If you aren’t familiar with Maria Brophy, you should be. Maria has been helping her husband, Drew Brophy, run a successful art business for more than fifteen years. She’s also a super savvy businesswoman. And is always willing to share her wealth of experience and stories with creatives. Because she knows what it takes to […]
Frank the Freelancer
Are you paid by your clients for your specialized skills? Then this post collection will help do it on the legal up and up!
How to hire an intern who will be your biggest fan
Even though it’s been four years since I graduated law school, I can always tell when the semester is about to start or end. How? By one type of email: the request for an internship at my firm. Here’s a recent example: I want to say yes because I learned so much from those that […]
Learning the ropes: Tara Reed
I’m so excited to introduce a new interview series: learning the ropes. In it, I’ll be talking with creative entrepreneurs like you and discussing empowering and not-so-empowering experiences. They’ll be sharing a time when they learned the “legal” ropes in their business. Allowing you to learn the same lesson, without experiencing it. After each interview, […]
How to effortlessly establish boundaries with your new employee
Hiring an employee is a terrifying experience for many business owners. As you go through this process you’ll probably feel: Scared about giving up control, will the person you hire do it right? Excited because you no longer need to do [task you hate] and can instead spend your time doing [task you love]? Terrified […]
How to hire your first employee without pulling your hair out
At a certain point in your business, you are going to need help if you want to grow. There are only so many hours in the day and you are only capable of doing so much. I usually suggest that you start by hiring out the tasks that you don’t love to do. Maybe you’d […]
The difficulty of finding your images in somebody’s Instagram feed, it ain’t easy
Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of Internet discussion (and hopefully discussions over food) about appropriation art. These discussions can all be tied back to a single man, Richard Prince. This is not the first time that Price has been in the limelight over his work. And he has long been […]
Knowing the why helps you stick to your contract policy
About two weeks ago Abby Glassenberg and I chatted about contracts and the fabric industry. In particular she was curious why some companies have a policy that they don’t sign written contracts. Every business has the right to set policies. And this extends to how they like to deal with contracts. Yes, it’s true that the […]
Yes, there is such a thing as Facebook spam
Every month or so, I end up clicking on a link that takes me to LinkedIn. And when I do, I’ve got a gazillion notifications. Requests to connect from people I don’t recognize and don’t give me any context of how I might know them. Promotional messages from existing contacts. And then just down and […]
2 contracts that will secure the foundation of your creative business
the artist’s Courtyard Resource Create a Contract Course Get access to a course designed to help you finally ditch the annoying, selfish clients. By creating a contract that you (and your clients) love. Get the course If you’ve ever wondered who goes off into a corner and reads all the fine print in teeny tiny […]
Submitting your copyright registration application
The final steps: making payment and uploading your work If you’ve been following along, you’ve completed the first step to submitting your copyright registration application: filling out the form. Today we’ll tackle the final two steps. As a reminder, three things must come together for the U.S. Copyright Office to register your copyright: Complete registration […]
The ownership section of the eCo application
Explaining who created it and who owns it This series on how to complete your U.S. Copyright Office eCO application was inspired by the webinar Maria Brophy and I co-hosted. In Part One, we tackled selecting the right application and identifying what you are registering. In Part Three, we are going to learn how to […]
Ready to start your copyright application? How to begin
Picking the right copyright application and identifying what you are registering Every Sunday night I make a cup of tea and plot out my week at the kitchen table. I pull out colorful pens and my trusty Little Ostu planner. I make sure my appointments in my planner match up with my electronic calendar and […]