Annette Stepanian

Annette Stepanian is a lawyer and the founder of Your Legal BFF. She helps creative entrepreneurs get the legal back-end of their businesses in order while making the process as fun and simple as possible. For example, did you know that every business is like a burrito? You’ll get to hear more about her burrito analogy plus common legal conflicts that arise in the wedding and events industry.

What’s in this episode:

Leaving a career as a lawyer to start a jewelry business.
The “burrito” checklist for taking care of “the legal stuff” in a business.
Your Legal BFF offers legal templates and resources for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Common legal issues in the wedding and events industry.
The problems with using any old legal contract template from the internet.
How to communicate expectations and contractual terms with clients.
How to part ways with a client when it’s not working out.

Quotes:

“I felt like I could speak creative but I could also speak legal and so I thought it was a really nice way to marry the two skillsets.” – Annette Stepanian

“Contracts are evolving documents. It’s not a set-it-and-forget-it type of thing. You know, you don’t just do it once and then never touch it again for the next like 10 years. I do recommend that people revisit them at least once a year to make sure that it reflects their current policies and procedures.” – Annette Stepanian

“I think you need to walk into every client relationship assuming that nobody is going to read your contract because most people aren’t going to, unfortunately.” – Annette Stepanian

“If you’re relying solely on your contract to communicate your policies, your procedures… It is a vehicle to communicate them but it shouldn’t be your sole vehicle.” – Annette Stepanian

“We’re all wronged in a lot of different ways. But sometimes you just have to look the other way because the cost of proving yourself right is taking your energy away from things that are more constructive.” – Annette Stepanian