Seal It… After Writing It
Fashion Mingle today relied on its legal expert, Shirin Movahed of Rakomova Law, to make sure that your brand and business are protected and not put in jeopardy simply by not signing a contract or including something that be the difference between holding onto your assets, or filing for bankruptcy, it’s the “Fashion Business Survival Guide: The Weapons You Need To Protect Your Business”.
The first thing you need to do is draw up a contract, put everything in writing about what you need, want, and expect to happen when signing an agreement if you’re holding an event, or hiring someone or a company for any type of work to protect yourself if the other party cannot meet the demands of what you expect, if a particular is not included in the contract, then that excluded item is not obligated to be met.
Then, there’s the N.D.A., a Non-Disclosure Agreement where it’s a must-sign with your employees, plus especially your family and friends about discussing specific ideas or promises of compensation where you hold key people in your life accountable for not revealing intellectual property or salary dispersement with anyone else outside the NDA.
The next thing is making sure your employees sign a Voluntary Agreement, so your workers don’t go and steal your work and claim it as their own for their own financial gain like networking with others for work, or especially when starting your own business, worse case scenario is unnecessary legal action against that person like a cease and desist order.
All types of indemnity, email confidentiality, and integrity are factored in when protecting your brand from any type of liability as you draw out a contract, an untold amounts of time and money are spent in creating your business, events, and hiring who you need, plus wavers and insurance are involved.
Another hot issue independent contractors and businesses are worried about are the A.B.C. agreement, forcing businesses to include independent contractors as employees, which limits the IC’s flexibility, and forces businesses to include benefits not in their budget, it’s already implemented out in California, it could come to New York State, efforts are being made to fight against it.
The boiler plate method cannot be used when signing a contract, plus there’s also wavers and liability involved, your brand must be protected if you lay everything out on the table, and everything out in writing.