Finding Influence
As I have been working through the Social Media Marketing course, there have been some good and bad influences through the resources presented to us. Where I do think bad examples and understanding what you do not want to be provide some amazing guidance for building your own framework, I want to focus on a resource that has positively influenced me this week.
The resource that I want to discuss is actually from this week discussing Contracts. This is the lesson I have most been looking forward to as it is a piece that I feel is very important as a photographer and also have very little knowledge on. The resource is Nolo.com and rocketlawyer.com
Nolo provides loads of knowledge and help in understanding the different contracts that exist, who they are relevant to, and even sample contracts that can be downloaded and adjusted for your specific need. If you want to go another step further, they also provide contacts for lawyers who can provide legal opinions on your contracts to ensure both you and your customer are protected. It is a one stop shop to learn the necessities of contracting essentially. As a photographer, and working with brands to develop content or selling prints to local businesses, it is important both you (the photographer) and the customer are on the same page about what you both will be receiving. This is why you need a Service Agreement in this case. Check out this Service Agreement Shell on Nolo to start developing your own! Rocketlawyer provides all the same knowledge and assistance, but I think they provide a much more user friendly and confidence inspiring contract. Only downside, you do have to pay for Rocketlawyer. They have an automatic system that allows you to answer questions and input the relevant data to their system and it automatically spits out a contract you can use! Using both resources helps ensure you understand what the sections are discussing while having a great resource to actually develop the contract at!
So why was this so influential to me? Well, that is because this was a part of getting started that has made me the most nervous! There are 2 parts to getting started that brought me the most anxiety. Neither of them are terribly difficult, but were things I just did not know much about. That being forming an LLC and Contracts. I feel it is important to form an LLC to protect myself and business as well as appear more professional to Clients. Next, I want the contracts I think they bring a professional twist to my business when working with clients. They can also help ensure both parties are receiving what they expect and can bring a piece of mind for both parties because of this. Learning of Nolo that could help breakdown and explain each section of a Service Agreement into an easy to understand concept AND using Rocketlawyer to provide contract shells, took all the anxiety out of this part of getting started!
