Essentials of Start Up & Small Business Law

Course details

If you're a small business owner, entrepreneur or lawyer in a different field of law, this course is for you. You'll learn how to spot basic legal issues and get pro tips and hacks re how to handle them. Whether that means hiring a lawyer (and if so, what kind of lawyer and what questions to ask when you do) or considering doing it yourself - much more of an option for some things these days. And we'll cover the following topics-

• Entity formation, i.e. sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, C Corp, S Corp
• Independent Contractors versus Employees
• Contracts - employment contracts, independent contractor agreements, business agreements (with other companies), non disclosure agreements, shareholder agreements, founder agreements, licensing agreements, user agreements etc.
• Other labor & employment basics
• Disputes and how to handle them
• Fundraising documents including cap tables
• Trademarks
• Copyright, Patents, & Trade Secrets

The course will be approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes total. Throughout the course I'll recommend various do it yourself / do it inexpensively options. Including how to file a Del. C corp for basically free (other than government filing fees) and where to get the best free independent contractor agreement templates, for example. I'll also teach you how to protect yourself with things like entity formation, insurance and the right contract language.

You don't need any special software, tools or study guides to take this course. But you may want to take notes here and there on some of the resources I recommend throughout the course. And bring a "law won't intimidate me, I'm ready to learn how to ask lawyers good questions and spot important issues myself" mindset. Other than that, let's try to have a good time. Law can be dull but I try to make it more relevant and had fun making this course. Hope you do too.