Livestreaming law, business and life!
Mitch Jackson is an early adopter of livestreaming and has spoken at the New York, San Francisco, Los Angles Periscope Summits (Summit.live), and multiple Social Media Days in San Diego. He’s been profiled at INC.com, Mashable, and shared marketing success tips from the stage at Tony Robbin’s Business Mastery Event (2017 and 2018) to an audience of 2,000.
“Choice, not circumstances, determines your success.” — Anonymous
Before social media, the typical business in America was sued an average of three times during its lifetime. Now that we have people and companies doing business on social media, I believe that number will probably double.
Why do I say this? Because what I’m seeing more often than not, are new business owners balancing elephants on their shoulders while walking on tightropes over shark-infested waters with their eyes closed. And here’s the kicker- they don’t even know they’re doing this.
The truth is, social media and related tools make it easy to “start a business,” and that’s great. But the reality is that many people are beginning this journey without any formal business experience. Even with the best intentions, they don’t understand or appreciate the importance of complying with mandatory rules, regulations, and laws. They’re completely unaware of the elephants and sharks in their lives.
I’m a lawyer, and when it comes to doing business on social media, I want you to make good choices. To give you some context as to what I’ll be recommending, please know that over the last 32 years, I’ve helped hundreds of people start their business. I’ve also represented hundreds, and maybe even thousands of clients, with business-related claims and litigation matters.
I’ve been there, and done that, and know what landmines you need to be aware of.
Now before I dive too far into this post, I’d like to remind you that while I am a pretty good California lawyer, I’m not your lawyer. No legal advice is being given in this article. Reach out to an experienced lawyer in your state with questions or legal needs. If you need a good lawyer but don’t know where to start, I’m a big fan of the inexpensive LegalShield business model (it’s kind of like Uber for the law) which offers small to medium size business owners access to affordable legal services.
See what I just did? That’s called a disclaimer. I do try and walk my talk when sharing online 😉
With the above in mind, let’s get started. The first thing I recommend that you do when doing business online is to following these six suggestions:
A great way to maximize profits and minimize your personal liability exposure is to do business as a legal entity. The advantages include:
Reduce Personal Liability — these entities can shield you from liability for business debt or lawsuits. There’s a protective wall between your personal and business life. This wall helps protect your personal assets such as your home, cars, savings, and investments.
Reduce Taxes — these entities allow you to deduct expenses that a sole-proprietorship or partnership may not let you do. This includes healthcare, entertainment and travel expenses.
Maximize Retirement and Pension Plans– these plans can be grown more effectively and maximized faster using these entities. Additional tax benefits are also available, and these benefits result in increased profits.
Add Credibility to Your Business– these entities show that you’re serious about your business which is now registered in your state. Factors like credibility, prestige, and permanence are all byproducts of doing business as an entity.
Raise Money and Build Credit– these entities allow you more options to raise money through the sale of stock or transfer ownership via the transfer or sale of stock. You’ll also be able to establish and build a new credit profile distinct from your personal situation.
Manage Your Company– these entities allow you to use agreements that define how you will run your company and resolve disputes. Laws also control what you and other people involved in your business can and should do to run the business each day. This protects everyone involved.
Pro Tip: Most online business owners make this big mistake- They do business as a sole proprietor or general partnership. You never want to do this. There is just too much liability exposure.
Continue reading “The Ugly Truth About Doing Business on Social Media”
I’m a big fan of AgoraPulse. I also happen to be the trial lawyer mentioned in the title to this post. If you follow me on social, this shouldn’t be a big surprise. I’m a fan– a big fan 😉
My buddy, Mike Allton, turned me on to AgoraPulse. It’s allowed me to market my firm and build my brand easily and conveniently. This powerful platform not only saves my team and I an enormous amount of time, but AgoraPulse also works while I’m in court, paddleboarding out of Dana Point Harbor, or sound asleep in the middle of the night. It’s my 24/7 perpetual marketing and relationship building tool that’s quickly becoming a favorite and essential asset in the firm.
Attention spans and consumer expectations have changed drastically because of social media. Being successful in your practice and, inside the courtroom as a trial lawyer, requires you to understand, embrace, and harness these changes to make an impact with your audience and empower them to give you the result your client is looking for.
I shared a few thoughts about this and, the misguided mantra about “failing often and failing fast” that you can watch by clicking here.
This is a clip from last month’s live video and podcast interview with lawyer and social media expert, Brad Friedman.
I invite you to watch this video to find out what you need to know and do when it comes to including your cryptocurrency into your estate and business succession plans. These techniques, concepts, and ideas will help you protect the ownership, management and control of your cryptocurrency. In case of unexpected incapacity or death, these techniques will also help you provide for those you care about in your life.
Related
How To Protect Your Digital ASS(ets) With Estate and Business Succession Planning
Estate Planning for Your Social Media Platforms
#cryptocurrency #bitcoin #blockchain #estateplanning #wills #trust
This isn’t a touchy “feel good” post. I am not exploring the social or psychological reasons behind why people become bullies or intentionally try to harm others online.
What this post is about is how to come down hard on someone engaged in online bullying, shaming, sexting, cyber-harassment, cyber-stalking, sexual harassment (#metoo), and everything in between (for the purpose of this post and ease of reading, I’m going to refer to all of these as “bullying.” It’s a guide to show you how to take care of business, shut things down, and hold wrongdoers accountable.
While I focus my discussion on school related bullying cases, these same approaches work with most other online bullying, shaming, sexting, cyber-harassment, cyber-stalking, sexual harassment (#metoo) situations involving victims of all ages. Here’s a short 3 minute video explaining our mindset and why we believe bullies need to be held accountable.
Before we dive too far into this post, please understand that while I’m a pretty darn good trial lawyer, I’m not your lawyer. No legal advice is being given in this post or related resources. Thank you for understanding.
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Rebecca Sedwick
Stories like the Rebecca Sedwick bullying suicide case are tragic. Just in case you’re not aware of what happened to Rebecca, here’s my understanding of the facts based upon published news reports.
12-year-old Rebecca was bullied and terrorized relentlessly for months both on and offline. After texting a friend that she couldn’t take it anymore, Rebecca jumped to her death from a high cement factory tower.
Before Rebecca’s death, up to 15 teenagers in school had reportedly been bullying Rebecca with several using social media to make their point. After her death, two of the teenage girls were arrested for bullying Rebecca and are now charged as juveniles with criminal third-degree felony aggravated stalking.
Even after Rebecca’s death, one of her tormenters allegedly continued to make online comments about Rebecca bragging about the bullying. According to authorities, this teenager wrote on Facebook:
“Yes, I bullied Rebecca and she killed herself but I don’t give a … and you can add the last word yourself.”
Click to read the entire post and see all resources…
This is the view from my mobile office. In an hour, I’ll take a break, hop on the paddleboard for 45 minutes, and when done, circle back to get a bit more work done. Lisa’s going to join me a later to watch the sunset.
I’m convinced I could (almost) run my practice full time using this approach. For now, I’m simply enjoying a few hours each week outside in my mobile office environment. I’m hoping that over time, being physically in a traditional office will be the exception and not the norm.
The reality is that most of the time I’m either in court attending hearings or trying cases. When I’m not there, I’m at my law firm meeting clients, taking depositions, and working on files. The firm is located in a traditional professional office building and probably looks very similar to how you’d imagine a law firm to look.
On select days–days when I don’t have to physically be at the firm and, where I can work from the harbor, beach, or someplace else outside, this is how I get things done. You can do the same thing. It’s all a matter of planning, mindset and a result of the decisions we give ourselves permission to make.
In this post, I share the tools I use to run my mobile office. Full disclosure, while I am a Brand Ambassador for some of the services mentioned below, I wouldn’t recommend any of these services if I didn’t believe in them. That’s just not how I roll.
And one more thing. If you do set up a mobile office, please share a picture or video on social media and tag me. I’d enjoy seeing and sharing your favorite view with my friends.
Now, let’s get started…
