be remedied and avoided with proper care and attention.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Because, as business owners, we're wearing the hats of every profession you can imagine.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: We're doing our books, we're doing the customer service, we're doing all the aspects of our business, so this may not be at our pulse right away Absolutely, and you're also trying to do it efficiently and as affordably as possible, which sometimes the cheap route is not the best route.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: That's so true, yeah.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: And it's hard, because where do you spend those limited assets, especially at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey?
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, totally agree.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: So what do we?
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: got.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: What do we have that we could be avoiding?
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that the first thing starting at the beginning of business inception is your operating documents.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: So when I say operating documents, I mean an operating agreement, a shareholder agreement, and those vary depending on how you're setting up your entity.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Are you setting it up as an LLC?
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Are you setting it up as a C-corp, an S-corp, a sole proprietorship?
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: There's all different types of organizations.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: There are benefits and pitfalls to each type.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: There are tax implications to each type.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: There are potential exposures as far as liability personally, depending on how you set it up.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: These are all things that, depending on the type of business, the type of industry you're going into, a good accountant combined with a good attorney could really provide you some guidance on.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: There's no boilerplate.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I can't say here's the secret, right?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I wish I could.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: But business startup doesn't have to be a major expense.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: It's not a huge project, it's not a massive undertaking.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: It's worth the few hundred dollars to make sure that you're doing it right.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: The other thing is, too, when you're getting into.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: It's not a huge project, it's not a massive undertaking.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: It's worth the few hundred dollars to make sure that you're doing it right.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: The other thing is, too, when you're getting into business, especially if you're in it with a partner, you need to know who's responsible for what it needs to be laid out.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I contribute the money, you do the work.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Or it's 50-50.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: I'm paying the same amount as you.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: We have to make equal contributions.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: We have to put in a certain amount of hours into the labor regarding the startup and getting everything launched.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Those are all contained within those operating agreements and they're so essential 100% agree with that.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: I've been in a position before, as I know a lot of other people who've had partners.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I do not have a partner other than my husband right now and won't, but I fell into that pitfall from the very beginning.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I've walked that path and it wasn't fun and we didn't have an operating agreement because, again, didn't want to spend the money.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Right and you think, okay, well, we're just so excited and it's great when it's good, but it doesn't last.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: When it's bad, it's bad.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: And business ownership is hard, and there are always going to be times where it's hard.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: And unless you want to be stuck with everything yourself, you really have to have good contracts.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: I have a general rule that says don't go into business unless you know how you get out of business.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, I like that, so it's a great way to look at it.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: You need to have very defined ways of exiting the business as well, and you don't want to think it's going to fail.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: But what if it gets huge and you want to sell?
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: What if you're needed for your family or your time is better spent elsewhere?
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: These are all things that can be really easily documented, and the fights, the arguments, the lawsuit it can all be taken care of just by having proper documentation in place, and it's something that's so simple.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: It is, but you just have to do it.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: You have to do it.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: And again, people don't necessarily have a list.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: They don't have a list when they start their business.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: These are the things that you should do, right.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: So they're getting advice from other people and listening to all the other voices that are out there, or they're Googling.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: That's just it, yeah, and you get so many varying degrees of what should or shouldn't be done, and it's confusing, absolutely.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: It's extremely confusing because there's not a cookie cutter way for every industry, for every idea, for every business, for every set of circumstances, so you're not going to find the right answer on Google.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: You need experienced professionals to sit down and help you with this stuff, to guide you through those questions, to determine exactly what your agreement should look like.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: What are you trying to accomplish?
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: And this is such a minor task.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: You get in with a small business attorney.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: This is stuff that we enjoy doing.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: We love to do this type of stuff, and it's simple, it's easy and we know we are setting you up for success and for a better footing going into that business and you had mentioned something at the very top you should have an accountant, you should have an attorney.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: I wholeheartedly agree.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: And how I look at that is is they're kind of your board of directors, right?
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: They're your virtual bench that you need to have in your business to make sure there's always going to be things that come up.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: You know, especially legally, and you know whether that may be an employee situation or a customer situation or whatever.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: You have that experienced professional to call on and that experienced professional may be like.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: I can't help you, but here's somebody who can.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: And if you're establishing that relationship of trust, that referral that they give you is going to be somebody good, exactly Somebody else that you of trust.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: That referral that they give you is going to be somebody good, exactly Somebody else that you can trust.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: So, yes, an accountant and an attorney are both lifelines that you really should have on your bench, totally agree.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, totally agree.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: So we had one and two.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: That was one, that was one.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that was one.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: She's looking at me like okay, I have a lot of stuff to talk about.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: She's looking at me like okay, lady.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: I have a lot of stuff to talk about.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: The other aspect of operating documents I want to touch on quickly is the certifications and registrations needed for your business.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you have documents on how you're going to conduct business with partners, you have how you're setting up your entity, what kind of structure you're using, and then you have what type of certifications and registrations you need.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: So, depending on your industry, you might need a tax license, you might need a business occupancy certificate, things like that.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: These are again things that you could Google and you might end up applying for some you don't need, you might end up not getting what you do need Makes sense.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Some you don't need, you might end up not getting what you do need Makes sense.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: That's the end of number one.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, so then moving on to number two is contracts for employees, which you touched on very briefly.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: As far as dealing with employees, hr is a huge, huge area.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: It is, it sure is, and it's hard when you're starting up and you hire that first employee.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Not only is that a huge, that's a big step in a business hiring your first employee.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Usually it's somebody that you trust, probably already, somebody you probably already know, but you need to have manuals in place.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: You need to have an employee manual.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: What are the expectations, what are the rules?
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: What do I want this to look like?
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Who do you report to?
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: What if there's some kind of a problem?
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: What if there's some kind of harassment?
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: You have to prepare and have procedures in place for those types of issues, the worst case scenario kind of thing.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you want policies on calling out.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Who do they call, how do they call, what if something happens?
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: This all needs to be written out and documented.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: So manuals and handbooks.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: The other thing is, too, a non-disclosure agreement.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: If you are operating a business that has some kind of a trade secret, some kind of a secret recipe, some kind of trademarked, copyrighted, patented item, a non-disclosure agreement is essential with your employees.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: You don't want them taking your trade secrets and going on to your competitors and sharing those around.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Those are very easy documents to have drafted specifically to your business and have your employee sign.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: That protects yourself and your income stream.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: That's your livelihood Right.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: The other thing is a non-compete.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to ask about that, but I'll let you elaborate before I ask my question.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Sure, because you might answer it Sure.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: So non-competes are basically agreements with employees saying that if you leave or quit or are terminated, there is a certain amount of time during which you cannot work for a company similar to ours within a certain distance A radius of mileage is usually how it's described.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: This is essential, again, because you don't want your employees to go and solicit your clients.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: You don't want them to go and take your trade secrets and put them into Not necessarily trade secrets, but your operational techniques and take them and go to your competitors and succeed with that or steal your customers or clients because they have a relationship with them that they've developed in conducting their customer service or whatever it might be with those individuals.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: So this document prevents them from doing it.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Lorda statute requires that the document be limited in time and scope.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: It has to be reasonable.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: That is an extremely gray limitation.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: So how do you know what that means?
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: How do you know if your document is going to be upheld?
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: You're going to need to talk to an attorney who can compare what non-competes have been upheld recently in local courts and which ones haven't.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we have to go to the precedents.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: We have to see what's been upheld, what's been decided as reasonable and what has been decided as unreasonable.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: And that was my question because so many people oh well, those things don't work and they're never followed or they're never upheld, that kind of thing, but they're not going to an attorney to say can you look into this?
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Right, so I'm an attorney.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: If I work for another law firm and they say you can't practice law for two years after you leave here, that's not reasonable.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: This is my profession.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: You can't pigeonhole me into not practicing law.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: But you could say that I can't go to a competitor within a 10-mile radius of your office and practice this particular type of law or this particular area of law that you are practicing, and that's an example.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying that would be upheld in court, but just as an example.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Well, that definitely answered my question.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Is your closet overflowing?
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Or maybe your kids' closets are as well, or maybe you just want to redecorate your house?
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: If you're wondering what to do with all that stuff that you've accumulated, bring it all to True Fashionistas, or even ship it to them for free.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: They will sell your unwanted items for you.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Take away all the hassle by doing all the work, and all you have to do is sit back and collect your money.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: You can reach out to them online at truefashionistascom.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Come into the store or check them out on Facebook or Instagram, and that's truefashionistascom.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, friends.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: We are in studio with EB Yarnell, and she is an attorney, and we are talking about the five legal things that all businesses need to know, and I think we were just on number two, correct, you have a lot.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: So I'm ready to start number three.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: It's like all packed into.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: It's like oh my gosh, I thought we were on like four.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: There's so much.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: I really want to provide everyone with as much information as I can, and this is also something I'm very passionate about, having represented so many small businesses in these circumstances that could have been prevented, and I so appreciate that, and I know our listeners do as well, because this is information that we don't get every day, absolutely.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: So it's really important Absolutely, and oftentimes it's in the form of a solicitation.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Always Right, yeah, exactly so three what's number three?
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: This one I'm so passionate about.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Contracts for doing business.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: That means your contracts with your vendors.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: That means your contracts with your customers.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: This is where so many small businesses get sloppy and it is so easy to prevent.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: The contracts of your business dictate how every conflict is going to be handled.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: It's right in there, it's in the contract.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: So if you're not having somebody write it in your favor, someone else will, right?
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: So if you're receiving contracts and you're signing them and you're not looking out for your own interests, you don't have someone who's looking out for your own interests, they're not going to be represented.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: They're not going to willingly throw you a bone, right?
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: They are going to take advantage of that situation, of course.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: So it is so essential that anytime in business you have someone look over contracts.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: If your business requires contractual agreements for conducting itself, those need to be drafted specific to your business, to your interests, and they need to be written in a favorable way.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying that we want to take advantage of anybody else.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying that we want to do wrong by anyone else.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: But we want to make sure that the interests and the interests of that deal, of that transaction, are accurately reflected in that document and that you're protected.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say well, protecting the company, it's like that, cya.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Yes, and this is where so many small businesses go wrong.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: So, especially when you're starting up a business, you don't think much of signing your name personally to a contract with a vendor to maybe receive your first shipment of supplies.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: But when you're years down the road and you can't pay a bill, or you've acquired debt with a vendor and they're coming after you personally because of that agreement that you initially signed saying that you would be personally responsible, there's nothing that we can do at that point.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: But if you had come to us first, we could have reviewed that agreement, we could have come up with a way to handle that favorably, and then you wouldn't be on the hook for that.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Makes sense.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, get help at the onset rather than when there's a problem.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: And if you contract with your clients or with your customers, those contracts have to be reviewed.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: It's not something that you can pull from legal Zoom, it's not something that you can find on Google.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: It's something that needs to be tailor-made for you.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: It is worth it, I would say, a thousand times over, monetarily, time-wise, everything.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Pay that little bit of money to have an attorney draft those contracts.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: You're talking about a few hundred dollars.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: You will save yourself thousands and thousands in litigation over small, minor, little concerns and issues in the future.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: And the other interesting part of that is people could go online and put up their own thing and whatever.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: But a lot of legal things are really subjective to the state in which you live or doing business, Because what happens in Colorado isn't the same as what's legal here in Florida.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and that's a good point.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: If you're doing business with companies or customers who are in other states and they put in that contract that they're able to sue you in their home state, are you going to travel?
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Are you going to travel to Colorado for court over some minor issue with the contract?
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Well, you will if you signed it and it says that Right, yeah, so true, very true, that I'm so passionate about Get your contracts written by an attorney.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: All right, that's number three.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, number three, okay, number four I want to talk very briefly about intellectual property rights.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Ip, that's right, the old IP, hey, so we have basically three hot topics in IP we have trademarks, we have copyright and we have patents.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: They're very different.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: They're all extremely important.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: There's two ways to consider the importance of these things.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: One is to protect yourself your own ideas, your own branding, your own inventions or creations, your own trade secrets.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: So, speaking with an attorney about any ideas, your intellectual property, you can trademark your name, your branding, your logo, things like that.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: If you're building a big brand, that's very recommended.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Like that, if you're building a big brand, that's very recommended.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Copyright is more your writing, your creativity, your art, and patents are for inventions, discoveries, things that are more novel.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: The other side of IP is making sure you're not infringing on someone else's rights, making sure that you are not setting yourself up for a huge lawsuit for copyright or patent or trademark infringement, and so many times people will think that they can handle those types of tasks on their own.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: They can make their own logo.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: They can do this, but if you're using a font, that's been trademarked.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: If you're using a little picture or your name is similar to something that is a big brand, you could be in danger of being sued and the penalties are not favorable.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: It is not a good situation to get in.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I've seen this with people who have used an image off of Facebook, yes, or not Facebook, but off of the internet, yes, and there's so many big companies that own those images and they are not ashamed to come after.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who you are, they're going to come after you, and it's usually a lot of money.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, we have recently been representing, actually, multiple companies in lawsuits where they used promoters who found images of whatever for advertisements, put them in advertisements and blasted the advertisements out.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Well, they don't go after the promoter, they go after the business.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Of course they do, and the promoter might be the problem maker, but the business has to prove that and the business is spending a lot of legal fees to prove that.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: This is why I use one service that I can buy all my images from if I'm not creating them.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's important you pay to play.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: It is so important and you think your small time you're never going to get found.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Nobody's going to notice.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: The technology to search these images and find the usage of them improperly is unbelievable.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: It's mind-blowing, I'm going to tell you.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be completely honest here.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: It has happened to me.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: I have gotten.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: We did this I'm not going to mention names but we did a campaign where we were giving a gift card to a big business.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: If you brought a certain item into our store, bring this in, consign this, and we'll give you a gift card to this place.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Well, that place, which was a very high-end place, we got a cease and desist saying, oh, people think that we're connected to each other.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: We're not.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh my gosh, I never thought of that.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Like we just went out and bought the gift card to give to people, right, we weren't advertising, but they took it.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I never thought of that.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Like we just went out and bought the gift card to give to people, right, it had nothing, we weren't advertising, you know, but they took it.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, how did that big company come after someone so small?
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: They'll do it.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: Image recognition software that just scans everything on the internet looking for stuff and that's the.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: There are law firms.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: That's all they do.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: They use this technology to search everything and find lawsuits and bring them Then.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: That's how they make their money.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're relentless and you weren't doing them any harm.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: It was such an innocent thing.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: If anything, you were just kind of promoting that you like them and you knew your customers would like them.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: And then it was immediate freak out moment.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, because you know totally not intent so obviously we stopped it and that was the end of it.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Right, right, scary.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: It's very scary and can be avoided.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: It can be, yeah, yeah, so IP, what's number five?
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Number five is data protection.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to get into this too extensively because it's extremely boring.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: But I did want to Wah-wah yeah.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Wah-wah.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Indeed, I did want to touch on it.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Everybody's heard of HIPAA Mm-hmm, that's the healthcare aspect of it.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: There's COPA, there's FIPA, there's I know there's so many.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: So if you are in a business where you are collecting and maintaining any kind of client or customer information, any kind of database, you're requiring passwords for entry into any part of your interface, any kind of part of your website, you need to speak with somebody about that compliance level and that aspect, because these are areas where, again, you will get hit with legal ramifications and, like I said, it's beyond my level of expertise, but I see people get in trouble in these areas.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: So it's important to protect yourself.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: It's important to take all levels of protection and be responsible and aggressive and assertive if you're collecting and maintaining information.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: That makes sense, because there's so much out there and people are getting hacked all the time.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the other thing.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: You can get insurance for that too.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, wow, yeah.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: So as a business, it's a good thing to look into.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Absolutely it is yeah.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: So as a business, it's a good thing to look into.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Absolutely it is yeah, wow.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I have enjoyed the wealth of information that you've thrown at us today because, I mean, it's a lot to digest and I guess you guys are probably going to have to sit back and listen to this again, because you hear things differently the second time.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: You listen to it Absolutely, and what you provided is such an immense resource and I thank you.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Thank you for that.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you for the opportunity.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Like I said, I'm so passionate about this, and helping other small businesses succeed is such a gift, so thank you for the opportunity, absolutely.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: And if our guests, our listeners, would like to reach you, how can they do so?
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: Sure, so the easiest way would be by email.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, my legal email is ebnewberry, n-e-w-b-e-r-r-y at napleslawus, as in United States.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Fabulous, thank you so much.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you, jennifer.